Oh-dark-hundred, as Obi-Wan had dubbed it, found me awake and padding down the hall to his room, a grin on my face despite the hour. Even such an early riser as I found it early.

I had missed this morning ritual of waking my sleeping padawan. The only thing he was capable of first thing in the morning was a determination to remain asleep until his master's stern insistence that he both wake and get up pierced his sleep-clouded mind. A soft light, a gentle "good morning," or even a cup of hot kaffa waved under his nose was insufficient when he was resting in his own bed with no mission ahead of him or danger near at hand tickling at his senses.

I was going to awaken Obi-Wan against his protests, and it would be for the last time, so I was determined to enjoy myself, though how he could sleep after his emotional return and the anticipation of today's ceremony amazed me.

I eased open his door, stamping this moment in my memories, this last sight of my padawan still within my custody, in the quiet of this new day. Sunrise was still an hour away. Soft moonlight and the ever present glow from unceasing traffic and nearby buildings spilled over him. He was a man now lying in that bed; he had last lain in that bed as a young man nearly grown. Then, he had still needed my guidance on his path, his skills all but honed. True understanding of himself was within his reach, that and the deep connection to the Force he needed to take the next step in his life's journey.

He had found the latter without his master's guidance. I had missed so much, but would be eternally grateful that the Force had granted me a second chance at life, to see his success at following his path though I had not been there at his side as I should have been.

I had many regrets in life, that last one an ever-present ache, but I put it behind now me. I had many joys, too, and this man who I had watched grow from a young boy, now lying rimmed in soft moonlight, was one and would continue to be one.

It was time to hand custody of him over to the Force; my son, now my brother, yet always in my heart, still my son.

It was time to awaken him.

He was sprawled as usual, limbs akimbo and his cheek against the pillow, his back towards me. I leaned against the door jamb deciding if I would attack his feet, or tickle him under the armpits, or just drop in his mind with a big "good morning" – until I remembered the last time I had done that.

Obi-Wan had had the last laugh on me; he had spent the day in bed with a raging headache as I apologized over and over for causing him to crash headfirst against the wall. He had felt too bad to even try to milk it for all he was worth, which of course meant I was twice as apologetic as I would otherwise have been.

The healers hadn't been too pleased with me, either, insisting my padawan was lucky to have avoided a concussion. I wondered if that small scar was still there, even now.

I quietly snuck over and decided I would merely dump him out of bed. I reached for his arm and suddenly my arm was clamped between two strong hands. Obi-Wan held on as he twisted around and gave me a big grin.

"Did you really think I would be sleeping that soundly?" he asked, as with a touch of the Force he turned on a light. "I learned long ago to sleep with one eye open when you're around, and then in recent years – I never had the luxury of a slow awakening or much of a desire to even face a new day."

"Let me go, will you?" I said, wincing. "I'm hurt, remember." He immediately let go my arm and started to apologize profusely.

"Brat, got you!" I crowed as I hauled on one arm. This time he didn't try to resist; I had scared him away from wrestling with me with my reminder of my injury. He slid with a thump onto the floor and lay looking up at me with laughing eyes.

"As it's my last morning as your padawan, Master, I shall allow you this familiarity," he grinned, chuckling as I stood over him with one slippered foot planted victoriously on his chest. He made no move to throw me off, merely lay sprawled on his back against the carpet with one foot still twisted in the covers and arms outspread to break his fall. His braid was beneath him and stubble marked his chin and I saw something of how one day he might appear to my eyes.

Even should his face grow lined with wisdom and age I knew the essential joy within him would still be sparkling through those luminous eyes as if this young man would forever exist, regardless of the exterior that time's passage stamped upon him.

I merely grunted in amusement and moved my foot aside. "Today is only the ceremony marking your change in status, padawan mine. You were a knight as soon as the council granted you that status. But I will always consider you my padawan."

Obi-Wan only groaned and sat up, pulling his knees to his chest. I saw his eyes going around his room, taking stock of the worn coverlet and books on his small desk, noting the dents he'd put in the walls and the spots on the flooring, and his grin was both yearning and knowing.

"Are you sure I can't stay here – this is home, you know," he said quietly. "It's like the past has faded almost entirely away and nothing has changed, yet I won't return to this room again. It's…kind of sad, Master."

He would remind me. Despite the early morning arising, we had sat up late, reminiscing.

At first, I had watched Obi-Wan wander our small quarters, fingers touching the dent in the table from when he had practiced his levitating skills and dropped the heavy skillet he was trying to move. He then sprawled on the lumpy old couch that he loved and smiled at each bump and lump that remembered the contours of his body. I was not in the least tempted to reproach him for his lazy posture.

I only smiled as I watched him, for that sight reminded me of when my former master, Master Dooku, had suddenly appeared in my quarters. It had been a year or so since Obi-Wan's disappearance and I had given up hope of ever seeing him again. I had tried to give up my memories of Obi-Wan, to assuage the empty hole within me.

Master Dooku had sat properly upright awaiting my return, determined to save his grieving former padawan from a life devoid of hope. He had forced me to face the sunset and Obi-Wan's memory: he had made me realize I had shut Obi-Wan out of my heart in my grief at losing him. When he made me say his name, a burden had lifted me from me, and I knew then my master was both right, and capable of great kindness disguised in his own inimitable way.

Master Dooku had given me back Obi-Wan, many years before the Force reunited us. I would be forever grateful for the lesson: one could grieve without forgetting the person for whom one grieved.

So I merely leaned back in my favorite chair with a drink at my hand, watching with a sad smile on my face. Obi-Wan was soon up, prowling the room, poking into cupboards and delighting in what was unchanged, and surprised at how little had changed.

My eyes watched his back as he opened the long shut door to his room. It had not been opened in years. For some months after he was gone, I would sit in there, inhaling the soft vestiges of his Force presence and basking in what I had left of him. When the lingering traces evaporated, I had shut the door. Forever, I had thought.

I would let Obi-Wan explore his past without me hovering over him. I had already warned him to expect dust and cobwebs, but he soon stuck his head out and grinned at me.

"Someone's been kind enough to clean in here," he observed. "Did you arrange that? Everything is just as I left it."

That stirred me to my feet and I came over to stand at his side, peering into the room.

"Well," I marveled. "I wish I was that thoughtful. Perhaps your friends came by to clean. Thank them, not me." I put a hand on his shoulder.

I knew the room as well as he, after those long nights spent in there, just staring and lost in my memories. Obi-Wan put an arm around my shoulders and we stood there in the doorway, our eyes finding different things to focus on.

The scorch mark on the wall in his room where he had ignited his hanging lightsaber during a childhood nightmare. I hadn't learned the full story behind that for years, and I still wondered that Obi-Wan was able to sleep through the incident without a nudge from the Force. It was I instead, who had leapt from bed and thrown a glass of water that sat at Obi-Wan's bedside at the mark before it flamed into fire.

At the hiss and soft coils of smoke, Obi-Wan had screeched awake and I had seen that he was still caught in a nightmare and arms flailing around like he was defending himself. I had caught his arms in mine and gently woken him. His panicked eyes had stared into mine for long seconds, before he blinked and relaxed.

After that, I made sure that the hook he hung his lightsaber on held it in such a way that such an incident would never again be repeated. It had not.

Obi-Wan let go my shoulder and crossed to the bed, sitting down on it and staring around with a pleased smile on his face. "So many pleasant memories," he whispered. "It'll be hard to leave."

I laughed and crossed over to his desk and sat down in the chair. "You won't be far away in quarters that look much the same, except freshly cleaned and painted. And you'll be in the master's room."

"It won't feel like home,' he said softly. "Without you."

"Tough luck, you're a Jedi and used to upheaval and changes. You will just have to adjust," my eyes twinkled as I teased a smile from him. "Besides, the first time young Anakin comes racing through your quarters crowing over something, or has a pillow fight with you, it'll be home, then."

"I suppose," he mused. "Force, Master, there have been some good times here." He laid back on the bed, crossing his arms under his head and turned suddenly serious eyes to me. "Thank you, Master, for always being there for me and all your support."

I leaned forward and placed a hand on his knee. "Not always and I'll regret that. But thank you. And, you know, you don't have to be a stranger. I like to think we're friends, not just a master and his former padawan."

"We were never just master and padawan. We were always friends," Obi-Wan returned with unusual fervor.

"I'm glad you thought so. The first few years, I – well, I should…shouldn't have…oh, blast it, I didn't deserve you, Obi-Wan. Then I finally gave in and accepted you as I should always have done. I was happy. Then you disappeared, and my," I hesitated, "my entire world just about crumbled. I tried to forget you, but I couldn't. You were still in my heart. Then I saw you, and I didn't know if you would hate me, or if you would even know who I was. I was so scared, and so elated, but I got you back. You came back, padawan mine."

I pulled him to me and hugged him hard. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back. I had been wrong earlier. I had not had my last hug from Obi-Wan.

I hesitated before speaking; then said without looking at him, "why don't you spend the rest of the evening with that young padawan you used to be such friends with – Siri."

There was silence, and I could sense Obi-Wan looking at me in shock and surprise. I finally raised my eyes to his and said gently, "I'm sorry; I don't wish to meddle, but – well – I didn't mean to intrude, but I had to see you greet your friends, and I saw how you felt about her – and she about you."

Obi-Wan looked away from me, and I thought he was upset; then he brought pain-filled eyes back to meet mine. "I can't," he said quietly, and swallowed.

"As I said before, padawan mine – ," I started to say, but Obi-Wan shushed me with his eyes.

"No, Master. I – we can't. To be together like that, when we can't be together – it would hurt too much. It's all, or nothing…and being a Jedi means we can't have it all, or even that much. We had already agreed, years ago, that we had to forget about us. There never could be an us. We were both taken by surprise today. It won't happen again. We won't allow it to."

"I'm sorry, Obi-Wan," I said, letting my eyes speak my sorrow for me. "You deserve love in your life – to love and to be loved."

"To be a Jedi is to sacrifice much," he said softly. 'I think…I will sacrifice a great deal. Perhaps more than even I imagine."

I felt a shiver crawl up my spine. Obi-Wan should be happy tonight, not lost in morbid thoughts of the future and a life of sacrifices. If that was to be his future, he should face it when it came, not anticipate it now when his future was open to the currents of the Force.

"It is my life's path. I am meant to be a Jedi. There are no choices, no optional paths for me," he said finally, as if sensing my thoughts. I sensed a deep and quiet acceptance within him that didn't belong in this night before his knighting. I put my arms around him, and he didn't resist, only turned and hugged me hard, as if this embrace might have to be pulled from within his memories to comfort him in the future when memories would be the only solace he would find.

"Oh, my Obi-Wan," I whispered into his hair, holding him close. "My arms will always be here for you, should you have need. Should you be thirty, forty or more. Even beyond death, I will always be with you."

"Promise?" He suddenly wrapped his arms around my neck and hung on like a little boy, but even as a boy, he had not clung to me like this.

"Promise."

I sensed the fragility and strength both within him. Fragility – he might break before his trials, but not into so many shattered pieces that he couldn't reassemble himself once the blow had struck. Strength, for he would always be able to rebuild himself and continue on, never hesitating in his duty or willingness to help those in need.

"I wish we could just stay like this forever," I whispered. "But you have your own life, your own future now." I released him, and sat unashamedly wiping a tear away.

My young padawan, no, my former padawan, sighed softly as he sat up straight and became again a strong and serene Jedi, shedding his doubts and fears into the Force.

"Before I know it, I'll be busy with young Anakin. The initiate master said she'd bring him by our," he stopped suddenly and had a strange expression on his face. He grinned, and continued, "our quarters mid-day, after the ceremony. If he's anything like I was, I will be awfully busy for ten or more years. This quiet evening here, in my old quarters…I'm grateful to have it. The calm before the storm."

"Now, now, Anakin may be many things, but I hardly think he's a storm," I chided him with a gentle smile. "And Obi-Wan…I'll still meet you for sunsets when we can get together, okay? You, me, Anakin. Speaking of which…it's almost time to go share one – our first since we've been reunited. I've waited five long years for this."

"So I have, too, master," Obi-Wan said quietly.

We walked, side by side, down the long corridors to a balcony facing the sunset and stood, side by side, as we had so often done. I turned my head and looked down at him. His eyes were shining and a smile graced his lips, and I could feel mine curve to match it.

I laid a hand on his shoulder, and he leaned against me with a quick smile up into my face, eyes content and joyful. We stood, shoulder to shoulder, facing the sunset. We were together, again.

The Force had truly smiled on us, and peace was within both our hearts.