Is It So Wrong?

"Offworld has grown beyond what even I anticipated," Xanatos commented, almost in awe. "You wouldn't believe the number of planets we now have under our control, the breadth of our power. I thought that my goals were endless, but they were just beginning." He swallowed the remaining ale in his glass. "Who knows what I'll do."

He turned to take in the teenage boy sprawled on his sleepcouch, his arm and hand propping up his head.

"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan said, turning lazy eyes in Xanatos's direction. "Were you speaking to me? I can never tell if you want a response or are just monologuing."

The older man narrowed his eyes. "I don't talk for my health."

"Well I know that, but I wasn't sure if you did."

Xanatos raised a single eyebrow, but couldn't summon up an appropriate amount of irritation. He found that when Obi-Wan was lying naked across his bed his patience was infinite.

He placed his now empty glass on the nightstand and climbed next to the boy. He leaned in close and Obi-Wan went still. Xanatos was positive he had stopped breathing when he licked the inside of his ear and in the same movement trailed a series of kisses down the sensitive side of his throat. Suddenly the Jedi wasn't so cocky. After all that time Obi-Wan was still so damn innocent.

An unexpected wave of desire rolled through Xanatos. "Would you like to come to Telos with me?"

And the spell was broken. Obi-Wan didn't so much pull from his lover's embrace as jump from it.

"No I would not like to go to Telos with you. Have you completely lost it?"

Huh. Maybe I have.

"It's not impossible you know. Jedi occasionally take breaks from Coruscant. Tell Qui-Gon that you feel drained, and are going to Naboo to relax beside a lake for a couple of weeks. He'll understand."

"Xanatos," Obi-Wan looked aghast. "That would be a lie."

If the older man was the kind of person to burst out laughing, he would have. "You lie to him everyday."

Obi-Wan flinched visibly, looking more stung than if Xanatos had struck him. While the ex-Jedi took no real pleasure in hurting Obi-Wan, he didn't feel guilty about destroying his relationship with Qui-Gon either.

"Besides, this isn't really a request. I was more informing than asking."

"I can't just… abscond with you."

"Of course you can, you're just digging for excuses not to."

"And what happens if Qui-Gon tries to find me on Naboo?"

"He won't, because you'll check in with him via comlink every morning."

"I can't," Obi-Wan repeated, but this time it almost sounded like a question.

Xanatos sighed. "This discussion is a waste of time. Don't make me go through all the effort of kidnapping you; it's just going to put me in a bad mood when we get there."

Apparently accepting his fate, the boy returned to bed. "What if Qui-Gon wants to go to Naboo with me?"

"Tell him you need solitary meditations."

"This is wrong."

"How?" Xanatos finally snapped. "How is this wrong, yet nothing else we do is? You can't pick and choose here; it's either all acceptable or a mistake."

"You don't get to be angry with me," Obi-Wan replied, matching Xanatos's sharp tone. "I'm the one risking everything. Your life is the exact same with or without me. You haven't even bothered to change those horrible business operations for my sake. And what's worse, you brag about them."

"I have no interest in destroying your career, unless it comes at the cost of destroying the Jedi in their entirety," Xanatos's voice was ice cold now. "You should not ask me to sacrifice mine."

"Destroying the Jedi." Obi-Wan repeated. "That's exactly my point. If you had to choose between me and your revenge, which would you pick?"

His lover was silent for a moment before, in a surprising display of gentleness, running his hands down Obi-Wan's back and pulling him closer. "I'm not answering that. We'll leave as soon as you tell Qui-Gon."

Xanatos couldn't answer the question because he didn't know the answer. The past year had thrown his life completely off kilter, and he didn't know how to stabilize it.

So for the time being, he was going to live in the moment. That would be enough.

~*~

A/N: I don't deserve you guys. You're so patient, and I just constantly toy with your emotions. I'm hoping to get the next chappie of Broken Love up this weekend (I already have half done, so fingers crossed) and I'll try to have the ficlet of Obi-Wan and Xanatos on Telos up this month. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this update, please review.