Chapter 2
Anakin Skywalker was in a snit. And this snit was threatening to become a full-scale snarl by the look of things.
His starfighter-the one that had seen him through countless battles-had been moved. And he couldn't find it. He didn't know where it was. It should have been in its usual slip in the Temple hangar. But it wasn't. And he was pissed.
"Deck officer!" he bellowed. The poor man double-timed it to the tall Jedi's side, looking askance the closer he came to the powerful young man.
"Yes, sir," he clipped efficiently if a little quietly.
"Where is my ship?" Anakin enunciated as if speaking to a youngling. His posture said everything that his words didn't. Hands on his hips, leaning just a little toward the deck officer, his body said and who the hell authorized anyone to even look at it much less touch it or move it!?
The deck officer wished for death, swift and immediate. He knew the Jedi wasn't going to like the answer to his question.
"Sir, the orders came in this morning, sir. She's been decommissioned due to battle damage," he actually cringed as he was talking.
Anakin clenched his teeth and his fists. "Where is it?" he asked again as patiently as he could under the extreme circumstances.
Another voice floated through the air and took all the menace out of Skywalker's demeanor. "Anakin, you know very well that that scrap heap was overdue to be taken out of service, no matter how many little upgrades you had given it. It was dangerous to fly anymore," Obi-Wan's smooth tenor sounded more than a little indulgent and maybe just a tad amused.
When General Skywalker turned to face his former Master, the deck officer took off for cover. No sense in sticking around and risking his life over following orders, he thought.
"Master!" Anakin called back. "It's my starfighter. I'll say when it's ready for the scrap heap." He was still miffed but now there was amusement in his words too. He was pleased to see Obi-Wan.
They had been in each other's company less and less since the end of the war. Obi-Wan was embroiled in Council business almost all the time, and Anakin was overseeing the conversion of the GAR back into Republic military command instead of Jedi command. It was strange after the intensity and immediate nature of constant battle, through which they had fought side-by-side in countless engagements, to see so little of each other.
Who would have supposed that either of them would wish for a mission to the Outer Rim just to have the time together on the trip?
"And what do you need a starfighter for anyway, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked the next logical question.
"Well," Anakin said, and he actually shuffled his feet and ran a nervous hand through his hair. "Frankly, I'm bored. I was going to just mess around with it for a few hours to decompress and get my mind off of everything else." She smiled sheepishly at Obi-Wan. He knew his former Master would understand the therapeutic value of working with machines.
"Ah," replied Obi-Wan, nodding knowledgeably. "Is there anything I can do to 'get your mind off things'?"
Anakin paused to gather his thoughts. It had been a while since Obi-Wan had asked him anything remotely personal. For years it had been sufficient just to inquire into the status of their bodies, to know that each of them was unharmed enough to make it to the next transport and medical facility. Asking if there was anything the other could do to alleviate the burden of psychological injuries was something they just didn't have time for. How peace changes things.
"Oh, you know, the usual," he hedged. There really wasn't anything 'usual' anymore.
Obi-Wan decided to withdraw the question himself. He cast his gaze around the large hangar. "Surely, there are other machines here that could use a little attention?" he suggested instead.
Anakin smiled, relieved that he didn't have to dissect his thoughts before his required mechanic therapy. "Yeah, I guess. I just hadn't thought about it because I was so mad that my baby was missing from her berth." This earned a roll of Obi-Wan's eyes.
"Force forbid that you should ever have the care of an actual baby, Anakin. I fear finding you tinkering with its insides as well." Obi-Wan was so tickled by his own tease that he barely got through it with a straight face. Anakin gave him a playful shove in the shoulder.
"Whatever," the young Knight responded. After another beat, he asked, "Dinner at Dex's tonight?" He tried not to sound too hopeful.
"I'd love to, Anakin," Obi-Wan agreed. "It would be good to catch up. Who thought we'd be split up by peace?" They both chuckled, but in an ironic and somewhat awkward way. Who indeed?
Obi-Wan then clapped a hand on Anakin's shoulder and said, "See you around 1900 hours then." With a last smile, he turned and strode back the way he had come into the hangar.
Anakin watched him go and then turned to find the deck officer again. He would know if any of the other machines needed tending.
Precisely at 1900 hours, Obi-Wan arrived at Anakin's door. He was about to open the door himself but then decided to announce his presence instead. He shook his head in silent laughter as he heard Anakin stomping around the apartment, undoubtedly cleaning something at the last second. The door swooshed open.
"Hello, Master," Anakin greeted him. His broad smile faltered a little as he took in the sight of his friend.
Obi-Wan was dressed in civilian clothing for their excursion out of the Temple. Anakin tried very hard not to look shocked. When had Obi-Wan ever of his own volition chosen to wear anything but his Jedi tunics? Anakin could only remember a few times when they had gone undercover.
He stepped back from the door and swept his arm toward the living area for Obi-Wan to enter.
Obi-Wan stepped past him and remarked, "You know, Anakin, you can call me by my name if you prefer." They had had this discussion before. Anakin claimed that it was just a habit, and he was too preoccupied by other concerns to think about changing it. Obi-Wan was content with that during the war, but now he was interested in changing old habits.
So he expressed his preference: "I would like it if you would. We are partners now, not teacher and student. There's no need for you to show so much deference anymore-not that you ever did beyond that term." He gave Anakin a warm smile that further threw the young man off balance.
"I know, Obi-Wan," Anakin pronounced carefully with a smirk. "And I'm going to try. I will." He paused before blurting out, "Why aren't you wearing your tunics?"
Obi-Wan smiled to himself. He knew that Anakin wouldn't be able to resist commenting on his attire. He looked down at himself, feigning surprise. "Well, look at that!" he exclaimed, earning an eye roll from Anakin. Obi-Wan even carried the farce on to the point of turning around and looking down the front of his pants, as if the clothing itself held the answers. By the time he faced Anakin again, the young man was laughing heartily.
"Ok, ok. Fine," Anakin acceded between gasps for air. "But I'm going to change too, so give me a minute." He walked rapidly to his room, and rummaged through his inordinately large collection of civilian clothing.
When he returned, looking just as dashing and un-Jedi as Obi-Wan, he clapped the older man on the back and said, "Let's go. I'm starved."
Obi-Wan smiled again and said, "Of course you are, Anakin." But he obeyed and moved to the door with alacrity.
Anakin was driving the speeder swiftly through the Coruscant evening before he remembered that Obi-Wan hadn't answered his question.
Dinner was a quick affair as most are in diners. Dex was pleased to see both of his friends and for once had no ill tidings of underhanded dealings to pass on to them. He laughed and guffawed with them as they ate. Anakin and Obi-Wan barely got a word in edgewise to each other.
That left the drive back to the Temple. And Anakin, for once, wasn't in a hurry.
"So what has been keeping you busy these days, Mas-uh, Obi-Wan?" he began.
Obi-Wan looked out across the landscape of Coruscant with a wistful look on his face. The sunset made his face glow, and he closed his eyes briefly to just breathe in the air and enjoy the warmth.
Finally he turned to Anakin and spoke, "Mostly Council business. Some reporting to the Senate. You know, the business of peace." He stopped talking and seemed content to leave it at that.
Anakin was not satisfied. "That's it? No missions? No off-world traveling?" He was determined to pull information out of Obi-Wan.
"Some," Obi-Wan agreed. "But nothing like the war, of course." At the mention of war, Obi-Wan's eyes suddenly looked far, far away. When he returned to himself, he playfully slapped Anakin's thigh and said, "So what has been occupying your time?"
"Well, after I was able to turn over all of my troopers and my cruiser to the Republic military, I spent a couple weeks assessing the space-worthiness of spacecraft for the Navy. They were concerned about hidden battle damage and things like that. I managed to nearly kill myself only a couple of times," he teased Obi-Wan. When he looked over at his former Master, Obi-Wan didn't even look like he was listening, which was highly unusual.
"Master? Obi-Wan?" Anakin called to him as if from a great distance.
Obi-Wan kept his eyes distant, but answered, "Do you ever think about your future, Anakin? Now that you are a Knight and the war is over, I mean?" He turned to fix Anakin with an intense gaze that made Anakin squirm.
"Future? Um, no, not really-at least I didn't used to. 'Future' to me used to always mean becoming a Jedi. Now I'm there. I don't know." Anakin shrugged to show his lack of an answer. "Now that you mention it, though, I have been restless lately. I'm ashamed to admit-" he cut off. Maybe a little too ashamed he thought.
"You miss the rush of adrenaline from battle?" Obi-Wan finished his thought. He knew Anakin as well as he knew himself. The blonde Knight thrived on action and purpose. Peacekeeping had not really been Anakin's forte. Obi-Wan had tried to sublimate this knowledge of his former apprentice during wartime, but now he was worried.
Anakin blushed and nodded slightly, keeping his eyes on the skyway. He should have figured Obi-Wan would know already. But what he didn't know was how Obi-Wan would handle that knowledge.
He didn't have long to wait. "I worry, Anakin. I worry about your tendency to be an adrenaline junkie. Pod racing, flying sorties in your starfighter, leading battles in a star cruiser. I know the high is addictive, but I think you also have it in you to find your 'high' in other ways," Obi-Wan said.
Anakin was quiet for a while as he digested Obi-Wan's words. He was surprised. He had thought that Obi-Wan would trot out some old speech about controlling his emotions or some such Jedi tripe he had heard thousands of times. But genuine concern? And an expression of emotion on Obi-Wan's part? Again, he wondered what had gotten into his Master.
Obi-Wan spoke again before Anakin even opened his lips to reply. "I have been thinking about the future quite often lately myself. You might even say I'm preoccupied with it. And I'm not talking just about the future of the Order, although that does occupy a great deal of my time as well. I am speaking of my personal future. Of what I want out of my life now." He paused and started casting his eyes over the city again as if searching for something he had lost.
Anakin was pretty sure that he was coming down with a fever. Too many shocking revelations from Obi-Wan in one evening was making him feel dizzy. Emotion. Future. He and Obi-Wan had even left their lightsabers in the Temple when they went out for the evening. This was getting kooky, even for Anakin.
"Well," he said, trying to cut the tension in the air that seemed to follow every declaration Obi-Wan made. "I know that I'm having a little trouble transitioning back into non-military life. I guess I should have assumed I wasn't the only one." There, he thought. That was non-committal but relevant.
"Yes," was Obi-Wan's only reply. And they rode the rest of the way back to the Temple in silence, barely even wishing each other good night before parting.
TBC