When Obi-Wan awoke again, he was well rested and he had almost forgotten the events if the previous night. True to his words, he found Ben lounging on the window seat, his side pressed to the cool glass and nose buried in one of Obi-Wan's books. It turned out to be one of the fantasy novels Qui-Gon had gifted him during his apprenticeship.

"How are you feeling?" Ben suddenly said, disturbing the younger male's fond observation.

"Fine I guess," Ben looked up from his book and with a raised eyebrow. "I do, truly," the Jedi repeated firmly.

The questioning expression turned to mild amusement and the Sith shrugged in surrender. A comforting silence settled between the two brothers and Obi-Wan found himself not minding the other man's presence at all. Even while dressing himself after having taken a quick shower the other's presence did not bother him and he usually was a very private person. He just figured - with them being twins - that Ben must have seen everything already. That and the Sith was otherwise occupied anyway.

"If you need clothes," the Council member began and he let the sentence trail of.

The dark side user gave him a small smile, "Thank you, but I have enough things on my ship and I brought some of my belongings here yesterday, shortly after the three of you were asleep." Now that he mentioned it, Obi-Wan noticed that his brother was indeed wearing something else. He was wearing a black hoodie now, which had a skull painted on it and the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing the leather gauntlets on his lower arm. He was also wearing a pair of black cargo pants, but no socks and no shoes. They were standing at the door to the Jedi's room. Another quirk he apparently shared with Obi-Wan's former Master. Qui-Gon had preferred bare feet as well. It was almost painful to see so many similarities between Ben and Qui-Gon, while Obi-Wan had shared not so many with his latest Master.

"A credit for your thoughts," Ben's voice cut through, "is it about last night?"

"No," Obi-Wan shook his head and out of a mood, he seated himself to his brother's feet, so that his back and his head rested against the other male's leg, the one that was not resting on the window seat. A gloved hand came to rest next to his head, more or less lying on his shoulder. It was almost crazy how close they had already grown, despite not knowing the other for very long. Perhaps it was because they were twins and because they shared a bond since the beginning of their existence.

"What is bothering you then?" since when could somebody read him so openly, then again, Obi-Wan also knew in what mood his brother was most of the time just from taking a peek at the older man. Not that he had much of a challenge yet.

"You have so much in common with Qui-Gon," he began, knowing that Ben would not let it slip aside, "you would have been the better Padawan…"

"I don't think so… it is always better when teacher and student, when partners, are able to balance each other out. That wouldn't have been the case with me and your Master… but it was this way with you. Besides… I'm not the Jedi type." Obi-Wan looked up to be greeted by a predatory grin. He also noticed the braid that had undoubtedly been neatly redone. It seemed very important and the Force urged the Jedi to ask now, that the atmosphere was so calm and peaceful.

"What's with the braid?"

"What about it?" he was getting defensive again, noticed Obi-Wan.

"What does it mean?" the Jedi asked nevertheless.

The Sith avoided the other's gaze in order to look at the rising sun of Coruscant. There were already countless of vehicles on the move, then again, Coruscant never slept.

He took a deep breath, "First of all it is… well, it shows my status as a Sith apprentice. I am the direct heir should the Master die and I have the privilege of challenging and killing Sidious before anyone else does. It also means that they come to challenge me."

Obi-Wan nodded slowly against his brother's leg. "But there is something else." He guessed.

Ben hummed and with the hand that did not rest on Obi-Wan, he fingered one of the small beads in his braid. "They stand for important people in my life… my family." There was something sad in his blue-green eyes and out of instinct the Jedi took his brother's gloved hand in his own. "The beads shall remind me, that I am responsible for their deaths… that I was too weak to save my own kind, my loved ones."

"Your 'own' family?" Obi-Wan asked.

"My wife," that took the Jedi by complete surprise and he pulled away and turned around so that he was facing the older male. The latter was still gazing out of the window, without really seeing anything. His focus was somewhere else, probably far in the past.

"I didn't know you are married…"

"WAS, I was married… once upon a time," he let go of his braid to fish out a necklace that had been hidden under his garments. It was a plain silver necklace on which two silver rings dangled. His eyes fixed on them. "I had children too… two little daughters," he closed his hand to a fist around the rings, "They did not even reach their tenth birthdays." His eyes were suspiciously wet and he shook his head, looking back at the window.

"Ben?" It was a hard hit for him as well, knowing that he had once been an uncle without even knowing it. It was sad really.

"I'm sorry," the older male forced out and the emotion was clear in his voice, all the pain, grief and perhaps even guilt.

"Not for that," he didn't know what else to say to this. It didn't even seem appropriate in the first place, but the older male apparently needed the reassurance now, needed to know that it was not bad to show emotions.

Obi-Wan himself couldn't even begin to understand what it meant to lose people so close and dearly loved. As a Jedi, he had no such luxury, it was simply forbidden and frowned upon. "What… um," he was not sure he should ask this question, but the way the gloved hand squeezed his, reassured him gave him the needed push. "What happened?"

"House fire… I lost everything that day, my home and my family. The only sanctuary I have is the knowledge that they peacefully died in their sleep… from the smoke and not from the fire itself. They say that it was caused by a defect in the oven..." he huffed at that, "whatever it was, I was not fast enough… it was already too late when I finally made my way through to them. The house had already been ablaze fiercely, the stairs couldn't been used at this point and all the heat… it took three fire fighting droids to get me away from their corpses… I was ready to die that day, willing even. But it was not meant to be, the Force still had other plans for me."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it wasn't you who killed them." He sounded honest enough.

"Neither was you," the Jedi was standing up to be towering over the stubborn Sith.

"No," Obi-Wan blinked at that, he had not expected his brother to actually agree. "But I swear upon my children's graves, that I will find the one who is responsible for this."

It dawned upon the Jedi Master, "It was no accident…" Ben shook his head.

The Sith looked as if he wanted to say something else, but his head snapped towards the shut door to Obi-Wan's room. His eyes narrowed for the briefest of seconds and Obi-Wan could feel him tentatively reaching out with the Force. Curious, the Jedi Master followed his brother's example and quickly found what Ben was investigating.

"I should go, before your companions fully wake up and think that I am trying to murder you in their sleep."

"That certainly would be a damper in the mood," Obi-Wan agreed good naturedly and with a good portion of humour in his voice. He took a few steps back to allow his brother to stand up, which the Sith promptly did. His bones cracked when he stretched.

"Certainly," Ben agreed and with that he slipped silently through the door, shoes securely in his hands.

I hope you liked this chapter. ^^

And don't forget to leave a review behind. ;)