"Hmm…" Obi-Wan said, to himself, then looked up as Anakin entered the apartment.

"How are you?" he asked. "You were… doing your mechanics lessons, I think?"

"Yeah," his newly minted padawan agreed. "I mean… yes, Master."

Obi-Wan swallowed slightly.

"I wanted to talk about that, actually," he replied. "But, firstly… did you do anything good?"

Anakin didn't look like the first statement had made him feel any less apprehensive, but after some consideration he nodded.

"I helped fix an astromech," he said. "Master Koresh said he'd given up on expecting me to keep up with the rest of the students because I'm way ahead of them on mechanics… he said he might have me teach the lessons some time. That'd be cool, I guess."

"I'd like to see that," Obi-Wan admitted. "Now, Anakin… there's something I came across recently, just today. A realization, I think – and it's made me think again about something important."

"What is it, Master?" Anakin asked.

"That word," Obi-Wan replied. "Anakin… I don't know if Qui-Gon had realized this, and I'm only now seeing it, but… I never really saw you while you were a slave. And I'm so used to the Jedi Temple that-"

He cut himself off.

"It isn't real, for me," he said. "I don't think it's real for just about any other Jedi, either… or not for most of us. I could be wrong, but almost every Jedi joined the order so young that they haven't got an experience of slavery. Not from inside."

Anakin looked like he wasn't quite sure how to react to what he was being told.

Then he said so, as well.

"Well…" Obi-Wan began. "I did have this idea. I was looking up synonyms and so on, and I happened upon an old word that might help. That word is sensei."

Anakin frowned.

"What does it mean?" he asked.

"It means… teacher," Obi-Wan explained. "It's a title of respect, and an honorific, as well. But it's got no meaning of ownership. The way we use the word master, here in the temple, is a word that means a teacher, someone responsible for taking care of you – but it's the same word as the word for someone who owns you. And sensei doesn't have that meaning."

Anakin nodded, slowly.

"Would it be okay if I called you that?" he asked. "Or – if I called all my teachers that? And the councillors?"

"I don't know what they'd think," Obi-Wan replied. "But – I hope they will listen, if you do."

AN:

That should solve thing nicely and accidentally.