Chapter Text
Waking up in a cell was never pleasant from what Obi-Wan had experienced. Every time he would wake up with a sore back from the hard floor, a force suppressing collar, and more often than not naked. Thankfully, this time his clothes had been left on, something he was grateful for.
Looking around his cell, Obi-Wan was mildly surprised to find Anakin laying on the floor across from him. He would have assumed whoever captured them would have kept them apart in order to discourage any escape attempts. Their mistake.
Obi-Wan shifted closer to Anakin, gently shaking him awake. “You need to get up.”
Anakin jolted awake. “Where am I? What’s going on?”
“You need to calm down Anakin, we are safe for now.” How safe they actually were was up for debate, but Obi-Wan didn’t feel that Anakin needed to know just how badly off they were. The knowledge would only cause his Padawan to panic.
“Where are we?” The confused Padawan asked.
“It seems we’ve been taken captive.” Anakin’s breath hitched. “Not to worry, I’m sure we’ll find a way out.”
Anakin looked up at Obi-Wan, his distress clear in his eyes. “How are you so sure we’re going to be okay? What if something happens to you and I’m left all alone without anyone knowing where I am?”
“You must trust in the force Padawan. Everything happens as the force wills it, and I doubt the force wishes to return you to a life of slavery after everything it did to help you get out of one.”
Anakin calmed slightly. “I’m sorry for freaking out. I just get so scared when I think about having to go back to Tatooine. I know I shouldn’t be scared, since fear leads to the dark side, it’s just so hard to remember that sometimes.”
Obi-Wan pulled Anakin into a hug. “Oh Anakin, nobody expects you to live completely without fear. Fear is an emotion, and emotions are what makes us human. You just need to be mindful of your thoughts when you are afraid. Many times, when we are scared our thoughts will spiral, and those spiraling thoughts are what you need to be wary of.” Obi-Wan took a moment to breathe. “I’ve arranged for you to talk to someone about your fears. Hopefully that by talking about them with a professional, you’ll learn how to better cope.”
Anakin relaxed into the hug, clearly enjoying the contact. “Does that mean we’ll have to go back to the temple?”
“We won’t be required to, but I can understand if you’d like to. I doubt anything similar to our current situation would ever happen at the temple.”
Obi-Wan felt Anakin shake his head against where he was curled up on his chest. “I want to see all the stars, and I’ll never be able to do that sitting in the temple.”
Gripping Anakin tighter, Obi-Wan hummed reassuringly. “Then we’ll keep seeing the stars, together.”
They stayed curled up against each other until they heard the distinct hiss of the doors lock being disengaged. Obi-Wan pulled Anakin behind him as someone stepped into their cell.
The person stepped into the cell. It was a male weequay. The weequay was wearing flight glasses paired with an impractical, red, flight jacket, and a blaster on his hip. He sauntered to the center of the cell.
“Greetings my friends!” The weequay said, arms raised horizontally.
Anakin glared at him. “Who are you?”
“I am the great Hondo Ohnaka, captain of this ship.”
“If you are the captain of this great ship, can I ask why you’ve seen it fit to take us captive?” Obi-Wan asked.
“Why, for the money of course! A ship as new as yours is can make quite the profit being sold to the right person.”
“Once you’ve sold our ship, what do you plan to do with us?”
Hondo seemed to falter for a moment. “I’ll, ummm, throw you out of the airlock!” He said without much conviction.
“Hmmm,” Obi-Wan hummed. “You seem like the gambling type. How about I offer you a deal, choose any sort of competition. If I win, you give my Padawan and I our ship back and allow us to go safely on our way.”
“And if I win?”
Obi-Wan thought for a moment. “You get our lightsabers.”
Hondo brightened up as he tried to look thoughtful. “You have a deal,” he said, reaching out to shake Obi-Wan's hand. “Time for a drinking contest!”
-
Obi-Wan stared into Hondos eyes, daring him to back down as he drank his twelfth glass of Lothal Spicebrew.
“Have you given up yet?”
Hondo shot Obi-Wan a sour look as he tried, and failed not to look queasy. “I surrender,” he said without his usual flair. “If I hadn’t been the one pouring the drinks I would have thought that you cheated. How did you do that?”
Obi-Wan shot Hondo a small, mischievous grin. “I traveled around Mandalore many years ago, and developed quite the tolerance for alcohol while I was there.”
“Ah, I’ve heard tales of how much Mandos drink, though I never thought they held much weight. You seem to have proven me wrong.”
“That seems to be a recurring theme in my life,” Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate the code to the force suppressors you’ve put on my Padawan and I.”
Hondo’s cheery demeanor dropped slightly. “Besh, herf, orenth, usk, esk.”
Obi-Wan entered the code into the collars keypad. With a click the collar opened and he tore it off. “I’d like to see my Padawan now.”
“Follow me,” Hondo grumbled as he set off out of the room and down the hallway. He stopped at a normal looking door with a keypad on the outside.
“The code to the door is peth, resh, forn, sen, wesk, dorn. The code to the runts collar is jenth, qek, senth, yirt, vev. Your ship is in the hanger at the end of the hall.”
“It was nice meeting you!” Obi-Wan called out to Hondos retreating figure.
As soon as Hondo was out of view Obi-Wan entered the code to the cell that Anakin was being held in. The door opened with a hiss.
The door to the cell had barely opened before Anakin launched himself into Obi-Wan.
“Excited to see me?” Obi-Wan huffed out as Anakin's arms circled around him.
Anakin blinked up at him with teary eyes. “I was so worried! What if you lost? What if you won and the pirate refused to let you go? What if you left me?”
Obi-Wan detached Anakin's arms from around his waist and kneeled down so that he was eye level with his Padawan. “Dear one, I will never leave you unless you ask me to.”
Those were the words that made the dam break, and Obi-Wan found himself with an armful of crying Padawan.
He wrapped his arms tightly around Anakin and held him while he sobbed. “Shh, Shhhh, you’re alright. Everything is fine,” he soothed.
After a few, long, minutes Anakin's sobs trickled down into mere hiccups.
Obi-Wan loosened his tight hold. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yeah.” Anakin answered quietly, wiping his face of tears.
“Then let’s get this dreadful collar off of you and head out. If we hurry we shouldn’t be too late meeting up with Quinlan and Aayla.”
Anakin scampered to his feet and waited restlessly as Obi-Wan entered the code to his collar and took it off.
“Eck!” Anakin screeched out. “What is that?”
“Calm young one, that’s simply the feeling of the force being restored to you. It will pass soon,” Obi-Wan said as calmly as he could. “Come now, our ship is in the hanger at the end of the hall. I’m sure that once we get to Yavin 4 Aayla would love to hear of our adventure.”
As soon as he heard where the ship was, Anakin bounded down the hall, still disoriented from being able to feel the force again.
“What am I to do with you?” Obi-Wan said to himself, dutifully following his Padawan.