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Obi-Wan knew it would eventually come to this.
It's been three years ago at his annual physical check-up (which he is passionate to avoid if possible, even though as a Council member and role model he's aware he actually shouldn't feel that way) when the healers first discovered that there seems to hide a minor tendency for longsightedness in his genetic code. The slight anomaly wasn't exactly prominent to begin with – therefore it had never been noticed before – and nobody appeared alarmed about it at the time, so Obi-Wan forgot about it rather quickly.
But when one day, all these years later, he suddenly finds himself with a splitting headache seemingly out of the blue after about twenty minutes of concentrated reading he can't help being reminded of that yet again.
At first, however, he writes it off as a fluke, just a normal occurrence probably caused by a beginning dehydration and lack of sleep. But when it happens over and over afterwards, even while being well rested and enjoying a full stomach, he unfortunately has to face the fact that his eyesight is indeed starting to fail him.
After bringing his findings to them and enduring some thorough examinations the healers still remain calm and assure Obi-Wan that this will stay nothing but a small inconvenience. They suggest either a little invasive surgery to get rid off the problem entirely or some corrective aids to help him read without having to suffer any pain after a while.
Obi-Wan knows that the procedure they're proposing is a fairly safe one and done by them and their colleagues most likely countless times before with excellent results. But he still finds himself getting rather reluctant letting anyone operate on his eyes, especially because of such a marginal issue, and in the end rejects any surgical interventions for the time being.
So in the end he gets himself some glasses that sit comfortably on his face and deems the whole thing done with.
---
It's about a week later when Obi-Wan lounges on his couch, a good book in his hands, the glasses on his nose, and no headache in sight, when suddenly the door to his apartment swishes open and the familiar Force signature of Anakin approaches him.
“Hey, Obi-Wan,” the younger man greets him, obviously not at all bothered by the fact that he never learned to knock. “Do you, by any chance, have –?”
And then he stops.
Right in the middle of the sentence.
Obi-Wan looks up and sees himself confronted with an absolutely stunned looking Jedi Knight. The Force around him is suddenly swirling in the most obscure way, almost like it's in deep turmoil, and Obi-Wan surely has no idea what to make of that.
“Is everything alright, Anakin?” he wonders, getting a bit worried now as he looks at his friend's big eyes staring at him so intently they might as well pierce holes into Obi-Wan's skin.
Anakin fails to answer.
He opens and closes his mouth again and again, clearly attempting something similar to words, but for some reason he remains utterly unable to do so.
Obi-Wan frowns, completely confused about what brought up this abrupt change.
“What is going on?” he asks, lowering the datapad in his hands. “Am I missing something?”
He looks around. Everything seems to be in order, apart from a few scrapped droid parts Anakin has scattered all over the place because he never learned to control the urge to keep his little projects as widespread as possible. There is nothing out of the ordinary that might explain Anakin's unexpected inability to form coherent sentences.
And then Obi-Wan looks down on himself since that seems to be where Anakin's entire attention is focused on.
Are his clothes stained? Does he have a spider on his shirt? Did he forget to trim his beard this morning?
“Anakin,” he urges once again.
And this time the growing concern in Obi-Wan's tone appears to shake Anakin out of it.
“Uuuhhh,” he only manages at first, his articulate capabilities apparently in a desperate need of a moment or two to come back to their full glory. “I – I, um, I mean –”
Obi-Wan narrows his eyes and tries to remember whether he's ever seen his friend so thrown off before.
Right now he definitely can't recall ever witnessing Anakin in such a state.
“Are you okay?” Obi-Wan attempts once more. “Are you getting ill? Do you need to lie down? You can take my bed –”
Anakin makes a choking sound and seems quite horrified by the notion.
“I, uh, I'm fine,” he eventually croaks. “I'm – really …”
Obi-Wan lifts his eyebrow in suspicion. “Are you?” he asks. “Because you definitely don't look like it.”
Anakin squirms on the spot.
“I – I just – I mean, you told me, about the eyes and all that … but I had no idea … I mean, how it'd look …”
Obi-Wan simply stares at him and feels none the wiser.
“You have to elaborate, my friend, because I have no idea what you're saying,” he points out.
Anakin merely stammers something unintelligible and suddenly flees out of the room.
But not without running into the door frame first.
Obi-Wan watches him escape in complete confusion and can't help wondering if he's finally getting too old for all of this.
---
The next few times he sees Anakin everything seems to be fine again.
Granted, that first afternoon the young man still appears a bit flustered, but Obi-Wan assumes that to be some leftover embarrassment and leaves it downright unremarked. As expected Anakin loosens up soon afterwards and begins his usual bickering, the tension in his muscle draining off into nothingness.
Obi-Wan decides to forget that strange little occurrence for both of their sake.
---
It happens again only a couple of days later.
They're right in the middle of a mission report and as further information shows up on the screen Obi-Wan pulls out his glasses to not miss a single word. Mace goes on about the specifics and the rest of the room listens intently and makes notes, all attention on the issue at hand.
It's fairly normal altogether.
But then Obi-Wan feels the Force tentatively nudging at him and as he glances to the side he notices Anakin being the only one obviously not giving a damn about the report. He doesn't even pretend to be attentive as he usually does.
No, he straight out ignores the entire briefing to stare at Obi-Wan with the same shell-shocked expression from about a week ago. His breathing seems to speed up and the ability to blink found itself forgotten somewhere along the way.
Obi-Wan gets concerned all over again.
What is going on?
---
“Anakin, are you really alright?”
Obi-Wan can't help intercepting Anakin the moment the meeting is declared over because the young man appears ready to bolt any second now and Obi-Wan seriously can't let him get away just another time without a proper explanation.
“I'm fine,” Anakin mutters, lowering his head.
He's obviously quite determined not to look into Obi-Wan's eyes.
“Please, Anakin,” Obi-Wan urges while keeping his voice as soothing as possible. “This is the second time you're behaving so strangely. I'm starting to get honestly worried …”
Anakin winces. “You don't –” He clenches his hand into a fist. Like he always does when he's controlling some very powerful emotions. “Please, Obi-Wan, it's alright …”
“But –”
“It's just … a personal matter,” Anakin eventually settles on. He seems rather uncomfortable saying it out loud as he pinches his features and avoids Obi-Wan's gaze at all cost. “I'll .. I will deal with it, okay?”
Obi-Wan is far from satisfied about this response, but it's not like he's able to force Anakin to come forward. Not to mention the fact that he wouldn't want to do such a thing in the first place.
So in the end he says, “I'm always here for you if you need me.”
A soft smile flickers over Anakin's lips. “Thanks.”
And then he almost stumbles over a table in his haste to get out of the room. To get away from Obi-Wan.
---
It happens again several times after that.
At first Obi-Wan is quite confused by the pattern. There are days, even weeks, without a single incident, and then out of the blue Anakin turns into an utter mess around him and appears torn for a moment between staying at Obi-Wan's side or running for the hills.
In the end he always chooses the latter.
It's so completely puzzling that Obi-Wan slowly starts to question his own sanity.
But it's on a sunny afternoon when it begins to dawn on him. Because one minute Anakin had been calm and relaxed, just sharing some tea with Obi-Wan in the mess hall and talking about Ahsoka's progress, and then the next he suddenly started to stutter, leaped to his feet and fled the room so quickly he collided with several Jedi on his way out.
Obi-Wan stared after him for a while, once again baffled what caused this very sudden change.
But as he attempts to rub his temples his fingers brush the frame of his glasses and all of a sudden it clicks.
He just put them on when he felt the urge to study the mess hall's menu for the week. And out of the blue Anakin turned 180 degrees.
Obi-Wan blinks.
---
Obi-Wan has no idea whatsoever why his glasses are triggering such a strong reaction in his friend. They're regular looking, just glass and a black frame, and Obi-Wan saw no reason before to waste any more thoughts about them.
But apparently they spark something in Anakin.
And Obi-Wan can't even begin to fathom what that might be.
---
Obi-Wan tries to talk with his former apprentice about this, but Anakin leaves for a mission the next morning and the opportunity for a serious conversation vanishes into thin air as they have barely a minute to say some hasty goodbyes before Anakin grabs his Padawan and drags her towards the ship.
Obi-Wan sighs as he watches them go and asks himself whether he will ever get an answer to this nagging question.
---
It's merely a few hours later when Obi-Wan suddenly realizes that this whole thing isn't just an Anakin-centric problem exclusively.
No, quite on the contrary.
As Obi-Wan finds himself leaving the library that day, with his glasses still on because there had been way too much weighing on his mind to remember taking them off, a group of senior Padawans passes him in the hallway. The young men and women instantly freeze in unison when they glimpse at him, looking just as taken aback as Anakin has been doing the last couple of weeks, and flush a deep red when Obi-Wan meets all their gazes. They stammer nervously, six voices speaking incoherently at once, before tripping over each other and tumbling to the floor in a large pile.
They're instantly joined by two designated Knights who seem so distracted by the sight of Obi-Wan that they're spontaneously forget their original intent to help the poor Padawans out and lose their footings themselves.
In the end there are eight people lying on the ground in front of him and Obi-Wan is pretty sure that the glasses are the only one to blame.
---
It happens.
Again and again.
People staring at him with wide eyes. People tuning out their surroundings and toppling over things or other living beings. People blushing and running off.
Thankfully it's not everyone. More often than not fellow Jedi react just as confused about this odd behavior than Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan can't help feeling rather relieved by that fact. It means that it's not only him who seems to miss something here.
But it happens more than enough and the Jedi Master has no idea what to do with this.
It's a mystery he's not sure he will be able to live with for much longer now.
---
“I'm looking weird with them, don't I? That must be it.”
That appears the most logical explanation and Obi-Wan is not too shy to share it with Bant the next evening when she graciously invited herself over to dinner. He relayed the entire issue to her in great detail before they even reached the main course because he's quite unable to hold it inside himself any longer. And since Bant has always been a good friend and, more importantly, looks absolutely unaffected by the glasses on Obi-Wan's nose Obi-Wan figured she would be a good choice to start with.
“So they get all flustered around you and lose any sense of coordination?” she inquires, her face doing something extremely complicated Obi-Wan has no chance to interpret.
“More or less, yes,” he confirms. “And Anakin might be the worst of them all. The other day he walked straight into a wall. A wall!”
There hadn't even been a door close by he could have missed by accident. No, it was just a plain, simple wall. Which had been standing there for thousands of years. And Anakin had always been aware of that fact.
Until that one day.
“I don't know what's happening,” Obi-Wan sighs. “Do I seriously look so awful with those glasses?”
He gestures at his face rather helplessly.
Meanwhile, Bant studies him like she thinks him utterly stupid.
“You're stupid.”
And she doesn't have any issues with voicing her opinion out loud.
“Stupid and oblivious,” she clarifies. “Like seriously, Obi-Wan, for someone so smart this is quite the tragedy.”
Obi-Wan frowns, feeling both affronted and confused. “I don't understand –”
Bant leans over to pat his knee in a reassuring manner. “I know, little one.”
Now Obi-Wan can't help a glare. “Bant –”
“Just talk to Anakin,” she suggests. “He will be able to explain it to you.”
Obi-Wan shakes his head in exasperation. “He refuses to speak about it.”
“Use your puppy eyes, they always work on him,” Bant says with a wink. “And please don't forget to record the entire conversation. Because I'm fairly sure this will be the most entertaining thing that ever happened in these sacred halls.”
And then she laughs, booming and with a touch of wicked, and Obi-Wan feels even more lost than before.
---
Anakin returns from his mission a few days after.
And Obi-Wan, who is so known for his patience, is just incapable of waiting any longer. So he grabs Anakin more or less the moment he steps into the Temple and pulls him into an empty lecture room down the hall.
“Obi-Wan, what –?” Anakin seems clearly bewildered, but the Force is most likely assuring him that no immediate danger is afoot at the very moment. At least he still appears relaxed, no tense muscle in his body.
So far.
“We need to talk,” Obi-Wan urges. “About those kriffing glasses.”
Anakin flinches and Obi-Wan can't really tell whether that is because of the strong language or the topic they're about to discuss.
“Master, there is nothing –”
“But there is,” Obi-Wan cuts in. “Because you're acting unpredictable and I just want to understand. Understand you.” He heaves a deep sigh. “Is that seriously too much to ask?”
Anakin grimaces. “I told you, it's just something personal –”
“Well, it seems to be rather personal for a lot of other people in the Temple as well,” Obi-Wan points out. “At least those glasses appear to have quite the effect.”
Anakin's head snaps up at those words. “Others?” For a moment he looks too stunned to say anything more. But then suddenly his expression hardens. “What others?”
If Obi-Wan didn't know it any better, he would claim Anakin sounds jealous.
Highly ridiculous, that notion, of course, but Obi-Wan can't help that this is the first thought which comes to him.
“They look terrible, is that it?” Obi-Wan wonders, effectively jolting Anakin out of wherever his mind went to. “The glasses look so hideous you can't stand to stay in the same room with me.”
Anakin gawks at him as though he believes Obi-Wan to have lost all his sanity somewhere along the way.
“Are you crazy?” he growls. He seems actually insulted by the mere idea. “They don't – you don't – who told you that?”
Anakin appears ready to strike whoever spread that kind of gossip and Obi-Wan is unable to suppress a pleasant flutter in his chest at such a strong display of protectiveness.
“Nobody told me that,” Obi-Wan says. “It just seemed to be the most logical explanation.”
Anakin lifts his brows, clearly thrown off by that statement. “That is supposed to be the most logical explanation?” He scoffs. “This is madness, Master. They don't look horrible on you or anything.”
Obi-Wan pulls a face. “Then what it is? Do I suddenly bear a striking resemblance to someone you all know as soon as I wear my glasses? Some holovid actor? A famous prince? A playboy heir?”
Anakin doesn't really seems to know whether he should laugh or not. “A playboy heir? Really?”
Obi-Wan snorts. “What do you want me to say? It may very well be, may it not? At least it would explain people actually stumbling all over themselves at the sight of me.”
Anakin pinches the bridge of his nose.
“So you're honestly telling me you don't know what's going on?” he asks incredulously. “Because I'm sorry, Obi-Wan, but I actually never thought you could so dense about something.”
Obi-Wan scowls at that. “I beg your pardon –?”
“I mean, it's so obvious –” Anakin laughs hollowly. “How can you think those glasses make you look hideous when it's actually the exact opposite? Like for real, I don't understand your train of thoughts at all –”
For a moment Obi-Wan feels way too floored to react in any shape or form.
He simply gapes at Anakin and wonders whether he did seriously hear that correctly while the other man continues to complain about Obi-Wan's shortsightedness (which is quite ironic, when you think about it) and doesn't even seem to notice the Jedi Master's inner turmoil.
Eventually, though, Obi-Wan finds his voice again and interrupts Anakin mid-sentence. “It's the opposite?”
Anakin freezes, looking very much like a deer in the headlights.
It's quite obvious he never meant to actually disclose that little detail, but found himself so agitatedly lost faced with Obi-Wan's incomprehension of the entire situation that it slipped out without his own volition.
“Um …” Anakin starts to fidget as he lowers his head.
“So I don't look hideous?” Obi-Wan prods.
He tilts his head as he lets this new information settle in. He remembers the looks he received over the course of the last couple of weeks, by Anakin as well as the others, flabbergasted and taken aback. The wide eyes and flushed cheeks. The loss of speech. The anxiety and confusion hanging in the air, radiating through the Force like a wildfire.
All caused by Obi-Wan and his glasses.
Who apparently, as a team, don't look terrible at all.
Quite on the contrary, it seems.
Fascinating.
“So you're saying …?”
Anakin looks like he's in actual pain as Obi-Wan steps closer. “I mean, yeah …” he mumbles. “They don't look bad …”
Obi-Wan feels amusement blossoming inside of him as he watches Anakin squirm like that. “Not bad, huh?”
Anakin rolls his eyes. While still steering clear of meeting Obi-Wan's gaze.
“Yeah, okay … the glasses kinda suit you …” he admits. And then adds in a whisper, so quiet it's barely audible, “A lot.”
Obi-Wan senses something warm pressing within his chest.
“I see,” he mutters, thousand different emotions rushing through his system. “Rather interesting, I have to admit.”
Anakin huffs. “You got what you wanted now? You don't look terrible and you've got your explanation, so I'm just gonna go –”
Obi-Wan hastily grabs Anakin's wrist before he's even able to make a move and finds himself surprisingly pleased by the skin on skin contact.
“How about we talk some more?” he proposes, his voice lowered. “In my apartment? Just the two of us.”
Anakin pauses.
And hesitantly raises his gaze, for the first time really looking at Obi-Wan.
With something akin to hope sparking up on his features for a brief second.
“Uh, alright.”
Obi-Wan smiles and leads the way.
---
Back in the apartment Obi-Wan immediately puts the glasses back on.
And this time he truly enjoys the sight of Anakin getting all tongue tied again.