Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

☆☆☆

The last moving box was dropped rather unceremoniously in the middle of the bedroom. Finally. "You know," Obi-Wan drawled out with a mild look of annoyance on his face, "it wouldn't have killed you to help out just a little." His younger brother merely raised a dark black fiberglass casted arm as the only sign he had heard. He had the unkind thought that Anakin was milking the injury for all it was worth, but that thought was quickly followed by the one that the barely a teenager deserved the right to do so. Neither of them had thought that they'd be in this situation and their father had to be laughing in the afterlife.

Obi-Wan had been working hard at becoming a teacher, with the goal of starting out as an associate professor in History or Literature; and then the accident happened. The second he had received the call from a shocked Anakin he had dropped everything and came back to the town he had once tried to escape. He was positive he still had to deal with breaking a lease on student housing and somehow get the last of his things, but it could wait a bit. Actually, maybe he could get the lawyers to deal with that- a minor abuse of them probably, but he already had so much on his plate. The damn will gave him more than enough money to raise his brother, but the stipulation of moving into the Bed and Breakfast as the new Innkeeper was one that still rubbed him wrong. Even passed away, his father was still controlling his life. He could, potentially; just let the business go under and not hurt financially, but he knew he would never do something like that. His father loved this place for some reason, tarnishing this place would just be wrong.

He needed a drink or twenty. Garen, Bant, and Siri would be thrilled to go out for drinks with him and catch up, but he couldn't just leave Anakin alone.

"Would you at least turn down the volume of that infernal show? I honestly don't know how you can watch such garbage," he snapped before he could stop himself. Anakin froze before tilting his head back to level a glare at him.

"It figures you finally come back and go straight into bossing me around," the boy snapped right back. Old habits died rather hard it seemed. Obi-wan reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he silently counted to ten in his head. They were both hurting and he certainly didn't need to make things worse. They had yet to talk about things and Anakin had simply hugged him painfully tight when he first came home.

They were both hurting and unable to talk about their feelings.

"Ani," he tried in a softer voice, but his brother was already moving. He barely stepped out of the way as the pint sized fury bolted out of the room. "Anakin," he called while he turned to chase after him. "I'm sor-" Suddenly the room was eerily silent as the television just died. He wasn't sure why, but that caused goosebumps to erupt across his arms. Obi-Wan glanced over his shoulder at the television with pursed lips. Well, that certainly couldn't be good. How much would it cost to get all the wiring looked at? Had Qui-Gon even kept this place up to code?

"Damn it."

Make that fifty drinks. He pulled his phone out to text Garen and see if his friend could come over. Drinking alone was just too depressing at this point. The immediate string of emojis via text he got in response made him second guess his decision.

There were little things at first that caused the hair on the back of Obi-Wan's neck to stand on end the first few weeks. It was the way cupboards seemed to open during the night in their area or how he found his toiletries all over the bathroom floor on several occasions. Sometimes he thought he heard knocking from other parts of the house, but that could easily be explained away by far too little sleep and copious amounts of coffee. Hallucinations were a symptom of him failing to take care of himself properly. He knew it wasn't Anakin creating the chaos- at least he hoped his brother wasn't getting up at strange hours of the night to mess with him. His brother may still hold a grudge about the fact Obi-Wan left for college, but he figured any revenge for that would be far more creative. He may have let his brother pass out on the end of his bed one night while watching one of his stupid reality shows and did nothing to move him. That night the chairs in their kitchenette mysteriously found themselves turned upside down, but Ani hadn't moved once from the foot of Obi-Wan's bed. Obi-Wan had stayed up all night reading. If Ani spent more nights passed out on Obes' bed instead of his own after that incident, well, neither of them were going to point that particular fact out.

The chairs ushered in a change and things were starting to go from mild inconveniences to a tad startling. Through it all? Anakin kept insisting they were haunted as if it was the greatest thing ever. He kept trying to get Obi-Wan to watch some silly ghost hunting show. He wasn't sure how many times he could say no thanks before it clicked with his brother. He didn't have the time while trying to figure out the messy books their father had kept regarding the business. That and ghost shows made him think of someone he would rather not think about. Ghosts also weren't real, despite what he used to think as a child. There had been plenty of times where he had cried at the shadows as a toddler and Qui-Gon had comforted him. If he still despised going into the basement it was merely because it was cramped and smelled musty, it certainly had nothing to do with the fact he had once thought it haunted. He had grown out of that, realized it was nonsense, and moved on with his life. Now though? He was starting to think something was honestly wrong with the bed and breakfast. They hadn't exactly had guests yet, but he couldn't recall a time when this place had ever been busy.

Why had their father kept this place?

"Anakin," he yelled up the stairs for what felt like the fifth time. "If you don't hurry your slow ass up I am going to let you walk to school."

"Language," came the smartass response as his brother ran down the stairs doing a remarkable job of sounding like a herd of baby elephants. Yes, it was probably a good thing they didn't currently have guests. He sighed as he simply held out a travel mug of coffee to his brother. "You just want to flirt with Ms. Kryze again when you drop me off, Obes."

Obi-Wan leveled a glare at his brother before simply pointing at the door. Anakin burst out laughing, far too jovial for the unholy hour, and ran out of the building towards the car. Satine Kryze, while pleasant, wasn't exactly his type and he couldn't fathom why Ani kept pushing that idea. She had tried to get his attention back in highschool, before she graduated, and he had been civil. All these years later it seemed she might still have that crush judging from how she seemed to be there every morning when he dropped his brother off. He grumbled faintly to himself while leaving the house and made his way over to the driver's side of the car. He yanked the door open just before he felt like someone was watching him. He paused and glanced up towards the attic window. The rather outdated lace curtain seemed to be fluttering in a faint breeze. He rationalized it by thinking the roof needed repairs. Yes, the building was just old. Things happened. He needed to call a building inspector just to see how much he was going to have to dump into this place repair wise.

"I sent a message to the official Ghost Sensors Twitter," Anakin dropped on him while he snapped his seatbelt into place. His hand paused on the buckle as his brain tried to decipher the statement. Ghost Sensors sounded vaguely familiar for some reason and that left him feeling more on edge.

"Pardon? You did what?" It was like his brother took relish in catching him off guard, a skill he had picked up from Qui-Gon. Their father had always enjoyed springing news on him at the most inopportune moments, devious man that one had been. Everyone thought Qui-Gon had been so laid back, but he knew better.

"Come on, Obes, this place is totally haunted. Don't you remember being afraid to go into the basement when you were younger? Dad said-" Obi-Wan's knuckles tightened on the steering wheel as he backed out of their small driveway. Dad had said a lot of things, he bit the words back before they could escape his mouth. Ani seemed to sense his mood and jumped ahead in his planned conversation. "They are interested! I mean in visiting us, do a whole investigation-"

"Anakin, you didn't," he groaned out and resisted the strong urge to slam his forehead against the steering wheel. Why were they having this conversation? Why was there even a need for this conversation?

"The main guy was totally nice. He had a lot of questions, we messaged back and forth for hours and he said-"

"Is that why you were up so late? You shouldn't talk to strange people on the internet…He could be some creeper, Ani!"

"He isn't strange. He is the lead investigator! Listen, Obes, they'll do it for free, but we just have to let them stay for free-"

"Do what now?" There was this headache growing behind his eyes, and its name was Anakin.

"Investigate! Think of the publicity the place will get. You've been here for like two weeks and haven't had a single guest. People love haunted shit and will pay extra for the experience!"

"Language. Ani, and I have been back nearly a month, thank you for noticing, and we aren't doing this, the house is hardly haunte-" his words were interrupted because his phone decided to start ringing at that exact moment. He cast a glance at Anakin and just knew from the sheepish look that his little brother had given his cellphone number out to some stranger on the internet. Damn it. He slammed his thumb on the connect button, fully intent on telling the person to politely fuck off, and was caught off guard by the greeting.

"Hey sexy," Quinlan's sultry voice filled the car and Obi-Wan may have hit the breaks a tad hard. Anakin yelped as he was flung forward a bit before the seatbelt kicked in. Oh, yes, definitely a creeper. That voice still had a way of messing with his head and he a tad miffed with himself that he still recognized it after all these years.

"Vos, how the fuck did you get my number?" he snapped. Laughter invaded the space and he regretted answering the call.

"Aw, you remember me! Your little brother gave it to me. Don't be that way Kenobi, it took hours of asking him questions to realize it was you," the man on the phone practically purred and Anakin's eyes grew wide. "You didn't even leave a number when you slipped out-"

"My brother is in the car," he blurted out and just knew his face was going through ten different shades of red. This was not a conversation he wanted to have in front of his brother. Kriff, kriff, kriff. "And that was years ago!" Of all the one night stands when he first escaped this town he honestly hadn't thought this one would swing back to haunt him.

"Well, this is awkward," Quinlan snickered and Obi-Wan almost wished he was there so he could punch him in his annoyingly attractive face. "Look, I hear you have a haunted inn-"

"Bed and breakfast," Anakin and Obi-Wan interrupted at the exact same time.

"-creepy. Anyway, I have a show. You have the haunt. It would be great publicity for both of us, Kenobi. Also, who actually gives their real name during a one night stand?" A series of swear words escaped him while Anakin stared at him with his mouth hanging open in pure surprise. He knew gears were turning inside his brother's head, and he was not looking forward to whatever nonsense spilled out of his agape mouth next.

"Oh my fucking God," Anakin practically yelled, Quinlan laughed over the bluetooth, "You actually got laid once?" He hated everything.

"We are dangerously off topic," he growled. "Quinlan, fuck off. Anakin watch your mouth. We aren't doing this, none of this is happening, lose my number!'

"Sorry, babe, we will be there in two days, Anakin set it all up."

"He did what?"

Anakin was a mixture of horrified and amazed in the passenger seat and had the nerve to not look the least bit sorry. "Is that why you change the topic whenever it seems like Ms. Kryze is about to ask you out? I seriously thought you just didn't like people!" This was so not a conversation he wanted to be having so early in the morning.

"Who is Ms. Kyrze?" Quinlan inquired with far too much amusement in his voice.

"Not happening," Obi-Wan disconnected the call and promptly rejected the ten call backs that came immediately after. He was going to strangle Quinlan and Anakin. His brother was damn near vibrating in the passenger seat and he couldn't help sighing. He was trapped in a car with an annoying amount of questions waiting to be asked.

"You slept with Quinlan Vos," Anakin grinned hard as he began to fidget in his seat. "Obes, Obes, oh my God, no wonder he wants to do the investigation for free! I bet he totally wants to fu-"

"Anakin!"

"I'm just saying. You aren't ugly, I guess."

"How kind of you," Obi-Wan drawled out dryly as he pulled up in front of the school. Ms. Kryze was at the curb because, of course, she was. She was wearing a cute tea dress in a shade of blue that he had the unnerving feeling might match his eyes. Anakin rolled his window down instead of getting out of the car right away, which meant something was planned. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Hey, Ms. Kryze," Ani grinned as she smiled sweetly at them as she walked towards the car. "My brother has a boyfriend!" Her face fell as a look of confusion crossed her features. Obi-Wan merely let his head slam into the steering wheel several times as he reminded himself he was not going to bury his little brother in the creepy basement of their bed and breakfast.

"Get out of the car, Anakin, I need to go drive off a cliff now."