Chapter Text
“Hey, hey,” Anakin said gently. “This is no time to sleep.”
“Seems as good a time as any to me,” Obi-Wan said, his eyes half-lidded.
Obi-Wan lay cradled in Anakin’s lap. Normally, Obi-Wan would be far more self-conscious about this display of vulnerability but his head hurt, he was cold and all he wanted in the world was to sleep. He let his eyes flutter closed.
“Obi-Wan!” Anakin yelled while shaking him slightly.
“Stop shaking me,” Obi-Wan groaned, trying his best to keep his nausea at bay. “And stop yelling.”
“No, you’re concussed and it’s freezing, you need to stay awake until Rex can get us out of here.”
“We don’t know how long that will be. You might as well let me sleep.”
“Your powers of negotiation don’t work on me, Master.”
Obi-Wan groaned again. He didn’t even notice he had closed his eyes again until Anakin clapped his hands a hair’s breadth in front of his face. He startled.
“Stay awake.”
“Sorry,” he murmured.
Anakin’s features softened. “It’s alright. We’ll get out of here soon. We have our tracking beacons on and Rex is looking for us.”
“Okay,” Obi-Wan said, his eyelids heavy.
“Come on Master, you have to stay awake,” Anakin pleaded. His eyes darted around the cave as if he were looking for some sort of solution hanging from the stalactites. His eyes lit up before he clapped his hands again, causing Obi-Wan to startle for a second time.
“Would you stop doing that?”
“Let’s play a game,” Anakin said, ignoring Obi-Wan’s complaints.
“I don’t want to play a game,” Obi-Wan said in what sounded suspiciously like a whine.
“I don’t care. Games are fun.”
Obi-Wan glared at him. “What game?”
“Uh… let’s play This or That.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Too bad. I’m in charge,” Anakin said firmly.
Obi-Wan would have rolled his eyes if it didn’t hurt so much to do so. “Don’t let your new-found power go to your head.”
“If you would stay awake, I wouldn’t have to assume power in the first place,” Anakin replied. His breath crystallized and swirled around in the air as he spoke. “Anyway, I’ll go first. Would you rather go on a mission on a tundra planet or desert planet?”
“Anakin, you know I hate desert planets almost as much as you do,” Obi-Wan retorted. “But seeing as how we are currently trapped on a tundra planet…”
“Fine. Desert planet it is then. Corellian whiskey or Alderaanian brandy?”
“Brandy,” he said firmly. “Though it feels like I just drank a bottle of Corellian whiskey.”
Anakin hummed in sympathy while he tried to think of another question. “Rain or sun?”
“Rain.”
“Meditation or sparring?”
This one made Obi-Wan pause. “Meditation.”
Anakin scoffed. “You’re just saying that to annoy me.”
“No, I’m not. Meditation is more peaceful than sparring.”
“I disagree.”
“Believe me, I know.” Obi-Wan sighed and tried to stop shivers from racking his body to no avail. “Sorry,” he murmured to Anakin.
“It’s alright, Master.”
“It’s- it’s cold in here,” Obi-Wan said around chattering teeth. Obi-Wan felt Anakin shifting before something warm covered his body. Obi-Wan looked down at himself and saw Anakin’s robe draped over his body. “No, Anakin, you’ll freeze. Put it back on,” Obi-Wan tried to use his sternest ‘Master Jedi’ voice, but that had never been all that effective on Anakin and it was even less effective now that his teeth wouldn’t stop chattering.
“I’ll be fine until Rex gets here, alright? He should be here any minute.”
“Anakin.”
“Just wear it until you warm up,” Anakin said. “It’s harder to stay awake if you’re freezing.”
The extra robe was nice. It was still warm from Anakin’s body heat. His shivering died down just for Anakin’s to start up.
“Anakin...” he said again.
“It- it’s alright, Master,” Anakin said.
“No, it’s not.” Then slowly, painfully, Obi-Wan sat up.
“What are you doing?”
“Keeping us warm,” Obi-Wan said as he leaned against Anakin’s shoulder and spread his robe over the two of them. It was considerably warmer now that their shared body heat was under one robe, but Obi-Wan’s exhaustion remained. Leaning up against Anakin’s shoulder, Obi-Wan’s eyes started to close again.
“Hey, stay awake, ” Anakin said. “Tea or caf?”
“Stupid question.”
“You’re right, I’m just running out of ideas.”
Anakin never runs out of ideas. The thought caused a shred of alarm to flare in Obi-Wan’s chest. “Anakin?”
“Hmmm?”
Obi-Wan turned to look at his former apprentice. His eyes were half-lidded. “Anakin you need to stay awake too.”
“It’s getting cold, Master.” It was true. The longer they spent here, the colder it got. Now, even their shared body heat and the robe covering them wasn’t enough to stop the shivers.
“I know, Anakin,” Obi-Wan sighed. His head was pounding, but now he needed to make sure Anakin stayed awake as well. “Poetry or prose?”
“Ugh,” Anakin said in disgust. “You’re terrible at this.”
“I’m not the one who ran out of ideas.”
“Prose I guess,” Anakin finally admitted. “What about you?”
“Poetry.”
“I never understood poetry,” Anakin sighed.
“You don’t need to understand something for it to be beautiful.”
“Now you’re starting to sound poetic.”
“You would too if you read poetry,” Obi-Wan teased, but his tone had quieted.
They sat together in silence. The only sound was the howling of the wind outside the cave. It sounded like an anguished cry. Obi-Wan found it fitting that a planet as horrid as this one always sounded like it was in a perpetual state of mourning. Nothing could live here. At least not for long.
“Master?” Anakin said, breaking the silence between them. His anxiety was palpable. “R-Rex will find us r-right?”
“D-don’t worry,” Obi-Wan said, his eyes closing again. “Rex always finds us.”
“Please stay awake,” Anakin pleaded, but his eyes were closing too.
“He-he’ll find us,” Obi-Wan insisted again before finally succumbing to sleep that Anakin was too tired to pull him out of. Obi-Wan dreamt of warmth.