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The sunset on Coruscant was an indescribable sight.
It highlighted the architecture of the city, the rows of buildings made of glass and metal that stretched out far beyond the horizon. It brought out the sense of how grand everything was, the vastness of it, and just how small one could feel on the streets of the planet they hailed home.
One of his earliest memories was his first trip outside of the temple. It was a clear recollection, stark against the mind, the image of the setting sun catching the speeders in the sky and the brilliant lights of the city itself burned into the horizon.
In a way, Obi-Wan found it comforting. Perhaps it was that same sense of greatness that reassured him as it frightened others, but he felt a modicum of security in the fact that the galaxy was not this lonesome, echoing emptiness of an expanse. Rather, it was something that teemed with life. It was loud and vibrant, beautiful in itself.
It was alive, and such a realization greeted him every time he took a step outside the temple doors.
That same sunset painted the sky in splotches of bright red and orange, and left him squinting out of the window as he twisted on his heel and turned to face the door to the training room.
He stifled a sigh as he tilted his head back to stare up at the ceiling.
Sunset also served as a reminder that night was approaching, and the hours in the day were ticking right by.
In other words-
His dearly beloved padawan was late again.
Though normally this would bring about a sense of exasperation, this time, he was met with a feeling of nostalgia, something that tasted like melancholy and fondness.
Maybe it was as his friends put it, empty-nest syndrome, that was the term. For the past decade, Anakin and Obi-Wan had almost become something of a single word, a state of being. It was never just Anakin Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Anakin-and-Obi-Wan. It was never the padawan, nor his master alone, but a pair. Welded together like two sheets of metal, two lothkits with their tails intertwined, or two mouse droids following the same routine- at least, that was what Obi-Wan suspected his padawan would imagine them to be like if they were ever a pair of droids.
To say simply though, they had always been together in some sense.
Ever since Anakin was a boy, he had been left in his master‘s care. Obi-Wan, holding himself true to the promise he‘d once made to his own master, never wanted to give Anakin the chance to feel alone, to feel abandoned. To nurture and ensure that Anakin Skywalker would become a great man, and an even greater Jedi, was something that had built itself into Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s very being. It was drilled into his core, sure as the rise of the sun and the glare of the moon, as clear as a supernova.
And after tonight, they would finally part ways.
Tonight, tonight, tonight.
Of course, the time for his padawan to become a knight was inevitable. He‘d known this ever since the day Qui-Gon passed away. The countdown to knight his padawan had begun the moment he‘d made such a promise that Anakin would be a Jedi. Yet still, when the moment crept up over his shoulder, he was taken aback.
How had the years passed by so quickly?
He lowered his gaze to stare at the door.
Tonight.
The door opened slowly, quietly, as if the person behind it were trying to creep in unnoticed.
Unfortunately for Anakin, Obi-Wan‘s attention was set entirely upon him.
“You‘re late, young one.” He greeted his apprentice.
“Ah, Master-“ Anakin startled and then gave him a half-smile, lopsided and sheepish. It made something warm settle in the bottom of Obi-Wan‘s stomach. “Can you cut me some slack? Just this time, I swear I didn‘t mean to lose track of time.”
“Hm,” The man hummed in response before he granted his padawan a warm smile. “Just this once.”
Perhaps, it was always in his nature to indulge the boy before him. He had never quite learned not to.
The beaming rays of a dying sun caught his padawan‘s hair, brought out the gold highlights and made his eyelashes glow. His eyes looked luminescent, brilliant reflections of the dying day.
Obi-Wan watched him closely, his gaze trailing down from Anakin‘s face, to the braid tucked behind his ear, then down to his waistline and the new saber hilt that sat snugly against his hip.
There, his eyes met gleaming metal. Gold against black plating, and the wiring that connected synthetics to real nerves. Anakin shifted around, flexing the hand and clenching his fingers. In the silence between them, Obi-Wan could hear the gears clicking at the wrist as he grabbed his saber.
The boy had become a man.
He was more than the child who used to trail after his master, more than the teenager who‘d so often glared back at the world sullenly. Today, Obi-Wan was met with the epiphany that life would never be the same again. Today, he would mourn what they would lose. Today, he would taste that bittersweet grief of letting Anakin go, as was his padawan‘s right to leave him behind.
And tomorrow, he would celebrate the coming of age of his dear apprentice. Tomorrow, they would be equals.
What a beautiful sight it was to see before him.
“Are you ready?” He asked Anakin, and then squared his shoulders to lead himself into the opening stance of Soresu, his fingers pointed forward and his feet steady.
“Are you?” Anakin retorted, lighting his saber and twirling it around. It hummed softly, the color, a shade of blue that matched his eyes. His braid swayed back and forth as he leaned forward into a powerful stance, feet planted and shoulders squared.
A single heartbeat, a deep inhale- and then they were at it.
In one motion, a ferocious, hungering one, Anakin lunged at Obi-Wan who responded in turn with a raised arm, his own lightsaber blocking Anakin‘s swing. For a second, they were at a standstill, a tidal wave ramming up against a cliff that held firm.
Then, they were moving once more. Anakin, stepping back and repositioning himself to attack again and Obi-Wan, shifting in a half-circle to deflect his padawan‘s next blow. They were a blur of motion, movements so well-practiced to the point that they resembled one singular machine.
An attack, a deflection. For every step forward that his padawan took, there was one that Obi-Wan retreated. For every sharp jab of Anakin‘s saber, there was a steady parry of his master‘s in turn.
Anakin‘s assault was relentless, and Obi-Wan‘s defense was impenetrable.
In the end though, something would always give.
Whether it was the recession of waters from the ocean, or the erosion of stone along a cliff-face, the mark of a beginning always spelled an inevitable end.
Perhaps it was a once-in-a-blue-moon fumble, perhaps it was the fact that the apprentice always surpassed the master- but Obi-Wan knew the moment he‘d lost.
He recognized it in the twinge of his ankle, in the direction he turned, deflecting a blow from his padawan‘s blade but twisting himself in such a way that left an opening for his apprentice to take.
And take, Anakin did.
His padawan, always too eager to help himself, threw himself forward to push Obi-Wan over. In his enthusiasm, they both ended up falling.
In one single moment, Obi-Wan found his vision turned upside down as he tripped backwards. He landed hard against the floor, his lightsaber flying out of his hand. Where it went, he couldn‘t see, but he heard the echoing clatter as it skittered across the tiles. Before he could recover, a heavy weight fell onto him, shoving him down just as he tried to get back up. That same weight proceeded to dig an elbow into his gut and knock the air right out of him. He grunted, an involuntary wheeze escaping him.
By the time he recovered, his face was already washed with blue light.
The length of Anakin‘s lightsaber was pointed at his throat.
“I win,” His padawan panted, and Obi-Wan was pressed close enough that he could feel Anakin‘s breath, could even feel the rise and fall of his apprentice‘s chest as he raced to catch his breath. The man‘s hands were clammy against the tiled floor, it offered a stark contrast to the heat of Anakin‘s body plastered against him. “I win!”
His padawan was sitting on him. His legs were spread on either side of Obi-Wan‘s hips, knees against the floor and braid swinging back and forth in the air as he loomed over his master.
There was sweat dripping down his face and Obi-Wan could only watch in stunned silence as a bead of it slid down Anakin‘s temple, past his cheek and off his chin until it fell down onto the man‘s tunic.
Were Anakin‘s eyelashes always that long? Were his lips always so swollen? Bitten raw and plump, shining because his padawan‘s tongue darted out to wet them every few minutes. The smile on Anakin‘s face fell into something of a smirk, the look in his gaze made Obi-Wan falter. Anakin leaned back, and it was second nature for Obi-Wan‘s hands to come up and settle at his waist.
“Master, I won!” Anakin said as he turned off his lightsaber, and Obi-Wan could only stare at him like a starved man.
“You did.” He responded faintly. He watched a star light up before his eyes. That brilliant, warm light. He could feel it in the Force and see it before him, the way Anakin shone and sang- he sounded like the first bird waking at dawn, tasted like a hint of rain and thunder, something fresh and ripe.
He was beautiful.
Obi-Wan didn‘t think he‘d ever seen anything more magnificent.
For a second, one greedy moment, Obi-Wan wanted to cling on. He wanted to tuck his padawan close to his chest, he wanted to breath in the smell of motor oil and listen to the whirring sound of synthetic nerves clicking up in his ear. He wanted to feel the touch of metal digits cupping his cheek and the brush of swollen lips against his own. He wanted to trip over droid parts and wash two teacups every evening. He wanted so badly to feel it all, to know the meaning of forever.
He wanted, selfishly, almost sinful with the strength of his desire- just for tonight.
He was not afraid to admit that he was a weak man, and that just for tonight, he would indulge to satiate the hunger that promised to haunt him for the rest of his life.
“Well done, my dear.” The master murmured, and his apprentice laughed.
When Anakin stood up and held a hand down, Obi-Wan reached up to take it. |