Chapter Text
Ben Kenobi breathed in deeply through his nose, then slowly let the air hiss out again through his mouth. Inhale. Feel the breath pass through his nose, swirling at the back of his throat on the way to his lungs. Exhale. The sensation of air rushing past his lips, tickling his beard.
He was one with the Force, and the Force was with him.
The bright, early-morning Tatooine sun stained his vision red through his closed eyelids. The sand beneath him shifted minutely with his breath. He could feel every living creature within several miles of his location – mostly small, creeping things but the occasional flare of more intelligent life. A herd of Banthas passing nearby. The dewbacks of local farmers. Even the rumbling of a greater being, a sharp intellect housed inside a massive body that both fascinated and terrified him. Maybe one day, soon, he would strike out to make the creature’s acquaintance. But for now, he simply relished the feeling of peace, of harmony, of oneness with the world around him.
Tap-tap-tap.
Ben’s eyes flew open. Was that… a knock?
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
The tranquility of the morning collapsed like a flimsy vaporator during a sandstorm. Ben found himself floundering in the suddenness of his return to the physical world. Who could possibly -
TAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTA-
“Alright, alright, I’m coming! ”
Scrambling to his feet, cursing, mind still foggy with meditation, Ben yanked open his front door.
“Kenobi! So you really are alive!”
Ben blinked several times at the apparition before him. Then, he raised his hand to the back of his head, thinking of the knock he had gotten there earlier when his Eopie had thrown him in retaliation for not feeding her enough sweetcubes.
“ Hondo?”
“You do remember me, how nice!” The pirate was beaming at him, looking generally the same way he had when Ben last remembered seeing him: the same goggles, the same hat, and even what appeared to be the same shirt – dear Force save me, Ben thought at that. But Ben did note that the horns on his lower jaw were longer, and perhaps a bit greyer.
“Hondo, what are you doing here?” Ben spurted the first question that came to his still-spinning mind. Not “how did you find me”, which perhaps should have been the smarter question – but at the same time, Ben felt that maybe he didn’t actually want to know the answer to that just yet.
“What, a friend can’t visit a friend these days? Bah. I know the Empire is a little particular about who goes where, but you and I never really cared for the rules, eh Kenobi?”
Ben could feel the beginnings of a migraine starting to form behind his left eye. Probably from the sunlight reflecting sharply off of Hondo’s too-bright smile.
“I don’t –”
“You know, I was actually quite surprised that you didn’t put up more of a fuss when the Empire took over, my friend,” Hondo continued without pause, “I remember thinking to myself, ha , Kenobi will not stand for this! This Empire won’t last through the end of the rotation! Hahaaaa!” The Weequay cackled, wiping a fake tear of mirth from his eye. “Uh, that was, of course, before I learned that you had, you know. Died.”
Ben stared at Hondo, mouth hanging open, waiting for the unending deluge of words to continue, but after several seconds of silence, he realized that Hondo – who was now gazing at him seriously, all hints of levity gone – was actually expecting a response from him.
Ben cleared his throat, mind spinning as he tried to figure out what a safe response would be.
“Yes, well, it is possible that the reports of my death were… exaggerated.”
Hondo gazed at Ben for a solid five seconds before bursting into renewed laughter.
“Exaggerated! Ha! Kenobi, my friend, your tongue is as sharp as ever! I’ll have to remember that one! Yes, you know, I never doubted you, not even when I heard that you had actually died again a few years ago – something about a rebel uprising on Jabiim? But of course, that was probably exaggerated as well –”
The word Jabiim seemed to snap something inside Ben.
“Hondo, why are you here?”
He had allowed a dangerous edge to creep into his voice – just a small one, just a reminder of who he was, what Hondo knew he was capable of – and was surprised to feel a flash of guilt at the hurt on Hondo’s face.
“I was getting there, Kenobi – Force forbid a man try to chat with a friend before getting down to business, especially when they haven’t seen each other in – how long has it been, fifteen years? Sixteen? No matter, since you’re clearly in such a hurry to get me out of your hair, I will tell you. I need your help.”
Ben was definitely getting a migraine, which seemed to be growing in force every passing second.
“My help.” He responded flatly.
“Yes, Kenobi, I am coming to you, as a friend, as, dare I say it, a former partner at times, to ask for a favor. A small favor, really, it hardly even needs to be called a favor, but I must ask you. For old time’s sake.”
Ben pinched the bridge of his nose, drawing in a long, long breath.
“Hondo,” he said very slowly, “I am on the run from the Empire. Lying low. Trying to prevent any more exaggerated reports of my death, if you catch my drift.”
Hondo was already nodding. “Yes, yes, yes, and what a fine job you have done in this so far, my friend! Why, if I hadn’t heard from my good friend Ezra - you know Ezra, do you not? Of course you do, because he told me that he had met a man named Kenobi on a planet called Tttooine and that man had taught him so much about the ways of the Force and I thought to myself, well, how many Kenobi’s can there be in the world? Turns out, actually, it’s rather a common surname, but I still knew in my heart of hearts that this was a lead – sorry, a hunch, intuition really we should call it – worth following. So really you have only your amazing teaching to blame for my being here, because you taught Ezra to trust in the Force and he taught me to trust my hunches and – here I am!”
The blinding smile was back, and, dear Force, Ben’s ears were ringing from the sound of Hondo’s voice. It was like thunder in this quiet, peaceful slice of the galaxy.
Ben tried, one more time, to rein in the dregs of this already out-of-control conversation.
“Clearly, Ezra must have misrepresented a few of my finer teaching points, Hondo, because I made it very clear to him that my place is here. So, unless your favor is something that I can provide on this side of the Dune Sea, the answer is no.”
The smile slid from Hondo’s face. Ben took a quiet, guilty moment to relish the sensation of watching it disappear.
“Ah. I see.” Hondo heaved a deep sigh. “In that case, Kenobi, I am afraid our little reunion is at an end. The favor would require an extremely short off-planet journey, and clearly, that is not in the cards for us today.”
Ben could hardly believe his ears – was Hondo actually giving up, just like that? – when another long sigh interrupted his musings.
“Of course, I will be sure to keep your location a secret to the grave, Kenobi.” there was a glint in Hondo’s eye now, and Ben felt his stomach dropping out from under him at the sight of it. “You know, we must be ever so careful to protect our friends in this crazy galaxy. I would be heartbroken if the Empire were ever to find you here.”
For a very brief moment, Ben considered strangling Hondo with his bare hands. It would certainly be faster than summoning his lightsaber, which lay safely hidden in the caves nearby. Probably less messy, too.
“Hondo Ohnaka, are you honest-to-Force blackmailing me right now?”
The flash of hurt – an exaggerated version this time, but Ben had to admit the similarity was impressive – once more overtook Hondo’s leathery face.
“ Blackmail? Oh, no, Kenobi, I could never! I am well aware that you are much, much more powerful than a poor Weequay like me could ever dream of, and I respect that power! You do not become a pirate king without respecting power! No, no, you have misunderstood me. I merely meant that if things were to go wrong here – let’s say I didn’t return to my ship, for whatever reason, any reason you could think of – my poor crew just wouldn’t know what to do! They would probably go for help, or something nerf-headed like that, they just would go around screaming your name for all to hear in search of me, they are rather loyal like that –”
Ben held up a hand, stopping Hondo’s clearly rehearsed speech with the gesture as well as a barely-controlled Force suggestion. A glimmer of anger was threatening to break through his carefully cultivated foundation of calm. Leave it to a pirate to ruin generations of care and planning by being a bit too loose-lipped with his name… Ben needed to perform damage control, and quickly. And unfortunately, there was only one way he could think of to do that.
“Very well, Hondo. What is this favor you need?”