Chapter Text
Obi-Wan was having a pretty good day, all things considered. He was just waiting for his former padawan to finish up his meeting with the Chancellor so they could get changed and head to dinner with their clones and Asokah. It had been far too long since they had all been together for something other than missions, and they had been planning this for far too long, having to work around four very busy schedules.
And find out why his kid/brother/former padawan blocked their force bond. Anakin rarely did that, only when he was sick or injured and didn’t want anyone to know. It had been unblocked a few minutes ago, but it was still dull.
The feeling of soreness and general unwellness still came through, and Obi-Wan felt bad for the poor kid. Maybe they should just order take-out or have someone go down to Dex’s and pick up some food. Anakin seemed exhausted.
The door opened, and out walked the man in question, looking a bit less tired than his Force signature would suggest. The exhaustion seemed to fall off of Anakin when he saw Obi-Wan standing outside the door. He tackled Anakin into a bear hug, the younger sinking into it.
“Glad to see you, Obi-Wan”, came the slightly muffled voice of Anakin.
Obi-Wan pulled back to properly see him, noticing the dark circles under his eyes and the fact that he seemed to have lost some weight.
Sensing his concern through their newly unblocked force bond, Anakin was quick to reassure him.
“Just got over a nasty illness, be glad I blocked it from you”, Anakin said.
“Must have been a hell of a virus then”, Obi-Wan teased.
“Are you going to be up to dinner? You look and feel like you haven’t slept since last week.” Obi-Wan asked, concerned for the younger's well-being.
“I’ll be fine, might not stick around long but its been forever since I’ve seen Snips and Cody,” Anakin replied, brushing off Obi-Wan’s concern
“Come on then, don't want to keep them waiting, and I don’t know about you, but I need to use the sonic”
“Yeah, I should too,” Anakin agreed, tension bleeding from his shoulders as he fell into step with his former mentor. “It was hot as hell in that damn room, even for me.”
Anakin did have fewer layers than normal, now that he was thinking about it. Anakin hated the cold, so he wore more layers than normal, even for a Jedi.
Living on a desert planet had its effects, and Anakin tended to prefer warmth because of it. Even now, in one of the warmest months on Coruscant, he shivered slightly.
Taking pity on the younger, he shrugged off his outermost robe and wrapped it around him.
Anakin looked so very grateful for this small act of kindness; it kind of broke his heart. Anakin hadn’t been a slave in over a decade now, but it left its mark on him forever. He remembered Anakin's first years at the Temple and how surprised he was at everything he was given.
It was only a room, 7 sets of plain robes, and food. Nothing special, but he acted like it was all too much. It didn’t even have an attached bathroom and was attached directly to Obi-Wan's. Not exactly much in the way of privacy.
Now, at 20 years of age, he had gotten much better at accepting gifts, but still freaked sometimes if he thought it was too expensive. This often resulted in Obi-Wan going with Padme when she went gift shopping for Anakin, or at the very least providing input, so they could just avoid the whole mess of Anakin insisting that whatever gift Padme had gotten him was too expensive and Padme insisting that it wasn’t even that expensive and it wasn’t a big deal.
After a quick shower, Obi-Wan felt far cleaner than he had in at least a week. He hated swamp planets. It didn’t matter how long he spent in the sonic. Nothing could replicate the feeling and cleaning power of a hot shower. He made a mental note to take a very long, hot shower when he got back. Maybe Cody would join. The clone enjoyed heat as much as Anakin did.
He grabbed a new set of robes and sighed slightly as he did up the all complex buttons, straps, zippers, and belts. They were a source of perpetual annoyance, but they served a very important purpose.
After all, not many had ever had the chance to even meet a Stewjoni, let alone get their hands on one.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he grabbed his saber. One can never be too prepared.
As he was clipping it to his belt, he felt a wave of pain erupt through his and Anakin's force-bond. It seemed to concentrate around his shoulder before spreading across his chest.
Obi-Wan stumbled over to Anakin’s room where, upon opening the door, he saw his kid/brother/former padawan crumpled on the floor, seizing as if he was being electrified from an invisible source.
He did his best to hold the younger still to minimize and damage that could be caused by thrashing.
After what felt like an eternity, but was only a minute or two, Anakin stopped seizing. He was panting and still twitching, but that was probably more so due to pain than anything else.
Obi-Wan quickly did some on-site healing, but he was really only able to heal his tongue, which he had almost bitten clean through.
He gently scooped his former padawan into his arms, ignoring the light protests from Anakin, and scowled when he felt how light he really was. Even as dead weight, Obi-Wan had no trouble carrying him, even though realistically, he should have had to use the Force to carry him all the way to the Halls of Healing. He must have had a hell of a time keeping food down if he was this light, but then why wasn’t he put on an IV if it was that bad?
He had a bad feeling about this.
Healer Che looked as if she had seen a ghost while diagnosing and treating what she could of Anakin’s injuries.
“Obi-Wan, how long were you gone?” Che asked, beyond angry at the state Anakin was in.
“Two weeks, probably a bit longer”, he told her. “He blocked me for most of it because of how ill he was.”
“What do you mean? He never came in for any illness, and I saw him yesterday. He said he was fine, just having trouble sleeping.” Che told him, confusen replacing the anger.
What. Was. Going. On?
“He also has lichtenberg scarring, ranging from around 4-ish years ago to yesterday , malnutrition, dehydration, and a severe lack of sleep”, she recounted.
She took a steadying breath. “I also found recent scars consistent with self-harm.”
His heart dropped. Anakin had self-harmed before, but Obi-Wan had caught it and put him through suicide watch and mind-healer sessions, and he had gotten better.
He had been so proud of every milestone of being clean, even now, almost a decade later.
‘So why would he relapse?’
“Judging by the confusion, you had no idea, " she said, concerned but slightly reprimanding his lack of control just like Qui-Gon .
“Your concern for Anakin is admirable, but this is a place of healing. Keep your emotions to yourself”, she said kindly, “Do you know if anyone has any cause to hate him enough to torture him on Coruscant and for so long?”
‘ Torture,’ he thought faintly, still reeling from the injury report.
“No, no one, he’s definitely made enemies in the Clone Wars and afterwards, but their either locked up or dead.”
‘ Who could have hurt him so badly without someone noticing? How could he not have noticed? Who had such unrestricted access to Anakin? ’
Che looked like she was trying and failing to compose herself before pulling him into a more private room that was only used when someone was receiving the worst news. These rooms were made so that only the people in the room could be affected by any Force-fueled emotional outbursts.
Che stopped controlling her Force signature and let the full force of her anger out, causing Obi-Wan to slam up his own shields so as not to be overwhelmed. He felt her feelings of sorry-tired-angry-confused brush his shields, and he pushed back, accepting-scared-angry.
“And now for the reason I pulled you in here”, Obi-Wan's stomach dropped. If she wasn’t concerned enough with his reaction to the other news that she didn’t pull him in here, the whatever news caused her to decide to isolate him must be bad.
“As I was doing my examination”, she took a deep breath, steadying herself, “I found anal tearing and other injuries consistent with victims of rape”
Obi-Wan felt his heart shatter.