Fanfics from Ao3 - Private

the sound of your voice (helps me find peace) - izazov - Chapter Six

Obi-Wan strode briskly through the Temple halls, offering a nod in greeting to those he passed by.

Usually, after a deployment, Obi-Wan would savor the return to Coruscant, walking slowly through familiar halls, his senses basking in the peace and tranquility of the Temple.

But not today. Today, his entire focus rested on the blazing presence in the Force, familiar and beloved, getting closer with each of Obi-Wan's steps.

Obi-Wan had to use much of his willpower to stop himself from outright running to Anakin's quarters, his heart drumming a frantic beat against his breastbone.

Four weeks. He had not seen Anakin in four long, agonizing weeks. Not since Anakin had almost died.

The memory of that dreadful day was like a brand seared onto Obi-Wan's mind: clear and fresh as if it had happened only moments before.

Obi-Wan could still smell Anakin's blood and feel its sticky wetness on his hands. Could recall the frigid chill of dread clawing at his chest as Anakin laid unconscious in his arms, the life-force slowly seeping out of him along with his blood.

Could recall desperation and resolve, and how it had felt to place his hands on Anakin's chest, pouring his own life-force into Anakin, defying death and the Code alike.

And then, afterwards, that single moment of perfect clarity.

Back straight and jaw clenched tightly, Obi-Wan had stayed behind. A still and silent figure, watching a gunship lift off, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that he no longer belonged to the Order, but to the man inside the gunship.

Now, after four weeks of waiting and near unbearable distance, Obi-Wan would finally see Anakin again. Alive and well and conscious. Would finally stop seeing him covered in blood and dying slowly in Obi-Wan's arms.

Obi-Wan's heart skipped a beat, all but buzzing with nervous excitement. In just a few moments, he will see Anakin. See him and touch him and offer... everything of himself: his life, his heart, and his soul.

After all, Anakin already had his heart, and Obi-Wan could no longer claim that his life belonged with the Order. Not after the last four weeks, when his loyalty to his men had been the only thing that had stopped him from boarding that gunship instead of Rex.

"In a hurry, you seem, Master Kenobi. An emergency, is there?"

Obi-Wan stopped dead in his tracks, shutting his eyes briefly.

After his last call to the Temple - using the specially encrypted frequency, reserved for Council members - to inquire about Anakin's health, Obi-Wan had expected Yoda to express his displeasure with Obi-Wan's disregard of safety protocols in person, not merely over the comm. He simply hadn't expected it would happen so soon.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes, letting out a resigned breath. Despite the resolutions he had come to in the last four weeks, the Jedi were - and always have been - the only family he had known. To choose a different path from the one he had followed his entire life had been... difficult.