Fanfics from Ao3 - Private

what heaven did you leap from, dear love? - loosingletters, obikinn

1.

It felt like every time Anakin saw Obi-Wan now he was filling out some sort of report. The war had kept him so busy, and they barely had time to hang out like the old times. Anakin was busy too, he had just been settled with a Padawan after all, but Obi-Wan hardly seemed to get a quiet minute anymore.

"Master, when are you gonna be done with that report?" Anakin whined from where he was lying on Obi-Wan's couch on the Negotiator.

"I'd be finished more quickly if you didn't keep interrupting me, Anakin," Obi-Wan replied, not looking up from his stack of datapads. He was wearing a thick-rimmed pair of reading glasses, ones that Anakin hadn't seen before.

"I like your new glasses."

Now Obi-Wan did look up from his datapad, turning his tired gaze towards Anakin. He rolled his eyes. "Oh, please don't mock me, Anakin, I know they make me look old," he said, frowning.

Old? That wasn't exactly the first word that came to Anakin's mind. The glasses drew attention to Obi-Wan's eyes, mesmerizingly sapphire.

"Even without glasses, you can't hide who you really are from me, old man," Anakin said,

Obi-Wan just sighed and turned back to his work. Anakin stretched out, his sore muscles protesting. He had rushed away from his duties as soon as he could afford to, wanting to spend at least some time with his Master before they were shipped off to the other ends of the galaxy again.

"Maaaaster, are you gonna be done soon? I thought we were gonna watch the newest episode of that trashy holodrama you like, the one with the Jedi and the Senator?"

"It's called Romance of the Skies, and it is not trashy. Please have some patience, dear one," Obi-Wan said, and Anakin froze. Wait, what?

Surely Obi-Wan hadn't meant to call him that. It was just a slip of the tongue, he told himself. But that didn't stop his heart from racing and his palms from getting sweaty.

Anakin tried to think of a witty response, but all his brain could do was replay Obi-Wan's soft "dear one" like a broken holorecording.

He must have been silent for longer than he thought, because Obi-Wan looked up from his work again. "Anakin, is everything alright?"

Anakin let out an unnaturally high-pitched laugh. "Yep, everything's a-okay, nothing wrong here, I'm perfectly fine. No need to worry about me," he said, the words spilling out of him.

Obi-Wan fixed him with a look of concern. "Are you sure?" he asked gently.

No, he wasn't. But Anakin couldn't tell him the reason for his panic, not in a million years, so he just nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine."

2.

The planet Kantras was located right next to a hyperspace lane that would cut the length of the travel from the Outer Rim to the Mid Rim in half. Establishing a base on it would significantly aid the Republic in this war and so the Senate had insisted on sending the Team to negotiate with the locals.

It probably made sense from a strategic point of view, sending two known Jedi, but Anakin had no idea what he was doing here. He was not a smooth talker like Obi-Wan and had barely said a word in the last 10 hours as their hosts stubbornly refused to listen to them. And it probably didn't help that Anakin didn't speak the local language, whereas Obi-Wan was, of course, fluent. Their hosts spoke some Basic but preferred to communicate in their own tongue.

From what Anakin understood, nothing had changed from when they had arrived earlier that day. It all felt so futile, and he was exhausted. Obi-Wan and their hosts continued their chatter, as Anakin let himself slump in his fancy chair. His eyes began to flutter close and the negotiations faded away. Suddenly, he felt a light touch on his shoulder and jerked back into consciousness, but relaxed again when he realized it was just Obi-Wan. Everything sounded quieter than before, almost unnaturally so. Anakin opened his eyes and noticed everybody had stopped talking and all the dignitaries were staring at him and Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan's hand remained frozen on Anakin's shoulder, grounding Anakin when he started to fret. Had he done something offensive by falling asleep?