Star Wars One-Shots

Chains of Yesterday

Author's Note: This is for the Obikin 2023 bingo. :D

~ Amina Gila

Obi-Wan's never had personal experiences with slavery before, and it makes it hard to understand why Anakin acts the way he does sometimes. Or, the five times Obi-Wan tries to deal with Anakin's traumas from having been a slave, and the one time he actually starts to understand.

Obi-Wan never wished Qui-Gon was with him more than he does now, when he has his own padawan. He always thought that whenever he did take a padawan one day, his master would be there, and he'd be able to go to him if he ever needed advice. But he's gone now, and Obi-Wan has not only a padawan, but the most unusual padawan ever known to the Order.

Anakin is nothing like any of the other Jedi, forever shaped by the nine years he lived before coming here – especially on a place like Tatooine, as a slave – and Obi-Wan sees that frequently in... everything Anakin does. And half the time, he feels like he has no idea how to deal with it.

Especially right now, when Obi-Wan comes back to his room after attending some other Knight duties, to see his padawan scrubbing his quarters from top to bottom furiously.

Again.

It's not the first time he's done it, either. Not that he doesn't appreciate the effort, but he can't begin to understand why a nine-year-old would ever willingly clean something, and certainly not someone else's quarters. Obi-Wan certainly had little interest in such things as a youngling that age.

"Hey, Master," Anakin calls, cheerfully, standing.

"Have you finished your schoolwork yet?" Obi-Wan asks, approaching him. Because that's really what his padawan ought to be doing right now, with how far behind he is. He's only been at the Temple for a few weeks.

His expression falls a little. "Most of it. I... don't know what some of it... means."

Because he's still having a difficult time reading. He can read only a limited amount of Basic. It makes it even more challenging for him to catch up quickly.

"We can go over it," Obi-Wan assures, and Anakin relaxes almost imperceptibly, for some reason.

Which... is when he notes something else. He catches Anakin's wrist, frowning at the reddish spots on his hands. "Were you using cleaners without wearing gloves again?"

"... Yes?"

To be fair, he probably can't even read what the bottles say, at least not enough to even try putting the effort into deciphering it. But there's no way his hands couldn't hurt, and Obi-Wan has no idea how that doesn't bother him. "Come on," he says, monitoring for him to follow into the hall, to the communal 'fresher a distance down the hall. "You need to wash this off."

Anakin immediately trails after, seemingly unconcerned.

"Why do you do this?" Obi-Wan asks, "You never clean up your room." It's a literal tripping hazard, and Obi-Wan doesn't usually dare venture inside.

"Watto always had me do that," he replies, says, a little hesitantly, "I thought I could... help here, too."

Oh.

That... He should've guessed, though he doesn't really know anything about Anakin's experiences there, or what was expected of him. And it leaves him completely unsure how to approach this.

"You don't need to do that, Anakin," Obi-Wan says, finally, "We have droids here to deal with it. It's not your... duty. As a padawan, you have more important matters to be dealing with." Like his schoolwork.