Chosen: From the Ashes

Your smile that shares our stories

"Only one thing stays clear and radiant in the mass he calls his world, that is falling apart... or is rebuild anew.

Anakin Skywalker."

[ or rather ] : Obi-Wan's study of Anakin and another stressful day to get through. Nothing too hard just him nearly dying of heart attacks, they call "podrace" or Anakin's smile or a fight with a blasting Sith out of nowhere. Force give him strength.

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Obi-Wan's first thought was "Force, does the child know how to swear!" To the point of incredible really, though half of it he didn't even understand. He himself knows no one to compete with the boy and even the raiders and bounty hunters he met on missions until now, sounded milder than the little menace. Or perhaps the ones he met, didn't have enough imagination. The boy seems to have it in plenty and it's so ingrained on his tongue, that Obi-Wan believes, he could even sing with expletives and it would be flawless.

Second was how small the child is. Small like in fragile and underdeveloped, he is still puzzled how he managed to push Obi-Wan down, it must be the speed mostly and himself, unsteady on his feet and certainly not careful enough, what with him being all over the place since he stepped on the burning sand. 9 years old, his mother told them, Obi-Wan thought him not older than 6. The child has to be malnourished, not even surprising with him being a... slave. Something is squeezing and pressing his heart every time he sees that hideous thing attached to the small neck, and later, when he finds out what it is for, he can't breathe, nails drawing blood from his palms. How... how can they put it on a child? Obi-Wan is barely, by thin thread, holding back his outrage. And how can he as a jedi, the so called protectors of people and peace, let that happen? Why do they all do then small children are suffering so dreadfully for years with nothing, not even a hope to hold? (For the child knew they wouldn't help him, that's why he asked for the deal, like he has to fight himself for his freedom.) Obi-Wan feels he failed him, he failed them all and the worst is, he was unware of it until fate brought them to Tatooine. Until he met Anakin.

When he first saw the boys eyes, it felt like an explosion. Like the whole universe started to spin differently or better said finally the right way, like the time began to flow like it should and everything came in place. He felt it in his body as if his blood itself changed its course and his heart... Force, he felt the pain of his heart changing its beat. For he is certain it did. Even now it still hurt.

He may be wrong of course, but the way the boy reacted once he saw Obi-Wan spoke of similar effect to befall on Anakin. Though there is something also different to that. The young jedi isn't sure, he speculates at this point, but the boy may have know him, his reaction so close to recognition, though so subtle, Obi-Wan could catch it only because he was very close to him. Holding him in his arms to be exact. That was another strange thing. He was never really intimate with anyone (with small exceptions that feel completely different), to embrace or hold, to touch with need and care, careful and gentle is all entirely unknown to him. Yet now he finds himself giving it openly and eagerly to the child, like Anakin is someone very dear to him. He can't explain himself, it puzzles him, but it doesn't scare him. And then the boy collapsed in his arms, trembling, wincing in pain, the sight of blood, Force, it teared something inside of him. It felt just so wrong, that his body and mind reeled and flared to correct that right that moment.

Third. Marvelous. A wonder really. For what he did, is unheard of, unreal. Anakin is perhaps the only person in this whole universe to manage to make his Master, the great most obstinate jedi Obi-Wan knows, question something, to make him stressed no less (not even Yoda achieved that). Stars, he would have laughed at that sight and later his Master's speechless frowning face (may be rude, but on an unprecedented occasion like this, he might risk it), if his definitely not-running-away Master (that is no jedi way after all) wouldn't have push him to Anakin as his ticket to freedom. Not that Obi-Wan minded. He by comparison, had a nice, lovely even, exchange with Anakin, which makes him think, the boy had presumably a lightsaber to ignite with his Master, the reason had to be along the Qui-Gon's teachings or actions directly. Was his Master on Tatooine before? No, he looks like it's his first time here, the same with meeting the boy. Anakin is a sweet child really, and Obi-Wan realizes only then he wanted or with whom he wanted. Padmé had it easier, but it still went not that smoothly like Obi-Wan would expect from children close to age, well, obviously closer than him and Anakin for that matter. Despite that, Obi-Wan seems to be the only person Anakin is civilized with, (the astromech doesn't count), honestly it was far more than that, Anakin looked like willing to be his friend and the jedi delighted in that thought.