Mud | Obikin

13.

I play with Ahsoka's beads, trying not to muse over Quin's words.
After all, he said nothing different from what I tell myself every day. I shouldn't be so stunned.

"How could you get him this mad in only two minutes?" Asks Anakin when he's back.

"You know him, he'd never miss a chance to rebuke me and pretend to be the wise one. Good friends may be over-protective, sometimes."

"True, but you're not answering. Over-protective about what?"

I huff because there's no way I can escape this. "He doesn't think we make a cute couple. He said you're going to - how was it? - 'chew me up'. I hadn't the guts to disagree."

Anakin's eyes darken. "Quinlan should consider minding his own business some more. Then, you could have found something to say in our defence. You both have an awful opinion of me."

"I wonder how we would have possibly got it. I'm afraid there's nothing I could have said to advocate my choices; you know I regard them as terrible ones."

"There must be a reason if you keep making these terrible choices, something you enjoy about them... You should appreciate the upsides more and worry less. Or, if you must at all costs prophesy tragedies, you could consider the possibility that I'll not be the one who will hurt the other."

My expression is explicit enough to upset him. "Blast! I promise I won't 'chew you out', whatever that means. However, hurting you the way he said presupposes you're involved in a way you're not. You can sleep tight."

He will be the death of me. I hate it when he fishes for strokes like this.

"Couldn't we talk about this tomorrow?" I say.

"She's asleep, where's the problem?" He looks down at Ahsoka, his head tilted. "She's so at ease with you. Sometimes I wonder if they shouldn't have given her to you, instead of me."

"I wouldn't make a great match with her, as you wouldn't have worked well with Qui-Gon. We'd be too reflective together, and the two of you would've not been encourageable. You take the lively part of Ahsoka out; you're good for her."

'And she's good for you,' I think to myself, reminded of all the times her presence protected him from his destructiveness.

"Be proud of the individual she's becoming," I say instead. "You're doing an excellent job with her."

At least, better than the one I did with you.

Anakin smiles, as he always does when someone praises him. Then, he places a hand on my armrest and leans down to me. There's nothing I can do without waking up Ahsoka, so he holds my face with his other hand and kisses me softly, with open eyes.

"Anakin, this is hardly the moment."

He's still smiling. "I don't think I've ever kissed someone with a moustache before."

"An utterly relevant piece of information. Now, take your Padawan back and let me go to bed."

He glances at her again, raising half of his upper lip. "You wouldn't have allowed me to sleep on you like this when I was her age."

"She's not my Padawan, I can spoil her all I want - not to mention that she's more mature and less clingy than you were. Trust me, the last thing you needed was to be spoiled some more. However, you're not fair; you slept with me hundreds of times after 'bad dreams'. I bet you wouldn't let her."

"She's too old for that. You kicked me out of your bed too, at some point."

I did that the day he incontrovertibly revealed he had become a man, having woke me up from grinding on my thigh as he slept. Mostly in reason of the effect it had on me.

"Either way," he continues. "Those few times you let me, you were complaining all the time."

I roll my eyes, my voice taking a mocking tone. "Gosh, Anakin, jealous of your Padawan?"

"Of course I am. I don't like sharing." Then, with a sly grin. "Talking of this, I'm under the impression you too could be suffering from jealousy."

"I'm not that kind of person, and we've not that kind of relationship. It's not this. I don't like deceptions."

"So, are you saying it would make it okay to you if only Padme knew? Maybe you should tell her. She might surprise you."

My eyebrows draw together as I try to find a bluff written somewhere on his face.

"I assume this is up to you," I answer after a while, realising I'm all out of comebacks.

"Why? I have no reason to do that. I'm fine the way we are," Anakin says, apparently enjoying this. "It's you that is uncomfortable."

I am wordless. My hands itch to hit him.

An amused, immature smile raises on his features. "What do you mean saying we don't have that kind of relationship?"

My eyes close in distress. "Not now. Go home."

"No. I want you."

I pontificated about the need for overcoming feelings just tonight. What a fraud. These last three words are giving me fever.

I must take a deep breath before answering.

"Then, you shouldn't have brought Ahsoka."

And you shouldn't be such a kung.

"Maybe I can find a remedy to the first matter. Let me show you a trick," he answers.

I grumble with growing irritation. "If you don't stop karking with my thoughts, I will prove Quin's wrong by hurting you so badly you can't imagine."

Anakin isn't listening. He crouches down and carefully slides his forearms under his Padawan's neck and knees, murmuring something in her ear. Then, he lifts her from my lap in one smooth motion and smiles at me like an illusionist after a well-executed show.

Ahsoka mumbles in her dreams, tucking her face into his neck. He slowly treads to his old room and opens the door with a foot. They disappear inside.

He re-emerges empty handed, cautiously closing the door behind his back, radiant. "I bet you weren't thinking of this when you taught me sleep induction."

Editing: CoreWorlds