Times of the Past

Confrontation

     Satine opened the door leading to the repair shop and walked down the steps. She spotted Obi-Wan kneeling on the ground working on a droid like Martzo had taught him. Martzo had been the man in the blue shirt the day they met. They had been staying in the apartment upstairs for about two weeks, and so far, things had been going well. They only decided to stay because Obi-Wan felt as though the Force wanted them to.

     The two women, Michelle and Nia, had been teaching Satine how to cook. Michelle was the one who reminded her of her mother.

     Satine walked over to Obi-Wan, but he didn't seem to be paying attention. Finally, she cleared her throat.

     "I've made lunch for you."

     Obi-Wan sat back and wiped his hand across his forehead. "Alright, could you please set it on the steps? I'll be over in a moment."

     Satine raised an eyebrow, but did as he asked. She sat down on the steps waiting.

     Obi-Wan finished minutes later. Slowly he made his way over to the steps beside Satine and took the dish of food from her outstretched hand.

     They sat in silence mostly, until Satine couldn't take it anymore. 

     "What's the matter?" she asked him. "You've been too quiet."

     His gaze never strayed from the dish. "I've been thinking."

     "About what? About leaving?"

     "Yes and no," he swallowed. "We should take advantage of this situation as long as we can. However, if anything starts to go wrong, we must be prepared to leave immediately."

     "Well, that's understandable, but I know that's not enough to make you this quiet," she pointed out, starting to get annoyed.

     There was a pause, but finally Obi-Wan looked toward her. 

     "Satine, I--"

     He was cut off by the sound of feet approaching them.

     "Rachi, would you help me with something upstairs?" Michelle asked, not realizing she had interrupted them. "Oh, hello, Rhoc. How's the work going?"

     Obi-Wan stood up then, wiping his hands off on his pants. "It's going quite well. Actually, I should get back to it."

     And with that, he left them, setting his plate on the steps. Satine gazed after him with an open mouth, disturbed by his behavior, but she quickly remembered Michelle. 

     They left Obi-Wan alone.

*****

     The following days passed similarly, and Satine grew increasingly concerned about Obi-Wan's behavior. They had been in hiding alone together for roughly three weeks now, and if they added that to their time with the guards and Master Jinn, Obi-Wan's time on Mandalore was nearing two months. He could only recall one other mission that took this long, but that one was spent entirely with his master.

     Satine kept asking herself what was wrong, but she could not think of anything that was off about their situation. Perhaps it was just a Jedi thing? Could he sense something that she could not? 

     He seemed to be avoiding her from what she could tell, yet she thought that he had wanted to tell her something important the other day when they ate lunch on the steps. Michelle had unfortunately interrupted him, and she had no idea what he had wanted to say.

     The repair shop, aptly named Martzo's, appeared to be a decent place to stay. Everyone was treating them a bit better now that both Obi-Wan and Satine had proved useful. She didn't really think anything was wrong with them staying there.