Times of the Past

Tea Time

Two weeks later...

     Satine replayed the events of the morning in her head as her feet led her down the dirt road towards her destination.

     She had woken up before dawn to find Obi-Wan sitting up in the bed that they were forced to share at Donix and Merida's home, and he seemed to be breathing abnormally.

     She had sat up, but before she could even ask if he was alright, he had stilled and said that he was fine in a cold tone.

     She had frowned at his actions, but he proceeded to slip out of bed and pull on his boots and outerwear.

     "Where are you going? No one else will be working for a while yet," she had protested.

     "I'm just going to take a walk."

     Satine eyed him with worry, but spoke again. "At least let me pin up your braid before you go out. Then you won't have to worry about it later."

     He had stilled again on his walk to the door, but turned back to her after a moment, sitting at the edge of the bed within her reach.

     Tossing back the cover, she had turned on the tiny bedside lamp and reached into a drawer for one of the thin hairpins she had kept. Then, she reached out to him and lifted his padawan braid over his shoulder.

     Though she was still a little sleepy and could only see a little bit in the dim glow of the lamp, she caught a glimpse of his face and began to question if he had been crying.

     She had swallowed but continued her work, nimbly folding the braid like a ribbon and pinning it behind his ear. 

     This had become part of their routine more recently, and each morning before they parted ways to work, Obi-Wan would wait for her to pin it up.

      It had resulted mostly due to the fact that a few people had questioned the braid here since he wasn't able to cover it up while working, like he had been able to in the past when they had been on their own, or even at Martzo's when no one had asked about it. However, both Obi-Wan and Satine were sort of happy to have a reason to spend just a few seconds longer in each other's presence.

     Just before he could stand up this time though, she had pretended to straighten up the pin one last time.

     Finally, she exhaled quietly.

     " You know, when I was little, my sister Kheva and I used to share a room, and whenever I'd have a nightmare, she'd just say one thing over and over: Wer'cuy. She meant that it was already something I could forget about--that a dream is just a dream. The dream didn't matter, but how I let it affect me did, since it was something I could control."

     They were both silent for a moment, and Satine let her hand rest on his shoulder. Yet, when she realized he didn't intend to respond, she withdrew back to her side of the bed and turned the lamp back off, letting him go. 

     She heard him leave a few moments later.

     Now, Satine hoped he was okay. She hadn't seen him again until she left the house when he was just a distant speck way out in one of the fields with Qui-Gon and Donix.

     She wished to know if he was okay, but she also felt that it would be awkward to face him again. She was even questioning whether sharing the story about her sister had been a good idea.