Chapter Text
He looked around the corner as he dragged Anakin with him through the halls. The blaster fire and screams became background noise to him, as he searched for a way out not involving fighting a dozen of soldiers in white plastoid armour.
It was out of the question even if his Padawan insisted that they should fight back. Even if it was the only home he has ever known.
The only reason Obi-Wan was alive today, was due to the Jedi teachings, due to Qui-Gon's teachings. He won't let his anger and sadness take over him like that day on Naboo. He barely made it out alive back then. He nearly let his Master’s death be for nothing. But he wouldn't make the same mistake again.
He won't recklessly risk his own and the life of his Padawan.
As long as they survive to see another, he can continue training Anakin, he can pass on everything he learned to his Padawan and if the Force wills it then he and other survivors will salvage what remains of the Jedi Order or rebuild it greater than it ever was.
Turning another corner he came face to face with the grand doors leading to the Room of a Thousand Fountains. It was the largest greenhouse in the whole temple, making it easy to hide in there and surely there was a way leading out of the temple in the greenhouse.
As he pushed the heavy doors open he wasn't greeted with the calming Force presence he was used to from the Room of a Thousand Fountains nor was there the fresh smell of all the different plants growing in there. Instead he was met with the smell of burning flesh and iron so strong it nearly made him gag. The Force wasn't peaceful, but stinged with fear, terror and death. Seeing the arguably most popular mediative garden in the temple in a state like this, felt like taking a glimpse into a different universe.
Not far from the entrance stood a couple of soldiers in that damned white plastoid armour. Guns trained on Younglings. A bizarre sight. Grown men aiming at young children like they were dangerous and needed to be eliminated.
Despite his previous comments on prioritising their survival over fighting off their attackers, Obi-Wan wasted no time igniting his lightsaber and rushing to the aid of the Younglings, but it felt like he was walking through tar.
Every step was painfully slow and not even with help of Force could he get closer to them in time.
The trooper in front him shot down one child after the other. None of them were skilled enough to properly deflect the shots with their training sabers.
There was no sound as they fell to the ground, but Force cried out painfully each time a blaster shot connected with their tiny bodies. Each shot hit their mark perfectly almost like they were trying to make their deaths as painless as possible. Although, if that were the case the soldiers wouldn't be shooting at the Younglings in the first place.
With a force jump he landed behind the troopers and cut straight through them. Looking back he saw there was only one child left.
A young togruta with a green training saber which looked too big for her. Her hands were shaking and her eyes were still on the girl next to her who got hit only a moment before, not paying any attention to the soldier right in front of her.
Time seemed to slow as the trooper took aim. Distantly he heard the hiss of a lightsaber igniting, but there wasn't anyone besides him and Anakin close by. He couldn't rely on someone else taking care of this.
He threw his hand out, reaching out to the Force. Not the smartest thing to do in place where the Force was tinged with so much death, but he had no other choice.
As the man's finger got closer and closer to trigger, Obi-Wan begged the Force to make him stop, to make him aim elsewhere. Let me just save this one, he pleaded, if not everyone else then just that one child. However, with the Force in such a disarray Obi-Wan couldn't even manage pushing the blaster of his hand.
Just as Obi-Wan was about to accept that he had failed to save the people around him once again, the world seemed to come to a stop.
The atmosphere shifted. The Youngling's head whirled around to face him with a sickening crack.
“Obi-Wan.”
She knew him?
“Obi-Wan. Help me.”
He wanted to. He really did, but his body felt frozen.
“Obi-Wan, please!” she screamed and although her voice sounded muffled it was still so loud that it hurt his ears.
“Obi-Wan,” she repeated and this time her voice sounded clearer. Obi-Wan could swear he heard Anakin's voice in the echo of the Younglings. However, he still couldn't move. It was like something was jamming the brain signals telling his muscles to move.
“Obi-Wan, help!” She squealed one last time.
The desperation in her voice was enough to break whatever came over him. He quickly shot up.
“Ahsoka!” he gasped, his hands roaming over her face while he checked her for any injuries. When did she get close enough for him to inspect her? As soon as he made sure she didn't have any life threatening injuries, he reached for the lightsaber on his belt only to come up empty handed.
He looked down to see he wasn't wearing his Jedi robes nor was he standing in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. He was sitting up on his bed with the clothes from yesterday he hadn't changed out of yet.
Turning his attention back to the antsy togruta next to him, he asked “Ahsoka what's wrong? Why’d you scream?”
“Anakin is what's wrong!” she whined.
Immediately the panic he felt a few moments ago came back full force at the mention of his Padawan not being alright.“What? Is he okay? Did something happe—”
Before he could even finish, the door to his bedroom was kicked open, making Ahsoka scream and jump up on the bed. Obi-Wan's view was blocked by Ahsoka's lekku and montrals as she clung to his neck, but he still managed to grab his lightsaber from the nightstand with one hand while holding Ahsoka closer with his other. Whatever the threat was, they would have to go through him before they could take her.
Before he could go as far as igniting it, a familiar voice spoke up. “Seriously, Ahsoka? Going to Obi-Wan over this?”
“Leave me alone!” Ahsoka yelled as she clung tighter to Obi-Wan, who by now had let the hand holding his lightsaber relax.
“Seriously, Anakin? Terrorising Ahsoka so early in the morning ?” He had no idea what they were fighting about now, but he wasn't going to pass up on the opportunity of throwing his Padawan's words back at him, especially since he knew how much this would annoy him.
“Seriously, Master? Accusing me of something you have no proof of?” Anakin replied all smugly. He stepped away from the doorframe and finally into view as he stood next to his bedside. He had something cupped in his hand, but from where Obi-Wan was sitting, he couldn't see what. “Ahsoka is just overreacting.”
Upon hearing her name, Ahsoka removed herself from Obi-Wan and sat on the opposite side of him, making Obi-Wan act as a barrier against Anakin.
His Padawan just moved his cupped hands towards Ahsoka who shrieked and asked Obi-Wan to make him stop.
“Anakin, please stop trying to shove whatever that is in Ahsoka‘s face. It's making her uncomfortable.”
“Relax, Master. Like I said Ahsoka is overreacting and being a scaredy tooka.”
“Am not!”
“Yes you are. Come on, Snips, you have to face your fears.”
“Nuh uh I am not scared. It's just disgusting. You are disgusting,” she said while scowling and wrinkling her nose.
“Really? You're a togruta! You guys still occasionally hunt living animal beings and eat them raw. But you're calling this disgusting?”
“Yeah, because we only do it during festivals and cultural celebrations. It’s an old tradition only few togrutas do nowadays. You, however, think eating insects is completely normal.”
Insects? Didn't he grow out of that nasty habit years ago?
“Insects are a great source of protein! And you nearly find them on every planet,” Anakin argued.
And he wasn't wrong. Anakin started to freakishly grow over night. He was nearly as tall as Obi-Wan and that was only at fifteen years of age. The older man already dreaded the day Anakin would overtake him.
Could his sudden growth spurt be due to eating insects?
Ahsoka opened her mouth to argue back, but Obi-Wan beat her to it. “Anakin,” Obi-Wan started, “I thought we went over this back when you were ten. You shouldn't eat insects unless you absolutely have to.”
His Padawan's ears turned red and his voice got a little higher as he spoke, “I know, Master. I just wanted to show Ahsoka that they aren't scary and one thing led to another…”
Ahsoka tugged on Obi-Wan's sleeve, “He absolutely didn't have to, Obi-Wan! He just picked one up when we were outside and stuffed it into his mouth. So disgusting”
“We get, Snips.”
“Had to clarify just in case Master Obi-Wan also thinks bugs are food.”
“They are!”
“Nuh uh,” she replied, making Anakin's anger spike. Obi-Wan didn't know how simple and stupid retorts like these were enough to irritate Anakin.
“What do you mean ‘Nuh uh’? If insects aren't food then why can I and a dozen other species eat them?”
“Edible doesn't equal food,” she countered smugly, “Besides, everyone can eat anything at least once.”
“She's not wrong, Padawan,” Obi-Wan chimed in much to Anakin's chagrin.
Caught in the heat of the argument, Anakin completely forgot what he had cupped in his hands and unconsciously let whatever he was holding rain down on Obi-Wan's lap.
A handful of different insects landed on top of Obi-Wan and his sleeping place. While he wasn't ‘disgusted’ —as Ahsoka would call herself, but if you asked Obi-Wan he’d say there was nothing wrong with being scared of them— by the sight of them, he also didn't share Anakin’s enthusiasm.
He felt Ahsoka hastily jump off the bed and honestly he'd have done the same if the insects weren't already crawling all over him.
“Anakin,” he groaned, letting his head plop onto his head.
For once Anakin seemed to sound apologetic as he muttered, “Sorry, Master,” and carefully picked up each insect he let fall.
・・・・・── .✦.──・・・・・
Later when Obi-Wan was properly awake, he'd question himself if Anakin resorted to eating bugs because he wasn't eating well. Rationally he knew Anakin only did it to mess with Ahsoka, but the worry wouldn't leave him.
Obi-Wan has never taken care of kids before let alone two with one of them being a teenage boy and the other one a different species from him. Safe to say that his knowledge about how much each of them should eat was lacking and both of them didn't possess the ability to live off the Force for a short period of time like he did. Although, he was an amateur at that.
The only thing he knew about growing teenage boys was that they needed to eat a lot. Obi-Wan himself often used to go back for seconds when he was still a young Padawan and Qui-Gon liked to make fun of his insatiable hunger.
Was he under feeding Anakin without having noticed it?
Sure he wasn't making a lot of money on his job, but he believed it was enough to support the three of them while also saving up for their next move.
No matter how much they liked it here, the planet was way too close to the Empire and sooner than later its military would arrive to take over the planet like they did with many other worlds. That is if the local government doesn't willingly join the Empire. Despite the Empire's unpopularity with many and their poorly hidden unfavorism towards non-humans, it was slowly becoming the biggest and influential force in the galaxy. Not being part of the Empire had more disadvantages than benefits these days.
So saving for getting off this planet was one of their top priorities. Especially since they’ve long overstayed their time here. Sure the town and its inhabitants were kind and welcoming, but they can’t settle down here. It would just put the residents of this area in danger and the probability of someone finding out they were Jedi and ratting them out was increasing with each additional day they spent in this town.
Obi-Wan could work more overtime or get a second job, but that would decrease his time spent with his Padawans and despite trusting them with being able to take care of themselves, the thought of them being out of reach and sight for longer than necessary made his stomach clench uncomfortably. But he would do what he must to meet the needs of two children under his care, because at the end of the day he was the only adult out of the three of them and he couldn’t let the two of them shoulder the burden of his responsibilities.
He already let them do too much by allowing Anakin to work too.
Anakin who hated sitting still and doing nothing was busying his days with taking care of random errands for people of the town. He was mostly repairing household appliances and droids ever since the neighbours found out he had a knack for mechanics. He sometimes took Ahsoka with him so she wouldn't get too bored at home and get any ideas. Anakin also liked to say it was good for her to learn some stuff under him, but Obi-Wan knew it was really because he liked her company.
To some extent Obi-Wan could understand why his Padawan felt the need to work. It was all he knew before his life at the Temple and even there Anakin struggled to stay still. Without having something to do, something to give him importance Anakin felt lost.
Still it didn‘t mean Obi-Wan was comfortable with it — even if it now seemed like they might need the money — so Obi-Wan had the bright idea of making Anakin responsible for Ahsoka‘s education.
At first Anakin was against the idea which was fine with Obi-Wan, since he didn’t expect him to really do much. He just wanted to keep Anakin busy. Although something along the way must have changed his mind, because he and Ahsoka were now joined by the hip. Everywhere he went Ahsoka did too and it was always the same excuse of Anakin taking her along to teach her.
It was kind of adorable at first, especially when he took her with him to his part-time job. However soon it was clear that he underestimated Anakin's influence on Ahsoka. He took his role as her teacher strangely serious, but his teaching methods were questionable at best.
Like how he tried to make her face her fears today by shoving a bunch of insects to her face and chasing her around with them and him eating the bugs probably disgusted anything more than making her fear them less.
Ahsoka also learned a variety of new curse words ever since Anakin let her come along to some of his jobs.
Oftentimes Obi-Wan found himself late at night still at the dining room tutoring Ahsoka with the few books they had on topics he himself learned at the Jedi Temple when he was a Padawan. This was the original purpose of assigning Ahsoka to Anakin. Instead she learned how to cuss in huttese and hotwire any speeder in less than five minutes.
It was on an evening like this when Ahsoka let her head fall against their dining table and declared, she‘ll never need to know so much about the galactic law, especially since every planet and system had their own rules. Obi-Wan felt sorry for her. She didn‘t have the support of Jedi Masters who focused on teaching or other Younglings to discuss the material with. And she wasn‘t exactly wrong about it being a little useless. With the rise of the Empire things were changing and the information he was teaching her was becoming outdated.
So he let her go early. Besides, he wasn‘t in the right mind for teaching anyways.
Obi-Wan was vaguely aware of Ahsoka thanking him and rushing out of the room before resting his head in his open palms and letting out a sigh.
He could feel the exhaustion creeping in his bones, but he wasn’t quite ready to go to bed yet. Obi-Wan laid his head on the clean dinner table and closed his eyes. He’d just rest his eyes for a moment and then he’ll take care of everything that needs to be taken care of.
.
.
.
“Master?” a familiar voice said.
Not just any familiar voice but Anakin’s voice.
“Master, wake up. If you sleep like that, you’ll regret it tomorrow morning when you start feeling the knick in your neck.”
Sleep? He wasn’t sleeping, he was resting his eyes.
Obi-Wan was vaguely aware of hearing an amused sigh escaping the lips of his Padawan before he felt a pair of hands on his shoulder, gently shaking him awake. When that didn’t work, Anakin started shaking so hard that even the table beneath Obi-Wan started to tremble.
“Anakin, that’s quite enough.”
“Sorry, Master. I just did what I had to,” he said with a smug grin indicating that no he wasn’t sorry.
The older Jedi took a moment to fix his shoulder length hair, which got all messed up by his Padawan’s insistent shaking. As he ran his fingers through his hair, he caught a glimpse of the clock. It was nearing midnight, long past the time he should be asleep.
“Anakin, shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“Well, someone fell asleep in the kitchen and didn't notice when someone entered and shoved spoonfuls of sugar into their mouth. Ahsoka ate so much, she practically zoomed through this place. I literally had to wrestle her to bed. I didn't know Younglings could be so fast and slippery,” he answered, sounding genuinely impressed with Ahsoka‘s agility. “It's a wonder you didn't hear us. She knocked down a lot of things during her escape.”
Unfortunately, Obi-Wan had to deal with an overly energetic Ahsoka on a sugar rush one too many times, so couldn't stop the chuckle at hearing that Anakin had to deal with it for once.
“By the time I got her to bed, I was wide awake,” Anakin grumbled, but he didn't seem too upset about it.
“Come sit down. I'll make us some tea, that'll help you.”
“Milk is for sleep and tea for the afternoon.”
“Tea is an all day drink. You'd know that if you tried more than just one type. But since you insist I'll make some milk tea. That way we'll both get what we want.”
Anakin playfully rolled his eyes, “You're starting to sound like Miss Moore from next door. She believes teas and essential oils are nature's little miracles.”
“Well, she's not entirely wrong,” Obi-Wan quipped before silence befell their little kitchen, but it wasn't uncomfortable or awkward.
He put the kettle on the stove waiting for the water to boil. After a few moments he couldn‘t hold it in anymore and let the questions that were plaguing him the whole day slip past his lips.
“Are you happy, Anakin?“
“What?“
Obi-Wan turned to face him. “Are you happy?“
Anakin stared at his Master, too stunned to answer. It wasn‘t often that his Master talked about feelings and such. Jedi rarely did. Taking a moment to collect himself again, Anakin answered, “Of course, Master. Why do you ask?“
“I just, …“ Obi-Wan looked down, unable to meet his Padawan‘s eyes. “I feel like I am failing you,“ he finally admitted, “When I took you in as my Padawan, this wasn‘t what I expected. Being on the run and hiding from the whole world isn‘t what I wanted your apprenticeship to be like.“
“Master—“
“Do you even have everything you need, nutrients, fun, community? Am I forcing you to work too hard? I don‘t think I can provide you with the life you deserve.“
Silence once again filled the room. Neither of the jedi dared to say anything. Then Anakin looked up, determined to speak his mind.
“Master,“ Anakin tentatively started. “You‘re worrying too much. Yes, this isn‘t exactly what I expected from being a Jedi, but you‘re not giving yourself enough credit. The fact that you‘re even trying is more than enough for me. Only one other person did so much for me and she was the one to give birth to me,“ he tried to joke. It fell flat, but it still managed to put a small smile on Obi-Wan‘s face.
“Besides, anything is better than being…“Anakin trailed off.
He didn‘t need to finish. Obi-Wan understood what he meant.
The laud whistle of the kettle broke the heavy atmosphere and stopped their conversation from continuing. In a way Obi-Wan was glad, he didn‘t want to keep spilling every fear and worry he has to his Padawan and he was sure that Anakin didn‘t want to either, especially now that he was reminded of his past.
Obi-Wan cleared his throat, “sugar?“
“No, I wouldn't want to end up like Ahsoka. I‘ll take it to my room, to uh go straight to sleep,“ he said, awkwardly standing up and leaving the room, but not before he gave his Master one last smile over his shoulder.
Finally alone, Obi-Wan sank into the chair nearest to him. He stared into his drink, letting his thoughts wander. It wasn‘t until his drink was cold that he realised how much time he wasted doing nothing. Quickly standing up, he spilled his drink down the drain, it wouldn‘t taste good being cold anyways.
Wasting his time and energy worrying about stuff wouldn‘t get him anywhere. He‘d just have to work harder and plan better, but at this moment he needed sleep and tomorrow morning he‘d start focusing on how to change their living situation, starting with finding another job so that Anakin can finally take a break. He already worked enough when he was still a slave on Tatooine.
With that he left the kitchen and made his way to his bed to finally sleep properly and not on their hard, cheap, kitchen chairs.
However, a loud, sudden banging on the door stopped him in his tracks.
Who is up at this time of the night and banging on doors?
He was intending to ignore whoever stood on the other side of the door, but then he felt the ripple in the Force. Something was wrong, but he didn’t know what. Could it have been a warning? Was he supposed to open the door or was the Force telling him there was danger on the other side?
Obi-Wan was frozen, unsure of what to do. If there was someone in need then he should help them, it’s what Jedi do, but at the same time he didn’t want to put Anakin and Ahsoka in unnecessary danger in case the person behind the door was planning to harm them. It could very well be nothing, just a passerby or someone drunk, however, the short sense of wrongness in the Force made him reluctant to believe that.
He was still lost in his thoughts when he heard him. A serious voice, shouting, demanding his attention.
“We are here under the service of the Galactic Empire! Open the door immediately!”