Who: Obi-Wan and Anakin When: The evening following this Where: Anakin’s Smurf House What: Obi examines the hole Anakin put in his wall, they talk shop about lightsabers, Rating/Warning: PG, For angst concerning training Anakin Status: Complete
In Obi-Wan’s opinion, Anakin had always had a unique gift for getting himself into trouble. (Although, and he was not quite willing to own up to it, the older man was thoroughly responsible for more than his fair share of scrapes.) In this world, it seemed no different. He wasn’t very surprised when his former padawan confessed to putting a hole through his wall with a lightsaber.
But a lightsaber. Anakin had his lightsaber. Things were picking up speed.
Had Anakin been farther into his dreams he might have made it a point to remind Obi-wan how often he got himself into trouble and Anakin had to come rescue him. So far he had only seen a few instances of this, or rather his dream self had referred to them, but they weren’t enough to really constitute a trend. It would certainly come up later though, probably when Kenobi least wanted it to but more than likely he would remain good-natured about it all.
Of course that was all if Anakin didn’t manage to do mortal harm to himself with his latest ‘toy’. He hadn’t been joking when he told Atton about all the alternative uses he had found for the weapon. Fruit, toast, the wall, the concrete slab in his backyard, so far that had been all he managed to damage, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t damage himself with it at some point. Padme had a very valid point with her ‘no lightsabers in the bedroom’ rule, he was starting to adopt that himself though he wasn’t as strict about it as she was.
She hadn’t been over in a few days so his place had been allowed to return to normal, not truly messy but full of parts and plans and tools. He didn’t have much time to sort of arrange things into piles on his dinner and coffee tables before Obi-wan arrived, but at least the walkways were clear as were the chairs if the Jedi Master wanted to sit. He had just retrieved the lightsaber from its hiding place when the knock at the door came and he kept it in his robotic hand as he went to answer the door, “Hey, come on in. And just in case you are going to make the joke everybody likes to make, I’ll point out that I don’t live in a Smurf house because Smurf houses were never blue.”
“No, they were mushrooms, weren’t they?” Obi-Wan couldn’t say he’d much watch the cartoon, but it wasn’t too hard to picture the little people living inside fungus with doors and windows. Frankly, he was surprised Anakin didn’t have mushrooms sprouting from his own floor. Obi-Wan wasn’t meticulously neat about his living quarters, but he did like to keep things organized. What I am looking at are the workings of Anakin’s brain, he said to himself, smiling a bit.
He put his keys into his pocket, making sure his truck responded to the one-touch lock on his keychain with a friendly Chirp!
“Little red and white mushrooms, yeah.” Anakin hadn’t watched the cartoon much either, but that had been mainly because he had been born in the nineties and didn’t have access to cable television where it was being re-run until his mid teens. He had to look up what smurf houses looked like after the jokes started, a fact he hadn’t let slip as it annoyed him when he was pegged as ‘too young’ for anything. “My neighbors usually go for that or sing that Blue song, you know ‘I’m blue, da ba dee da ba die’,” he shook his head in disapproval. “Terrible, especially as I don’t drive a blue Corvette.”
Now that he finally had the weapon he was more than a little reluctant to hand it over to Obi-wan. Not that he thought the older man would take it from him or had any other reason to worry, but it was still his and he had always had trouble sharing when something he cared about. He had been an absolute terror when Lars started dating his mother and it had been Owen who had suffered most. He was older than Anakin but shorter and less physically gifted which lead to a bit of bullying on Anakin’s part. Thankfully Shmi had taken him aside and showed him how much both of the Lars meant to her which quickly put an end to it. But now, just like then, deep down he knew he was being childish so after he shut the door behind Obi-wan he turned and offered the lightsaber to him for inspection.
“It was in my hand when I woke up the other night,” he explained. “Just like I saw it in the dream, it’s just as I built it.”
Obi-Wan was more apt to recognize references to Blue Moon and Blue Velvet than whatever song Anakin was attempting to describe.
He fell quiet as he examined the weapon. His hands, though rough and thick, displayed their unique dexterity, as if he was holding something far more delicate--though, in a way, he was. It was indeed Anakin’s lightsaber. He walked to the couch and sat down, gesturing that Anakin should sit beside him. Then, he lifted his eyes, looking around for the hole in the wall, but apparently the accident hadn’t taken place in this room.
“How do you feel about having it?” he asked, making the question sound as simple as it was complicated.
He felt a lecture coming, but he didn’t fight it, instead choosing to be respectful for once. He sat down next to the Jedi master, watching his lightsaber in his hands. “It’s great,” he started, undoing the button at the cuff of his right sleeve and slowly rolling it up. He was still dressed for work, slacks, button-up shirt, light sweater in a shade of blue Padme claimed complimented his eyes. She might have liked the look but Anakin wasn’t so keen on it, it wasn’t ‘him’ as far as he was concerned. These days all he had wanted was the robes of a Jedi, in his dreams they were very practical and comfortable. He felt more than a little cheated when they hadn’t shown up with the lightsaber. “I’ve been looking forward to having one.”
He shrugged, starting on the other sleeve which was more difficult as his robotic hand wasn’t as nimble. “I mean, I know I don’t have any use for it in the life I live now but it still feels right that I have one. Maybe that’s, uh,” he paused a moment not sure if he should share this with Obi-wan but continued on in the hopes that he would understand. “Maybe it’s from the dreams. He was so eager to build one, you know? Sometimes when he gets really intense about something I do too, his feelings sort of bleed over into how I feel.”
Obi-Wan caught the pause and understood it. He didn’t need the Force to clarify anything, though he could sense Anakin’s feelings. They told him he ought not delve too deep. Not at the moment. The days when a Jedi first commands his lightsaber are meant to be joyful ones.
He turned to Anakin and smiled. The clothing his friend wore were far better-suited to himself; they made Anakin look like an old man. Obi-Wan, meanwhile, was splattered with dry paint. He passed the lightsaber back and reached into one of the deep pockets of his cargo pants, producing his own saber: nearly identical in concept, and yet quite different.
“When I found this, it was in a box in my closet, and I thought it was part of a costume. I was renting a room from a woman at the time. I thought the robes were some silly thing her son had left behind.”
He had to smirk at that, “Kitty said she cut through some old woman’s wardrobe when she found yours. Gotta admit that was really hilarious so soon after hearing that other you go on about the responsibilities of having a lightsaber, that it wasn’t a toy and all that. Of course then she mentioned adventures when I pressed her for more, you’ve had to use yours once or twice in this world, and you’ve been training Atton in using his. I sort of thought this would end up in a glass case on a shelf somewhere.” he glanced down at his own saber, then to Obi’s and finally to Obi-wan’s face.
“I have a hard time imagining going into combat with this thing, here especially, but I don’t know. Holding it feels like the most natural thing in the world. I think that’s the other me again, he feels like he could take on the galaxy now, like I ought to be running around the OC righting wrongs and bringing justice and all that. Like he wants us to be Batman, Batman with a lightsaber.” he chuckled softly, “That’s an image, Batman with a lightsaber. Though Batman having the force would explain a lot.”
Obi-Wan chuckled. A glass case indeed.
But the smile faded. He lifted a hand to scratch his beard, recalling several hours of shivering from adrenaline and fear following an “adventure”, and a boat their team had left behind, littered with men his lightsaber had sliced through like butter. Rescue mission or not, Obi-Wan had questioned his sanity and soul that day.
His eyelids fluttered as he realized his mind had wandered so far that he only heard the tail end of what Anakin was saying. Somehow, the conversation had turned to Batman. It wasn’t too difficult for Obi-Wan to piece together that Anakin felt the call of vigilantism. “Yes, but with great power comes great responsibility,” he replied, thinking he was quoting one of those Christopher Nolan films.
“Oh god, there’s that word again, I’m gonna start having lecture flashbacks.” he teased, not being able to resist. It was a word Jedi were very, very fond of and that other version of himself had heard it so often he wouldn’t have been surprised if he had said it in his sleep. “And I think that’s from Spiderman.” Of course he had to point that out, being the ‘geek’ he was. “You’re crossing the streams of Marvel and DC, it might just cause reality as we know it to implode around us. And as great as you are, if I had to be stuck on a couch with someone in the endless void of nothingness I’d probably pick someone female.”
Really there was no question who he would pick, he didn’t have to say it as Obi-wan probably knew better than anyone.
“Anyway, as fun as it sounds right now it just isn’t very realistic, not when I actually have to work for a living and don’t have the time to train to have those kind of skills.” he shrugged a little. “So, wanna see why you shouldn’t play with a lightsaber when you’re half asleep?”
Obi-Wan lifted an eyebrow. Ah, so the incident had taken place in the bedroom. “I feel a little like you’re setting me up for a punchline,” he said, rising to his feet and slipping his saber back into his pocket.
“Oh no, wouldn’t dream of it, Master.” He smiled as he got to his feet, leading Obi-wan down the very short hall that ended at his bedroom. It, like the rest of the house, was small. Most would have accused him of being cheap when he picked this place but he was used to living in tight spaces. The trailer he had grown up in had been small, his dorm room at the Academy had been small, his space on the base in Italy had been small, the hospital room after his accident had been small, even the room he shared with Obi-wan at the temple had been pretty small too. It was just what Anakin was used to.
The long gash was on the same wall as the door, starting low it had clearly burned a path diagonally through the drywall and through one of the studs only to end abruptly as Anakin had apparently shut it off when he figured out what he was doing. “I’m not sure what I was thinking turning it on in here, like I said, I was half asleep.”
The older man, too, was used to small living spaces. In fact, for the past few years, he’d only rented rooms, and before that, during the darker times, he’d stayed in shelters. If he and Faiza did move into the cabin she’d been offered, it’d be the first place he’d own in quite a while.
Obi-Wan ran his hand across the gash, narrowing his eyes. “Well, you’re right, it’s not load-bearing, so it’s not going to collapse around you. I was imagining something far worse. It’s a one-hour patch job, really.”
“See,” he said with a little smirk. “I’m not nearly as destructive as everybody seems to think I am.” Anakin was very destructive, it was never malicious though, at least on this side of the dreams. “I didn’t think it was too bad, but I’m not really versed in the construction of houses and all that. If it doesn’t have gears or circuit boards I leave it up to the professionals, but I think I could manage this at least.
He folded his arms, “I’m at least keeping lightsaber play outdoors, very little to destroy as long as I keep to my yard. Saves on repair bills if nothing else.”
“Well, that’s what I am. A professional,” Obi-Wan murmured under his breath. He would have sounded quite dry except for the slight smile that appeared. He raised the volume of his voice as he continued. “My business cards are for woodworking. But I can train you in the lightsaber, as well.”
His stomach twisted. What was he offering? No, he had chosen to trust Anakin. And better he train him than someone else, or Anakin attempt to train himself.
There was something there, Anakin wasn’t sure what though. The true nature of the force still eluded him for the most part, though here and there he was granted some insight. He had described it as walking blindfolded through a dark room, every so often the blindfold would slip and he could make out vague outlines. It had been brief though, whatever it was, so Anakin didn’t push it, his dreams of the man and the wise words he had now had him trusting the older man quickly and easily. If Obi-wan didn’t bring it up then it wouldn’t be an issue.
“Yeah,” he said quickly, sounding eager before he dialed himself back. “I mean, sure, yeah, I’d like that. Probably for the best, I mean, you don’t want someone having a gun that doesn’t know how to use it, why should a lightsaber be any different?”
It seemed they were on the same page and Obi-Wan was satisfied, though he knew in his heart that Anakin’s dreams would provide him with skills they dare not speak of now. His stomach was still in knots. How could it be otherwise? Here he was, agreeing to go at it all over again. Instructing Anakin…
Obi-Wan took a breath. “It’s here, so you would be wise to learn how to use it properly.” He turned back to the wall. At this point, he was trying to distract himself from his fears and darker thoughts. “You know… I have everything I need in my truck. I could fix this right now.”
“Really? Because that would be great if you’re up for it. It would probably stay like this for a while if it were left up to me.” That wasn’t a surprise given how Anakin tended to be with projects. He loved starting them but finishing them was another thing. The bits of robotics on his dining room table likely spoke to that. He claimed he just had too many ideas in his head at one time, but he thought it was good that he could at least recognize that in himself.
Obi-wan was hard to get a read on at the best of times. The dream version of himself was likely better at it as his connection to the force wasn’t so new to him, not to mention he knew Kenobi better. But there were hints here and there that his thoughts were elsewhere, on something that might have been troubling him. Anakin’s own brow furrowed in a touch of confusion but he still didn’t say anything about it.
Nor did Obi-Wan. He had a project now. And he knew he’d be better able to sort his thoughts once he got started. The work would clear his mind. “I’ll get my things,” he said, not abruptly, but definitively. The wall, first. Then... other matters.