InsaneJournal

However, he had been instructed in how to make a good cup of tea
Who: Obi-Wan and Meetra
What: Meetra senses a disturbance, Obi-Wan brings her up to speed on his broken heart
When: Monday Night
Where: Frodo's Villa, which is empty -- Frodo and Merrill are away
Rating: PG; Very vague reference to physical trauma
Status: Complete!


Meetra still felt on edge. It had been several days since the battle in the desert, but her senses still hummed with anticipation of threats. She couldn't keep trying to exhaust her energy with Roland (as fun as that was), so she turned to meditation, and lightsaber forms.

Obi-Wan’s heart might have been broken, but it found a way to keep beating. He kept himself busy with work, though not at the feverish pace he usually attempted when he was filled with difficult emotions. He meditated regularly, and that helped a lot. In fact, his day was beginning to revolve around it, much like he had in the past a long, long time ago...

But Dani came to mind almost constantly, like a perpetual film reel -- which was why it was so necessary to empty himself again and again. He felt enraged one moment and desperately sad the next. But when he meditated, he discovered he could almost find the strength to forgive the both of them.

It was a like a ripple, a disturbance in a pond that spread out until it found Meetra and disturbed her from her calm. She opened her eyes, then got to her feet. Changing out of her sweats and into something more appropriate for the public, she got into her car, and drove in search of Obi-Wan.

It was early evening, meaning that Obi-Wan was finishing up with Frodo’s underground tunnels for the day. It was looking more like the house it was supposed to be, with walls and even a few windows where the slope of the earth allowed it.

He emerged from the tunnels like a mole and went inside the main house to shower and change. There were a few guest rooms on the main floor, which Merrill had Frodo set aside as a place where Obi-Wan could crash if ever he needed it. So far, he’d only used it to clean up.

Meetra's old blue car pulled up to the elegant beach house. She parked and got out, looking around. Then she felt around with the force, hoping to give Obi-wan a heads up as to her presence. She could drop by unannounced, but she wasn't trying to be sneaky. He'd probably be able to pick her up anyway.

He sensed Meetra’s presence as he dressed. Curious. When Obi-Wan stepped outside to have a look, his hair was still wet, combed back dramatically from his temples. “Meetra?” he called, spotting her on the sidewalk past the gate.

"Obi-wan." She bowed slightly towards him. "I sensed a disturbance. Is everything all right?"

He lowered his head to her as well. It felt very natural now. But when Obi-Wan lifted his eyes, he revealed that she had caught him off guard. “You could sense... that I was --am-- upset?”

"Yes. I've been on edge since the fighting, so I was meditating. I think I accidentally tuned into you.”

Obi-Wan chuckled dryly. He began to walk down the length of the fence and opened the gate by pressing a few buttons on a keypad. A droplet of water rolled down the slope of his nose as he bent over.

“Which means you thought it was important to check up on me?” he asked, while the gears hummed to life and started to turn. “Are you alright?”

"I'm splendid, thank you." She stepped inside once the gate allowed her to. "I'm not allowed to worry about a friend? At least I didn't come armed with a box full of sexual aids like certain friends of yours." She paused, thinking about Michiru. "For that matter my best friend would do that too."

“Ah, so you’ve seen the messages Kitty leaves me on the Network.” Obi-Wan chuckled. It seemed that so many young people enjoyed torturing him and mocking his “old fashioned” sensibilities. It amused him greatly, 99% of the time.

"She reminds me a bit of Michiru, yes." Meetra laughed, falling into step besides Obi-wan. "They mean well."

“They do,” he agreed, looking back to the house. “Frodo wouldn’t mind if I invited you in. They’re away for the week on their honeymoon. Would you like tea?” It meant a great deal to him that Meeta had traveled all this way to make sure he was well and Obi-Wan wanted to show his appreciation. Besides, it would be easier to talk about what was bothering him over tea.

"I hope they have a good time. Honeymoons are special times. You only get one once, if you do it right. Tea would be fine." She looked around the house, impressed. It was an understated, homey sort of wealth, which she could appreciate.

Understated and homey would have nicely described Frodo and his bride as well. Obi-Wan smiled as he senses Meetra’s impression. He led her to the kitchen, which was both the most grand and the most pleasant room in the house. The window where Merrill typically nested looked vacant however, at least to his own eye.

“Herbal... black...?” he said, going through a few boxes in the cabinet. “Unfortunately, I have no tarine tea or sweet-sand cookies to offer you.”

"Herbal is fine." Meetra took a seat, feeling at home in the kitchen. Never ask her to cook - she could do something serviceable in an emergency or when on the war trail, but that was about it! But she did feel at home here. "This is a lovely kitchen.”

The Jedi were not known for their prowess in the kitchen; but at the Temple, there were chefs hired for that kind of work, and that meant everyone ate rather well on Coruscant. However, Obi-Wan had been instructed in how to make a good cup of tea. Qui-Gon and Yoda had insisted upon it. It was a padawan’s unwritten duty, according to their claims.

He smiled slightly and only to himself, really. Making tea for Meeta didn’t feel very different.

He put on a kettle and folded his arms, leaning his hip against the counter. His hair was beginning to dry now, returning to it’s reddish color and falling into place across his forehead. “Frodo and Merrill spend 75% of their day in here,” he said.

"Really? It's a wonder both don't weigh a ton." Meetra laughed, watching him lean against the counter. He cut a dashing figure, that reminded her painfully of someone else.

“People tend to fill out after marriage. We’ll see.” Obi-Wan pulled some cups and got the tea bags ready. It would be a chamomile blend for the both of them. He got honey and sugar, as well. But no milk, because milk and chamomile was simply disgusting.

The act and smell of tea being prepared was in itself a very calming ritual. Once, Meetra had done so with Brianna, much to the confusion and distaste of HK-47. The thought of the droid's sarcastic comment made her snicker.

Obi-Wan poured the water and lifted an eyebrow. “What are you laughing at?”

"Oh, just remembering something," Meetra replied. "When I made tea with one of my shipmates."

“And something funny happened?”

"Observation," Meetra quoted. "'Fleshy meatbags don't need any more fluids. They slosh around too much as it is.'"

Obi-Wan looked over his shoulder, one of his thick eyebrows high on his forehead and a very amused smile on his lips. “Who is calling you a fleshy meatbag?”

"Revan's assassin droid," Meetra replied, with the sort of tone usually reserved for the weather or a particularly boring soccer game.

He hummed a equally Blasé note, though his was clearly put on to match Meetra’s tone. Obi-Wan couldn’t say he was especially mystified, though. “Ah.”

He carried the cups to the table, followed by the sweeteners and finally by a plate of sugar cookies. This was a kitchen Obi-Wan clearly knew his way around. He sat down, knowing that the time to talk about his disturbance had come. He was not dreading it, because Meetra always seemed to have wisdom to share; but he did wonder if it might have been easier to talk over a glass of scotch.

“You remember Neena,” he began. “She never really... recovered from what happened to her in that bunker.” On that, he didn’t want to go into detail. Surely Meetra had some idea. “Dani had been watching her at her house, trying to bring her back to life. But Neena... was hard to convince.”

Obi-Wan paused for a moment, realizing his mouth was growing dry already. He took a sip of tea. “A few weeks ago, Neena decided it was time to leave. Dani felt responsible, so she followed. I shouldn’t have let her go alone, but Dani can be hard to convince, as well. I had a job I needed to finish and a wedding to attend...” He gestured to the space around them, so that it was clear that he meant Frodo and Merrill. “At the time, it made sense. No one thought Neena would make it very far.”

He shook his head. “But then we lost contact with Dani. She... fell off the map. When I searched the Force, I felt a void that I still can’t explain. So I went to look for her. A friend of hers came with me and when we found her... something terrible had happened. She’d lost her powers. She was... broken. And she didn’t want to come back. Not even for me, so I...” Obi-Wan paused again. His voice was calm throughout the story, far from devoid of emotion, but full of control. Still, he required time to make sense of things every so often, and this was one of those moments. He swallowed. “So you are right to suspect I am struggling. I’m... I, uh...”

He shrugged. It said more than words, even he had to admit that.

Meetra knew people like that. Where they were pushed to the edge and over it and nothing, no one could bring them back. Neena leaving wasn't surprising. Dani going after her wasn't, either. Dani not returning, however, was a shock. The reasoning for it nearly as much of one.

She took a long sip of her tea, and settled back in the chair. "You're hurt. You're hurt that you're not enough to bring her back. That you can't fix it. That you're alone now, and it wasn't even a proper good bye."

Obi-Wan kept trying to remind himself of how love was a risk, that he had known that from the beginning and nothing about his relationship with Dani had ever been especially easy. But he had never thought Dani would just quit. “My ego is bruised and my heart is broken,” he said and then felt it was necessary for another short pause. “And I’m scared as to what’s going to become of her.”

"You'll get over the former and the latter will heal." Meetra assured him. She didn't have an answer for what might become of Dani. What she could say was simple. "That speaks well of you. She hurt you but you still want her safe."

He took another drink of his tea. “I thought I would have to fight an impulse to hate her,” he admitted. “But in meditation I’ve realized... I’m a much better version of myself now than I was before I met her. That and... I still love her, despite it all.”

"That, I think, is where the more stricter councils have been wrong about love." Meetra said, warming her hands with the tea-cup. "For all it's hurts, it's a growing experience."

He nodded thoughtfully, thinking about how his only true hope would be that he’d be able to fill in the gaps in understanding that still eluded him. He had a brain wired for logic, for better or worse. He sighed. “And how are things with your fellow?” he asked, a familiar gentle smile returning to Obi-Wan’s lips.

"His dreams trouble him, but we muddle through it." She frowned, slightly, her lips turning down. "I'm not entirely sure he's as good a person there as he is here."

He considered this. It was nice to say that here was what mattered most, but it was all mixed together, wasn’t it? “But you’re happy?” he asked, as one friend might ask another. Muddle was not as especially reassuring word.

"Very." She said, nodding her head. "I feel less uncertain about certain things. And more uncertain about other things I suppose."

“I know what you mean.” To Obi-Wan, it made perfect sense, which he decided meant something good about his own psyche. And he was glad to hear she was happy. Meetra deserved a break, and really she was as lovely as she was remarkable.

Meetra gave him a smile. “It’s all part of being human. And starting out somewhat normal. I think there’s something to be said about getting to live without all the pressure for a few decades. Gives you a chance to acclimate more.” It might now work so well for some others, but for Meetra at least, a balance had been found. You’d never believe she’d nearly been killed by her own brother.

She sipped at her tea again, and glanced around the kitchen. “You know. I think I ought to learn to cook.”

Obi-Wan grinned around the lip of his cup. It was the sort of kitchen that encouraged one to learn. “Yes,” he said, after a drink. “And then you can teach me.”