Office #8, Friday

[saddeserthermit]

Obi-Wan had been careful not to move too much into his office, if simply because he had had little idea if he'd be staying for another semester. But his decision on that had now been made, and he could now spend the last day of this semester organizing the few items that had made it in here.

He'd be rifling through paperwork for most of the day, occasionally stopping to make notes for future consideration.

Perhaps he should bring some more light to the room. Add something that could boil water. And move in some instruction manuals for future classes. That would be useful.

[[ open! ]]

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[sith_happened]

The muscles in Anakin's jaw clenched before he met Obi-Wan's eyes. "I know you did," he murmured. "We're brothers."

[saddeserthermit]

And add a very brief skim of Obi-Wan's thumb along Anakin's jaw in an effort to make them clench less.

Then he dropped his hand. "We are," he affirmed, and actually meant it, to his own surprise; apparently his distrust of Anakin could go only so far before it looped back again.

[sith_happened]

Anakin's entire face lit up at that. "I'm sorry, too," he murmured after a moment as he gathered his thoughts, "for being such a disappointment."

[saddeserthermit]

It had rarely been easy for Anakin to admit fault, let alone on such a scale, and he had done so repeatedly in the past few months.

Obi-Wan smiled, just a little. "I know," he said. "I'm proud of what you've built out of the ashes here. I can only hope my galaxy's Anakin finds - or has found - similar peace."

(He was going to be very disappointed when he finally found out about Vader.)

[sith_happened]

Yeah, there went Anakin's smile. "I had twenty years to get here," he hedged. "It'll take your Anakin some time, too."

[saddeserthermit]

"That's a promising answer," Obi-Wan sighed.

[sith_happened]

Anakin reached out to squeeze Obi-Wan's shoulder. "Well, every me I've ever heard of is stupidly stubborn."

[saddeserthermit]

"With an emphasis on stupidly, yes," Obi-Wan said. "I will see, I suppose."

He was torn on whether he was relieved or not that his Anakin had likely not died on Mustafar.

[sith_happened]

And Anakin was pretty sure that telling him what'd happened wouldn't make that one bit easier.

"You will," Anakin said. "And meanwhile, you can watch over Luke and Leia."

[saddeserthermit]

"Luke seems to be doing well," Obi-Wan said, "That is something to be thankful for."

And he trusted Bail with Leia; they hadn't spoken recently.

[sith_happened]

"Why Tatooine?" Anakin asked softly. "Is it because I'd rather set myself on fire again than go there?"

[saddeserthermit]

"Because of that, and because it is remote enough to be safe for Luke and myself," Obi-Wan said quietly, "And your family - or what resembled it - was there."

[sith_happened]

Anakin snorted. "Like I've spent more than two days ever with Owen."

[saddeserthermit]

"He knew your mother," Obi-Wan said. "I thought that was... something, at least."

[sith_happened]

"Maybe," Anakin said, visibly shutting down.

[saddeserthermit]

Obi-Wan's own expression softened. "Anakin," he said.

[sith_happened]

"I don't want to talk about her," Anakin said, voice sharp.

[saddeserthermit]

Obi-Wan considered him for a long moment. "All right," he said. "But you asked. I merely gave you an answer."

[sith_happened]

Anakin huddled in on himself a bit. "I know."

[saddeserthermit]

Now it was Obi-Wan's turn to touch his shoulder, very, very gently. "I'm sorry."

[sith_happened]

"It was a long time ago," Anakin said. "And she's never visited. It's probably better that way."

[saddeserthermit]

"Did you want her to?" Obi-Wan asked.

[sith_happened]

"Not really," Anakin said. "I can't imagine where I'd even start explaining where I went wrong for her."

[saddeserthermit]

"But explanations aside?" Obi-Wan asked gently.

[sith_happened]

"I think she'd be happy to know about my children," Anakin said quietly. "About Rory."