#or close

"Professor?"

He snaps out of his thoughts, remembering too late that he was in the middle of a conversation with his favorite graduate student. Only, she'd been talking about her summer wedding, and Obi-Wan had spiraled. Weddings, as of late, seem to be a sensitive topic for him.

"Yes, sorry, what?" He asks, rubbing a hand over his beard. "Late night, my apologies. You were saying...?"

Padmé thankfully laughs off his rudeness. Truly, his favorite graduate student. "You will come, right? To my wedding?"

"When is it?" he asks, even though he probably would be able to make it. During the summer, his schedule is never quite as busy as during the academic year. For obvious reasons.

"A few weeks after end of term," she reports. "I've been a bit stressed with planning it and finishing up my classes, but, you know, Rex, my fiancé, and Anakin have been a huge help. They've honestly planned more than I have which suits me just fine. I mean, I'd be alright with just a minister and witness, you know? It's the person that matters. It just turns out my person is a terrible romantic, and his best man is even worse. You know Anakin called me up today to complain about my wanting lavender napkins? At my wedding? He said if I wanted spring colors, I should have gotten married in March. The nerve! ...Professor?"

Obi-Wan stares at her.

What a funny coincidence that she knows another boy named Anakin. Who also loves weddings. And has a best friend named Rex.

What a funny coincidence that her wedding is close to the same date as the wedding Anakin has been insufferable about.

"Sorry, I got on a bit of a tangent. But it would mean the world to me if you would come, Obi-Wan. You're my favorite professor and have been since I was an undergrad! I mean, I'm sure you've heard that before, you probably inspire tons of students---"

Obi-Wan does not think about inspiring one particular student to deep throat his cock just this morning. He does not. He does not.

But he feels a little gross because he definitely does think about Anakin--a normal state of being for him these days--so he blurts out, "Of course I'll come to your wedding," just to get her to stop talking.

She smiles at him happily and Obi-Wan gets such a bad feeling about all of this that he has to excuse himself to go to his office and sit down with his head against the desk for a bit.

---

Anakin doesn't seem to think this is as big of a problem as Obi-Wan does. In fact, he seems to find it, somehow, romantic.

"I've never gone to a wedding with a date before!" He chirps when Obi-Wan informs him that apparently they've been invited to the same wedding.

Obi-Wan bites his tongue so as to not point out that of course he hasn't, as he is twenty-two. It wouldn't exactly reflect well on Obi-Wan.

"We won't be going as dates," Obi-Wan corrects gently, closing his eyes. Anakin's fingers stop petting his hair, which is just unacceptable enough that Obi-Wan peers up at him indignantly. What, just because Obi-Wan doesn't want to get fired and/or lose the respect of his favorite graduate student means he doesn't get head scratches? Cruel and unjust.

Anakin pouts down at him.

"I'll have graduated by then," he says. "We can tell our friends we're together."

Obi-Wan sits up regretfully. This probably isn't a conversation to have with his head in Anakin's lap. "I was...thinking...."

Anakin frowns now, and his legs curl up to the couch as he wraps his arms around them. "You can't break up with me when you just made me pet your head for, like, two hours."

"It was fifteen minutes--" Anakin's lip wobbles. Obi-Wan is dating a child. "And I'm not breaking up with you, sweetheart. I was just thinking, that perhaps we should...wait until after the summer."

"Why?" He makes it sound as if Obi-Wan has just asked him to draft an English essay due at midnight with at least ten citations used.

Obi-Wan touches his knee. "I was thinking...."

Anakin huffs. "I'm really starting to hate when you do that," he mutters, but at least he unfolds himself from his defensive position.

Obi-Wan relishes in how much Anakin is going to feel like an asshole in the next minute. "That maybe you could move in, for the summer at least. That we could see how we would, you know, make this work in a way that doesn't rely on leaving campus at separate times and illicit rendezvous in stairwells."

"You love the illicit rendezvous in stairwells," Anakin mutters right before he kisses him soft and sweet and like how he knows Obi-Wan likes best. "And of course I'll move in with you."

Obi-Wan doesn't fail to notice that Anakin doesn't add the same timeframe of for the summer, but he doesn't mention it again in favor of letting Anakin push him down onto the couch and crawl over him.

"I'm still excited about the wedding," he whispers between pressing increasingly heated kisses across Obi-Wan's face. "I haven't seen you in a suit before. I bet you'll be absolutely devastating."

His hands ruck up Obi-Wan's shirt, and Obi-Wan has heard enough talk about weddings to last him a lifetime so he kisses him quiet.

---

If Obi-Wan is devastating in his suit, then Anakin is obliverating. As part of the wedding party, he'd been forced to wear a lavender suit and the color compliments the blond tones in his hair and amber in his eyes quite nicely.

He's standing a bit crooked and Obi-Wan has to study the paper in his hand quite intensely when he realizes why. They'd fucked quite roughly last night before Obi-Wan had to send Anakin on his way, back to his apartment so he could get ready in the morning. It'd been the first time they'd parted since Anakin's graduation, and so maybe Obi-Wan had been a bit harsh, but Anakin had welcomed it.

Anyway.

Anakin in a suit. Absolutely eviscerating.

The worst part is it's quite clear everyone else thinks so too. If the maid of honor doesn't stop eyeing his partner up like a tasty snack, Obi-Wan is going to snap. And it's not like he can really blame her. Anakin looks perfect, amazing, gorgeous. And lover of romance that he is, he just looks so happy watching the ceremony go on.

He keeps mouthing the words along with both the minister and the couple. This too is catastrophic to Obi-Wan's sense of control.

A tiny little voice in the back of his head that sounds like Anakin whispers, look at him in his suit standing at the altar. He already knows all the words, wouldn't it be easy as anything to marry him?

Obi-Wan looks down at the paper in his head--a wedding bill with the names and the events of the ceremony printed on it--out of self-preservation.

When he looks back up at the altar, Anakin is staring straight at him as he mouths along with his friend's I do.

Obi-Wan's heart can't take this sort of thing, but he's also too weak of a man to force himself to look away from Anakin's eyes. Enchanting.

Devastating.

So unfair that they can't even talk to each other when the ceremony ends, Anakin too caught up in the wedding party coordination and Obi-Wan staying away out of respect for his own damn rule.

They take separate cars, of course, to the venue for the reception. It's...quite lonely, now. Being alone. Being without Anakin.

He finds himself twisting the empty skin around his ring finger as he waits in line to greet the newly weds and give him their congratulations. He shoves his hands in his pocket when he realizes what he's doing, hopefully before anyone can see the enormity of his desire.

"Obi-Wan!" Padmé exclaims happily upon his arrival to the front of the queue. "I'm so happy you could make it!"

"Congratulations," he says as he turns his cheek to accept her kiss. She's flushed and dazzlingly beautiful. Her husband is a very lucky man, and the way he looks at her makes Obi-Wan think he knows it.

"This is Rex," Padmé introduces them and they shake hands. "And--oh, where is he? Oh! Anakin, come here for a second!"

Obi-Wan turns just in time to watch Anakin excuse himself from a conversation with the maid of honor, her hand dropping off his arm much to Obi-Wan's annoyance.

"This is Anakin, who I was telling you about," Padmé says expectantly, and Obi-Wan's eyes widen automatically when he realizes she's waiting for him to shake hands with Anakin.

Personally, Obi-Wan feels that if he touches Anakin's hands he's going to end up tearing his clothes off of him in the middle of this tent, but Anakin solves this problem by slipping his hands into his pockets.

"The man who doesn't like lavender," Obi-Wan says as if he hadn't kissed the word out of Anakin's laughing mouth the same day Padmé had told him.

"It's not a good color for a suit," Anakin mutters, kicking at the ground in front of him.

"I'd say you wear it quite nicely," Obi-Wan is saying before he even decides to speak. It's just that Anakin had looked so morose, as if he's not very nearly upstaging the bride at her own wedding. "You look stunning."

He hadn't meant to say that and from Anakin's shocked but pleased expression, Anakin hadn't been expecting to hear it.

Unfortunately, it seems to give him enough confidence to become devious. A spark lights up the embers of his eyes. "You know professor, we've actually met before. I had you for one of my classes."

Obi-Wan's mouth goes dry. "Oh? Interested in English, are you?"

"Circumstantially," his bastard of a partner says, licking his lips slightly. He opens his mouth to say something else, but Rex, the husband, interrupts.

"Oh my god, this is Professor Kenobi?"

Obi-Wan, who had quite forgotten the newlyweds were there, turns to blink at him. "Ah. Um. Yes. Have I taught you as well?"

"No sir," Rex says. "Not on my life. After hearing about how big your dick must be from this guy for three months, I decided to get my English credit filled with Professor Nu instead. What'd you call him, Anakin? Professor Can-Fuck-Me?"

Anakin is scarlet in the face. Obi-Wan is having the time of his life.

Apparently though, Padmé has more compassion than her husband or Obi-Wan, because she interrupts to say, "It would have been a conflict of interest anyway, I TA'd the class Rex would have taken with you."

Obi-Wan's fingers itch for several glasses of champagne, if not something stronger. "How very above board of you," he says faintly, carefully not looking at the man he'd fucked in his office during his office hours when he'd come with his essay under the guise of asking a question about a fucking oxford comma. "Well, I see I'm holding up the line, and no one really wants to talk about class over the summer. I'm sure I'll see you later, and really. Lovely ceremony."

He doesn't run away and hide, but he very nearly does. It takes Anakin two hours to find him, and when he does, it's out in the rose garden bordering the tent. Pretty secluded.

Thankfully, Anakin has brought champagne with him and he passes the glass to him silently, going to sit next to him on the stone bench.

"Wait a tick," Obi-Wan says, setting the glass down to shrug off his jacket and lay it down first. "Alright."

Anakin sits and immediately leans his head against his shoulder. It's nice, not being alone.

It's even nicer not being alone with Anakin.

"You know I seduced you, right?" Anakin says eventually.

Obi-Wan hums and takes a sip of his drink. "You know I had very little intention of letting you leave that office unkissed, right?" He parrots back.

Anakin sighs happily and squirms closer. "Wow, what a coincidence. I thought the same thing."

Impossible man.

"I know," Obi-Wan murmurs. "And I love you."

Anakin turns and kisses his cheek. "I love you too. A lot. Can't stand it sometimes, how much I love you. Can't stand having to be quiet about it."

Obi-Wan's chest hurts. He doesn't want to force Anakin to do anything he doesn't want to do, not even stay silent about their relationship. Anakin has already graduated. They can't do anything to him now. And as for Obi-Wan....

He loves Anakin more than job security. And it's not like they'd fire him for starting a consensual relationship with an adult after he wasn't his student anymore.

Alright. Mostly after he wasn't his student.

"Worth it though," Anakin whispers right when Obi-Wan has just decided to tell him to tell whoever he wants. "Worth it to make you happy."

It's such a sweet, perfect thing for this sweet perfect man to say, and Obi-Wan can't stop himself from setting his flute of champagne down and dragging Anakin into his arms for a kiss.

A kiss that's supposed to be sweet and perfect but is much harder and heavier from the start. Obi-Wan's been staring at Anakin all day without being allowed to touch and he's going to go insane with all his desire. He licks his mouth open greedily and fucks his tongue between Anakin's lips. The boy moans in surprise and drops his champagne flute into the garden of roses, clutching both hands into Obi-Wan's hair with another, higher moan.

"Fuck, An---"

"--akin? Anakin? Oh! Oh shit," the voice of the husband cries, and Anakin jumps off Obi-Wan's lap immediately to turn and look at his friend. His suit is rumpled from Obi-Wan's hands and his curls are messed up.

Obi-Wan doesn't feel anything about this at all. His cock twitches in his pants. Obi-Wan, who had to teach Anakin for a week after fucking him, has gotten very good at ignoring this.

"Toasts are about to begin," Rex says slowly, looking between Obi-Wan and Anakin and then down at the champagne. "I, uh. Can read your best man speech for you if you're a bit busy."

Obi-Wan flushes and Anakin hesitates like he might really decline the toast for a chance to kiss him again.

But then he clears his throat, digs in his pocket, and turns back to Obi-Wan with a sharpie he'd seen him using to mark seating charts earlier at the ceremony in hand. He tugs Obi-Wan's shirt-sleeve up to his elbow and bends his head down over his arm. Obi-Wan can't look at him and not kiss him again, but he can't exactly look at Rex either. Does Rex know? Does he suspect? It's over then, isn't it, the hiding. Rex will tell Padmé. Padmé will be deeply ashamed of Obi-Wan. The thought hurts, but Anakin is worth it. Anakin is worth everything.

Anakin is---the smartest boy in the world apparently, because he steps back and he's written his phone number on Obi-Wan's arm nice and big like a claim of ownership. An if lost, please call. A---

"I'm not your student anymore, professor," Anakin says loud enough for Rex to hear from where he's standing at the mouth of the rose garden. "Or a student at all. So. You should...you should call me, professor."

He sounds nervous and confident all in one, like a twenty-two year old who saw his former teacher crush at a party, got drunk and kissed him, and now wants to meet up sometime to do it again.

He does not sound like a twenty-two year old who has been sneaking around campus to fuck his teacher crush for months now and then just got caught by his best friend.

Anakin is brilliant and he's the love of Obi-Wan's goddamn life.

Rex and Anakin turn back to the tent and Obi-Wan rises to follow them.

"Professor Can-Fuck-Me, dude," Rex says in an undertone Obi-Wan can just pick out.

"Dude. I know," Anakin responds low and gleeful and achingly honest.

"You're gonna be married by autumn," Obi-Wan hears.

"I know," this time hopeful but still just as honest. Obi-Wan barely stifles a groan. Anakin is going to be insufferable if they don't marry by November now.

"If you and the professor get together after reconnecting at my wedding, I'm taking credit for it for the rest of our lives," Rex warns, and now it's Anakin's turn to groan.

Obi-Wan grins widely at his lover's distress, but it softens into a small smile upon hearing his response.

"It would be worth it," Anakin mutters, turning around as they enter the tent and giving Obi-Wan a wink. "What a story that would be."

Yeah, Obi-Wan is definitely going to let Anakin fuck him tonight if for no other reason than so Obi-Wan can just lie there and look at his beautiful, perfect liar.

Or, just as likely, bite at his pillow so he doesn't scream out a proposal on the spot.