great teachers learn from their students
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Age Regression/De-Aging, Mission Fic, Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padawan Anakin Skywalker, Master & Padawan Relationships (Star Wars), Miscommunication, POV Multiple, Flirting, Getting Together, Yoda's Disaster Lineage (Star Wars)
Maybe one of my favorite chapters of the fic? But partially for angst reasons so... beware 😂
“Did you—you were waiting for me?” Anakin asks, not sure if he put those pieces together correctly and come to the right conclusion.
Obi-Wan blushes a little, his cheeks going pink in a way that makes Anakin stare. He has never seen his master blush before. Never really knew he was capable. Perhaps there is a whole range of emotion hidden behind his beard that Anakin hasn’t been privy to.
“Of course I waited,” murmurs Obi-Wan. “I had to make sure you were alright.”
But surely there were other things Obi-Wan could have been doing. His duty as a Jedi should have pulled him into the fray or kept him on planet as they saw to the liberation, leading him far from Anakin’s bedside. Hell, it’s been four hours after an exhausting mission. Obi-Wan should have taken a shower, should have gone to sleep in a bed of his own. Instead he is wearing the same clothes Anakin last saw him in, still disheveled from battle. There is a streak of dust across one of his blushing cheeks.
“Why?” Anakin asks. His voice sounds far away even to himself.
Obi-Wan goes a little pale at that and Anakin misses the pretty blush. “Because,” he says and he makes the single word sound like a complete sentence. Like the answer should be obvious, like they have gone over this already once before. “Because…”
The uncertainty in Obi-Wan’s voice lingers for a moment before he visibly comes to a decision. He sits down on the bed beside Anakin, brings a hand to his uninjured shoulder, and then leans in close to kiss him.
Anakin’s lips part a little in shock, softening to capture Obi-Wan’s. It takes him longer than it should to close his eyes and accept that yes, this is happening. But once he does, Anakin is all in. With his good arm, he reaches up to caress Obi-Wan’s shoulder and reel him in closer. He mouths at Obi-Wan’s lips in a way that he knows that Obi-Wan will be able to tell is messy and unpracticed but he can’t bring himself to care. It’s all he’s got and he is going to make the most of it.
This is his master, with everything that entails. The same man he has looked up to and fought with, hated and feared and respected and loved. Loved above everything else.
Anakin has spent most of his apprenticeship sure that he could be good enough if only he worked a little harder and equally certain that Obi-Wan would never see it. He sought approval from the one man who would never give it to him. Even if Anakin has always been afraid to look at those thoughts of his master too closely, the ones that admired Obi-Wan for more than his strength and discipline as the epitome of what a Jedi should be, there is no chance that Anakin would ever turn away from an opportunity like this one without exploring the possibility of more.
Having his master in a way that no one else could, loving him as an equal instead of some distant authority, the possibility of being loved in return exactly as he is—no amount of fear on Anakin’s part is going to stand in the way of that.
Obi-Wan pulls back, leaving Anakin feeling a little dazed in a way that has nothing to do with lingering sedatives, looking up at him through half lidded eyes. It takes a second for the uncertainty to fade from Obi-Wan’s face, replaced with a far more attractive smile that seems almost smug.
The heat in Obi-Wan’s gaze makes Anakin gulp. He wants that, whatever it means, and he’ll do anything to get it.