Star Wars - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Covalent Bonds ❯ Chapter 41

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

"If you think I can sleep after hearing this news, Obi-Wan --- "

"I can't either." Obi-Wan rolled over to face Anakin, the movement releasing the scent of flowers in the fresh sheets. The summer breeze ruffled the sheers and they lay nude in its caress. Coruscant's endless noise was filtered by the Temple's efficient sound blocking system. Anakin had disabled the Wake Up Naturally, Every Time! program for tonight. He knew his racing mind would not let him rest and tomorrow, after all, would be an ordinary day between missions.

Anakin inhaled deeply. "Names. I suppose you are thinking of names." Master Yoda had leaped at the chance to have input on that subject when they had faced him with their news together. It had been a long afternoon.

"It's too soon. I'm still processing." Obi-Wan rubbed his chin. "But now that you mention it --- "

"Stop. Let's leave the Unifying Force alone for tonight, and maybe it'll leave us alone, too." He patted Obi-Wan's arm. "All right?"

"Yes. Live for the moment. Qui-Gon would have approved." What would you say to all this, Master?

"So, we still on for sparring after morning meditation?" Just how careful do I need to be with you now?

"Yes." For a while.

Can we fool around? "What about sex?"

"It's great, why do you ask?" This news, and his Knighting tomorrow. My mind is on overload.

"I mean with you. And me."

"Still great. What did you have in mind?"

"Something like the Anakkona Rear Mount."

"Well, I was thinking about the Togorian Triangle."

"That's a little ... athletic. Wouldn't the trapeze make you dizzy?"

"No more than the sling would."

"Let's not, and say we did."

"I'm, uh, in the mood for something, Anakin." The intimate tickle of the breeze blew a strange notion into the room. "The veranda!"

"It's scratchy, that wicker settee."

"No, behind the palm trees. We could pretend we're back on Trow." Obi-Wan grew more animated. He leaped up and gathered the comforter at the foot of the bed. "Come on." He plumped up the comforter and lay it down between their three palm trees, calling to mind their awakening desires in the common area during the Mother's Festival of Plenitude. A little late for that now, although the Mother would be pleased at these developments. I wonder how Kuki is getting along with her baby.

Without a word, Anakin lay down and lifted his leg, pulling Obi-Wan close. "Like that first time, Master."

Oh, stars, yes. Obi-Wan kissed Anakin's bicep as he slid behind his soon-to-be Knighted Padawan, laying his length between Anakin's thighs from behind. Anakin squeezed rhythmically, pulling at his own cock until Obi-Wan took over. Long pulls and short, stabby ones, killing thrusts and unnumbered kisses led them along the Jedi path. Anakin came first, willing himself to hold out as long as he could. Obi-Wan was a machine with control that Anakin had never seen before. Fully twenty minutes passed before Obi-Wan came with a muted hah! and a pinch of Anakin's tattooed nipple. Anakin braced himself against the pain. It was a welcome pain. He used the settee cushion to wipe them both off.

"Love ... you ... darling. No matter ... what ... happens." What a mission we are on together. There are no texts and plenty of tests. Will we pass?

"I think I can sleep now, Master."

"'Obi-Wan'."

Back to reality. "Obi-Wan, let's go inside."

"Let's not. Look at the stars, dozens of them through the haze."

"Some of them are satellites."

"Mood-buster. Come here, like on Olanet. We'll keep each other warm."

"You're warm again?"

"Erm, yes, isn't it odd, I seem to be turbo tonight, I'll take care of it myself, you don't have to bother, Anakooooooo, uhhhh, th-thanks, nggg, oh ... " My Knight. I think I'll keep him.

We'll be tired for our sparring session, but who cares? Anakin swallowed everything happily and dreamed that night of accipipteros crowing in a Dagoban forest, heralding a new day. The next morning, when Obi-Wan led him to the Council chambers for "a brief consult with Master Yoda," he didn't suspect a thing.

IOIOIOIOIOIO

"I release myself from your authority, my Master, permanently and only for your greater good. I recognize that all the Jedi that I am, I owe to your training and promise to remember my life under your authority always. I will touch you without asking permission as you touch me in the normal way of things. May The Force Be With Us." The near-darkness of the chamber hid Anakin's tear-filled eyes. He blinked back the moisture.

"May The Force Be With Us All. I accept your release and place the Bead of Completion in your sigil of Padawanship." Obi-Wan undid the strings at the end of Anakin's braid and secured the blue Bead before retying the tough threads.

Yoda dubbed each of Anakin's shoulders within the width of one of Obi-Wan's whiskers. The ozone from his green lightsaber tinged the air with Jedi scent. "Knighted you are, Anakin Skywalker." Parent, you are, and Knight, too. Changes in the galaxy, in me. Deal with this, I can. Deal without Padme, I can. Know now, I do, how union between Force-sensitive and Force-blind ends. Lesson, it was. Padawan in love, I am. Grandmaster, I was not.
"Master Yoda."
"Hmmm?"
"The knife." The earnestness in Zett's voice made Yoda's ears twitch. "Master Yoda, I'll get it for you."
"Have it here, I do. Presume, you will not." Yoda handed the knife to Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan firmed the plait in his hand. Between his neck and my fingers, no difference in our flesh. I'm cutting myself as much as I am cutting him. Obi-Wan cut the braid with one sure stroke. He handed the knife back to Yoda. He kept the braid.
The Force singing around him, Anakin lightly rose to his feet. So this is it. Muscle memory said his braid still depended, but muscle memory could be retrained. He lifted his head. It didn't matter that eight of the twelve Masters were only holograms. It mattered that the most important Master in the galaxy was at his side, right where he belonged.
‘Lover,’ ‘old friend.’ What do I call you now? 'Darling' will have to do. Obi-Wan drew closer. "Darling," he whispered before the rest of the Council clustered around them. Even the holograms seemed brighter today. Each blue Master bowed to Anakin and he bowed back. The solid Councilmembers repeated their own bows solemnly, then relaxed. Saesee Tiin clamped a massive paw on Anakin's shoulder while Ki-Adi-Mundi unbent enough to pump Anakin's hand.
Adi placed her hands on Anakin's shoulders and leaned in to kiss the air above each cheek. "Forgive me for leaving so soon, Knight Skywalker. I have duties." She bowed deeply in the way that her diplomat parents had taught her and departed.
Meanwhile, in the Room of a Thousand Fountains ...

It was time, it was past time. Adi calmed herself. For a Spymaster, Tholme had a relaxed time sense. Maybe that was the unwoven strand from all the tangled threads he wove each day, the loose end always kept open for possibilities. Adi meditated in her usual way, palms outstretched to gather strength. A zaela needle fell on her thumb. There was a crunching sound behind her, a slither and a plop. She jumped to her feet and whirled, lightsaber aglow. There was a spy loose in the Temple, and one couldn't be too careful.

"Adi," croaked Tholme. "Help."

"Tholme?"

Beyond all reason, there sprawled crippled Tholme on the grass behind the bench while a creaking, rustling thing extruded two branches to pick Tholme up under his arms. He snarled through cracked lips. "Let me go!"

"In due time, love," T'ra Saa's voice whispered. Tholme kicked backwards and Adi extended one hand to him, lightsaber dialed down to dagger size to spear the thing with T'ra's voice if necessary. There was a whimper from unseen lips. "I haven't the will to fight you, Adi. I'm all used up." T'ra had absorbed all Tholme's struggles and sweat and abuse. She crackled herself into that shape that nearly all the Temple knew her as: a slender near-human Romin in her mid-forties. But something was missing from her, Tholme could tell.

"Your battle heart is not in you. You've split, you're left with --- "

"Only my nurturing self, the part that calms you." She had neglected to refresh all the simulated physical responses and Adi found her golden unblinking stare unnerving. She couldn't imagine Tholme's thoughts at the moment.

"Where is the rest of you?" Tholme wavered on his feet and with one firm arm, Adi took over his support from T'ra. "Where?" Tholme shouted.

T'ra was as serene as a tree drooping over a still pond. "I've done my part. Farewell, Tholme," her needles sighed before her arms and legs and lips melded into one trunk.

"T'ra!" Tholme's voice cracked. "Answer me!" It was as if she listened only to herself, and then to no one.

Thank the stars she's not mobile in this shape. "Tholme, snap out of it! What did she do? What danger does she represent? What do we do next?"

"Dooku, she said someone was freeing Dooku. Help me to his cell!" Tholme lay a great portion of his weight on Adi as the two hustled to the door. Adi clipped her lightsaber to her belt and bobbled out her commlink with which she had been keeping touch with Siri and ARC5231. Their plans for moving out from the Temple became more complicated as time went on, instead of less.

"Siri! Come in, Siri!" Kriffit, she's out looking for likely homes on Dantooine today. Among the crowd of Jedi running towards their commotion was Regork, his tail stretched out behind him for balance as he sprinted across the wide room.

"Adi! What'ss happening?"

"Here, take Tholme to Dooku's cell, two levels down, eastern sector." Regork bent down so that Tholme could clasp both arms around the Glarsaur's black neck and straddle his broad red back. Regork's claws ripped divots in the greensward as he took off. The Temple had no regular detention areas. This was yet another day of Dooku's incarceration, a period of reflection and hopefully penitence for the awakened Sith Lord before Yoda's and Tholme's interrogation. So far Dooku's absence had made no difference in the war. Intel reported one battle with widespread deployment of a startling new type of droid made of crystal. Sound weapons made no incursions on its might in battle, and Grievous had been reported as sarcastically gleeful as ever as he hacked and hewed. Dooku can't return to the war. It's up to me. All this swirled through Adi's Councilmember mind before she barked the next order. "You. Stay here and keep watch on that zaela tree. It's a shapeshifter. Take no chances." She spun. "You. Comm Master Yoda and tell him that there is a threat to free Dooku." She accosted a Whiphid who could have been K'Kruhk's spawn, if the Jedi did such things. "Knight, come with me to the west hangar." Something pinged there in warning. "The rest of you alert each hangar to halt all flights and ground departures. All of them!" she tossed over her shoulder from the doorway. In the hall was a smashed cheap statue that Regork's tail had probably swept into chalky fragments in his dash for the elevator. She leaped over the mess, taking off at right angles to his path, the Knight galloping to keep up.

TBC