Chapter II: Chump
"It is easier to disintegrate an atom than a prejudice" Albert Einstein
The mission they had between hands would take them to the inhospitable planet Morla. The only advantage of that, in Obi-wan's wise opinion, was that the trip wasn't very long and there would be less chances of crashing and/or flying at high speed. He hated flying. At least the ship was big enough not to notice the movement; he would hate looking vulnerable in front of Anakin Skywalker. Morla wasn't inhospitable because of its geographic constitution. Obi-wan remembered it as a place filled with natural lagoons and a nature controlled enough not to seem annoying or invading. It was a small planet, whose people were distributed in just two cities. And that was the problem: the people. Both clans, the Shani and the Heri, had refused to live in harmony, both claiming the whole territory for themselves. For thousands of years, bloody battles and injustice had haunted the innocent people handled by a few corrupted politicians.
Nevertheless, the leaders had finally understood that it would be for the benefit of both to stop with the cruelty and had agreed to seat and negotiate. Of course, they needed and impartial mediator for that purpose, and that's where he entered... them, Anakin and him.
When Obi-wan boarded the ship that would take them to Morla, Anakin was already there. He was sitting and giving him his back and, even though he made no move to acknowledge his presence, he knew Obi-wan had appeared. Obi-wan took two steps to the front, waiting for Anakin to stand up and look at him, hoping to get a physical impression. The truth was he felt a morbid curiosity to see what had became of that skinny and smiley kid.
"Anakin Skywalker", he pronounced his name easily, rolling it in his tongue as an unpronounceable sin, "sincerely, I wasn't expecting to have the... pleasure of seeing you again", even if he couldn't see his face, he was able to feel a half smile curving his lips, /luscious lips/, he thought.
"Obi-wan Kenobi", Anakin stood up, turning around to face the other knight, "I guess I could say the same", Anakin was slightly taller than him, which didn't have to be a disadvantage, although it couldn't be nice either. He wore black robes, pretty strange in a jedi, who usually chose light attires, such as Obi-wan. Anakin was, as a general impression, intimidating.
"You've grown up", at some other time Obi-wan would have regretted such a stupid comment, but right now he was too worried analyzing the boy. He was attractive, athletic, perfect he could say. He had an aura of mystery and danger around him, which went with the reputation he had around the Temple. His smile was arrogant, perfectly curved in a pair of lips that, indeed, were luscious.
"That's what time tends to do to people", his voice sounded a bit disdainful, as if he was hiding a maquiavelic laugh behind each comment.
"I guess–"
"We are ready to leave", Obi-wan nodded to the droid that would pilot the ship. He had gotten Mace to give him that caprice so he could avoid piloting a ship in which he didn't feel secure. He smiled to himself knowingly; after all, all he had to do to get something from Mace was caress that little spot of his scalp.
"I could have piloted it myself", Anakin sounded upset, a bit childish in that whiny tone. Obi-wan offered him a smirk.
"I don't doubt it, still, I considered more comfortable to have a pilot", another reason for that action had been to annoy the boy whose liking for flying at high speed was known in the entire galaxy.
"I wonder how you got it", but he knew, he just wanted to know how much Obi-wan was willing to concede, "it's kind of hard to get this kind of... favors?"
"Favors. Indeed, it was a personal favor from Mace", it seemed Obi-wan had nothing to hide, which only made everything more interesting.
"Incredible, I personally consider master Windu very inaccessible", Anakin smiled watching Obi-wan clutch a sit strongly when the ship left the platform, entering open space immediately, "although you probably have your own tricks", Obi-wan repressed a laugh. The kid was arrogant and, in other circumstances, he could have liked him. Anyway, it was a refreshing change from the naive youngsters he used to get. A challenge, that would be Anakin.
"Yes, my own tricks", he nodded.
"Take your seats, please" interrupted the pilot droid, "we will be entering hyperspace in a few minutes", both obeyed the order silently, sitting one in front of the other.
"I've heard a lot about you in this past years", Obi-wan noticed Anakin's right hand covered by a leather glove and remembered the story about the Geonosis battle in which he hadn't participated. If his memory was correct the boy had lost the arm at Dooku's hands, "an imprudence?", he whispered pointing at the arm with his head.
"A lesson", answered Anakin closing the gloved hand strongly. A robotic arm, just as Obi-wan had thought, "there is also much talking about you in the Temple, still, it all seems pretty contradictory", Anakin decided time hadn't changed Obi-wan. The only noticeable difference was his beard which made him look a bit older than he was, although he suspected he wore it precisely because of that. His eyes, too, looked more tired.
"Not everything is true, not everything is a lie, I wonder how good a judge you will be, Anakin Skywalker"
"We'll see, right, Obi-wan Kenobi?"
Those were the last words they exchanged during the rest of the trip.
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Thania Heri, heir of the Heri clan, waited next to her father for the arrival of the jedi messengers in the platform they had hurriedly built between the two cities of the planet Morla. The occasion would be memorable, since it was the first time both clans were in the same place without weapons, all of them waiting for the impartial judges from the Republic to show up. They all seemed to be convinced that these envies would solve every problem that had consumed the region for centuries and Thania could only hope that they were right. Nonetheless, she doubted this would be as easy as they pretended, after all, every part would claim its own rights which, by experience, only led to killing.
Thania had never truly understood the gap that separated both clans. The Shani and the Heri weren't all that different, their only differences were basically the hair color and a few religious beliefs. The Shani had bright blond hair and women and men wore it long, the first ones in tall ponytails and the second ones in elaborate hair styles; the Heri had hair of the deepest black, but the men usually wore shaved heads. On the other hand, their religious beliefs were only different by some interpretations of the holy writings, but in her personal opinion, the solution was simply to respect the each other's beliefs and allow everybody to profess their religion without the fear of being murdered because of it. Of course, nobody seemed to agree with her, not even her father. It was the sound of engines what took her out of her thoughts.
She raised her gaze and watched the silver ship land easily into the improvised platform. When the engines turned off, the ramp came down and allowed her to see two men getting down. One of them, the older, looked elegant and diplomat, the other, younger, seemed imposing and powerful. The truth was they pretty much adjusted to what she had expected from a pair of jedis, although she hadn't thought they would be so attractive.
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Obi-wan was the first to get closer to the leaders, or that's what he hoped they were. This was his second visit to Morla, the first one still being Qui-gon's padawan, nevertheless, they hadn't been invited that first time, so he never got to meet any leader.
"We feel very honored receiving you in our humble planet, jedi knights", the one who had talked was a man of Anakin's height, athletic and with a hard gesture on his face. He had beautiful blonde hair, so Obi-wan assumed he was the Shani leader, "my name is Batcha."
"Shani leader, I assume", whispered Obi-wan, shaking the hand the other man offered. He was an attractive man, but didn't inspire any trust, "my name is Obi-wan Kenobi, this is–"
"Anakin Skywalker", Anakin offered Obi-wan a satisfied half smiled while shaking the other man's hand. Obi-wan shook his head to the stupid rebellion of the boy, who seemed to want to remember him that he wasn't the boss.
"My children", Batcha pointed at four youngsters that looked pretty much like him, "we're at your service, knights", he threw Anakin an appreciative glance and smirked.
"Oh, oh, jedis!", Batcha rolled his eyes when he heard the other man's voice, "I'm Gambola, Heri leader, nice to meet you!", Obi-wan offered his hand to the man with sweet expression and fat complexion that had spoken, but he was trapped into a strong hug. While he straightened his clothes, Anakin seemed to find the man funny and returned Gambola's gesture with a hug as assertive as the one offered, which made Obi-wan thinnk that the kid was a box full of surprises, "my daughter, Thania", Obi-wan noticed Batcha's satisfied expression. So what the man liked were young attractive people, any gender or race.
"Nice to meet you", the girl was happy just shaking their hands shyly. She was short and had a shy expression, but was very beautiful.
"We have prepared you a little cabin between both cities", continued Gambola. Batcha kept a hard expression, "it's close enough to both of them, which should make the job easier. We hope you find it comfortable, don't we, Batcha?", the man put an arm around the other man's shoulders, who just separated from him as fast as he could, "my daughter will take you there."
"My heir will go, too", said Batcha, "we will leave you the rest of the day to accommodate yourselves, we will go trough the official part tomorrow."
Obi-wan nodded. The truth was he had expected to start with everything that same day, but it would have been rude to refuse what had been such a clear order.
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Thania and a very silent boy whose name they hadn't gotten, took them to a house of rustic style, built in wood (a not very used material, given its inefficiency compared to metal) and bigger than expected. Both jedis would agree – if they spoke at all – that it was a nice surprise to have beds and showers, used as they were to camp in uncomfortable tents during their long trips. Once both kids had left bowing like crazy, Obi-wan went to look around the house which, certainly, wasn't peculiar. Anakin, on his part, sited in front of a table and practiced his newest hobby: watching Obi-wan. Obi-wan was an attractive man. He looked calmed, opened and experimented; Anakin could understand what other people saw in him. His smile was honest, although his expression was hard to read, although people probably noticed his muscles and his plain stomach sooner than his expression.
Anakin offered him his best smile when he felt him watching him from the door frame, datapad in hand. Obi-wan walked towards him slowly, standing next to his sitting figure. As an unconscious gesture, Anakin stood up, looking for the power his height gave him.
"Do you know anything about this place?", Anakin was surprised by the question. He soon understood that for Obi-wan it was work first, power games later. Spoilsport.
"What's necessary, yeah", he didn't make any gesture to grab the datapad that Obi-wan offered him, making him leave it on the table, "why?"
"Because this is a diplomatic mission", Obi-wan took his hands to his eyes and rubbed them in an exasperated gesture. Anakin would soon learn that was one of the jedi's obsessions, "we have to know every detail about the people we're dealing with."
"And don't you do that... dealing with them? It's a personal opinion, of course, but don't you think it's more useful talking to them than loosing time with useless reading?", he made a dismissing gesture to the datapad, looking then at Obi-wan.
"How do you get an objective opinion?"
"Judging, Obi-wan, I though you wanted to see how good I was at it...?", he allowed his voice to drawl the words slightly, leaning over Obi-wan's face. He smelled like sandal.
"Are you going to be this irritant the whole time?", Obi-wan lectured himself mentally for reacting so violently, falling into Anakin's game wasn't part of his plans.
"I tend to be irritant, yes, I thought your friend Mace would have told you so already", he made an effect pause, getting his body closer to the other one's, "although perhaps his mouth was occupied with something else at the moment", Obi-wan felt something pulling at his pants and soon he was millimeters away from Anakin, his fingers inside the waistband of his pants, caressing the skin of his stomach. Obi-wan wasn't capable of determining how long the silence lasted, just that his eyes crossed with Anakin's not finding the way to separate. It was Anakin who broke the moment by leaning slightly over Obi-wan's mouth.
"Why don't you go and take a walk?", Obi-wan's voice was a whisper millimeters away from the other one's mouth, "maybe you'll find someone to talk to... isn't that your not patented method, Anakin?"
Anakin half smiled, amused, and separated from Obi-wan, taking his steps to the door without any other word. Nevertheless, before leaving the room he stopped at the doorframe, hitting it slightly, lowering his head and laughing bitterly.
"You don't even know me", he felt Obi-wan raising his gaze, since he had buried himself in his datapad as soon as Anakin had been outside of his personal space.
"I could say the same"
"Yes, of course", it didn't matter what the rest of the world had to say or how much time had passed, in his opinion, Obi- wan was still an uptight bookworm.
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End chapter II
Chump – Green Day
I don't know you
But, I think I hate you
You're the reason for my misery
Strange how you've become
my biggest enemy
And I've never even seen your face
Maybe it's just jealousy
Mixing up with a violent mind
A circumstance that doesn't make much sense
Or maybe I'm just dumb
You're the cloud hanging out over my head
Hail comes crashing down
welting my face
magic man, egocentric plastic man
Yet you still get one over on me
Maybe it's just jealousy
Mixing up with a violent mind
A circumstance that doesn't make much sense
Or maybe I'm just dumb