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Obi-Wan Kenobi dragged his battle-weary self into the Resolute’s medical bay. The bay was mostly dark and empty save for two clones recovering in beds near the door and two shadowed figures on another bed near the window in back.
Obi-Wan made his way closer to the duo. As he neared he saw Anakin sitting with his back propped against the wall and Ahsoka curled up next to him. Anakin was absently stroking his Padawan’s lekku and staring down at a datapad while murmuring something.
No, reading something. “…And it turned out, everyone was wrong,” Obi-Wan heard Anakin saying. “For the very lazy Padawan—”
“The very lazy Padawan had become a great Jedi Knight,” Obi-Wan finished.
Anakin looked up in surprise. “Hey.” His brow furrowed. “I didn’t know you were back yet.”
“Just a few minutes ago. Rex said I’d find you here.” Obi-Wan smiled at the datapad clutched in his old apprentice’s hand. “The Very Lazy Padawan?”
“Yeah.” Anakin smiled. “An old favorite.”
Obi-Wan quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t you think Ahsoka’s a little old for a book my crèche master used to read to me?”
“She’s got a concussion,” Anakin explained.
Obi-Wan nodded. “Rex told me.”
“Well, remember that concussion I got? And my ears were ringing and when you read to me it helped?”
“I remember I lost my voice,” Obi-Wan said dryly. That simple sparring accident had left Anakin bedridden for almost a week.
“Anyway, I thought it might help her.” Anakin idly twirled Ahsoka’s braid through his fingers. “She was in pretty rough shape when we got back.”
With as much tenderness as existed in fingers covered with armor, Obi-Wan ran his knuckles down Ahsoka’s cheek. The Togruta girl didn’t even twitch. “Has she been sick at all?”
“A couple of times, yeah,” Anakin answered. “She’ll be OK, but she’s in for a tough few days.”
Ahsoka stirred and Obi-Wan straightened.
“Snips?” Anakin leaned forward a little, all attention focused on his ailing Padawan. “How you feeling? You OK?”
“Ow,” Ahsoka mumbled without so much as opening her eyes.
“Do you feel sick at all?” Anakin asked.
“Uh-uh.”
“Do you know where you are?” Obi-Wan asked softly.
“Resolute,” Ahsoka answered.
That was a good sign.
“Water?” Ahsoka asked.
Obi-Wan spied a glass just out of Anakin’s reach. “Is this hers?” He asked Anakin.
Anakin shrugged. “It is now.” He took the glass out of Obi-Wan’s hand and offered it to Ahsoka. “Here you go, little one.”
“Don’t call me that,” Ahsoka protested.
“Well, maybe when you’re not little I won’t call you that anymore,” Anakin teased lightly. “You’re gonna have to sit up unless you want to sleep on a wet bed.”
With no small amount of help from Anakin and Obi-Wan, Ahsoka managed to sit up and take a sip of water.
“Let me sleep,” Ahsoka pleaded. “Head hurts.”
“OK, Snips, OK.” Anakin handed the glass back to Obi-Wan who set it back on the table. “Go ahead and lie back down. You can sleep now.”
“Mm.” Ahsoka burrowed back into the thin mattress. “OK.”
A few seconds later she nodded off again and Anakin let out a wide yawn.
Obi-Wan looked his fellow general up and down. “You should get some sleep yourself.” Anakin was still in his battle armor, his hair and face covered with grime.
Anakin shook his head. “I promised I’d be here when she woke up.”
“She just woke up.”
“I mean when she wakes up and is lucid.”
“I can sit with her,” Obi-Wan offered.
“No, no, it’s all right. I’ll sleep when we get back to Coruscant. We aren’t that far out.”
“I could make that an order,” Obi-Wan pointed out.
“No you can’t,” Anakin yawned again. “We’re both generals. And we even have the same date of rank, so don’t go pulling that on me.”
“Who said anything about pulling rank?” Obi-Wan touched his fingertips to Anakin’s forehead and with no small measure of sick glee, planted a sleep suggestion in his old student’s mind.
Anakin’s eyes fell shut. A few seconds later they snapped open and fixed Obi-Wan with a murderous glare. “You rat bastard.”
“Don’t use such language around your Padawan,” Obi-Wan admonished mildly.
“Never stopped you,” Anakin slurred.
“Shhhh,” Obi-Wan soothed. He slid his hand under the fringe of Anakin’s hair. “Don’t fight it. Sleep.”
“Not your Padawan anymore.” Anakin’s eyes closed for good this time.
Obi-Wan stayed for a few moments, gently stroking Anakin’s hair until he was sure the young man wouldn’t wake up. Then he maneuvered Anakin so he was lying down on the bed, Ahsoka still nestled at his side.
Obi-Wan rested one hand on Anakin’s forehead, the other on Ahsoka’s shoulder. He gently touched his bond with Anakin and filled the connection with as much comfort and warmth as he could. Anakin relaxed further and sighed like the weight of the galaxy had been lifted from his back.
Anakin had carried so many burdens in his young life, Obi-Wan mused. He deserved a few hours of unbroken sleep.
“You’ll always be my Padawan, Anakin.” Obi-Wan rested his hand briefly on Anakin’s cheek. “Always.”
A Master’s work, Obi-Wan had begun to realize, was never done.