Obi-Wan’s heat had arrived.

They had all known it was coming and Anakin had been sleeping tightly bundled into Obi-Wan, their tail lightly curled into each other for days to be able to both smell and see the change when it came.

The day it came, Anakin had growled warningly to the rest of the pod, the few that were awake as Obi-Wan’s bioluminescent flashed softly of the walls of the cave. J

ango had just snorted at them and gestured to the opening. “Get out of here and take care of each other. We really don’t need you going all feral Anakin.” He stated wryly as Obi-Wan sat up with a sleepy noise, likely reacting to Anakin’s growl.

Shaking himself to get out of his instincts, Anakin grabbed Obi-Wan’s seaweed bag and pulled the sleepy omega with him to the cave they had prepped, crooning softly at the sleepy, pre-heat confused noises Obi-Wan was making.

Not that Obi-Wan’s morning confusion was unusual.

Obi-Wan wasn’t really a morning person and Anakin found it adorable how grouchy Obi-Wan was until he ate something in the morning and woke up some.

They didn’t have time for that right now.

Despite how adorably grouchy Obi-Wan was being as he made low, grumpy noises as Anakin pulled him over the sands to the cave, pushing the other in first. “Here, eat a bit of crab.” He stated coaxingly, pushing one of the crabs caught last night into his hands from the seaweed bag of crabs.

He had removed the claws of it, leaving the crab alive for now but unable to escape or hurt Obi-Wan and the other mer perked up up at the food in his hand.

He instantly went to work cracking the smaller legs to suck on them first and then cracking open the body.

It made Anakin smile as he quickly swam out, reluctant but knowing they needed fish for a few days. He and Obi-Wan had gathered some food already, live clams and other shells, crabs, lots of kelp, even seal meat, Obi-Wan having been delighted over the kill as they shared half the meat between the cave and the rest of the pod.

But Anakin wanted more, a few fish to go with it, cod and salmon but he hadn’t dared to hunt them. Due to their size, they would start rotting quicker and while the meat could handle a few days, wrapped up as it was in sections, the fish would start rotting after just a few days.

Therefore Anakin hadn’t dared to hunt any fish just yet, uncertain which day Obi-Wan’s heat would hit, the last thing he wanted was spoiled food that smelled in the cave when they were bonding for the first time.

He had a few more hours before he would need to pull the rock to cover the opening and he knew that the others would respect staying away from the cave.

Hell, he noticed Rex stationed a good few throws away, the other blond waving lightly when he saw Anakin leaving the cave but staying put. Jango must have put him up to it, just in case and Anakin felt his anxieties at leaving Obi-Wan behind in the cave.

Being away from the cave for the first mating when both Anakin and Obi-Wan were unclaimed was reasonable but there were rogue mers around, as Obi-Wan himself proved by swimming through their area.

The last thing he wanted was for someone to come over Obi-Wan in his current state, especially if Obi-Wan tipped into his heat quicker than they expected.

Obi-Wan had seemed sure it would take him at least half a day from his pre-heat to a full heat but Jango had warned them both not to take that for certain as Obi-Wan’s body was now in warmer waters from before.

That could change his reaction to make his pre-heat longer or shorter for all they knew.

‘He knows how to protect himself, I just need to be quick, gather in the fish and return to him before his heat hits,’ Anakin reminded himself sternly, glancing back once before darting off into the kelp forest to hunt. ‘Just be quick.’