Watching his master and the captain talk together, Obi-Wan fiddled awkwardly with his robe, needle held tightly between index and thumb as he sat outside his tent in lotus position.

He was going to mend a hole in his robe but had gotten… distracted if he was honest.

The clones were distracting, despite trying to modulate their thoughts a tad for the Jedi sake, it was difficult for most to ignore them when their thoughts flashed so loudly sometimes.

Especially for him.

Obi-Wan wasn’t sure why, but everything about them made his very soul seemingly sit up and take notice. Hell, even Jango Fett had produced that reaction, so maybe it was something to do with Jango, as the original template?

But so far Obi-Wan just hadn’t had time to figure it out and being around his former master made it hard too.

Don’t get him wrong, he loved Anakin but uh… Anakin could be a tad overprotective. And if he learned that Obi-Wan was attracted to basically the entire GAR and they were seemingly attracted back, then Obi-Wan would never get a moment of privacy while on campaigns.

It was just how Anakin was.

Obi-Wan couldn’t quite blame the other man really.

Anakin took on Obi-Wan on just days before he turned thirteen, his face a scowling storm, muttering something about interfering goblins and old masters before gently leading Obi-Wan away from a transport to Bandomeer.

The masters had sent Obi-Wan away.

Then Knight Skywalker had come for him, finding him on the transport bay, moments before boarding the Monument, offering him an apprenticeship with him.

It had taken… weeks, if not months, before Obi-Wan had felt secure in his position as Anakin’s padawan.

After all, he had been sent away before he turned thirteen, for reasons he at the time didn’t really understand. He had seen passionate and even angry Jedi before, so why was he so much worse?

Anakin had finally told him, years later, that it was Grandmaster Yoda’s fault, that he had intended him for his linage, but through Qui-Gon Jinn.

Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what to make of that.

He liked his grandmaster well enough, he guessed, but… the idea of being apprentice to a man that disregarded visions so obviously when Obi-Wan’s skills laid in precognition and prophecy…

It didn’t sound like a good match.

Anakin had apparently figured it out, which was why he had come for Obi-Wan on the platform. Supposedly, there had been several Knights and Masters interested in teaching Obi-Wan, who had been discouraged by Yoda since he wanted him for Qui-Gon Jinn.

Learning that had been… difficult.

Anakin knew that and due to that knowledge, had been protective from the get go, keeping his padawan close to him and stressing about every little injury and hurt.

Then Melida/Daan happened.

It was an ancient conflict, it was supposedly easing a bit when Anakin and Obi-Wan were there, mostly to refuel and get a look at the planet.

The war had been going on, only a lull between battles in a conflict that had beeing on for far too long.

Now with a plague added.

With destroyed waterlines, waste and corpses piling, disease had become a plague on the world and in just half an hour, Obi-Wan had become separated from his master after a bomb hit down too close for comfort and Anakin had been unable to land again after evacuation when he realized his padawan wasn’t on the ship, the planet put under quarantine.

Obi-Wan lowkey blamed R2 for Anakin not realizing he was there, if he was honest.

Not that Anakin didn’t try, but under the threat of being shot out of the sky due to the plague to avoid spreading it, there wasn’t much even an ace pilot like Anakin could do.

The fourteen year old still spent over a month on a plague and war infested world, fighting with the Young, who wanted the war to end.

It felt like the right thing… but everything had gone so horribly wrong so fast, just when peace seemed to be in sight.

Anakin hadn’t let his padawan out of his sight for weeks after that, growling at anyone that made a comment about Obi-Wan fighting in a war.

‘But it came in use, didn’t it?’ Obi-Wan thought a tad cynically, peering at his master and the captain again, only to look away quickly when he found amber eyes looking at him in return, his cheeks burning.

He felt hungry again and felt the same hunger reflected back at him.

‘Why… no one else reacts to them like I do… why are they making me so hungry…’ Obi-Wan swallowed thickly and glanced up through his lashes, breathing a tad out in relief that Rex was no longer looking at him. ‘I need to figure this out.’