1Obi-Wan has always been good with words.
But at the same time, he has learned the value of brevity.
And so when his master brings a ten-year-old Force-sensitive boy back to the ship, grandly announcing "Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi," Obi-Wan crouches down to shake Anakin's hand with a smile.
"Hello there," he says simply, with a friendly nod.
And that is that.
Anakin becomes Obi-Wan's Padawan. They have a bit of a rocky start, what with Qui-Gon's death and all, but they figure it out.
And just as they settle into a rhythm, a war begins.
The Kaminoans produce an army of one man to fight for the Jedi.
Anakin is knighted and thrown out onto the battlefield, but Obi-Wan manages to pull some strings so they stay together most of the time.
And just as Anakin seems to grow comfortable, Obi-Wan pulls the rug out from under his feet again.
They are on Christophsis when a shuttle lands. They're expecting more troops, but instead, a lone Togruta girl steps down the ramp.
"A youngling?" Obi-Wan mutters to Anakin, quietly enough so that the girl wouldn't hear.
But thanks to her Togruta senses, she does hear, and narrows her eyes at him.
That look tells Obi-Wan everything he needs to know.
Oh, Anakin is going to have his hands full.
Trying not to snicker, Obi-Wan steps forward.
"Hello there."
The war drags on.
The Republic and Separatists push back and forth with neither really gaining.
The war begins to take a toll on the Order.
Obi-Wan can see it in the way Anakin's shoulders tense up before a battle and never relax, in the way Ahsoka's eyes hold far too much pain for a sixteen-year-old.
But still, the war has brought Anakin and Ahsoka closer together than Obi-Wan and Anakin had ever been.
For the first time since the war began, Anakin almost seems… content.
Then a bomb explodes in the Temple hangar.
Ahsoka is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Anakin adamantly insists that she is innocent, and while Obi-Wan agrees, he is one man on a Council of twelve.
Ahsoka is expelled from the Order.
When Anakin proves Ahsoka's innocence, Obi-Wan feels a level of guilt and shame that he has not experienced since Qui-Gon's death.
The Council offers Ahsoka her place in the Order again, but she refuses to return.
She closes Anakin's hand over her Padawan braid, turns, and walks out of the Council chambers.
Obi-Wan is glad that Anakin is facing away from him, because he knows that the expression on Anakin's face would only make his heart break more than it already has.
The war drags on.
Months pass.
Anakin and Obi-Wan are briefly reunited with Ahsoka on Mandalore, but then they have to go rescue the Chancellor.
Obi-Wan wonders if it did not just make it worse for Anakin (and for himself) to see Ahsoka again only to have her torn away a second time.
Anakin is appointed to the Council but is not made a Master.
He has not fully trained a Padawan.
Nobody brings Ahsoka up, but she lingers uncomfortably in all their minds.
When intelligence reports that General Grievous is hiding in the Outer Rim, Anakin wants to go after him.
The Council refuses, and instead decides that Obi-Wan will go.
After the meeting, Obi-Wan reveals to Anakin that the Council wants him to "report on" the Chancellor.
Although Anakin is uncomfortable with this, the famous Negotiator convinces him to accept it before heading off to find Grievous.
Obi-Wan lands on Utapau, hoping to use it as a base of operations while he checks out the surrounding systems.
But he quickly discovers that Grievous is here, with the Separatist leaders and thousands of droids.
Grievous sends the Separatist leaders to Mustafar as Obi-Wan watches and listens from above.
Obi-Wan stands on the catwalk for a minute, stroking his beard in silent contemplation.
Then, slipping out of his cloak and making sure his lightsaber is secure on his belt, he jumps.
He lands behind Grievous with a clunk.
"Hello there."
Obi-Wan kills Grievous with his own "uncivilized" weapon, having lost his lightsaber.
He returns to Cody, who, it turns out, was almost hit by Obi-Wan's lightsaber as it fell.
"I think you'll be needing this," Cody says as he returns Obi-Wan's weapon, a smirk forcing its way onto his scarred face.
Obi-Wan thanks him and rides off on Boga, lightsaber in hand, Boga screeching happily.
But then the Force screams in warning.
A cannon shot knocks Obi-Wan and Boga down into the sinkhole.
Slipping on his rebreather, Obi-Wan drags himself out of the water.
He sees a Republic surveillance droid inspecting the area where he fell.
Realization hits him harder than the cannon shot.
Obi-Wan meets up with Yoda and Bail Organa.
All too soon, the entire story is made clear.
Obi-Wan stows away on Padmé's ship, knowing that she will take him to Anakin.
She does.
In his anger, Anakin hurts her.
Obi-Wan is forced to draw his lightsaber against his friend.
He loved Anakin.
But Anakin would never hurt Padmé.
Anakin is dead.
Obi-Wan will do what he must.
That is the Jedi way.
And as Obi-Wan turns away from what is left of Anakin, unable to bring himself to watch as flames engulf his brother, Anakin's screams echo in his mind.
He knows that he will never be free of that sound.
Obi-Wan brings Padmé to a medical station.
The first twin is a boy. The droid puts him into Obi-Wan's arms.
Padmé names him Luke.
Obi-Wan cradles Luke against his chest, his tunic still soft though burned by the lava of Mustafar. He smiles down at the child in his arms.
"Hello there," he says softly.
The second twin is a girl.
Padmé just has time to name her daughter Leia before her head slumps sideways on the medical table.
The twins sense that something is wrong and begin bawling.
Obi-Wan's heart aches for them.
They will never know their mother.
And they will wish they never knew their father.
And they will never even know each other. It is too dangerous for them to be raised together.
And so Bail adopts little Leia. Breha is delighted.
Obi-Wan brings Luke to his uncle Owen and his aunt Beru.
He says nothing as he hands the child to Beru. She and her husband have already been told everything.
Beru (and Luke) join Owen, watching the suns set.
Obi-Wan mounts his eopie and rides to his new home, not far from Owen and Beru.
After all, he must keep watch over Luke.
Nearly two decades later, Obi-Wan notices a group of Sand People clamoring around a speeder.
Surely this speeder does not belong to them.
Raising his hands to his mouth, he imitates the noise of a krayt dragon.
The Sand People scatter.
Obi-Wan climbs down to the speeder and sees a young man sprawled on the rocky ground next to it, a nasty-looking bump on his head.
The Force tells Obi-Wan that this is Luke, and Obi-Wan is so elated that he can barely concentrate on healing Luke's head.
The wait is over.
He will train Luke, and Luke will bring freedom to the galaxy.
Obi-Wan hears the whir of an astromech. He turns toward the sound, and a smile breaks out on his face when he sees just which astromech this is.
Obi-Wan throws back his hood.
"Hello there."
A/N: I don't know where this idea came from, but I guess it was another fic for venting my feels. This is my first sad/angsty fic, so please tell me how I did!
I hope you enjoyed it! Have a great day!
-JimPen
UPDATE (4/29/2020): I wrote this in one day, so there were some mistakes and unclear phrases. I fixed some of the glaring ones.
UPDATE (5/13/2020): Improved some sentence structure.
