#poll for the tumblrinas does anakin deserve to punch obi-wan in the throat

[tennessoui]

hanahaki au chapter 6 snippet

“Anakin, if you insist on coming along, you will have to get used to the idea of getting your hands dirty,�� Obi-Wan tells him from the ground, and Anakin looks down at him reluctantly. Despite the fact that his master’s health has never been lower, he still insists upon his post war routine, one that involves restoring a series of Upper Level community gardens that had—apparently—been damaged by debris from the Invisible Hand as it crashed into the city.

His master blinks up at him expectantly, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. The day cycle has already increased so exponentially in the hours that they have been here that he has stripped down to his under tunic. Sweat beads at the exposed hairs of his chest, which is moving with more difficulty than it should given the fairly light labor Obi-Wan has thrown himself into.

“You’d think you’d be tired of digging trenches,” Anakin says with an unfairly dry throat as he bends down at the knees to sit at his master’s side. 

“Nonsense,” Obi-Wan tells him with a small, pleased smile. That’s another thing that Anakin has noticed in the last several weeks. Obi-Wan is freer with his emotions around Anakin than he has ever been before. Maybe he doesn’t think there’s a need to pretend to be the perfect Jedi master anymore, now that the war is over and Anakin is a Master of his own right. Maybe he’s just realized that there’s a day fast approaching when he will no longer be able to smile at Anakin again. Maybe he’s just exhausted, precious energy diverted to other tasks and none leftover to bite back and control his emotions.

“If anything,” he adds when Anakin accepts the trowel with his gloved hand, “I’d be tired of flowers.”

Anakin scowls immediately, heart flinching away and curling in on itself. “Don’t joke about that, Obi-Wan.”

His master at least has the decency to look a little shame-faced, but his regret does little to soothe the sharp knife of Anakin’s grief.