deercountry | Lost Pieces - October Catch-all

It was obvious enough that Jason touched a nerve. "All right then," he shrugged, letting that subject drop. "You at least know how to use that lightsaber?"

Anakin isn't the type of person who would be grateful over a person's tact. He expected his boundaries to be observed, demanded it even. "Better than most."

And yet they were using it as a light instead.

A light was what they needed now. Jason let Anakin go ahead while he hung back, weapon poised in case they got jumped by something. The usual woodland noises were all around them but Jason knew there could be things even worse hidden in the thick foliage. Jason hadn't gotten to see Force abilities in action much, but he trusted them to alert if anything dangerous was close.

"So are lightsabers a common weapon where you're from?" Truth be told, Jason didn't know a lot about it outside what he learned from Obi-wan.

Anakin shoots him an incredulous look without stopping to think about how their galaxy was represented in Trench with almost exclusively Jedi and Sith. "You think most people could use this without hurting themselves? Only those that are Force-sensitive get the most use out of these."

That instinctive awareness of where it was went along way to mitigate accidents.

"Most people can't use any kind of weapon without hurtin' themselves," Jason reasoned with a shrug. "I don't know a whole lot about Force-sensitive except what I learned from Obi-wan. He's a Jedi I know."

He pauses briefly. "He's never mentioned you before."

He doesn't know if that means they don't know each other that well or he never thought to tell Anakin. He wants it to be the former, but he knows that's unlikely.

Jason hasn't really mentioned Obi-wan to his friends, either. Not by name, anyway. So it didn't bother him much that Obi-wan hadn't mentioned Jason. He shrugged, checking the strange compass thing to make sure they were still going the right way.

"I guess he will when he's ready to." Which was more or less Jason's own attitude about it.

"He tells me everything important." His tone is haughty, but a part of this is trying to convince himself that it is true and not letting his insecurities show.

Obi-Wan cared about him just as much as he did and no matter what happened, nothing would come between them. Not even himself.

Jason frowned at the words, but then it clicked. "You're Anakin," he realized. He figured he would have to meet this guy eventually, but thought Obi-wan would be introducing them. "I'm Jason," he offered, holding out his hand. "Obi-wan told me a lot about you."

He was a little confused, though. Why wasn't this kid a Jedi when he and Obi-wan were practically family?

"Yeah..." When Jason explains how he knows him, his thoughts immediately change track. That was one way to change the topic, make it all about him again. Now he's more preoccupied with how he's been introduced to other people. Anakin's brow furrows and he doesn't take the offered hand in favour of asking, "What did he say about me?"

Would it be good? Bad? Embarrassing? There was a lot to examine in how he was talked about to others.

"Just that he raised you since you were a kid, and he loves you and worries about you." Which was true, but it wasn't all Obi-wan had said about Anakin. He noticed how Anakin hadn't taken his hand yet and let it drop after a moment.

"Good to finally meet you," Jason said.

Worries about him covered a lot of ground and was less informative than he thought it would be and Anakin knows most of the time that he's loved, but it was always good to hear it.

"Well he shouldn't. I'm not a kid any more."

Never mind Obi-Wan not worrying about him is one of his worst case scenarios. It does however make him feel a little better that he's never heard of Jason until now. If it was important, then it would have been brought up just like how he had heard about Anakin.

"How do you know him?"

Jason had to think of how to answer this question. At least Anakin was an adult; that made this a little less awkward than if he was meeting a little kid.

"We're seeing each other," he finally answered. "We're takin' it slow." He hoped that explanation would be enough for why Obi-wan hadn't mentioned Jason yet.

Anakin stops moving and slowly turns to face Jason fully.

"Oh, really?"

Unfortunately Jason not being Force-sensitive won't be able to pick up on the warning signs coming off of Anakin. Outwardly, he's a little stiff, but nothing revealing the extent of how he actually feels right now. The temperature seems to drop a bit, something easily attributed to the woods.

Jason didn't have Force powers, but he was pretty good at reading people. And he figured that telling Anakin that Jason was dating his father-figure might not go over well. Especially since Jason wasn't that much older than Anakin. He also knew that Force-sensitive people could sense emotions, so Jason kept his own in check.

"Yep." He waited a few heartbeats, then added: "I can hear you thinkin'. Not literally, but I can tell your brain's tickin' away. So just spit it out."

Spitting it out for Anakin involves taking a step forward and a hand extended to lift Jason off the ground. He's not intending on killing him right now so the grip against his neck is only tight, not crushing.

"I don't think you want me to do that."

He spins the blade in his other hand in a lazy circle.

"But I'd be happy to."

Well, now Jason knew why Anakin said he wasn't a Jedi. Jason's weapon and the compass-thing slipped out of his hand as his body lifted into the air. It was the weirdest feeling that Jason couldn't spend much time on as he felt pressure on his neck. He instinctively reached up to fight off whatever was choking him but of course nothing was there.

Jason had been expecting anger and some variation of you're not good enough for him, but not this.

"Go ahead," Jason hissed between gritted teeth.

[ooc: just sliding in here to grant permission to toss Jason around and get him injured. Life and limb intact please]

Obi-Wan wouldn't approve of what he's doing right now, but the threat of his disapproval has never stopped him before. He also knows he could do worse and still not push the man away. The only thing holding him back was his own sense of morals and he's never been known for that. It would be a test of the progress he's made.

"He'll still choose me over you, you know. You're not taking him from me."

[ooc: i was not planning on going that far, but good to know >:D]

This was more in line with the talk Jason expected. Except he hadn't been dangling in the air with an invisible hand pressed to his neck. He gave Anakin a look and lifted a hand to his neck. Jason quite literally couldn't waste his breath talking so he hoped the gesture said enough.

Put me down and stop what you're doing. Then we can talk.

He gets the gist of it. There were after all, only a few things someone getting choked might say. Anakin doesn't know if he cares. He knows he should, knows that his actions should horrify him, but it's hard. He was losing people bit by bit and it was intolerable.

He throws Jason against a tree, loosens his grip against his neck in favour of stabbing the lightsaber into the bark inches away from his head. The wood doesn't catch fire immediately, but smoke curls around the blade.

"What if I don't want to?"

It was a strange feeling having his body being tossed around. Jason hit the tree, the air knocked out of him, a hand going to his neck again as he felt the pressure ease. He coughed and massaged the area, blinking until his vision cleared. The smell of smoke made it pretty obvious what Anakin was doing now.

"Obi-wan would fuckin' die for you," he rasped out. "If you don't know that, you don't know him." Jason coughed again, making sure to hold still so he wasn't anywhere near that lightsaber. He focused hard on keeping his Omen out of this confrontation. "And if you think I'd ever wanna change that, you don't know me."

Jason paused to let his throat get some rest. "There's no me versus you in this, Anakin. Obi-wan's got room for us both and anybody else he cares about. Or are you gonna stand there and try tellin' me he don't have anyone but you in this whole goddamn place?"

Immediately, the lightsaber was extinguished and he dropped Jason entirely to step back and laugh. There's a hysterical note to his voice, as if it was this or break down.

Oh, how wrong he was.

"You really don't know anything. You don't know what he's like or what he's capable of."

Obi-Wan would pick duty over Anakin, has picked it before and would do it again. And if he was really capable of having them all in his life, why was he feeling so isolated from it?

Jason felt it as he was released. He took a moment to orient himself again and make sure Anakin wasn't about to attack before pulling up on his feet again.

"Maybe. Like I said, he and I are goin' slow." He was pretty sure he was right, though. Jason touched his neck and wondered if invisible hands would still leave a bruise. "I know it'd be easier to hate me," Jason continued. "Believe me, I hated someone just 'cause of the fuckin' uniform they were wearin'. But truth is you don't know shit about me."

"I don't hate you." He finds the words slipping out automatically and is surprised to find its true. He'd always hated anything that threatened to take away those he loved, but he finds that it isn't the case here or at least not in the way Jason thinks.

"He wouldn't do that for me, you know. I would have done anything for him, but he'd walk away. He did it already. You're right, I don't know you. But I do know him."

And there lay their different paths.

"Well," Jason said after a moment, "I'd like to know you. Whatever happened between you two ain't my business. You're important to each other, and Obi-wan's important to me." He felt a little flutter in his heart admitting as much out loud.

Lost Pieces - October Catch-all

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