deercountry | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Ezra + Obi-wan. Ezra+Michael, Ezra+Ariadne
What: closed prompt in comments.
When: Evening of 2/25, and also general end of the month
Where: Obi-wan's house in Cassandra, Michael's shop, Rooftops of Trench

Content Warnings: Blood, offscreen deaths, aftermath of mass battle, grief, some corruption, others in tags

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Eventually, the padawan shifts from Form I to Soresu. Part of him wants to show off, just a little.

Not that he thinks he can really get the upper hand. So really, he just wants to show more of what he's learned.

Including some of what Ben taught him.]]

[ he smirks at that. ]

Testing my own form against me?

[Cheerfully-]

Seeing how well some of what I picked up in the last year has stuck!

Fair enough. I better test your proficiency.

Then I know I'll be properly put through my paces in it.

I should hope so.

[Yeah, he fully expects to be politely as creamed one can be in friendly spar now.

And that's OK. He probably will learn something.

For the moment he just raises his eyebrows and resolves to do his best to keep up.]

[ since ezra is expecting a show, obi-wan's demeanour shifts. oh, his smile stays on and nothing about his aura seems to be different but all it takes is a side-step and he's leaping over ezra to aim a thrust at his back. ]

[That first thrust, he manages to block, with the minimum amount of movement, as is typical of Soresu. And he manages to keep going like that, for a while. He's clearly focused less on 'winning' and more on executing the form with as close to a technically perfect defense as he can.

Sometimes, when he isn't drawing heavily on the Force, his physical endurance flags much faster than he likes. Here, it's really his mental endurance that really starts to flounder, trying to stick closely to the classical form rather than moving almost entirely on instinct.

When he finally fails to move faster enough, he goes completely still for a beat, and then slowly lowers his saber. But he's smiling, anyway.]

[ obi-wan lowers his hand as well, deactivating the saber. ]

Not bad at all. There are very few people who can keep up with me.

[He flips his own saber off, and replies, voice warm with affection and a hint of pride - not in himself. He's thinking of that month in the Temple, watching Ben go against politely curious knights and masters. Ezra'd had to re-calibrate his own standards against a much larger sample size, and quickly realized his new teacher really was a first class duelist.]

I know. I think that was some kind of personal new record for me.

[Sure, there'd been bouts with Ben that lasted longer, but particularly between master and padawan not every lesson is going all out.]

Is it?

Then you should be proud.

[He grins wider.]

Yeah.

...still need to drill muscle memory more.

Such things take time and you have time.

[His grin fades a little.]

I hope so. [Then he shakes his head.]

You're right.[He's alive. He has family with him, even. That's a far better position than he'd expected to be in before life took him away from the galaxy. He can eliminate uncertainly about how long he'll stay here. And that's be true anywhere, really, not matter their special circumstances.]

I'll keep at it.

[ hmm. ]

Very wise of you.

Thank you. [That's sincere. And he's pretty sure Obi-wan is being sincere, too, but-]

But I have the weirdest feeling we're talking past each other somehow? [And he did not like it. Especially jarring after they'd flowed so well together, only minutes before.]

[ obi-wan pauses again. ]

How so?

[He clips his saber hilt to his belt as he's trying to figure how to explain.]

Like, I'm puzzling you, but you don't want to ask directly, maybe?

Maybe I'm trying too hard to be careful what I say, too.

[ obi-wan hums, considering that. he wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. that's not who he is. ]

Or you might be reading too much into it. Unless, of course, you want the teacher and a few more pointers? It is a mindset I need to slip into.

[He stiffens, because, yes, that was it. Or rather, he'd told himself her wasn't going to ask for the teacher, yet he didn't know how to read...not getting it.

He takes a breath.]

I see the issue and it's me reading into things. Differences. I'll sort it out.

Ezra.

There's no shame in asking for that. Nor do I mind. But I don't think it's something we formally discussed.

[Another breath.]

We haven't. Because I was kind of a mess over...temporal disconnects, when I got here and I needed to try to deal with that. Also, I didn't want to distract you from Anakin.

You're hardly a distraction, Ezra.

[ and he's not sure how he feels about that statement. that his life is funnelled into anakin and nothing else. ]

No, I...know. [His furrows.]

There were three of us who were padawan level and two force-sensitive babies in Temba and we...we managed ok. [Sure, they were all very tired sometimes - newborns are *exhausting* even with multiple adults around, but he'd never felt like he was a distraction there. So it's not a matter of divided attention, exactly.]

It's just. It's Anakin. And I know he's important to you, and I want him to be ok, too. I thought, if I couldn't figure out how to help, I could at least not make things harder. Not give him any reason to...to doubt you, or feel ignored, or for you to doubt that you'd done what you could for him-

[But clearly Anakin will do what he will do. So now Ezra feels a little foolish.]