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#i need to start tagging my obi-wan thirst posts
fellthemarvelous · 6 months
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Is this one of Obi-Wan Kenobi's hottest moments?
Yes. Yes it is.
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So We Refuse To Take it Tragically
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A/N: I’ve just accepted my fate is to be obsessed with this man, so here’s yet another Obi-Wan fic. There will be a second part to this, and I’m thinking a mini series of in-between moments. I won’t give spoilers, but this is NOT my normal type of fic, but he’s an exception to every rule in my book, apparently. Thank you to @caffeine-in-an-iv​ for being my beta on this, I don’t know where this would be without you!
Thank you also to @beskars​ for her post here that birthed this. Always blessing us with fuel for the thirst. 
And to the one I know IRL that found my tumblr, one I will refer to as Top Voice, this is your final warning to gtfo before feasting your eyes on unprecedented filth and sap. 
Pairing: Obi-Wan Kenobi x Force sensitive! Fem Reader (no Y/N)
Warnings: SMUT!!!  Cumeating, hair pulling, Comfort Sex, ANGST!! (It has a happy ending later, I promise, but it starts after ROTS, so it’s par for the course) If you’re gonna write not-particularly-pertinent-to-plot-porn, might as well make it unnecessarily detailed, right? As usual, too many feelings for porn,  More warnings will be in the tags to prevent spoilers 
Title from one of my favorite quotes: 
“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.”
-D.H. Lawrence
Tatooine is no place for a baby.
 There are no soft surfaces, nor comforts, nor surplus of anything. It’s desolate and deprived and oppressive, but you watch as Obi-Wan shields the child from its harsh, sand-pelting winds with his whole body, despite the fact the child fits in the space between his wrist and elbow. It’s overzealous, but you don’t say anything of it.
 The past two days have ripped away nearly everything he held dear, insisting on devastating every tender place. Nothing sacred has been left untouched.
 He broke the code long before he met you, and you know part of why his love for you came so easily, why he had no qualms with breaking his vows, was because he’d long since loved the man that became his family in every way that matters.
 Love and Light so tightly knit together the fabric of his being one could not be separated from the other. 
 And you could take on the entire Force with your two fists for how it had rewarded him for it with Hate and Darkness coming from someone so close it shattered something foundational in Obi-Wan. 
 Yet even now, there isn’t Darkness surrounding his signature. There’s brokenness and his ever-present equilibrium has been replaced by jagged shards. But despite it all, those rugged pieces still reflect light erratically in their shine.
 It’s a loss and betrayal that spans many different planes: on one level, there’s nowhere you look in the galaxy beyond just the two of you that isn’t marked by the Empire’s rise in power, marking the end of the Republic he fought for and the fall of the Jedi, his community, comrades, and only home he’d ever known. And on another level, you’ve seen the weight of war and worse in Obi-Wan’s eyes, but nothing, nothing like this.
 The pain is panoramic, but it’s also profoundly personal.
 Even still, his attention isn’t on himself, but on the fussy bundle in his arms.
 You wonder: is it the galaxy that doesn’t allow this man time to heal? Or is it his own choice to throw himself into the need of others so he has a tangible reason to avoid his own torments?
 When he places the baby into the arms of the young couple, you know the times ahead will give the answer to that.
 Because there aren't the cries of the past few nights to wake either of you, there’s silence. 
 You long to fill it, to try to bridge this insurmountable void with something, anything you could say. But you know it’s bigger than you. So, so much bigger than you.
 Monumental obstacles and tremendous loss find themselves standing in the threshold of an abandoned hut smaller than your flat was on Coruscant. 
 “Well… it’s not much to look at, certainly. But the moisture vaporator seems to be in repairable condition, and we’re just far enough from town to avoid any curious neighbors. What do you think?” He turns to you, and his eyes, dark circles under and all, turn sharp in their assessment of your response. 
 “I told you. I’m going wherever you are so long as you’ll let me.” Your voice is gentle but adamant as you remind him. 
 He walks up from the living room to the threshold of the kitchen where you are, wrapping his arms loosely around your waist. “Be that as it may, I’m asking your input on where we’re going, or living, as your happiness means a great deal to me.” 
 There’s still no smile, but it’s the brightest his energy has felt since the last time you saw him before he came to your door in Coruscant days ago, whispering a rushed, heartfelt farewell, which you quickly countered with an emphatic, unshakable, “I’m coming with you.”
 You look up at him, gliding your hand across his cheek into the hair at the nape of his neck. There’s Darkness at the door of his soul that he’s fighting off every moment, and he has the audacity to speak of your happiness. 
 You don’t dare bring up his. It’s irony, at best. 
 So you smile, timid, knowing the gesture in itself might be blasphemous to the tone, but genuine all the same. “We can make a life here. I know we can.”  
 He scans your eyes, looking to find the authenticity in your statement. “Are you certain?” 
 He’s not asking about the hut anymore. Or, at least, not just the hut. 
 “Obi-Wan, I never had any delusion that any life I had with you would be easy. I thought I’d only ever be getting you in secret, sparse moments. Although I’d never, ever wish for it to be under the circumstances that it is, having you like this is better than I ever hoped.”
 There’s silence as he processes your words, then a wry twist of his features. “How I wish that your expectations needn’t be so low.”
 “No, no, that’s not what I meant.” You incline your head, trying to find the words to convey what you mean. 
 “Nothing any person or any planet anywhere has to offer me holds a candle to what I’ve found in you, nor will it ever. I’d never trade unshakable wholeness for the transience of materialistic happiness.”
 You know this has to resound with him. Is it not within the core set of values he was taught to forsake comfort in any avenue for something far greater? 
 His eyes flick between yours, gauging, and you can feel him reaching out to feel at your signature to solidify the truth. 
 If you knew him any less, you might be insulted at his questioning of your trustworthiness. But it’s not you he doesn’t trust. It’s something good willingly giving itself to him that causes his wariness. 
 The Force can have your middle finger along with your fists. 
 Then he’s relaxing into you, letting out an exhale that seems heavy with more than just air, and burying his nose in your hair for his next inhale. 
 ****
 By the end of the day, you’ve gathered enough supplies for basic necessities and to start on the repairs of the hut. You both snarf down a ration bar before shortly thereafter clearing the blown-in sand off what must have been the bed of the home. It’s a half circle indenture in the wall, and it has a dip obviously made for a mattress or cushion of some sort, but as all that’s available are the blankets bought in town today, you set to fluffing them to some semblance of comfort. 
 Fatigue pulls you into it far sooner than the suns setting. Last night was your first night without Luke, spent in a room you rented in town. Today was spent traveling to and from the hut, discussing details on what needs to be done, and you? You are absolutely exhausted. You can only imagine what he must feel like. 
 Obi-Wan secures the lock on the door before sitting on the side of the bed, looking off into nothing for a long, long moment. 
 You push up to your side, placing a hand on his back. “Obi…”
 His shoulder nudges toward your hand, but he cuts you off. “It’s going to get quite cold when the suns set, and since the stove isn’t properly ventilating yet, we’re going to have to work with body heat.”
 “I’ll try to mask my reluctance,” you retort.
 He turns his face to you then, and just a smidge of humor sweeps across his eyes before he sheds his cloak, followed by everything else until only his pants remain. You’ve long since stripped down to your own sleeping comfort level, so before he can fold his cloak along with the rest of his discarded clothing, you take it and cover yourself with it. 
 He shakes his head a little at you once he’s done, settling down next to you, throwing the covers over both of you. 
 “Tell me what you need.” You’re face to face with him, but his expression is unreadable. 
 “I… I don’t know.” He considers you as if you held the answer to the question you just asked him.
 “What about want, then? What do you want, Obi-Wan?” You wish he didn’t have his shields perpetually raised these days. It’d be so much easier to just read his energy. 
 His hand reaches up so he can stroke your cheek with his thumb. “You’re tired, darling. Rest.” 
 Ah, there it is. If the answer to the question of desire is him counter offering his own response with the fact you’re tired… 
  “So are you. But you still want.” You press your body fully against his, dropping your voice down to a whisper. “And so do I.” 
 You won’t push anymore than that, letting him take or leave the invitation. For you, it’s not even a question. It’s been four months since you last saw him. Since you’d last felt his touch.
 You’d spent the last few nights in each other’s arms, but between Luke's shrill cries and the deafening devastation of the events of the days prior, it’d been just that: sleep. Or, what tousled, disturbed counterfeit the circumstance offered you both.  
 For him, though, there’s an abysmal weariness that digs far beyond lack of sleep, and you don’t dare infringe upon him in any way.
 But there’s still a longing present, and even without his Force signature to guide you into his feelings, he can’t hide his eyes. 
 You watch the moment he makes a decision solidify across his countenance right before he presses his lips against yours. You sigh into it, letting the draw of his skin on yours pull you into orbit.
 Because that’s exactly what happens. It’s a kiss for a kiss’ sake, for flavor and fervency and the fullness of each other, but it quickly gains its own momentum when his tongue parts your lips truly. 
 It’s an acute absence. Not having his energy surrounding you with his shields so far up. But it also gives sharp attention to the press of skin against skin, makes it an anchor and an outlet for all that is still too tender to even acknowledge.
 You find grip in his hair, purposefully running your hands the opposite of the way he combs it as he takes your face in both hands and pulls you into him all the more. 
 When you both need to breathe, he only moves so far away that his lips still brush against yours on every exhale. “I..” he starts, then stops. 
 The hand still in his hair rakes through it gently, scratching your fingertips against his scalp as you wait for him to complete his thought.
 “Let me taste you,” he says at last. You know it's a question from the way he stills, waiting for permission, but it’s phrased as nothing like it. 
 You raise an eyebrow. “Is that a rhetorical quest…”
 “Oh, hush.” He’s already nudging you over onto your back, situating his body over yours, claiming your lips again. You allow yourself to sink into it, cherishing his weight over you, his hand roaming your ribcage, before pulling back to speak. 
 “I’m sorry, are you now getting on to me for my sass? Because… oh!”
 He finds a nipple through the thin fabric of your shirt, pinching softly with a small tug. 
 “By all means, continue. I was most intrigued.” His smirk is back, but it fixes you with a tinge of worry when it again proves to be a smile only skin deep.
 You place two fingers just shy of his forehead, but he catches your wrist in an almost painful clasp. The alarm casted by his expression quickly is washed away by a carefully constructed impassiveness, and your heart sinks. 
 He has to see it, because he bows his head in apology. “Not tonight.”
 And before you have any room to respond, he’s shifting himself down as he lifts your shirt up, placing a single taunting, wet kiss on each nipple before moving even further down, nipping at the skin right below your belly button. 
 He’s distracting you from what he’s not allowing you access to, and you know it, and you let him anyway. That’s what this is, isn’t it? Distraction from the barrage of the mind. If that’s what he needs, that’s what you’ll give.
 As he toys with the hem of your underthings, and you lift your hips to assist their removal, you realize it’s exactly what you need too.
 Except he apparently isn’t planning to remove your underwear at all. With a casual flick of his hand, your legs are parted and held like that with a no-nonsense sprout of Force energy. Then he’s simply pulling the cloth to the side and brings his mouth torturously closer, but stops just before contact. 
 You push up to your elbows to tell him you can’t take much of those teasing breaths he’s taking, blowing hot air against sensitive nerve endings. But when you hear his breath stutter as he just looks, unhurried in admiration, you decide against it, even as you flush at the undivided attention. Sprawling his palms out over your inner thighs, he dips down to press his mouth between his fingers, sucking not-so-gently into the soft skin, sending the flesh into tremors before he’s even really done anything to you.
 He says your name as he opens you up with his fingers, parting your folds so everything is bared to his view. You start to squirm, the exposure starting to feel a little too heady, and you’re starting to appeal with the beginning of his name when he leans forward, straight away connecting his lips to your clit. You try to thrust up into it as some shameful noise leaves you, but there’s only so much movement you have with your legs still pinned. 
 He loves to tease, so you don’t expect him to retract the energy that constricted your legs at the first resistance. Instead, he slides his hands under your ass, pulling you on to his tongue and lets you push your hips into him unchecked.
 He hums at your enthusiasm, the reverberation sending your hands into his hair again, which gifts you with even more noises from him. 
 It doesn’t take long at all, and you’re coming undone on his tongue, biting into your forearm to dampen your cry. 
 He doesn’t stop until you push at his shoulder, signaling your tender surrender. He obeys, looking up at you from between your thighs, absolutely besotted, eyes shining a shade brighter than before. 
 Then. Obi-Wan Kenobi keeps his eyes on yours before dipping his head and tilting his jaw, running his beard right where you’re still open and vulnerable, abrasion grating in a way you know you’ll be feeling all day tomorrow. 
 He licks his lips as he moves back up to kiss you again, letting you taste yourself on him. 
 He goes easily when you gesture for him to lie on his back so you can straddle him, carefully avoiding any contact where he’s throbbing for you. His hands fall right to your waist, stroking gently as he waits for you to initiate. 
 You focus your study on the section of his hair that’s fallen in his face, twirling a finger in it, happy to have anywhere to look but his eyes. 
 He’d normally at least be in your mind by now, and even though you understand it, well, the drought of it is as appropriate for the planet as anything. 
 You remember too late to raise your own shields against any accidentally too-loud thoughts, as Obi-Wan cups his hand on your chin, forcing your gaze to his, saying your name quietly in calling.
 “You have to know, it isn’t anything to do with…”
 You interrupt him. “No. No. I won’t have you addressing my insecurities of all things in light of…”
 “Please listen, love. I need you to know, it hasn’t anything to do with the love I have for you. That hasn’t changed and never will. I think I need… “ He pauses, solemn in thought. “Time,” he finishes finally.
 You knew this already in the pit of your stomach, but hearing him say it, hearing him affirm that it isn’t you insufficiency… you hate that you needed it as much as you did. 
 And if he needs time? That’s what you’ll give. But he also has a want, evidenced by the brush of him against you when you scoot yourself down his torso. 
 You take the hem of his pants with you when you continue down, ridding him of them and his shorts. But when you wrap your hand around him and begin to lower your mouth, he grips your chin again, shaking his head. 
 “I can’t… please, just.”  It’s always an anomaly when he’s at a loss for words, usually ever-so articulate.  
 A gasp chokes out of you when you feel the phantom of his mind. Not in full, no. With barriers, and it’s projected out, not at all the same sensation to being within it. 
 It’s desperation. For how long it’s been, for how drained he feels, how he’s not sure how long this will last, and how much he yearns to be inside you.
There’s not even a second of debate in your mind as you take your position on his lap again, lifting your hips, intention apparent. He takes his cock in hand, holding steady so you can start to seat yourself onto the thick push of him. 
 The hitch in his breath is your only warning before he seizes the undersides of your thighs, halting you from taking him any further.
 His eyes are tightly shut, and you know from watching him before that his facial expression is an attempt at borderline meditation, except it’s several long seconds before he achieves anything resembling calm. 
 It’s as good a time as any to push his hands off you and squirm around to take him a little deeper. You plan on rubbing your victory in, but your smirk is wiped away with a whine at the elation. Instead of stopping you again, he almost imperceptibly thrusts up, and it’s your turn to falter, slamming your hands into his chest, nails digging in, working against your weight trying to pull you down onto him. 
 It goes on like that, until you’re both bordering on hysteria before you’ve even fully taken him. You can’t figure out if it’s a worse torment to keep delaying or continuing. 
 Obi-Wan seems to have come to his own conclusion to that, as he finally opens his eyes, locking them with yours as he places his palms flat on the tops of your thighs and pushes down until your skin is flush with his.
 You pull a hand up, biting on your fist, trying to stifle the exclamation in your throat.
 He pulls it away, voice ragged as he speaks. “I want to hear you, little one. We needn’t hide anymore.”
 It’s a dimensional statement. For one, no one is around for miles, a stark contrast to your quarters on Coruscant where you at least attempted to be considerate of your too-near neighbors when it came to noise. For another, it’s the irony of being in hiding from the Empire, but being allowed to be open in your relationship with each other finally.
 And the deepest irony is that you both have your barriers up so firmly right now all you can concentrate on is bared skin.
 Oh, but what a beautiful spanse of bared skin he is. Freckled and almost luminously pale, bending and curving with the strength of the form underneath.
 He sits up slowly, generating a breathless plea from both of you at the new angle. A search of your eyes asks you a question, and you’re nodding, kissing him with the full brunt of your craving. 
 You slide up and then down again just as he drives up, and you’ve found your rhythm, just like that. 
 His hands push you onto him every time you pull up, and his tongue laves your breasts, sucking and biting along your collarbone, as you rake your nails down his chest, over the backs of his shoulders, his scalp, anything you can touch. 
 It’s enough to send him into a chorus of groans, shoving himself hard up into you.
 He doesn’t even speak it aloud, just projects the apologetic warning that he’s on the edge.
 When his thumb finds your clit, everything in you goes tense despite the relief. You clench around him, hard, and he instantly moves his hands to your shoulder blades pulling you flush against him as he lets out an unrestrained sound against your breasts. 
 You push his thumb away from where it’s stilled against you, replacing it with your own. His fingers twitch in their bruising grip, and you can feel him throbbing inside you.
 You stay like that for a moment, just letting him ride out his bliss, whispering sweet affirmations into his hair.
 When he looks up at you again, his eyes are glassed over. You wonder if it’s ecstasy that is the cause, or something from the bedrock boiling to the surface. 
 He doesn’t give you a chance to elaborate, flipping you over on to your back. The moment he withdraws, you can feel the mess dripping down your inner thighs. 
 It takes everything in you to not come at the sight alone as Obi-Wan dips further down your body, parting you and lapping his tongue right where you’re weeping evidence of desire. 
 You know you have to be making a mess of his face and beard, but he certainly doesn’t seem to mind, indulging on his own spill infused with yours. 
 When he adds two fingers in you and curls them strategically, searing heat shoots through your lower stomach as you arch against his mouth, his name a high whisper with absolutely no suppression, echoing across the empty stone walls of the home. 
 He leaves a final tender kiss against you before lying down next to you, pulling you into his arms, and you pull him into yours right back when your limbs remember how to function.
 His head drops against yours, and his eyes flutter shut, taking a deep inhale, like he’s trying to fill his lungs with more than just oxygen. 
 Nothing is fine, and the world is crumbling. But right now, as the suns finally leave the house in dark, as you clasp each other in tight embrace, as sleep pulls you under, you can pretend it’s fine. If only for a moment.
 *******
  There’s a flash of feeling that startles you awake and into the disorientation that comes from waking in a new place. The sensation worsens when you feel the reverberations of the equivalent of a slammed door in the Force. 
 You sit up quickly and look over to Obi-Wan, who sits on the side of the bed, head in his hands, fingers brutal in their grip.
 You move toward him, and he turns around at the sound. “Go back to sleep, darling. it’s nothing.”
 When you fix him with a gaze that essentially translates “bantha fodder,” he just lies back down, pulling your back into his chest, and you doubt the fact you can’t see his face like this is a mistake. 
 The rhythm of his breathing betrays the fact he is nowhere near sleep, but you find yourself fading off soon again anyway.
 ****
 When you wake in the morning, you’re alone in the bed, which is no surprise. He’s not one to lounge, and if the height of the suns peaking through the window has anything to say, he’s already been up for a while.
 His cloak is still tangled in the blankets, though, and you wrap yourself in it, padding outside after doing something about your morning breath. 
 The hut is situated on a cliff, overlooking a barren valley. The suns glare with their unrelenting eyes of heat even so early in the day, and you stare back as best you can without squinting, daring them to do their worst. They know nothing of the misery that’s already visited this home. They have no hope of competing. 
 You find Obi-Wan cross-legged near the edge of the cliff. Cross-legged and levitating. 
 Of course, you know he can do things like this. It’s just such a different thing to see him doing it . You’ve never had a proper morning with him like this, seeing his routine. He was always up before the sun, you with him, gathering moments and soaking them in before he had to leave again.
 He looks almost peaceful now, not at rest, but peaceful. 
 How?
 How does he still have so much trust in the Force? 
 A more lighthearted thought emerges through the grim train, as you notice he’s opted to not put his tunic back on yet. 
 It doesn’t matter out here, you suppose, there isn’t any other living being for miles around. For that matter, you wonder why he even left the pants. 
 His voice damn near startles you, not even opening his eyes to address you. 
 “Although that may be the case, there are some locations more bearable to get sunburn than others.”
 You blush at being caught, and gently ensure your thoughts aren’t accidentally projected again, but he doesn’t give you much time to dwell on it.
 “Join me?”
 As he opens his eyes and descends the couple inches down back onto the ground, you feel your heart do the same. He’s taught you little things, here and there, and you’ve enjoyed it, learning to tap into that constant humming you never had the tools to channel before.
 But now? 
 What interest do you have with The Force that failed the man who served it without fail? You could burn it down for the atrocities it’s committed even in negligence against the man you love.
 But there’s been enough burning.
 Obi-Wan won’t speak of what transpired on Mustafar, but you’ve caught glimpses. Last night wasn’t the first night you’ve had him back, and it wasn’t the first you’d woken to a severe troubling in his aura. 
 You’re still not sure if Luke is a fussy baby or simply a very responsive one, as it seemed Obi-Wan was already awake before Luke started crying. 
 It was only mere seconds before his shields came slamming down, firmly in place, every time. 
You can’t tell if he’s trying to shelter you from his feelings or blockade them away from himself.
 Maybe both.
 But those seconds? They’re long enough. For just a flash of a charred, severed body. Of hateful, pleading, golden eyes. 
 There’s been enough burning. 
 “I can’t ever be a Jedi, Obi.” 
 “That’s not what I’m asking of you.” 
 He knows your criticisms as well as your compliments over the Jedi. You’ve both discussed it at great length many times, always over a firm understanding and respect, but you’ve never really had long enough to have a conclusion. But you’re not going to push now, not with the fall of it all still so close behind him. 
 “I should think our relationship itself is testimony that I don’t inherently agree or adhere to all Jedi teachings.”
 You drop your eyes, trying to ignore the sweat starting to trickle down your skin from the relentless heat. “I thought maybe you were with me in spite of your better judgement.”
 His brow furrows. “At first, that’s what I may have thought too, but it made itself clear that although what transpired between us was forbidden by the Code…” he trails off for a moment, almost hesitant. “...the way Light was and is exemplified any time I have you in my arms presented a solidified case that not always is the Jedi way synonymous with the will of the Force.”
 He says it wholeheartedly, but you can tell it pains him. It’s easy to never speak ill of the dead, either of individuals or groups. To glorify and wipe away any transgressions to ensure their memory sparkles as you grieve it. 
 The harder thing is to grieve everything, both the good you lost and the bad you experienced from the same source.
 And there’s another level there. Something that has him patting the spot beside him and giving a heartbreakingly forced smile.
 Even through it all, wariness of aspects of his own religion included, he seeks unity with the Force without reservation or resentment.
 You don’t fight him anymore. 
 The war is over, but the battle has just begun, and so help you Maker, you’re going to fight for him to have the chance to heal. 
 So you sit, mimicking his position. 
 When he smiles again, it’s much smaller but not at all fake. 
 “First, clear your mind.”
 *****
 The days are afflicted with an underlying gloom, full of work that busies the hands but leaves the mind to wander, which wasn’t at all a luxurious thing. 
 But the nights are filled with unclaimed time, time in an abundance you never had with each other before. 
 Sometimes it’s shot with silence from the weight of the day, reveling in the presence of another as you work together on the supper dishes.
 Or sometimes there’s almost an excitement, despite the labor ahead, of the plans for the place that’s now your home. 
 “Wouldn’t we have to have some sort of larger equipment to hoist that over the cliff edge?” You wonder aloud to Obi-Wan, speaking of the replacement unit for finally getting some very basic temperature control for the hut. “The way around back is too rough and would scratch it up, and I, for one, wouldn’t want to try pushing it up manu…”
 You stop at his smirk he’s trying to hide with tilting his tea cup higher over his lips. 
 “...Or there’s a Jedi solution to this problem that requires neither, and you’re just letting me ramble on anyway.” You punctuate the end of your statement by tossing a pillow his direction, which just stops. Midair. 
 There’s so much legend surrounding Jedi, you haven’t really been sure what’s factual and what’s fairytale. 
 You certainly knew of some of his abilities, but he didn’t tend to elaborate on details of his missions before, and you never argued, knowing it was a liability for you to have that kind of information if anyone ever found out what you meant to Obi-Wan.
 He chuckles, not even trying to look a little guilty. 
 Once you remember to shut your mouth, you get back to planning. “And that same principle just applies to objects of any size?”
 He nods. “Same principle, just more concentration required.” 
 You tuck your feet under you on your chair as you think on that for a second. You’ll have to ask him to teach you that one next. Mediation alone could get rather dull.
 “So, for instance, if a great amount of concentration is being spent Force-lifting an object up the cliff, it would leave a Jedi vulnerable to, say… projectiles thrown?” You throw another pillow at him, which just as easily halts next to the other, gravity defiant. 
 He could have lowered the first one by now. You raise a brow at the knowledge he’s putting on a show for you. 
 “You’ll have to do better than that, I’m afraid.” 
 More often than not, the time of the evenings are spent loving and lounging in sheets, savoring the difference of unhurried lovemaking, with no heart-wrenching farewell on the horizon.
 But every time you gently ask to reach his mind, he pushes the request and your hand away.
 *******
 Obi-Wan’s visits to see Luke are met with a level of hostility. The man, Owen, seems wary of him, doing everything he can to cut the visit short as you and the woman, Beru, if you remember correctly, look silently to each other for some relief in the tension.
 They already likely know his actual name, but you’re careful to only address Obi as “Ben” here, along with everywhere else that isn’t your hut. It’s precautionary, but if it’s for the sake of protecting Luke and Obi-Wan himself, you’ll do it without any further questions.
 But Luke seems to be doing well, and that is ultimately what matters most. It’s hard to believe how quickly he’s grown in the mere weeks that you’ve been here.
 The boy might be by far Obi-Wan’s greatest purpose being on this planet, but it’s not his only. 
 Master Yoda had given him Jedi texts, yes, but also another task for his time here. 
You’re thankful to talk about either, as it seems to be one of the few things he’ll open up to you about as it pertains to himself. 
 But when he goes to meditate alone, calling for his mentor, his father in every right of the term, he comes back more empty than he left. 
 When you look at him with a too-knowing look, too infiltrating for his comfort, he easily slides into a quip.
 “My old master, it seems, won’t appear unless on his own terms. I’m not sure what else I expected, honestly.”
 ******
 You also learn that the man does not cook. Not that you consider yourself an expert, but at the very minimum, you know how to use spices, which on Tatooine come as hot as their weather.
 “Is it a Jedi thing to have tasteless food, or is that just you?” You tease as he dices some sort of root at your direction while you sift through the cabinet. 
 His eyes are full of mischief when he’s quiet for a moment before speaking up. “I would argue there’s concrete evidence that I’m quite happy to indulge in the pleasures of taste.”
 You can’t help your blush as his very pointed look. 
 Dinner is long forgotten after that, but the night is delectable all the same.
 *****
 Something has shifted in your own Force signature. Something you can’t put your finger on. 
 It doesn’t seem harmful or threatening in essence, but it makes you wary in a way that makes your skin itch with more than the dryness. 
 You try not to think much of it. After all, there’s plenty to do between tending to the vaporator, hunting, fending off the Sand People, and your learning to wield the Force.
 After rumors of Tusken raiders being nearby, you ask Obi-Wan to teach you combat.  This would be starting long before he normally would teach someone, he explained, but he does it anyway. It’s not exactly using the Force at first, having to start with how to even move your body in the event of attack, slowly enhancing those skills with the Force as you become more confident in them. 
 You look forward to it more than any other task. It gives you a strength you haven’t had before, and it’s a whole different level of connection to the Force when you trust it physically, not just in your mind. 
 It’s also another level of trust with Obi-Wan, knowing he’d never hurt you even as he enters the role of a potential threat, guiding you through how to handle it.
 So you don’t know why today your stomach won’t agree to the way you want your body to move. You push through it anyway, despite Obi-Wan’s concerned questioning. 
 You lose your lunch into the rocks, and you really wish he wouldn’t pick you up to take you back into the hut, because the shift of what’s up and what’s down doesn’t help at all. 
 And you wish he wouldn’t dote over you the rest of the day, as if you didn’t feel useless enough already, as if the illness didn’t leave as quickly as it came. 
 You make a mental note to ensure you don’t let yourself become dehydrated again to that point.
 *****
 The trips into town are kept to a minimum, trying to keep curiosity away from the new couple. Also, there wasn’t much to do except barter and spend credits, something you both tried not to do a great deal of. 
 Obi-Wan was sent off with enough Republic credits to get you started here, but it was hit or miss if the vendors took them that day, and he also didn’t want to spend too much at once.
 Nothing was more suspicious than surplus here.
 The woman you brought the limited produce available from seemed… different this trip. 
 Obi-Wan was a couple of stalls down from you, negotiating with a man who had obviously jacked up the price on the items needed. Poor man didn’t know what he was in for. 
 You turned your attention back on to the woman in front of you, and tried to decipher what was different this time and why it felt so familiar. 
 As you pointed to a basket of hubba gourds, inquiring of the price, she gave you one that you knew for a fact was higher than last time. 
 You counter offered the same price as last time you were here, and she firmly stated her price again. Ready to stand your ground, you go to state your price again, she puts her hand to her belly, bringing her skirt in around, revealing a small bump. 
 “Can’t afford your low-ball offers with this one on the way, understand?” 
 The sky suddenly falls around you in thunderous clamor as the physical realm around you moves on, unaffected and unreachable. Almost mechanically, you place the credits she asked for on the table, not even capable of addressing the obvious manipulation.
 Understanding drenches you in its brutal weight as you realize the source why she felt so different this time. 
 Your hands shake in their clasp on the basket as you pull yourself into a side alley, heaving your breakfast up. 
 Because you recognize the same difference in her is the exact same one that has changed your Force signature.
 It’s because there’s a flickering light of another being’s Force signature within you. 
  Tagged as requested: @maybege​
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reallifejedi · 3 years
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//Just Things I Think About Concerning Butters (contains spoilers, for my friends still reading the books):
So, the Butters tag has... kind of a lot of hate in it, but I’ll admit it’s a tag that just doesn’t move, because The Dresden Files has a surprisingly small fandom for 17 books plus supplements.
I’ve seen a few posts complaining about how he didn’t deserve Fidelacchius and became a Gary Stu, and some hate about how he’s creepy for dating Andi or that scene in White Knight. I’m not gonna touch the dating bit (because considering the content of Butcher’s books, hating Butters and not Harry or other characters is... really awful), but I will talk a bit about Butters and how it’s really thematically interesting about how he got the sword.
So, Butters is a (loose) definition of the Hero’s Journey. He starts at status quo (Ignorant-Of-The-Supernatural, Science Loving Medical Examiner) and is thrust into this insane life. Usually the journey is thus:
Status Quo > The Calling >  Supernatural Aid > The Transformation > Changes and Temptations > Death & Rebirth > Transformation > Atonement > Return.
A very famous example of this is Luke Skywalker. In the movies, we see an ignorant farm boy thirsting for more, and he goes through a series of changes. The Call (R2D2′s message), Supernatural Aid (Obi Wan), the Transformation (training to be a Jedi), Changes and Temptations (visions) etc. The part I really want to focus on, is what Luke went through in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
In the Empire Strikes Back we see Luke embracing his path of becoming a Jedi and he goes to see Yoda and train. During training he’s cautioned about visions and temptations of the dark side, and to have faith in the force, and let go of his friends to further his path to becoming a Jedi. When Luke has visions of his friends being hurt, he immediately runs to Cloud City. HIs arrival does little to nothing to change the fate of Han and his friends, and in the end he is injured and needs to be saved by his friends rather than the way around. 
In Return of the Jedi we see a more confident person, and more cautious. He has faith that he can turn the tide and find the man within one of the scariest, most powerful people in the galaxy, and he has faith in his friends that they will win the day in the space battle he does not take part in. In the end, that faith wins out.
Let’s look at Butters in Skin Game:
When Harry first showed back up after death, no one really knew what to think. Butters had his apartment broken into, then he was kidnapped, and then he saw Harry do things that were scary powerful (like freezing the lake water). Andi was hurt, he was upset, and before any closure could be given to him in Cold Days following a year of watching friends kidnapped, reading about people dying and going missing, and dealing with his grief over losing Harry (who, and you can fight me, he has a massive hero thing for), they lost Molly, and Harry disappeared onto an island no one can really visit. 
Then Harry comes back. He needs fixing up again. He says nothing about what happened before (he’s on a schedule) and Butters has been going through two years of paranoia and learning from Bob and taking a lot more on his shoulders than he ought to. How could he not? His girlfriend and best friends are werewolves and they fight for justice, and Murphy is Murphy. And he still models himself after Harry. He wants to fight. But he’s scared. And when Harry comes back acting (in his eyes) like a Fae... what can he do?
Murphy tells him to have faith, but like Luke in Empire Strikes Back he has a choice to make. Hold it... or do what he can to fix a situation that’s looking terrifying. There’s Denarians, there’s all kinds of shit going on, Butters is scared, and no one can tell him what’s going on. So he decides to try and take matters into his own hands (foolishly, yes). And he gets burned for it. Several of his biggest fears come to life:
Harry Dresden says out loud he’s going to, in so many words, kill him. He genuinely believes Harry has snapped and his fucking hero is about to murder him.
Karrin Murphy was hurt, bad, and it was his fucking fault. She’ll argue she was doing what had to be done, and Nicodemus was going to do something eventually, but he’s still carrying this. 
He realizes how in over his head he in, how stupid he was for playing Batman when he’s just a guy. His lack of faith and attempts hurt the people around him, and probably their trust in him.
Then Michael's gone, and he’s left in his own head. Harry’s busy with his heist, so we don’t know what’s going on, but this is the transitory period between ESB and RotJ. 
They come back. Nicodemus is there. He’s got a choice. He can run and hide (and live). Or he can trust in the people around him that it’s going to come out okay. He can grab Harry’s god damn coat and buy some time, and have faith that Harry will get up and come through. That the kids will be saved, that Charity and Micheal and Uriel will live, and that Harry who he ought to have had faith in the first place, will live. He’s okay with dying. He’s okay with it if it means he can make up for screwing up so badly before. 
He grabs the coat and goes out against insurmountable odds, knowing he’s going to buy maybe a few minutes, and for what he was done.
It was time for him to step up and become a Knight, to transform and atone.
Fidelacchius responds to Butters’s faith in his friends and he drives off Nicodemus. He has a choice to set the sword down or take it up, and he does. And in the end, at Murphy’s bedside we see a Butters who has been absent for 3 books, and return to a man full of hope.
tldr; Butters basically had the hero’s journey/Luke Skywalker’s arc, and honestly he’s had some of the best character growth out of anyone in the entire damn series.
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