Master Apprentice Archive In Another World Quick search:

Archive: MA, or ask me

Category: Q/O, Angst

Rating: PG for mild sex reference

Warnings: Follows canon

Summary: Old Ben daydreams

Disclaimer: George's characters, not mine

Feedback: Yes please

Note: Many thanks to Bonny for the quick beta and Cuimne for poking me.

In another world, I prepare the meal for two. Your favourite stew, spicy and hot, and I pour the wine into two glasses.

In another world, my small hovel isn't quiet save for the small noises I make rattling about. There are other sounds: someone moving about in the sleeping area, or the door closing with a clank as you come in from the garden. I laughed to think of you attempting to force things to grow in the barren sand, but grow they do, with patience, knowledge and the Living Force which surrounds and fills you.

We sit and eat in companionable silence. You pass me bread and our hands touch making you smile. My hands are still wrinkled, in this other world. We have grown old together. Two grey-haired old friends who know each other inside out and need no chatter to fill the space between conversations.

My face is beardless, because you prefer it that way. You often reach to stroke my cheek, run your thumb along my chin. You've done that since I was a boy. Long, long ago.

In another world, the Darkness didn't rise. We washed up here together after a lifetime of service to a benevolent Republic. There are no planets where terror reigns nor where pockets of resistance are the last hopes of those who oppose the dark tyrant and his henchmen. One henchman in particular - he never existed in this other world. If he was born at all, he lived his probably short life as a slave and never learned of his terrifying powers. They lay dormant, untapped, because we never found him. I never trained him.

After our meal, you scold mildly because I can't leave the mess on the table and in the foodprep area. You pull me down on to your lap in the large comfortable sofa. In another world, you kiss me deep and long, before settling me beside you as we doze quietly for a while as it gets dark outside.

We make our preparations for bed together, moving around each other, hands occasionally reaching to touch. After all these years, we still can't stop touching.

We lie together in bed and make love slowly. Old bodies with old joints may still be in relatively good condition but are nevertheless not as supple as they once were. And slow love-making is very very sweet.

In another world, I don't wake in the morning alone knowing that I won't speak to or even see another soul all day; all week; probably longer.

In another world, you didn't die.