Spoilers: Small one for one of the JA books, but I'm not sure
which one. <g>
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Summary: Obi-Wan makes a mistake. Qui-Gon gets tough. This is
the third story in the series "My Padawan." There will probably
be two more stories in this series. In case you missed, the
other stories are "Sense" and "Flight."
Disclaimers: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan aren't mine, blah, blah,
blah.
Webpage: http://adult.dencity.com/rosalita1
My padawan does not bat an eye.
I have been yelling at him for ten minutes over a mistake he
made during a lightsaber drill. He stands up straight, takes
everything I'm handing out in silence except for the occasional
"Yes, Master" because that is what a padawan is expected to do.
Inside, he is seething but hiding it rather well. Obi-Wan
thinks himself beyond this sort of harsh chastisement. And,
truly, I haven't reprimanded him with this severity in years.
In fact, I'm not sure I've ever been this hard on him.
Obi-Wan rarely needed such a rebuke. I almost never had to tell
him the same thing twice. He was serious about his studies,
serious about his drills, serious about everything. The perfect
padawan.
Well, there was that little thing on Melida/Daan, but that's
all water under the bridge now.
He's angry, and I see a glimpse of the boy I watched fighting
ferociously 12 years ago. A boy I was afraid of, and my fear
led me to make what would have been the greatest mistake of my
life had it not been rectified by the Force and by the Light in
Obi-Wan.
Ah, Obi-Wan, I'm being hard on you because I want you to
survive. You'll be a knight soon and on your own. I won't be
there to cover your back. Any mistake, even a small one, and
you could be very dead very fast. I am not sure I would survive
that.
And that is the crux of it.
I need your Light. It warms me. I could bask in it for the rest
of my days. I shudder to think what I would have become if not
for you. If my stupidity had been allowed to prevail, I would
be a bitter, lonely, hard old man.
Instead, I'm just an old man. Well, maybe not old, but getting
there. I am getting there. You, padawan mine, are young and
beautiful and everything that is good in my life. And I must
find a way to tell you before it is too late and you are gone.
Tirade over, and he is looking at me now as if he's just
received confirmation of something he'd merely suspected
before. His customary half-smile becomes a knowing grin.
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