🔷 Before you read, please remember votes and comments = more chapters—no votes or asking me to "please update" comments = no chapters. Just follow me so you know I've updated instead of asking me to. Thank you.🔷

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.───

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.───

"Troubled you are my padawan," my master said to me as I sat before him in an empty training room after I had checked over all the seeker droids for today's lesson, he had asked me to help in assisting him in youngling training again which I enjoyed immensely.

From the hellos they bid me from their joyous smiles and the ever-insightful questions they would ask me about my life or something about training, I was more than happy to oblige. Yet, as things in the galaxy became more tense, my other duties had become a priority.

"Yes, Master, I am troubled," I returned to him truthfully, knowing there was nothing I could hide, especially when it came to Yoda, "It's my dreams; I still cannot trust them."

"Bother you a great deal. These dreams still do."

I nod and hum silently in answer, "Yes, I just can't tell apart what is a dream or a vision anymore, even through the Force," my master hummed thoughtfully and nodded his head.

"Help you, I will, my padawan. Reach out through the Force; clear your mind, you will. Recall your dreams and try to make sense of them; I will. Find out the truth, we will."

With that, I did what was asked, closing my eyes and slipping into a meditative state. I let the dreams come and allowed my master to enter my mind.

A young boy with a red padawan braid trailing behind them was running with me through the Jedi Temple. I feared for his life but knew I had to protect him no matter what.

It changes to that of the platform in pouring rain and another Jedi. I could not tell who both of us were fighting: a man wearing a jetpack. The unknown Jedi falls off the platform edge with the man I call for them.

It changes again to that of a young blonde man who seemed familiar to me fighting a figure shrouded in black only to get hurled aside and unconscious.

"The Force is strong within you, Skywalker, like your brother," a man spoke from the dark as I rotated in the air with purple electric chains tethered to my wrists and ankles, "Join me and let me complete your training, and you could become stronger. So, there's no point fighting it, young padawan."

I speak, but my words can't be heard.

"Join the dark side, and we can destroy the Je..."

I speak again in silence, offering an incorrect response. The man sighed with disappointment at me, hanging his head, "If you don't, Master Kenobi will die. I know you care for him dearly."

He piqued my interest instantly hearing his name again, and worry courses through me.

"Join me."

Still mute, I glared back at the faceless man for a long time in response, firmly sealing my eyes shut. I tried not to let my tears escape me, "I will never join you."

It changes again for a final time. I'm fighting a Sith pressing their red lightsaber down against my blue. We struggled against each other until the Sith won the fight, running me through.

"Confusing your dream is the future it is, I do not know. Unclear your mind is my padawan."

"Like I don't know that already," I uttered, "But my mother Shmi appeared to me last night in the dream, but she hadn't before she was on Tatooine in pain being tortured."

"An answer for this I do not think more on this I will younglings we now have to teach."

Our talk is now finished, and the Younglings arrive just in time, ready for today's lesson. I would demonstrate the forms of Shi-Cho for them if my Master asked me to and would help correct their poses and posture, holding their training sabres correctly while still getting used to them. But they excelled in blocking the zaps from the training droids with their blinders down with the Force to guide them. It made my heart swell with joy. Watching them learn brought thoughts of my future within the Jedi Order, where I'd teach one day, just like Yoda, where I would someday pass on my knowledge.

But about halfway through, we received a visitor in the form of Obi-Wan. Feeling his presence, his eyes and furrowed brow briefly caught my gaze. His lips pulled up slightly, telling me he needed help with something. My Master has now noticed jabbing his stick in the ground a few times to halt the lesson, making the training droids stop firing.

"Younglings...enough! A visitor we have. Welcome him," the children deactivated their sabres, "Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, meet the mighty Bear Clan."

"Welcome, Master Obi-Wan," the Younglings offer their greetings, raising their blinders.

"Hello," Obi-Wan returned kindly before turning his attention back to my Master, hands clasped before him, "I'm sorry to disturb you, Master, Ambrose."

"What help to you can I be?" Yoda asked of him.

"I'm looking for a planet described to me by an old friend," something told me he had probably gone to the downtown part of Coruscant to get whatever information he needed but hadn't gotten him far. The reason Obi-Wan had ended up here was "I trust him. But the system doesn't show up on the archive maps."

"Lost a planet Master Obi-Wan has," my Master teases him, "How embarrassing," the children laughed and giggled at him.

"Oh, I agree, Master; very embarrassing for someone, especially in Obi-Wan's position," I add with a nod, smirking slightly, making the younglings laugh again. Obi-Wan mockingly raises his brow at them, catching my eye for a moment before I instruct one of the children, "Liam, get the shades, would you?"

"An interesting puzzle. Gather younglings around the map reader. Clear your minds and find Obi-Wan's wayward planet we will."

A reader with a small shaft and a hollow opening at the top emerges from the floor just as the children gather around it, and Obi-Wan approaches, taking a glass orb from his robe into the reader's centre, which begins to glow. With the shades finally closed, the room is plunged into semi-darkness. The sphere bursts outward, filling the room with a hologram and scattering a map of brilliant white stars and planets around it as they dance before our faces.

Yet when I saw Obi-Wan move amongst those projected stars and plants, I almost stopped breathing, and my heart skipped a beat because he just looked so damn perfect.

"This is where it ought to be..." Obi-Wan points at the void area in question, "...but it isn't. Gravity is pulling all the stars in this area inward to this spot. There should be a star here...but there isn't."

"Most interesting. Gravity's silhouette remains, but the star and all its planets disappeared they have. How can this be? Now, younglings, what is the first thing you see in your mind?" my Master asked the children as I saw them ponder in thought; eyes shut, I wandered through the holograms to the spot Obi-Wan is interested in, "An answer? A thought? Anyone?"

After a brief silence, Youngling raised his hand and asked, "Master? Because someone erased it from the archive memory."

All the children chatted in agreement before another child spoke up to suggest, "If the planet blew up, the gravity would go away."

Obi-Wan stared back instead in awe of the Younglings, and I was also rather impressed. Yoda chuckled, "Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is. The Padawan is right," he now offered Obi-Wan a severe look, "Go to the centre of gravity's pull, find your planet you will."

Yoda and Obi-Wan step away from the children with a movement of his hand, pull the orb to him, the map instantly disappearing, and head to the adjoining room.

"But Master Yoda, who could have erased information from the archives? That's impossible, isn't it?" I heard Obi-Wan ask as the shades rose and the room again filled with daylight.

"But Master, someone within the Jedi Order must had reason to destroy the data in the first place, right?" I now suggested out of curiosity, coming up to them both, shrugging my shoulders before folding my arms across my chest and glancing between them, "Without rousing any suspicion, of course."

"Dangerous and disturbing this puzzle is," my Master hummed with a frown. Hold tightening on his walking stick, "Agree with my Padawan; I do a Jedi to have destroyed the files. Yet, who or why is a difficult question this is. Meditate on this; I must."

In that brief moment, Obi-Wan stroked his beard, and his eyes instantly came alive with what he was thinking, "Master, you don't suppose I couldn't have the assistance of your padawan on my journey if danger should ever arise," Obi-Wan put across to Yoda in a professional manner who looked between us both.

Yet, this had taken me by surprise. Of course, I had worked with other Jedi on some assignments over the years, but working with Obi-Wan would be a first. But something deep down told me we would work rather well together.

"Approve this request, Obi-Wan, to have Ambrose assist you. Well-mannered and skilled in diplomacy, he is. Make preparations you will my padawan meet you on the landing pads he shall."

"Thank you for your approval, Master," Obi-Wan bowed respectfully.

"I look forward to working with you, Master Kenobi," I said kindly with a curt nod, which he returned.

"I do look forward to it as well. Besides, I've already heard nothing but good things. I have faith we'll do a good job," he spoke, smile becoming wider, both of us staring at one another rather too long than necessary. Clearing his throat, he points out of the room, "I'll see we have ships ready and that your R6 is available to us, and I'll see you there."

Humming in response, I casually leant against the doorway of the training annexe, arms crossed in front of me, Yoda next to me, watching Obi-Wan's figure retreating with purpose younglings chattering behind me.

"Be careful. You must be my padawan."

"What should I be careful of, Master," I ask, my eyes still watching Obi-Wan's form getting further away.

"Love, be careful of love."

Suddenly, I come over, all cold eyes shifting down at Yoda, still gazing ahead, looking ever-wise as he always had. My heart pounded, speeding up ever so slightly. But he didn't look mad at me but a picture of calm as I willed to keep my face neutral of expression.

"Master I..."

"Don't be afraid of love, my padawan. Natural it is," he states, leaving me instead taken aback, my mouth silently ajar, "All feel it we do something we cannot stop. Do not be ashamed of what you feel. Willed with such emotion, you are raised to feel you were. But act on this attraction, you can not. Resist it, or your weaknesses it will become."

I know what he had said was to reassure me, yet it just got me all the more confused. Such love had never been spoken like that by a Jedi. It was supposed to be a forbidden emotion that could never be glanced at. Being intimately physical was somewhat acceptable, but with some vigilance. Back then, as far as I knew, you had to not give yourself or your emotions away at the moment because it would cause a lot more damage, and some tried to avoid being intimate.

Yet right now, inside my head is a scrambled mess, eyes still not having left the very spot Obi-Wan once stood only offering Yoda a simple response, "Yes, Master."

This information somewhat dimmed the chaos in my mind subconsciously but not completely it had caused it to become more boisterous. When something so wrong for me to be still attracted to another male which I had been since discovering this at twelve years old, had been at nineteen and still was almost thirty. Yet once a wholly forbidden fruit no longer seemed unattainable.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.───

I'm in an empty training room getting the practice in with my lightsaber before leaving for Kamino. I deactivated my blue lightsaber when I sensed someone was watching me stopping. I caught my breath—now turning around to find Obi-Wan standing nearby, looking somewhat impressed, leaning against the wall, not wearing his brown robe over his almost all-white attire.

"Hello, Ambrose, I was told I'd find you here," he now takes himself off the wall and approaches me.

"Master Obi-Wan," I returned in greeting with a slight nod before enquiring, "What news do you have for our trip to the mystery planet of Kamino?"

"Everything has been cleared to go, but we should be able to go by twilight. Other than that, there is nothing else we can do until then."

"How about a little sparring match to pass the time?" I suggest casually with a shrug and a sly grin, tossing my lightsaber hilt upward as it twirled in mid-air before catching it again without me looking before walking more into the centre of the room, "Show you what Yoda has praised so highly of his apprentice."

"Sure, this a wise use of our time?" Obi-Wan raised a brow at me, crossing his arms.

"Come on, Obi-Wan, it will keep us on top of our game also; it's a chance for me to spar with someone new and help more with my training."

"Maybe you should try having a go with your brother. He's rather good," he voiced with pride but with some resignation.

"Are you telling me he's beaten you?" I asked with a mischievous smirk, "More than once!" I saw the utter embarrassment in Obi-Wan's eyes. I began to snicker and laugh. He pleaded with me to stop, "Okay, okay, I'll stop, so how about it?" he eyes the sabre in my hand.

"I assume you know the rules?" he asked me, having caved, offering a slight grin now in the centre of the room facing me, detaching his saber and adjusting it to the stun setting mine.

"Of course, it's not my first spar after all," I smile a little, going to adjust my sabre and then looking each other in the eye, equal smirks on our lips as we now bow to one another before igniting our blue sabers to life.

Obi-Wan makes the first move, charging at me. Our sabers clash and spark in the first few blows as we try to learn about one another's movements. This goes on for several minutes, the humming of our blades and heavy breathing as if now fighting for our lives, trying to prove our worth of what we have learned as Jedi Kight and Padawan. Alone in a room putting on a spectacular show others couldn't see showing off a little.

Obi-Wan finally catches me off guard, almost slashing at my throat, which I managed to dodge, a small chuckle escaping me and enjoying myself far too much than I should.

"You have a rather good strategy going for you!" I praise his technique with a smile before he backhands a slash in return, only for me to jab up vertically, catching it, "Rather the fine swordsman Obi-Wan, I'm impressed!" he blinks a little at almost dazed by my compliment. But he carried on.

Now, hitting my head, he traps my forearm, pivots, and plants his booted foot against my ribs. It proves we have come a long way in our different skill levels, unleashing a round of kicks, blocks and punches. Obi-Wan had begun to laugh, spouting praise at me and started to ease the brutality in his attacks, our weapons clashing high in the air, coming stomach-to-stomach, face-to-face, breathing hot air on one another.

"Ready to yield yet?" Obi-Wan now challenges with a whisper as we push against each other.

"No, are you? But on Tatooine, sometimes that was never really an option," my hands tighten around my saber knuckles, almost white; just the very thought of it, let alone speak its name, makes me think of my mother that I had to leave her there on that godforsaken sand pit and the dream or vision I had of her in pain recently all the more just killed me not knowing if was real or not.

Obi-Wan sees how talking about home pains me and gives me a moment to collect myself, "If you want to stop, I'll understand."

"No, I want to continue. I can't dwell on the past," I shake my head.

After a brief moment, we carry on. Before long, I get him into a back choke, but Obi-Wan manages to turn out of it and pull me over his shoulder. I bounce off a pillar in a back flip in his direction only to avoid the kick I was about to land, grabbing hold of my ankle and twisting it, lightsaber slipping from my hand.

When Obi-Wan thought he was about to have one over on me and win, I backhanded with a decisive blow, bringing him to his knees. Using the force to grab my lightsaber within seconds, it rested against his throat. He's smirking at me with utter glee as I peer down to see his sabre is mere inches from my stomach that he could have efficiently run me through but thankfully is still on stun. It had come to a stalemate.

"You have been taught well," he states to me, gasping for air and gazing up at me.

"So are you," feeling the sweat on my inner robes almost sticking against my skin.

Yet through no fault of our own, we were gazing deeply into one another's eyes, neither of us hesitating, watching as our chests went up and down, a charged energy between us that was almost blissful. Rising to his feet every so gently, Obi-Wan kept his eyes on me until we were face to face. Our lightsabers went to our sides, and I only closed my eyes as his breath fanned against my neck like he had ten years ago when instructing me to use a blaster gun on Naboo. A free hand softly brushes the length of my arm before cupping my jaw thumb, moving lightly back and forth against my cheek. I tried to live in this moment of weakness but abruptly ripped myself away, turning my back to him as I turned off my lightsaber.

"Ambrose, I..." he began to speak, but in doing so, I awkwardly cleared my throat and straightened myself up.

"If we're to leave at twilight, I best get ready," I said, not looking him in the eye and not wanting to see the confusion within mine as I quickly rushed out of the room, the door sliding behind me. I cursed internally for letting my shields down; he was probably feeling that way, too, for having allowed ourselves to get so close to almost breaking the code and not even care.