The Jedi Temple Murders
by analise and Kirby CrowPart 5
*I said _go_! Go before I make them leave you here with me. Go before I do something I'll regret to keep you here.*
Qui-Gon had not said these things, but now he wished he had.
He had returned to his empty quarters and had tried to meditate, but had failed miserably. He had brewed tea, read a book, and tried to exercise. Nothing had drowned out the silence of the unoccupied room that gaped like a dark wound against the wall.
No less than two hours after sunset, he found himself unable to pretend any longer. There were things that Obi-Wan was hiding from him, but one thing he was certain of was that his apprentice was scared and alone.
Although they had taken Obi-Wan almost to the edge of the Jedi compound, Qui-Gon needed no guide to find his apprentice. He pursued the trail by sense alone, by listening to his instinct and letting it set the direction, by following where it tugged him here, nudged him there, until after a prolonged distance, he came to the curved archway that entered into a long and narrow hall. Qui-Gon peered into the gloom before him, his heart heavy. It was such a dark and lonely wing of the Temple. No place at all for his Padawan to be in his state of mind. He needed sunlight and air, and the company of those who cared about him.
What he had not needed was the assault upon his mind that Mace had perpetrated on him in the Moot Hall.
*I allowed that,* Qui-Gon thought in shame. *I let them do that to him, because I was so sure they would find nothing. Oh, Padawan what did you hide from them? From me?*
There was no glimmer of doubt in him; Obi-Wan had not killed his classmates. But there was something he was hiding, and - no matter what Obi-Wan tearfully claimed in the Moot Hall - it did have something to do with the murders.
*No,* he corrected himself. *With those that _were_ murdered. Obi-Wan is not concealing knowledge of the killer.*
Qui-Gon folded his arms in his sleeves and began traversing the distance to Obi-Wan's cell, steeling himself for what he intended to do. When it was known, there would be hell to pay in the Council chambers.
He came to a sharp turn in the hall and was suddenly confronted by two Temple guards in black livery, the winged crest of the Jedi emblazoned on their shoulders. They were both young, and Qui-Gon knew their names. They were Temple children who had failed to find a master before they grew too old to become Padawans, and now this was their vocation. Not every Force-sensitive who entered the Temple became a Jedi.
Obi-Wan still occasionally gazed at these two with a mild pity in his eyes whenever they chanced to meet, perhaps remembering his own precarious state when he was younger, just nearing the age when the opportunity to become Jedi would pass him by forever. Pity, and a sort of hunted fear.
One of the guards lifted up her hand. "I'm sorry, Master Jinn, we have orders not to let--"
Qui-Gon waved his hand gently. "Those orders do not apply to me."
"But that doesn't apply to you," the young woman said dazedly. Her companion nodded his agreement vigorously.
"You've been working very hard guarding my Padawan for me," Qui-Gon said. "Now you feel like taking a nap."
Both were already swaying on their feet, eyes drooping. Qui-Gon took each of the young people by their hands and led them to the nearby wall, pushing down on their shoulders until they sat. They immediately leaned on each other and fell asleep, leaving Qui-Gon free to go to the door and knock upon it softly.
"Padawan?"
"Master?" Obi-Wan's response was immediate, distress sharp in his tone. He had obviously not been sleeping.
"I'm here, Obi-Wan." Qui-Gon put all the reassurance he could summon into his voice. "I will not leave you."
"Master...." Qui-Gon sensed his apprentice laying his cheek to the cold surface of the door between them. "I didn't do it."
Qui-Gon wanted to fling open the door and embrace his Padawan, to wipe the distress from that fair brow and assure him that he thought him no murderer. But he knew that if he did so it would alert those who were listening along the Force. They would believe his apprentice was escaping.
Qui-Gon laid his hand on the wood where he thought Obi-Wan's cheek might be. "I know, Obi-Wan."
Suddenly, Qui-Gon felt Obi-Wan withdraw, away from the door. "Master, you shouldn't be here. Master Windu gave explicit instructions.... the guards--"
"Your guards are asleep, Padawan. Sloppy work, very negligent of them." Was that a snort he heard? Qui-Gon smiled. "Are you alright Obi Wan? Have they questioned you again?" His hands clenched unconsciously into fists. "If Mace--"
"No, Master," Obi-Wan was quick to supply. "I have not been asked anything further."
"Do you need anything?"
"I have all I that I require." There was a long pause, and then a note of shy uncertainty. "Are *you* alright?"
"All I lack is you." Qui-Gon repressed a sigh as Obi-Wan's flushed pleasure transferred itself to him though the Force. "Obi-Wan, we all know there is something you're trying to hide from us. Even those of us who question what Elspeth accuses."
The whispered "Yes, master," was barely audible.
"It's something you don't want me or anyone to know, but I also know that you had nothing to do with harming any of the young Jedi. However, I think that at this moment I'm the only one who knows that."
Obi-Wan was silent, but through the quiet Qui-Gon felt his apprentice relent ever so slightly in his determination.
"Obi-Wan," he pressed. "Don't you think it's time you told me what you've been carrying inside you? It's a heavy burden, whatever it is. Let me help you, Padawan. Please."
Qui-Gon heard a scrabbling sound over his head. He glanced up and saw Obi-Wan's pale fingers reaching to him through the small, squared ventilation grate. "Master?"
Wordless with relief, Qui-Gon offered him his touch, and was surprised when Obi-Wan gripped his fingers tight enough to bruise.
"It happened on Kithurrin," Obi-Wan began. Qui-Gon heard the tears begin, and a seed of dread began to bloom in his heart.
"Everything happened on Kithurrin...."
Perhaps more wide than tall, this particular waterfall was but one of many on the surface of the jungle world the Training Temple was situated on, just another place that the river poured down the massive dolomite shelves of rock on its way to the ocean. And so, while it was a place of magic and beauty to the 5 triumphant Padawans, it was just another waterfall on a planet full of them to everyone else. It was therefore completely deserted, even with its vague proximity to the Padawan Learner dorms.
It had been an idyllic afternoon, almost surreal in its beauty. They had purchased several bottles of the harsh Kithurr Ale and followed the directions of a local to the secluded spot. Birds and insects chorused in the late golden sun, nearly drowned out by laughter that was already well on its way to being a drunken revelry. Two whole days off before they would all head back to Coruscant.
"What?" Obi-Wan gasped, trying to bite back a choked laugh as Geen passed the slender bottle of Kithurr Ale over to him, a mischievious glint in green eyes that he trusted not at all.
"I said, haven't you ever wanted to fuck your Master?" His friend wiped the back of his mouth, and bent his knees, dipping and bobbing down in the warm water so that he peered at Obi-Wan from just above the surface, his dark braid floating on the top of the lagoon next to his pretty face, his teeth flashing white under the water as he grinned.
He couldn't prevent the deep flush that suffused his cheeks at the question and quickly lifted the bottle to his lips to keep Geen from seeing how the playful question affected him. He felt more than a little light-headed from all the alcohol they had already imbibed. It was a rarity, perhaps the only time since he'd been chosen as Qui-Gon Jinn's Padawan Learner, that he had had this much to drink. That he had had this kind of liberty from the discipline of the Jedi Temple. It felt exhilarating and a little strange.
"Oh leave him alone," Elspeth admonished, her words sounding loud in his ear as she hung off his shoulder. She was the lightweight among them, and while they were all nicely buzzing from the ale, she was well on her way to drunk. "They're just jealous coz you have such a hot master. Sandor's got a senior and Geen's got a tree." She stage-whispered into his ear, her full mouth curving into a conspiratorial smile. Her comment did nothing to ease his blush.
Bacco caught her up from behind, sliding his hands up to her rounded breasts and squeezing them familiarly.
"Don't listen to her boys, she's got a crush on Master Jinn, just like Obi," he laughed. She shrieked in mock-outrage and flung herself on top of him, the resulting wave of water splashing the others.
"Look at him, he's blushing!" Sandor chuckled, snatching the bottle from Obi-Wan's fingers and swimming backwards with his prize clutched aloft. Geen was only smiling, his eyes never leaving Obi-Wan's, his expression unreadable.
"I'm not blushing," Obi-Wan protested, forcing a grin, "I'm just sunburned from our Trial."
Bringing up the Trial always distracted Sandor, and this time was no exception. His brown-haired friend threw back his head, raising the bottle as he howled out their triumph once more. Their team, the five of them, had passed the week long jungle-survival test with the best score that the Masters of Kithurrin Temple had ever seen. They had been given the two days off as a reward.
Geen was not as easily led. His best friend simply continued to stare at him with lidded green eyes, almost knowingly. There was something else in that gaze too. Something that was always there beneath Geen's easy-going, playful exterior. Something that seemed disquieting in a way that Obi-Wan could never determine. Something terribly sad.
Bacco and Elspeth had taken their boisterous play to the side of the lagoon where they parked themself under a tree in the warm sand and cracked open a new bottle.
"You boys amuse yourselves!" Bacco called out across the water, saluting them with the new bottle. "I've got business with the little woman!" Another laughing shriek from Elspeth was the last thing that the remaining three got out of the couple.
Sandor snorted. He plugged the top of the bottle with his thumb and disappeared under the surface, coming up a moment later behind Geen. He twined his arms around his lover and whispered something in the younger man's ear. Something that made Geen grin. And then both of his friends' eyes were on him, and he could feel a heat sparking in his belly for no reason he could name.
And there was jealousy too. He and Geen had been close for a long time, but never as close as Geen was able to be with Sandor. Sandor, who slept with anything that walked upright and happened to have the right equipment. He didn't have time to analyze what Sandor had whispered to Geen, because a moment later Sandor was pressing the bottle into Geen's hand and peeling away like a fish in the water.
"I'm heading out to the waterfall." he stated, before he vanished with a splash and a kick.
"What did he say?" Obi-Wan asked outright, his eyebrows arching. Geen grinned again, saying nothing, and he felt his temper, usually so even-keel, start to flare with impatience. It was that damned question about his Master. Did they know? Did they know that he spent most of his nights jerking at his stiff penis under the thin sheets of his cot, fantasizing that it was his Master's hands on his body, his Master's mouth on his cock....that his desire for those dreams to become reality was growing almost daily? He had never even been with a man in that way, and yet somehow, it was these fantasies that occupied his mind.
Geen seemed to be able to read his temperament easily. He always had. His friend found his feet on the sandy bottom and finally stood up, water sleeking away from his chest and shoulders, his dark hair nearly black with the wet. He took the last swig from the bottle, emptying it into his mouth, and then cast it aside into the lagoon with a small splash, moving the few short feet towards his friend.
Obi-Wan had been expecting any number of different things. A joke, a push, a splash of water in his face....even a word or two. What he hadn't expected was the kiss. Geen pressed those perfect lips to his and Obi-Wan felt the burn of the Kithurr Ale bleed into his mouth with the invasion of an agile tongue.
It was nothing like anything he'd ever experienced with a woman. Geen's mouth was hard on his, aggressive in a way that tripped his heart. Not teasing, but deliberately arousing. It shook him to his bones and sent a strong shock-wave of pure need straight into his groin. He swallowed the alcohol, adding to the trembling buzz that already lent a tingling warmth to his body, and he let his own tongue take up a languid dance with the other's almost naturally.
There were hands on his waist, not roving, only lightly stroking his flesh along the inside of the waistband of his trunks. Long and long it went, until Obi-Wan was sure his insides had turned to liquid and he would no longer be able to stand upright in the lapping warmth of the lagoon.
It was Sandor's voice that broke them apart. A yell from the waterfall, strained and faint against the roar of the water.
"Hey guys! Come and see this! It's a cave!"
The two of them stood there, staring at each other for a long moment, Obi-Wan shocked and flushed with the sudden, intense surge of arousal - and Geen with a blazing need mixed with something else. Something that he had lowered the veil on.
He loved Obi-Wan.
It stunned him to the core, deep down, and it inspired a terrible sadness in him. A sadness it was impossible to hide and that he knew his friend could feel.
"I know," Geen whispered, reaching up to touch Obi-Wan's cheek lightly with a small accepting nod. "I know you can never return it. I know who your heart belongs to."
It almost brought tears to his eyes. Not that his secret was somehow known by his friend, but that the reality of it would cause Geen so much pain. He knew how it felt to love what you could never have.
Obi-Wan brought one of Geen's hands up off his own waist and kissed the inside of his wrist where the newly inscribed tattoo, a match to his own, branded the ivory skin.
"I'm sorry," he breathed, the pain visible in his eyes.
"I know you are." He grinned, leaning forward to kiss him again. Obi Wan kissed him back, his hands sliding up the wet arms to cup Geen's face. It wasn't fair, he thought. None of it. There was no way that Qui-Gon would ever be able to return his love, the same way that Obi Wan would never be able to return Geen's. It would have been so much easier to simply love this sweet, beautiful man. So much easier.
Elspeth and Bacco swam past them, Bacco staring a little curiously at them.
"Come on, you two. A cave!" he called out.
"What did Sandor say to you?" Obi-Wan asked as they broke away from each other and moved to follow in the wake of their friends. Geen chuckled.
"He told me to just kiss you already."
Obi-Wan laughed.
"Do you always do what Sandor says?"
"I do if I ever want to have any peace. Besides, it seemed like a good thing to do." Geen slanted a shy glance at him suddenly, an expression strangely out of place on his usually confident face. "Was it, Obi?"
Obi-Wan let an honest grin spread across his face as another wave of heat swept through his body. He thought he knew what they would be doing tonight.
"Oh, yes."
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