igaveyoufairwarning:

Obikin Week 2k18 Day 2: (Prompts: Soulmates AU/Mythology AU) (Used the Soulmates prompt only)

Warnings: Heavy Angst, Obi-Wan’s Infinite Sadness, Bittersweet Ending

---

It was on Zygerria when Anakin first
caught a glimpse of the words across Obi-Wan’s back.

His former master knelt on the sand,
his tunics gone, his head bowed, hands bound, back already burned and
slashed.

But there, between the cuts and
bruises, ink-black words stood out stark and cold:

I hate you!

The last words
Obi-Wan would hear from his soulmate before death claimed one or the
other.

Anakin’s hand
trembled as he held the electrowhip, knowing the Queen expected him
to wound Obi-Wan further. He should probably enact some form of plan
now, to allow them to escape, but all he could focus on at the moment
was the small symbol beside the words.

Anakin’s blood ran
cold, his body froze, he couldn’t quite breathe.

What
have I done? What will I do?

What
could ever make Anakin
say such a thing to Obi-Wan?

A
soulmark was signed with a symbol that only its owner could
recognize. Anakin looked at it and knew it was him, Obi-Wan
must have peered at it in the mirror and wondered.

But
if this was the
case…

Then
the words, settled much lower on Anakin’s back, like a trampstamp of
calligraphy, would be what Obi-Wan said
to him in the end.

I
loved you.

The
sigil signing it lay a bit lower, just at the top of Anakin’s right
ass cheek, and Obi-Wan hadn’t seen it before,
though the soulmark itself had been plainly visible every time Anakin
peeled out of his shirt.

It was only during
the war, with Obi-Wan trying to bind a wound high up Anakin’s thigh,
that Obi-Wan had encountered the tiny signature symbol.

At
the time Anakin hadn’t tied it to
Obi-Wan’s startled recoil.

He’d thought the
wound must have been worse than they’d expected.

But
it didn’t take long to heal. Wasn’t near as bad as we’d feared.
And if he bears my mark, then I bear his.

And Anakin only
had one soulmark on his body.

This meant Obi-Wan
bore three. Two faded into a painful silver, the beings connected to
them dead. One, long so, the other, much more recent.

He
will bring Balance. Train him,
whispered Qui-Gon’s, wrapped around Obi-Wan’s bicep like a chain. And
then the small, delicate script over his heart that had belonged to
Duchess Kryze: I have loved you always; I always will.

The eternal love
of a dead woman framed Obi-Wan’s heart from before, and Anakin’s
future hatred from behind, heart beating strong and resigned between
the two.

Anakin
felt as if he might unravel with how unfair that
was for Obi-Wan, as gentle and kind and decent a
person as Anakin knew—

And
who I will love, but only for a time.

Thankfully,
Ahsoka, Rex, and R2 took control of the situation, and the instant
Obi-Wan’s hands were free, he fought for them like a wildcat. Small,
scrappy, devastatingly lethal.

When they were
away from Zygerria and safe, Anakin stepped to Obi-Wan’s side and
placed his palm against Obi-Wan’s back, where bandages now hid the
words.

Obi-Wan’s
shoulders sagged and his head bowed.

“Why?” Anakin
whispered. “Why were you bestowed the gift of being loved by three
different people, only to be condemned to suffer heartbreak every
time?”

Obi-Wan’s head
came up, his gaze swift finding Anakin’s.

A gentle smile
touched Obi-Wan’s lips. “The Force has chosen me for suffering. I
don’t know why.”

Anakin’s throat
closed up and his face crumpled.

“Do not grieve,”
Obi-Wan whispered, turning to face him and reaching up to touch
Anakin’s cheek with a gentle fingertip. “My love for you will not
falter. It will consume my final, dying breath.”

Anakin’s eyes
blurred with tears. “Why do you think your death is the one that
will separate us?”
“Whatever I will have done to make you
hate me…” a tear trembled on Obi-Wan’s lash. “In a battle
between you and me, I would not be the one to survive. Whatever
terrible thing I do in the future, you will kill me. I do not think I
will hold it against you. It is a whisper that has settled heavily
around my heart for some time now.”

Anakin
stared at him, feeling his own heart break, and sensing Obi-Wan’s had
already. He knew
months ago, and still he met Anakin with a cheerful smile in the
mornings, and still he claimed what moments of light they might be
offered in this mad, terrible universe.

Anakin drew the
smaller man into his arms, careful of the terrible wounds a short
time in slavery had wrought upon Obi-Wan’s body.

To
promise I will never hurt him would be an obvious lie, given the
circumstances. But he couldn’t
stay quiet.

“When it
happens, and I say those terrible words—” Anakin’s voice failed
him, and he had to swallow hard to continue. “Hold on, Obi-Wan.
Wherever you go in the Force, I will return to you. The Force cannot
separate us again once we are part of it. So once death has claimed
you, you hold on, and you wait for me. I’ll come back.”

And twenty-four
years later…

Anakin Skywalker
did.

---

The End.

Is there a word for “And they found happiness as ghosts?” If there is, I probably should be told, so I can use it as a tag. Hm.

Love,

@igaveyoufairwarning