Reinvention: "The Gardens"

Series title, Reinvention, chapter 3, "The Gardens"

Rating: NC-17
Archive: Ask me, or Jacynthe Demorae's
Series: 3/3

Categories: Q/O pairing, PWP. Part one is a first-time, part two is bondage/power play, part three is romance. Fun for everyone!
Feedback: Dying for it, please. email above.

Summary: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan have to make some changes in the way they deal with each other and the Council

Disclaimers:If anyone officially authorized to be involved with them reads this, I hope you see two things: This was done out of utmost adoration, and I have no money.

Part 3-- The Gardens

Mace had been right.

It was going to take a lot of work to purge the Gardens of the Dark they had dragged in. Obi-Wan knelt just inside the locked entrance, eyes closed, feeling the coldness in the Dark and watching with his inner eye as it swirled in roiling purple waves.

Qui-Gon, kneeling beside him, sighed heavily. "I never should have allowed this to happen."

Obi-Wan struggled with his own guilty part in it, but then gave it up to the Force and said quietly, "Master, what we did yesterday needed to be done."

Qui-Gon shifted his vision out of phase and looked around as Obi-Wan was doing, intending to start where the Dark was deepest. He remembered the pocket of chilled fear he had sent Obi-Wan inadvertently, remembered how it felt to wake up from that dream, not even relieved to be awake but only worrying about how many more nights he would be subjected to Xanatos' memory. He knew that Xanatos was, finally, gone, even as he sat in the midst of the mess they had created purging him. He tested the memory, pushed on it, deliberately conjuring recollections that he could not have tolerated even yesterday. He found that it no longer hurt him--/Amazing,/ he thought, and sent a wash of love and gratefulness to Obi-Wan through the bond. Obi-Wan smiled, his eyes still closed.

Obi-Wan felt a shift, and opened his eyes. His Master was gone, and Obi-Wan wondered how he could have disappeared so quickly. Still, he could be found through the bond they shared.

/Padawan, have you any idea where we might start with this?/ Qui-Gon sent him, and Obi-Wan rose and looked around, but couldn't see his Master anywhere.

/No, Master. There's so /much/ of it. Where did you go?/

Qui-Gon veered away from the question mentally and murmured, thoughtfully, /The balance of Dark is Light. What would be required to balance sorrow?/

Sensing a lesson, Obi-Wan set off, looking about for Qui-Gon, ducking between trees and casting his glance down aisles and glades of flowers and ferns. /Happiness, Master./ That was easy. Happiness was something he finally understood now. Happiness was truly living in the Moment. He knew it now, felt it with every line and sketch of his body and soul, as well as contentment, loyalty, duty, and all the other abstracts he'd been calling "happiness" for years.

/And fear?/

Obi-Wan remembered his lessons from his earlier days. /Peace./

Qui-Gon wasn't satisfied. /Don't recite the Code in your head, Padawan, think. Fear is balanced by....?/

/Courage,/ Obi-Wan suggested, and was enveloped in warm approval. He started into what should have been a balmy area of the Gardens but still could not see where Qui-Gon had gone off. The Dark was thickening like fog the farther he went, and the air was growing cold. /Master, shouldn't we be together? There is a lot of Darkness here./ Still, he plunged into the ink he felt around him, pushing it back by drawing on the Force within him, a candle in mist.

/What is the balance to anger?/ Qui-Gon persisted, and Obi-Wan could almost feel him slipping around a grassy little corner, just ahead, but then the sensation was obscured again. Qui-Gon was deliberately avoiding him. Obi-Wan smiled as realization dawned, and made up his mind simply to give chase. He felt the Darkness recoil from him a little, like a living thing in sudden fear.

/Serenity?/ Obi-Wan didn't understand the purpose to the word game, though. They had been through this before, and now didn't seem to be the time to be reinventing the Code. /Master, what is the point of this exercise? The Garden--/

/What is the balance to anger?/ Qui-Gon repeated, and Obi-Wan felt a brush of energy, warmth amid the cold, and turned to his right. He started down another path, and opened his mind, seeking Qui-Gon but also knowing he would be required to fulfill this lesson-- for whatever reason-- before Qui-Gon would allow himself to be found.

/Forgiveness,/ Obi-Wan smiled, thinking of the previous night. He began to see.

/And when one is tempted to become lost in dark memories of the past, what is a good balance for that?/

Obi-Wan found, then, his Master's deep brown robe, draped carefully over a stone. Picking it up, he held it to him, inhaling its scent, briefly lost in a memory of a day in the training hall, watching Qui-Gon spar with another Master-- Obi-Wan had been so lonely then, and despairing that his love would ever be returned. But then there was the bright, hot feeling of that mild, Masterly smile turned upon him when he had done well, and hope had returned. He answered, /Anticipation./ He shivered in the chill but noticed that it was beginning to abate somewhat. He felt a flare of energy ahead, and jogged forward, sensing now where his Master had cut a wide swath of Light through the middle of this garden. He followed it.

Qui-Gon seemed to be increasing speed now. Obi-Wan found his boots and laughed softly, amused-- and aroused. He could feel the love coursing through the bond now, as well as encouragement and desire as he grew closer to his target. He realized that he could easily find his Master-- it would be as simple as stretching the bond open and feeling what his Master felt. But he understood now. He followed the path his Master had taken, feeling his way, so clearly seeing the widening path of Light as it burned a trail through the Darkness. He pressed love back through the bond, remembering how he had first come to Qui-Gon years ago, and his joy at having been chosen, and then later when he had first realized he was in love with his Master. He found a sash. He picked it up, draping it around his neck. He moved on, stepping over a rock and ducking under a tree branch.

He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of the new love springing up for the wise man that was his mentor. He saw the Darkness scattering from around him, cut through with the Light from Qui-Gon's heart, like the prow of a watercraft parting the waves and sending them in ever-widening billows. He could feel the contentment wherever his Master had been as he picked his way around trees both graceful and squat, small knolls and rocky patches, decorative and scented herbs.

He found Qui-Gon's tunic, and hugged it, inhaling from it, filling his lungs and his mind with memories and scents of the electric beginnings of love and happiness. He could feel the vibrations his Master left behind-- he was very close. He turned toward a small glade of trees, and moved into it, carrying Qui-Gon's things. The feelings drifting through and around Obi-Wan were reminiscent of the days when he had first felt the stirrings of desire for his Master, but they were so much more, now imbued with the history they had built together. In spite of himself, he let his mind wander over the previous night's journey into the Dark. It had been reckless and dangerous, and so, so impudent of him, but oh... to know that Qui-Gon was suddenly free! He felt a swell of pride and happiness he could never have imagined in the "I love you" reverberating between them.

"Obi-Wan." Qui-Gon's voice was husky as he stepped from behind a tree, clad only in his leggings. Obi-Wan who turned at the sound of his Master's voice, resonant with desire. The Darkness was evaporating everywhere Qui-Gon had been, and Obi-Wan could feel himself encased in the heat of the spirit and body that had driven the Darkness away. Obi-Wan looked around him and could see the last tendrils of dark energy swirling away, swallowed by the trails of Light Qui-Gon had laid out. "What balances lust?" It seemed no longer an academic question-- but then, had any of them been? Obi-Wan dropped his Master's clothing in a heavy pile to one side.

"Fulfillment," Obi-Wan whispered without thinking, and Qui-Gon moved very close, and took his mouth in a soft, tender kiss, gently stroking Obi-Wan's cheeks with his fingertips.

"Well done, Padawan," Qui-Gon breathed, and tugged at the sash holding Obi-Wan's tunics closed around his body. "A lesson well learned." Qui-Gon's voice was steady and smooth, soft, sweetly edged with adoration and admiration. He slid his hands upwards along Obi-Wan's torso, to his shoulders, pushing the tunics off.

Obi-Wan shivered. "It was... " He swallowed as Qui-Gon's mouth found his earlobe and teased it delicately. "A good lesson," he barely managed as he clung to Qui-Gon's shoulders for support. ".... Master."

Qui-Gon's kiss and touch were light and soft, and Obi-Wan's skin rose to gooseflesh at the delicate brushing of fingertips over his exposed skin. Qui-Gon bent his head to Obi-Wan's shoulder and slipped his tongue and lips along the smooth skin, and Obi-Wan shivered and then gasped as Qui-Gon suddenly knelt before him, looking up at him with something akin to awe on his face. Obi-Wan's eyebrows drew together in consternation as he stared down, his eyes casting about on that well-loved face for an explanation. "Master-- what--"

Qui-Gon pressed his forehead to Obi-Wan's stomach, head tilted downward, struggling with some inner difficulty Obi-Wan could not fathom. Qui-Gon slid his hands to Obi-Wan's waist, and held him for a moment, silent, his fingertips stroking the skin under them. Without raising his head, Qui-Gon began to speak, his voice husky and soft.

"I have never thanked you, Obi-Wan." Obi-Wan opened his mouth, shook his head-- but when he would utter a denial, Qui-Gon tightened his hands minutely on his Padawan's waist, and Obi-Wan stayed silent. "It goes unrecognized in the Order how important an apprentice is to a Master." He searched for words briefly. "In a place brim full of people declaring peace and serenity, it is --" he faltered, swallowing. "--It is hard to be one who embraces passion. Even harder to find another who does. To have a /match/ in you is --" His voice caught, but he moved on, finally looking up at Obi-Wan, his expression truly serene, no mask drawn over him to hide roiling emotions. "Thank you," he breathed.

Obi-Wan swallowed, lost in his Master's shining blue eyes and the words that had fallen from his lips. He touched Qui-Gon's bearded cheek, stroked his hair, floundering for words that would do credit to his Master's heart laid bare for him. Finding nothing, he knelt. His heart ached. He stroked Qui-Gon's cheek again, his hair, brushed a thumb over his lips... he couldn't think of anything worth saying. Instead he leaned very close to his Master and kissed him, hesitantly, suddenly shy. He couldn't imagine where this rush of gratefulness had come from-- perhaps the last remnant of Xanatos' memory, or the triumph of dispelling the Dark so readily. He sank his hands into Qui-Gon's soft hair, brushing his lips over his Master's mouth in small, reverent kisses. It didn't matter where it had come from, it was accepted, and returned, eagerly. After so much pain and darkness, how could it not be?

He pulled back, and Qui-Gon could see the realization dawning in his eyes.

"The balance of pain is release," Obi-Wan whispered, softly, feeling it, closing his eyes under the relief of finally being understood and accepted, unhidden.

"Yes," Qui-Gon's voice was choked with emotion, and Obi-Wan kissed him again.

* * * *

"Feel better, do you, for your rest?" Yoda asked pointedly, looking hard at both Master and Padawan.

Qui-Gon bowed his head, and smiled. Mace looked at him suspiciously. "Then... you are prepared to accept a mission." He did not bother to conceal his skepticism.

"Yes, we are quite ready for deployment," Qui-Gon assured the Council easily, and they regarded his relaxed stance and the thrumming bond between him and Padawan Kenobi. Kenobi, too, looked completely at east. Yoda perked his ears up and studied them.

"A difference, then, there is in how you feel, hm?" he asked, and nodded his head. "Yes, yes. Very peaceful are you. Your Padawan as well. How came you by this change?" His eyes sparked with curiosity

Qui-Gon quirked another smile, and exchanged a glance with his Padawan, whose eyes shone with amusement.

"You might say we underwent a paradigm shift, my Master," Qui-Gon explained, and looked at Obi-Wan again. And Obi-Wan added, "Yes, Master. A reinvention."

End. maybe.