Chapter Text
Anakin groans when he finally comes to, lying on the grass covered fields in the Room of a Thousand Fountains.
He blinks once before he narrows his azure eyes towards the Coruscanti night sky, slowly recounting how he got here.
‘You never listen to me Master!’ barked out Anakin with his hands on his hips.
‘Anakin, this time, you hare-brained idea could get us both killed,’ retorted back Obi-wan’s disapproving tone of voice which made his former padawan just want to shake his former master frantically, knocking some sense into him.
‘Why is that you never listen to me anymore? Is faking your death and not telling me about your deception beforehand just another way for you not to trust me?’ vocalized Anakin’s rebuttal before he rubbed at his bleary eye sockets with his gloved prosthetic.
‘Anakin…, I trust you with my life, so please believe me when I say that this mission you are proposing is going to go sideways. Dear one, don’t cry, please,’ pleaded Obi-wan as he stretched out his hand, attempting to brush the tears threatening to fall from his former student’s tear ducts before it was swatted away from the young Jedi Knight who gritted out, ‘Don’t act like you care for me, Master , you lost that chance when you faked your death and harnessed my attachment to you for the good of the Republic.’
Anakin turned on his heel, swishing his dark cloak in haste, and stomping his dark brown boots towards the Room of a Thousand Fountains. He knew he wasn’t going to mediate but just the calm in that room would be beneficial to him as he sensed in the area that there wasn’t any occupants as most Jedi were in the field participating in the Clone Wars.
He always takes this room for granted as he soon finds a secluded spot, gazing upwards to the night sky. Stars and constellations are rare to spot in Coruscant as it holds the capital of the Republic which is in an urbanized environment. He rarely wishes he were back on his home planet, Tatooine, because he used to peer up towards the darken night sky, longing for a chance to be freed from the confines of slavery by the Hutts. Then he thinks otherwise because if he stayed, he would have probably been abused and killed from those damn Tusken Raiders just like his mother, never meeting his future master, Obi-wan Kenobi.
Anakin sneers when he thinks about his former master before he blinks back his brimming tears and then glowers once more upwards, observing the starless sky and just as he was about to call it a night, his azure eyes expand in astoundment for the shooting star that zooms by to his unsuspecting vision.
Anakin exhales before he whispers one wish under his breath, ‘I wish there were some way for me and Obi-wan to reconnect. Please.’
The Jedi Knight soon succumbs to the dire sleep he needs.
Now that Anakin remembers, he tries to raise himself up off the ground before he suddenly trips over his dragging cloak, tumbling forward into a ball-like fashion down a sloped hill, dirtying up his face on impact.
“Damn it, that kriff’in hurt!” bemoaned Anakin as he tried to rise once more and as he thought he reached his full height, stumbled back down once again on his ass, squinting his eyes in pain while he rubbed his sore bottom.
He then shifted his hands to the front of his body and noticed that they were one-fourth their original size. He cautiously lifted his feet next, pushing off his boots to reveal his feet which were about one-third their original size as well. The last revelation he was going to perform was removing his glove from his prosthetic arm, and once he did, was unveiled to be just as his original, unblemished right arm that was born to him.
“What—the—fuck?!” yelled Anakin and before he could freak out anymore, he was suddenly scooped up into his former master’s arms.
“Master…” mouthed Anakin before the tears began to fall and he clung to his former master’s neck, wailing incessantly while the elder Jedi rocked his former apprentice in his arms, shushing him, and murmuring that everything is going to be alright.
Obi-wan had returned to his adjoining quarters with his former padawan, fitfully getting undressed as he recounted the argument with Anakin in precise detail. Once he was down to his innermost tunics, he got underneath the bed covers, tossing and turning to find a comfortable position to rest for the night. As he was lightly dozing, almost on the edge of REM sleep, his still intact Force bond with his former apprentice sprung to life in a frenetic way which made the Jedi Master spring into action by at least putting on his brown cloak and slip-on shoes that he wore around the apartment when he was off duty from the warfront.
The elder Jedi speedily traversed the familiar halls of the Jedi Temple, zeroing in on his former student who was surprisingly in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. And he soon witnessed his former padawan on a verge of a complete meltdown before he swiftly picked up Anakin who was practically the same size he was when he first met him.
Obi-wan didn’t know how his former tutelage became de-aged and he didn’t care what anyone would say when he brought Anakin to Healer Che as he soothed the Youngling version of his former padawan all the way to the Healing Wards.
“It seems he has de-aged to about 4 years old,” announced Che’s diagnosis of Anakin’s condition.
“But how?” croaked Obi-wan as he had a sleeping Anakin now secured back in his arms.
Che sighed before she gave a unsure smile, “I can’t say for sure, but there was in the Holo-news earlier of a shooting star traveling across the Coruscanti night sky, maybe that was a factor?”
Obi-wan lightly snorted, “As if that was the prime factor for my former padawan’s sudden de-aging.”
“Um…, it probably was, Master,” muttered Anakin as he groggily rubbed his sleepy, red-rimmed eyes awake with his chubby fists.
Obi-wan sighed before he bumped his forehead against the younger Jedi, leveling his blue-green eyes in slightly menacing fashion, “Anakin, we’re going to have a long talk when we get back to the apartment.”
Anakin gulped out, “Mkay.”