Chapter Text
The Jedi had never expected anything like this. For the Sith to suddenly reveal themselves, the master and the apprentice all at once. But even more shocking than that was the motivation behind why Darth Sidious had approached Grandmaster Yoda. He explained that he’d seen a vision of the future, one in which the Jedi were decimated, as he’d always planned, but the end of the Sith came soon after a couple more decades. After much meditation and focusing on the visions he could see in the Force, he’d seen the way to prevent it: his apprentice, Darth Maul, was to be married off to one of the Jedi.
Yoda had been skeptical, thinking it was nothing but a dirty trick from the Sith, until he looked into the future and saw the truth for himself. Sidious was right. Even if his motivations were nothing but pure survival, well, at least it would mean the massacre of the Jedi Order would be avoided. The problem was that the Jedi in the vision that was to marry the Sith apprentice was vague and shadowy, with no clarity as to who it was supposed to be.
That was how Yoda and the Jedi Council had come to this moment. In front of them was a holo projector showing various Jedi Padawans. It had been decided picking someone young, around the Sith Lord apprentice’s own age, who was up-and-coming and who wasn’t yet knighted was the best way to go about things. “Hmmmm, Eldra Kaitis?” Ki-Adi-Mundi proposed as the beautiful Rutian Twi’lek appeared in a lifesize holo before the Council members.
“Hmmmm, perhaps not,” Mace Windu said thoughtfully. “She’s skilled and strong with the Force but she still has trouble controlling her anger. I doubt putting her into close quarters with a Sith Lord is a good idea.”
Another holo came up. “Siri Tachi?”
Adi Gallia immediately spoke up. “No. I know my Padawan well. While she will obey the commands of the Council to a fault, she would resent being given this task. That resentment would bleed over in the marriage itself and would cause too many problems. I don’t think she is the right choice.”
The Council brought up another holo. Yaddle read out the name. “Quinlan Vo–”
“NO!” The word came simultaneously and almost unanimously from the rest of the Council. Everyone was well aware Quinlan’s maniac tendencies would end up with him, Darth Maul, or both dead by the end of the week if they were married to one another. That was a trainwreck waiting to happen.
They all took a moment’s pause. They had been at this for almost an hour and were still getting nowhere. Yoda stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Need someone obedient, we do, who will obey without question when asked to do this. But also compassionate, kind, and wise, someone who can love no matter what. Someone like…”
The next holo came up, showing a young Padawan in his mid-twenties, with blue eyes and reddish-blonde hair. Yoda nodded in approval at the face that appeared. “...Obi-Wan Kenobi.” He waited to see if there would be any dissent among the Council members but there was none. Instead, there were murmurs of all of the good qualities of Qui-Gon Jinn’s Padawan. Yes, it appeared they had their choice.
“WHAT?!” Maul screamed out at the top of his lungs. His master appeared nonplussed at his apprentice’s reaction to the news he was to be wed to a Jedi. Really, he’d expected this reaction from Maul. The young Zabrak had always been headstrong and stubborn but usually he was obedient when it came to his master’s wishes. Still, Sidious knew he was asking a lot of Maul. “Have you lost your mind? All you have ever prepared me for is the destruction of the Jedi and now you want me to marry one?!” Maul continued to scream.
“You heard me. If the Sith are to survive, you must wed a Jedi. Our very way of life is at stake,” Darth Sidious said calmly.
“I’ll kill myself before I wed one of those bleeding-hearted hypocrites,” Maul growled out, his face still in a stubborn cast.
“It has to be you,” Sidious said. “The vision will not work any other way.”
“Are you so certain? Why don’t you marry that reptile that serves as their grandmaster? I’m sure both of you have a lot in common, being old and going senile as you are,” Maul snapped out. He immediately regretted his hasty choice of words as Sidious’ eyes flickered dangerously. Then he felt an old and familiar terror as Darth Sidious’ hand came up, a pale claw slowly squeezing shut as he Force Choked Maul.
Sidious’ voice didn’t raise but the edge to it was kyber-hard. “Listen very carefully, my young apprentice. You are going to marry the Jedi that is chosen for you. And if you do not, I will punish you so thoroughly that you’ll wish you had taken your own life by the time I am through with you. Do I make myself clear?”
Maul couldn’t speak with the air slowly being choked from him. He was already on his knees by the time his master was done talking. All he could do was give a nod of assent at his final question. When he did, Sidious released him, and he filled his lungs with desperately-needed air.
“So you agree to marry the Jedi?” Sidious asked.
He rubbed his throat and got back to his feet, all of the fight knocked out of him. “Yes, my master,” he said softly. Satisfied that he was getting his way, Sidious began to turn away. Maul’s curiosity on the main point of his betrothal got the better of him. Even though he knew better than to ask questions of his master, he couldn’t help himself. “Who is it?”
Sidious turned. “A Jedi Padawan named Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
Maul didn’t bother to ask anything else. What did it matter? His life was about to change forever, and for the worse, so it didn’t matter what he thought.
Obi-Wan was pacing back and forth as he listened to what his master had to say. He finally stopped and looked out the window, the blazing sun of midday streaming in. He watched all the various vehicles flying through the sky. He could see Qui-Gon’s reflection, a little blurred, but the patient expression on his face was still visible. “Let me get this straight. The Jedi Council wants me to marry a Sith Lord apprentice, who mind you up until two weeks ago were thought to be extinct by everyone, because if I don’t it will cause the Jedi Order to be completely wiped out within the next couple of decades?”
“That is essentially the long and the short of it, yes,” Qui-Gon said.
Obi-Wan sighed, running a hand through his hair and then down his Padawan braid. “I almost hate to ask but why me?”
“The Council went through almost all suitable Padawans around your age as candidates. The only one they unanimously agreed on was you,” Qui-Gon explained. “Being married to a Sith Lord is not going to be easy. But they know you are up for the challenge. You have great compassion, patience, and courage, Obi-Wan. Those qualities will serve you well being married to someone on the Dark Side.”
“Was that the only reason I was picked?” Obi-Wan said, not turning around.
“Well, no,” his master admitted. “I do feel the way you look might have had something to do with it.”
Obi-Wan’s forehead crinkled with confusion and then he realized what that meant. The trace of a smile came to his lips. “Ah. I suppose this Sith Lord wouldn’t want to marry an ugly Jedi after all.”
“The Council has also declared you will be made a Knight for doing this. They know it is a great sacrifice.” That did get Obi-Wan’s attention. He’d wanted for a long time now to go through the Trials. He just never expected that the main one he would be facing was marrying a Sith. But he wasn’t going to allow himself to be bribed into doing this. That wouldn’t be fair to either himself or the man he was marrying. Qui-Gon came over and gently put a hand on Obi-Wan’s shoulder, resting it there. In the simple gesture there was a lot of affection. His voice was quiet. “You can say no if you want to. No one would fault you for it. I certainly won’t. This is a very big sacrifice and not just anyone can do it. If you can’t, we will find another way.”
Obi-Wan closed his eyes. Part of him did want to say no, to tell Qui-Gon they were asking too much of him. All his life he’d been told attachment was forbidden and now instead they wanted him to make the ultimate attachment by committing himself to another person. And to be married to a stranger, someone he’d never even met before? He didn’t know if he was strong enough to handle all this. And yet…..and yet…..if he didn’t do this, the Jedi Order would die for good. Granted, so would the Sith, but a mutual kill wasn’t exactly going to be satisfying for either side. Obi-Wan couldn’t stand the thought of losing his family and culture, every last one of them dead thanks to the machinations of the Sith. If he could keep that from happening, any sacrifice would be worth it. And who knew? Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as it all seemed.
He finally turned to look up at his master. There was determination in his eyes. “I’ll do it.”
There was clear pride on Qui-Gon’s face. His apprentice was a good man, always so selfless, thinking of others before himself. Much as he would have liked to take credit for those traits, he knew most of them had been innate in Obi-Wan long before his apprentice had come under his tutorship. “Very well. I’ll tell the Council your decision.”
Something in the Force moved just a little then, as if acknowledging Obi-Wan’s decision had caused his destiny to become quite different than it otherwise might have been. He couldn’t quite figure out what it meant but it didn’t seem like a bad thing. “May I ask what is the name of my new betrothed?”
“Darth Maul,” Qui-Gon replied.
A little bit of apprehension entered Obi-Wan’s mind. With a name like that, just what kind of man was he hitching himself to?
There were no traditions to fall back on for a wedding between a Jedi and a Sith, so a very simple ceremony was constructed so that at least this would be considered official and all recorded properly. It took only a few days to solidify everything on both sides, and before either of them knew it, Obi-Wan and Maul were headed for the altar. Neither one of them had even met the other, and by the time Obi-Wan thought to ask, it was already the day of the wedding and far too late to arrange a meeting ahead of time. Maul, for his part, wouldn’t have cared if he was getting married off to a Hutt at this point, such was his lack of enthusiasm for the proceedings.
Sidious, in an odd show of caring about details, had dragged him off to a high-end shop and gotten him measured for a custom outfit for the ceremony. Maul suspected this had more to do with the man’s vanity and worry about the Jedi upstaging him than any desire to make his apprentice feel comfortable. It was black, of course, made out of rich, lush material that was far more expensive and fancy than anything Maul would have picked out, with red highlighting along the edges. Much as he felt apathetic about the entire proceedings, he did have to admit he looked good in it once he’d put it on.
Obi-Wan, for his part, mostly spent the days wondering what his future husband was going to be like. What kind of personality could a Sith Lord even have? He thought about telling the Council he’d changed his mind and then stopping short of actually doing it about a dozen times. For all the usual plainness of the Jedi robes, he found that they were determined to go all out in giving him beautiful wedding attire. He was dressed all in different shades of brown, a tunic with dark pants, boots, and a cape that was the darkest shade of all. He adjusted the golden braid that attached the cape from the front of one shoulder to the other, trying to quell his nerves right before the ceremony started.
Maul stood there at the head of the small room alone. In front of him, perched on a step that made him tower above everyone else, was the officiate who was to conduct the ceremony. On one side was his master, dressed in dark robes with fancy trim along the edges. For once, his hood was down, revealing his pale face and Sith yellow eyes. He looked over at the other side of the room with disdain and hatred that he didn’t even bother to conceal.
There were a few Jedi over on the other side to serve as witnesses. The tiny little green reptile that was the grandmaster of the order, a dark-skinned human male with a bald head and intense air about him, and a very tall human male with long hair and kind eyes. They all looked far too old for him to be marrying (unless Sidious had a very bad sense of humor and was really going to have him married off to an old man) so he supposed one of them was probably his betrothed’s Jedi Master. But Maul felt too apathetic about the whole process to even try to guess which one it was.
There was movement at the other end of the room and up strode the Jedi Padawan he was to marry. Ah, so this was Obi-Wan Kenobi, the one who was to become his husband in a few minutes. Maul had been looking mostly at the floor or the ceiling, wondering for the millionth time if it was too late to take out his saberstaff and run himself through with it, so he didn’t really focus on the other man until he was right in front of him. What he saw gave him a start.
Oh. Oh. The Jedi was handsome. Maul hadn’t been expecting that at all. Truth be told, he’d been trying to think of anything but the fact he was getting married for the past week, afraid that if he thought about it too much he’d go stark raving mad. He certainly hadn’t expected the Jedi to (Give? Volunteer? Sacrifice? He wasn’t really certain as to how this particular Jedi had ended up in this role) choose one of their own who was so good-looking to be his husband. Maul’s lips parted just a little bit and he took in a deep breath as he gazed at the Jedi. That soft sound got the man to look up and their eyes met for the first time. He couldn’t read the emotion in his eyes but Maul suddenly became hyper aware of his own appearance. The Sith was thankful for his red skin, for it hid the flush that came to his face as blood rushed to his cheeks. He knew he was unusual-looking, even for a galaxy with as many species as theirs possessed. He was certain this Jedi hadn’t been expecting to marry some strange, tattooed Zabrak subspecies no one had ever even heard of before.
Though he wasn’t usually one much for shyness, Maul felt himself overcome by the awkward feeling as much as his usual anger, and he broke the prolonged eye contact as he looked down. He muttered out the proper memorized response as the officiate prompted him to answer.
Obi-Wan looked at his betrothed and felt his breath taken away. He hadn’t been certain what to expect being married off to a Sith Lord. While the being across from him looked very much like what the younglings at the temple might have whispered among each other what a Sith Lord would have looked like, as some horrible boogeyman half-formed in their imaginations, Obi-Wan immediately set the idea aside. His appearance, though extreme, was just coincidental with his being aligned on the Dark Side. The horns and skin color could be explained away by what type of species he was. At a guess, Obi-Wan would have thought Zabrak, but he’d never seen a Zabrak who had red skin or tattooing that was quite that intricate. Given how covered up the Sith was, he wondered if the detailed marks went down further than just past his face.
There was no denying he was handsome though. Beautiful even, in the way that only someone who stood out even among the myriad of billions of people in the galaxy could be.
It was his eyes that most captivated Obi-Wan. While his master’s were a sickly yellow that seemed to fit his unsettling demeanor, his future husband’s possessed ones that were more gold in tone, a beautiful color rimmed around the edges with a little bit of red. When he finally looked up and locked onto Obi-Wan’s with his gaze, he could see the fierce, intense nature within them, an anger that brimmed just below the surface. Obi-Wan wasn’t sure of the motivations of this Sith Lord in agreeing to this match but he knew it had to have taken a great deal of courage to decide to end up in a permanent union with someone who was supposed to be his greatest foe.
They captivated Obi-Wan and held him there until suddenly he seemed to grow uncomfortable under their shared gaze and dropped those beautiful eyes to the floor. It was only then that Obi-Wan realized the officiate had been waiting for him to speak the proper response for some time now. He gave an automatic answer, just one of the many memorized responses meant to tie his life to the man across from him.
The ceremony went by quickly and pretty soon they were at the final lines. “.....You may kiss the groom.”
Oh, dank farrik. Obi-Wan had willfully forgotten that he was actually supposed to kiss his new husband at the end of all this. Judging by the expression on the Zabrak’s face, he hadn’t been prepared either. A long few seconds went by and Obi-Wan realized they really weren’t going to get out of this part. He was pretty sure neither of them were going to be allowed to leave until they did, so he leaned forward, and gave his new husband (and wasn’t that word just sending up a bunch of exclamation points in his mind as a general feeling) a quick peck on the lips. Even just that brief action seemed to send something through both of them. Obi-Wan had kissed enough people in his life to know sometimes there were sparks and sometimes there wasn’t. Well, there were definitely sparks with Darth Maul, and judging from the expression on the other man’s face he felt it as well. The two of them stared at one another for a moment before they turned towards the members of their respective orders.
That brought Obi-Wan back to reality. After the wedding came….the wedding night. He really hadn’t thought this far ahead, but when he’d accepted this fate, Yoda had made a point to take him aside beforehand. While Obi-Wan had stood there wondering if it was possible to sink straight through the floor, his great-grandmaster had explained that both he and Darth Sidious had seen that this marriage actually had to be consummated in order for the visions of the future to change. A purely platonic marriage of convenience wasn’t going to be enough. He glanced over at his husband and wondered how that was ever going to happen.
Pretty soon, the two of them were ushered into a long hoverlimo and sent off towards one of the fanciest condos on one of the top levels in the city. Sidious had generously furnished funds allowing them to stay in the penthouse suite. When Maul had asked his master for how long, he merely replied, “For as long as it takes.” That didn’t inspire confidence in the young Sith Lord as to what the start of his marriage was going to be like. It felt more like a prison sentence, stuck with a roommate for an indeterminate amount of time until they’d fulfilled their duties.
Maul stayed on the opposite side of the limo from Obi-Wan, staunchly staring out the window instead of engaging in conversation. The few times he’d looked over at Obi-Wan, he’d found the Jedi was looking back at him. Again, Maul felt uncomfortable, wondering exactly just how repulsive the human found him. He wrapped his arms around himself and curled up as he went back to looking out at the city landscape as the sun went down, the sunset mostly blocked out by all the light given off by the buildings and advertisements.
The two of them were ushered on up into the penthouse when they arrived, droid bellhops taking up their bags. Neither of them seemed to have a lot of luggage despite the fact their stay was apparently meant to be unending for the foreseeable future. After they had gotten their things brought up and settled into the large apartment, Obi-Wan and Maul were left alone. Before Obi-Wan could say so much as a word, Maul whirled on his heel and went out onto the balcony. Apparently, he wasn’t much interested in talking.
Obi-Wan looked for a way to break the ice as he took off the cape he’d worn for the ceremony, hanging it up in the large closet. There was a self-heating kettle nearby and a variety of tea packets. He wasn’t sure if Maul even liked tea but he felt it was a way to at least try and get a conversation going. Once the water was warm, he poured it into two mugs, taking them out onto the balcony once he’d put the tea bags into them.
Maul was leaning on the balcony, his elbows and arms against the railings. He seemed deep in thought and only noticed Obi-Wan when he was right beside him. Obi-Wan nudged his elbow and was surprised to see Maul flinch away in a manner that could only be instinctive. Maul looked startled for a moment before that look of anger he always seemed to have on his face came back. “Tea?” Obi-Wan offered.
Maul took one of the mugs without so much as a word of thanks. Obi-Wan was beginning to see that his husband was a man of few words. He would have been wondering if he was able to talk at all if he hadn’t already heard the few short responses he’d given during the wedding ceremony.
The two of them sat there looking out at all the twinkling lights of the city for a while. Obi-Wan tried to think of something to say. “So what is your name?” He finally asked by way of trying to break the ice.
“Maul,” the Zabrak replied shortly.
“No, I mean your real name,” he said.
His now-husband turned to look at him. “It’s Maul,” he said with an almost puzzled air.
It was Obi-Wan’s turn to look a bit confused. “I’d always thought that the Sith discarded their old names and took on new ones when they earned the title of Darth.”
“I was given the name Maul when I was born. Such names are customary among my people,” he explained. “My master saw no need to change it when I completed my trials to earn my title as a Sith Lord.”
Well, that just made Obi-Wan wonder just what sort of strange culture Maul had come from if his parents had given him a name which meant to wound someone by tearing them up. “Your people? Are you from Iridonia then?” He knew that was the homeworld for most Zabraks.
“You ask a lot of questions,” Maul said, a look like the blinds being drawn down over a window coming over his face. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk about himself.
“Well, given all I knew about you an hour ago was your name and that you were a Sith Lord, can you blame me for wanting to know anything about you?” Obi-Wan asked.
Maul sipped his tea. “There’s not much to know.”
Obi-Wan barely refrained from rolling his eyes, though he couldn’t hide the irritated sigh that came forth. “It might help to know more about one another. Right now, I know as much about you as I would if I were to pick up someone from one of the local bars, and I think it’d be better to know more about my husband than that before I end up in bed with him.”
There was just the slightest widening of Maul’s eyes and his hand tightening around the mug to indicate how much those words alarmed him. “We are not sleeping together,” he growled out, turning around to go back inside the penthouse.
Honestly, Obi-Wan couldn’t protest too much. It really did seem wrong to hop right into bed with someone he knew nothing about. Well, the Jedi Order wasn’t going to fall apart overnight, so he felt taking some time to get to know Maul wasn’t going to hurt anyone. However, there was one big issue they were currently facing. There was only one bed in the condo.
Maul noticed this too. He was at the foot of it and staring at the mattress as though it was going to bite him. The tension running through his body was evident. There was just a brush of something through the Force that overlaid all that anger. Obi-Wan realized it was fear. For all of the tough front Maul was putting on, clearly he was scared. There was a lot of pressure on both of them right now. Obi-Wan decided in that instant to take some of it off. He went over to the bed and began pulling off the blanket on top.
“What are you doing?” Maul growled. He seemed almost like an angry cat, all tense and bristling as if preparing for a fight he wasn’t sure was going to come.
Obi-Wan ignored his new husband’s surliness and continued pulling off a sheet and pillow to go with the blanket. “Well, since I feel lying beside you in the same bed would likely end up with you killing me in my sleep, the best thing to do is to find somewhere else to spend the night.” After gathering up everything into a bundle, Obi-Wan went over to a nearby chair in the room and began arranging things so that he’d be able to sleep as comfortably as he could in a mostly upright position.
Maul didn’t say anything but he glowered at the Jedi as if expecting this to end in some sort of trick. When he didn’t, he huffed slightly and went off towards the ‘fresher, presumably to get clean after what had been a very long day for both of them. After a few moments, Obi-Wan could hear the sound of the shower starting up. He took off his boots and then the rest of the ceremonial garb he’d been wearing, folding it all up carefully and putting it into a corner of the closet. Then he changed into some gray, nondescript loose sleepwear.
Maul came out of the bathroom a short time later, wiping some of the last water droplets off of his chest. His chest was bare but mercifully he was wearing some dark pants. Obi-Wan was thankful for that. Considering everything he knew about his new husband could fit on a very small business card, he didn’t need to be seeing him naked quite this fast. Still, Obi-Wan couldn’t help but stare at the chiseled muscles that had clearly been developed from a lifetime of training, made all the more prominent by the tattoos that traced patterns on his skin. Huh. So it looked like those tattoos did go down past his face. He wondered if he’d ever find out just how far they went down and then immediately banished that thought from his mind. He had a feeling just suggesting it would have gotten him a knife thrown his way for his troubles.
Maul noticed his gaze and scowled, though Obi-Wan wasn’t sure if it was from his blatant staring or just from his general unhappiness with the whole situation. At this rate, he was beginning to wonder if Maul was even capable of smiling. He finished drying off and just let the towel drop to the floor before stepping over to the bed.
Still, there was just something in Obi-Wan that couldn’t help poking the reek a little bit. “What, no goodnight kiss?” The sarcasm got him a pillow whapped right into his face at top speed from Maul courtesy of the Force. The sting still didn’t manage to dispel the smile on his handsome face as he pulled it off.
“Not unless you want to go to sleep and never wake up again,” Maul snarled. His eyes were blazing fury and Obi-Wan decided he’d prodded his new husband enough as it was.
“That’s a tempting thought. I’ll keep it in mind for tomorrow night,” Obi-Wan said as he used his powers to turn off the lights and draw the shades in the room. “Good night, Maul.” He received only a sullen growl in response. As the room grew dark, the last thing he saw in Maul’s direction was his golden eyes watching him and reflecting there in the dark like a cat’s would have.
And that was how Obi-Wan Kenobi ended up spending his wedding night in a chair.