Nebulous

Chapter 1 - Kidnapped

Author's Note: This will be posted weekly on Sundays. :)

Also, it was written for the Obikin 2023 bingo. :D

~ Amina Gila

The Force pulses around Anakin, the intensity of it overwhelming. He's been at the Jedi Temple for six months, but still he's getting used to sensing the life all around him. He always has, he realizes now, but now that he can do it consciously, it's so much.

He can feel his new master's presence next to him – it feels of charcoal, and it's dark but not in a scary way like many people on Tatooine – and it helps keep him grounded sometimes if he starts feeling too much.

Anakin reaches out with the Force, wrapping it around the small, individual rocks in front of him in the training room, maneuvering them into an upside-down pyramid. It still requires immense concentration to use it this much and for so much detail, but he's learning.

"How is this, Master?" Anakin asks, looking up at Maul. When he'd first met him, Anakin always thought he looked rather intimidating, thanks to brightly colored stripes tattooed on his face. (Sometimes he still thinks he does.)

"Good job," Maul tells him, his lips quirking up in a smile, and Anakin feels something warm in him, happily. "See how long you can keep holding them. And once you're done, perhaps we can return to your sparring lessons."

It often seems to be the lessons Maul is most eager for, not that it isn't true for Anakin too. He's not used to sitting still and studying for so many hours the way that's now required of him. He knows it's part of becoming a Jedi, but sometimes, it makes him feel like he should be doing something.

"Yes, Master." He doesn't manage to keep the note of excitement out of his voice, turning his focus back to them, focusing all his attention to it. He doesn't know how long his master is hoping he can do this, but – he won't disappoint him.

He's the only person Anakin really knows here, though. It still hurts to think about how Qui-Gon is gone. He thought that Qui-Gon would be the one to teach him, and even if he didn't, at least he would be alive. He was someone familiar, who Anakin knew while he was still with Mom.

He misses her so much all the time. It almost hurts physically at moments, to know that once his day's work is over, he can't go back to her side. That he can't crawl into bed next to her sometimes when he just... wants to. (Like after a nightmare of losing her or someone else, or of being sold, or...) And that he can never hear her voice, or feel her holding him in her arms again.

He doesn't think Maul would like any of that. Anakin has slept next to his bed on a number of occasions, and that he didn't mind, but that's about it. Sometimes Anakin will wake up in the middle of the night in his still not-so familiar quarters at the Temple that feel much too big, and it'll feel like he's... totally, completely alone and that his master – the only person he has here – will just be gone too like his mother and Kitster and Wald and Qui-Gon.

Maul is not entirely what he was expecting, but he doesn't know what he was expecting. He's not... like his mother, after all. He's – he's his master. Anakin knows that word can have many meanings, but it feels like he's still wrapping his mind around what the real difference is.

Both are someone he has to listen to. But the Jedi are good. Maul is... nice. And they freed him. And they don't beat or starve him either, even if sometimes, he's still afraid they're going to if he does something especially stupid, which seems to happen far too frequently. Still, it's more than he expected, and they freed him. He owes them loyalty. (It's more than his mother has, who's back on Tatooine all alone, and he doesn't know if she's okay.)