Respite On The Spitalfields (Obikin)

Chapter One

"This, then, is Obi-Wan and Anakin:

They are closer than friends. Closer than brothers. Though Obi-Wan is sixteen standard years Anakin's elder, they have become men together. Neither can imagine life without the other. The war has forged their lives into one."

–Matthew Stover (Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith)

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It is well known among the galaxy that force sensitive humans are born with wings. It's said among them that their ancestors were celestial beings created by the Force itself, in a time before any Jedi lived. Throughout time the winged men grew farther and fewer in between as other force sensitive creatures came to be. Some, even more gifted than the spawn of those so called celestial beings. It brought doubt that any such thing ever really existed, but doubted or not, it was a simple fact that winged human children would be pursued by the Jedi.

Obi-Wan didn't feel worthy of having his wings. Of course, he was proud to have them, as it made him one of the few people who came from a line directly from the Force. Or so the Jedi taught them. That he was one of them, like his master before him. He remembered when he was a child and the Jedi came for him. The sound of his mother's voice as she told him she loved him before letting him be taken away. Though with time, try as he might, he could no longer remember her face nor his father and brother's. And he was fine with that now.

Back then, when he first was taken as a padawan his wings were as long as the length of his back and thighs. The feathers tickled at his calves when he walked. He also remembered being scared of the large wings his new master Qui-Gon Jinn donned. They were large and deep gray, not unlike his hair. The tips of his flight feathers were dipped in black with a spattering of small white flecks across them. Even though Obi-Wan was afraid of them, he wanted so badly for his own wings to be as large and beautiful as his master's. But his were still fluffy and brown with tufts of down sticking out in some spots.

He wouldn't find out till later on that no one had wanted to take him as a padawan because his wings were taking longer than average to mature. When they molted it would last weeks at a time whereas his fellow peers only took one to two weeks. It was perhaps because of this that he understood Anakin so well and why the young man was angry at the council for being treated like a child. And although he could sometimes act like one, even Obi-Wan didn't agree with keeping his padawan in the dark as much as they did at times. But that started to change after the clone wars started. Anakin made General, and he was wonderful at it. He'd come quite a ways since being nothing but a fledgling.

Memories of the first time Obi-Wan saw the beginnings of wings on Anakin's back flooded his mind and he couldn't stop the soft smile that graced his lips. It was a complete shock that blindsided everyone, especially him, since Anakin appeared to be wingless at 9 years of age. It was absolutely unheard of for someone so strong with the Force, to be born wingless.

More often than not most humans were wingless, yes, but the ones who weren't were born with them. But to everyone's great surprise Anakin didn't have any, until he turned 10 that is. What came as something even more shocking still, was that he had not one, but two sets of wings growing in. Soft black feathers iridescent to the eyes, like oil on water, sprouted from his shoulder blades and blanketed four fledgling appendages. He remembered how patchy the little arms had been as the feathers grew in, looking wiry and fluffy at the same time.

The process was painful for the young padawan and often he'd come to Obi-Wan in the middle of the night, crying from the growing pains. The mass of black feathers flicked back and forth with trembles while he tried to calm the boy. Anakin didn't have proper control over them yet and they reacted involuntarily to his emotions, which he also didn't have control over, unlike most padawans at his age. Many sleepless nights were had in which Obi-Wan would curl the young boy up in his own wings and comfort him as best he could.