The Perk, Wednesday Afternoon

[saddeserthermit]

Tea at the Perk on Wednesday mornings was becoming a bit of a habit.

It was not one Obi-Wan regretted; it was a change from his usual self-enforced solitude in the woods. He didn't want to do this too often, as he feared getting too acclimated to the hustle and bustle of the city again, but once a week was an indulgence he could afford.

So by noon he had arrived and ordered his cup of Earl Grey tea, and sat at the window. There was a couple outside arguing about one thing or another, and a delivery boy that kept walking up and down the street. That was the Living Force as well, he supposed. Master Qui-Gon would have approved.

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[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded his head at Obi-Wan as he went to order his giant mug of black coffee. "Master."

[saddeserthermit]

Strange, how that word brought both familiarity and an instinctive desire to correct him.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan greeted, still more warily than he would have liked. "Good morning."

[sith_happened]

"Well, it's definitely morning," Anakin agreed. "Good is for those who haven't been up before dawn."

[saddeserthermit]

"Is it truly that terrible?" Obi-Wan asked dryly.

[sith_happened]

"Yes," Anakin said, gulping from his mug. "Life before dawn is ridiculous."

[saddeserthermit]

"That is entirely possible, of course," Obi-Wan said, sipping his tea. "Though here's a counter-theory: you've simply grown lazy."

[sith_happened]

Anakin glared over the rim of his mug. "Mornings were always stoopa," he proclaimed. "I'd rather watch a sunset than a sunrise."

[saddeserthermit]

"And so you did, when you were a teenager," Obi-Wan said wryly. "Unfortunately, that is not an ability or an allowance that lasts us too far into adulthood."

[sith_happened]

"Which is why we have caf," Anakin said, holding up his mug.

[saddeserthermit]

"You can keep your caf," Obi-Wan said, and took a careful sip of his tea. "Surely you could simply go to bed earlier, if getting up is such a concern."

[sith_happened]

"I apologize," Anakin said, looking pointedly at Obi-Wan, "I didn't realize it was cranky old person day on the island. Are you going to finish up here and then chase the students from the lawn?"

[saddeserthermit]

You didn't raise an unruly teenager for ten years by yourself without occasionally having a relapse into parenting them, regardless of whether or not at some point you had been forced to remove their limbs in a duel, all right?

"Perhaps after dinner," Obi-Wan said easily. "You can help."

[sith_happened]

Anakin snorted. "I'd love to, but it's my day to pick Juliet up from school."

[saddeserthermit]

"I suppose one can be cranky there, as well," Obi-Wan said. Because he wasn't the one who had just tried to pick a completely spurious fight here, Anakin.

He took another sip of his tea.

[sith_happened]

"Oh, there I'd be the least-stressed person," Anakin said. "The parents at Juliet's kindergarten are ridiculous."

[saddeserthermit]

Obi-Wan raised a single eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

[sith_happened]

"They're convinced their children are going straight from this school to Harvard, or at least to Georgetown," Anakin said. "Meanwhile their kids are trying really hard not to pick their noses in public."

[saddeserthermit]

Obi-Wan had no particular idea what Harvard or Georgetown were, but he could figure it out from the context. "I'm not sure parents with too-high expectations are particular to the area where you live now," he said wryly. "Not that it makes it any more charming."

[sith_happened]

"Oh, they make the highly strung Senate staffers look normal," Anakin said. "Such tiny concerns to be obsessed with." He shrugged. "How are the eopies? Still alive?"

[saddeserthermit]

"Still alive," Obi-Wan agreed. "Though they have no heart for this cold."

He sipped his tea, feeling the point where the conversation inevitably threatened to switch from 'casual' to 'serious' once again approaching. "But that is a tiny concern as well, I suppose."

[sith_happened]

Anakin had been secretly married to a politician and had not picked up any of her gift for gracious small talk.

"Well, not that tiny," Anakin said. "No one needs to see an eopie-sicle."

[saddeserthermit]

Gracious like a hammer to the head, yes. An impatient hammer, at that.

But that was Anakin. Obi-Wan didn't expect any more, or any less.

"They have their shelter, and it is warm enough," he said, at least attempting to uphold his end of the small talk as long as he could. "But I imagine they'll be pleased when warmer temperatures come around."

[sith_happened]

"It'll be a few more months," Anakin said, then winced. "Are we really back to talking about the weather?"

[saddeserthermit]

"To be entirely fair, it's rather more variable than what I've grown used to," Obi-Wan said.

Joked. Said. Somewhere in between?

It was strange, because if it had been literally anyone else in Anakin's position, he'd likely have quietly complained about the whole thing to Anakin later.

[sith_happened]

"Well, now you can see why I was so eager to leave Tatooine," Anakin said, "and never, ever go back."