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As he and Qui-Gon laid together in their bed in the afterglow of their energetic lovemaking, Obi-Wan let out a deep sigh. “I missed a lot of things in the six tens I was gone, but some of the most innocuous things were what I missed the most.”
Qui-Gon glanced down at him with an indulgent smile. “Really? I would have expected our prior activity to be the top of that list.”
“Don’t get me wrong, that was amazing, and I’m looking forward to repeating it as soon as you’ve recovered.” Obi-Wan retorted, on hand slipping down to encircle Qui-Gon’s spent penis. “But during all those miserable days and nights, slogging through mud, sleeping in caves, chasing down insurgents, living on ration bars and water, all I thought about was the platonic touches that have become so significant to me.”
Qui-Gon pushed up into the hand still encircling him and struggled to keep from smiling as he grumbled. “I must be losing my touch.”.
“Silly man” Obi-Wan chuckled as he placed a kiss on the skin nearest where his head rested.
“So, tell me then, what little things did you miss the most?” Qui-Gon asked.
“The feel of your hands touching me, for one,” Obi-Wan murmured.
Qui-Gon’s hand drifted down Obi-Wan’s back, coming to rest on the swell of his ass. “Like this?”
“Mmmm, that’s nice, but not really what I meant,” Obi-Wan said as he moved his head from its position against Qui-Gon’s chest to rest on the pillow facing Qui-Gon’s. “You’re probably going to think I’m being silly.”
“Now, I’m intrigued,” Qui-Gon declared. “Since silly would be the last adjective I’d ever use to describe you, Knight Kenobi, pray tell, please enlighten me.”
“You can be a right bastard, Master Jinn,” Obi-Wan replied, but the words lacked the heat that would normally be expected to accompany them. “One thing I missed is the way you always place your hand at the small of my back when I move in front of you to walk through a tight space. Its absence would engulf me each time I had to shimmy through one of the caves’ narrow cervices or creep behind stacks of crates to conceal my presence from the insurgents.”
Obi-Wan reached up and rested his fingertips against Qui-Gon’s cheek. “Every time someone handed me a mug of tea or a stack of papers, I’d ache for the feel of your fingers brushing mine as they do each time you hand something to me.”
Shifting forward, Obi-Wan spent a long moment kissing Qui-Gon’s enticing lips before finally pulling back. “When I first became your padawan, I couldn’t figure it out. You were so tactile, so much more that most of the other masters I observed. Although words of praise may have been sparse in those early days, touches were not. It took some time, but I finally realized that the hand resting on my shoulder or ruffling my hair spoke louder than words ever could.”
“Our start was so precarious,” Qui-Gon stated. “When I finally accepted what the Force had been telling me all along, it was hard to find the right words to reassure you.”
“You were so inscrutable back then,” Obi-Wan said with a smirk. “Your expression gave nothing away and you were still in so much pain that it was hard to even coax a smile.”
“You did manage, though,” Qui-Gon replied. “Your snarky off-hand comments and your mischievous smirk made it so I couldn’t help myself.”
“Not often enough.”
“What other touches did you miss?” Qui-Gon asked.
“The weight of your arm wrapping around me as I settled in for sleep,” Obi-Wan explained. “The way your hand would slip between my thighs and your thumb would trace circles over my skin. It made trying to sleep in those damp caves a real challenge.”
Qui-Gon wrapped his arm around Obi-Wan waist.
“All the touches that you don’t think much about when they occur, but long for when they’re missing.” Obi-Wan grasped one of Qui-Gon’s hands and pressed a kiss to the palm. “The feel of your leg against mine under a table or the rasp of our arms brushing as we walked. So many little touches that are so normal they seem inconsequential at the time. Even your hand always messing up my hair.”
“I probably should admit that many times I did that just to get a reaction out of you,” Qui-Gon admitted.
“It took me until I was almost seventeen to figure that out,” Obi-Wan acknowledged. “Then I started reacting to it intentionally.” He stopped speaking for a moment and leaned forward for another kiss. “But one of the things I missed most of all was your hugs. When things went wrong or I couldn’t prevent something tragic from occurring, I longed to be held in your arms and pressed against your chest, even if it was just for a few seconds.”
Obi-Wan pulled back a little so that he could look into Qui-Gon’s eyes. “You were always showing your love for me even when I was too insecure to see it, even before that love blossomed into what it is now. And for that I thank the Force every day.”