The Kenobi Saga Book One:The Clone Wars

32. Movie Night

"Where's Lore-Val?" Obi-Wan asked Solitaire.

"In her room, watching a holo," the clone answered, getting his things together to go back to the barracks.

Obi-Wan nodded, "Thank you Solitaire. You're dismissed."

Solitaire saluted him and let himself out.

Obi-Wan started heating leftovers in the kitchen before going to his room to change out of his armor and into clean robes. He pulled his plate from the oven and walked out to the table, pausing before he sat down. Something was wrong. A heavy feeling of sadness and grief permeated the force. He circled the apartment trying to find the source of the emotions. He had a feeling he knew where it came from but he really hoped he was wrong. Low and behold the trauma was coming from Lore-Val's room in waves.

Obi-Wan knocked on the door, "Lore-Val? Can I come in?" He didn't hear an answer, just the muffled music and dialog of the movie she was watching. He waited a few seconds before letting himself in.

Lore-Val was laying in bed, facing away from the door, blankets pulled up over her shoulders. On her side table was her datapad lighting up the room.

"I'm fine," Lore-Val told him, not rolling over, but pulling her arms out from the covers to scrub her eyes.

Obi-Wan frowned, hesitating before sitting on the edge of the mattress, a hand coming to rest on Lore-Val's shoulder, "You can talk to me. I know I'm not Padme, or Solitaire, but I'd like to help."

She sniffled again, reaching out to pause her movie and sitting up. She criss crossed her legs, and dropped her head into her hands, not wanting to look at Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan awkwardly wrapped an arm around her, and she fell into his side. She'd been doing so well, adjusting to life on Coruscant. Solitaire said she was opening up to him and the others. The trip to Naboo had seemed to only make things better, especially after what happened with Fives. But now Lore-Val was crying in his arms.

"I used to watch this with Mother when I was little," Lore-Val hiccuped, "I missed her and I thought watching it would be like being with her.  But it didn't work, I just, just miss her more."

Obi-Wan reached out, pulling a tissue box from the desk across the room into his hand. He held the box out to her. Lore-Val took a tissue, and blew her nose hard enough to release brain. Obi-Wan reached out again, this time for a glass of water from the side table.

"Don't tell Anakin I did that," Obi-Wan whispered, hoping to make her smile.

Lore-Val paused, something clicking in her head. The Ben Kenobi who she'd been hearing stories about her entire life, the man who saved her mother's life and the Mandalorian people was the same man who had held her hair back when she was sick, who was sitting next to her right now using the force unnecessarily just to try and help her stop crying. She was sitting next to her hero, and somehow he was better than she'd ever expected. He wasn't just the Jedi she'd read about on the holonet over the years, he was her father and he was surprisingly good at it.

Lore-Val leaned deeper into Obi-Wan's side. He blinked, he hadn't expected her to be so accepting of his attempts at comfort. He thought he would've had to do more to get her to trust him, she never opened up this quickly.

He took a hard swallow, "After my master Qui-Gon died, it took awhile to do things he enjoyed without it hurting," Obi-Wan told her, "The first time I took Anakin to the archives, I nearly cried. But eventually it got easier."

"I miss her."

"I do too." Obi-Wan said in a near whisper, the only way to keep his voice from cracking.

Lore-Val hiccuped a tiny sob and something overcame Obi-Wan, he leaned down, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Lore-Val looked up at him with a watery smile.

"Thank you father," she whispered.

Obi-Wan's mouth went dry at the foreign word. He had to swallow several times before he could speak, "Do you want to finish your movie?"

She shrugged before answering shyly "Would you like to watch with me?"

"How much have I missed?"

"Thirty minutes, I can go back though."

"That's alright," Obi-Wan told her, sitting further back to lean against the headboard, "I'll figure it out," he said, not telling her he'd been the one to show it to Satine in the first place.

Lore-Val moved the datapad so Obi-Wan could see it and hit play. She stretched out her legs, laying her head against Obi-Wan's shoulder.

He smiled down at her, and ignoring the rumbling of his stomach settled in to watch the movie.

AN: There's one more edited chapter after this, so there may be a short hiatus coming up. But I'm working on some chapters for the Mandalore AU so I'll update that while working on edits for this fic