Saga - PT Swimming Lessons (An Anakin and Obi-Wan Mushy Oneshot)

Title: Swimming Lessons

Author: devilinthedetails

Timeframe: Saga-PT. Set between TPM and AOTC but closer to TPM.

Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi

Genre: General, Friendship, Humor, Mush

Summary: Obi-Wan decides Anakin must learn how to swim.

Swimming Lessons

“I spoke with Master Meeno in the Room of a Thousand Fountains today,” Obi-Wan commented as he and Anakin ate dinner in the refectory. As ever, the refectory echoed with the conversations of hundreds of Jedi from all age groups: initiates, Padawans and Knights not currently dispatched on a mission, and Masters who provided instruction to students at the Temple and rarely roamed the galaxy on missions.

“He’s a Mon Calamari, isn’t he?” Anakin squinted, trying to recall the Jedi Obi-Wan was referring to—there were so many Jedi, it sometimes felt impossible to remember them, especially for Anakin, who was still new to the Order and hadn’t been raised in it since infancy.

“Yes.” Obi-Wan paused to spoon a bite of Antarian peas grown in the Temple garden into his mouth. “He’s the Mon Calamari Master in charge of swimming lessons for students.”

“Ah, then no wonder you found him near water.” Anakin cut into his roast nuna. As a slave boy on Tatooine mere months ago, roast nuna had been a luxury he could only have dreamed of drooling over, but at the Temple, it was standard fare. The Jedi, Anakin often thought, surrounded themselves with a hundred luxuries without realizing any of them were luxuries. Maybe they weren’t luxuries to those who had been born free in the Republic. “Mon Calamari are always near the water.”

He was proud of himself for remembering this factoid. On Tatooine, there hadn’t been many Mon Calamari as the sun and sand would have been unbearable for such an amphibious species.

“Mon Calamari aren’t always near water.” Obi-Wan shook his head. Probably thinking of his best friend Bant Eerin, Anakin supposed. Between spoonfuls of Antarian peas, he continued, “Master Meeno informed me that he’ll be starting a class for beginning swimmers next week. He extended an invitation for you to join.”

“I don’t want to join the class.” Anakin speared a slab of roast nuna with his fork. He had a foreboding feeling about the idea of any swimming lessons. It seemed like tempting the Force for a nine-year-old boy from Tatooine to enroll in swimming lesson. “I’ll be the worst at swimming since I’ve never done it before, and everyone will laugh at me.”

In the short time he had been at the Temple, he had gotten used to being at the top of his classes, learning faster than the other students. He wouldn’t welcome their laughter as he floundered around in the Temple lake, fighting not to drown.

“You won’t be the worst since nobody in the class will have swum before. It’s a class for beginners as I said.” Obi-Wan spoke firmly in the tone that meant he had decided what was best for Anakin and expected Anakin to obey without argument. “I think it would be a good idea for you to enroll in the lessons since it’s time you learned how to swim.”

“Yes, Master,” Anakin agreed, stifling a sigh. If Obi-Wan had decided that it was time he learned something, he would just have to learn it—there was no getting around it. Anakin could be stubborn, but Obi-Wan could be even more sneakily, patiently persistent.

“It won’t be all bad, Anakin.” Obi-Wan’s stern face softened into a slight smile. “You might make friends in your swimming class.”

“I’d like to make friends, Master.” Anakin brightened at the prospect of making friends. So far, he had found it difficult to make friends at the Temple in a way that it had never been challenging for him on Tatooine. At the Temple, most of the students preferred to stare at him and whisper about him behind their hands to one another rather than become his friend no matter how charming or funny he tried to be.

“Good.” Obi-Wan’s smile grew. “I’ll drop by Master Meeno’s quarters tomorrow to let him know that you’ve accepted his invitation.”

Next week at the appointed hour, Anakin took the turbolift to the lake level. Stepping out of the turbolift, he made his way down a winding stone path, shrubbery stretching over his head in an arch, toward the lake’s shore. As he approached the lake shore, he saw a cluster of younglings from a variety of species who all seemed about the age of five humans years encircling a Mon Calamari with the distinctive goggle-eyes and domed head of his amphibious race. No doubt these younglings would laugh at Anakin if he became the bumbling giant in their midst. Children at that age laughed at everything, after all.

Not in the mood to be an endless source of amusement for a group of younglings as he tried not to drown, Anakin ducked behind the fronds of the tree closest to him before Master Meeno noticed his presence. Silently he crept back toward the turbolift, concealing himself behind trees rather than risking the openness of the path. He knew Obi-Wan would disapprove of him skipping out of his swimming lessons before they had even begun, but Obi-Wan’s displeasure would bruise his dignity less than being a joke to five-year-olds.

He reached the safety of the turbolift, slipped inside it, and pressed the button for the Temple’s hangar bay. The turbolift shot upward, and, within minutes, he was exiting into the controlled chaos of the hangar. There was something soothing about the eternal noise and flurry of activity in the hangar, he thought as he leaned against the wall, watching the steady steam of Knights and Padawans leaving for and returning from worlds beyond counting arrayed across the spiral arms of the galaxy.

He was so swallowed up in imagining the planets these Jedi were traveling to and from that he didn’t realize Obi-Wan was beside him until Obi-Wan observed, “I thought I might find you here.”

Obi-Wan’s voice was mild, but Anakin still started out of his skin. Laying a calming hand on Anakin’s shoulder, Obi-Wan went on, “Master Meeno commed me. He was worried when you didn’t show up for the swimming class with the other students.”

“I showed up, Master,” Anakin mumbled, gaze dropping to the hangar floor. “Then I saw that the rest of the class was made up of five-year-olds who’ll laugh at me every time I try to swim.”

“Look at me, Padawan.” Obi-Wan gently lifted Anakin’s chin. “You must learn how to swim. There can be no debate about that.”

“Yes, Master.” Anakin chewed his lip, feeling doomed to the mockery of five-year-olds as he learned to swim.

“Perhaps I can teach you to swim.” Obi-Wan seemed to pick up on Anakin’s misery. “It’s true I’m not as gifted a swimmer as Master Meeno, but my dear friend Bant flatters me that I’m quite competent for a human.”


“Competent for a human is all I need to be, isn’t it, Master?” Anakin chirped, hopeful that he could learn to swim in private lessons with Obi-Wan rather than in group ones with giggling younglings.

“I think so.” Obi-Wan nodded. “We’ll head down to the lake when most beings will be at dinner in the refectory so nobody is around to laugh when you have your swimming lessons.”

“You’re the best Master in the whole Temple.” Impulsively, Anakin wrapped his arms around Obi-Wan, who stiffened in surprise, and then relaxed into the embrace.

“You’re only saying that because you’re getting what you want.” Chuckling, Obi-Wan ruffled Anakin’s hair.

That evening at dinner time, the two of them rode the turbolifts to the lake level. Once again, Anakin found himself freezing as he approached the lake’s shore. This time, it wasn’t a gaggle of potentially giggling younglings that unnerved him but the sight of the water itself. Standing in the sand out of reach of the rippling lake, he thought that while sand was scratchy, it was at least safe, unlike water, which was so smooth but dangerous. He hated sand as much as a Jedi was allowed to hate anything, but at least sand couldn’t drown him. Water could take life as much as it could sustain it…

“I can’t believe all this water is just here for us to swim in,” Anakin remarked to cover his uneasiness. On Tatooine, it would have been regarded as wasteful to dedicate water to swimming rather than the sustenance of beings, livestock, and crops. Not even the wealthy on Tatooine squandered more water than needed to bathe themselves.

“At least dip your toes into the water.” Obi-Wan, already up to his ankles in the lake, beckoned Anakin toward him. “You won’t drown doing that, I promise you.”

Tentatively, expecting to be yanked to his death by a sudden surge in the lake’s slow current, Anakin stuck his toes in the lake. The water was colder than he’d expected—almost everything on Coruscant was too cold for a boy from the Tatooine desert—and, yelping, he removed it from the lake, exclaiming, “I don’t think I need to learn how to swim after all, Master!”

Obi-Wan’s snort eloquently conveyed what he thought of that notion.

“I don’t!” Anakin insisted, indignant that Obi-Wan would treat his words as so absurd.

“It’s neither safe nor practical for you to go on missions without knowing how to swim.” Obi-Wan took Anakin by the wrist and coaxed him into the shallow water, and Anakin felt reassured by the fact that he could feel the sand beneath his feet, grounding him in a familiar if detested sensation. “What would you do if a situation arose on a mission that required you to swim, my young apprentice?”

“I’d use my breather.” Anakin’s eyes gleamed as he allowed Obi-Wan to coax him deeper into the lake, so the water closed around his waist. To his surprise, he didn’t feel as if the water were threatening to tug him into its depths forever. “That’s what breathers are for, Master.”

“You’re very cocky for someone who doesn’t know how to swim.” Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow. “What would you do if you had to swim but someone else you were with needed to borrow your breather?”

“Then I’d probably wish that I knew how to swim so I wouldn’t drown.” Anakin grinned, amiable enough about being outsmarted by his Master. Masters were supposed to be smarter than their Padawans, after all. That was the entire point of Masters as he understood them.

“The first thing you need to learn is how to float in the water.” Obi-Wan gestured at the open expanse of the lake around them.

“Float?” Anakin repeated, cocking his head.

“Lay on your back on top of the water and let the water carry you above it,” explained Obi-Wan. “It’s very peaceful.”

“Peaceful like a dead fish?” Anakin wrinkled his nose, doubts resurfacing.

“No. Peaceful like a breathing boy.” When Anakin continued to gaze up at him dubiously, Obi-Wan added, “I’ll hold onto you so you won’t have to worry about drowning.”

Buoyed by that promise, Anakin permitted Obi-Wan to guide him so that he was laying on the lake’s glassy surface, supported by the water more than by Obi-Wan’s comfortingly solid hands.

“Close your eyes,” Obi-Wan murmured, and Anakin, exhaling deeply, obeyed. “Relax your muscles and just drift.”

It was peaceful, Anakin realized, just drifting undisturbed across the smooth surface of the lake. He didn’t need to think. He didn’t need to act. He just needed to surrender himself to the water and let it carry him wherever it willed. He could feel the Force in every droplet of water that danced beneath his skin, bearing his weight as if it were nothing—as if his bones were made of flimsi. The Force in the water and in himself assured him that there was no need for fear when he was floating along like this…

Gradually, through the haze of his tranquility, it dawned on Anakin that he couldn’t feel Obi-Wan’s fingers beneath him. Below him, there was only water. That realization should have panicked him, but instead it made him proud.

Opening his eyes to see Obi-Wan floating serenely several meters away from him, he called, shooting Force-propelled waves of water at his Master, “You promised you would hold onto me so I wouldn’t drown!”

“You didn’t need me to hold onto you once you discovered you could float for yourself.” Drawing on his own connection to the Force, Obi-Wan caught the waves Anakin had sent at him and redirected them toward a distant shore. “You should wait until I’m not looking at you to start a water fight with me, Padawan.”

“A water fight, Master?” That sounded even more fun than floating to Anakin’s mischievous ears.

“Only after you’ve learned how to swim.” Obi-Wan seemed to be faintly exasperated with Anakin’s inexhaustible capacity for troublemaking, and that made Anakin smirk.

All was right in the galaxy as well as between him and his Master, he decided as he floated along beside Obi-Wan, and in the serenity of the lake, he could almost believe that things would always be so peaceful for him, his Master, and the universe. He was content with himself and the galaxy, perfectly balanced on water with the Force whispering in his ears.

 

Oh, what fun this was! And so perfect that your own recent swimming experience inspired it, because swimming really can be a way both to bond with friends and to feel totally relaxed and at one with the water. This also gave me one of those "I never thought of it that way before but it perfectly fits" reailzations that I love getting from fanfic stories—of course Anakin, now that he's at least a tween or early teen or so (that's the age I'm guessing, at least) would have zero experience with even basic swimming skills, having grown up on arid Tatooine. Great job with the banter and snark between Obi and Ani; I could hear both of their voices clearly throughout. And, as Nyota notes, Obi's compassion and consideration show through here, too, as he takes it on himself to teach Ani this valuable life skill on his own time, one-on-one, so that Ani won't have to endure the teasing of the younger students. You always do a great job with these two Jedi—thanks so much for sharing!

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha, as always, thank you so much for commenting! Glad you found this such a wonderful blend of encouragement and teasing since I was trying to strike just that right balance between the two in this story. I like the idea of Obi-Wan being sympathetic to Anakin's insecurity about being the target of five-year-old laughter being what allows him to get Anakin swimming and enjoying it, so it makes me super happy that you like that bit as well

@Findswoman, thank you so much for taking the time to comment! I agree that swimming can be a great way to bond and get that feeling of peace that can come from feeling totally connected to the water. It was fun for me to be able to channel some of those feelings into this story, and I'm so glad you had fun reading this piece. I love getting that feeling of new insight about a character or situation from fanfic so it makes me feel so honored that this story made you realize that Anakin would have needed to be taught the basics of swimming having been raised on Tatooine. I definitely picture Anakin as being at that sort of insecure age where the laughter of others can really seem like a big deal. I enjoyed writing the banter between Obi-Wan and Anakin, so it makes me super pleased that you could hear their voices as you were reading. I did want to showcase Obi-Wan's compassionate and considerate side here since I like the thought of him not always being as "strict" with Anakin as he might come across in AOTC. Since I do love writing these two Jedi, you'll probably see more stories about them from me.

@starbuck_archer, thanks so much for reading and commenting on my story! I'm glad that you thought the story was wonderful and got so much out of it. I was really trying to capture that culture shock that I imagine Anakin would have been feeling not only as a freed slave but also as a freed slave dumped into Jedi training, which at times must have felt so overwhelming but also exciting, so it's great to hear that rang true for you. I definitely pictured Anakin as someone who could see the water as beautiful but also be a bit shocked by it given that he grew up on a desert world, so it makes me very happy that you felt that added depth to his character. Learning to swim can definitely be a great way for fathers and sons to have those bonding experiences and memories you mentioned, and I really like to imagine that Obi-Wan and Anakin would have shared many of these sorts of memories that Obi-Wan can reflect back on later when describing Anakin as a good friend. Just these little moments of bonding and joy can be what defines a friendship in my opinion.

 

@CaraJinn, as always, thank you so much for commenting! I think you're right that Obi-Wan did find just the right motivation for Anakin. Water fights are such fun that they are an excellent reason to learn how to swim quickly