Disclaimer – Psh, not mine.

Author's note – Okay, so I finally got around to continuing it. Let me know if it's worth it, 'cause I really can't tell anymore. I just felt like writing it again. Sorry for the wait! And thanks to anyone still out there.

Closer

Day 3

It was almost mid-day and Anakin had still not returned to their quarters. Obi-wan did not even have to open the door to his padawan's room to know that he was not there. In fact, Anakin's force signature was so distant that Obi-wan felt confident in his conclusion that the boy wasn't even in the Jedi Temple. Sighing in frustration, he gently probed the bond that stretched between them.

Nothing. Confusion, muddled thoughts and strong walls, but otherwise nothing. Nothing to tell him if his apprentice was safe, no opening for communication, no insight into what Anakin was doing or how he was feeling or why he was gone. Obi-wan exhaled slowly, and struggled to release his growing panic into the Force.

The bed was soft. Foreign linens flowed around him in a gentle cascade of warm comfort, even as a dull throb began behind his closed eyelids. He knew he wasn't in his own bed. His own bed wasn't this deep, wasn't built for this much relaxation. His bed was made for a Jedi. It was simple and plain and unobtrusive. The Jedi did not allow attachments, even, it seems, to such pleasures as sleep.

Anakin burrowed his face deeper into the pillow, releasing the pain of his hangover into the Force before venturing to open his eyes. The light was dim, but it still stung as he rolled over and attempted to get the room into focus. A high ceiling stretched above him, harsh chrome stained scarlet in the light that shown through the red drapes on the windows along the walls. Ornate decorations – artifacts and artwork and tapestries – were meticulously placed throughout the room, giving it the formal appearance of a museum exhibit. Anakin examined his surroundings closely, noting that while he didn't know where he was, the place still felt oddly familiar. He wondered idly how he had gotten here. Half the night was in a haze – he couldn't remember anything past his fifth drink. There was the bar, the music … and a face. He had been talking to someone – someone he knew. If only he could remember….

He sighed, frustrated when his mind could not call forth the image of that mysterious face, and wished he knew what time it was. Obi-wan was going to kill him when he figured out that he had never returned to the Temple last night, and Anakin didn't even want to think about what his master would do if he found out why. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, intent on getting out of here as quickly as possible, when the door to the room suddenly opened. As he nearly fell off the bed in shock, Anakin reflected numbly that it was a good thing he was so talented at pulling off a cool and collected demeanor in unconventional situations. He caught himself deftly before he could hit the ground and blinked up at the figure framed in the doorway.

"Ah, Anakin, you're awake!" Chancellor Palpatine observed fondly, his long, heavy robes sweeping across the carpet as he stepped into the room. His expression became one of polite concern and he said, "How are you feeling? You had quite a lot to drink last night…."

Anakin continued to blink stupidly at the other man, lost in confusion as the weight of the situation slowly began to dawn on him. Somehow – he had no idea how but somehow – he had ended up sleeping off his drunken stupidity last night in the quarters of the Supreme Chancellor. Of all the sentient beings in the galaxy, how was it that the one he had run into in the middle of an immature meltdown was Chancellor Palpatine? More importantly, what was the Jedi Council going to do once Palpatine informed them that he had picked up one of their padawans in a bar somewhere along the lower levels of the city?

"Anakin?" the Chancellor said, bringing him out of his panicked musings.

"I – I feel fine sir," Anakin lied. "Thank you."

"Well," Palpatine began, sitting down on the bed next to Anakin, "I'm glad you are physically well at least. If our conversation last night is any indication, however, you seem to be troubled by something."

"Our, erm, our conversation last night?" said Anakin, wondering in fear what he had inadvertently let slip that would give the Chancellor any reason to think that he was 'troubled.' "What, uh, what exactly did we talk about?"

"Well, apart from you informing me that the Senate building looks like a mushroom and that red has never been one of your favorite colors," Anakin cringed, "you also mentioned something along the lines of 'I can't hug Obi-wan'"

"Oh, right," said Anakin awkwardly. "That's – that was really nothing sir. Just a little inebriated humor. Speaking of Obi-wan though, I really should be getting back to the Temple. My master will be wondering where I am…." He stood up and made for the door, but the Chancellor's next sentence stopped him in his tracks.

"I will not inform the members of the Jedi Council where you were last night," he said, "if you tell me why it is you were there."

Anakin turned around slowly, not quite believing the mess he had landed himself in. He weighed his options only briefly, gazing steadily at the deceptively innocent smile on Palpatine's face. He had always admired the man, but sometimes he did wonder about him. He walked back over to the bed, sat down and said, "Okay."

Palpatine's smile widened and Anakin was momentarily struck with the thought that, for all of the man's grandfatherly characteristics, he could probably pull off evil pretty well. "Wonderful," he said. "Go right ahead then."

Anakin thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to tell the Chancellor about his situation without really telling him. According to the guidelines that he and Obi-wan had established, he was not supposed to mention the bet to anyone. Then again, he also did not want the Council knowing where he was last night.

"Obi-wan … wants to be closer," he began tentatively. "As a team, I mean. He says we should hug more – be friendlier I guess."

"And this is a problem for you?" Palpatine asked skeptically.

"Well," said Anakin, "only the hugging part. It just seems weird to me. I get that friends hug, but I guess I'm just worried that others will get the wrong impression."

"Ah," said Palpatine shortly. "So you fear that people will see you as a flaming homosexual."

"Uh, sort of. I guess you could put it that way…."

"There is nothing wrong with being gay, Anakin," Palpatine snapped. "I happen to have a gay cousin and – "

Anakin buried his face in his hands, frustrated. "I know there's nothing wrong with being gay sir," he said. "It's just – it's Obi-wan! He's like my brother. He's my master. That anyone could think otherwise is just absurd."

The Chancellor nodded, seeming, at least, to understand. "That makes sense," he said. "It's only natural that you would want to protect the honest nature of your relationship from the mixed perceptions of others." He paused. "But that's not the only thing, is it? That's not the only reason you're uncomfortable with it. You are a very confident young man, Anakin. I do not believe that what other people think of you and your master would tarnish your sense of reputation for a moment."

Anakin thought about this for a minute. "I also – well – I also just don't think I'm good with the whole human contact thing," he said. "Obi-wan says I'm emotionally detached, which is completely ridiculous. It's just, the only person I've ever really hugged was my mother and she's … obviously not here. It feels weird touching someone else like that. Especially a male someone."

Sighing slowly, Anakin looked up at Palpatine. He felt better, somehow, happy that he was able to tell someone about his problems and slightly surprised to see that they went beyond what he originally thought.

Palpatine nodded again, and then, with a speed Anakin would have thought nearly impossible for someone his age, he jumped up from his seat on the bed as though someone had let a fire under him. Anakin started slightly and looked at the other man questioningly.

"Then maybe," the Chancellor said, grinning broadly, "it's time to change that."

Obi-wan was, for lack of a better phrase, freaking out. Of course, Obi-wan's freak-outs were not like those of most sane beings in the galaxy. He didn't run around in a panicked state. He didn't speak any more loudly than he usually did. He didn't spout off every irrational thought that passed through his mind. In fact, Obi-wan Kenobi didn't do much of anything when worry and panic slowly spread through his veins like a virus, numbing his limbs and dulling his senses. He simply sat. And stared. Not meditatively, not peacefully. He just sat. It vaguely occurred to him that the one person who would probably be able to tell that anything was wrong at all, the one person who knew him well enough, was Anakin. But as the boy's absence was the reason for the Jedi Knight's current freak-out, this thought was about as helpful to him now as Master Yoda was in correctly orchestrating a sentence.

He tried to think, tried to go over exactly where Anakin might have gone. The last time he saw his apprentice, the younger Jedi had seemed a little off. He knew that their bet had something to do with it, knew that Anakin was having insecurities about the entire situation. He just wasn't aware of how serious those insecurities apparently were. Usually Anakin would talk to him about his problems. Or he would at least vaguely acknowledge them and then maybe slam a door or two. As Obi-wan was seemingly a major part of the problem this time, however, he doubted that his padawan wanted very much to speak with him. But who else would he go to?

And then it hit him. Obi-wan lifted his eyes from the dome-shaped head of Ki-Adi-Mundi, who was meditating on the other side of the Gardens and whom he had been staring at for the last half an hour. Palpatine, he thought to himself. Of course. Why had it not occurred to him earlier? The Chancellor had always taken a special interest in Anakin and his apprentice had recently begun to regard the man as a confidant of sorts. With one last, fleeting glance at Ki-Adi-Mundi's head – which was, as Anakin had put it, extremely weird – Obi-wan sprung up from his position on the ground and began to make his way out of the Jedi Temple.

Anakin was inwardly vowing to himself that he would never, ever drink again. Palpatine had decided that he was going to help him become more comfortable with human contact and was now showing him a labeled stick figure drawing of two people hugging. They had moved into the Chancellor's office during the search for a pen and Anakin was trying very hard not to sigh in exasperation as Palpatine pointed at the small paper on which he had drawn his illustration.

"You see," he said, "your hand can go here, wrapped around the back like so. Now, you have the advantage of being taller than Obi-wan, so you can go for a more shoulder oriented embrace. You really don't want to go lower than about here," he moved his hand to point out the lower back of one of the stick figures. "That's where you move into awkward and inappropriate territory…."

"Sir," Anakin broke in before the man had the chance to explain the intricacies of back-patting versus momentary shoulder squeezing, "I do know how to hug. That's really not the problem, remember? I just have issues actually hugging people."

"Ah, right," Palpatine said, pushing the paper aside without missing a beat. "We shall put it into practice then. Stand up, Anakin, stand up!"

Slowly and grudgingly, Anakin rose from the enormous chair behind Palpatine's desk and went to stand in front of the Chancellor. Palpatine gazed at him contemplatively. "Hmmm," he mused. "Maybe we should start small. You know, ease you in with subtle indications of affection. Here," he said, slowly approaching Anakin as though he were a wild animal, "I am going to touch your shoulder now. Friends sometimes do this as a sign of support or as a gesture of understanding." Anakin was barely able to refrain from rolling his eyes as the Chancellor tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder and patted it gently. "There we go," said Palpatine cheerfully. "Now, how are you feeling?"

Quickly swallowing the words that first came to mind – the ones that included wanting to kill himself if only to end his misery – Anakin forced a smile and said, "Great, sir, just great. Uh, but you know, I really should be going. Obi-wan's probably searching the entire Temple for me and – "

"Oh no you don't," Palpatine broke in admonishingly. "You can't run away from human affection, Anakin! We're going to get you through this – no excuses."

"I'm not making excuses, sir," Anakin pleaded. "I've been gone all night – no one knows where I am!"

Palpatine sighed. "Alright," he said. "How about a compromise? We do, I don't know, two hugging exercises?"

"And then I can go?"

"And then yes, Anakin, you can go," the Chancellor said dully. "You can run away, never really learn to connect physically with another person and be doomed to a life without hugging."

"Okay, sounds like a deal," Anakin said, thinking that it would at least be worth having a life without hugging as long as it also lacked people trying to teach him how to hug.

Palpatine, in a move very unbefitting of a Chancellor, sighed once again and rolled his eyes at Anakin's complete stubbornness. "Come here, then," he said.

Anakin approached the older man, whose arms promptly enveloped him in a close embrace. The young padawan half-heartedly returned the hug and then tried to pull back. Palpatine, however, would not let him go.

"Um, Chancellor? Are – aren't you supposed to stop hugging at some point?"

"Yes, Anakin," Palpatine spoke into Anakin's shoulder, "but you have to read the signals given off by the person you are hugging. You hugged me far too briefly – you didn't recognize that I was not yet done hugging you."

Deciding not to argue the point that perhaps Palpatine should have read the blatant signal given off by him that he wanted to stop hugging, Anakin merely said, "Ah, my mistake sir."

Palpatine pulled back. "Well, aside from your timing, I'd say that you are a fair hugger," he said. "Though, you might want to try putting more into it. You seem … reluctant. As though you really don't want to be hugging me at all."

"I wonder how you could have gotten that idea…," Anakin muttered through gritted teeth.

"Maybe," said the Chancellor pensively, evidently missing this remark, "maybe you should try channeling all of your anger and hatred, your feelings of resentment, into the hug. Perhaps that would better direct and focus your thoughts!"

Anakin looked at the man like he was insane. "But, sir," he said, nonplussed, "isn't hugging supposed to be a sign of compassion? Of caring? Of love? I don't think directing my angry thoughts and feelings into a hug would be very beneficial. And besides, with anger you get into that whole Dark Side thing…."

"What do you mean?" Palpatine asked, looking at Anakin now with an expression of innocent curiosity.

"Well, you know, anger's on that whole list of things leading up to the Dark Side," said Anakin nonchalantly. "I think it's somewhere in between jealousy and hatred. It's really best not to touch it at all."

"I see," said Palpatine, apparently thinking this over. "I wasn't aware that such a list existed. Who constructed it – was it Yoda? I hardly think that such a daunting enemy as the Dark Side can be summarized by a list of a few unfavorable emotions…. And who's to say that they're all bad anyway?" The Chancellor seemed outright indignant now. "I mean, anger can be a perfectly useful emotion. And jealousy! Who doesn't get jealous every now and then? No, Anakin, I think this list is quite overrated."

"Er, okay sir," Anakin said hesitantly. He had no idea his comments would ignite such a fierce response from the older man. "Shall we – shall we just continue with the next hugging exercise?" he added, trying to steer the subject away from the infamous list of things that led to the Dark Side.

"Yes, well, I suppose so," said the Chancellor with a tone of distinct resentment. He approached Anakin and wrapped his arms around him once more. Anakin hugged him back, this time making sure to disguise his reluctance and wait until the Chancellor was satisfied enough with the hug to pull away.

"Ah," said Palpatine, and Anakin was relieved to find that he sounded much happier than he had just a moment ago. "There, Anakin, you see? You can hug people!"

"Obi-wan," said Anakin suddenly.

"Yes, yes, I do know you need to be getting back to the Temple."

"No, Obi-wan," Anakin said again, almost desperately. He broke apart from Palpatine and gazed helplessly toward the doorway of the office, where his master now stood framed by two angry guards.

Palpatine looked around to see what Anakin was staring at. "Ah, Master Kenobi – " he began, but Obi-wan was already leaving.

"Master, wait!" Anakin shouted, but Obi-wan did not listen. Anakin stared after his master's departing form for a moment, paralyzed with shock. He was quite sure he had never before seen an expression like that on Obi-wan's face. It wasn't disappointment, it wasn't even anger. It was hurt.

"Er, Anakin?" said Palpatine slowly. "If I was – hypothetically of course – an evil Sith Lord, would you ever consider working with me?"

Anakin wasn't paying attention and he didn't stick around long enough to register the Chancellor's question. He ran out the door without another word, praying that he would be able to catch up with Obi-wan and explain everything to him.

"Fine," Palpatine muttered to the empty room. "But don't say I never asked."

Author's note – So it was a two year wait. Worth it, yes or no?