Work Text:
If there was one thing Anakin hated, it was Halloween.
Why? Mostly because he spent the first fifteen years of his life in a country that didn't celebrate it — people barely even knew what it was over there —, so it hadn't exactly been easy to end up somewhere that nearly worshiped the celebration when he didn't even know what it was. Secondly, he hated being scared and he hated horror movies even more — he tried to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre once because his sister had convinced he would be "just fine*" and he never made it to the end. All in all and considering that all his friends and half his family — his sister, to be precise — loved Halloween as much as they loved Christmas, October was always the worst month of the year to him. Seeing people placing fake skeletons, ghosts and pumpkins in their gardens nearly made his stomach flip; the sole prospect of being dragged into another "scary night" by his sister made him want to move back to his homeland until the beginning of November.
Each year, he tried his best to stay as far as possible from his sister's ideas — especially those that involved going out of the house; mostly because he couldn't escape the others. Unfortunately for him, as Ahsoka — his little sister — was staring at him with her big and bright blue eyes, something in the back of his mind told him that he was not going to be able to escape anything this time.
"Come on, Skyguy! It's for children, it's not going to be the scariest thing ever."
Anakin threw his controller on the pillow that was on the ground right by his side — he had once again lost the race. "Why do you even want me to come?" He glanced at his sister who was laying on her back on his bed. "You know I don't enjoy these things..."
A loud, dramatic sigh crossed Ahsoka's lips as she rolled onto her stomach. "You never do anything with us, is it so much to ask for my big bro' to come spend some fun time with us?"
The young man raised an eyebrow as he turned to look at her, sitting crossed-legs on the ground. "Seriously? You think I'm going to buy that?"
"Alright, maybe not." She chuckled, bringing a strand of white and blue hair behind her left ear. "The first half of the point still stands, though: you never do anything with us on Halloween—"
"Because I fucking hate it."
"—and I'm gonna keep asking you to come with us, each single fucking year." She didn't seem any bothered as he rolled his eyes. "Besides, I managed to convince our friends to go to this shitty haunted house because I knew it wasn't really scary and it would be the only way to make you come with us."
Anakin ran a hand in his hair with a sigh: the last thing he wanted was to go, even if the place appeared to "not" be scary — he knew his sister and he had very different definition of something that was scary and something that wasn't —, but he also didn't want to disappoint her again by refusing, well-ware that spending time together was important to Ahsoka who always tried to pretend she didn't hate it when he refused to go with her.
"You know," she said with a smirk on her lips, chin resting on her left hand, "Obi-Wan is going to be here this time..."
The young man had to close his eyes: he hated how this simple statement was enough to convince him going was not such a bad idea.
Obi-Wan was friend with Cody who was a brother of Rex who was friend with Ahsoka: this was how a fifteen years old Anakin met a man with reddish hair and ice-like eyes who was barely two years older than him; a man who would haunt his dreams for ten years.
Anakin pressed his hands to his face, trying to get rid of his embarrassment. He had been incapable of denying his affection for the older man and it was his sister's favorite subject — the little jerk liked to tease him with this. "I don't even see what your point is..."
"What my point is? My point is that you could grow some balls for once and tell him about your feelings."
The embarrassment was gone and Anakin glanced at his sister, brows knitted together. "When did you become so rude?"
"Irrelevant." She jumped onto her feet and put her hands on her hips. "So, will you come with us tonight or what?"
Anakin was many things. Depending on who was talking, his description could change from one extreme to another. Yet, there was one adjective that tent to come back again and again: stupid. This was probably why he ended up standing on the street, tightly wrapped in his black leather jacket to prevent the cold from biting his bones — he couldn't say it was a clear success — with a beaming Ahsoka by his side.
"You could have made an effort and put on the vampire costume I had for you..." She had bright orange body paint all over her face and had used black makeup to draw around her eyes, nose and mouth — she was supposed to be a jack-o-lantern. With the rest of her clothes being the same bright orange, she was very visible under the streetlamp.
Anakin opened his jacket for a quick second, revealing the hoodie he wore under it: it was completely black with a rib cage drawn on it with bleach — one of Ahsoka's experiments after she watched a TikTok video. "I'm a skeleton, drop it."
The girl rolled her eyes and turned, wrapping her arms around Rex's right arm who looked ridiculous in his werewolf costume — fancy words to say he was wearing a headband with black ears and a belt with a tail. "Tell him he's not funny."
The look Rex gave Anakin was filled with regrets, but he didn't say anything.
"Rex's not funny either." It was Coddy's voice that had echoed, the man looking at his younger brother with a smirk, one of his fake vampire teeth poking out.
"Sorry, I forgot you were a clown yourself."
Cody simply rolled his eyes, barely offended, and turned to the last member of their little group, the one and only man making Anakin's heart beat like a broken machine. "In the end, you're the one who made absolutely zero effort."
"Does it really surprise you?" Obi-Wan's voice was deep, always warm like a weighted blanket — even if they had not shared many moments together, Anakin knew the tone of it by heart, could created it to perfection inside the tight walls of his mind; had he been able to, he would have loved to spend hours simply listening to what was his favorite song ever.
Ahsoka rolled her eyes and started dragging Rex toward the entry, having noticed the queue moving forward.
Anakin could feel sweat appearing in his palms and he rubbed them against his forearms to get rid of the uncomfortable sensation. He was trying his best to not look toward Obi-Wan too often, already feeling like his cheeks were on fire because the older man was simply standing barely a step away from him. His mind wasn't a real friend at the moment, jumping between his fear of going into this haunted house and being absolutely terrified by fake skeletons, and his desire to get closer to Obi-Wan, to be more than just the brother of a friend of a brother of a friend — which could be resumed as nothing. Yet, as they moved closer and closer to the entry, his anxiety started filling every corner of his mind and he thought about turning back, leaving everyone behind to go hide under his covers and complain that he was still single. He would have probably done so if Ahsoka had not grabbed his hand and dragged him inside the house.
The entry door opened to a long corridor plunged in darkness. There were tiny lights hanging from the ceiling, allowing people to see where they were putting their feet. There were also glow-in-the-dark stickers on the walls: skulls, pumpkins, ghosts and spiders that seemed to be mocking the visitors. A speaker was diffusing a somber music with high pitched notes that assaulted the ears once in a while.
"This is going to be awesome..." Ahsoka whispered, looking like a child in a toy shop.
By her side, Rex looked equally excited and the two of them moved forward without waiting for the rest of the group. Cody quickly followed them, apparently not so eager to be left behind.
Anakin felt like his feet were stuck to the ground, like he was frozen on the spot. So far, he couldn't say that anything was scary at all, but he knew that the worst was yet to come. Besides, Ahsoka had explained to him that the house was big and there were several ways out. If his sister had been eager about this, it only managed to increase his anxiety: the place was almost a maze and it was technically possible to go in circles which did nothing to make him feel better. He was breathing slowly, trying to not let panic overtake him, trying to calm his mind down — because between two terrifying scenarios with someone running after him with a chainsaw, there were insults thrown at him because what kind of twenty-five year old was so scared of a haunted house children were allowed to enter?
The young man jumped when a hand was pressed on his left shoulder. His eyes found Obi-Wan's who removed his hand as if he had been burned. They stared at each other for an instant, the lines of their faces barely visible.
"Are you alright?" The older man asked and Anakin simply nodded, not trusting his voice. "Okay... It's just... You've been standing here for a minute straight without saying anything... I can't deny I was slightly worried."
Anakin was suddenly glad of the darkness because he felt his cheeks heating up and he knew himself enough to know he was red from the top of his ears to his collarbones. It took him a second to completely register the other man's words and another one to understand what they meant. "Hold on a second, where are the others?" As he had expected, his voice betrayed how close to panicking he was, but he was slightly too stressed to even care.
"I don't know."
The pathetic whine that crossed his lips would haunt Anakin's nights for a moment, but he couldn't care less on the instant, fighting off the urge to simply sit down in a corner and wait until it was all over. The main reason why people died in horror movies was because they were stupid enough to split up. He very well knew that he had no chance of dying in this house — unless he finally had a heart attack, but this was another problem —, but if anxiety made some kind of sense, then people wouldn't be suffering from it as much as they were. He almost whined again as Obi-Wan didn't appear to want to turn back.
"Come on: let's stick together and find a way out."
In another life, Anakin would have probably laughed: there was no way he would stand even an inch away from Obi-Wan who suddenly seemed like a lighthouse in the dark — truth be told, he was almost literally a lighthouse in the dark, the lights reflecting on his hair and seeming to set it on fire. So, with as much confidence as he could, which was not so much, he stepped behind the older man, wishing more than ever he could grab his hand to feel slightly more safe.
They crossed the long corridor and met a choice at its end: two closed doors faced them with nothing to guide them.
"Which one do you want to take?" Obi-Wan asked, glancing at him.
"The one that will lead us out the fastest." Anakin felt ashamed to show so vividly his desire to run away from the place, but the low chuckle that crossed the older man's lips eased him a little bit.
"Let's try right, then, shall we?"
A loud and fake creaking sound echoed as Obi-Wan opened the door on their right. It led to a room plunged in total darkness and they stepped inside, unsure. The door automatically closed behind them and Anakin tried not to jump on Obi-Wan — or burst into tears, he wasn't so sure what would happen first. The only thing they could hear was the steady rhythm of their breathing, something not at all stressful.
"Is somethi—" Whatever Anakin had planned on saying was lost into a scream as a loud laugh and thunder sounds echoed from a speaker at the same time a green light pulsed, lighting up a skeleton sitting in the center of the room. It seemed to be laughing, extending his hands as if trying to grab the scared visitors. "What the fuck," he said with a broken voice, feeling tears in his eyes and like his heart was about to break his rib cage.
"It's okay," Obi-Wan said, a strain barely audible in his voice. "It's... It's okay. We're okay."
It was as the older man scratched his throat that Anakin realized he was hugging Obi-Wan's right arm like a drowning man would hold onto a lifebuoy. He tried to let go of him, dropping his head to hide his shame, but the other man grabbed his hand, tangling their fingers together. Anakin tried not to melt into a puddle as he looked back at him, meeting a way too kissable smirk.
"Ready for the next room?"
No matter how much he wanted to scream that, no, he wasn't ready at all for whatever twisted idea the guy who made the place came up with, the young man nodded and followed Obi-Wan, their hands firmly stuck together.
They moved toward the back of the room and crossed the door they found. They entered what seemed to be an empty corridor, but, as they moved into it, cupboard monsters — ghosts, witches and skeletons — appeared from holes in the walls, the whole hand in hand with a creepy music, mad laughters and bones sounds.
Anakin tried to turn back, by sheer reflex, but Obi-Wan's strong hand in his led him further and further. He ducked his head between his shoulders, closing his eyes to shut out everything he could, right hand pressed to his ear in hope of muffling the noises. His heart was beating hard and fast, almost painfully, and the young man wondered if the thing wasn't stopping each time the loop of mad laughter started again. He wasn't so sure how they made it to the end of the corridor, how they reached another room, but it didn't matter at all: the only thing he could think of was the cold sweat in his neck, his back and hands; this, and the overwhelming desire to leave this awful place.
"There are three doors this time..."
The young man had to shake his head to come back to the moment and it took him a second or two to finally see the three doors around them, one on each wall. He was glad there was absolutely nothing in this room and part of him wanted to stay here, safely, but another part of him really wanted to get the hell out of this place. "Which one do we take?" His voice was trembling and he scratched his throat several times, hoping to get it under control — it didn't work.
"Well, I'd say the one on the right. In a maze, we are supposed to always turn in the same direction to get out... I guess we can apply the same logic."
"Whatever will take us out of here."
Anakin couldn't deny he had an extremely bad feeling as Obi-Wan pushed the door, but he kept his mouth shut — he couldn't say he was surprised he had a bad feeling, the whole place was giving him bad feelings since he agreed to come. They entered a very short corridor with the walls seeming to crush them as they were so close and reached the following room. Rarely before had Anakin's bad feelings been proven this right: as they entered, a skeleton appeared from the wall by the side of the door — on the young man's side, obviously —, its head turning to look at them, jaw opening and closing as its eyes shined with an unnatural green light.
It was quite a feat that Anakin managed to notice so many details because, surprised to the point he thought his heart stopped, he screamed before running back into the corridor, Obi-Wan's warm hand making him panic even more for a second as he felt trapped. He nearly knocked himself against the first door, but managed to enter the safe room. Once there, he did the only thing he was able to do as his legs seemed to give up, his muscles suddenly paralyzed: he sat on the ground, just by the door, with his back against the wall and his head stuck between his hands that were pressing around his skull, knees close to his chest.
If he was scared, Anakin was also extremely angry: angry at his sister for dragging him into this shithole when she knew very well that he couldn't stand this kind of thing, but also angry at himself because he couldn't comprehend what had gotten into him to accept to come. A part of him was also angry at Obi-Wan, with his pretty hair, pretty eyes, pretty smile and hundred other things that made Anakin fall in love with him — probably the main reason why he was currently sitting on a cold floor, heart on the border of explosion, tears on his cheeks and the overwhelming sensation he was about to make a panic attack.
He was ready to remain here forever, to melt into the parquet floor and become one with the house, but a gentle voice made its way to him.
"Anakin? Anakin, are you alright?" Obi-Wan was softly looking at him when he lifted his head and the older man cupped his face with his warm hands. "It's alright, it's over." Gentle thumbs ran under Anakin's eyes, softly drying the tears. "Everything's fine."
The young man wanted to yell at him, tell him that nothing was fine — well, at least that he wasn't feeling even slightly close to "fine", but the complete opposite. His voice refused to leave his lips so he shut his mouth slightly too hard, painfully knocking his teeth together, but he couldn't really care. He looked away from the older man whose right hand fell to his neck.
"God! Your heart's beating fast!" Obi-Wan pressed his fingers slightly more into Anakin's skin, looking for his erratic pulse. "You're really freaked out, aren't you? Like genuinely terrified?"
With shame making his tongue as heavy as an anvil, the young man nodded. He looked back at Obi-Wan when the older man grabbed his hood and firmly put it on top of his head.
"I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? I don't think we're far from the outside."
Anakin nodded, too many times to be honest, but he only just realized he was shaking from head to toes. Pressing his fingers into his knees, he tried to make these tremors stop. He was unsuccessful until Obi-Wan put his hands on top of his, a warm smile on his lips. The older man helped him get to his feet and Anakin barely felt any embarrassment as he was stuck to Obi-Wan — he felt like he could literally die if he let go, so he decided it didn't matter.
"Just keep your head down and maybe put your hands over your ears," he said as he wrapped his right arm around Anakin's shoulders, firmly keeping him close.
With his heart on the border of his lips, Anakin did as he was told, even closing his eyes to shield himself. He tried to focus on the feeling of Obi-Wan's body against him, tried to ignore all the sounds around him, ignore how his knees were trembling as the older man nearly carried him through the place. They were finally outside after what felt like an hour or two, the fresh air hitting Anakin with relief.
A few minutes latter, the young man was sitting on the sidewalk, head between his bent knees, arms wrapped around his legs. Now that his panic had diminished, he was feeling shame strangling him and, had he been able to, he would have ran back to his house to watch a dumb movie with his mother, pretending this disastrous night hadn't happened. It wasn't as if he had ever thought there could be a chance he and Obi-Wan would be more than nothing, but he couldn't shake away the feeling he had ruined everything by being a fucking crybaby and by ruining the older man's good time — maybe he was the kind who liked haunted houses, how could the young man know? All in all, he really wanted to disappear onto that sidewalk, the words of his ex — Padmé, an absolute angel who put up with too many of his quirks when they were fourteen — were spinning inside his head, reminding him that he wasn't the kind of guy people had serious relationships with. She had never said those words and had probably never meant this, but Anakin was way too good at finding criticism in other's' sentences, spending an ungodly amount of time overthinking everything.
A shiver ran down his spine when he felt someone sitting by his side, a warm shoulder pressed against his left one.
"They still haven't gotten out..." Obi-Wan's voice rose between them, but it didn't make the younger man feel any better — for once. "I wonder what they can be doing in there."
"Having fun, probably." Anakin's voice was muffled, because he was whispering and because of his position. He tightened his hold on his legs, pressing his knees into his skull and did his best to control the tremor in his voice. "I'm sorry..."
The older man remained silent for a second, the absence of words like knives into Anakin's stomach. "Why are you apologizing?"
"I ruined everything. I ruined your night."
"Is this because you panicked?" The young man's lack of answer must have been one in itself. "Anakin, you panicked, you did nothing wrong. It wasn't your fault."
Anakin was getting frustrated and he wasn't even sure why — maybe because Obi-Wan wasn't blaming him; how dare the man not be an asshole? He removed his head from between his knees and instead put his right temple against them to be able to look toward the older man. "I fucking cried..."
Obi-Wan turned his shoulders toward him, moving slightly closer. "Of course you did: you panicked." His eyes were warm and soft, but it only increased Anakin's uneasiness, the young man feeling like he was being played.
"Still... you haven't been able to enjoy it because of me... I fucking ruined it."
The older man shrugged, a gentle smile on his lips. "I've never been a big fan of haunted houses: the only reason I didn't freak out was because you were even more scared next to me." He chuckled as the young man looked at him as if he had grown a second head.
Anakin kept on staring, not so sure what to say now. He moved his head, putting his chin on his knees and started playing with his shoelaces. "I just... I just fucking hate these places... Truth be told, I hate Halloween as a whole. I don't like to be scared, I'm not good at being scared, I just panic... It's never fun."
"Why did you come tonight then? If you knew you were going to feel that bad, why did you follow your sister?"
The young man felt his cheeks burning and he tried to hide them by shrinking on himself and lifting his shoulders. He avoided Obi-Wan's eyes, feeling them burning furrows on his features. He tried to find something to say, but the older man was oddly distracting, even when he wasn't looking directly at him. "I... let's just say that Snips is very... very convincing."
Obi-Wan laughed and the sound warmed Anakin's insides. "This, I can believe."
They remained in a comfortable silence, sitting side by side on this uncomfortable sidewalk, waiting for the rest of their group.
Anakin dared glancing in the older man's direction, glad to notice he was looking away, allowing him to trace his features, to carve them into his memory as if he couldn't already draw them in the dark. "I didn't completely ruin your night, then?" He asked in a whisper, almost afraid to break the peace engulfing them.
Obi-Wan put his eyes back on him, the same warm smile on his lips. "Not at all, dear."
The endearing name was enough to fluster Anakin until the following year. The young man had absolutely no idea how to react, knowing without a doubt that he was a bright shade of red.
"Sorry," the older man said, left hand scratching the back of his head, "I shouldn't have called you that—"
"No, no! It's fine!" Anakin's words left him as they were staring at each other. "I... hmm... I liked it..." If it was possible, he managed to get even more embarrassed, a feat that probably deserved an award.
Obi-Wan seemed surprised for a second by the confession, but his bright smile was quickly back on his lips. "Well, that's good then." He moved slightly closer, hovering just next to Anakin who thought about holding his breath. "I would hate to make you feel uncomfortable."
The young man thought about laughing, but he realized he wasn't embarrassed anymore: he was burning from the inside out. He couldn't recall a time he and Obi-Wan had been so close to each other and, if he looked down just a little bit, he would be able to see up close these lips he had been fantasizing about, carefully surrounded by a copper-like beard that he knew would feel amazing against his skin.
Just to drive him even more insane, Obi-Wan brought his right hand to the young man, carefully putting a strand of hair behind his ear. "I... There's something I need to admit..."
Anakin had a hard time reconnecting his brain. "What..." He swallowed with difficulties, his throat suddenly dry as the older man was everywhere in his field of view, as he couldn't escape these icy eyes that managed to be warm. "What is it?"
"I came tonight... only because Cody told me you'd come too..."
The Earth must have exploded and they were currently living into a simulation that made dreams come true: this was the only logical explanation Anakin had. If this wasn't enough, he noticed the soft red that was creeping up Obi-Wan's beard and he wanted to throw himself in a river to calm the overwhelming fire inside his belly. "I came because Ahsoka told me you'd come too." The words left him before he could think about them, but the bright and happy laugh that left the older man told him he had been right to let them go.
"I think we've been tricked, dear..."
"Why do you say that," Anakin asked, moving closer to the older man, a sudden desperation strangling him.
"I think you know why," he answered in a chuckle.
"Tell me please." He needed to hear the words, he needed to know he wasn't making this all up, he needed to be sure he wasn't being a fool to hope.
Obi-Wan stared at him, his bright eyes gently roaming over his features. "I... I like you, Anakin. I've liked you for a while now, but I never dared tell you... I thought you would never be interested in me, because I'm a man and because I'm a bit older than you and—"
Anakin couldn't hear any more and, feeling braver than ever, he surged forward, sealing his lips to Obi-Wan's. He remembered what it was like to kiss Padmé, the feel of her soft mouth against his own, the sensation of her little hands on his neck. Kissing Obi-Wan was a whole new world and there was something in the depth of his mind screaming he would never have enough of this: the sensation of that beard scratching his face, these lips that were more firm, more confident yet still soft... he was ready to spend the rest of his life simply doing this, simply kissing Obi-Wan on a dirty sidewalk.
They parted and stared at each other for a second, looking like two teenagers who had just confessed to their crush — which wasn't that far from what had just happened, in all honesty.
Anakin was giggling like a kid and he wrapped his arms around the older man's shoulders, almost crawling into his lap.
Obi-Wan never broke eye contact, looking probably as happy as the younger man. "Does that mean you like me too?"
Another press of their lips, another gentle meeting of their mouths, before Anakin brightly smiled at him, left fingers running in copper locks. "Yeah... I like you too."
They kissed once again, just because it felt right to do so and because they wanted to do so. Anakin felt a tongue gently running on his bottom lip and he backed away, suddenly feeling panic strangle him again.
Obi-Wan stared at him, visibly unsure about what had just happened. "Are you... are you alright?"
Anakin closed his eyes with a sigh, sticking his forehead to the older man's, hoping the intimacy would be enough to ease him, to ease the confession. "I... it's been a while... for me and... there are many things I don't know..." He cringed at his own words: this was probably a terrible way to admit he was a twenty-five years old virgin who didn't even know how to kiss with his tongue.
Obi-Wan put a kiss on top of his nose, chasing his bad thoughts away. "It's alright, I get it... We'll take things slow; I'll follow your rhythm, okay?"
Moving his head back so they could look at each other, Anakin bit his bottom lip and nodded, his bright smile barely concealed. "I... do you want to date me?"
"Of course, I do."
They kissed again, very softly, very gently. Anakin had his hands around Obi-Wan's face and he felt like he was melting as the older man was holding his waist. Their position was everything but comfortable, not that either of them really minded. They were ready to remain glued to each other like that for an hour or two, but they were interrupted by a loud gasp coming from behind them. They turned their heads, finding the rest of their group looking at them with fondness and amusement — Ahsoka was the one who had gasped, feigning shock as her eyes clearly showed she was amused.
"Well," she said with barely hidden mischief, "I guess I was right to drag you here, wasn't I?"
Anakin simply shook his head and glanced at Obi-Wan who got up to his feet. He grabbed the hand the older man handed him and stood up. Just for good measure, he stuck his tongue out at his sister who rolled her eyes.
"Alright, lovebirds. Let's go get some candy!"
As they walked side by side, Anakin couldn't stop smiling, his fingers tangled with Obi-Wan's, his boyfriend.
All things considered, maybe Halloween wasn't so bad.