Just Beginning

"Jedi Master Obi-wan Kenobi," the booming voice announced as Obi-wan strode from the small tunnel and into the brightly lit arena. As he came to the door, Obi-wan lowered the cowl of his robe and looked at the large crowd of people who filled the arena seats.

Once a year, the jedi showed off their skills with their lightsabers, declaring one as the Lightsaber Champion of Coruscant. It was merely a spectacle which Obi-wan had stayed away from for many years. He didn't want to participate in such frivolous undertakings, it wasn't his style.

This year, though, he hadn't been given a choice.

"Participate, you will." Master Yoda had giggled as Obi-wan had protested yet again about his feelings for the tournament. Obi-wan knew that this was not a request, but an order from the Grand Master of the Jedi and that wasn't something that you could avoid. So sullenly, he had entered into the tournament and now was facing off for the championship.

Obi-wan stood in the arena with a cheering crowd and it made his heart leap up in his throat. He wasn't nervous, per se, but there were other things he could be doing with his time at the moment. He just didn't want to people to think that the jedi were blood thirsty fighters who took pleasure in using their weapons. Lightsabers were used as a final resort, nothing more.

He scanned the crowd and his eyes caught hers. Her eyes sparkled from across the large arena. He closed his eyes, breathed in and then out and opened his eyes again, to see her still looking straight through him. She, he knew, was the only one who could make him feel as though he was a padawan learner who had been caught doing something mischevious.

Senator Padmé Amidala still carried herself as a queen would and she now sat regally waiting for the final match in the tournament to begin. Obi-wan felt pride in knowing that she was there to watch him, but she could not let anyone know that she was there to see him. Their love, and what it had become, was still very secret and was something that they both treasured deeply.

A small smile captured her lips briefly and then was gone, Obi-wan smiled inwardly knowing that her brief smile was for him and no one else.

"Jedi, take your positions," the announcer said over the din of the arena. Obi-wan shed his cloak and took up his normal stance, waiting for the young jedi across from him to do the same.

Obi-wan, in his elder statesman role, was rather intimidating to younger jedi. He was known for his level headedness and his stoic demeanor, but what most jedi didn't know was that he wasn't above playing a trick or two. Very few people saw that side of him and only one knew his true self. She sat not far from him now, but she was still miles away with a crowd of this size.

Obi-wan cleared his thoughts and saluted the younger jedi. His name was Chase O'Riella, but Obi-wan had very little dealings with the younger man. He was Anakin's age and that was about all Obi-wan knew about him.

Chase returned the salute and then the tone sounded for the match to begin. Obi-wan concentrated an attack above the younger jedi's head and then changed up his attack by sweeping for the legs with his lightsaber. The younger jedi flipped out of the way and Obi-wan launched himself high into the air and landed behind the younger jedi. He used and overhand attack to drive Chase back further towards the alternate side of the arena.

Obi-wan let the force guide him, blocking all the attacks which Chase attempted to return to him. Finally Obi-wan tangled the younger jedi's lightsaber up and pressed close to the younger man, forcing him to topple backwards. The jedi master stepped forward and pointed the lightsaber at the Chase. Finally Chase called his now deactivated lightsaber to him and blocked Obi-wan perfectly.

As the younger man rolled out of the way, Obi-wan leapt to one side, but was caught off balance as Chase swept his lightsaber towards the older jedi's legs. Obi-wan barely managed to jump above the blade and twirled his lightsaber for an attack straight at the shoulders of his opponent.

Chase was caught off guard and Obi-wan landed the blow squarely on the other jedi's shoulders. The lightsaber crackled and hissed as it made contact, emitting a shower of sparks which declared Obi-wan had landed the blow and won the tournament.

The crowd erupted in loud applause as Obi-wan deactivated his lightsaber and helped Jedi O'Riella up from the floor. He patted the younger jedi on the back and smiled.

"It was just my lucky day," Obi-wan said so that Chase could hear him. Clipping his lightsaber back to his belt, Obi-wan bowed to all the dignitaries that lined the first rows of the arena. When his eye caught Senator Amidala's again, he smiled a guarded smile. He might be proud of himself, but he didn't want to jeopardize what he was truly proud of, her love.

"Senator Amidala," the booming voice said. "Please present Jedi Master Kenobi with the crystal trophy."

Obi-wan let a sense of panic rush through him and then out of him like water. In a room full of jedi, he had to make sure to let the feelings wash away as soon as they came or they would be detected by those with force sensitivity.

She floated as she walked, her long dress of emerald green flowing behind her. Her hair was tied up in the way that Obi-wan had said that he liked it and he knew that it was just for him that she had done it. He loved that the small things were so important to them when they couldn't outwardly show how they felt about each other. She was even wearing the necklace he had procured for her to celebrate their first anniversary together.

"Master Kenobi," she started as she arrived near him. "It's good to see you again."

Obi-wan bowed to her in deference for her position and then as he arose, he smiled at her with his eyes in a way that showed how much he truly loved her.

"It is good to see you well, Senator Amidala," Obi-wan said.

A small padawan handed her a crystal trophy which gleamed in the lights of the arena and it reminded Obi-wan of the ceremony which was held on Naboo so many years ago declaring peace between the Naboo and the Gungans. A smile parted his lips as he remembered just how young they both were then.

Handing him the trophy, Obi-wan brushed his fingers against hers gently in a gesture of love and then took the trophy and held it above his head to thunderous applause.

He had always used the back entrance to her apartments and now he waited silently. Obi-wan rang the bell again and waited, hiding quietly in the shadows of the small staircase that was normally used for deliveries into the more lush apartments.

The door cracked and a small figure peeked out from the inside of the apartment.

"Master jedi," the voice, similar to that of Padmé's, said quietly into what she believed was the darkness. He could always tell her handmaiden's voice, there was just a tenderness which Padmé had that didn't underlie that of her decoy's voice.

"Is she here?" he asked softly.

"She just returned home." the female said cracking the door a bit wider. "She's in her study."

Obi-wan slipped past the handmaiden and into the apartment. He knew his way around so easily and so well that he was to the study in mere moments. He smiled at the memories of all the times they had spent wiling away the hours in the study, lounging in each other's arms when the weight of the world seemed to slip away from both of them.

"Quite a night Master jedi?" Padmé asked quietly from the window where she was looking out towards the traffic which constantly flew by on the city planet.

"Oh I think it's just beginning," Obi-wan laughed throwing his cloak onto the sofa.