Title: He Smelled Like Cinnamon

Author: Siri

Rating: G

Genre: General/Vignette

Summery: Obi-Wan Kenobi writes down fond memories of Qui-Gon so that even when his Master is gone, he will always remember.

Disclaimer: Neither the characters nor the universe is mine, they are the property of George Lucas, Jude Watson or Scholastic, but I'm not getting paid so it's okay : )

Note: This story is pretty short, but it's just a cute idea I had and wanted to share : )

He Smelled Like Cinnamon

~~~Mistress Kait told me once that forgetting little things is forgetting big things. If you can't remember the slightest change in a tune, a whole song will slip your mind. If you can't recall the slight deepening tone of a picture, then you'll forget the whole print. If you don't have the small things to hang onto, then you forget the bigger things because the picture isn't complete without every detail, and a song without it's complete tune is impossible to sing right. In the same way, I am determined not to forget my Master. I know, though I don't like the thought, that one day he'll be gone. That after he's gone I'll wake up one morning and I'll forget what he looks like, his face, his tall strong features, or the other little things about him.

So here they are, the things about my Master, because I never want to forget him, no matter how much I might have to fight against the forgetting I want to remember him always.

His name is Qui-Gon...no...Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master, my Master.

He's tall, sometimes it seems he's so tall he could just step on me by accident, but I know he's very careful. He has a powerful build which often makes a shrimp out of me, but I don't care.

He has light brown hair, sort of graying around the top, as if streaks were run through his hair, but it's so natural that it's almost not like streaks. It's funny because his hair always seems to be in his face when he fights, it will swing around and batter the sides of his cheeks, sometimes it will even swing out and fall in uneven folds over the top of his head, but it doesn't matter, because as soon as he stops, the hair always settles perfectly where it was before. He wears a strip of cloth in his hair pulling back the smallest section back out of his face so that it never looks wild.

His eyes are the brightest blue, they have the ability to take one look at you and instantly make you want to look at respectable as possible. They can be cold as ice, or a soft as the morning sky lines of a new day. It's strange how it changes; strange how to most his eyes convey nothing, and even to me it's hard to read his expressions, but I usually can tell when he's displeased, when he's thinking, when he's concentrating hard, and when he's way ahead of the person speaking.

His mouth will quirk slightly when he's pleased and press into a thin line when he's trying to hold his patience. There are only three times he ever gives a full smile. It's either when he's very excited or pleased about something, when he's trying to make someone comfortable whilst interrogating them...and the third time is whenever he thinks I need a smile. It doesn't happen often and sometimes I wonder what prompts it, but he'll suddenly smile as though he's remembering something I said, or just noticing something I do all the time.

His lightsaber blade is green, and it comforts me when ever I see the glow out of the corner of my eye.

My master has so many little things about him that I could mention, and I'm trying my hardest to remember them all.

He's great friends with Mistress Tahl, she's a beautiful Noorian, with the brightest green-gold eyes, unfortunately she's blind and can't see out of them, but she takes it very well. Qui-Gon gets into fights with her sometimes, usually when he's being, 'Permcrete-headed' or he's acting like a 'Eri baby' or a 'mad Rhonto'. (incidentally this is only what Mistress Tahl says about him, I would never assess my master this way, but it seems to amuse him when Tahl does it).

My Master has a strange fondness for not eating. If we're on a mission, he'll be moving fifty kilometers a second, without rest or food, and seems to be forgetful about my presence. Sometimes he'll go like that for weeks, then suddenly look at me with this sort of confused look (about when I'm looking skinny as a Lagi-Crane) and quickly feed me. Tahl doesn't let me starve though, and she always has a few choice words for Qui-Gon if he let's me get underfed.

I'm taking a breather. So many little things...so many.

The fact that he always raises only half his mouth when he smiles.

The way he will land a strong hand on my shoulder before a lecture and will gently put both hands on my shoulders when he tells me I'm doing well. Or when he needs to reassure me the way he'll put one hand on my shoulder and give it the slightest squeeze.

How his stride is so much longer than mine and I had to quickly learn to keep up with it.

The funny way he enunciates the 'a n' in my name so it sounds more like 'on'.

How he always tells me to center on the now, but never gets impatient with my lack of obedience in that area.

Or the way he smells like cinnamon whenever I am really close. He smells like that because Tahl gave him some cinnamon candles and the spicy fragrance fills the place where Qui-Gon meditates. The scent always reminds me of him...and I'm sure it always will.

I remember the time he gave me my rock, it seems a part of him somehow. I can remember how I thought he'd forgotten my birthday, and how, when I didn't concentrate, he immediately knew why. I can still feel the gentle brush of his fingers against my palm as he laid the rock in my hand, and most of all that odd look he gave me when I told him the rock was Force-Sensitive.

I remember the time we stood against each other on Melida/Daan, it breaks my heart, but I still remember how fearful he'd seemed, how strangely uncharacteristic as he prepared to fight me...then the strange change in his eyes when I shut my lightsaber off and handed it over to him.

I remember the two of us in the cave on Bandomeer, I remember how he tried to keep me from giving myself for him and for the people of Bandomeer. I still don't know exactly what he did that day...what opened the door, but I had suddenly felt a strange expectance, as though part of his heart and mind had opened up to me.

There was a time when I confessed to him that I didn't like jumping into water from extreme heights, he had given me a rare smile and asked if that had anything to do with my experience on Bandomeer, and I had laughed and told him that might have had something to do with it, but that I had always had this certain fear. At this Qui-Gon immediately told me that fear was not something to hold against a small thing like jumping from a great height.

I laugh at the memory now but I never should have told him this while we were meditating at the top of the rock wall in the Room of A Thousand Fountains. He took one look at the depths below and before I could completely comprehend his move, he had pushed me over the edge... It terrified me at first, but I tried to get rid of my fear and I managed it just before I hit the water. I remember the feeling of my fear getting blasted away from me when I struck the clear water. I resurface with one cough but had gotten my breath more or less under control. Qui-Gon called down at me and asked how I felt. I broke down laughing and confided that it had worked.

It's moments like these, points in our lives when we just share something...a small something usually, but the times would come, and when they did I felt comfortable with myself. These are the things I know I'll miss, but these are the things I know I'll remember.

Well, duty calls, my master and I are starting on another mission. He's heading for the door to ask Jocasta Nu about a piece of information he needs.

"Obi-Wan." He addresses me. "Will you be ready?" I assure him I am ready. He smiles, then turns from the door and closes it behind him.

I hope I never forget my master...the smiles, the expressions, the lessons. I hope I never cease to recall the way he looks, the way he walks and moves, I hope I never fail to remember the feel of his hand the sound of his voice...or the cinnamon.

I love my Master and I never want to forget him...ever~~~

--Obi-Wan Kenobi, age 14--