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[neverjedi]

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[darkforcerising]

“Okat, I’ll ask an easy one,” Anakin said. His goal wasn’t to make this awkward.

“Why did you quit?”

[neverjedi]

He wasn't feeling terribly awkward, honestly, just slightly embarrassed. It was also far easier, clearly, for Anakin to be talking about Obi-Wan than talking about himself and that was...

That was okay.

"I still skate - but there is a reason that most skater's careers are finished before they're out of their very early twenties. I also never really liked performing."

He was even letting Anakin keep his phone.

[darkforcerising]

“What reason is that?” Anakin asked, because Obi-Wan still didn’t answer his question.

“I’ve never gone skating. Only watched the Olympics on tv.”

[neverjedi]

"The reason I quit competing was dislike of performance, primarily," he clarified. "The secondary reason and reason most people are done early is that it's high impact and competition requires a lot of practice and repetition."

Which tended to trash things you nominally needed like your spine, knees, and ankles.

"Do you want to go?" It was New York City. There were options.

[darkforcerising]

“Huh,” Anakin said. “Never thought about figure skating being that kind of sport.” But now that he thought about it, it made sense.

“Go skating? They have that very public rink at Rockefeller center, right?”

That was not a yes. And it wasn’t a no, either. He still had balance issues with normal things, he didn’t know if slapping blades on his feet and then getting on slippery ice for the first time in his life was a good idea in front of someone so skilled at it. It was shamelessly an ego thing.

[neverjedi]

"Most people don't consider it any kind of sport." He wasn't annoyed by that, much less Anakin having the sense to have thought about it and reassessed. Honestly, overall, the fact that people didn't amused him.

"There is." Emphasis on very public. "I tend to rent the ice at Aviator Sports Arena for a few hours a week, though if you want to join me. Less of the 'performance' aspect." He understood the concern though he had no idea how long it had been since Anakin had lost his arm. He'd noticed the avoidance of the stool at the bar, for instance, and that was a pretty big clue.

He wasn't going to push for a yes- but he wouldn't have offered if he thought it was insurmountable issue, though.

[darkforcerising]

“Aviator? Do they teach flying there, too?” Anakin smiled, very much amused.

Still not a yes or a no...

“Why did you join the FBI?” And that sure was a subject change.

[neverjedi]

"No, but they have their own restaurant," he said, also amused.

He let the lack of direct answer go. There were clearly nerves in play.

He laughed a little, quiet but warm. "I joined the FBI, because it was there and seemed like a good idea at the time. The only other serious contender at that point was the military and, no offense at all, that wasn't something I was particularly suited for."

[darkforcerising]

“Why do you say that?” But Anakin was smiling, and his next question revealed why. “Is it because you look better in a black suit than camo?”

[neverjedi]

He retrieved his phone and looked down at it, and began typing in google again. He did pause to look up. "No."

He actually was a little smirky about his non-answer.

[darkforcerising]

Anakin raised an eyebrow and took another drink from his bottle.

Was this suddenly a game?

“Ideological differences about standing armies and foreign relations?”

[neverjedi]

"That isn't a bad theory, actually, and there are elements of trust in how I feel about it today. Nearly ten years ago, the reason was much simpler."

It is a game, now, because if Anakin isn't going to tell him anything, but is going to push, he is at least going to have to work for it.

[darkforcerising]

Ten years before Anakin was sixteen, deep into his plan to join the Air Force and despite willing to enlist into the ideological quandary of America’s foreign policy l, he didn’t think about it like that.

But what was going on ten years before...

“You were inspired by President Obama’s campaign and thought ‘I want to take a bullet for that guy’?”

[neverjedi]

"Also not a horrible theory all things considered, but still no."

He finished with his phone and put it on the table, facedown and hands folded lightly over it.

"I'll give you a hint. It involves the process of being admitted to either, rather than ideology or action."

Actually he was giving Anakin one more guess and then frustration would lead to him either telling Anakin or moving the hell on.

[darkforcerising]

“Hmm...” and then he finally shook his head, I don’t know the process of joining the FBI, so I don’t have enough information to make a guess. I have to give up.”

[neverjedi]

" When did you stop doing motocross?"

He flashed a faint, but sincere smile. No malice, no sadism, but just a hint of something playfully bratty in his abrupt subject change.

[darkforcerising]

Turn about was fair play. “When I graduated high school.” And he figured he’d give just a little bit more information than that. “I was seventeen.”

[neverjedi]

"Did you enlist immediately after graduation?"

He figured turn about was fair play in a number of ways. Including trusting Anakin to tell him to piss off when he hit the wall.

[darkforcerising]

“Basically. Soon as the recruitment office was open the following Monday.” That was easy to explain. It didn’t hurt too much to explain that part.

“Shipped up to Colorado after my birthday.”

[neverjedi]

"Sounds like a long term goal."

Dammit, he didn't want to be being careful about this, but apparently even committed to being a brat he could not, at least a little.

[darkforcerising]

Anakin scoffed softly, and looked down at his bottle.

“It was.”

And that was a bit too close to the truth of things both glaringly obvious and yet not confirmed.

“So you skate, play chess - what else do you do?”

[neverjedi]

That was pretty close to confirmation, actually, and the looking down was also pretty close to confirmation of how new it was.

"Work, mostly." Those three things kept him pretty well occupied and entertained. "I didn't join the military because I couldn't pass the physical. Come skating with me, Anakin."

He would have left it, had Anakin given him a no.

But Anakin hadn't.

He'd just avoided.

[darkforcerising]

Anakin felt a version of that - he was discharged for lack of a whole physical body.

“Those bastards,” he said. His tone becoming more light again.

“Go skating? Right now?”

[neverjedi]

Anakin had felt a much more painful version of that.

"I was going to suggest Saturday morning, but if this is a strike while the iron is hot and before you can talk yourself out of it situation, yes. Right now."

[darkforcerising]

“Yes,” Anakin said. “We should go now. But not because I’ll talk myself out of it but because I have a short attention span and I can’t promise I won’t get distracted before then.”