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Anakin saw little of his Master over the next few days back on Coruscant. Obi-Wan had been eager to begin work on his blade, but he was repeatedly called away as a consultant in strategic planning sessions at the Republic's gleaming new military operations building located a few miles south of the Jedi Temple.
When he did see Obi-Wan, usually over meals, his Master looked weary and worried, but seldom divulged what knowledge he had gained from the meetings.
The increasingly focused tone of Obi-Wan and his other Masters had just the opposite effect on Anakin, he stopped worrying so much about the construction of his lightsaber, and begun sneaking out to see Padme more and more.
As the days stretched into a few weeks, Anakin spent less and less time in his own quarters, and his half-finished lightsaber hilt gathered a fine layer of dust atop it - the cleaning droids were programmed not to touch the Jedi weapons, lest there be an accident.
One morning, Anakin returned from a night at Padme's where he had held her close in the moonlight as she fretted over the rumors of Confederate troops massing less than a parsec from her home system. Naboo had begun a military build-up after its nightmarish enslavement at the hands of the Trade Federation, but even a dozen years later, its forces were woefully incomplete next to a full-scale army.
He had killed the lights in his quarters and lay down on his bunk to get a few hours sleep when the door chimed and slid open to reveal Obi-Wan, fully dressed in his Jedi robes, a poorly-hidden look of frustration on his face.
"You're still asleep? Did you not get my message yesterday evening?"
Anakin jolted up, pressing his wrinkled tunic down as his mind raced.
"I ... I'm sorry, Master, I felt ill yesterday after dinner and went to bed early, I have been asleep since."
Obi-Wan appraised Anakin up and down, finding it odd that his Padawan would still be completely dressed if he had come here seeking rest more than 12 hours ago.
"Are you better now?"
"Yes, yes, Master, thank you. But you look upset, Master, what is it?"
"Bureaucratic nonsense. Palpatine is courting an Outer Rim supplier of durasteel today, and the corporate president is apparently the great-nephew of a Jedi Knight. He told Palpatine he wished a tour of the Temple and to meet some of our order to convince him the ideals of his great uncle's generation are still those of the Republic."
Anakin's face screwed up at the mention of an unknown civillain inside the Temple.
"Master, civillains aren't allowed inside the Temple! If word gets out that this person has received a tour, we'll have those Holonet News droids beating down the door again."
Obi-Wan nodded, "I made the same argument to Master Windu when he told me of it yesterday, but then he showed me the list of resources that President Nupro has to offer, and it's hard to argue that an hour inside the Temple is worth more than that kind of relief to our own strained factories."
Anakin had no argument, he had visited one such mech factory with Padme during the early days of the Wars, and had been horrified by the conditions that both sentient beings and droids were working. As one who grew up treating droids as equals, Anakin believed the idea of working them non-stop until they short-circuited was a despicable act.
Obi-Wan continued.
"Master Windu has asked that the two of us accompany him on the tour, Nupro is a bit of a Jedi history buff, and knows both of our names from Geonosis and Naboo. Master Windu suggested we test our new blades in a sparring match to showcase the 'Jedi prowess' to Nupro."
Anakin had mostly been nodding along with the boring idea of acting as a glorified tour guide for some star-struck Outlander, but his nerves jangled when Obi-Wan mentioned the lightsaber. Anakin's glance toward his workbench was one of guilt, where the blade lay in three pieces, the gem still not completely cut from its rocky prison.
He glanced back at Obi-Wan, and noted that both the hilt on his Master's belt was new and polished. Clearly, Master Kenobi's exhaustion from long days discussing plans of war had not prevented him from completing the task laid out for him by Master Yoda.
By the time he returned eye contact to Obi-Wan, he was filled with shame to see Kenobi staring directly at the incomplete saber on the bench, his eyes widening in surprise, then narrowing in a mixture of sadness and anger.
"Master, I ...." was all Anakin got out before Obi-Wan cut him off. Obi-Wan strode to the table and lifted a piece of Anakin's incomplete blade, turning it over in his hand.
"Anakin, this isn't even halfway finished. What have you been doing all this time?"
Knowing that telling the truth would doom both his future as a Jedi and perhaps Padme's as a Senator, Anakin was frantic for an answer. Then, his mind seemed to cool, slowly, and an answer, a lie, but an answer nonetheless, formed within him.
"I ... I had hoped we could work on them together, as we did when I was a boy, Master. It's been so long since I made my first, I was hoping perhaps you could advise me on some of its finer points."
Anakin said this with a touch of the innocent boy he had been during their early years together that Obi-Wan's frustration slowly melted.
"Very well, but Master Yoda will be most displeased if he sees you bladeless." Obi-Wan hesitated. "Here, take mine, I will tell him I have been too consumed with the intelligence sessions to finish mine in time. I will start fitting in time for our lessons at night, so you can keep up with your training. Don't feel bad about your saber, Anakin, they are not built easily."
He handed his new saber to Anakin, who took it wordlessly.
But instead of relief, feelings of resentment flooded him. Don't feel bad? Not easily built? He had said the lie to get out of a potentially-nightmarish explanation, but here was Master Obi-Wan, treating him like a boy again, like Anakin the Padawan who was too old to be trained, who was only on Coruscant in the first place because Qui-Gon Jinn loved a lost cause.
He managed to quell his anger deep inside, keeping his face neutral and walking a step behind Obi-Wan as they headed for the training facility.
