Archive of Our Own ^beta

Cody knew something was wrong when he heard banging in the vents.

He was, unfortunately, aboard the Resolute, accompanying General Kenobi for a joint briefing with the 501st and General Skywalker. And a visit to the Resolute didn’t ever come without a host of disasters that Cody always got involved in—against his will.

A thud sounded above him, and he stopped mid-stride to give a long-suffering sigh. “I can hear you,” he said to the ceiling.

There was a muffled curse. Cody waited silently, and a few moments later a familiar blue and white head peeked out from a vent cover in the ceiling. “Hey, Cody,” Ahsoka said sheepishly. Her lekku drooped comically towards the ground, making Cody chuckle. “How’s the 212th?”

“Normal,” Cody said, looking at her pointedly. 

She laughed. “Where’s the fun in that? And I heard a funny story that Waxer and Boil stole some hair dye and–”

“Waxer and Boil are going to be on sanitation duty for the rest of their lives.” The corner of his mouth tugged up despite his best efforts. 

“Fair enough, Commander,” she replied, grinning. He gave her a sardonic salute before continuing his walk down the hallway.

“Then I guess you wouldn’t be interested in the little scheme we’ve cooked up for Rex.”

That made him pause. 

Cody did not want to get involved. He should not want to get involved. He should not get involved.

“What’s the plan?”

Everything went to hell when he saw General Kenobi.

“Cody,” the man greeted. “I’ve finished discussing with Anakin. We can return to the Negotiator if you’d like.”

“We can stay a bit longer, sir,” Cody said, desperately hoping for Obi-Wan not to see through him. “I know you wanted to see how Commander Tano was faring with jar’kai.” 

Obi-Wan only raised an eyebrow at him. Shab. “Am I to assume you have…other duties to attend to?” He lifted his eyes pointedly to the ceiling ducts. Right. The Force.

Ahsoka sighed so loudly he could hear it, peeking her head out from the vent cover once more. “Master Kenobi,” she said, “I’d be happy to run through my jar’kai forms with you in an hour. Right now, Cody and I have to, uh, meet with Rex.” 

Obi-Wan chuckled. “I see. Any chance you’ll also be ‘meeting with’ Anakin?”

“I wish,” Ahsoka said sourly. “But the Force would have ruined our plans.”

Obi-Wan stroked his beard, thinking. Scheming face, Cody thought dryly. “If I can ensure Anakin is properly distracted, would you two consider amending your plans to target him instead?”

“This was not my plan,” Cody interjected. 

Ahsoka swiveled her head towards him. “Then who came up with the idea to have R2 change the door code? Rex?” 

Obi-Wan laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. “No use denying it, Commander. You’re a willing participant.”

“Finally,” Ahsoka groused. “Only took months to get here.”

Cody glanced between the Commander and his General, both wearing face-splitting grins as they regarded him. A hand came to massage his temples, which only made their grins widen. Insufferable, the lot of them. 

“Fine,” he barked. “Let’s go for General Skywalker. I had a few ideas for us, anyway…”

Cody launched into his, admittedly, quite detailed plan. He’d get Rex one of these days, but the thought of disappointing Kenobi and passing up this opportunity were too much. Just last week General Skywalker had carried out a hare-brained scheme to take down an entire compound with only three troopers by his side. It had worked, somehow, but that was beside the point. 

Ahsoka looked unfairly delighted when he finished. “Sounds like you’ve thought this through, Commander.”

Cody grumbled something under his breath that he really hoped she could not hear. Obi-Wan clasped a hand to his shoulder. “We have our marching orders. Let’s move out.” His voice sounded serious, but his eyes were sparkling when he glanced towards Cody. Cody might have glared back, but there was such light in his General’s eyes as he looked between him and Ahsoka, a small smile gracing his lips—

Cody cut himself off, quickly turning down the hall toward his own task. Focus, soldier. 

He walked briskly down the halls, the layout so familiar it had becoming muscle memory to navigate them. It’d take him about six minutes at this pace to get down to the hangar bay, just enough time for Ahsoka to comm R2 and get to Rex. And hopefully enough time for whatever Obi-Wan had planned.

A few of the 501st saluted as he passed by, likely assuming he was off to official business of some sort. He really hoped word would not spread of his involvement in this. Clone gossip spread like wildfire, and Wooley would never take him seriously again if he caught wind of this. 

He reached the hangar bay, finding it blissfully empty of familiar faces, except—

Great.

Fives stood towards the center of the bay, barking orders at shinies as they lugged crates all across the space. He grinned when he saw Cody.

“Commander!” he greeted easily, jogging over to Cody. “What can I do for you, sir? I’m—other side, Crayg!” he turned away for a moment to shout at another trooper. “Sorry.”

“Looking for extra cans of paint, trooper,” Cody said, attempting to adopt his command tone.

It should have worked, but Fives narrowed his eyes at him. “Crayg’s got some right over there, sir, but can I ask why?”

“Paintball’s looking for some new colors for our gunship art,” Cody lied. Fives shrugged, walking over to Crayg’s crate and bringing out two cans of trademark 501st blue. “This enough, sir?”

“Looks good,” Cody said. He took the cans from Fives’ hand and made to leave. 

Beep. Beep. Fives’ comm was going off. 

“Fives here,” he answered. “What’ve you got, Commander?”

You doing anything important?

“Nearly done ordering these crates, sir,” Fives responded. “Why?”

Come down to the mess with Cody if you want a laugh. Ahsoka out. 

And with that, every ounce of Cody’s credibility went out the window. Fives rounded on him. “This feels like a prank coming on, sir,” he said, a wide grin coming over his face. “For the Captain or the General?”

Cody let out a long, long sigh. “General Skywalker.”

Fives laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. “Welcome to the club, Commander. We’re glad to have you.” He clipped his datapad to his belt. “Let’s get going.” 

Ahsoka waited for them in the mess, lekku twitching in amusement. Cody marched up to where she was perched on one of the tables and set down the paint cans with a thud. “I thought,” he said, “we were keeping this between us.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Ahsoka teased. “Besides, Fives is great at pranks.” Fives gave a mock salute. Cody chose not to respond.  

Ahsoka, damn her, was still twitching with amusement as she clapped her hands. “Okay! Cody and Fives, if you would put the paint cans over the mess hall door...”

She launched into an explanation of the configuration that Fives waved off halfway through, probably having done it before. He and Fives made quick work of the cans, and a good thing too. Just as Fives finished stashing away the cord, Cody’s comm gave three quick pulses. The signal. 

“Shh!” Ahsoka hissed. Cody and Fives sat down beside her on one of the mess hall tables. After a few moments, voices began filtering through even the heavy metal door of the mess hall—an argument, by the sounds of it. Cody resisted a chuckle building up in his throat. 

“I’ll have you remember that spinning—”

“Your flying theatrics were not the reason—” 

The Generals’ bickering grew steadily louder as they approached, and Cody had the feeling that General Kenobi did not have to act the part at all. He smiled. 

With that, the door to the mess swished open, General Skywalker strolling through with a snarky comment over his shoulder “—next time!”

He didn’t even have time to glance upward before one paint can splashed itself all over his clothing, and the second found a home on the top of his head. 

There was a beat of silence. Then:

“SNIPS!”

Skywalker was absolutely dripping with blue paint, from the hair to clothes to the soles of his shoes, leaving muddy blue footprints when he stepped back to round on Obi-Wan.

Fives had a hand clamped over his mouth, entire body shaking with laughter. Ahsoka had given up entirely on hiding her bouts of laughter, and the occasional snort emanated from where she had collapsed onto the table. 

Obi-Wan...he was laughing, too, and failing to hide it behind the hand in front of his face. Skywalker seemed torn between his Master and Padawan, eventually pointing a threatening finger at Obi-Wan before heading for Ahsoka. She squealed as he wrung some of the paint out of her hair to lob at her, narrowly dodging her Master’s efforts to splatter her. Fives had retreated to the other corner of the mess, hands curled protectively over his ARC armor. 

When Cody looked back to Obi-Wan, the man was looking right at him with joy and something softer, still laughing aloud.

Cody laughed, too.