Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wolffe looked around at his batch mates, his oldest vode and again marveled a bit that they had all come out of the war in one piece. Sure, Cody had his scar, Colt was down a kidney, and, most tragically, Fox had lost his sense of humor, not to mention Wolffe’s own eye… but they were still here, a complete batch — which was so rare for the clones who had served through the entirety of the war. At least the youngest clones wouldn’t ever have to know the pain of losing their batchers to the droids, he mused while attempting to put his thoughts into words before he caught the attention of the other three and raised his glass.

“To batch 310, the pride and joy of Alpha-17, the scourge of droids across the galaxy, and apparently beloved of foolish Jedi. May we always stay handsome, and strike fear into shinies. Oya!” Wolffe toasted before taking a swig of his vodka. 

“Oya!” Echoed his vode as they drank as well. 

All four clones were all tucked into a back booth in a bar hidden deep in the underlevels of Coruscant (somewhere not many clones frequented) that had only been found due to Fox’s extensive knowledge of the place he had spent the entire war protecting. Normally, they would have stayed close to home and gone drinking at one of the many bars that catered to clones and Jedi that had popped up, post-war, near the Temple. But today they hadn’t wanted to deal with shinies, or even worse — any of the star struck civies who frequented those close-to-home bars, hoping to get a selfie with their favorite war heroes. While Fox and Colt could blend in with the greater GAR and were unlikely to be bothered, Wolffe’s and Cody’s facial scarring made them distinctive enough for even the civies to pick out. 

Ultimately, they had wanted privacy for today’s celebration. Being among relaxing brothers and Jedi without the threat of being deployed or shot at was always nice, but today was one of the rare times that they needed space. After all, Cody was the last of their batch to settle down, and wouldn't be able to fully unwind if he knew shinies or Jedi were watching. Even though all four of them were rarely on Coruscant together, the end of his pining was worth the nightmare of coordinating time together in person. 

Colt, at least, was always here though he was usually busy with his duty to the crèche of tubies and initiates but Wolffe, Fox, and Cody were still often scattered across the galaxy: now due to their positions with the Reconstruction Corps rather than the War. Fox in particular rarely came back to Coruscant, claiming he had earned a change of scenery after spending just about the whole entire war “on this cursed, lifeless planet.” 

Today wasn’t quite a bachelor party, as Cody and Obi-Wan weren’t exactly exchanging vows, but it was close enough for them. Tomorrow Obi-Wan was officially taking on his new Padawan, and together, Cody and Obi-Wan would finally start raising warriors. Wolffe personally thought that Cody and Obi-Wan’s guidance of the thousands of shinies who came up in the Open Circle Fleet under their command counted as “raising warriors,” but both men insisted that since that was before their relationship officially started, that it didn’t count. Especially given that the shinies were all full-grown in body, (if not in mind) and considered adults by most sentients based on that alone. Regardless of their official relationship status, at that point in the War Obi-Wan had already been wearing vambraces specifically decorated and given to him by Cody, so Wolffe could be forgiven for thinking they were together. 

“To our newest buir! May his ad be as much trouble as he was!” Added Colt, cursing Cody with a grin. His smile grew in size as he recalled, “Remember when Cody and I used to swap places on Alpha?”

Fox snorted, “I thought you were going to give him an aneurysm when he realized Cody’s hand-to-hand scores were so high because for months he had been taking your practice slots while you pulled double shifts in demolitions training.”

Colt shrugged, unrepentant about the chaos they had caused. 

“I maintain that hand-to-hand is much more useful than demolitions!” Cody said loudly over the snickers of his vode, clearly already feeling the shots they had made him take as soon as they arrived at the bar, “you always have your body! It's your weapon of last resort! Demolition training is only useful until you run out of grenades!” 

Colt jumped in with his well practiced response to the familiar argument, “If you have to punch a droid you’ve already lost the battle. Good placement of your demolitions will make hand-to-hand unnecessary.”

Fox rolled his eyes and cut off Cody’s response with a terse “yes yes, we’ve all seen the footage of you punching droids Cody. It can be very effective, but only those of us with reinforced armor could actually pull it off, and most members of the GAR did not have that. And yes Colt, before you get too excited, your demolitions were very effective in protecting Kamino when it was invaded…  but, if you’d punched Ventress sooner, maybe you’d still have your kidney.”

Colt and Cody both clutched their hearts in tandem and said on cue “Fox, you wound me.” They then looked at one another in surprise at syncing up before giving the other a crisp nod then simultaneously chose to continue their dramatics; swooning and feigning a critical wound at his sharp words. 

Wolffe couldn’t hold back his snicker at their practiced act, while Fox scoffed and refilled everyone’s vodka. 

As soon as they all had full cups, Colt and Cody miraculously recovered from their injuries and came back to life, hands reaching for their glass. They all took a moment to sip at their drinks, before Wolffe couldn’t help stirring the pot again. “Speaking of youthful idiotic decisions… Remind me how you got your scar Cody?”

Cody flushed and pressed his lips together tightly, shaking his head in embarrassment. 

“Because I think I remember you got it while getting a concussion during the first battle of Geonosis” Wolff paused here dramatically for effect before continuing “...after you ran headfirst into some droidekas, trying to headbut them?” Wolffe asked smugly. 

“How was I supposed to know the standard plastoid would shatter like that on contact? It seemed sturdy enough in training.” Cody said sulkily after taking another sip of vodka, clearly resigning himself to the inevitable teasing.

Colt snickered, and couldn’t help saying “I told you so! Distance over close quarters!”

“At least chasing his general around knocked some sense into his thick head.” Fox grumbled. “Both of them couldn’t be reckless idiots, or the entire Open-Circle fleet would have fallen apart.”

“We all know you’re intimately familiar with that dynamic in your relationship.” Colt said, with some humor in his voice as he teasingly asked, “But who is the reckless idiot, you or Quinlan?” 

It was Fox’s turn to flush as he cleared his throat and glared at Colt. “You know we aren’t in a relationship, we merely have an exclusive sexual arrangement.” His grin then turned wicked and he focused entirely on Colt as he continued, “do you want me to describe it to you? How his big, fat co—”

Something uncomfortable squirmed in Wolffe’s stomach at the words before Fox was cut off by Cody’s hand snapping up and covering his mouth. “Friendly fire vod! Don’t forget that Colt isn’t the only one at this table who is sex-repulsed when you blast back,” Cody said, nodding at where Wolffe had unconsciously leaned away from Fox and the table. He gave Fox’s head a shake and added “also, I do not want to hear about my vod’s sex life. Tease him about that time on Yavin IV instead.” Fox glowered at Cody from behind the hand, and Cody squeezed a bit tighter to get the reminder across, jerking his head at how Wolffe had pulled away from the table. 

“I don’t want to know about any clothes off nonsense and I spend too much time with you and Quinlan on assignment to listen to this.” Wolffe agreed sharply, before he relaxed his tense shoulders and leaned back in once Fox looked away. He shot a thankful look to Cody, who despite being the only person at the table who wasn’t ace or aromantic, was often the most respectful of their preferences.  

Fox looked resigned then licked across his vod’s palm to get him to let go. “Ah right, sorry Wolffe,” he said as soon as he could speak again; his tone was apologetic so Wolffe waved him off. 

"But fair's fair!" Fox said, pointing a threatening-looking finger at Colt who did his best to look innocent, despite no accusations having been levied yet. "If I can't talk about doing the horizontal Alderaanian mambo with Quinlan, then Colt can't wax romantic about Shaak."

“Seconded” Wolffe gave a firm nod and gestured with his thumb at his batchmate without looking, “Weirdly enough, I agree with Fox.” He then briefly turned his head to look at the former Guardsman. “Don’t let it go to your head, vod.” He then turned back to Cody and Colt to gesture emphatically, “The only romance talk tonight allowed is either gotta be from Cody or about Cody. No other relationship talk allowed! We’re here tonight to celebrate and mock him being a newlywed, not talk about either of you agony aunts or your problems.”

When Colt startled to bristle, Fox took over from Wolffe. “We all know you and Shaak have been in a romantic relationship since the first week of your posting at Kamino, we’ve all listened to enough of your thoughts on her kindness and her amazing skills as a buir.” He gestured to the table as Wolffe nodded as authoritatively as seven shots of vodka would allow while Cody looked to be deliberating between supporting his vod’e and jumping over the booth to escape. “You’ve exchanged armor, been together wherever you are, followed your Alor, and raised warriors. You’re riduur already! WE GET IT. We’re happy for you but I don’t want to hear any more about it! It’s like me telling you about Guard rotations in the Senate - you understand the concept and why it could be important but it doesn’t apply to your duties and so you don’t care. AND NEITHER DO I! Since you’ve both raised about a million tubies and jedi younglings together, the only part of Kamino down time that you can mention is parenting advice! Buir advice only!” Both Fox and Wolffe stared Colt down until he cowed, yet another win for his menacing facial scar and Fox’s dead inside stare. 

“I understand,” Colt muttered, “I’ll have to ambush Ponds, Blitz and Havok later. Just gotta talk to other vode who do appreciate Shaak’s finer qualities.” He waited until Fox and Wolffe nodded at his offering before he turned his focus on Cody, changing the topic. “Are you and Obi ready to spend the next few months on Coruscant bonding with your padawan?”

Cody hummed in thought, looking at his drink for a beat before he slowly answered, “Yeah, it was time for us to take a break. Between the war and then jumping right into the Reconstruction Corps after that debacle with the battle for Coruscant, Obi and I really haven’t had a chance to breathe for the past few years. It was fulfilling to fix things instead of breaking them, and making new memories on planets that saw the worst of the War was worth it.” Cody took a deep breath, before looking up at his vode, “but I’m tired. I’m looking forward to not breaking atmo and staying on one planet for at least six months straight. But at the same time, I’m afraid that without us, the whole delicate balancing act will fall apart. We only just got some of the Seperatist planets to let us in to help and what if they change their minds?”

Wolffe was surprised by the candor from his vod, normally Colt was the only one happy to talk about his feelings while none of them liked to admit to a weakness such as being tired. But when he looked closer at Cody and saw the new lines in his face, grief and the pressure of command having left their mark, their collective weight seemed to have rested heavily on him. Wolffe had almost forgotten the additional pressure Cody had been under as a Marshall Commander. After all, all of them had the responsibility of command during the war, but only Cody had been second to a High General and been responsible for nearly a third of the entire army. Sometimes it had seemed like Cody was second in name only considering how often he had been left holding in the reigns while the Chancellor sent Obi-Wan on one suicide mission after another.  

…Maybe he could see how Cody and Obi didn’t have time for an official relationship until the War was over. 

Fox reached out and put a comforting hand on Cody’s shoulder, “Of course you are. Going straight from leading the War to leading the Reconstruction. But we’re here and can help bear the burden now.” 

“We aren’t at war anymore, and all of the actual emergencies have been handled. The galaxy won’t fall apart if you take a second for yourself. Let the Master of the Order and Ponds deal with any nonsense that pops up.” Colt scooted around the booth to snuggle up to Cody’s other side, “Come spend more time in the crèche vod, I will always make room in the schedule for you to cover story time. Nothing makes you feel hope like watching the tubies grow at the standard rate.”

“Nothing makes you feel older you mean,” Wolffe scoffed as he leaned across the table to take Cody’s hand and squeeze it gently to offer wordless comfort for a few moments before letting go. “Gonna go get a refill.” He said, standing up and heading back to the bar. He ordered a bottle of tequila, as well as some mozzarella sticks and jalapeno poppers — everything would be better with some fried cheese — and an order of deep fried pickles, an order of the loaded potato skins, and an order of the Focaccia Rosemary pull-apart bread with garlic butter to help soak up the alcohol.

When Wolffe got back to the table, Cody had finished the bottle of vodka, Fox was looking like he was regretting his life choices while Colt was clearly egging the vod-of-the-hour on. He sat just in time to hear Fox mutter “Kote is lucky I love him enough to listen to this.” while Cody drunkly rambled about his love for Obi-Wan and his assets “… and have you seen how strong he is? His thighs are so strong and powerful, it’s because he used to study Ataru, all those jumps and flips require massive thighs. Despite it not being his favored form, he kept up the practice so as to remember his Master and to teach his future students. He’s so sweet! Yesterday he was helping this little Zabrak initiate with a handstand and I swear it was the prettiest thing I have ever seen! His smile could’ve just lit up the whole room. I knew, I just knew , I would do anything to keep it on his face and I wanted to… just shower him with tea, and weird animals for him to befriend, and those odd meditation rocks he likes. He’s just the best! Even if he never let me kiss him again, I’d die happy from how he lets me hold him… and if I give him a tight enough hug, I can feel how strong his muscles are under all those layers. And how he fills out his leggings! God, he can make even the most frumpy of Jedi robes look sexy.” 

Fox gave a relieved “Oya!” when Wolffe interrupted Cody’s drunken romantic ramblings and poured several rounds of the clear liquor out as shots for the table. “Come on, let’s get this party started.” 

“If one bottle is finished, isn’t it already started?” Colt muttered but when Wolffe guestured as though to take away his glass, he mimed zipping up his lips and throwing away the key. They all reached out and took the shots, throwing them back together. 

“Kark!” Exclaimed Cody, “I thought we were drinking vodka?” 

Fox had lit up at the taste of the tequila and he high-fived Wolffe as he loudly said: “It’s time to get Cody nat-born wasted!” 

The rest of the afternoon turned into a blur as they finished the bottle of tequila, plus a few more once they started breaking into the fried cheese and other goodies. Wolffe was feeling flushed and happy, he always forgot how good it was to spend time with his closest vode as a group rather than as co-workers. Working with Fox one-on-one wasn’t nearly as fun as drinking with him was. He did tune out Cody’s extended rant about how much he loved his riduur, really it was all things Cody had already said in their group chat countless times and it was rapidly becoming about the sort of stuff that he was uninterested and a little uncomfortable with hearing.

But it was his vod’s special day so he didn’t interrupt. Cody was accommodating and respectful of his leanings 99% of the time, he would let this moment slide. After all, it was just a sign of how happy Obi-Wan made Cody — and sure his brain wasn’t wired to get all that sexual or romantic mushy stuff, but Cody’s happiness he could get behind.   

Though on the other hand, it had been a 30 minute rant… Maybe a distraction was in order? Just a bit of a break from all the messy bits, Wolffe justified to himself, in the name of self-preservation and rescuing Fox who looked about ready to crawl under the table.

He was a giving vod, what could he say? 

Wolffe clapping his hands together was enough to catch the attention of the whole table and, upon gesturing to the dart boards, was met with enthusiastic agreement. Cody almost always won when they played darts, his use of dual blasters translating well to the game, but he was so drunk that he lost soundly. Wolffe didn’t care who won (it was Fox, which surprised everyone — maybe he was spending too much time undercover on missions with Quinlan), but it was worth it to hear Cody complain for the rest of their outing together instead of rambling about his dearest love and his incredible thighs. Did that make him a bad vod? It was in the preservation of his sanity so Wolffe would argue that was just good tactics… In any case, Wolffe was going to hold this loss over his head forever. 

Eventually it was getting close to dinner, and time to head back to the temple. Not a moment too soon really given that Cody had started crying about how ready he was to be a buir. A buir with Obi-Wan. Which then set Colt off as he reminisced about his favorite younglings who had aged out of the crèche and were now Junior Padawans or Junior Corps-Sentients. 

“You only get such a limited time with them Cody.” Colt said between wet sounding breaths, “you have to make it count. Before you know it they’ll be all grown and moved out.” 

“I’m gonna love them so hard!” Cody promised. “Just you wait, they’ll be the best Padawan ever.You’ll be so proud! And all the little tubies and initiates will look up to them ” He had slumped over the table, “Obi is going to be such a good buir. He could do it all on his own, he has before. But this time,” Cody’s voice got shaky, “he decided to be a buir with me. ” 

Colt pulled him up off the table and into a hug. “I know vod. You’re the exact type of buir I want for all our younglings. You and Obi will raise the fiercest of warriors. You just gotta promise to make sure and bring them by to say hi when you’re back at the Temple.”

Fox wasn’t crying, and he pulled a face at the sight of Colt and Cody crying into each other's shoulders, but he still did a vod’s duty and put a comforting hand on their backs, tapping them every so often while looking baffled. 

It was beyond time to leave if two of them were crying and the other was looking so uncomfortable he was liable to start a fight in order to escape. As the most sober member of the group, Wolffe took the lead on calling the taxi and shuffling them all into its seats. He stuffed Fox, Cody and Colt into the backseat together where the moving speeder quickly lulled them to sleep. Both Cody and Colt (as they got all the touchy-feely genes in their batch) were curled up together in the back, and Woffle couldn’t help the fondness he felt at seeing how relaxed they were with each other. Fox, on the other hand, leaned away from the cuddly pair while sleeping off his intoxication  pressed face first against the window, leaving a streak of drool behind. It was in that moment that Wolffe decided to tip extra - both for doing them a solid and picking up very intoxicated passengers, for picking up clones without snide comment, and for the mess.

By the time they had returned to the temple, they were mostly sober — the nap combined with their enhanced metabolism quickly purging the alcohol from their system. It was handy to burn through potential poisons quickly, but meant they had to consume terrifying amounts of alcohol to maintain any level of buzz (being truly nat-born wasted was a far-off impossible dream). They met for one more group hug on the stairs before heading their separate ways in the Temple and to their respective Jedi. 

Chapter Text

Colt immediately headed back to his quarters, the dinner he had prepped in the crock-pot should be just about finished. Which was good because metabolizing all that alcohol took a lot of calories and all that bar food seemed so long ago now. Sure, tiingilar was supposed to take a lot of focus while cooking slowly over the stove, but Colt thought his crock-pot version smelled (and tasted) just as good for a fraction of the effort. Any differences were outweighed by the sheer convenience of tossing everything in a pot and walking away to let it cook for 6 hours without any need to supervise.

And it tasted delicious so who cared? 

Shaak was already in their quarters, in her cozy robes and focused on her current crochet project on the couch. Colt felt his heart skip a beat as he looked at his riduur: he loved getting to see the relaxed side of her that most others would never see or know. 

She finished her row, counting each stitch carefully under her breath, before she looked up at him with a soft smile. “Just in time honey, I was going to start eating dinner without you if you took much longer.” Shaak said teasingly as she got to her feet and sauntered closer. 

Colt laughed, “With the way it smells in here, I wouldn’t blame you.” Then he held out a hand, and pulled her into a tight embrace. Even without taking into account her montrals, she was quite a bit taller than him, so she had to lean down to press a firm but chaste kiss to his lips. “Come on, let's eat and you can tell me all about your day with the younglings.” Colt said. 

They slowly separated, then dished out their tiingilar and enjoyed it together on their couch as Shaak filled him in on what he had missed in the crèche today. As ever, the tubies and younglings were full of chaos, and their older vode along with the Jedi Initiates were happy to enable some of their more hair brained schemes. 

“Today,” Shaak sighed, “I was barely able to stop the Akul clan from taking an extended trip through the underwater tunnels and pools in the room of a thousand fountains. Apparently they’ve been spending a lot of time with the aquatic Narkaa clan and wanted to see where they did their meditation practice. Where they got enough youngling sized A99 aquatic breathers for all of them I’ll never know… At least I caught them before they jumped in.” 

Colt couldn’t help laughing at his riduur’s plight, Akul clan was sweet but also had some of the crèche’s worst troublemakers. Like many of the Temple clans with galactic standard sentients, they were made up of half clones, and half Jedi younglings, and they certainly brought out the creativity in each other. “I’m glad you didn’t have to jump in after them.” He said.

“They were very unhappy to have their self-planned field trip cut short.” Shaak continued, “Little Gizmo spent the entire walk back giving me a persuasive speech on why it wasn’t fair that Narkaa clan got to spend so much time ‘having fun swimming’ while Akul clan had to make do with their meditation on ‘boring old land.’ I honestly started to feel bad for stopping their excursion considering how much they had planned it out, but in no way were they ready to use the rebreathers without proper training and supervision.” 

Colt finished his mouthful of tiinglar, then said, “He does have a point, Narkaa and the other aquatic clans don’t have any clones in them. It’d probably be good to encourage them to spend more time together. Plus, swimming is a very important skill.” He then leaned over and grabbed the datapad with the master curriculum and schedule for the crèche on it. He turned it on and scrolled through it for a moment. “What if we put swimming and rebreather practice in their Zhellday afternoon physical activity slot for a few weeks?” 

Shaak lit up, “Oh yes that is a good idea.” She leaned over and annotated the curriculum, “Let's say six weeks of lessons for everyone? Then we can add swimming as a standard activity option for their free play block on Benduday.”

“Exactly what I was thinking darling!” Colt said, leaning over to press a kiss to her cheek to express his delight. 

“And the aquatic clans almost always are swimming at that time on Benduday, so it’d give them more time to mingle and play together.” Shaak added, making a permanent change to the schedules. “It should help those younglings feel included but it should also help another long-time issue we’ve faced for centuries. I recall Master Fisto saying that it sometimes felt very isolating having to be underwater while the majority of the crèche couldn’t be so if any of the aquatic clans are feeling the same, this will also help them feel part of their community rather than outsiders.” As Shaak spoke and made her annotations, Colt composed a quick note explaining the changes and their reasoning to send out to the other crèche masters.  

After dinner and their impromptu curriculum changes, Shaak washed the dishes — it was her turn since Colt had prepared the meal — while Colt took a quick shower to wash the smell of the bar off. They reconvened on the couch, each stretched out on either end with their legs tangling together in the middle. Given that their couch was on the smaller side, the end result was that Shaak’s feet were in his lap as their knees and below curled around and on top of each other. Colt’s favorite part of sitting like this was that it also let the tips of Shaak’s montrals trace circles on whichever of Colt’s knees were closest to her. Colt felt some part of him finally relax as they settled into their spots, the casual intimacy making his heart feel full in a way only Shaak seemed to inspire. They both pulled out their current crochet projects, and Colt put on the most recent episode of Bar Rescue to provide background noise while they worked . 

Colt loved the process of crochet, the bright colors, the soft yarn, and most of all — seeing the way that his loose thread transformed into something solid under his hands. Shaak had introduced him to the craft during their downtime while they were on Kamino, and over the years he had made many pieces for his vode to wear under their armor. Now, they both focused on making pieces for the crèche; creating soft hats and blankets and stuffed animals for all of the younglings. The Jedi younglings could feel the force echoes of the love they put into their creations, and the tubies reveled in the soft and cozy feel of them.  

He relaxed into the soothing process of counting his stitches, and the soft press of Shaak’s legs against his. He was home, warm and cozy, with the love of his life, working together to raise the young of their people. It was all he could have ever wanted in his life. 

Chapter Text

Fox and Cody walked to the cafeteria together, but while Cody collected enough food for two and took it to-go, Fox stayed and ate at one of the many tables scattered around the room. He could have taken the food back to his quarters, but then he would have had to clean the dishes before returning them and in all honesty he hated dishes. 

It was maybe a little silly, but frankly he hadn’t spent the entire war locked in a psychological battle with the Sith Lord to do his own dishes after he won. It was a chore he hated and as a free man, one he’d gladly pawn off on someone else. He did return his dishes to the back of the cafeteria though, he wasn’t heartless or worse, a slob . 

Instead of heading to his quarters after, he instead went directly to Quinlan’s. He had figured they would meet up tonight after their batch night, but the eggplant and peach emojis Quinlan had sent to his comm a few minutes ago had sealed the deal. 

The two of them had been close for years, ever since the first time the Coruscant Guard had accidentally arrested the Jedi while he was undercover (though was it an accident if he deserved it based on his cover’s actions?). He had revealed his status to them, but needed to hang out at the station until a normal release time to protect his cover. Fox had begrudgingly let Quinlan nap in his office while he filled out Palpatine’s paperwork, which Quinlan had taken as a general invitation for all future times he found himself hanging around the station. 

From then on it seemed like Quinlan enjoyed provoking some unsuspecting Guard into arresting him, so he could then bother Fox, pass on some new found intel, and then nap on his couch. After a few months of that, Fox had snapped at Quinlan to “pull his weight if he was going to spend so much time taking up Guard resources or at least compensate them” and they ended up with a much more mutually beneficial method of stress relief than Quinlan napping while Fox worked. 

After the war was over, it simply continued. Instead of meeting in Fox’s office, they took turns visiting each other’s quarters. Neither of them had any interest in a romantic relationship, but having a steady lay — who knew their preferences in bed, and was guaranteed to be clean — was exactly what they both wanted. 

Fox approached Quin’s door, and punched his code, stepping inside and immediately began removing his outer layers and shoes. “Honey, I’m home!”, he teasingly called out while hanging up his coat and hat. 

“In here! Been waiting for you…” Quin answered from his bedroom, tone jokingly sweet. 

Fox quickly headed to the bedroom, and he felt a flare of desire at the sight of Quinlan lounging on his bed in nothing but a pair of dark briefs and a dirty smirk. 

“Took you long enough, I’ve been waiting for you since Obi’s party finished up.” Quinlan said as he moved to sit at the edge of the bed, spreading his legs wide in a silent invitation.  

Fox grumbled dramatically at his impatience, then walked into the v of Quinlan’s spread legs to grab the Jedi and pull him into a dirty kiss. “Don’t worry, I’m worth the wait.” He said cockily after breaking the kiss so he could lean back a bit and pull off his shirt. 

Quinlan’s eyes were dark with desire as he looked at Fox’s torso, and he couldn’t help reaching out to trace the revealed skin. “I’ll be the judge of that” he said, pulling Fox close again and kissing under his jaw.

A few hours later, Fox happily left Quin snoozing in his bed and headed the short distance to his quarters and his own bed. He hadn’t spent the entire war locked in a psychological battle with the Sith Lord to put up with anyone stealing his covers either.

Chapter Text

Cody swung through the cafeteria to pick up a collection of Obi-Wan’s favorite dishes before heading back to their rooms. Inside the space was full of greenery and light, everything they hadn’t been able to have on the Negotiator, and the cream coloured walls couldn’t be more different from the lifeless gray-white of the Destroyer’s hallways. 

Cody loved that he had been able to slot into Obi-Wan’s life, filling spaces Obi-Wan had left open for him — without making the man he loved give up the routine he found comfort in. Together they had filled the rooms Obi had been living in since his padawanship, Cody adding his own touches — the blaster care kit, his collection of holo-novels, the art he had accumulated on their Reconstruction Corps trips — but still kept the core of the rooms the same. In short, it had quickly become their home. 

In many ways their lives hadn’t changed much from when they worked together, Obi-Wan still made tea for them both each morning, Cody reminding him that it was time for dinner, but their love was more overt now given that they no longer needed to worry about conflict of interest in their chain of command. It was spoken into existence each day and every hour, instead of being kept close to their hearts and guarded silently. 

He quickly washed the remnants of his tears off his face and then changed his shirt before making his way to the kitchen. Cody couldn’t help but hum happily as he set the table for dinner, they had each spent the day with their family as they celebrated the next step in their relationship, and Bant was due to return with Obi-Wan shortly. Cody had just finished placing the food in the center of the table when the door opened and Obi-Wan and Bant stumbled in. Both had huge grins stretching their faces wide, and both were obviously fairly tipsy as they wobbled in the entryway. 

“Cody! My love, that smells absolutely divine.” Obi-Wan said loudly as he finally managed to wiggle free of his boots and walked towards the table. 

Bant laughed from the entryway, “Enjoy your dinner; I’ll see you tomorrow for the welcome lunch.” Obi-Wan made a dismayed sound that vaguely resembled her name and quickly lurched back to give her a tight hug before she headed out. 

“She’s the best,” Obi-Wan announced solemnly as he stared at the closed door, “just the best. Best Bant.”

Cody smiled fondly as he gently redirected Obi-Wan back to the kitchen and poured some water for both of them, “I got your favorites from the dining hall cyare. Come let's enjoy it while it's all still hot.” 

As they ate and talked about their respective parties, Obi-Wan slowly sobered up, using the force to speed up the process a bit to avoid having a hangover for his big day tomorrow. 

Apparently Bant, Quinlan and Luminara had planned a day of fun, reminiscent of their own years as Padawans, to celebrate with Obi-Wan. “The best bit,” said Obi-Wan “was when we hiked to the top of the temple to practice our force jumps. I haven’t done that for fun in years.” He smiled fondly at the memory. “As Padawans we’d often sneak up there to practice jumping off the building and slowing our falls. It was so exhilarating.” 

Cody shuddered, remembering the stories Rex would tell of being thrown off all sorts of tall places during the war by either Anakin or Ahsoka. “I think I get enough of heights with my jetpack.” He said. 

Obi-Wan laughed brightly, “The view from the top of the temple is truly stunning. Next time I’ll take you.” He grew serious for a second, “Actually, we’ll probably want to make a day of it with our Padawan before they decide to try it with their friends. It's always best to have a Master with them for the first time when doing controlled free-falls. But, you can of course wear your jetpack if you want.”

“No.” Cody said, putting his hand over Obi-Wan’s. “I trust you’d never let me fall… and trust you’d always catch me before I hit the ground.” 

Obi-Wan simply smiled, a slight blush dusting his cheeks.

After dinner, Obi-Wan got up and pulled a surprise out of the freezer, Cody’s favorite specialty ice cream. They enjoyed it together, slowly savoring the bright taste of Mirialan cherries and the rich contrast of the dark chocolate chunks mixed together in a tasty thick vanilla cream. 

Once they finished the surprise dessert and cleaned up the dishes together, the pair took a moment to just be in one another’s space, their arms coming up to hang loosely from the other’s waist. After their moment's reprieve, they then took stock of the Padawan room, standing in the doorway and looking at what they had spent the last few days cleaning and organizing. “Anything else we need?” Cody questioned. 

“We won’t know what's missing until they move in and we see what they already have,” Obi-Wan assessed the room, “I truly don’t think any more pillows could fit on the bed. And the desk is all clean and cleared of grease and assorted droid bits, so we should be good.” 

Cody nodded, then slipped out into the main room before returning with a small blooming cactus that he set on the desk. “Maybe just one more plant?” He avoided looking at the ones that lined the window sill already, “greenery can be so important for younglings’ development.” 

Obi-Wan had a brief memory of Kamino as he had first found it, so white and sterile: utterly devoid of life outside of the Kaminoans and the vode. He shifted to wrap his arm around Cody, “That’s perfect my dear. I’m sure they’ll love it.” He nuzzled into Cody’s side, before pressing a soft kiss to his temple. “Now come, we have one last night where we don’t have to worry about staying quiet.” 

He winked at Cody, who gave a soft growl in return, before picking up his Jedi and carrying him into their room. 

Sure they weren’t the most rested the next day, but anything that made his Obi-Wan look that happy was worth missing a little sleep for.

Chapter Text

Wolffe headed straight to his quarters for a shower. He didn’t appreciate the bar funk that clung to his skin, and it was worth delaying dinner to be clean. After turning off the water shower (still such a luxury after years on a Venator Star Destroyer) and toweling off, he dressed in a cozy set of pajamas to enjoy a relaxing evening at home. 

Feeling infinitely better, he headed into his kitchen, and pulled some leftover pho from yesterday out of his fridge, and heated it quickly. While it was warming up, he turned and pulled out the wet tooka food he kept in his pantry. As soon as he started to pop the top, Sunflower came running into the kitchen; her sixth sense for when he was opening a can waking her from a deep nap under his bed. She immediately started screaming at him for not serving the food quick enough. 

“Hush baby.” Wolffe said, trying to scowl and mostly failing, a big grin threatening to break out as she twined around his ankles. At least no one was around to see it, “You’ll have it in a second.”

Sunflower ignored him, still yelling at the top of her lungs. He sighed, then finally put her food down before taking her water bowl to refill it. She just about jumped face first into it, making a terrible mess as she scarfed it down. 

Wolffe took his own meal out of the reheater, sat at the counter and savored it as he watched her. He was still sometimes floored by the variety of flavors and cuisines available across the galaxy, and after a lifetime of rations, he enjoyed taking the time to truly enjoy a great meal. 

By the time he was slurping up the end of his pho, Sunflower was sitting on a chair next to him, trying to look distinguished as she groomed the leftover wet food off her face. She was methodical, purring loudly at her pleasure in a full belly. Wolffe chuckled and ran a hand down her back, before getting up to sort out his dishes. 

Once that was done, he headed to his couch with a large mug of hot chocolate. As soon as he sat down, Sunflower landed in his lap where she quickly settled in: her paws flexed as she made biscuits against his thigh before flopping all her considerable weight down, and resuming her loud purring. He chuckled, and gave her a good scritch behind her ears, before setting up his portable holo system so he could start his regular weekly call with buir Plo. It had been difficult to adjust to no longer being Plo’s commander, but the weekly calls meant they stayed in touch, and they always made a point to meet up when their duties brought them together. It was a bit trickier when Plo was off planet and they had to deal with lagging calls and time differences, but they made it work.

The call connected, and Plo immediately focused his attention on Sunflower despite only her ears being seen on camera. “Hello, how is my favorite bu’ad doing today?” 

Wolffe scowled a bit at his buir, then relented. “She is in a good mood today, probably because I wasn’t here to interrupt her napping.” He gave her a tender pet, then refocused on his buir, “How is the situation on Scarif?”

Plo hummed, then answered. “As well as could be expected. There are a surprising number of records here that we still have to sort through, but the gist of what I’ve seen so far makes me very glad Palpatine was never able to fulfill his ambitions.”

“I still can’t believe he was storing secret records of his treasons and plans at his favorite tropical resort.” Wolffe shook his head. “That man did not look like someone who enjoyed a beach vacation.”

Plo laughed, “He was from Naboo remember, they have many lakes there. And it wasn’t that odd for a Chancellor, even one in wartime, to take regular vacations, letting him access his records frequently. But no, I doubt he spent any of the time he was here on the beach — the records are all stored deep in the interior of the resort, far from any windows or corrupting sea air.”

Wolffe took a drink of his hot coco, “Well we’re lucky Fox was a vindictive bastard and kept such good records of the paperwork Palpatine was making him process.”

“Indeed.” Plo agreed, before asking. “How was the bachelor party with your vode?”

Wolffe grinned, and settled into talk with his buir. His right hand was tangled in Sunflower’s fur, and his left was curled around his hot mug. It was the perfect end to his day.