Archive of Our Own ^beta

The observation room was empty, just as Cody had been promised. Pleased, he set his backpack on the built-in bench that followed the curved wall left to the door.

Carefully, he unpacked its contents: a vacuum-sealed bag of dried fruit slices, small packages of cured meat and blue cheese, two collapsible cups, a flask, and a portable speaker. There was no table in the small room, so Cody placed them on the bench, making sure the items wouldn’t tip over on the cushioned surface. The observation room was made mostly for just that, observation, and not what Cody was planning.

Once finished, he accessed the control panel on the wall, switching off the lights of the observation room. Another press of the screen and slowly, thick shields retracted upward to reveal a window nearly four meters wide, and the enormous, column-like clouds of gas and dust that glowed in the far distance.

There were four of them, two of them clearly larger than the others, but all shared the same shades of gold-brown and deep purple.

The Negotiator was flying through realspace for the next 36 hours as they waited for details about their new campaign, and Cody had seized the opportunity to spend some alone time with his lover somewhere other than his quarters. Reserving the observation room had been easy, since no one really used it (Cody had no idea why they had even added something like that on a battle cruiser but mysterious were the ways of natborns) and Cody had delegated all his duties to the sub-commanders and captains, so unless Grievous himself teleported right into the Negotiator’s bridge, he could ignore any disaster for the next 10 hours.

He studied at the giant gas and dust clouds for a moment, the tip of one of the larger columns reminding him of the Kamoradon sea dragon’s head with its maw wide open. Well, Obi-Wan had mentioned that the formation’s name was The Rise of the Sun-Dragons, so Cody’s imagination wasn’t that far off. 

Turning around, Cody checked the time, noting that Wooley would be arriving in less than half an hour, so he got busy. The packages were opened, and Cody did his best to plate all the food in an appealing manner before filling the cups with dark red colored liquid, its spicy scent mixing with the scent of the fruits, cheese, and meat. The speaker was fiddled with until Cody found the channel he was looking for, before turning it off again and placing it back on the bench.

He was rearranging the meat and cheese again because he felt like they didn’t look good enough, when Cody heard someone access the observation room’s door. Straightening, he turned around to see Wooley slowly walking in, the younger clone curiously looking around.

Naturally, Wooley’s attention was first drawn to the spectacular interstellar gas and dust columns, and Cody chuckled at the way his jaw dropped and eyes grew visibly bigger. The sound of his laughter had Wooley looking away from the window, though, and Cody watched him open his mouth to say something, only for Wooley to blink when he noticed what was on the bench.  

“What’s all this?” Wooley asked, sounding delighted as he took in the assortment of treats.

“Just a little something I scrounged up,” Cody explained, offering his hand to the younger clone, who took it with a smile. Pulling Wooley close, Cody kissed him first on the brow, then on the corner of his mouth, and only after that did he press their lips together.

Throughout the first two kisses, Wooley kept smiling brighter and brighter, and Cody swore he could taste the happiness on his lips during the last kiss.

“’Scrounge up’?” Wooley repeated, hands resting on Cody’s hips as he gave at the food and drink another look. There was an interested gleam in his eyes, the one nearly every clone got when presented with new types of food. It was one of the reasons why Cody wanted to treat his lover like this, to give Wooley some new experiences while fighting to free the galaxy from the CIS.

“I may have called in a few favors and promised some in return,” Cody replied with a one-shoulder shrug. “But, before we get to that,” he started, pulling away long enough to pick up the speaker, turning it on.

Soft, slow music filled the observation room.

Wooley’s eyes widened, and he laughed, astonished. “What the kark, Cody?”

Smiling, Cody offered his hand once again. “Dance with me?” he asked, and once again Wooley took it with a smile.

Neither one was really good at dancing, Wooley especially, but that didn’t stop the younger clone from wrapping his arms around Cody, taking the lead as they started to sway slowly in time with the music. Pressing their foreheads together, Cody hummed under his breath, missing a note here and there, but it didn’t really matter to him or Wooley.

“Thank you for doing all this,” Wooley murmured after a moment, bending his head to kiss the older clone.

Smiling, Cody nudged Wooley’s nose with his. “There’s no need to thank me, I just wanted to do something nice for you. How about we dance one more song before eating?”

“Deal,” Wooley said, pulling Cody closer to him.

It turned out to be two songs before they stopped dancing, Cody feeling quite comfortable enough to rest his head on Wooley’s shoulder as his lover murmured words of love into his ear in between the brief, gentle kisses he pressed onto Cody’s curls. The food proved to be delicious, salty and sweet, and the wine Obi-Wan had given Cody, slipping the flask from his robe sleeve and into Cody’s hand, was a perfect compliment to them all.

They spent the next three hours eating, admiring the Rise of the Sun-Dragons while making it a game to try and see what they saw in the gas and dust formations, and dancing more times than Cody had ever in his life.

Once every little morsel was gone and the last of the wine had been drunk, they sat on the floor with Wooley between Cody’s legs, back-to-chest, and just enjoyed this little bubble of peace until it was time to leave.

“Thank you again,” Wooley said as they cleaned up, putting the empty packages into Cody’s backpack. 

“Like I said, no need to thank me,” Cody replied, leaning closer to nuzzle the younger clone’s warhawk. “I love you, now and always.”

“And I love you, too, now and always,” Wooley replied with a smile, shouldering the backpack.

Cody lowered the protective shields, plunging the observation room into darkness for a second before the automatic lighting turned on. Wooley waited for him at the door, and Cody closed the distance, giving the younger clone one last kiss before they left, walking down the corridor close enough for their shoulders to brush together with every third step.