Now,
when he had been told that he, Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker were all
put on a joined mission, Qui-Gon had been ready to throw a fit worthy
of the great actors of the galaxy because the idea of having his
wonderful padawan in the company of his suitor without being able to
escape said man was not doing well by him.

But
he ended up being pleasantly surprised, as outside of some minor
flirting during down periods, Skywalker was being rather professional
even if he crashed two swoops and a skycar so far and they were
forced to hide out in a forest to avoid the smugglers that were
bribing the local law and government, which meant that now the Jedi
were targets.

But
then again, that wasn’t really a downside to Qui-Gon, master of the
living Force, who had nothing against camping.

His
padawan had taken less to it of course as always and it was hilarious
to him to see Obi-Wan spurn Skywalker’s attempted flirting.

Clearly
the memo of Obi-Wan preferring being able to access a shower and
‘civilized’ environments had not reached Skywalker and now
Obi-Wan was carrying a pouty grudge, which was hilarious once more
because usually it was Qui-Gon’s fault when they were forced to go
from a nice room to hiding out in a cave or forest somewhere.

And
there were other benefits as Obi-Wan suddenly showed up without said
alpha and an armful of animals after having gone firewood gathering.

Taking
in the blank face of his padawan first, taking notice of how the ears
were burning despite how much the omega
had
schooled the rest of his face into serenity and then dropping his
eyes further down to the armful of the two round, wiggling little
green furred creatures in his arms, taking in the canine formed
muzzles and the big black eyes looking at him, Qui-Gon had to fight
against the smile threatening to take over his own face.

Instead
he slowly reached up and stroked his beard, letting out a small,
inquiring hum, brows quirked at the teen.

Funnily
enough, Obi-Wan’s ear flush managed to spread to his cheeks at the
gesture as he lifted the pups a bit further up his chest as they
wiggled in his grasp. “…I’m adopting these grass puppies.” He
announced blankly.

“I
see,” Qui-Gon stated, still stroking his beard, rubbing thumb and
index finger slowly around mustache to chin. “And
their mother?” He raised his brow.

At
that, Obi-Wan grimaced heavily and shifted before tilting his head
back in the direction he had come from. “Traps.”

Oh
dear, well that explained it.

It
seemed they had managed to find a trace of the animal smugglers after
all.

Qui-Gon
would have thought they didn’t hunt on local ground and only
smuggled out of the Bitana docking bay because it was a minor port
and people wouldn’t notice too much.

Apparently
that was wrong.

Sighing,
Qui-Gon nodded and watched as Obi-Wan settled down with the grass
puppies, petting and cuddling them gently, scratching their ears and
feeding them meat rations.

And
he knew, despite the other saying he was adopting them, he wouldn’t
be keeping them really. ‘Must be closing in on a heat and feeling
parental.’ Qui-Gon would be guessing as he looked up when Skywalker
came stomping through, a big grin on his face as he had a large
armful of wood.

And
then the man gasped. “Are those grass puppies?” He scuttled over
quickly, setting the wood down to kneel down and greet the squeaky
little animals, beaming at Obi-Wan. “You found grass puppies!”
Anakin cooed with delight.

Rolling
his eyes, watching how Obi-Wan flushed in shy pleasure and happiness,
Qui-Gon started on the fire again while mentally bemoaning Obi-Wan’s
taste in alphas.