Tucking Din’s leg, which had fallen out at some point back under their blanket, Paz reached out and stroked the others hair out of his face, observing the worn lines on his face.
But, well, at least Din was sleeping peacefully.
That bought a smile to Paz lips and he couldn’t resist leaning in to gently press a soft kiss to the apple of Din’s tanned cheek, feeling the scratch of stubble beneath his lips.
He wanted to linger in that moment, the softness, the sight of Din peacefully resting but Boba had called and therefore Paz straightened and put his helmet on, leaving his bond promised behind in their den to meet up with the other alpha.
Hopefully it meant good news, though it had been weeks since the two decided to try to find the Jedi.
Quietly, Paz closed the door behind himself, nodding to a passing guard in the slightly cool hall and made his way down the hall towards the throne room. Since Boba had added him to the scanner, Paz knew it would let him in as Boba also expected him and seeing as it was night time and only trusted people were left in the palace, Paz only worn his helmet, worn out thin sleep pants and a t-shirt that was frankly a tad too small.
Paz made a concentrated effort not to stretch in the thing, flushing a bit when a beta guard in the throne room suddenly perked up with interest, her eyes obviously tracing over the taut material and the bulk of his arms. She kept watching him closely as he crossed to the back of the throne to enter the King’s quarters and he could feel her eyes on him until the door closed behind him.
If Din had seen it, he would have gotten grumpy for sure, no one in the palace was ignorant that Paz and Din were bond promised after all.
Admittedly, it was a tad flattering to get the attention Paz had to admit, in the privacy of his own head. But there was only one person for him and that was Din, no one else measured up to the mighty beroya of the covert.
That he had managed to catch Din’s attention and keep it was not something he was willing to risk.
“Paz, there you are, I was wo-what the hell are you wearing?” Boba paused mid sentence, blinking bemusedly up at Paz from his position on the wing of the L shaped couch, his armor on its stand with Boba dressed in one of his black robes.
“My sleep wear?” Paz returned, equally bemused as he padded over and sat down near the other alpha. “I mean, I was in bed when you called. I’m honestly shocked it didn’t wake Din.” He shrugged a tad.
Boba eyed the hot pink if slightly faded t-shirt Paz was wearing that was clearly a size too small before letting out an amused snort with a head shake. “Well, I… anyhow, I found a lead on Skywalker, though I’m not sure its a valid one. I also sent a message to Organa that I want to speak with her brother.” He explained, looking down at the pad on his lap.
Leaning a bit forward to peer at it, Paz squinted a bit at the tiny letters on the tablet before shaking his head and looking back at Boba’s face. “A lead?” He questioned hopefully, settling a bit against the back of the couch.
Boba glanced at him, snorting at the sight of the t-shirt riding up on his stomach before he scrolled through his pad and brought up a map that he showed Paz.
Squinting at it, Paz let out a noise as he saw a tracked route leading from Coruscant to somewhere out along Outer Rims and he looked to Boba in confusion.
The man tapped his nail on the pad. “This? This is a shipping line from Organa to somewhere else. Medical supplies, freeze dried food along with long storage food, different fabrics, some motor parts for ships and speeders and sometimes other things are on the shipment list. I suspect she’s shipping supplies to her brother and his temple.” He explained to the mandalorian.
A noise of understanding escaped Paz. “That makes sense, I mean, they can’t make everything on one planet, wouldn’t have the resources to do that… could I take a look at the shipment lists?” He questioned.
Scrolling through the pad and bringing up the lists, Boba handed the pad to Paz to look through. “Organa might be willing to give us information or at least send Skywalker a message, if she decides to talk to me. If nothing less, her getting one to her golden brother would at least alert Skywalker to Din’s difficulties.” Boba murmured quietly as Paz read.
“Mmmn, hopefully. I don’t know much about this Skywalker but to take a adiik from an already injured omega…” Paz shook his head, grimacing.
He only looked away from the pad when the other let out a deep sigh. “Look, I’m not gonna defend Skywalker but… he’s not a bad person. Not really. I don’t really get what was going through his or Din’s head back on that cruiser but… there’s more to the story than what we get at least and if he knew the effect it would have on Din, I don’t think he would have done it.” Boba rubbed at his scarred face slowly and tiredly.
After weeks of a despondent Din, Paz wasn’t feeling quite so charitable however and only let out a vague noise of understanding, turning his attention back to the lists. As he did, he started to see a common denominator. “…There’s no fruit on this list.” He said slowly.
He felt Boba shift closer, but continued scrolling, flickering his eyes quickly over the letters.
“No vegetables either.” Paz mumbled, eyes widening with slight realization just as Boba let out a deep hum.
“They’re somewhere green. Green and fertile.” Boba stated with conviction, conviction Paz shared as excitement started to bubble in his chest.
Somewhere green and fertile in the outer rims that they could grow fresh produce.
‘Hold on adi’ika, soon your buir will see you again.’
There was something going on with his padawan and his men.
Of that Anakin was certain and he didn’t know better, it almost felt like Obi-Wan was… well, for the lack of a better word, crushing on his own men.
All of them.
Now, Anakin wasn’t stupid. His padawan was a young man, young men had urges most of the time unless they were asexual and even they occasionally felt lust. Obi-Wan, he knew was not asexual and had actually caught the other in a tryst or two.
He may also have scared at least one fellow padawan of his padawan out of their quarters by glowering.
Regardless how much Obi-Wan had been angry at the time, Anakin still kept his opinion about padawan Dilero-Dan, at twenty four, him paying that much attention to Obi-Wan at sixteen was not acceptable.
Now though, now Obi-Wan was an adult, if he wanted to shack up with someone, Anakin wasn’t about to stop his padawan, hell, depending on the person, he might even encourage the other. Release was healthy and despite how embarrassed it made both Anakin and Obi-Wan, Anakin had made sure to have a throughout sex talk with the other.
So, having a crush or two on some of his men wouldn’t have shocked Anakin, they were capable and Anakin, for all that he didn’t like the man himself, could tell that Jango Fett was objectively handsome.
But this wasn’t just one crush or even just a handful of the troopers.
It was all of them and that just…
It boggled Anakin’s mind and that wasn’t the only thing. The other thing was that the troopers themselves also seemed to have their own crush on their General.
It was the 501st that clued him in that something was up honestly, the way they seemed to both want to drift closer to Obi-Wan and yet firmly tried to keep professional. And Anakin had caught Rex quietly dressing down a shiny that had seemed to follow Obi-Wan around for a day.
Something was up and he’d have to ask Obi-Wan about why every clone around them seemed to find themselves attracted to Obi-Wan.
Shockingly, Anakin’s usual protective instincts weren’t surfacing at the thought.
Normally, uncut attention to Obi-Wan had Anakin’s instincts rearing to go and he had often cut of those that had less than stellar intentions with his former padawan, even if Obi-Wan at the time hadn’t realized it.
Maybe some would see it as him being overprotective but… well, Anakin was to teach and guide, that was his job and he wanted the other to be healthy.
Yet…
The troopers didn’t initiate that feeling, Cody standing so close that his hip brushed against Obi-Wan’s didn’t make Anakin’s skin crawl as they went over the battle prep and strategy. The sight of Cody’s gloved and armored arm bumping against Obi-Wan didn’t make Anakin want to break the commander’s arm.
It was the strangest sensation, Anakin didn’t trust a lot of those that expressed interest in Obi-Wan, outside of a few of the Jedi back at the temple that Obi-Wan had cautiously explored with as a youth.
It made Anakin mull over the reason.
They were men after all, human men and Anakin had always dealt with those with extreme prejudice when it came to his padawan due to his body being slightly different and his gender having been difficult at times, even if Obi-Wan comfortably called himself male now.
That had taken a few years though, before Obi-Wan was certain.
So Anakin had protected him through those years as Obi-Wan figured himself out as his body changed and developed.
So, why wasn’t Anakin reacting to the troopers how he normally reacted?
He should be throwing a fit, throwing Cody as far away from Obi-Wan as he could, barring any of the troopers access to Obi-Wan by contacting the council to alert them to the strangeness of the troopers reaction to Obi-Wan.
True, there were some of the troopers, his own that was, that made his teeth itch if they got too close to Obi-Wan but…
“Master?” Obi-Wan’s voice broke through his thoughts and Anakin looked up in surprise, finding Obi-Wan, Cody, Rex and lieutenant Waxer looking to him along with Echo and Fives from the recon team.
He winced. “Apologies, could you repeat that? I was deep in thought.” Echo and Fives traded quick looks before the latter reiterated the information he and Echo had found on their scouting mission.
As he did, Anakin couldn’t help but glance at Cody, finding the man intently focused on Fives, eyes never wavering with his helmet beneath his other arm.
Not distracted, not leering, not making a big fuss of it all…
‘Oh,’ Anakin blinked in sudden realization. ‘I trust them. I trust them to remain professional and I trust them not to harm Obi-Wan, I trust them not to take advantage of him or him of them… that’s why.’ Anakin tilted his head, looking at Cody and Obi-Wan, standing so close and yet obviously paying attention to the report.
Anakin Skywalker trusted the 212th with Obi-Wan’s health and comfort.
So uh, I’m not sure about next weeks writing, cause my dentist appointment got changed. Its going to be tomorrow due to dentist personal shedule so um, well yeah, dentist, broken time. We’ll see what happens with next weeks writing
Sitting down gingerly on the dry land, Maul looked around the water garden with quiet awe, unable to keep his attention on the Jedi master in front of him. Not that he was concerned, Obi-Wan wasn’t far away from them, showing Anakin how to swim as the desert child hadn’t learned that particular skill.
However, if anything was to happen, Obi-Wan would come and intervene, of that Maul was sure. Obi-Wan took his job as alpha of their little pack seriously and had already intervened twice when knights had gotten too rowdy with Maul in the hall.
The human had even growled, bared his fangs in human form before informing the knights that if they had an issue, Obi-Wan would be happy to inform the council of the knights trepidation to Maul’s presence among them.
A lot of Jedi had gone silent after that, though quiet hostility and resentment still lingered even if no one did anything too obviously.
The kel dor didn’t feel hostile though, not like many other Jedi were.
He didn’t even seem frightened, though that could be his shields in place.
So Maul could continue to marvel at the water garden from Mon Cala.
Maul had traveled the galaxy on Sidious orders, done many horrific things and many common things but he never just got the chance to… stop.
Sit down and enjoy the scenery.
In the Jedi temple, between following Obi-Wan around, working out, doing chores… there wasn’t much else to do, though Obi-Wan had been encouraging Maul to find a hobby or two to do. But to sit and just enjoy the peace…
It wasn’t something Maul had gotten to do and to do it now, especially in a water garden, rivers, ponds and even waterfalls all around him with little ‘islands’ of dry places to sit. Most of the vegetation was of course underwater, since this was a garden based on Mon Cala fauna but here and there, plants grew up on top of the surfaces.
Large lily pad like flowers, bowl shaped leaves, the floating what looked like kelp, lotuses, something that looked like cattails at the edges of the water and so on and forth.
For all the blue, the splashes of green, pink, white and golden yellow broke the scheme of blue apart, and it was beautiful.
Maul liked it.
“Its very peaceful here, isn’t it.” The kel dor stated.
Maul hummed in agreement, tilting his head to look across the water to watch the two humans for a bit, Obi-Wan carefully hold around Anakin’s midsection, gently instructing him to kick with his legs.
“The flowing water always reminds me that everything is in motion.” The man continued and Maul glanced at him, blinking slightly as he took in that the other was settled with his feet tucked under him instead of sitting in lotus position like Maul was.
‘Won’t his legs grow numb quicker like that?’ He couldn’t help but wonder. “…Is that a reference to me?” Maul questioned a tad tiredly, settling his hands in his lap. Coming to the temple, Maul had realized that one thing the rest of the galaxy had correct… was that the Jedi often spoke in fucking metaphors.
His question had the kel dor chuckling. “You, the future, me, everything my boy,” The Jedi turned his head to look at Obi-Wan and Anakin. “There was a time that many thought Obi-Wan would not become a Jedi due to his nature. Even now there are discrimination towards him, even in the temple. And yet here he is, one of our best, it reminds me that there is always things in motion, that for all the rocks thrown in a river, the water will flow.” He hummed.
Glancing back at the humans, Maul frowned. He hadn’t noticed anyone being obviously ill mannered towards Obi-Wan, but maybe that was just it, as an outsider, Maul just couldn’t see it?
Maybe that was it.
At least this kel dor was friendly. ‘His name is… Plo Koon, right?’ He glanced back at him. He was pretty sure the man was a council master and it was clear he had favorable opinions on Maul’s alpha.
That was good, it was clear that even among Jedi, werewolves weren’t an easy subject. So having someone in power as support could make things easier.
‘…Maybe I’ll tell them about Sidious… or he’ll make it difficult for us all…’ Maul mused quietly, looking at the flows of water around them, his eyes drawn back to the humans when Anakin’s Force aura suddenly spiked with mischievousness as he stood up in a shallow of the water, still up to his waist.
Suddenly the boy jerked, sending a spray of water up at the alpha, Obi-Wan spluttering loudly and Maul felt himself hold his breath, waiting.
Waiting for this to be it.
For Obi-Wan to show his true nature… and then the his alpha laughed, splashing Anakin in return with gentle hand waves.
The sound of Anakin laughing suddenly as he splashed Obi-Wan blotted out the sounds of the waterfalls for a long minute or two and Maul felt his lips reluctantly twitch into a smile as Obi-Wan laughed and played along.
He could feel the kel dor, Koon, watching both him and his humans but couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes of Obi-Wan and Anakin. ‘My… my pack. My little pack.’
Nodding his thanks to Jinx as the vod put down a basket of fruit, Rex turned his eyes to Anakin, frowning slightly at a sudden thought that hit him. “I’m rather surprised that Senator Amidala hasn’t kicked up a bigger fuss about her kids being here.” Rex stated thoughtfully as he watched Anakin finish of the last of his water.
It had been the topic of some late bunk conversations for a few days actually and Rex knew, coming over a few gossip circles, that the Jedi too were a bit bemused by it. Everyone knew Senator Amidala after all, she was a determined and powerful woman, one you didn’t easily dismiss.
Rex had a lot of respect for her, she had always been a voice for good.
His words quieted some of the conversation of the other 501st in the house, his voice carrying enough.
Anakin however didn’t seem to realize, he only let out a bitter snort. “Maybe she would have, if she had a leg to stand on.” He stated wryly, kicking his legs out in front of him and setting his empty glass down on the caff table.
When their former Jedi had come to visit the 501st in their… well, Rex wasn’t sure what to call it but every battalion had their own headquarters or barracks so to speak now. It was generally a house, a few floors depending on how big the battalion was, a place to stretch their legs, talk, do their hobbies and have fun.
Technically a ‘break room’ situation so to speak, only it was a house instead, with rooms dedicated to rest, eating if they wanted and didn’t go to the larger cantinas to eat with other battalions or Jedi, hobby rooms and so on.
Often though, others visited them at the headquarters, trading food stuffs and so on.
It was nice, a place for the battalions to stretch their wings so to say, their own space for… well, whatever they wanted, just like the homes they had.
Anakin was the first Jedi, because he’d always be a Jedi to them, to visit the 501st and Rex couldn’t help a proud kernel in his stomach at the admiring look their Jedi threw around the first break room that meet them, filled with couches, caff table, a few fridges and lots of beanbags.
He had been even more impressed with the selection of drinks and snack foods he had been offered.
Now though, Rex regretted not offering the other something stronger as the blond gave his glass a bitter look. “…What do you mean sir?” Rex ventured carefully.
When the other just mutely stared at the glass, Rex shifted of the couch and moved around the table to sit down with Anakin instead, peering at the other man with a small frown on his face. “…Told you to call me Anakin… quite a few times actually.” He finally sighed, glancing at Rex.
Peering back steadily, Rex reached out slowly at Anakin’s slumped shape, settling his hand on the others shoulder. “Then… what did you mean Anakin?” He prompted carefully.
Settling back against the couch, Anakin tilted his head to peer up at the ceiling. “…When the Jedi left Coruscant…” He started slowly, frowning as if in pain. “I figured out just what was most important to Padme… and it wasn’t me or the kids…” He answered lowly, hands clenched into the fabric of his pants.
Slowly, with careful prompting, Rex got the story out of Anakin.
The days of isolation, of the Senator disappearing to the Senate for so long that not even Anakin saw her for days, of only the staff being around, of Anakin discovering that without the Jedi around, he was isolated to only his wife and the few friends he had managed to make among her fellow Senators.
Even then, that weren’t many, due to how Anakin had no interest for politics for one and due to the difference in life.
Anakin had been a slave and then he was a Jedi and a soldier, his life wasn’t pampered like many Senators. His life had been brutal, steady and hard, which made it difficult for him to connect to people like the soft handed senators with only a few exceptions.
It stunned Rex to the core, to realize that after they left, Anakin had been virtually friendless and he couldn’t help but reach out and pull his Jedi into a hug, clinging to the man, realizing that just like the 501st had missed Anakin… Anakin had missed them just as much.
Long arms wrapped around him in turn, the grip tight, as if Anakin couldn’t get enough of the hug and was terrified Rex was going to pull away.
He wouldn’t and Rex simply pressed his hand to the others back. “Its alright. You’re here now. We’re here. You can’t get rid of us that easily.” He whispered, looking up to find Echo and Jesse standing at their side, their hands joining Rex on Anakin’s back to gently rub, faces drawn in worry.
Their Jedi let out a soft, hiccuping noise and simply buried his head in Rex shoulder, hands fisting the back of his shirt.
“You can’t get rid of us.” Rex repeated quietly into curly blond hairs.
SWpromptsandask 