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Cody knew nothing about his new general, and it was starting to stress him out.
All of his brothers kept going on and on about their generals, about how different they all were and how some - most, actually - treated them as though they were really sentient beings, a vast difference from how the Kaminoans treated them. Rex had not shut up about General Skywalker, calling him the greatest man he’s ever met in one sentence and then calling him an idiot who’s gonna get them all killed the next.
Cody hadn’t met his general yet. He wasn’t sure why, something about the Jedi being needed on Coruscant for the first week while the other squadrons were shipping out. It left the 212th and the Negotiator in orbit as they waited for their general to finally join them today. It gave the men a chance to settle in, sure, but it made Cody antsy.
Most of his brothers had been blessed with generals and commanders who respected the, treated them well. Ones they wanted to praise and compliment. A few had… less than ideal leaders to follow. Cody loved his brothers and as their commander, he was worried about how they would be treated going into this conflict. They were just clones, after all, it wasn’t as though they were people. They were being shown kindness, but not by everyone, and Cody worried if the person who was going to be leading them was one of the good ones.
Not that any of them had a choice either way.
All Cody knew was the man’s name: Obi-Wan Kenobi. The one who came to Kamino just a few weeks ago, the one who was imprisoned on Geonosis. That was it, that was all Cody knew. Nothing about the man’s story, no knowledge of how he looked. He wasn’t even sure he could ask for such information without being dismissed. It wasn’t as though any of this information was on the holonet - not that they were supposed to have access to the holonet, for some reason - so Cody was left wondering, and fearing the worst. What if he had not been told anything about his general because he wasn’t a good man? What was the word Fox had used to describe Vos?
Right, a troll.
Could General Kenobi be a troll? A beast? Someone who wasn’t going to care if Cody or his brothers lived or died? Someone who refused to acknowledge their names, the one thing they got to choose about themselves?
Cody wasn’t sure, and he wasn’t sure he could serve someone who would treat them-
SMACK!
“Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!” Cody looked up from where he had fallen on his arse after crashing into someone and froze.
The man was a good few inches shorter than Cody was, with auburn hair that looked as though it had recently been cut, and a neatly trimmed beard. His skin was fair and dotted with little specks of what from a distance looked like dirty, but were in fact freckles. His eyes were a piercing blue that radiated a warmth Cody had never seen before. He was dressed in simple clothes not too dissimilar to the ones the men wore in their downtime; a pair of soft-looking trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, both of which were a matching red. On his feet were simple boots, and a belt hung loosely around his waist. He must have been one of the nat-born officers, they were the only ones aside from the troopers who would be on the ship.
The man fell to his knees and helped Cody to sit upright properly before he began to gather up the sheets of flimsi that had scattered everywhere when they crashed into one another. Cody helped, mentally kicking himself for not looking where he was going and crashing into one of his superiors.
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt are you- oh, should I take you to the medbay-”
“No, no! I’m fine,” Cody insisted, taking in the frazzled state of the man, “I’m not hurt, no medbay needed.” The last thing Cody wanted was anyone else to find out he had made a fool of himself in front of a very hot natborn.
“Are you sure?” The man asked Cody, eyeing him with concern, as though he truly cared about whether the commander was okay. Cody tried to shove the feeling of being seen from his mind.
“I am fine, thank you, sir,” Cody answered politely, just as he had been trained to do, “but I am sorry for crashing into you-”
“No no! Do not apologise, it was entirely my fault, not at all looking where I was going.” The man insisted, pausing in his gathering of the sheets of flimsi to sit back on his heels and give Cody a small smile, “but truly, are you alright? You seem… pensive.”
The man seemed kind, not at all like other nat-borns Cody had met. His concern felt genuine, and for some reason Cody felt inclined to be honest with him.
“Just… worried, sir,” Cody admitted, turning back to gathering the sheets up from the floor, “the General is supposed to be arriving today, and I am… worried for what it means.”
The man’s brow furrowed, alarm appearing in his eyes. “How come?”
“...because I think he may be a troll.”
“A troll?!”
“Or a beast.”
“A beast?”
“I have no information on him,” Cody explained despite the voice in his head which sounded an awful lot like Nala Se telling him to shut up and not disrespect a superior being, “I know nothing except his name and that worries me. How can I know he will keep the men safe if I don’t know anything about the man? All I can think is if no one will tell me about him, then he must be a troll or a beast, or worse.”
The man seemed frozen for a minute, before his smile returned. It seemed… amused, like Cody’s situation was funny to him, and it sparked a bit of rage inside the commander’s chest because it most certainly was NOT funny.
“So, I presume you do not like… trolls or beasts, though I suppose it is not looks that you speak about?” He asked. Cody resisted the urge to scoff.
“I don’t care what he looks like, what I don’t like is not knowing, especially not when it comes to my brothers’ safety. So, if you have any information on the general, I will happily listen.”
The man’s smile only grew as he helped Cody to his feet again, the two of them staring eye to eye despite the four inches height difference. His hands lingered on Cody’s arms, a gentle grip on his vambraces, and he did not yet take back the flimsi sheets Cody held in his hands.
“Well, I guess I will have to tell you everything,” he said, “I can’t very well have my commander thinking I will not protect him and his brothers.”
…What?
A stab of fear shot through Cody as he stared back at the man, his general , who he had just insulted to his face. Okay, he had not known that this was his general-- but no, that did not matter! It was completely disrespectful, went against the chain of command completely and Cody would be lucky if he got out of this with merely a court martial as opposed to a firing squad.
Cody took two steps back, General Kenobi took two forward. “Hello Commander,” he said, his smile never faltering as Cody felt his heart stopping in his chest, “I am Obi-Wan.”
“I… I am deeply… General-” Cody snapped to attention, one arm pinning the flimsi sheets to his chest so he did not scatter them on the ground again as the other snapped up to a salute, but Obi-Wan lifted a hand up to gently lower Cody’s back down to his side.
“At ease, Commander. Not ‘general’. Obi-Wan. I mean, yes technically ‘general’ but to you , just Obi-Wan, or Ben, if you prefer.”
“Please accept my apology,” Cody said, “if I had known that you were you-”
“You would have what? Not told me how you felt?” Obi-Wan remarked, still smiling, brow raised in amusement.
“Well yes- I-I mean,” Cody’s stuttering elicited a laugh from the shorter man, “I do apologise, General.”
“Obi-Wan. Just… Obi-Wan.”
They fell into a silence. Obi-Wan’s smile never once disappeared, and the longer he looked at Cody, the more he felt the fear that had gripped a hold of his chest begin to loosen, being replaced with something… softer.
“Our entire situation isn’t ideal, I know. Not either of us chose this, especially not you, but I had hoped we could ignore that and learn to become friends if not at least co-workers,” Obi-Wan told Cody, “that was, at least, until you decided you did not want to work with me.”
“I did not say that!”
“You did.”
“I did not!”
“It was heavily implied.”
“You-” Cody bit his tongue before he said anything further, but he couldn’t help the small smile that appeared when Obi-Wan began to laugh. His laugh was like music. “I just… I do not know you.”
“And I do not know you either,” Obi-Wan replied, “yet you seem to have already decided I am a troll.”
“General-”
“Obi-Wan.”
“...Obi-Wan.”
The name felt odd to say, but it also sounded.. Right.
“What do you want to know?”
“...what?”
“What, do you want to know?” Obi-Wan repeated, “you do not know me, so what do you want to know about me?”
“That is… Uh…” Cody found himself at a loss for words all of a sudden. He had been so worried about not knowing who his general was and yet, now faced with the chance to know anything he wanted… he could not think of what to ask. “Well… everything.”
“Alright,” Obi-Wan said, pausing for a moment as he thought, finally glancing away from Cody for the first time since they had stood up. “Everything… well…
“I came to the temple when I was only a few months old. Youngest initiate in the order. I’ve been training as a Jedi ever since then. I am fluent in many languages, including Mando’a, and I have travelled the span of the galaxy about six times over. I am an excellent swordsman but I believe blasters are a bit uncivilised. Speaking of uncivilised, my former padawan, Anakin, is reckless and aggravating but I love him dearly, he is like a brother and a son to me. …I like books, and art, and good conversation over a cup of tea… most of all I like science.”
“Science?”
“Chemistry, physics, botany, especially astronomy. The stars fascinate me, truly. I am quite the gardener, in fact had I not wanted to be a padawan, my next choice would have been the AgriCorps.” Obi-Wan pointed to his left side. “I have a scar here from a speeder accident as a teen, and one here on my hand from when I first made my lightsaber-”
It wasn’t until Cody glanced up from looking at the scar on Obi-Wan’s hand that he noticed how close they had gotten to one another, mere arm’s length apart.
“-a-and I am very nervous, about going into this. I am no stranger to war, to the horrors it brings, I-I have faced conflict before… so I cannot promise you that you and your brothers will be safe out there, but I can promise you that with me, whether it be here on our ship or out on the field, or truly just anywhere in this Galaxy, you can always trust me to take care of you all. No one will fight as hard for you as I will. I promise you… I am neither a troll, nor a beast. …Just, Obi-Wan.”
Cody’s cheeks felt hot and when Obi-Wan stepped forward, the commander wasn’t sure what was about to happen. However, all Obi-Wan did was take the flimsi sheets from Cody’s arms and add them to the ones he had been holding himself. “...I am late for a meeting with the council,” he said to Cody, “however, perhaps you would like to join me this evening for some tea? Maybe I can convince you more that I am no troll.” His tone was teasing, but also sincere, and all Cody could do was nod. It seemed to satisfy the Jedi as he gave a little wink, and then stepped around Cody to continue on his way.
About ten paces down the corridor, Obi-Wan spun around. “I never caught your name,” he called out.
“C-Cody.”
“An honour to meet you, Cody.”
And with that, Obi-Wan disappeared around the corner, leaving Cody standing there, dumbfounded and burning with… something.
There was a smile on Cody’s face for the rest of the day. A skip in his step, if you asked some of his brothers (and something going on in his pants, if you asked others), but when he told his men that they had nothing to worry about when it came to their general, Cody finally felt as though he believed the words he was telling them. For the first time since the Clone Wars began, Cody felt as though maybe they had a chance to get through this without being nothing more than cannon fodder for the Republic. He thought maybe, there was hope for something afterwards, to be seen as something more than property.
A chance to make a friend… or something more.
It was a very fragile thing, hope, but knowing now that at least one person out there cared, that his general was not in fact a troll or a beast or something worse, it made it easier to believe.
Cody believed that Obi-Wan, “just” Obi-Wan, would keep his promise.
And he was right: good conversation over a cup of tea was perfect.
“ Buir , did you really meet Papa in his pyjamas?”
“Yes, ad’ika , I did, and I am fairly certain he went to his meeting still wearing them.”
“Now, my dear, don’t tell the children tales. It’s a bad influence on them.”
“I was just telling them the story of how we met, cyare , they wanted a bedtime story.”
“Oh, if it is a story you want, let me tell you the story of when your buir tried to ask me on a date for the first time-”
“No, no! Anything but that one!”