Chapter Text
Cody opens his eyes, and immediately regrets it. Forces himself to take a breath, hold it, and then assess.
His eyes are stinging like hell. Full of blood and sweat and soot and who knows what else. Half his face is consumed by the raw burning, stabbing of an open wound. His mouth tastes like blood and smoke. The pressure in his ears is off, and everything is far away.
"Commander! Commander, my dear, stay with me."
The General sounds worried, but Cody's face is only a bit sliced up. It's nothing serious.
"That an order, Sir?" Cody jokes, but his mouth doesn't move, and the words don't come out. Maybe a concussion as well then.
"I have you, Sunshine, stay with me."
"Always, Sir." Cody thinks, but he can feel himself slipping away.
3 years later...
Cody ponders the arrangement he's doing for his least favourite customer. Slides in another couple of stems. He's found three different dictionaries on the language of flowers since he started the shop, and they're all a little contradictory. But this arrangement says 'fuck you' in all of them. Whilst still meeting the exacting customer specifications of 'I don't know, something red and black, that's what I pay you for'. It's a beautiful work of art, and Cody is extremely satisfied with it.
Behind him, the shop door opens, the annoying little bell Rex had insisted on installing tinkling. As if Cody wouldn't know when there was someone in his shop. He'd been a special forces commander, of course he knew when someone walked through a door.
There's a moment while the customer looks around, then -
"Hello there,"
Cody is far too well trained to freeze in surprise, so his hands don't falter on the stem he's clipping.
It would be an understatement to say he recognises that voice. It's haunted his nightmares and dreams both for years. It's the voice of the intelligence officer who'd been temporarily given the rank of General so he'd have the authority to command Cody's unit for an op. An entire year of working together, and Cody never even knew his name.
He'd been skeptical about the assignment at first, worried he might have to act as a buffer between whatever nonsense an inexperienced intelligence officer came up with and his men. But it turned out the General clearly had military experience of some description, although he was understandably close lipped about it. And while he did come up with a lot of nonsense, that nonsense almost uniformly turned out to actually work. And despite his experience and his nonsense, he asked Cody's opinion and listened to what he had to say. They worked exceptionally well together.
And then there was the fact he was a charming, flirty, bastard, with an air of cool calm, who nonetheless jumped headfirst into every sort of trouble and mischief imaginable. And somehow, on top of that, he was also a being of compassion and kindness. Cody is fully aware he's been crushing heavily on the man from within a week of meeting him.
"I'm looking to buy some flowers."
Cody turns, twisting around the foliage half-shielding him from view, and props a hip against the counter. Folds his arms and raises an eyebrow.
"That's convenient, Sir." He says, biting down his grin. "Because this is a flower shop."
And holy shit is the man pretty. Cody thought he'd imagined it, exaggerated in his memory, only natural when he's been crushing on the man for years. But if anything, his memories have understated it. This insanely pretty? That can't be allowed.
And he's looking at Cody with wide eyes, genuinely surprised, a delighted smile slowly curling across his lips.
"That is remarkably fortunate." His General says, a hand coming up to stroke at his beard in an incredibly familiar motion. It hides the smile, but not the crinkles around his eyes.
And yep, inappropriate crush on his commanding officer still very much in place.
"Any flowers in particular you were looking for, Sir?" Cody asks.
"Well," says his ex-General, ever so slightly hesitant. "I'm afraid I know nothing about flowers. My adoptive father kept several houseplants that all tried to eat me, and I'm afraid the trauma of it has never really left."
Cody raises an eyebrow a fraction.
"That sounds terrible for you, Sir. May I ask what type of plant they were?" Because there wasn't a plant on the planet that could eat a whole person.
"Oh, I haven't the foggiest." His General says with a grin, and leans back against the front counter, making himself at home.
"They weren't... from space, were they Sir?" Cody asks, watches glee flash across his General's face.
"I wouldn't possibly know, my dear." And his eyes dare Cody to ask the next question.
"They didn't have names by any chance?" He obliges.
"Ah," his General says, rubbing his beard in faux thoughtfulness, eyes absolutely alight with mischief, "now that you mention it, it is possible that one of two of them may have been called Audrey."
"I see, Sir. So now that we've established that you would lose a fight against an actual plant, what can I help you with?"
The General presses a hand to his chest in imagined hurt, and gasps in offence.
Cody waits him out, amused.
"Well," his General starts once he's pulled himself together, "My brother's wife has just given birth to twins. And I thought she might appreciate some flowers."
Cody tilts his head.
"Is she a practical woman or super fancy?"
"Oh, both." His General says with a fond smile. "Incredibly stylish, but won't hesitate to do what needs to be done. She has a remarkably quick draw on a pistol, for a politician."
"In that case, Sir, I can make you up some flowers, but you'll also want to be bringing her something actually useful. As many frozen meals as you can manage, and snacks. So many snacks."
"Ah, that sounds like the voice of experience, my dear. I'll bow to your wisdom."
"That's what you get for having an infinite number of brothers, and a deadbeat dad, Sir. Now, do you have any starting point at all for what type of flowers she'd like?"
"None whatsoever." His General confesses happily. "You'll be able to find her on the net though, that will probably give you a much better idea than I ever could. Padme Amidala."
Cody frowns.
"Should you be telling me that, Sir?" That's more than enough information to work out the personal identity of a highly secretive intelligence officer.
His General just grins at him.
"I don't know what you're talking about, my dear. My name is Obi-wan, and I'm an extremely boring civil servant. If I don't give people more details of my job it's because I'm secretly an excise man, and I can't handle the shame of it." Cody is reluctantly impressed by that. They had been hunting smugglers. Technically. It was just the smugglers in question were dealing in children, rather than tobacco or alcohol. Another truth 'from a certain point of view'. "I see no reason why I can't share my identity with an extremely charming, very attractive civilian flower shop owner."
This might be the first time Cody's ever been described as 'charming'. Most people opt for 'grumpy bastard'. At least, until they meet Alpha. He sighs.
"As you say, Sir."
"Are you ever going to drop the Sir?" Obi-wan whines.
"That would be shockingly poor customer service, Sir." Cody deadpans.
The bell above the shop door jangles violently as Alpha shoves the door open and stalks inside, arms full of roses, thorns scraping his skin, leaving blood red pinpricks all over his arms.
"Kenobi." He says with a nod as he strides towards the back.
"Seventeen." Obi-wan - Kenobi, apparently - replies.
Then Alpha pauses, glancing between them. Cody can see the evilness cross his face in real time. He sighs again. He's long ago learnt it's useless to try and stop Alpha.
"Should have known it was you this little shit was pining for."
And then he's gone, into the back on silent feet.
"Disinfect your arms, or I'll do it for you!" Cody shouts after him.
Obi-wan is studying him, head tilted, a small little smile on his lips and something that might be hope in his eyes.
"Pining?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Pathetically, apparently." Cody confirms.
Obi-wan hums, a happy little noise, and his hand comes up to rub at his beard again.
"He once stared longingly into space for an entire second, the disgusting sap!" Alpha calls from the back room. "I nearly disowned him then and there!"
Obi-wan's eyes are absolutely alight with humour, and his mouth is carefully set in the way it does when he's trying not to laugh.
"Ponds informed me that a single solitary tear rolled down my cheek." Cody tells him, utterly grave.
Obi-wan takes a fraction of a second to gather himself, before asking
"Were you holding a single white rose at the time?"
"Who can say." Cody answers. "I'm afraid the security footage was mysteriously deleted."
Obi-wan strokes at his beard again, hiding his mouth, then drops his hand and tucks his arms into his sleeves. Another familiar gesture.
"Well, this seems like a good time to confess that I may have been afflicted with a similar condition."
Cody narrows his eyes, immediately suspicious. Obi-wan tilts his head, curious. Cody breathes in slowly. Something about this has a distinct whiff.
"Why did you decide to come to this flower shop, Obi-wan?"
Obi-wan's eyes also narrow.
"My childhood friend, Quinlan, recommended it to me."
Quinlan is not a common name. The stench gets stronger.
"My brother Fox has a sort of colleague called Quinlan." Cody observes mildly.
"Quin's Fox is your brother? Those scheming bastards." Obi-wan breathes, and Cody has to fight down a grin.
"We've been set up." He confirms, grim. He thought he'd caught the distinct odour of brothers.
Blue-grey eyes meet his, filled with determination.
"This calls for retribution."
Cody nods in agreement, grabs his jacket and his keys.
"You've got the watch, Alpha!" He calls, as he pulls open the door. "I'm taking my excise man on a date!"
"You are?" Obi-wan asks, mild, eyes glittering with delighted mischief as he follows.
"Unless you have any objections?"
"Not at all, my dear. Did you have somewhere in mind?"
"I was hoping you'd know somewhere good for scheming and plotting retribution, Cyare."
"Oh."
Cody turns, sees the flush on Obi-wan's cheeks.
"Yes," he says, blinking rapidly, "I know just the place."