Prompt: codywan, accidental baby acquisition? Love your writings!
Thank you for the prompt, I hope you like it!
Cody shared a glance with his general, conveying his confusion through the slightest way he tilted his chin back.
"I think we have a stow away," General Kenobi chuckled, gazing down warmly at the small Mon Cala child floating in mid-air, giggling. They had fallen out of the vent and been reflexively caught by the Jedi with the Force, the general letting out a surprised gasp.
They were almost a full day out from the planet they had left.
"We don't have time to turn back, sir," Cody muttered, making tighten the 212th's guard duty whilst on planet. "Ryloth needs these supplies since their trade routes have been compromised."
The general hummed as he floated the child towards himself, examining a dark blue bracelet on his arm that made his shoulders slump almost imperceptibly.
"We won't need to worry about distressed parents, at least," the general observed.
Cody frowned. "Pardon, sir?"
There was a sad sheen in the general's eyes when he looked up at him.
"They're an orphan," General Kenobi informed him, his lips flattening into a thin line.
Cody twitched, something inside of him twisting. General Kenobi had informed him of what the word meant some months ago, and, whilst he couldn't relate to the feeling of losing a parent, he could relate to not having any at all.
"What do we do?" he asked the general.
There was nothing in the regs manuals to cover a situation like this.
General Kenobi glanced down at the squirming child in his arms. Cody assumed the fact that it hadn't spoken yet was normal for their age. He really had no idea how old they were, nor any frame of reference for what that meant for their development. He had a hard enough time determining the ages of natborn children.
"I suppose we'll just have to take care of them until we get time to return them to their planet, or get them somewhere safe. They unfortunately don't keep official record of refugee orphans on Lycesta, so there won't be any legal ramifications," the general mused, bouncing the child lightly, as it had begun fussing in his hold.
The child twisted, reaching out a webbed, peach-coloured hand from over the general's arms, threatening to tumble out of General Kenobi's grip.
The general followed the direction of the child's flailing limb, grinning at Cody when his gaze landed on him.
"It seems they want you," he observed, taking the few steps towards Cody and depositing the child in his arms.
Cody scrambled for a few seconds, trying to get a good grip on the still wriggling body. His guts churned as terror coursed through his veins at the thought of dropping the child. He shot a desperate look at the general that he hoped conveyed the depth of his alarm, but obviously failed to communicate the true scope of it, as the general stepped away.
However, before the general could get any further than a single step, the child squawked, launching themselves at the general and forcing the Jedi to catch him. They then proceeded to turn around in his hold and make grabby hands at Cody until he had stepped back within touching distance of his general. Only then did the child finally settle, leaning back into the general with a sigh.
General Kenobi cupped the back of the kid's head, a small, high sound escaping from the back of his throat.
Cody glanced up at him sharply. He'd never heard the general make a noise remotely like that before.
"Their scared," the general murmured, his voice almost a whisper.
Cody swallowed back the stickiness that had suddenly latched onto his throat.
"What now?" he asked, voice equally quiet.
"We should get them up to the healers," the general decided after a moment's hesitation. "And organise some food for them."
Cody nodded. That sounded logical.
"It's lucky that we've already completely our paperwork, isn't Commander?" the general assessed with a small smile as they begun to walk, shoulders brushing as they did. "It seems we will be indisposed for the foreseeable future."
Cody felt his lips twitching upwards. "I've always greatly enjoyed our efficiency, General."
That night saw Cody bunking with General Kenobi.
After a warm meal and a lot of cuddling, the child had eventually let them stray more than a metre apart, but she would still cry out if either him of the general left her sight.
Helix had checked her out and thankfully, she seemed to be in full health, or at least she was according to the manual on Mon Calamari children that the healers at the Jedi Temple sent over to Helix. General Kenobi had sat with Cody as they both poured over it whilst the child played with a few soft toys that a few of the vode had fashioned out of offcuts of cloth from the storage lockers.
"We will try and send someone out to retrieve her," General Windu had informed them during the hasty meeting that had been slapped together once General Kenobi had informed them of the situation.
"Optimistic that the Senate will approve such a mission, I am not," General Yoda hummed, frowning. "Especially obstinate they have been as of late."
Both Helix and the Temple Healer that they had commed said it could be hugely detrimental to the child's wellbeing to force her apart from either him or the general for any length of time when she had already clearly latched onto them. So, for now, Cody was stuck with the general, both of them with their shared tiny shadow.
His chest had been filled with a weird glowy feeling all day, and he'd smiled more than he ever had before, his cheeks warming whenever the General looked at him.
He really didn't know what was happening to him.
"That should be it," General Kenobi announced with a grunt, standing up.
The general's bunk was only slightly bigger than the standard issue ones in the barracks, not nearly large enough to comfortable fit both of them and the child, as she'd been demanding. So, they'd pushed the general's small desk out of the way, pulled the thin mattresses off each of their bunks and pushed them together on the floor. The general had just finished arranging as many blankets as he'd been able to scrounge up into a sought of nest.
It really did. Cozy is the word Cody would use to describe it. Another bit of vocabulary picked up from his general.
"There's need for such formalities in private," General Kenobi assured him. "You may call me Obi-Wan, Cody. It seems if we are to be co-parents for the time being, after all."
Cody frowned, contemplating that for a few seconds, before he nodded. "It looks good, Obi-Wan."
It was worth it just to see the way the general beamed at him.
The child let out a huge yawn from where she had been sitting on the general's now bare bunk.
"I think it's time for bed," the general observed and Cody nodded, walking over and scooping the kid up into his arms before kneeling down and gently depositing her in the centre of their makeshift bed. He'd shed his armour when they'd begun rearranging the room.
The general - Obi-Wan - puttered around for a few more minutes, turning off the lights and making sure the night light that Waxer had given them, which cast a dim but warm orange glow across the room, was plugged in properly, before he finally joined them both.
It took a bit of shifting as they negotiated their positions around the small body which had already curled up on the bed, but eventually they settled.
Both their bodies were curled protectively around the little girl in between them, with Cody's chin resting on Obi-Wan's head.
He ran a hand through the Jedi's soft hair, feeling the warm glow in his chest intensify as his eyes slowly slipped shut.
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