Cody lets his offer settle in the air between them for a moment. “Your thoughts?” he asks after a moment, casual and casually avoiding bumping into the corner they’re rounding.
Obi-Wan comes to a stop, hands vanishing into sleeves. His eyes drop to Cody’s lips for such a microscopic moment Cody thanks his abilities to see it anyway. “A bold suggestion, I must say.”
Don’t make me beg, Cody thinks and raises an eyebrow.
“Tempting as well,” Obi-Wan continues, eyes straying down again. “Tempting indeed.”
Cody bites his lip, making Obi-Wan’s gaze snap up. “I’ll order everything we need,” he says quietly, voice going low and raspy against his will. “Next shore leave. You, me, and the ancient GAR filing system.”
They need to hurry. He cools down the… micro waver or however it is called, dries the mugs with a snap of his fingers. “Cody. Bedroom, now.” Obi-Wan shouldn’t enjoy this but life is short. “Bring the cats.”
Cody gestures at him, slack-jawed. “I’m— No.”
——————————————————
“Cody?” Obi-Wan has a degree in politeness and etiquette so he’s not unlocking the protection and warning charm he placed on Cody’s door the last time he was here, and let himself in without invite. He knocks. “It’s me. Ben.”
“How about you try that again,” is grunted through the door, “Ben.”
Obi-Wan sighs, closes his eyes for just a second and indulges in the defeat. Fair enough. He’s lied to Cody, he’s paying the price willingly. “It’s me. Obi-Wan. Can I come in, please?”
It takes minutes that feel like they mockingly stretch into hours as he shifts his weight, his cane scraping across the floor.
He lays a hand against the door, the magic flowing away from it and into the doorframe. It sneaks through the air, a hum that reverberates back to Obi-Wan, a feeling that tells him if everything is in place, unhurt, alright.
The door opens with a jerk, a displeased Cody behind it.
Obi-Wan takes his hand and his magic back. All of it as he straightens under Cody’s gaze. The glamours fall. The cane becomes visible. As do the scars, his mangled eye.
Cody’s breath stutters, chest rising sharply, but he doesn’t look away, doesn’t turn away for which Obi-Wan is glad.
“No more lies,” he says softly. And, “I’m sorry.”
“Aayla did say you have a worksona.” Cody swallows, steps aside.
“You know,” Cody starts once Obi-Wan has limped inside and sat down on the sofa.
Obi-Wan looks at him expectantly.
Cody points a hand at him, shakes it like he’s getting words in order, and turns around to his kitchen. “I’m making tea. Wolffe, watch him.”
The cat, the one missing an eye, jumps up next to Obi-Wan. It stretches, claws extended with warning.
“Hello there,” Obi-Wan thinks, loud and clear. He greets the familiar with the respect that is expected, hand with the Circle’s insignia held out, the essence of who he is and what his intentions are pooling in his palm.
The cat steps closer with its head held high, and sniffs at his palm.
Cody comes back a few minutes later and puts down the mugs with a nonplussed look. “Traitor,” he mutters to Wolffe who’s curling backwards over Obi-Wan’s thigh to get his belly scratched. He sits down on the ottoman and takes one of the mugs.
“I,” he starts, snaps his mouth shut at the crack in the word.
“I am sorry, Cody,” Obi-Wan says again. Doesn’t notice the lightning zapping through his palm.
“I am so angry with you,” Cody gnashes out. “You lied to me, wholesale. It’s been months and I have to find out you’re a sorcerer—“
“Witch,” Obi-Wan corrects softly. “It’s— it isn’t a synonym.”
“Witch, then,” Cody says, teeth bared. “I have to find out you’re a witch from my cats because I was unconscious for the property trespassing you did!”
“And I apologize for that—“
“I could’ve really used the help in understanding all of—,” Obi-Wan’s heart cracks as Cody throws up a hand, encompassing everything and nothing, “of this.” He looks at Obi-Wan, breath barely under control. “I dreamed of you hunting me down like prey the first night after I got my powers.”
Obi-Wan breaks the eye contact, shame flushing up his neck. “That had been the plan.”
Cody shakes his head in disbelief. “I—“
Lightning strikes. Zaps up from the Circle insignia on his hand, burns in his skin. Obi-Wan looks back up at Cody, stands up. “Where is your bedroom,” he demands, hand stretched out towards the door and surrounding wall. “Protect. Silence.”
Cody splutters behind him as the spells weave into the charm. “Could you repeat that for the sake of my mind? Is that a charm on my door?”
Obi-Wan takes the mug from Cody, calls the other mug to his thumb to hook over, and goes to the kitchen to drain both. “I assume you have a mirror in your bedroom which is large enough for us to use.”
“I do not have a one-track mind,” he hears Cody grieve to himself, and can’t help the grin he adamantly pushes from his face before Cody can see.
They need to hurry. He cools down the… micro waver or however it is called, dries the mugs with a snap of his fingers. “Cody. Bedroom, now.” Obi-Wan shouldn’t enjoy this but life is short. “Bring the cats.”
Cody gestures at him, slack-jawed. “I’m— No.” The lightning gets more insistent, enough to finally attract Cody’s attention. “What is happening?”
Obi-Wan stands straight. “Danger is close by and I want you far away from it. I’m minimizing the traces of you having been here recently. Where is your bedroom.”
They hurry by the kitchen, through the door, Cody squeezing past to open the closet, cats in his arms, and reveal the mirror covering the door on the inside.
“What danger? Where are we going?”
Obi-Wan touches the mirror, the Circle insignia spreading across it, unlocking it with a twist of his wrist. He turns to Cody and just, just pauses. He limps close. “I haven’t earned your trust yet. I need you to trust me all the same. Please, Cody.”
Cody swallows.
.
That is… curious. The charm is difficult to break. It is elegant in a way he wouldn’t associate with the spell caster, although it is indeed curious why it’s there in the first place. Fett Junior is learning, it seems.
He twirls a tattooed finger, smiling as the doorknob squeals open like a pig. The door swings inward with a nod, bowing away from him as he steps into the apartment.
It is quiet.
Quiet and dark and abandoned.
He quirks an eyebrow at his instinctual assessment.
The darkness is natural. Streetlights doing only so much to illuminate the shapes of mismatched furniture.
A whimper. Small, helpless, and cut off.
He twirls a finger.
More whimpers. He smiles. More and more and more whimpers as the familiar is dragged out from under the tv shelf by red, beautiful magic.
“Found you, little spy.”
The familiar is shoved across the carpet, its claws shredding the fabric and fibers. “Please, no.”
Maul tilts his head. “You should be used to this by now, useless familiar.”
It whimpers like he stepped on it.
“Tell me everything.”
Its eyes go satisfyingly glassy, its body sitting straight under his command. “Cody Fett has mastered the third element.”
.
“London?”
Obi-Wan shrugs. “It is a bit too close to your location —“
“There’s a whole ocean between us,” Cody sputters.
“— while Coruscant is easier to hide in, your London is doing its job.”
A red bus flies by them. Languages of all kinds flutter around them, and that is at least just like home.
“We need to take the Tube,” Obi-Wan says, watching their vicinity.
No answer, no complaint, nothing from behind him.
“What is it?” Obi-Wan turns around, Wolffe curled around his neck.
Cody stands stone silent, wide eyes finding his, as he holds on to two familiars.
His heart skips a bit, stops for a heavy moment as it presses into his rib cage.
“Where’s Fox?”
.
“Obi-Wan Kenobi has found Cody Fett,” the red furred familiar says with blank eyes.
The magic snaps involuntarily in Maul’s hand and the familiar stumbles out of its hold.
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