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noblemaiden-world · 2 years

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Whelve

Start here -> Episode One -> Episode Two -> Episode Three

— Pairing: Anakin Skywalker x fem!jedi!reader x Suitless!Darth Vader!Anakin Skywalker

—Words count: 3.5k

— Warnings: pregnancy,slightly ptsd

— Disclaimer: some words in italic will be use as well in past phrases situation as in thoughts,I hope everyone will be able to understand 😅 btw,soon the story will be set in Kenobi series altogether with your own backstory flashbacks.!!!Reminder: English is not my first language and this is my first imagine/story,be easy on me cuz I'm emotional lmao.

Summary: Events before Kenobi series,a brief part of your life before the Republic fall,you will always love Anakin,unfortunately the dark side ripped him from you, leaving a heartbroken wife,nevertheless you don't accept being easily defeated,standing strong and tall,well you guess at least.

(Y/N) narrative

Before the Order 66 I've already left the order,why?Things were turning dangerous between me and Anakin,a year before I got secretly married just C-3PO,RD-D2 and my master being our presents witness.Anakin was against the idea of my master being present,but still he's like a dad to me and we'll,the moment after my first kiss with Anakin he discovered,nothing more than fair.

When I said I wanted to leave the order,each one master sitting on their setas was astonished,master Graham also got caught by surprise,his eyes had a dreadful stare at me,Yoda were the first to say something asking why I'm leaving,I couldn't say; "-Master Yoda,fortunately I'm a blessed Jedi,because I'm pregnant so that is the reason I'm leaving the order,not because I do not agree with the methods,well that's a good reason to leave too and since Ahsoka left...I have my reason's."

Obi-wan and Graham looked at me again while I was leaving the room,Obi-Wan face was blank and Graham face was saying "-Wait for me,we need to talk,don't you dare leave without explain why the heck you're leaving the order."

I'm frightened,I hid this pregnancy since the beginning when I knew.

I was ready to leave,my lightsabers were on my bed rolled up in a cloth,my backpack filled with some clothes,the bare necessities and credits,well all of them I will need to do my baby's bedroom and some beskar armour that I was given in past missions.

However when I was leaving my dorm a hasting tall figure gripped my wrist pushing me against the nearby wall behind me,surrounded by him I was,Anakin bloody Skywalker, my husband.

–Why are you leaving,why are you leaving me?Had I did something wrong?Y/n please...-both of his hands cupps my cheeks,his blues eyes scanning me carefully,but there's something up to behind that look.-Please reconsider,don't leave me,I can't lose you too,my love.

– Ani...-I raise both of my hands holding back his own.-I-I I'm pregnant.-I blurted out,well it seems now that the weight that I carried on my back has seemed eased,relieved indeed.

The Anakin first reaction was just stare blank at me,until a few seconds the beautiful smile that I adore sprouted,then his hands began to stroke the back/surface of my hands,while holding them he says;

-That's...That's wonderful

-What are we going to do...-I'm so scared,like me?a jedi PREGNANT?Well, this is the basic result of making love...Doing it multiple times,who am I trying to fool,there's is nothing to be ashamed of,this baby is a blessing.

-We're not going to worry about anything right now,this is the happiest moment,happiest moment of my life.-honestly,this man is going to be the death of me.

Saying no more,his left hand that arise to cupps my face right side cut the space between our faces kissing me with such warmth,love and care.

Somehow my doors dorm slid open,making Anakin and me in an eye blink going inside while kissing,I do not want to be apart from his lips,but my lung begged for air,then after this kiss due to our erratic breathing,mostly by my part of course,Anakin with one of his hands still on the right side of my face and now the cybernetic one stronking my belly,now with a huge and visible bump he says;

–Darling,after giving birth to the baby will you reconsider coming back to the jedi temple,to the order, to my arms,won't you?-I sighs denying.

-Ani,when the baby comes to this world I will take care of him or her,soon all the master will discover that I had a secret baby and then, they will not accept me because I "betrayed" the Jedi path and I...

He interrupts me kissing me desperatel,his bare left hand holding the side of my face pushing me backwards against my dorm wall.

-Then I will leave the order with you,you're all that matters for me and now this baby too,we ran away to a good planet where nobody can find us and together we will raise our baby,this sounds good.-he pecked my lips on his once more,nevertheless I had to interrupt him,he can't leave the order.

-Ani,not here,not here.

-Yes,right here and now,we're already married,they cannot do anything to apart us,I won't even let this happen. ..-his right pressing my waist against his body over and over again,his hurried and hungry lips exploring my mouth,oh Force give me strength!

-Darling,wait.-I know that my body didn't want to give it away from my husband warmth body,thus one of us need to be wise.–You cannot leave the order Ani,you are the chosen one,remember you are the one who will bring balance to the force,besides that imagine what Obi-wan would feel if you leave him,you're like a son to him or brother it would be a blow to his heart after..you know,he can't lose you

His eyes softened,still holding me.

-What about your master too?You still a padawan my love,why don't you became earlier a jedi knight, why took so long?And now you're going to leave the order,who's going to look after you if not me and your master?Not far too much time ago you've been receiving kidnapping attempts,I worry about you y/n,this is not a selfish feeling,I do want to protect you even when I know that you can take care of yourself,please love please.

I can't look back at my decision now,what is done is done.

-Oh Ani,I will not going too far away from here,no need to worry,because I will be at a good apartment here in Coruscant with a marvelous sight towards the Sacred Temple,you can come anytime to stay with me.-anxious I was waiting for his response,he knows that I won't come back to the Jedi temple,as I reckon I will be raising my baby with a healthy childhood,thinking in this way...It would be delightful to have my husband by my side,fortunately or unfortunately he have his jedi duties,bring balance to the force and...

That's rubbish,this is so unfair,his whole destined to an old prophecy which I don't truly believe,this burden resting on his shoulders...

-I understand love.-he hugs me,closing the space of our bodies.- You are doing this to protect the baby,our little family,I understand now,but if you bethink again I will stand by your side as I've been always doing so.

-I love you,Anakin,make sure to sneak out from your dorm and lay with me at the night.

-Goes without saying that.-he tilts his body calmly kissing my forehead.

After our wee fight and then the reconcilement,Anakin left me to solve his others duties,wasting no time I finally walked away,until in the huge outdoor hall of the Sacred Temple,master Calian came rushing to me with a stern feature,I had hidden this pregnancy even from him,probably he's gonna kill me.

-Wait,stop walking girl.-yeah,he's mad.-Why are you leaving,why?

-I'm so sorry master,but I had to do so if not...I would be expelled in another way wanting it or not.

-No,you would not,because if you were so,I would go with you,I promised you years ago,young lady you're like a child of mine own which I'm willing to look after,you cannot just turn your back and r...

-Master,I'm pregnant.-I cut his speech.-I can't talk any longer,not here at least,someone...-I lowered my voice.-Might hear us.

Master Calian just stared at me with no reaction,for the first time he did not know what to say,he has a sharp tongue and always snap back with a question or an answer, but now..I would have laughed by his features if this wasn't tragic,I know what is at risk,no matter what will happen my duty now is with this baby.

-W...I mean,holy moly y/n how did you...

-Master not here and you know pretty well how I ended up with a baby inside my belly.

Did he forgot that he was the one that I invited to my secret marriage with Anakin back in Naboo?

[Time breaks]

At y/n new apartment,her master Calian Graham was rubbing his forehand, thinking and bethinking,his kid pregnant?Anakin Skywalker being the father,a stubborn and reckless Jedi as he was,well his padawan is not a saint,he knows but the picture of her being the little kid that he once took to the jedi temple and beyond that,you're gifted with amazing force abilities which is the reason you have troubles with kidnapping and murdering attempts and now that you left the order,how he's gonna look after you and after your baby within pretty well will have an uncountable midi-chlorians running through it body-veins.

Graham lecture you,even though he can't blame you of anything because he's the one who did nothing to spare you or Anakin attachments from each other.

-Y/n...-with a soft voice he starts.-The war it just the beginning to something bigger,I don't know exactly what is going to happen,but I felt it and I know that you too know.

-I try to ignore now,master I'm due in a few weeks,I can't be stressed or worried,it's unhealthy to my baby and even me,please I know what is at risk but I can't look back now,please don't look at me with in this way,I know that now you want to leave the order to help me and Anakin, I know that you also like him what I wanna mean is...Don't leave the order,not right now,I'm begging you master,look after him cause you're the one who have the mind in the right place.

Calian sighed defeated by his padawan,she was not even a jedi knight yet, how will she... No, calian has trained you too well and knows that if you managed to hide your belly bump for nine months until almost the end of your pregnancy stage from him, you are capable of taking care of yourself,you're one with the Force and the Force is with you,no matter what.Defeated,master Graham agrees to your terms, he would look after Anakin.

Time has passed,it was night at the time when Anakin with his bare abdomen raise his body from a nightmare in which he saw you dying in childbirth,screaming and sobbing,how such suffering.He got out of your sharing bed,picking up something to wear going to the main room be thinking about what he had saw in his nightmare which now he's saying to you it was a vision,which you half-half did not believed,"there's something behind it,I deep inside I know it" your senses are telling you,differently when his mother were kidnapped.

Firstly when he abruptly woke up and got out bed,you missing his warmth body, letting a cold air mass touches your skin beneath the blankets making you wake up

You come to meet him by side wearing a silky marine blue robe,approaching Anakin body your touch trespass against his back neck and the bottom of his curly hair.

-What is bothering you,Ani?

-Nothing.-He touches the jappor snippet necklance that he has given to you when both were kids,you being two years older than him.-I remember when I gave this to you.

"Something is really bothering him,I know Anakin like the back of my hand,he's trying to change the subject.I will no more wait for his honesty when it comes to be too late."

-Anakin,how long is it gonna take for us be honest with each other?-slowly his face dodges to the side staring to somewhere when he speaks,finally.

-It was a dream like the ones I used to have about my mother just before she died and...

-Ani.-you softly says,now picking timidly his right hand and with the other free hand you caress his shoulder.

‐[...]It was about you.

-Tell me.-you say so he could continue about his "dream".

-It was only a dream.-therefore he says, getting up again leaving your touches behind,you hated seeing him in this way.-You die in childbirth.-thus he continued turning to see you,the way he's looking at you,you did not even think when the question blurbs out of your mouth.

-And the baby?-you put both your hands on your belly as if it would protect what's inside,you want this child more than anything,thud this is not the only reason why did you leave the order.

-I don't know.-you shakes your head ignoring what was plotting in your mind and approach Anakin newly.

You shake your head ignoring what something was plotting in your mind and approach Anakin newly.

-I won't let this one become real.

-This baby will change our lives,master Calian found a way to give me back my lightsaber and afford me a good shuttle and if the council discovers that you are the father you'd be expelled.

-I know I know.-analysing his features, he was thinking in something else moving his engloved hand as if it was saying to me calm down.

-Do you think...Obi-wan would be able to help us?

-We don't need his help.-he continues.-Our baby is...-his grip tighteness around you body bringing you near him,finally letting a small smile sprout, hugging you firmly,with you in his arms he knows that you will be away from any harm.

Then both of you came back to your huge bed together,you comforts him so he would be able to sleep in your embrace,now it was your turn to know that while he is around you,inside your embrace and care you knows he would be safe.

Henceforth, while Anakin was not around and no one else, you in your room with a small notebook wrote down possible names for your future baby, though you did not even asked yet Anakin's opinion, the list was getting longer, you checked if the name chosen by you matched with the surname of your beloved, Skywalker.

-Luke hmm Skywalker?Leo Skywalker,hmm nah...Maybe Timothee?Hm nah.-you looked out at the window and in hope,as if it was a pray,you ask the force.-What do you think,which name could match,when the time arrives,will you help me?-finishing the sentence,quite immediately a calmly cold breeze whoosh past your face making you feel a slightly shiver over ye whole body,most people wouldn't believe you if you told 'em that you have literally an amazing bond with the force,gifted you already know that your baby would be so,there's is no doubt that your genes with the Skywalker ones would create powerful child,nevertheless you want to raise your child in a peaceful way,not raise it with all the jedi stuff.

When went to prepare something to eat, an awful seating sound echoes all over your mind, stopping abruptly holding on the kitchen table edges, grunting with one of your free hand resting on ye forehead trying to make this stop, "What's going on?" You wondered, until how multiple flash-visions one behind the other without stopping into your head trespasses; "Fire, wash, lightsabers igniting sound,lightsaber meeting another one in a violent combat,blasters shootings and shouts; some of pain, others of crying and others before cease getting in an absolute silence, the scene now changed again but now you were walking, leaving a ship, the heat around embracing you,it was hard to breath.

Everything broke off in an absolute silence, the scenes that passed through your head had had stunned you, everything around you seemed to humms, still leaning on the end of the table you regained consciousness,motionless you had to sat down to catch your breath back,still the ringing rumble sounds was over ye whole mind messing with the multiple scenes that you saw,it let you unhinged...

-What was that...-you questioned vacantly with a shaky voice.

-Lady y/n what has happened?You're shaking,master Anakin will kill me if he knows something bad happened to you under my sight and protection.-the poor C-3PO was afraid of your health state,y/n didn't knew until he spoke that you're trembling.

-Oh no C-3PO,I'm fine,it's just...Something blew up my mind out of nowhere.

-Was this a dreadful sign,my lady?-he comes near you bringing a cup of water in which you accepted,but were just able to took a sip.

-I'm afraid so,C-3PO.

(Y/N) narrative

After this incident, everything was ruining,I felt his fiery love towards me being bigger alongside his fear of losing me,I've told him,I've told him!Plentiful times that I wouldn't die in childbirth,my desire to live was higher and I knew, the force is by our side but he just didn't heard me and it hurts,I felt him detaching from me,he said he was gonna protect me,not letting his vision turns out real.

Deep inside me, I sensed all of this mess was planned since the beginning of the Clone Wars,searching for help I used the Whisper to reach my master and I said what was probably the plot,the jedi were gonna bury their own graves,I begged through the Whisper to Calian speaks with council about sending my husband to spy the chancellor,every time when I was near of Sheev Palpatine,a huge discomfort wave caused havoc in my force senses,as if they're saying since the beginning; "Beware,beware,he's not trustworthy,stay away from this man".

My master tried to warn the council,but their narrowed minds were already late when the truth came out, too late.

I saw the smoke coming out of the Sacred Temple, I started sobbing,I tried pack my things and go to the Temple so I could help those who might be alive fighting, but my master and C-3PO fought against me,they've told that I must care for now about my baby,if I went to the action I could lose it or even the worst,die in action.

Unlike me,master Graham went to the temple,of course I outcried him not go,but it was in vain.

Threepio attempts to make me calm was working,until Anakin arrives to figure out if I was kept safe and to wait him come back from his duties,which one?He didn't told me,just kissed tight helding my body against his.

-Anakin,I am afraid.-I touched his tunic fabric looking deep in his eyes,trying read beyond.

-Have faith,my love.Everthing will be soon set right.-he caress the sides of my face with both of his hands.-The Chancellor has given me a very important mission.-my eyes sways between his eyes and his lips,listening carefully what was he saying.-The separatists have gathered in the Mustafar system.I'm going there to end this war.Wait for me until I return,things will be different,I promise you.

And then he leaned down holding the edge of my face with a few strands of hair stuck into his hand, kissing me tenderly until he splits from me.

-Please,wait for me.

I saw he's getting inside his ship and C-3PO and RD-D2 arguing about something,I should have said something,blocked his way with my body,preventing him from what was coming,I'm so so dumb geez,I failed him,I should have fight along his side against the dark forces.

I can't lose the ones I love.Then I put my hands on the top of my belly bump whispering; "hold on little one,mommy is going to help daddy,all my force is being drained and I'm not qualified yet to fight or use them without losing control,but I must do something,will ye help mommy,won't ye?"

A humble smile sprouted across my lips while looking at my huge belly,is that size normal for only one baby?I don't know,this is the first time that I got preggie...

#star wars #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker #obi wan x reader #star wars au #anakin imagine #star wars preferences #kenobi series #anakin x you #star wars imagine #star wars imagines #star wars preference

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dwobbitfromtheshire · 7 months

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To Keep Fighting Epilogue

Part One Part Two

@estrellami-1 @goodolefashionedloverboi @wonderland-girl143-blog

A FEW MONTHS LATER. . .

It was still a long road ahead, but Hawkins was slowly recovering. The physical scars were healing, but it would take a lot longer for the others to heal, and some may never. To go through something as horrible as they did, one couldn't expect to come out the other end the same. . .

"Eddie, what did I say about narrating at three in the morning?" Steve asked sleepily.

"I am also journaling, Stevie, and it's supposed to be therapeutic," Eddie said.

"And you can't do it without the narration?" He asked sleepily.

"Nope!" Eddie said cheerfully.

"You should come back to bed. I'm a little cold, and the Buckleys are coming over for breakfast in the morning," Steve said.

"In a minute, dear," Eddie said as he scribbled away. "Hey, have you noticed that Robin's parents and your parents are spending a lot of time together?"

"What are you implying?" He asked.

"You know what I'm implying, baby," Eddie said. "Now, hold onto your boxers. I'll be there in a minute."

"Hmm, let's get rid of these. Oops, I seem to have lost my boxers, and there's nothing between me and these sheets. I also, I seem to have a little problem. I guess I can take care of it myself. . .," Steve said.

"I'm still a vampire. . .blah, blah, blah! Okay, done!" Eddie slammed the journal closed and pounced on the bed. "Precious blood bag, naked you are very."

"Please, tell me that you are not going to speak like Yoda while you fuck me back to sleep?" Steve asked and Eddie grinned. "Your accent is terrible."

The next morning, Steve and Eddie woke up early. Steve, who didn't mind waking up so early, was grinning. Meanwhile, Eddie was scowling and mumbling under his breath as he leaned heavily against Steve while they walked downstairs.

"Steve, why did you let me stay up so late?" Eddie grumbled.

"I told you to get some sleep. Don't make me slap you," Steve said.

"I'll just have Hopper arrest you for domestic abuse. We have an in, I used to sell him weed," Eddie said.

"Yeah, right," Steve said, slapping him on his ass.

"I'm awake," Eddie jolted up.

They stumbled into the kitchen to find John and Maggie moving about the room, already preparing breakfast.

"You need any help?" Steve asked.

"No, thank you, love. We figured we'd cook and then leave the cleaning up to you kids," Maggie said.

"Seems fair," Eddie yawned.

Steve pulled up a chair and smiled when Eddie plopped down in his lap.

"Besides, it looks like your boy there might need some extra sleep," John said in amusement. "He's looking a little dead."

"He is not a morning person," Steve said fondly as he rubbed his back.

Eddie slumped down and buried his face into Steve’s neck.

"It's too early to mock me," he mumbled.

"You two are rather adorable," Maggie laughed.

"I think you might be a little biased there, Maggie. You did make the very lap that I'm sitting in," Eddie said, lifting his head.

"I didn't make you, dear, and I still think you're very adorable," Maggie said, pinching his cheek.

"I think I'm going to need more convincing, Mags, if you want me to be your son in law," Eddie said, smirking, and she laughed.

Moments later, the Buckleys entered the kitchen with Robin bouncing in front of her parents. She bounded over to Steve and Eddie while her parents greeted the older adults.

"Oh, Steve, you have something on your lap!" Robin exclaimed.

"What is it?!" Eddie shrieked and jumped off his boyfriend's lap.

"Oh, it was just a metalhead vampire. It's gone now, though," Robin said.

"Oh, very funny, Buckley," Eddie hissed, baring his fangs at her.

"Ooh, I'm scared," Robin said, deadpan. "I'm shaking."

"Steve, tell her how scary I am," Eddie said.

"You're very scary, baby," Steve said, and Eddie preened proudly.

"Told ya," Eddie said.

"Breakfast is done. Robin, go set the table," Melissa Buckley told her.

"Why me?" Robin asked.

"Because you're being a menace," Richard told his daughter.

Once they settled down to breakfast, Steve made note of his parents' interactions with Robin's, trying to see what Eddie saw. He did notice that they seemed more inclined to talk with each other than the three young adults. Melissa seemed to make sure that she was always touching his mother's arm. Richard, meanwhile, seemed to pat John's shoulder, letting it linger longer than necessary. He also seemed to lean in to his father's space a lot. Steve shook his head. No, he didn't see what Eddie was talking about.

"I don't get it, Eddie," Steve said.

Breakfast was now over. The parental units had retired to the living while the others cleaned up in the kitchen.

"Get what?" Robin asked as she dried a dish.

"Early this morning, he said something about how our parents are spending a lot of time together," Steve said. "I still don't get what he meant."

"Come on, Stevie," Eddie grinned, tilting his head at him.

"Oh my god!" Robin gasped.

"Someone gets it!" Eddie exclaimed.

"I didn't tell you yet, but I came out to my parents. They were perfectly fine with it, and guess why?" Robin asked.

"Because they love you?" Steve questioned.

"No! Well, yes. Apparently, I just missed it because, of course, I did. Before they got together, they dated other people. My mom's ex was named Alex, and my dad's ex was named Jamie. They didn't use any pronouns. How was I supposed to know that Alex was a woman and Jamie was a man? Apparently, they've always been very open about their sexuality and I just didn't pay attention very well. Also, they told me that they're open to polygamy. . .if they met the right couple!" Robin exclaimed. "Oh my god!"

"Oh my god!" Steve exclaimed. "Do you know what this means?"

"That there's a lot more queer people in this town than we thought?" Robin asked and Eddie snorted.

"No! I mean, yes, that too. If this works out, not only are we going to be sort of siblings, but we're going to have four parents!" Steve exclaimed, grinning.

"Well, five, if you illegally marry me, then you get Uncle Wayne too," Eddie winked at Steve.

"You didn't count the other parents that we also have," Robin said.

"Oh. Yeah. Sue, Charles, Claudia, Joyce, and Hopper," Steve said. "How many is that? Ten! That's ten!"

"You're not going to count the Wheelers?" Eddie asked.

"Their daughter is his ex-girlfriend. Plus, Ted, blaugh!" Robin exclaimed, making a gagging noise.

"Our family is not only large but a weird mixture of people," Eddie laughed. "I love it!"

"There is one thing that we all have in common. . . We're all freaks!" Robin exclaimed, and they all laughed. "Thank God!"

"What are you guys laughing about?" John asked as the other three parents followed behind him.

"We're just laughing at our ever expanding family," Robin said, grinning.

"Edward. . .," John said, his voice deep with a warning tone.

Eddie blinked at him. John had never spoken to him like that.

". . .Did you get my son pregnant?"

"What?! No!" Eddie yelped and then turned to Steve. "I didn't, did I?"

"What?! No! Eddie, we're both guys!" Steve exclaimed.

"Well, I don't know, Steve! I'm a vampire! Our town almost got swallowed up by an evil wizard! Anything's possible!" Eddie exclaimed.

"That's true!" Steve exclaimed, looking thoughtful.

"Great, now you've got his hopes up," Robin glared at Eddie.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try," Eddie wiggled his eyebrows at Steve.

"His parents are still in the room, son," John said. "It's bad enough that we heard you this morning. We don't need the image of you railing our son. Happy for you, though."

"Dad!"

And so this weird, intermingled but loveable family live happily ever -

"Eddie! If you ever want to have sex with me again, come back to bed!" Steve yelled.

"I haven't finished the sentence, Steve! You can't end a story in the middle of a sentence!" Eddie shrieked.

"Bed!"

"Steve, do you know how fucked - "

THE END. . .

#stranger things #eddie munson #stranger things s4 #joseph quinn #eddie stranger things #steve harrington #eddie munson lives #steddie #steve x eddie #steve harrington x eddie munson #steddie fanfiction

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thewriterowl · 10 months

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Imagine Luke having ran to Bespin to save Han and Leia......with a padawan braid. Perhaps Obi-Wan convinced Yoda that since he was being trained, technically that makes Luke his padawan and he should play out the rest of the part to understand his culture more. Yoda doesn't argue (enough as it is, fighting with Skywalkers. A Kenobi throw in, I will not) and Luke arrives to fight Vader.

Vader's inner Anakin is screaming with cuteness-over-load joy at his baby finally a padawan oh he's growing up so fast for his liking. 19 is too young to be a padawan. This chaotic little child is waving his Daddy's saber ready to fight when all he needs is a snack and a nap---

my heart

He would be so CUTE. Just so painfully adorable! Precious baby boy! And then Vader is just swooning over how precious and cute he is!

Then is just "wait...THIS is the training he has??" and just nope. He needs a little snack and nap and his cute braid needs redone.

#owl inbox

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thecleverqueer · 1 year

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Random Thoughts during the last two episodes of “The Wrong Jedi” Arc from “The Clone Wars”:

•Part three- Random thoughts during The Clone Wars S5:E19 “To Catch a Jedi”:

*Plo Koon knows that his baby daughter Ahsoka isn’t guilty.

*I get why Yoda chose Plo Koon and Anakin to go down to the lower depths to find Ahsoka; they would be the most likely candidates to talk her down from the ledge, but it still feels kind of underhanded.

*Ahsoka’s wanted poster is fierce AF. Just sayin’. Fierce AF.

*Notice that the first person Ahsoka thinks to call after the smoke clears is Barriss. Barriss seems legitimately concerned about Ahsoka’s safety. Don’t use the Jedi-com, Ahsoka. They’re watching.

*Oh Ahsoka, that cloak is not a great disguise. Your montails are literally sticking out of it. It’s adorable, but honestly… you’re not going to fool anybody.

*Ahsoka is a master of parkour.

*To hell with the bootlicking jerk on the train… Ahsoka is running from the cops because she’s being accused of a crime that she did not commit, and this dude is butting his nose in affairs that don’t concern him. Stay TF out of it.

*One should feel bad for Ahsoka at this point. She’s not thinking clearly at all. She’s cutting a hole in the roof of that elevator, and that Twi-lek kid is like, “um, use the button to stop it, dumbass.”

*Here come Ahsoka’s brothers again!

*Did Ahsoka get Ventress that pardon? That was a bold promise. I don’t think Ventress really cared. She felt bad for Ahsoka. It’s that gray coming through.

*Those looks that Ahsoka and Barriss give each other on that holo call. My god… the angst… It’s like they’re going to reach through the video somehow and kiss each other. I mean, look… look and give me one heterosexual explanation. I’ll wait:

It’s so gay, it’s ridiculous. Side note: Barriss has really f*^%ed up here. She’s still trying to save Ahsoka’s ass, but she sucks so badly at improvising that she has only succeeded in making everything monumentally worse for her.

*The hand-to-hand combat between Ahsoka and Ventress versus the Clones is so badass. Ventress goes straight feral. That move she does after Wolfe grabs her from behind…holy shit! She just growls, kicks the shit out of two clones and head butts Wolfe. Epic. “See? Didn’t kill a one. It’s the new me.”

*Barriss knocking Ventress out with the pipe to the head was savage. I still can’t tell if she’s trying to frame Ventress up as the mastermind behind the bombing, or if she thinks Ahsoka and Ventress are boning and she has decided to kick both their asses for it.

*Ahsoka has fought Ventress before. I think it’s odd that she doesn’t realize it’s not Ventress here even if Barriss is trying to mimic Ventress’s fighting style. Ventress does not stop talking shit when she duels someone. Barriss is silent.

*This is honestly a brutal ass-beating. It’s Barriss’s kicking Ahsoka into the wall over and over again for me. Ahsoka is clearly tired or something and is not fighting her best fight. Give her a break!

*Uh. It’s painful… Ahsoka just doesn’t know when to stop. She keeps getting up. Sometimes, I wish she would just stay down for a minute to recuperate.

*Aaaannnddd, Ahsoka falls right into the nano-droids. Barriss runs off as the Clones come to collect Ahsoka. *Face-palm* So either…

A.) Barriss loses her nerve, is afraid that she’s going to get caught and runs off leaving her girlfriend in an even worse predicament… because she is the worst improviser ever. Or…

B.) She’s convinced that Ahsoka is cheating with Ventress and has left her to rot. Either way, damn.

*Wolfe isn’t going to let you explain. Ahsoka is screwed.

•Part four- Random thoughts during The Clone Wars S5:E20 “The Wrong Jedi”:

*Padawan Tano is not going to get a fair trial. You heard it here first.

*Tarkin is truly awful. He has honestly had a problem with Ahsoka since The Citadel arc, and I know he’s loving all of this. F*^%ing fascist asshole.

*God, the Jedi council pisses me off here… I suppose it shouldn’t though. On the one hand, they are kowtowing to the senate. But, on the other, I mean, their hands really are tied. If it had just been the video recording of Ahsoka supposedly choking Letta, they may have been able to swing something, but between Barriss’s questionable improvising, and Ahsoka’s running, Ahsoka does look guilty AF.

*I tend to think Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Plo voted in Ahsoka’s favor.

*Ahsoka’s eyes are so sad. You can feel her stomachs drop. I don’t know why the temple guards had to be so rough yanking her padawan silka beads off either. Someone just please give her a hug and tell her that everything is going to be okay, even if you don’t believe it.

*Anakin having another Vader moment with Ventress.

*Anakin: How dare you compare yourself to Ahsoka!

Ventress: It’s true! My master abandoned me, and that’s exactly what you did to her… you and your precious Jedi Order.

Anakin: *Looking around like there are no lies detected in Ventress’s statement. Feeling that slippery slope.*

*Tarkin is aiming for the death penalty in this trial, and Ahsoka is only 17! He’s trying to put a kid to death for sedition. What a dick!

*You can tell Anakin is pissed when he gets to Barriss’s door. I’m surprised that he doesn’t kick it in, and force choke a confession out of her. He probably warned her before she and Ahsoka started dating. “Hurt her and I’ll end you.” Well, here we are.

*You are in trouble, Barriss.

*I love how Barriss is still trying to cast the blame back on Ventress. Like, no, baby, the gig is up.

*Anakin: *growling* Ahsoka trusted you and you betrayed her!

Barriss: I’ve learned that trust is overrated. The only thing the Jedi council believes in is violence.

That line… was it the cheating thing!? I’m so confused by that line. One thing that I do know about Jedi is that if they did decide to get into a forbidden relationship, they’d definitely be too autistic to cheat. Ahsoka is no exception.

*Barriss doesn’t fight with the same brutality against Anakin as she did with Ahsoka. It was almost as if she was toying with Ahsoka, and now she’s trying to save her own ass against Anakin.

*”Cease hostilities.” Oh Barriss, no.

*The end of the fight between Anakin and Barriss is my favorite part. It’s like Anakin grows tired of her bullshit, and starts raging. Like, the ONLY reason that he did not end her right there is because he needed her to go and confess to the crimes in front of the senate. You were warned, Barriss. You know you got that shovel talk.

*Anakin walks in right before that guilty verdict was handed down, and Ahsoka’s like, “Thank the force…”

*But…. It’s immediately doused with the realization that it’s…. “Barriss!? Oh shit!!”

*Someone help scrape Ahsoka’s jaw off the floor.

*Obi-Wan gives Barriss a death stare. He’s up in the peanut gallery thinking, “you stupid f*^%ing bitch.” Oh Barriss, you’ve officially lost the in-laws.

*You can tell Barriss is sorry immediately. The look she shoots Ahsoka *grits teeth*. Ahsoka is going to grow up to be the hottest lesbian in the Galaxy, and Barriss just fumbled their whole relationship. Ouch.

*Ugh, and you can tell Barriss just broke Ahsoka’s heart... I mean, look at her… she can’t even find joy in her exoneration:

This is the face of someone whose heart was just shattered into a million pieces.

*Ahsoka isn’t buying the Jedi council’s bullshit. I’m not confident that they’re knighting her here, but they did say that this was her great trial. Ahsoka doesn’t care. Ahsoka’s emotions are on 15.

*The moment Ahsoka “nopes” the return to the Jedi order still punches me in the gut. I’ve watch this arc half a dozen times, and it still hits. Jeeze. “I’m sorry master, but I’m not coming back.”

*Obi-Wan feels compelled to chase Anakin and Ahsoka down, but is stopped by Plo Koon. Oh, the emotion that Obi-Wan, Anakin AND Ahsoka would have had… knowing the three of them have zero control over their emotions combined would have been something else entirely.

*The look on Yoda’s face is brilliant, too. Yeah. He knows he has f*^%ed up royally. This is all going to end badly.

*I tend to think Ahsoka’s completely unchecked feelings are why she couldn’t remain at the temple as a Jedi. She had enough clairvoyance to know that she couldn’t stay because her emotions were completely off the charts. Not only did the Jedi council not trust her, her girlfriend betrayed her, and she’s feeling all kinds of negative feels in that moment. “I can’t stay here any longer….not now.”

*Also, Ahsoka knew about Anakin and Padme. It is confirmed here with this…

Anakin: I understand. More than you realize. I understand wanting to walk away from the order.

Ahsoka: … I know.

*Oh, Ahsoka’s tears as she walks down the temple steps towards the sunset with that music playing… Damn. Damn. Damn. 😭

*Then, you hear Ahsoka’s theme and that’s it… you don’t see her again until Season 7… where she’s smuggling drugs with her rebound girlfriend and Barriss is still living rent-free in her head. It’s art! Dammit! Art!!!

#star wars #ahsoka tano #the clone wars #ahsoka being gay #barriss offee #ahsoka and barriss #barrissoka #barriss deserved better #anakin skywalker #admiral tarkin #the wrong jedi #sw tcw

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thetreaclepeople · 11 months

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youtube

The Treacle People are back!

For the past eleven weeks, we've been uploading fully remastered, HD episodes of the 90s stop-motion comedy TV series to YouTube! There are just two episodes left of Season 1, and it's been wonderful to read all the lovely comments so far.

The show was written by Jonathan and Brian Trueman (the writer of Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and more) and is cunningly aimed at both children and adults, with multi-layered jokes that work for both. And no, it's not pantomime double-entendres (though if you ask, we'll give you one), we've got gags about Ethelred the Unready, Special Relativity, and a policeman lying low on a chop-out (it's like a stake-out except smaller and cheaper).

The premise is thus: as you all know, treacle (the sticky stuff used to make golden syrup) is mined by treacle miners in the North of England, specifically in the village of Sabden, where Professor Baines-Pilling has invented the world's first treacle-powered engine. HOWEVER. The Saben treacle mine has run dry. The community is in crisis. Chief Miner Tapper Knowle is at his wit's end. If they don't find another treacle seam, they'll all be out of a job in a month.

Enter Bill Wizzle and his Treacle Tracker, who reckons he can solve all the village's problems. Enter Rosie Mitton, his best friend and custodian of the village brain cell, without which he couldn't find a seam in his trousers. Enter Bert the Boggart, resident of Gurgle Gorge mine, whose mischievous streak is entirely forgiven on account of him being cute and fluffy. Seriously, he's adorable. Eat your heart out, Baby Yoda.

Can the youngsters save the village, or will The Treacle People come to a sticky end? Find out for yourself on YouTube!

#90s tv series #90s tv shows #animated tv series #animated tv show #british tv #kids tv #the treacle people #stop-motion #trailer #funny #Youtube

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vanishedangels · 1 year

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Clan of Warriors

Click here for First chapter

Summary: While rebuilding Mandalore, Mand'alor Din Djarin is questioned by his people because of his beliefs and origins. In the dawn of a civil war, the council resolves that The Mand'alor must join in marriage with someone close to Bo-Katan Kryze. He’s forced to marry Koska Reeves and accept a loveless union. In the meantime, Din is having a secret relationship with his son’s Master, Jedi Luke Skywalker, his dream of having his own clan of warriors is about to fade away.

Pairing: Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker

Characters: Din Djarin, Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Leia Organa, Cara Dune, Koska Reeves, Bo-Katan Kryze, Axe Woves, OC, Peli Motto, Fennec Shand, Boba Fett, Paz Vizsla, Owen Lars, Beru Whitesun, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Wedge Antilles.

Rating: Explicit (+18)

Warnings: Canon Typical Violence. Explicit Smut.

Tags: Canon Compliant, Post Season 2 Finale, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Friends To Lovers, Fluff, Angst, Demisexual Din Djarin, Top Luke Skywalker, Bottom Din Djarin, Top Din Djarin, Bottom Luke Skywalker, Protective Din Djarin, BAMF Luke Skywalker, Adorable Baby Yoda, Sassy Leia Organa, Gai Bal Manda, Blindfolds, Sub Din Undertones, Fantasies, Jealous Luke, Keldabe Kiss, Smut, Jealous Din, Dirty Talk, Face Reveal.

Chapters: 35/?

Navigation: <- Previous Chapter • Next Chapter ->

"I'm leaving Mandalore tomorrow." Luke said taking Din by surprise.

"What?"

"If being here makes you feel confused, if my presence casts doubt on your duties as Mand'alor, then I'm leaving." Luke explained and he was staring down, like he was trying to avoid Din's eyes. He looked so fragile, so helpless, in a way Din never saw him before. Something clicked in his mind making him realize that this was as painful for Luke as it was for Din.

Chapter 35: Perseverance

Din's fingers tightened against the nape of Luke's neck, still holding him still, still not believing his cyare's words.

He swallowed hard "Luke." He said his name again as his heart jumped into his throat "You can't tell me something like that and just walk away." He nodded still boring into his blue eyes. "You can't tell me I'm the love of your life and leave." He added through gritted teeth as his brown eyes filled with unshed tears.

"Please, Din, try to understand." Luke curled his hands around his biceps "And I'm giving you my answer now." He said pulling back a little "I won't give up on you, on us, so you're going to marry her and come back to me whenever you want, I'll be waiting for you."

Din's heart was thudding frantically "You're making your choice now only because I'm telling you I rejected this marriage." He grimaced "You're running away, you don't want commitment."

As Luke's lips parted Din let go of him, releasing him completely and standing up, the Jedi's eyes fixed on his face, Din stared at him feeling completely torn apart, he couldn't believe how much he adored Luke and at the same time he was feeling betrayed and, slowly, the wound in his heart was growing bigger and deeper.

"I won't marry her and that's final." Din added, curling his hands into fists.

Luke sighed, frowning and tilting his head "Please, stop it, I told you, we're talking about Grogu's future here. Din, please." He said as he rose to his feet and he wrapped his hands around Din's fists. It felt right, Luke's hands, so pleasant and soothing around his angry fists, felt right, but he didn't feel the same about little Jedi's words.

"We are Grogu's future, you and me. We're a clan. The three of us." He retorted holding his gaze.

"And I promise that won't change, I'm still training him, I'm still caring about him, and I'm still loving you, but you need to do what is right."

"And you think this is right? Have you considered that Koska is forced to marry a man she doesn't love?" Din asked making Luke gasp. "Yeah, you're so eager to step away that you didn't consider that she's sacrificing her own happiness to please the protesters and the council. And let me explain this to you, I won't marry her because she thinks the same. That this is wrong."

Din walked away completely overwhelmed trying to escape the situation, trying to escape the pain, as his chest heaved thinking that this was the end. His stomach churned at the thought of Luke choosing to keep a secret relationship when there was still a better option right in front of him. He felt rejected and affronted, even ashamed, he opened his heart and Luke shattered him emotionally just by saying "But I can't."

"Please, Din, wait." A strong but gentle hand grabbing his own making him come to a halt. He squeezed his eyes shut when he felt his cyare's arms encircling him from behind, Luke's soft lips pressed on the skin of his neck "I love you." He whispered in his ear sending shivers down Din's spine. Din turned around not able to pull away, knowing that he would always be a slave to his love, completely devoted to Luke. How could he resist those words falling from the lips of the man he loved?

He looked into his blue eyes, so sincere and full of love and he cupped Luke's face pulling him into a kiss. Luke let out a gasp that Din swallowed eagerly as the blonde's hands found his dark curls while kissing him back. The kiss deepened very quickly and Din was channelling his anger by pinning Luke against the wall and abusing his lips and neck pressing his body against him so hard that the Jedi was rolling his eyes pleading for more.

His fingers threading desperately through Din's hair while Din's lips traced a line along the column of his neck, the dimple in his chin and all the way up finally capturing his plump lips, already red and swollen, between his own. Din stopped kissing him breaking apart, looking into his eyes, Luke looked gorgeous, with his hair disheveled and his cheeks painted in pink, even the tip of his nose was blushing "I'm not doing it. Marry me, Luke." He insisted taken aback by the Jedi.

Luke's eyes blazed with sadness "I promised you nothing will change." They were both panting and their chests rose and fell with rapid breaths synchronized.

"That's your final say?" Din asked breathlessly.

"Don't treat me like I'm in charge here, it took everything in me not to say yes to your proposal." Luke sighed and Din could see tears shimmering in his eyes. "I want you as much as you want me, Din, please, don't think about us. Not now."

Din withdrew his hands from Luke's waist and started taking a few steps back.

"I'm leaving Mandalore tomorrow." Luke said taking Din by surprise.

"What?"

Warmth bloomed in Din's chest and he couldn't feel anger anymore, it was replaced by a different emotion, maybe acceptance, urging him to hold Luke in his arms to soothe him, to protect him and making him feel safe.

He closed the distance between them as Luke was staring at him with round eyes, finally wrapping his arms around his cyare and kissing the top of his head as Luke's hands found his pauldrons, bringing him close to bury his face in his neck.

"I'll miss you, cyar'ika." Din said in a low-pitched voice and his heartbeat sped up when he became aware of Luke's muffled gasps against his skin.

"I'll be waiting for you, Din." He managed to say rubbing his face against Din's jaw and blinking back tears.

Din's heart broke into pieces.

"Luke says he's leaving. I won't let him." Din said to a perplexed Paz. "May I come in?" He asked swaying on his feet as his vod moved aside letting him step into his bedroom.

Din sat down on the small couch across from Paz' bed looking around "I've never been in your room before."

Paz nodded pulling a chair and sitting in front of him "I know, not as fancy as yours. But wait, you said kih jetii is leaving." He hunched forward as Din nodded at him.

"I won't marry Koska. I'm talking to Shrune. The wedding is off." He blurted out and he could notice the way his friend's shoulders relaxed all of a sudden.

"Are you sure?" Paz asked and Din hummed. "Why?"

"I'm in love with someone else." Din answered feeling a little embarrassed, this was the first time he said it out loud and although it felt stupendous and fascinating he was very aware that this was Paz, the man would never let him live that down.

To Din's surprise Paz just sighed leaning back in his chair, crossing his arms over his massive chest "Kih jetii, huh?" He inquired making Din blush behind the secrecy of his helmet. "Don't worry, I always knew that the jetii had you wrapped around his little finger. It's okay, vod."

"I need your help if something went wrong."

Paz nodded "Count on me."

They went silent for a while.

"I'm in love too." Paz said, visor fixed on Din's face, arms still crossed, almost defensively. "Maybe she told you something already." He added and Din squirmed in the couch. Paz chuckled "I can tell you know, Djarin."

Din ducked his head, his fingers twitching against his thighs "I'm aware."

That made Paz sighed relieved, he uncrossed his arms "I know I can be a little annoying hitting on your jetii, but it's just a reflex, or some shit like that, I can't help it, he's cute and hot, uh, sorry, well, you know. But I'm in love with Koska, and she's the one for me."

"And you didn't say a word." Din leaned forward "Why you didn't speak out against the council's demand?"

He shrugged letting out a long sigh "This is the way."

"Not anymore." Din retorted raising his eyebrows under his helmet. "I wish the Armorer were here."

"Me too." Paz said under his breath "She would be part of the council as well and this shit wouldn't be happening."

"No, it's just-" He propped his elbows on the armrests "I've been removing my helmet." He said sheepishly seeing the way Paz' shoulders tensed up again. "In front of Grogu and Luke. All the time. I'm a mandalorian no more." He added under his breath.

"I don't know, Djarin." He looked around "We've been sharing our days with them, those who don't walk the way, and maybe-" He gave a half shrug "Maybe there's not only one way."

Din's pulse was pounding in his ears, he nodded at Paz feeling welcomed and somehow reassured.

"So, kih jetii, huh?" He asked playfully and Din could tell by picking up at the cadence of his speech that a sultry smile was plastered on his face.

"Vod, focus. I need to ask you something." He pointed his forefinger at him.

Paz was standing before Luke, Din was standing right beside his little Jedi holding Grogu in his arms. "I'm the one taking you off planet, Jetii." The man said tilting his head down in order to stare right in those blue eyes.

"Him?" Luke asked giving Din the side-eye.

"I trust him with my life." Din reassured him.

Little Jedi sighed nodding.

"Alright Jetii, prepare yourself, we're leaving tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night?" Luke almost yelled, his broken voice making Din's stomach flip. "Oh, no, no. I need to leave by morning." He shifted his gaze between the two men in beskar armour.

Paz leaned forward "Jetii, I'm busy till then." Din was pointedly staring at Luke, expectant. "Just chill a little, enjoy the day training the kid, or-" He moved his helmet towards Din "Else." He added and Din could tell he was enjoying teasing him without even saying anything that could incriminate Din. He was thankful his vod didn't give him away, he would have died on the spot if Luke discovered that he revealed their secret to Paz.

Din walked Paz out of his chamber and turned around trying to assess Luke's reaction. Little Jedi was frozen, just standing there, staring at him with a blank expression on his face. He started walking in his direction as Grogu was digging his little claws in his arms, urging him to put him on the ground. Din obliged and baby walked away and into his own room, leaving them alone.

"Is it that bad? To spend one last day with us?" Din asked quietly, his heart wrenching in his chest.

The blonde Jedi squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head "It's nothing like that!" He opened his beautiful blue eyes, boring into Din's soul and now Din was desperate to hold him and never let him go. "A whole day, Din. I don't think you understand how hard it is for me. I'm not that strong." Din could tell the way Luke's hands clenched and his heart broke into pieces.

Even when he was only trying to buy some time until he talk to the council, he didn't considered that he could hurt Luke in the process. And now seeing him so on edge, struggling with his own feelings towards Din, realization hit him as something unpleasant crept up on him. Was he being selfish? Was he manipulating Luke without even being conscious about it? His blood ran cold thinking that he was lying to his cyare by keeping his plan from him. Luke looked at him with eyes full of tenderness as he placed his gloved hand on the cheek of Din's helmet, caressing the slopes reverently and Din leaned into his touch, closing his eyes, sighing deeply, his heart fluttering in his chest. He slowly opened his eyes when he felt a soft push against his helmet, realizing that Luke was pressing his forehead against his own. Guilt taking him over as he watched Luke leaving his chamber, if little Jedi wanted to spend the night away from him, he wouldn't push.

Tomorrow, love. I'm fixing this tomorrow. He thought staring at the closed door, he brushed his fingers against his helmet, right where Luke caressed him, he stood there for a while, head hanging down. Tomorrow, cyare.

#dinluke #din djarin #luke skywalker #dinluke fanfiction #clan of warriors fanfic #skydalorian

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lamaenthel · 5 months

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Tivaevae | Chapter Three: Paper Piecing

Still struggling to emotionally recover from Master Obi-Wan's deception, Ahsoka discovers in the aftermath that twelve-year-old Boba Fett has been locked up among adults in the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center. After convincing Chancellor Palpatine to grant him a pardon, she manages to secure his release on the condition that she serve as his legal guardian. Now, with the help of Master Plo and the Wolfpack, she vows to help him track down what family he has left.

| AO3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |

Fandom: Star Wars Characters: Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Plo Koon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Kanan Jarrus, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CC-1119 | Appo, Dexter Jettster, FLO | WA-7 (Star Wars), Shaak Ti, ARC Commander Blitz (Star Wars), CT-6922 | Dogma, Original Clone Trooper Character(s) (Star Wars), CC-3636 | Wolffe, Clone Trooper Sinker (Star Wars), Clone Trooper Comet (Star Wars), CC-2224 | Cody, CT-5597 | Jesse, CT-4860 | Boost, Aurra Sing, Tobias Beckett, Null-11 | Ordo Skirata, Kal Skirata, Original Mandalorian Characters (Star Wars), Original Droid Characters (Star Wars), Original Jedi Character(s) (Star Wars) Total Word Count: 123,000 Chapter Word Count: 7,367 Chapter TW: CSA Mention Chapter Summary: Anakin returns to Coruscant with a new initiate, Ahsoka discovers a horrifying truth about Boba's past, and Boba tries to reconnect with Rex.

Anakin had been on Coruscant for a grand total of six hours before being gravely approached by Master Yoda with a solemn request; hurry to unstable Toydaria and retrieve a Force-sensitive toddler. Toydarian was his first language, after all, and perhaps the old toad had sensed that he wanted to be on the opposite side of the galaxy from his lying, backstabbing, heartbreaking, dick-for-brains Master.

Padmé, ever the opportunist, had jumped to offer her diplomatic cruiser for the mission. Since they had just averted the assassination of her mentor and oldest ally, it was the least she could do. It could fit a grand total of fifteen passengers; two pilots, three navigators, four guests, and six guards. They'd passed on the guards and had instead taken Dormé, Moteé, and Ellé along with Artoo and Threepio.

And, of course, little Taarak Na'Hane-Bata.

Anakin had been shocked upon landing when he discovered that instead of a Toydarian baby, he was collecting the adopted Togruta son of a pair of Toydarian physicians. They'd been devastated, despite having been the ones to contact the Temple in the first place, and the goodbye had lasted so long that even Padmé was creeping out the door in an effort to finalize their farewell. Now that he'd spent some time with the boy, though, he couldn't blame them. He was kriffing adorable, and well-behaved to boot.

Obi-Wan had once warned him about how dangerous Togruta toddlers were. They were thick with pheromones and notorious cuddlebugs who loved nothing more than to stare adoringly at their caretakers, hypnotizing them into catering to their every whim with their big sad eyes. Taarak certainly had those.

Though the two year old had cried pitifully for his parents until he had passed out from overexhaustion, when he awoke he seemed to have accepted the separation and allowed Anakin to comfort him. They sat in the lounge now at the padded bench surrounding the dejarik table. Padmé had turned it on to amuse him; he was frightened at first, but he'd quickly become fascinated with the tiny figures. He ran his little fingers up and down Anakin's tabards like he was typing on a keyboard as he stared at them, singing a nonsense song to himself and purring just like Ahsoka did when she was content.

He even looked similar to her; his skin was more blood than orange and both his lekku and eyes were a darker blue, but the resemblance was close enough to make Anakin's heart ache. He wished he could have seen Snips as a baby.

"Wanjala?" he asked Taarak with a smile.

The boy looked away from the figures on the dejarik table and nodded, grinning a wide grin that made his dimples pop. He had a blunt chin with a deep cleft that was visible even through the baby fat.

"Ndimatafuna, Taarak, inde?" Anakin popped a nuna nugget from the pile Padmé was busy unpeeling the breading from into his mouth. If Yoda had warned him ahead of time instead of just giving him a name and a pat on the ass to go get him he would have stopped at a butcher first. The nuggets were the only thing they had on board that was animal protein besides Ahsoka's carnivore rations, but Anakin didn't want to feed rations to a baby.

Padmé rested her chin on her folded hands and watched Anakin spit out the chewed-up nuna nugget and feed it to the toddler. "That doesn't seem sanitary," she said mildly, wearing an expression that looked torn between amusement and disgust.

"He doesn't have molars yet," Anakin said defensively, taking another nugget from the pile. "Their parents chew their meat for them for the first three years."

"So you said," Padmé replied, watching Taarak swallow enthusiastically.

Anakin fed him the second chewed nugget. "He also has to have Togruta formula until he's five. It's critical for their hearing development, Togruta breastmilk is very high in collagen and if they don't get enough of it the resonance chamber in their montrals won't develop properly. And we don't want that, Taarak, inde? Nyanga zathanzi, Taarak, inde, inde mwana–"

Padmé threw her head back and laughed, delighted. "Ani, I know you did research for Ahsoka, but my goodness."

"I didn't just do research, Obi-Wan made me take four different trans-xenoparenting modules on Togruta younglings. I'm pretty sure that I am the most qualified person at the Temple to take care of one." He didn't mention it was a direct consequence of almost killing Ahsoka that one time that he forgot to order her carnivore rations and she got enterocolitis from eating the troops' fungus-based nutrition bars. She'd gotten so sick that Kix had to collect a liter of Anakin's blood, mix it with red bacta, and flood her digestive system with it.

He still liked to occasionally pretend to open a vein for her when she complained about being hungry. It made her stripes turn black every time.

"I have to admit, seeing you like this is…" she smiled at him. "Intriguing."

Anakin frowned. "Like what," he asked, trying not to sound too annoyed. "Capable? Knowledgeable?"

Padmé shook her head and gave him a soft look. "Paternal."

Anakin looked at Taarak's montrals instead of his wife with a cold feeling in his stomach. "We agreed we'd talk about it after the war," he said quietly.

Padmé grasped his hand. "I want this with you, but I agree. After the war."

"I just can't bear the thought of you having to go through a pregnancy while I'm on a siege, or, or–" his vision got a little blurry and his eyes stung, " –raising one without me. And that's not even taking into account what you said about your mom–"

"Ani," she tried to interrupt.

" –how she had to use surrogates because the last try almost killed her, and you have the same mutation and I-I… Force, Padmé, if something happened to you because of it I don't know what–"

"Anakin!" she said urgently. "Taarak is getting upset, love. Please take a breath."

Taarak was squirming in his lap and his big eyes were fully porged out. Anakin centered himself in the Force and imagined the feeling of Ahsoka's aura, that calming projection she did so well; soft, silky rain riding a cool desert wind, an alkaline shower that quelled the rising acid in his blood. It worked. Not nearly as well as the real thing, of course, but enough for Anakin to bolster his shields and stop disturbing the baby. "Pepani, Taarak, pepani mwana. Chapino mwana."

Padmé reached for the bag of temperate formula bottles, shook one, and handed it to Taarak. "I didn't mean to upset you, love. I'm sorry."

Anakin huffed. "Let's blame it on the baby pheromones. They're giving us mommy brain, or whatever."

Padmé rested her head on his shoulder and watched Taarak contentedly suck. "After the war, yes, we'll talk about it. But I want this for us. I want a piece of our love to take on a life of its own. And I just know that you're going to be an amazing father, Anakin. Every second I watch you with Taarak proves that."

Anakin closed his eyes, unable to comprehend how it was possible for someone to own his very soul in the way that Padmé did. She knew exactly what to say to make him feel like the most treasured thing in the galaxy. He didn't know what he did to deserve it, but he'd do anything to protect it.

"My lady, I'd be happy to give the two of you a break if you'd like," Dormé called from the base of the ladder that led from the lounge and into the guest bunkrooms.

"That would be a good idea, I think." Padmé held her hands out for Taarak.

Anakin glanced down and met Taarak's giant eyes. He didn't really want to give him up.

"Hey now." Padmé snapped her fingers and giggled. "Don't get hypnotized again."

Anakin sighed, booped Taarak's nose, then handed him over. Padmé walked the suckling toddler down to Dormé and Anakin slumped on the bench, suddenly feeling very cold and unsnuggled.

His wife climbed back up the ladder and promptly took a seat across his lap.

"Oh," he said, blinking, then slipped his hands under her dress and up her thighs.

Padmé giggled and put a finger on his puckered lips. "I was asked to tell you that Obi-Wan has commed now for the eighth time, and is saying he urgently needs to speak to you about Ahsoka."

Anakin sat frozen for a few seconds. "What about Ahsoka?" he asked, trying to sound normal and not like he had guilt and panic writhing together like dying worms in his stomach.

Padmé raised an eyebrow. "That's all I know, love."

He reached around Padmé and brought up the message center on his commlink. He had thirty-six unread messages from Obi-Wan. Reluctantly, he slid out from underneath his wife and started paging through them, full of dread and praying to the Force that it wasn't about what he feared it was.

– [𝟶𝟷:𝟶𝟻:𝟿𝟾𝟶] – [𝟷𝟸𝟺𝟼] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> 𝙸 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝙰𝚑𝚜𝚘𝚔𝚊'𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛 𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚜 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎. [𝟷𝟸𝟻𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> ~~ [𝟷𝟹𝟶𝟸] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> ~~ [𝟷𝟹𝟶𝟾] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> ~~ [𝟷𝟹𝟺𝟷] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> 𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚎, 𝚝𝚘𝚘. [𝟷𝟻𝟶𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> 𝙰𝚗𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗, 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝. [𝟷𝟻𝟹𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> ~~ [𝟷𝟼𝟶𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> ~~ [𝟷𝟼𝟹𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> ~~ [𝟷𝟽𝟶𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> ~~ [𝟷𝟽𝟹𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> 𝙸'𝚟𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚗𝚘𝚠, 𝙿𝚊𝚍𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚗. [𝟷𝟽𝟹𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟹𝟶𝟸𝟾𝟸𝟻𝟸𝟶!𝙺𝙴𝙽𝙾𝙱𝙸> 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚘𝚞𝚜. 𝙸 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢. 𝙰𝚑𝚜𝚘𝚔𝚊'𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚕.

Anakin kept scrolling. Nothing indicated Obi-Wan knew. He exited Obi-Wan's message log and went to Ahsoka's. There was nothing new from her.

– [𝟶𝟷:𝟶𝟻:𝟿𝟾𝟶] – [𝟸𝟶𝟺𝟽] 𝙹𝙶𝟾𝟷𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟺!𝚂𝙺𝚈𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙴𝚁> 𝙰𝚁𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙾𝙺

Ahsoka's typing dots appeared after a few harrowing seconds.

[𝟸𝟶𝟺𝟾] 𝙹𝙲𝟽𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟻𝟶𝟿!𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙾> 𝙸'𝚖 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚎, 𝚠𝚑𝚢? [𝟸𝟶𝟺𝟾] 𝙹𝙶𝟾𝟷𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟺!𝚂𝙺𝚈𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙴𝚁> 𝚆𝙷𝚈 𝙸𝚂 𝙾𝙱𝙸 𝚆𝙰𝙽 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙼𝙴 [𝟸𝟶𝟺𝟾] 𝙹𝙶𝟾𝟷𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟺!𝚂𝙺𝚈𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙴𝚁> 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃 𝚈𝙾𝚄 [𝟸𝟶𝟺𝟿] 𝙹𝙲𝟽𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟻𝟶𝟿!𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙾> 𝙷𝚎'𝚜 𝚞𝚙𝚜𝚎𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚠𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚒𝚖. [𝟸𝟶𝟺𝟿] 𝙹𝙶𝟾𝟷𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟺!𝚂𝙺𝚈𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙴𝚁> 𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙴𝙻𝚂𝙴

Anakin's finger hesitated above the straight-line-dot key and the curly-line-dot key, suddenly unsure of which one was for questions.

Padme gingerly reached over the hologram and pressed curly-line-dot.

"Thank you," he said, his cheeks burning.

[𝟸𝟶𝟻𝟶] 𝙹𝙶𝟾𝟷𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟺!𝚂𝙺𝚈𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙴𝚁> ?

Anakin watched her typing dots linger for a concerning amount of time.

[𝟸𝟶𝟻𝟷] 𝙹𝙲𝟽𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟻𝟶𝟿!𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙾> 𝙲𝚑𝚞𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚊 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙𝚊 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚖𝚒.

Anakin frowned; was that Huttese? It took him a second to sound it out, but then he huffed a laugh. He'd never seen the saying spelled out in Aurebesh.

"What does that mean?" Padmé asked, squinting at the holographic interface.

[𝟸𝟶𝟻𝟸] 𝙹𝙶𝟾𝟷𝟷𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟺!𝚂𝙺𝚈𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙴𝚁> 𝙱𝙴 𝙷𝙾𝙼𝙴 𝚂𝙾𝙾𝙽 [𝟸𝟶𝟻𝟸] 𝙹𝙲𝟽𝟿𝟷𝟿𝟶𝟻𝟶𝟿!𝚃𝙰𝙽𝙾> 𝙾𝚔𝚊𝚢 :)

Anakin closed his message center after recieving his response. "She said 'his tail is on backwards' in Huttese," Anakin smirked, then wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders. "Means he's got his panties in a twist. She's fine, he's just throwing a fit about her giving him the silent treatment. Now, where were we?"

"I think," Padmé began, running her fingers through his hair, "You were about to give me a kiss."

"Sounds about right." Anakin leaned forward but she stopped him again.

"Actually," she breathed, then traced his bottom lip with her thumb. "Let's take this to the– eep!"

Anakin had already lifted Padmé, planted her bare ass on the dejarik table, and thrown her skirt over his head before she could finish her sentence.

"You know you have to name him Robert, right?" Ahsoka joked. She bumped Boba with her hip. They had stayed uncuffed on the ride home and Boba finally seemed at ease, far more than he had been since they'd left the prison. She held his visitor's pass up to Disk and he unlocked the gate for them with an eye-roll.

Boba's aura rippled with the tiniest ribbon of golden humor and he tightened his arms around the rancor plushie. "I was already going to name him Robert," he snapped. "It's not because you said it." His aura went a little yellow with embarrassment.

Ahsoka put her hands up. "Hey, name him whatever you want. I probably picked up on your thought and didn't realize it."

Boba snorted. "You reading my fucking mind, Tano?"

"Only if you think really loudly," she grinned, then stuck her tongue out at him.

He stuck it out right back.

"Alright, we're gonna bunk in the rec room tonight." She took a chance and gave him a pat on the back, which he didn't flinch away from.

"Fine."

"We leave for Tipoca City first thing in the morning."

Boba stumbled and his aura flashed lily-white with panic.

"Boba?" Ahsoka asked.

"Why the fuck are we going there?" Boba snapped. His breathing sped up and she could hear his heart pounding. Why would he be so scared to return to Kamino?

"Kamino is the only place I know of where we might be able to find information on the Cuy'val Dar," Ahsoka answered, frowning. "Is there a reason you don't want to go back?"

Boba looked down, clinging to Robert like a lifeline. "Are you going to make me donate?" he asked in a harsh whisper.

Ahsoka's heart sank. "No. No, Boba, that's not why we're going there." She took another chance and put a hand on his shoulder, projecting soothing green calm-serenity towards him. "I give you my word as a Jedi, the Kaminoans will not take a single hair from your head. Okay?"

Boba bit his lip and nodded. He looked so young in the dim, ambient light of the barracks hall. "They take bone marrow," he mumbled. "That's where the best cells are, Dad said. They'd drill into his hip and he would walk funny for a week."

"Well, they're definitely not going to take that." She patted him on the back instead of hugging him like she desperately wanted to and started walking. "Plo got us a Consular cruiser, but it's halfway through a module conversion so half of the bunks were taken out for dual laser cannons. We'll have to double up."

Boba's lip twitched. "Great, I gotta listen to your snoring the whole way there?"

She laughed, relieved that he hadn't shut down. "I don't snore, but even if I did it would be better than listening to Plo all night. He whistles if his mask slips down."

They reached the rec room and Boba plopped himself on the couch. Ahsoka stayed standing and crossed her arms. Logically she knew that she shouldn't leave him there alone, but she felt oddly certain that he'd still be there when she returned. It was the same certainty that she'd felt in the diner right before she uncuffed him. "I've got to get some stuff together. Are you going to stay put, or do I have to lock the door?"

Boba stretched out like a cat, his bruised patches making him look like a calico. He waved a dismissive hand at her and crossed his legs at the ankle. "I'm too tired to run."

"I'll be right back with some pajamas for you, then." She winked at him. "And I'll grab some pillows and sheets. We can make a fort and have a proper sleepover."

Boba stilled. His aura hardened and lost the tint of green that was so faint that Ahsoka hadn't even noticed it until it was gone.

"What's the matter?" she asked, furrowing her brow. His aura was going staticky with anxiety around the edges.

"Nothing. I-I just didn't realize that Jedi did that." Boba shrugged. "I don't give a fuck. Fine by me. I haven't gotten laid in a minute."

Ahsoka stared at him, sure that she hadn't heard him right. She rubbed her montrals and shook her head to make sure. "What?"

"What's wrong, tailhead, is it your first time?" he sneered. He hopped to his feet and swayed toward her, full of false bravado and his aura a staticky thunderstorm of flashing green disappointment and gray anxiety and yellow embarrassment and underneath it all, a familiar shade of bruise-dark violet sadness-guilt.

She stood still, warily watching Boba approach with her brow raised until he was close enough for her to smell his breath. There was no way he meant what he'd just said to sound that suggestive. He was just hopped up on sugar from dinner or something, he couldn't possibly be propositioning her.

She believed it up until he grabbed her by the lekku and yanked her down into a sloppy kiss, all clumsy tongue and teeth. She squealed and shoved him back, spitting and sputtering in panic and revulsion. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she shrieked, wiping her hand across her now-wet mouth.

"You just said you wanted a sleepover!" he barked, quickly backing up with an aura cringing in on itself with neon orange-yellow mortification-anger. "Make your fucking mind up!"

Ahsoka's jaw dropped to her chest. "What part of sleepover said 'shove your tongue in my mouth?' "

"The sleepover part, you stupid cunt!" Boba shouted back. "The fuck do you think a sleepover is?"

"What do you think it is?"

"It means you want to fuck!"

"No it doesn't!" She was going to be sick. Boba was twelve, he was twelve. "Who told you that?"

Something switched off in his eyes. The bravado drained out and left him looking smaller than ever. The backs of his knees hit the couch and he curled up on it in a ball, hugging Robert the Rancor. "Aurra," he mumbled. His aura was dripping yellow with humiliation.

"That's… that's not what it means," Ahsoka choked. "It just means that you sleep in a place that you normally wouldn't, with a friend. Just sleeping. L-Like a slumber party."

Boba tucked himself deeper into the sofa and stared at Robert. His aura was drawn so close to his skin that she could barely see it, but the humiliation and hurt she saw there cracked her heart like an eggshell.

"I'll be right back. Just– just stay here. I'll be back." She paused. "I'm not mad. It was a misunderstanding, okay? Please don't run away."

He nodded without looking at her.

"I'll just be a few minutes," she said, backing out. "I'll be right back." She activated the door panel and hesitated with her finger over the lock; it was unintentional but she had just hurt him deeply, and she no longer had the certainty of a few minutes ago that he would stay.

"I'm trusting you, kiddo," Ahsoka muttered to herself, then walked away with her hands balled into fists. She wasn't going to lock him in. Boba would stay put on his own. He wasn't going to run, he was going to stay with her and his brothers where they could protect him.

Her blood was boiling. Aurra Sing was a monster, a demagolka, sgudal fhaighean, hule lopusa, a demonic, piece of shit nonce–

"Bad time?" Cody joined her power walk to the bunkrooms, his aura bright orange and blurry around the edges. He was visibly tipsy and he stumbled a little trying to keep up with her.

"Very," she said, looking him up and down. Cody had only one reason to be waiting for her in the 501st's barracks and she didn't have time for Obi– damn it, Kenobi's banthashit. "I'm guessing that he sent you?"

"No, I'm here on my own." He threw his arm around her shoulder. His breath smelled like tihaar and caf. "You gotta make up with him, 'Soka. He's driving me up the wall with his moping."

"Not my problem." She shrugged his arm off like a big, heavy slug.

He frowned at her. "He apologized, didn't he?"

She snorted. "Yeah. It was very touching and heartfelt. Totally made up for making me go to his funeral."

"At least you got to go," Cody mumbled, his aura flooding with purple grief.

"Why are you even here?" Ahsoka asked, exasperated. "He lied to you too."

"It's called being an adult," he grouched. "Try it sometime."

"Maybe he should try it."

Cody rolled his eyes. "Listen, it was a karked thing he did and we both know it, but you can't hate him forever."

He said it like Obi-Wan had forgotten to show up to her saber demonstration. He had no idea how hard she'd had to cling on to Anakin to keep him tethered to reality and safe from his own grief, how she had to constantly glean off the dark miasma that infected his aura like poisonous black oil.

She had felt like there was something watching him curiously from the shadows, like a patient nexu waiting for its prey to tire and fall from the tree it was hiding in. She refused to leave him, no matter how many times he'd tried to force her out of his quarters. She wouldn't abandon him to that hungry shadow. She'd rip and tear it up with her teeth if she had to, but she would not leave Anakin.

She had the bruise to prove it.

And then Obi-Wan Kenobi had waltzed out of the Royal Palace at Theed wearing the face of his own killer like nothing had changed and it was all a grand ruse that they were in on. Like he hadn't triggered the most terrifying crisis of her life. Like she hadn't spent three days in the darkest hell she'd ever been in, drowning in the icewater of not just Anakin's grief but the grief of every Jedi who knew him.

The only time she'd been able to mourn Obi-Wan were the pitiful few seconds she had been alone before Anakin had shown up, begging the bastard to open his eyes. He'd hid his aura so well from her, blocked their bond, he'd even projected a fake aura as Rako Hardeen in that motel room. That was a skill that he'd learned specifically to fool her, because it had absolutely no other practical application in the entire universe. Nobody else could bloody see it.

Ahsoka stopped in front of the bunkroom door. "How have you forgiven him so easily?" she demanded. "I ate a few of your jerky sticks on the way back from Geonosis and you didn't talk to me for an entire day, but he fakes his death and you're trying to rebuild his burned bridges for him?"

Cody's already pink cheeks flushed puce and his hands found his hips. "I'm a clone, Os'ika. I don't have the luxury of holding a grudge."

She mimicked his pose. "Well, I do."

"Come on. Just talk to him so he stops whining at me about how unreasonable you're being."

"I'm being unreasonable?" Ahsoka asked in disbelief. "Oh that– no, you know what? I'm done, I don't have time for this. I've got more important things to worry about than bandaging the wounded ego of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Goodnight, Cody."

She spun to leave and he grabbed her left arm to stop her, right over where the bruise was deepest. She gasped as pain shot down her arm, and she barely resisted snapping her teeth at Cody like a massiff.

His mouth hardened into a grim line and she realized that he'd done it on purpose. "What happened to your arm?" he asked harshly.

"None of your damn business," she snapped. She spun her arm out of his grip and slapped away the wrist that moved to replace it. "Stop it!"

"Commander Tano!" Cody barked, his aura flaring silver with authority. "I am ordering you to tell me what happened to your arm."

There was no arguing with that tone, even if he was half off his shebs from the tihaar she smelled on his breath. Ahsoka stood at attention, inwardly seething at the gall of him pulling rank on her now of all times. "Training accident, Sir."

"What sort of training?"

"Mechanical ordnance, Sir." It wasn't technically a lie.

"Conducted under who?"

She glared at him. "That's classified, Sir."

"I've got higher clearance than you."

"I cannot release classified information without General Skywalker's permission, Sir."

"So Skywalker knows." Cody's eyes narrowed. "Was it him?"

"I didn't say that, Sir," she snapped.

"Then who?"

"As I said, Sir, that's classified."

Cody's eyes softened and his aura went teal with protection. "Ahsoka, did Skywalker hurt you?" he asked gently. He wasn't asking as her commanding officer, he was asking as her vod. It infuriated her and made her want to cry at the same time.

Why couldn't he just mind his own shabla business? Why did he have to be the concerned big brother now, of all times? "Are you accusing General Skywalker of abusing me, Sir?" she asked, forcing her voice to sound cold so she wouldn't lose her nerve.

Cody stared at her, both of them knowing damn well that he couldn't outright say yes without crossing into insubordination. He blew air slowly out of his nose, his aura humming and glowing neon chartreuse with annoyance-anger at being outmaneuvered. "No, Commander."

Ahsoka nodded and kept her face neutral. "Was there anything else, Sir?"

Cody jerked his head. "You're dismissed," he muttered.

"Goodnight, Cody." She slipped into the bunkroom and closed the door behind her, trying not to grieve the damage she knew that she'd just done to their friendship. It would be nice if everyone would just leave her the hell alone for five minutes and let her take care of Boba instead of obsessing over something they didn't know anything about. He needed to be mothered a lot more than she did.

The bunkroom was virtually empty. The majority of the guys were out carousing at 79's and making the most of their shore leave but Jesse, Kix and Tup were squished into Kix's bunk watching Daiun's Anatomy on her holoprojector. "Hey," she greeted them.

"We're leaving as soon as this episode is over," Jesse said, holding a preemptive finger up. "Calliope's pregnant again."

"And she just did a tracheostomy on herself with a droid scomp. Her speeder crashed after she was stung by a spider and her throat closed up," Kix said in a monotone. "Which is shabla impossible, in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't." Ahsoka clapped her hands together. "I need the projector, though. We're sleeping in the rec room tonight."

"We?" Tup blinked at her.

"Yeah, me and Boba. We're in–"

"You and–" Jesse reared up and sent her holoprojector flying. She barely caught it before it hit the floor. "I thought Appo was joking when he said you adopted that little shabuir, Commander." Jesse's aura quickly flooded with red anger.

She took a step back in shock, not expecting another argument immediately after the last one. "Woah, Jess–"

"Tell me you're joking, Commander," Jesse said, his face all scrunched up in anger. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes; not to intimidate her, that wasn't it at all, he was begging her with his eyes to tell him that she wasn't serious.

Her heart sank. She really hadn't thought through any of the consequences of springing Boba, had she? Jesse was fanatically loyal, almost to a fault; of course he was going to hate the boy who attacked a Republic ship and killed hundreds of their brothers in the process. He was a traitor to both the Republic and the vode, and Jesse had no reason to feel sympathy for a traitor.

"I couldn't leave him in there–" she started, but she stopped when Jesse's shoulders sagged and his aura darkened to deep purple with sadness-disappointment. "Jesse, I couldn't!"

"Har'chaak!" Jesse broke away, pressing his palms into his eyes.

Kix and Tup hadn't yet moved from the bed, but their eyes flicked between Ahsoka and Jesse like they were watching a limmie match.

"He's so little, he–"

"I don't care how short he is, he killed three hundred and four of my brothers," Jesse said harshly. "And trust me, he doesn't look at us like his brothers."

"Jesse–"

"No. You're not thinking clearly. All you see is a little boy but he's manipulating you, Commander." Jesse took her hands and squeezed. "He's a killer. He used you to get out of prison, don't make the mistake of thinking that he cares about you even a fraction of how much we do."

"I know he doesn't. That's not why I did it." Ahsoka gave Jesse a pleading look, begging him to understand. She expanded her aura with a gentle, flowing wave of sage-green serenity so he'd calm down a little. "Boba was manipulated by a disgusting, evil dalgaan into doing what she wanted by promising him revenge for Jango. She was evil, Jesse, please believe me." Ahsoka swallowed hard. "I'm not saying he had no agency or was incapable of making different choices, but he's–"

"A killer," Jesse repeated with a growl.

"No– yes, but Aurra Sing, Jesse, she…" Ahsoka bit her lips, hesitating. It was Boba's truth to tell if he wished, not hers, but it would help if Jesse understood just what a hold she'd had on him. "She abused him," Ahsoka said quietly, saying the truth without actually saying it.

Jesse was smart. His face scrunched up even further, his aura went sick-green with disgust, and he looked away.

"He needs you," Ahsoka continued. "All three of you. He needs his brothers, even if he doesn't realize it." She turned to Kix and Tup and gave them a pleading look. "Please, he's barely holding it together." She didn't add that she'd made it worse. "I can see how badly he's hurting. Please, Jess." She laced her fingers with his and squeezed.

Jesse glowered at her. "You know, you're going to try to help the wrong person someday, and they're going to go for your throat." He pulled her into a spine-cracking hug.

Ahsoka relaxed, nearly dizzy with relief, and buried her face in his neck. "Thank you," she said in a muffled voice.

"Yeah, yeah." Jesse pulled back and touched her forehead with his own in a gentle mishmure'cya, then looked over her shoulder at Kix and Tup. "You two are coming, right?"

"I am!" Tup said brightly. "It'll be nice having a cadet around again. I miss being around them on Kamino. I always liked being asked to fill in for rec supervision."

Ahsoka couldn't help but smile. Tup had such a gentle spirit. If he'd been born a Jedi he would have made a natural Crèchemaster. Maybe if the stupid war ever ended he'd have a chance to live a gentle life. She could easily see him teaching younglings.

"He's not staying, Tup," Ahsoka said apologetically. "We're leaving for Kamino tomorrow."

"Wait, really?" His brows went up. "Can we come?"

Ahsoka bit her lip. "Unfortunately, because I'm a Padawan Commander and not a CC, I don't actually have clearance to authorize off-world missions."

"Aww."

Kix started yanking sheets off of random, unoccupied beds.

"That a yes for you then, Sarge?" Ahsoka asked.

Kix shot her a look over his shoulder. "Obviously, Sir."

"Anyone seen Rex?" Ahsoka asked, accepting a pile of pillows from Tup.

"Oh, he's in the commhub. He got called in by General Kenobi."

"You have got to be kidding me." Ahsoka tossed her head back and groaned aloud. "Why won't he just leave me alone?"

"He'd be a shit ba'buir if he did," Kix shrugged.

"He's a shit ba'buir regardless," Ahsoka snipped.

"Alright, alright. One problem at a time." Jesse physically turned her and pushed her towards the bunkroom door, carrying his share of sheets draped over his shoulders like an ancient Onderonian pharaoh. "You can bitch to me about Kenobi later, I promise."

Cody was thankfully gone when she opened the door. She led the boys through the empty barracks at a pace just under a jog, painfully aware that she'd left Boba alone for sixteen minutes, then bumped the door panel open with her hip since her arms were full of pillows.

Robert the Rancor sat abandoned on the couch. Boba was nowhere to be found.

Tup craned his head over her shoulder. "Uh, Commander? Where is he?" he asked, confused.

"Fuck," Ahsoka said faintly.

Boba hadn't realized that water showers were a luxury until he'd left Kamino for good. Sonic showers were easier to install, easier to clean, faster to use, and didn't use up water rations. He wasn't sure if the troopers actually had water rations, but if they did then he'd used up at least half a battalion's worth. He'd been steaming for half an hour.

"Fierfek," Tiarek cursed from around the corner. "You done yet? We're locked down again, which means Ahsoka thinks you ran for it."

Boba's stomach seized up at the Tog's name. He felt so fucking stupid, but she was the one who'd started it. Why'd she have to push? He'd actually been thinking about something besides how much he fucking hated being alive for once, and then the jetii had to go and ruin it because she didn't know what a fucking sleepover was.

Or he was the one who didn't know. It didn't matter now. He looked like an idiot and she pitied him now, and that pissed him off even more. He didn't need some do-gooder's pity. He was a man, damn it! He was a beroya and the only living son of Jango Fett, the greatest bounty hunter that had ever lived. He didn't want the Tog bitch to sit blinking her big, sad eyes at him like he was a pathetic, three-legged street pup covered in fleas.

"No, I've got him, lift the lockdown. We didn't mean to be this long. Go ahead and get started, we'll be there soon." Tiarek was on a holocall with somebody but Boba couldn't hear the other side. "Come on, Bo'ika, time to go."

"In a minute!" Boba yelled back.

"Now." Tiarek turned the shower off and threw a scratchy towel at his face.

"Shabla bev'kovid," Boba mumbled under his breath as he toweled off.

"I heard that."

Boba toweled faster then wrapped himself up when he was done. Tiarek patted him on the back and led him out to the lockers. A set of Kaminoan cadet blues sat waiting for him on the bench.

Boba glared up at Tiarek. "Didn't have any blacks in your size," he smirked at him. "Hurry up. Ahsoka's having a heart attack."

"I don't care," Boba said darkly.

Tiarek looked at him, disappointed. "I do," he said softly.

Boba dropped the towel and reached for the blues. They were too big for him, he could already tell. He knew he was underweight but more importantly, without all of the genetic upgrades from the longnecks, he was just plain smaller than the other clones at the same physical age. Dad was half a head shorter than the grown-up troopers, and Boba was a perfect copy of him.

"What's that?" Tiarek was frowning at him; specifically, his ass.

Boba quickly yanked the oversized drawers up. "Nothing. Don't be bloody nosy." He hadn't meant to let him see the scar.

"Then why are you being cagey about it?" Tiarek asked with a raised brow.

"I sat on my knife, alright? It's embarrassing." Boba slipped his shirt on.

Tiarek leaned against the lockers. "Look, Boba, I know you've been through a lot since Jango died, but–"

Boba flinched at his dad's name.

Tiarek softened. "Just promise me that you're going to try. Nobody expects you to be a model cadet, but at least stop cussing her out every time you open your mouth."

"Fine," Boba mumbled. He tugged at the bottom of his tunic, trying to make it hang less awkwardly on his narrow shoulders.

"You can trust her. I promise you can. She's the best, right alongside Skywalker." Tiarek smiled sadly. "We're not just numbers to them. They truly do care for us. Ahsoka is my vod'ika, do you understand? You trust her just like you trust me."

Boba scoffed. "So much for vode an. You know, the meaning of the word doesn't change just because you use it to bloody adopt each other."

"Of course not." Tiarek blew air out of his nose hard, frustrated. "It just means I watch out for her, I teach her, I keep her alive. And she has my back in return, no matter what."

"Whatever," Boba said, looking away. Tiarek wasn't going to let it go until he agreed. "Fine. I'll stop being a dickhead to her, alright? Doesn't mean I trust her."

"Good man." Tiarek clapped his hand on his shoulder and guided him towards the door. "Let's go."

Boba felt his banzaii burger start to work its way up his throat as they walked back to the rec room. Should he tell Tiarek what he'd done? Boba didn't want him to hate him too, but he wasn't sure what he'd be angrier about; kissing Tano, or lying about it.

"What?" Tiarek was looking at him with those same knowing eyes Dad had when he knew Boba was squirming about something.

"I kind of…" Boba hesitated. "Fuck it. I kissed Tano and she's gonna make it sound like I just made a move on her out of nowhere and–"

"Hold on, hold on!" Tiarek went to one knee so they were eye level. "What are you on about?"

"Tano," Boba mumbled. "I kissed her. I thought she wanted it."

Tiarek was staring at him with his mouth open. "You did what?" he asked sharply.

"She said she was gonna go get pillows to have a proper sleepover, so," Boba shrugged. "Obviously I thought that meant she wanted to fuck. But she didn't know what that's what sleepover really meant because she's a Jedi, I didn't mean to piss her off."

"She… she didn't–" Tiarek stood and turned away, his hands on his head. "Boba, no." He turned, and Boba felt his heart sink into his guts at the look on his face.

"I didn't hurt her! I just kissed her, she didn't want it so I didn't push it–"

"Boba, who told you that a sleepover meant that?" Tiarek's voice was so sad that it made Boba flush, embarrassed all over again.

"Fuck, not you too." Boba turned away with a groan. Why was everyone so damn stupid? Why was he the only fucker under the roof who knew Basic? "Sleepover is when you want someone to sleep in your bunk, it's not a fucking slumber party like she thinks. Aurra told me what it meant when some asshole asked me in a bar on Nar Shaddaa–"

Tiarek sighed and huffed out a relieved laugh for some reason.

" –and then, you know, I started having sleepovers with her–"

Tiarek's face fell and he turned away with his fists balled up.

"Oh not you too, why is everyone such a damn prude?" Boba moaned, rolling his eyes. "I'm a year away from doing my verd'goten, I'm not a fucking baby."

Tiarek turned and he almost scared Boba with how angry he looked. "Listen to me," he said, going back down on one knee. "People might say sleepover to be cute, but that's not what it means. And if Dad knew that Aurra had done that to you he would have taken her skin off slowly, do you understand?" Tiarek grabbed his shoulder and squeezed. "She never should have been allowed within a mile of you."

Boba bit his lip. "You called him Dad," he said quietly. "You haven't called him that in a long time."

"I meant to say your dad." Tiarek flushed and looked away. "Not… I know, trust me."

Boba looked up. "Don't you remember–"

"There's nothing to remember," Tiarek said quickly. "It was just a few weeks, Bo'ika, okay? Don't get it mixed up again. We've been through this."

Yeah, they had, and every time Tiarek was more and more certain that whatever lie he'd been fed by Kal while he was recovering was the truth. "So I'm old enough to wet my blade, but not my dick?" he asked crudely, changing the subject.

Tiarek turned purple. "Yes," he growled.

Boba waved a dismissive hand at him. "Whatever you say, Tiarek."

"Come on." Tiarek stood. "And I told you to stop calling me Tiarek. That was never my name."

Boba resisted the urge to argue. It was pointless. If any part of Tiarek remembered, it was buried so deep down under the lies that it may as well have never existed at all.

"Now behave," Tiarek warned him, then opened the rec room door. Three unarmed clones sat lounging in their blacks inside a pile of pillows, couch cushions and sheets that had been built up into a tent. One of them was the medic that had rubbed that stink-ass bacta gel on him. Tano sat on the edge, cross-legged and pinch-faced. As soon as the door slid open she popped to her feet and rushed to Tiarek.

"Gar ru'hibii ner ad? Ne'din'kartay?" she snapped. "Rex, do you have any idea how scared I was to find him gone again?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize he was–"

"Gar johaar'i Mando'a?" Boba interrupted, stunned.

She raised a brow marking. "Waad'choruk," she said wryly. "Rex taught me."

Boba flushed and looked down. He should have expected that, if Rex had adopted her as a little sister.

"As I was saying, Boba here needed a shower, but I didn't know he was going to use half of the monthly ration for the whole GAR." Tiarek popped him gently in the shoulder.

Tano's shoulders slumped and she took a deep breath. "I'm sure he was just happy to take a water shower. I know the prison only has sonics." She bent down and looked him in the eye. "So. Ready for bed?"

Boba peered around her to look at the troopers reclining in her pillow fort. The one with the Galactic Roundel tattooed on his face looked unimpressed, the medic looked bored, but the final one with a tear on his cheek sitting cross-legged was practically beaming at him through his long hair.

"Why're they here?" Boba asked suspiciously.

"Well, since you've never had a real sleepover, I thought it might be fun to have one. And for a real sleepover you need friends, but you also need a pillow fort–" she turned and gestured to the limp tent, " –holofilms, and snacks." She held up a projector in one hand and a bag of nerf rinds in the other, smiling like an idiot.

Boba looked up at Tiarek, who shrugged. "Fine," Boba said dismissively.

"Great!" Tano dove into the tent between the long-haired one and the one who looked like he'd just bit into an unripe meiloorun. "I've already got the holo loaded. Get the lights, Rex."

Boba glanced at Tiarek, who did as he was told with a soft smile for Tano.

"By the way this is Jesse, Kix, and Tup," she added, pointing to each clone as he and Tiarek crawled inside the pillow fort. She and the three troopers were already squished together, cuddling like sleepwalking tubies. Tiarek stayed on the outside and Boba ended up sandwiched between him and the medic, Kix.

"Wizard," Boba said in a bored voice. "What are we watching?"

"March of the Porgs," Tano said cheerily.

"Finally!" Tup crowed.

"What do you mean finally? We just watched that on the way home from shabla Naboo," Jesse grumbled.

"Language," Tiarek drawled.

Boba snorted. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously." Tiarek chuckled and pushed Boba's head down to his chest.

"Wait, Commander, you're sleeping over here?" Tup asked, looking confused. "You always sleep with Rex."

Boba froze. Wait, had he kissed Tiarek's girl? Why hadn't he shabla said that, why'd he go through the vod'ika banthashit instead of just saying he was screwing her? And where did Tiarek get off telling Boba that he was too young for it if he was shagging his own al'verde? Boba was older than all of them, except for Tano.

"Not tonight," Tano said nonchalantly. "Oh, by the way, Boba, you forgot somebody." Tano tossed Robert the Rancor at him over Kix, then started the projector.

Boba cleared his throat. "Thanks." He hugged Robert to his chest and adjusted a little so that he could fit the plushie in between him and Tiarek, hiding a small smile.

"There is a mysterious ritual that dates back thousands of years. No living creature has survived it, except the porg. They have wings but can barely fly. They're birds without beaks that act like clowns. And every year, they embark on a nearly impossible journey to find a mate. For twenty days and twenty nights, the porg will march…"

Notes:

MANDO'A TRANSLATIONS ba'buir: grandfather Os'ika: Little shit (Cody's [affectionate!] nickname for Ahsoka, a pun on her normal diminutive of Ahs'ika [Little Ahsoka] ) dalgaan: bitch Har'chaak: damn it mishmure'cya: brain kiss, aka keldabe kiss shabla bev'kovid: fucking dickhead Gar ru'hibii ner ad? Ne'din'kartay?: You took my kid? Without telling me (lit. no sitrep)? Waad'choruk: Obviously (lit. diamond, colloquialism for "crystal clear") Al'verde: Commander TOYDARIAN TRANSLATIONS Wanjala?: Hungry? Ndimatafuna: I chew it Inde: Yes Nyanga zathanzi: Healthy horns Mwana: Baby Pepani: Sorry Chapino mwana: Okay baby Hule lopusa: stupid bitch HUTTESE TRANSLATIONS Chupanka keepa manmi: His tail is on backwards (Huttese colloquialism for someone acting irrationally) MAOR-GRÁSTA TRANSLATIONS sgudal fhaighean: garbage cunt OTHER NOTES I just really like it when Anakin speaks Toydarian okay. Also I mentioned this in another fic but he didn't learn Aurebesh until he was ten and he hates it so he types in all caps and doesn't like punctuation Yes, Boba refers to Rex as Tiarek in his head. We'll find out why just hang in there lol

Taglist: @starwarsficnetwork, @soliloquy-of-nemo Dividers: @saradika-graphics

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