FIC: Hukaat'kama ~ Star Wars Prequels ~ Jango/Obi-Wan ~ Mature ~ Chapter 5/6
Title: Hukaat'kama
Fandom: Star Wars
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: Mature
Pairing: Jango Fett/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Warnings: Asexual!Jango, AU, hurt/comfort, pre-relationship, established relationship, mentioned drug addiction and withdrawal, mentioned slavery, mentioned genocide, canon-typical violence, Mandalorian culture, Jedi culture, non-binary clones, grief, angst, Kamino is the worst, Jango's questionable parenting, mention of reconditioning, hopeful ending
Summary: Five times someone threatened Jango for Obi-Wan's sake.
A/N: At last, the person who started this foray. :') And then dragged their feet about actually getting to the threatening, sheesh.
I do personally ascribe to the headcanon that Cody's name was Kote before it was changed, for...idk, pick a reason. (My headcanon is that Jango gave it to them, and then it came out that Jango had been working with the Republic's enemy-not, necessarily, accurate in this AU; more likely, Jango did something that made Kote/Cody rethink using a name he'd given them-and they decided to change it to something else. Cody is close enough to Kote that any slips as their vode got used to using a new name wouldn't upset them or bring questions from any natborns who might be trusted enough to overhear.)
Sideways related, the first time I wrote a scene with Cody, they claimed they/them, so that's the pronouns I use for them. (Alpha actually did the same thing, which is why Jango kept using neutral pronouns for them last chapter.)
Warning for anyone who needs it that Jango has a panic attack when he and Cody are on Slave I. Let me know if I should put in a jump-link so y'all can skip it.
In the aftermath of Obi-Wan's-and Seventeen's, Jango eventually found out, and was furious that no one had told him about that, until Obi-Wan tiredly asked if he would have noticed if someone had, and he had to admit that he wouldn't have, had been too focussed on Obi-Wan being dead, to have recognised that one of the Alphas had been with him-imprisonment, Anakin was knighted and moved out of the flat he'd been sharing with Obi-Wan, leaving his bedroom for Boba.
Obi-Wan was granted his mastery, and then almost immediately offered a place among the Jet'alore.
With Obi-Wan a Jet'alor, Jango somehow ended up becoming a confidant and sounding board; if Windu hadn't been there the first time Obi-Wan revealed something Jango would have thought would have been counted as confidential, and seemed just as interested in Jango's opinions on the matter, he would have...
Well, honestly, he wasn't certain what he would have done, but he hoped it would have been the right thing, and kept his cyare from breaking the trust of his fellows.
It did, after a few days of serving as a sounding board for battlefield tactics, eventually occur to Jango that very few jetiise likely had any real experience with leading war campaigns; once Obi-Wan had vouched for his trustworthiness, the Jet'alore hadn't been fool enough to let lay a potential source of experience.
Just over a month after he and Obi-Wan were released from the jetii baar'ure's clutches, Obi-Wan came back from a meeting particularly frustrated. It took a massage and Obi-Wan almost falling asleep, but his cyare did eventually mention some long-dead jetii called Sifo-Dyas, and that the Kaminiise had said they were the one who had ordered the clones.
That was wrong. Jango wasn't certain how it was wrong-he had come up against the gaping holes in his memories enough times, at that point, to recognise that whatever related intelligence he'd once had was lost to him-but he knew it was.
Obi-Wan eventually admitted that they didn't completely know what had happened to Sifo-Dyas, but they also didn't have the resources to go after the missing jetii.
"Then I'll go," Jango decided. And, when Obi-Wan frowned, reminded him, "I'm a bounty hunter, cyare. Finding people is literally my job."
There had been some sighing and grumbling-neither of them really wanted to be parted, to give up the comfort they were finding in sharing a bed again-but Jango's mir'baar'ur had cleared him for missions, Jango was starting to get a little restless, and this was information that the Jet'alore did need. So, Jango had packed up his beskar'gam, all of the information the Jet'alore could provide him, and an extremely excited Boba-Jango wasn't the only one who had started feeling restless, trapped in the Jet'yaim-kissed Obi-Wan goodbye, and headed out among the ka'ra to see what he could find.
As it turned out, what Jango and Boba managed to find was a bit of nothing, a handful of dead ends, and a potential lead to a Separatist-controlled planet. And, while Jango was technically an unaffiliated contractor, his was also the face of the Republic's army; he could no more have hoped to peacefully visit a Separatist planet than could his cyare, who had somehow become one of the faces of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Jango had, as promised, kept in contact with Obi-Wan, so he knew his cyare’s flagship was three hour's hyperspace jump from where he'd got his Separatist-controlled lead. Boba had lit up when Jango asked if he wanted to visit Obi-Wan, so they'd made the jump and, after a bit of suspicious comm chatter, been allowed to dock in the Negotiator's flight deck.
"O'buir!" Boba called as he raced out ahead of Jango, jumping off the ramp because it hadn't completely lowered, and throwing himself into Obi-Wan's arms.
Obi-Wan caught him with a chuckle and a quiet, "Hello, Boba. How are your studies going?"
"O'buir!" Boba complained, and flopped himself over in Obi-Wan's arms in that way that Jango knew meant he was trying to punish the one holding him by throwing them off balance.
Obi-Wan didn't so much as shift, and Jango knew his cyare had to be abusing his Force.
As Jango started down Slave I's ramp, a clone stopped at Obi-Wan's side, hesitated for just a moment, and then pulled off their buy'ce, revealing a flat, disapproving expression and a gleam of suspicion in brown eyes, one of which was framed by a wicked-looking scar.
"Kote?" Jango recognised. He remembered the live-fire training simulation where Kote had got that scar, not quite a week before he'd shot Zam. Remembered standing up on the observation platform and having to grit his teeth, to do nothing more than watch as one of the most promising of the CC-batches bled out while their team raced to complete the simulation so they could get them help.
(There had been a reason he hadn't called a halt, there must have been. But Jango couldn't remember it, could only remember the image of his own face coated in blood and the sensation of swallowing down bile, of tapping out an order in dadita through an open comm for Mij to get his shebs to the training rooms, so he would be there when the simulation was over.
He'd always had an open comm with Mij during live-fire simulations, had apparently made it a rule that their ori'baar'ur always be kept aware of such simulations, although he had no memory of making that order, had just had to trust Kal and Mij when they'd told him about it. For all he knew, they had been the ones to make the rule, and somehow knew they could convince Jango he'd made it himself.)
Kote's shoulders went tense, and they snapped, "Cody."
Names, Jango knew, were important among the clones, were something that was theirs despite the Kaminiise's wishes.
So, even though he'd been the one to name Ko- Cody, and the refusal of that name hurt, Jango inclined his head and replied, "Cody."
"Prime," Cody bit out in response-before turning to Obi-Wan and Boba, both of whom were looking between them with adorably similar uncertain frowns-and softened slightly before saying, "Boba."
Boba cast one last uncertain look at Jango, then reached out and-using the additional height being in Obi-Wan's arms granted him-patted Cody's head, then chirped, "Su'cuy, Kot'ika!"
Obi-Wan coughed. "Cod'ika, Boba," he corrected, while Cody grimaced.
"But I liked Kote," Boba complained.
Jango grunted and said, "Excuse me," to Obi-Wan and took his ad from his cyare’s arms, giving him a flat look. "Is it your name?" he asked.
Boba hunched down a bit, mouth twisting unhappily. "No."
"Then it's not your choice," Jango reminded him, and Boba nodded, mouth still downturned. "What do you say?"
"N'epar, Cody," Boba muttered to Jango's chest.
Jango rolled his eyes and promptly flipped his ad upside down.
Boba let out a delighted whoop and lowered his arms towards the floor.
Jango shifted his grip so he was holding Boba by his ankles, lowering him enough that he could touch the floor and walk along it, cackling like mad.
"Jango, really," Obi-Wan said, pinning Jango with an unimpressed look.
"Handstands are an important skill," Jango insisted.
Obi-Wan just sighed, but Jango was fairly certain he saw Cody's mouth twitch.
"So, as I recall, is mess hall duty," Jango added a bit musingly, and met Cody's eyes, then nodded towards Boba's feet. "He's all yours, Cody."
Cody blinked, one eyebrow raising in a manner that they'd definitely picked up from Obi-Wan.
"Wait, what?" Boba asked, trying to look up his body at Jango. "Buir, what's going on?"
"I thought it was latrine duty," Obi-Wan said in a thoughtful tone, one hand rubbing over his beard high enough to hide his mouth.
"Only when we're on the ground, sir," Cody said.
"As you say, Commander."
Commander; Jango had known Ko- Cody would go far.
"On your feet," Cody barked in a tone they must have picked up from the Cuy'val Dar or Alphas.
Jango tapped Boba's ankle in warning, waited until his ad had both hands braced against the ground, then let go.
Boba held the handstand for a moment, then brought his feet down and curled inward, smoothly transitioning from his hands to standing on his feet, then turning to Jango with a hopeful look.
Jango gave him a smile and an approving nod, then motioned towards Cody.
"Come on, cadet," Cody ordered. "Before you're late."
"I'm not a cadet!" Boba shouted. "Ni hi'beroya!"
"You're cadet-shaped, that makes you a cadet," Cody shot back.
"Cody," Obi-Wan interrupted, and stepped forward, crouching down and placing a hand on Boba's shoulder. "Everyone on the Negotiator has to pull their own weight, Boba, and that means you, too. We just finished a bit of a rough campaign and could use some help in the kitchens; do you think you could go with Cody and let them set you up with a job there?"
Boba shuffled his feet. "What about Buir?" he asked quietly.
"I need to talk to the Jet'alore," Jango reminded him; he trusted his own comms plenty, but much preferred using Republic comms to connect to the Jet'alore and share what intelligence he'd managed to gather, which had been the reason he'd given for wanting to dock.
"And I could use Jango's expertise with a couple of campaigns," Obi-Wan added.
"General," Cody said, and Jango could almost hear the questions and reproach they managed to fit into that one word.
"I trust Jango, Cody," Obi-Wan replied, tone perfectly even. "Boba? Can Cody give you something to do? It would help me out."
Clever, clever Obi-Wan, rephrasing the order into a request and making it about helping him, rather than finding somewhere to keep Boba out from underfoot.
Boba nodded. "Yeah, okay." He glanced back at Jango. "But, I'm still a hi'beroya, right?" he asked, just a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
Jango quirked a smile at his ad. "Of course you are, Bob'ika. For as long as you want to be one."
Boba's shoulders relaxed. "Okay," he agreed, and ducked Obi-Wan so he could run over and shove Cody's waist. "Chakaar."
Cody's glanced at Jango as they caught Boba by the nape. "Come on. Cadet."
"Buir!" Boba whined, even as he shoved at Cody again.
Jango sighed and stepped forward to tug a chuckling Obi-Wan to his feet. "Su'cuy, cyare."
"Hello," Obi-Wan returned, tone fond, and leant in to kiss him.
Jango relaxed into the kiss, dropping his hands to Obi-Wan's waist and tugging him just the slightest bit closer. Obi-Wan responded by threading his long fingers into Jango's hair, and he let out a pleased hum.
Eventually, he tugged back enough to rest their foreheads together in a mirshmure'cya, murmuring, "I really do need your comms."
"I figured," Obi-Wan murmured in response, fingers still in Jango's hair, catching on tangles as they combed through his curls. "And I really could use your expert eye over a couple of campaigns."
Jango hummed again and gave them both another moment to just breathe together, then brushed a gentle kiss over his cyare's mouth and pulled away. "Come on, show me your ridiculously massive ship."
Obi-Wan let out the long, resigned sigh that Jango knew meant he was biting back a rant, and Jango chuckled and followed him from the flight deck.
Cody joined them, sans Boba, as Jango was wrapping up his report for the Jet'alore.
"I would strongly suggest sending a shadow for any information that can be found on Felucia," Jango said in closing. "Preferably someone who is deep enough in cover that the Separatists shouldn't know them."
"Or a recent enough addition to the ranks, that Count Dooku won't know to have sent their holo around," Rancisis agreed. "I have some ideas." He inclined his head towards Jango. "We'll inform you if we find any other leads you can follow."
"I'd appreciate that."
Ori'alor Yoda's ears went up and he cast a sly glance at Jango. "Dislike idleness, Hunter Fett does," he said, in what Jango was fairly certain was a teasing tone.
"He's Mandalorian," Obi-Wan retorted drily.
Jango couldn't quite keep from grimacing, and he ignored the worried look his cyare shot him at whatever he could sense from Jango in the Force. "I'll be with Obi-Wan for now, unless one of my contacts turns up anything."
"We appreciate your assistance on the matter, Hunter Fett," Windu replied. "May the Force be with you both."
"And with all of you," Obi-Wan replied, while Jango nodded his silent agreement, and the holo flickered off. "Commander, would you walk Jango through the plans for Nadiem while I send a comm to an old friend?"
"Yes, General," Cody replied, tone flat, and started tapping at the holotable controls, while Jango looked after his cyare and wondered which of his 'old friends' Obi-Wan thought could get their hands on some information that might help Jango track Sifo-Dyas down; he’d apparently always had a bit of a knack for making friends with beings who were extremely well connected, be it in a position of legal power on a particular planet or in the Republic Senate, or as a part of the galaxy's underworld. (Vos had said he believed it was their Force's way of balancing Obi-Wan’s ridiculously bad luck with missions.)
"Prime," Cody called, and Jango turned away from Obi-Wan to focus on the battle plans they'd pulled up.
They went through three different campaigns and, while Jango had some suggestions to add, everything looked fairly solid, providing their intel on enemy movements was accurate. (From what Jango had been hearing, both from Obi-Wan and from his own contacts, that too often wasn't the case.) When Cody moved to pull up a fourth campaign, Jango held out a hand and ordered, "We're taking a break."
Cody hesitated, hand still hovering over the button to bring up the next campaign.
"There's only a couple more," Obi-Wan said, shaking his head and squinting a bit.
"They can wait until we've had food," Jango replied.
He noticed Cody's hand shifting towards the control that Jango was nearly certain would deactivate the holotable entirely.
"I would like to get this-" Obi-Wan started.
"I am hungry," Jango interrupted, because he knew his cyare. "And I believe Cody is, as well."
"Famished," Cody agreed drily, clearly catching that that was their cue.
Obi-Wan's shoulder slumped and he sighed. "I suppose I could eat," he allowed.
"Vor'e." Jango nodded to Cody, who turned off the holotable without any more hesitation. "Maybe you can help me collect some things from Slave I once we've eaten," Jango added, because he had a suspicion about Obi-Wan's squinting and the harsh lighting of the holotable being related. "It would be good to not have to return to my ship tonight, should we get caught up in things," he added, before Obi-Wan could do more than open his mouth to argue.
Obi-Wan scowled. "I know what you're doing," he muttered.
"Yes, you're exceptionally clever, I know," Jango replied, tone dry. "And you're going to let me get away with it, aren't you, cyare?"
Obi-Wan's scowl deepened for a moment, but then he sighed and rubbed at his forehead. "I should like to shove you out an airlock," he muttered.
"General?" Cody called, sounding worried.
"Headache," Jango informed the clone, even as he stepped forward and reached up to rub gentle circles against his cyare’s temples. "Is it just the holo light, or is it the ship lighting?" he asked quietly.
"Just the holo," Obi-Wan muttered unhappily, even as he closed his eyes and leant into Jango's touch.
Jango was still trying to relearn his cyare’s various tells, because he knew a few of them had changed in the past decade, but all he saw right now was exhaustion and hints of pain, so he let it go. "Okay. Food and water, then help me move my things and some things for Boba," he suggested.
"Fine," Obi-Wan grumbled. "But no analgesics; my troopers need those."
Jango closed his eyes and resisted the urge to groan, because of course his cyare would put the clones above his own health. "What about the ones on my ship?" he asked.
Obi-Wan squinted a glare at him.
Jango put on his best pleading look.
Obi-Wan sighed. "Only if it's still bothering me later," he agreed tiredly.
Jango leant up and kissed Obi-Wan's forehead. "Vor'e, ner cyare."
"N'entye, ori'cabula di'kut," Obi-Wan grumbled in response, but Jango saw the corner of his mouth twitch and knew he wasn't nearly as upset as he was trying to act.
And then Obi-Wan blinked past Jango, brow furrowing further with what Jango recognised as concern, and he turned to look himself, as Obi-Wan asked, "Commander, what is it?"
Cody was staring at them, and while their expression was admirably blank, Jango could read the shock in the set of their shoulders, and he knew Obi-Wan was likely reading far more with his Force. Cody blinked, once, and then cleared their throat and said, "You speak Mando'a."
"Ah," Obi-Wan replied, embarrassment clear in his tone, and Jango fought to supress a smile. "Yes, I had a mission on Mandalore as a padawan, and learnt it then."
Cody glanced at Jango. "From Prime," they guessed.
"No, from a bunch of laandur Evaar'ade," Jango drawled, and flashed a mean smile at Obi-Wan when he sighed. "I just fixed your terrible accent."
Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, and then, in pure-Kalevalan Mando'a, said, "Are you absolutely certain about that?"
Jango grimaced, and Cody let out a bark of slightly startled laughter. "Stop, you win," Jango muttered.
Obi-Wan chuckled and kissed Jango's cheek. "You were going to force me to eat."
Jango rolled his eyes and gently tugged Obi-Wan so he was ahead of him, then pushed him towards the door they'd entered the bridge through. "Someone around here has to," he replied, and Obi-Wan huffed, but led the way out.
Cody fell in behind Jango, and when he looked back, he found a frown on their face. "Cody?" he asked.
Cody flicked a glance at him, shook their head, and rather firmly put their buy'ce back on.
By the end of his second day on the Negotiator, Jango concluded that his presence was making the clones uncomfortable.
Well, honestly, he'd figured it out by the end of that first lunch, with all of the uncertain looks they kept throwing him. He almost could have convinced himself it was as much Obi-Wan's appearance-he would be honestly surprised if his cyare was a common sight during meal times-but Jango, well... He wasn't a fool, and he was trying to avoid lying to himself about the demagolka he'd been on Kamino.
But, stumbling into the mess hall late for dinner on that second night, because he'd got caught up tinkering in Slave I, to find his cyare sat at the centre of a table full of clones, with Boba in Obi-Wan's lap, most of them laughing, had been a cold shock of reminder that he was dar'manda. That he had abandoned Obi-Wan for ten years, and his cyare had moved on.
He turned around and walked back to Slave I to eat rations alone.
Rather unexpectedly, it was Cody who found him, boarding his ship without a by-your-leave and stopping just inside the doorway of the little common space, where Jango was roughly cleaning his favourite sniper rifle.
"Prime," they said, tone coming out of their buy'ce's modulator perfectly controlled.
"Commander," Jango bit out in return, and didn't know how to feel at how bitter the word tasted on his tongue.
Cody had been sitting at Obi-Wan's right, so close, their shoulders looked to have been touching.
Cody hesitated, for a moment, and then reached up and pulled off their buy'ce, holding it against their hip in a casual, practised hold. There was uncertainty in their expression, and worry.
Jango looked away, uncomfortable with one of his clones looking at him that way. "What do you want?" he demanded, harsh like he'd been on Kamino, and he hated himself for that, even though he wouldn't have changed it, didn't want the clone there, watching him like they could read him.
"You left," Cody said, sounding just the slightest bit awkward.
Jango scrubbed a little harder at an unblemished section of the barrel and ignored them.
"In the mess," Cody said, like they believed Jango needed clarification. "Why did you leave?"
Something in Jango cracked, and he snarled, "I'm sure you'll figure it out for yourself when you take the hint and get off my ship, Twenty-two twenty-four."
Cody flinched, the sound of plastoid striking itself loud in the silence of the powered-down ship.
Rifle pieces and cleaning supplies scattered across the low table and across the floor of the ship as Jango clapped a hand over his mouth, swallowing against bile.
No. Nononono; why had he said that?
The jetii mir'baar'ur had said it was gone, that whatever rot and traps and horrors had been left in his head had been dealt with, uprooted, cleaned out. But he'd just, he'd just spat out Cody's number.
"Jango," a voice said, and someone caught his hand, pressed it against a warm chest, and a forehead pressed against his. "Breathe with me," they said, firm like an order, and the chest under his palm rose and fell, slow and steady.
Jaster had used to do this for him, a long, long time ago.
It took him a few tries, choking on fear and the taste of bile lingering on the back of his tongue, but he did manage to start breathing again, following the steady motion of the black-clothed chest under his palm.
"Me'vaar ti gar?" his own voice rumbled at him.
One of the clones, Jango recognised, and then grimaced. "Naas," he muttered, and tried to pull away.
Cody-of course it was Cody; Jango should probably be glad that they hadn't called for help, so even more clones saw him lose his calm-promptly headbutted him hard enough, Jango probably would have fallen over, had he been standing, and then caught an unforgiving grip against Jango's nape and forced him back into a mirshmure'cya. "Prime," they snapped. "Do not lie to me."
Jango gave himself a moment to breathe through the ache of his head. Debated, briefly, attempting to kick Cody's shebs and remind them of their place, but Cody was still mostly armoured, while Jango avoided his beskar'gam unless he was actively on a job; he might be able to take Cody, but he'd have to fight for every centimetre, and he wasn't certain he had that much fight in him, at the moment.
So he relaxed into the mirshmure'cya, muttering, "Mir'sheb," low enough that Cody could ignore it without losing face-not that there was anyone else there to see, Jango hoped-and then raised his voice a bit to say, "Had a dar'jetii in my head. Thought it was fixed as I could be."
Cody held very, very still, before they let out a gust of breath over Jango's mouth and chin, then pulled back enough to meet Jango's eyes, their own dark with an array of emotions that Jango didn't have the energy to parse. "Are you a danger to my general?" they demanded.
Jango wanted to say no, but he'd already choked Obi-Wan once because of this osik, so he swallowed and admitted, "I don't know."
Cody closed their eyes and drew in a slow, perfectly controlled breath.
A part of Jango warmed with pride, recognising that as one of his lessons. He'd tried to teach it to the Alpha-batch, but they'd all been just a little too wild, too determined to bulldoze their way through; the CC-batches had been better, more willing to stop and breathe, to look past their emotion-driven reaction and find a better way to handle a problem.
Jaster had tried to teach it to Jango, once upon a time, but it was Obi-Wan who had helped him master the skill, sitting with him while he detoxed and on Manda'yaim and later, talking about whatever came to mind to distract him when Jango lost his temper, or woke sobbing from a nightmare and would usually have gone to punch his knuckles bloody against the bulkheads.
"Does the general know?" Cody finally asked.
Jango huffed out a bitter laugh and couldn't stop from flexing his hands at a sense-memory of his cyare's throat under his hands. "He knows. Was there when the jetii mir'baar'ur cleared me."
Cody watched him, eyes narrowed. "You saw one of the jedi mind healers?"
Jango nodded tiredly. "For four, five months." And then again, after Obi-Wan's imprisonment, because wherever he'd run off to and almost died, he'd apparently run into a dar'jetii again.
And, well, his mir'baar'ur had been a little worried he'd been suicidal, and maybe Jango had been, to go running straight to a dar'jetii while half out of his mind with grief, but Obi-Wan's survival had settled him, and Obi-Wan had made him swear to never do that again, no matter what happened to Obi-Wan. Which had been a hard promise to make, but Boba still needed him, and Jango knew how it felt to lose your buir that young.
Cody kept watching him, thoughts sparking lightning-quick behind their eyes, and then they said, "Alpha thought you'd been reconditioned."
Something in Jango flinched, and it was his turn to close his eyes and take a slow, careful breath. "Maybe," he said, and choked on a slightly bitter laugh; that was a slightly less terrifying reason for him to have used Cody's number.
Wouldn't that just be the right of it, though? All of his attempts and failures to protect the clones from the Kaminiise, and he'd been just as much one of their kriffing experiments.
"Demagolkase," he spat, and honestly wasn't certain if he meant himself, as well as the Kaminiise.
Cody scoffed. "As far as I know, there's no cure for reconditioning."
"Not an easy one," Jango corrected, because he'd seen clones he knew had been reconditioned interacting with their old batchmates and starting to act like they had before the Kaminiise took them away.
Somehow, the Kaminiise always ended up catching them before he and the other trainers who tried to shield them could see if they would fully recover their old memories, and they were always labelled a failure and decommissioned.
"Time, familiar stimuli; beings, not training. Maybe a solid knock to the head,” he added. Mij had told him, once, about a reconditioned clone who had taken a hard knock to the head, and woke up asking for their original batchmates; they'd vanished in the night, and Jango and Mij had both known it was the Kaminiise.
Cody grimaced and ducked their head.
Jango took a slow breath in, let it out, and made himself say, "Ni ceta."
Cody's head jerked up, eyes startled.
"I shouldn't have used your number," Jango admitted quietly. "Ni ceta." If Cody didn't still have a tight grip on his nape, he would actually kneel. Even with the rifle parts and cleaning supplies scattered on the floor.
Cody swallowed and licked their lips. "Okay," they said, and Jango knew he didn't deserve anything more than acknowledgement. "Do you want to hurt General Kenobi?"
"No," Jango insisted, because he would honestly rather be chained up on another spice freighter, than hurt Obi-Wan again. "If I thought it wouldn't break his heart, I'd leave. Stay away."
Cody's eyes narrowed. "Is that what happened in the mess?" they demanded. "You got the urge to hurt my gen-"
"Ka'ra, no," Jango interrupted, torn between irritation at being questioned, and horror that Cody had come to that conclusion. "I didn't-" He hesitated.
Cody's hand tensed against his nape, like they were preparing to deliver another kov'nyn.
"I make you nervous. Upset. All of you, the clones," Jango got out in a rush, and Cody's shoulders went stiff. "You were having fun; I didn't want to ruin it."
Cody stared at him for a long, long moment, then shook their head. "You upset the general," they said.
"...oh."
That... Okay, Jango should have known that Obi-Wan would have sensed him nearby. And the Ka'ra only knew what he'd read from Jango's emotions, but he'd probably come up with reasons that were in the wrong part of the galaxy.
"Shab," Jango cursed, with feeling, and yanked himself out of Cody's grip so he could get up and go to hunt down his di'kutla cyare.
"Prime," Cody called before he could go more than two steps, and something about their tone made Jango twist to look back at them. "He made us save a seat for you."
Jango blinked and, frowning, thought back to the mess. Had there-?
Kriff, yes. There'd been an open space at Obi-Wan's left. And, if Obi-Wan had made them leave a spot, the clones had to have expected him. Which meant he probably wouldn't have got in the way of their fun.
Cody nodded and stood, gathering their haalas from where it had been resting against the sofa next to them as they did. "Next time you upset him, I will shoot you," they informed him.
Jango scoffed. "Just shoot me now and be done with it," he muttered.
"Counterproductive," Cody stated as they reattached their haalas with quick, practised motions. "Go find my general and hit your knees."
Jango couldn't stop from raising both of his eyebrows, and was rewarded with Cody's skin darkening with a flush, and them retreating behind their buy'ce.
"Shabuir," Cody snapped, their buy'ce’s modulator managing to hide any sound of their embarrassment, but Jango had already seen enough to know it was there.
Smirking to himself, Jango led the way out of Slave I and, while waiting for a lift, tried to think of where his cyare would have gone: Probably not his quarters, not unless he'd been looking for Jango, and he would have found him, not Cody, if that had been the case. Similarly, he probably hadn't gone to his office or the bridge, not if he was hurting; Obi-Wan used work as a distraction for a lot of reasons, but he didn't usually resort to it if he was feeling slighted.
"Where's Obi-Wan's favourite spot for practising katas?" he asked Cody as the lift doors opened.
"Training room esk," Cody said, stepping in behind Jango and selecting a floor. "You sure that's where he is?"
Jango hummed, because he was nearly positive that Obi-Wan would resort to combat exercises, but he'd borrowed ammo and gone out to shoot things, on Manda'yaim, when he and Satine argued, or stole one of Jango's blasters and shot a neat little hole in the target in his ship's hold, when something had upset him during the two years before Jango had gone after Vosa.
Obi-Wan was not in training room esk, and the couple of clones who were there said they hadn't seen him.
"Bad guess," Cody said, and Jango had a feeling that their modulator was masking a smug tone.
Jango hummed and shrugged, then asked, "Where's the least-used shooting range on the ship?"
Cody's buy'ce stared in his direction for a long moment, and then they said, "The general hates blasters."
Jango nodded. "He thinks they're inelegant and uncivilised," he agreed, and Cody let out a sound that could have been a snort. "He can also outshoot me three times out of five." Or, at least, he'd been able to do so ten years ago.
"...right," Cody said, and turned and started down the hallway in the opposite direction they'd come from.
Jango had only spent two days on the Negotiator, but he could pretty quickly tell when they'd reached an area that wasn't in use, by the sudden absence of foot traffic.
"Heavy losses our last two campaigns," Cody muttered, like they knew the question on the tip of Jango's tongue. "Haven't had time to make it back to Kamino to pick up more shinys; command wants us to stay here in preparation to act as backup, in case any of the nearby campaigns take a bad turn."
It made sense, but- "You've got two battleships here," Jango murmured, frowning. "Shift some bodies and send the emptier one to Kamino."
"Long necks will drag their feet if it's not a jedi come to pick up new troopers, and General Kenobi is more likely to eat three solid meals in a single cycle, than leave us to face combat without him."
Jango sighed and rubbed at his face. "Obi-Wan," he groaned quietly.
"Speaking of, how have you been getting him to eat regularly?"
Jango snorted. "Make it about someone else," he replied drily. "He usually catches on, but even the implication that someone else won't eat unless he does is usually enough to win him over; he won't notice his own hunger-starts leaning on the Force without even realising, apparently-but he cannot abide other people going hungry."
"...I should have thought of that," Cody muttered.
Jango shrugged. "I assume he's learned more tricks to hide how little he's been eating, in the past eighteen years," he offered, because forcing Obi-Wan to eat by refusing to do so without him, was something he and Satine had worked out after the second time the di'kutla jetii had almost collapsed from hunger, apparently not yet recovered enough to lean on his Force like he'd expected to be able to.
And then he heard the sound of rapid blasterfire and took the lead, following the sound to a shooting range and sighing at finding Obi-Wan shooting steadily at a completely demolished target. "Cyare," he called in Mando'a, "you know you have to give the droids time to reset the target."
Obi-Wan spun, aiming two blasters at Jango's chest.
Behind him, he thought he heard Cody suck in a sharp breath, but Jango just strolled forward; Obi-Wan wouldn't shoot him, for all he might seriously consider it.
Out in the lane, a droid scurried to place a new target where the destroyed one had been.
Jango reached out and gently tugged Obi-Wan's fingers away from the triggers, flicking his thumbs to engage the safeties after a quick glance down to ensure he knew the guns; he did, because Obi-Wan had apparently kept the blasters Jango had given him as a courting gift, before he'd realised the jetii wouldn't actually use them. "N'eparavu takisit," he murmured, suspecting Obi-Wan would appreciate the pun, once he was feeling less hurt. "I know my presence is...less than comfortable for the clones; I didn't want to ruin the good mood."
"Di'kut," Obi-Wan breathed, and his shoulders relaxed. "They knew you were coming."
"Cody told me," he admitted. "I jumped to the wrong conclusion."
Obi-Wan wrinkled his nose. "You did," he agreed, and lowered the guns to his sides. "Did you eat?"
"Yes, my heart; I'm not the one of us that has that problem."
"Shut up," Obi-Wan muttered, and turned to glance at the range he'd been using. "Ah."
Jango snorted and kissed Obi-Wan's cheek. "Are you feeling better? Your commander seems to think I should get on my knees for you."
Cody let out a strangled sound and the door of the shooting range fell closed; a quick glance back showed they'd been abandoned.
Obi-Wan chuckled, low and warm. "I do enjoy seeing you on your knees," he teased and moved to hold both blasters in one hand, so he could reach up and cup Jango's cheek, running his thumb over Jango's lips.
Jango kissed the digit with a smile. "However?" he guessed.
Obi-Wan hummed and inclined his head, then turned away and stepped over to an open blaster case.
Jango followed him over and stepped up behind him, wrapping his arms around Obi-Wan's waist and hooking his chin over one shoulder to watch as his cyare cleaned the blasters and put them away. Obi-Wan relaxed back into the contact, breathing slow and almost meditative as he cared for his weapons.
Jango let him go so he could slide the case into the underside of the counter of the lane he'd been using, and then let him take his hand and lead him from the shooting range and through the ship to his quarters.
He waited until they had shed their clothing and climbed into the almost-too-small bed, Obi-Wan cuddling close with his ear pressed against Jango's chest, over his heart, before quietly saying, "Seventeen thinks I got reconditioned," in Basic, mostly since he doubted Obi-Wan knew the Mando'a word the Cuy'val Dar had come up with for the process, and didn't really feel like having that conversation right that moment.
Obi-Wan drew in a sharp breath and tightened his hold on Jango. "Are they right?" he asked just as quietly.
"I don't know," Jango admitted. "Maybe."
Obi-Wan was quiet for a long moment, ear pressed tight against Jango's chest and arms locked tight enough around him, Jango half expected he'd find bruises in the morning. "Is there any way to know for sure? To reverse the process?"
Jango shook his head. "It can fade, with time." He hesitated, then admitted, "You help."
Obi-Wan took a slow breath in, then let it out. "How are you doing?"
Jango closed his eyes and took a moment to consider his own mental state. "Scared," he finally admitted. "Angry."
"Angry," Obi-Wan repeated, and Jango was fairly certain it was a confession, not a castigation. "I love you."
"Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum," Jango replied, because the words had always felt more real in his first language. "I'm here."
Obi-Wan let out a quiet, unhappy noise, and turned his head to press his face against Jango's sternum.
Jango threaded his fingers through Obi-Wan's hair-cut shorter, after his imprisonment, but still far longer than it had been when he was a padawan-and petted him until he relaxed into sleep.
They had lost so much time, and Jango was furious.
But he was also relieved, because Obi-Wan hadn't forsaken him, was willing to try this again. And he had Boba, who adored Obi-Wan as much as Jango did, which was a gift from the Ka'ra that he never would have thought to ask for. And, even when he left again-chasing another bounty, or more intelligence for the Jet'alore-he could be secure in the knowledge that Cody and the other clones would watch out for Obi-Wan, would keep him safe and fed. (Which wasn't always something he'd particularly trusted Jinn to manage, especially given how often they'd ended up walking into disasters, or Obi-Wan had got separated from his buir.)
Obi-Wan wasn't alone. There were others watching his back, who Jango had trained to be the best of the best, even if he hadn't known they would be guarding his heart, at the time.
That was enough.
Chapters 1) Satine Kryze 2) Dexter Jettster 3) Quinlan Vos 4) Alpha-17 5) Cody (CC-2224) -1) Kaminoans Glossary
.