Chapter Text
Boba was quiet and reserved as they left Tatooine, but once they cleared the atmosphere, he turned to the four clones, “Buir got me stocked up on armor to give to any of you I crossed deserting the Empire. Take your pick.”
Two of them, Windswept and Longshot, moved right away to take him up on that as he turned towards her and Owen, “The nephew, his name’s Luke, right?”
“Yeah.” Beru was willing to gamble that she was looking at the same Fett from three years ago, almost sure of it after the test back in the cantina, “Did you know he spent a solid tenday talking about how wizard he thought you were and begging Owen for more information about Mandalorians?”
Boba looked at her for a moment, before laughing as his shoulders loosened slightly from how tight they’d been while in the cantina, “No, but I’m not surprised.” He set the ship on autopilot for the hyperspace lane, “The kid definitely has some mando, and he showed some interest? I told Obi-Wan he would be a good Foundling!”
“What?” Owen narrowed his eyes at the bounty hunter, because he remembered the term Foundling and what it meant. Beru matched his look, because Foundling typically meant abandoned, orphaned, or otherwise long-term unattended child younger than thirteen, and she didn’t get the feeling that Boba meant to orphan Luke to adopt him, but this strange man, reputable or not, was talking like he would have adopted Luke in a heartbeat after meeting him, “What.”
Boba nearly immediately raised his hands in a no harm, no foul gesture, “He also said not until he was older and made the choice himself, nor without either of your permissions. Said something about how Beru? Beru would stun him at a hundred paces while Owen took his head with his own jetii’kad to put on a pike as a warning.”
Crosshairs didn’t seem to realize he’d spoken, “Helix is going to love you.” – not until they all turned to eye him – “Reasonable and capable of dealing out threats that the General listens to? He’s going to want to recruit you. Doubly so if you have any medical expertise on top of blaster skills.”
Beru narrowed her eyes at him, because she had a feeling that wasn’t it.
Sand finished where his brother had been going with that, “There wasn’t enough medics with backbone during the Wars, and the years haven’t exactly allowed for that number to really increase. Particularly since he completely changed the structure so that every squad have one approved medic, and any pair or trio have advanced first-aid training. Any medic assigned to a Commander like Sevens is also in charge of getting that Commander out before they are about to break cover for their jetii. He’d want you for that, but for a General.”
“Ah.” This Helix wanted her to take over bullying Luke and Obi-Wan into medical treatment if they needed it, while being capable enough to get them out of whatever sticky situations they might find themselves in, “Alright.”
Longshot came back in the room then, his helmet under one arm, but otherwise looking nearly identical to how Boba was armored, except the red-on-green had become a gold-on-green, and he’d freshly drawn in a mark or two, as well as one new one that looked familiar with its three prongs, one of which looked like a bladed weapon pointed to the sky, “Then we’ll be your honor guard. We’ll take on your sigil in gold when you have one.”
Boba started laughing, “Whether that man realizes it or not, he’s going to have a whole aliit around him soon! I can’t wait for when he finds out buir went ahead and recognized the existence of the Kenobi aliit and made him its head.”
~
They’d just exited hyperspace above Naboo when Boba got a transmission, and they were treated to the sight of the Mand’alor, “Boba, su cuy’gar.”
Beru could feel his gaze shift over to her, then Owen and their squad of four, before settling on his son, “Alderaan had declared war on the Empire, and Manda’yaim goes to their aid. Oya manda!”
Something about how he didn’t ask who they were or why they were on his son’s ship, told her that he knew already.
“Elek, Mand’alor!”
Particularly because there was a trace of amusement in the older Mandalorian’s voice, “Deliver be’hodar aliit to a safe place, first. K’oyaci.”
Boba groaned as the transmission ended, “You’re never going to let that go, are you, buir.”
Beru hadn’t understood everything there, but that last bit definitely had a story, and she asked as he took them down towards the capitol city, “Let what go?”
“He was talking about Obi-Wan when he said hodar because he’s still a little salty that I was communicating behind his back with the man who’d saved his life because Obi-Wan was a jetii, our enemy then.”
Owen sounded so long-suffering as he asked, “Why were you in contact with him then, if he was supposed to be your enemy?” Probably because this was just like how Luke had decided he was going to be friends with the Crazy Wizard of the Wastes regardless of his wishes.
Beru had no doubt that behind that helmet, Boba was making the same face Luke had when Owen had confronted him over Ben; the why not one, “From the first time I met him, he was concerned about my welfare – about all my brothers. Then he does everything he can to make sure my buir survives after another jetii strikes him down, even letting the entire galaxy believe that he’d died there at the start of the Wars. He offered a way to stay in contact if buir suddenly got worse or I needed something. He didn’t press for anything more than that I would get in contact before someone was about to die. I reached out at first because I needed to know I could trust him, that these weren’t empty promises, but he became a friend before I knew it.”
She looked at her husband as he dropped his head in his hands, “Is there no one in this galaxy he can’t charm?”
He didn’t raise it up as she patted him consolingly on the shoulder, because she’d listened to him rant during the Wars about how Ben on-the-regular flirted with and charmed pretty much anyone he could talk to. Especially enemies. She still didn’t know if she wanted to shoot or thank whoever had anonymously released that audio clip of Ben flirting with Ventress halfway through the Wars, because it had been hilarious to listen to the younger woman get riled up and left off-kilter as a result, but it had also left Owen ranting for a week.
There had been a part two to the rant when Ventress had defected a year later.
Just like then, she didn’t point out that Ben had a very good sense for what enemies could be turned into allies, hence why he tried to charm them at all, because he knew that.
“Will you shoot him if he tries that trick on a Hutt?”
“Yes, dear.” She didn’t think Ben would ever try that on a Hutt, she’d figured out he’d been doing a little crusading against them years ago, but if the assurance that if he ever did, she’d put a stop to it, made him happy, she’d give him that.
Owen gave her a side-glance, like he wasn’t sure if she was just humoring him, “Before or after?”
Boba gave proper authorization codes, then spoke before she did, “I’m pretty sure he already has, since he got into a high-stakes saabac game with next to no credits to his name a few years ago.”
Beru gave him a flat look over where her husband was groaning into his hands, “Why, Obi-Wan, why do you do this.” The bounty hunter gave off the feeling he was grinning behind his helmet as he raised his hands briefly in another no harm, no foul gesture.
She sighed when their squad seemed to commiserating with Owen over Ben, “No one can tell Cody that the General charmed a Hutt. Or that we bet on it back during the Wars, because the General probably found out about it and decided to win the pot first opportunity he had.” “Agreed.”
Boba was chuckling as he landed, “He probably took it as a challenge of his skills.”
Windswept and Crosshairs went to clear the landing pad immediately. Owen groaned again, before leaving the cockpit with Longshot and Sand a moment later once the other two gave the all clear.
“Obi-Wan called Luke his nephew too, so who is his father?” She could tell he had an idea, but wanted confirmation – and didn’t want to be right.
“Anakin.”
She laughed a little at his air of his dismay as she left, “How did that utreekov manage to have spawn?? I thought she was smarter than that.”
She– Boba knew who Luke’s mother was. Ben had rarely brought her up in all the years she’d known him, and after he said she was from Naboo, she’d developed an idea of who, but a confirmation on a name would make things a lot easier. Beru paused in the doorway, “She is who?”
He didn’t raise his head from where he’d slumped, “The former Queen, then Senator, of Naboo.”
They said her name together, “Padmé Amidala.”
Her feeling was right in the end, apparently.