Chapter Text
Ahsoka rushed back to the campsite as quickly as she could. The battles on this side of the planet were completely done. They’d won, even if their victory had come at quite the high price. She’d wanted to stay to help with the bodies, the injured, and the thousand other things that had to be done in the aftermath of a battle, but Rex had sent her back to the main base.
The 501st wasn’t even supposed to have gone on this mission. They‘d been on the way back to Coruscant for restocking, not that the Separatists had cared. They had just seen another easy target and decided to attack a planet that was utterly worthless from a strategic point of view and then they had to interfere. Somehow, those battles always turned out to be the worst. They’d been at a major disadvantage already and then Anakin—
Ahsoka accelerated the speeder.
She knew that Anakin’s heats had been irregular even before she had become his Padawan. They’d hope they would settle once she had presented, but that hadn’t happened either. And then, of course, he had to go into heat in the middle of the campaign. Appo had told her he’d had to leave the fighting after his fever got too much to bear and Ahsoka just wanted to check in on him, make sure that he was alright and not hurt.
The 501st’ main base was in an old city that had been hit fairly early by the Separatists and was full of refugees happy to finally get help. Of course, some where also angry that they’d arrived so late, but Ahsoka was used to that by now. Not everyone could see the good the Republic did, they only saw what they hadn’t done.
As soon as Ahsoka arrived at the camp, she parked the speeder and began running through the camp of half-destroyed houses and tents. The locals eyed her warily, but the clones just raised a brow and smiled at their not-so-little-anymore Beta commander rushing off to find her Master.
Fairly in the middle of the camp where Ahsoka knew they kept most of the injured and younger children, Ahsoka finally found the place where they’d hidden away her Master.
“He’s inside,” one of the locals said with a smile, pointing at the door.
“Thank you,” Ahsoka remembered to reply before rushing inside.
The scent of heat was easily detectable. It was sweet, reminded her of the honey treats Anakin was so fond of making, the kind that burned your tongue from the spice incased in them if you weren’t too careful.
Anakin sat in the middle of the room on a couple mattresses, wrapped up in one of Obi-Wan’s old coats. A couple of her own were thrown in there and, of course, a good ten children were sleeping around him. Two toddlers were draped over his lap and he cradled a newborn that couldn’t be older than a week.
“Hey, Snips,” Anakin said quietly. He tried to raise his hand to greet her but stopped when he saw one of the sleeping children move. “I’m alright, Ahsoka, no need to be distressed.”
He sounded so casual, like nothing was wrong, and Ahsoka wanted to shout at him and hug him at the same time. “Yeah, but I heard you were in heat and I didn’t know whether you needed my help or not and I felt awful. I hate this.”
Logically, Ahsoka knew that her fledgling beta instincts were driving her insane. She was pretty sure she’d prefer being an omega or alpha to a beta. At least they didn’t have to deal with this constant aggravating nagging need to ensure that everything and everyone was exactly where it was supposed to be. She’d nearly made one of the shinies cry last week because she’d been unsettled by the way he stored his blasters even though there’d been nothing wrong with it.
Growing up sucked.
“I’m sorry,” Anakin apologized and with a sweet suggestion in the Force, got one of the children to keep sleeping as he made some space for her. “C’mon, there’s enough space for you.”
Sighing with relief, Ahsoka kicked off her boots and shrugged off her armor and made herself comfortable next to him. It didn’t take long for one of the kids to lay themselves across her too.
“Feels like being back in the crèche,” she said.
Anakin laughed lightly. “Yeah, it really does. Not quite sure what I would have done if the people of this planet didn’t deal with heats the same way we do in the temple. When the troops carried me back here, they didn’t even hesitate to set this up and get their children here. To be honest, I think they were pretty thankful. The kids took well to it and calmed down somewhat. And my heat’s almost worn off too. A couple more hours and I could have gone back to fighting, but I heard you already took care of that?”
Ahsoka straightened under his praise. “Yeah, the troops are busy with the clean-up, but we’ve secured our position.”
“Well done,” Anakin said and pulled her close with one arm so she could rest her head on his shoulder, inhale his scent. Even if she was no longer a child, she was still his kid, and it was just as calming to get this confirmation that he was here as it had always been.
She suddenly felt so heavy, all the exhaustion of the past days catching up to her.
“Go sleep,” Anakin muttered. “You’ve earned it.”
He said a few more words, but Ahsoka already didn’t hear them anymore, having fallen asleep.