Work Text:
Cody poured the hot caf on his mug and glared at Boil who was sitting on the nearest chair having his own quick breakfast.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said without facing his Commander, though his smirk was clear on his voice. “I wasn’t the one who broke that old thing; nor the one who left it forgotten where the shinnies could find it.”
Cody forced himself to take a deep breath, doing his best to keep his annoyance at bay. After all, Boil was right about him leaving his book behind in the troopers’ barracks.
“It was a book, and you could have stopped them from throwing it at each other like it was a ball.”
Boil shrugged and finally turned to look at Cody, at least having the decency to look apologetic, “in everyone’s defense, we didn’t know it could break that easily.”
The Commander shook his head and sighed, his mind thinking of the torn covers and scattered pages that were now sitting on his little desk. He raised the hand holding the cup of caf to greet Boil goodbye and made a quick exit. It was the wisest thing to do knowing that the culprits would be soon there to have their own meals.
His way to the bridge was lonelier than usual. It was early morning, and they were about to depart from the atmosphere of an ally planet on their way back to Coruscant. General Kenobi had been commissioned to attend a brief diplomatic meeting with the Council of the planet’s leaders. The event had gone smoothly the previous night and as soon as the refueling was done, they would head for their final jump back home.
Home. Cody frowned briefly at the thought, suddenly plagued with the uncertainty of the exact meaning of that word for him.
The doors to the bridge slid open before he realized it.
“Good morning, Cody.”
The Commander looked up with wide eyes, allowing surprise to show on his face before schooling his expression to a neutral one. Expression that was promptly broken with a smile as he approached General Kenobi.
“Good morning, General. Everything in order?”
“Perfectly so. In an hour we should be ready to leave the atmosphere. We’ll be back to Coruscant before we know it.”
Cody nodded, eyeing the data on display on the navicomputer. It was more out of habit than because he felt like the check was needed. In any case, it was comforting to make sure everything was working as it should. Out of the corner of his eye, Cody could see General Kenobi looking at him intently. Though he was used to the Jedi´s attentive eyes being placed on him from time to time, he couldn’t help feeling a rush of heat going to his cheeks.
After a few seconds, General Kenobi seemed to be done with his examination and shifted his attention back to the transparisteel windows that looked over the forest that covered the northern hemisphere of the planet.
Cody chanced a quick look at his General and found him lost in his thoughts with his arms tucked in the sleeves of his cloak. Deciding that he was no longer in risk of being examined by General Kenobi again, he took a long sip of caf and looked for the nearest flat surface where he could place the datapad he’d been carrying under his arm. Cody wanted to check if the book the shinnies had broken the previous night was available to download from the holonet. His attempt to read the broken book had been useless and he really wanted to know what happened to the star-crossed lovers of his novel.
He was startled by General Kenobi clearing his throat.
As Cody turned around to face the Jedi, he noticed that he was significantly closer than the last time he’d checked. His hands were no longer covered by the big sleeves, and held firmly between them, there was a rectangular parcel covered in brown paper. After the initial shock had passed, Cody focused on his General’s face and to his surprise, he found a hint of nervousness on his blue eyes.
“I happened to cross an antiques shop yesterday before my meeting.” He handed Cody the object, never tearing his gaze apart from Cody’s eyes. “I hope not to be overstepping. I noticed that you favor reading from physical sources over using your datapad.”
His rambling was cut short when Cody finally opened the package. It was a stack of three thin books tied together by a string. The dusty pink and beige of the covers had lost some of its hues, presumably from the pass of time, but the colors were still perfectly distinct. The spines showed the titles of each novel in an elegant, faint gold lettering, surrounded by strings of flowers painted with the same golden ink. Running his index finger over the details, he could feel the shape of each embossment.
“Sir, this is…”
“Cody, call me Obi-Wan, please.”
And his General had made that request a number of times in the past, but this time Cody knew he wouldn’t be able to refuse.
It was silly, Cody knew it. He could download all the novels he’d wanted on his datapad and his hobby could remain hidden and become more practical. But then, scrolling on his screen didn’t bring him the same joy as opening a book . The weight of the words he was reading became a grounding presence in his hands in the rare moments of peace between battles. And of course, of course, his General had picked up on it and had brought him some books as gifts the first time he’d have the chance to.
“ Obi-Wan this is… These are beautiful, how did you find them?”
Cody knew well enough that finding books in a good state was a true challenge. The books he was holding in his hands were extremely well maintained. The spines were clearly worn out and the borders of the covers were chipped, showing the material under the painted surface, but that was but a small scratch considering how old they must have been.
Inexplicably, Cody realized his eyes were filled with tears. He tried to swallow around the knot that had formed in his throat, but he only managed to make Ge- Obi-Wan aware of his emotional state.
“Oh, my dear Commander. Have I upset you?”
Cody shook his head. One rogue tear made its way down his cheek and Cody wiped it quickly before his mind got the chance to picture Obi-Wan’s hand doing the same thing.
“No, far from it. I- Thank you. Obi-Wan, these are beautiful. Are they novels?”
“Yes, the three of them,” the Jedi replied after a moment of hesitation, presumably confused by his reaction. Cody couldn’t blame him. “The lady who tended the shop told me they were romances and I’ve uhm… I’ve seen you reading those these last couple of weeks.”
Cody gave himself a few seconds to consider the fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi had been paying enough attention to his books to notice they were romance novels. He had noticed he cherished those books and had gone out and got three beautiful and well-kept novels to give him as gifts.
“I think you may like to see the covers of the other two. They are all embossed with those golden details.” Obi-Wan inched closer, undoing the knot of the string that was keeping the three books together. Cody realized that it would only take a small movement to press their foreheads together. “There, see them by yourself.”
Cody shuffled the books, taking a few seconds to appreciate the covers in their delicate simplicity. He passed two to Obi-Wan and opened the one in his hands, carefully turning the pages and running his eyes over the lines. The printing was different from the one he was used to, the letters had slightly different shapes and were much closer to one another. After going a few lines, though, his brain started getting used to it and processed the text much more easily.
Marveled by the whole situation, he looked at Obi-Wan with a big smile he couldn’t resist.
“Why?” he asked before he could think about the question twice.
Obi-Wan cocked his head to the right, a smirk tugging at his lips and shining in his eyes.
“I thought you'd appreciate them, and I know finding books it’s quite difficult…”
“ Obi-Wan , why?”
They looked at each other for what could have been an eternity, and after that, Obi-Wan moved slowly, so slowly Cody didn’t realize what he was doing until their noses were brushing. It was a soft, chaste kiss, just a touch of lips, but Cody could feel the electricity running through his body to his racing heart.
“Oh,” he said as he found himself unable to say anything else.
Cody quickly regretted his lack of visible reaction as a flash of fear obscured Obi-Wan’s eyes.
“Force, Cody, I’m sorry if you didn’t…”
Words still weren’t an option, so Cody decided to shut Obi-Wan with a new kiss. He placed his free hand on Obi-Wan’s cheek, pulling him closer and sighing into his lips. He would need to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Repeatedly. As they pulled apart, Obi-Wan ran a hand through his hair, his shoulders shaking with his chuckles and relief clear on his face.
“I loved the books. Thank you,” Cody added with a new quick peck to the Jedi’s lips, effectively making the other man blush.
“Anytime,” Obi-Wan replied and then bit his lips. “I mean...”
“Anytime would be perfect, sir ,” Cody said jokingly, thoroughly enjoying the chance to see Obi-Wan in such a jittery state.
They started laughing, drunk on the rare occurrence of such a happy moment. Obi-Wan leaned forward, placing his forehead to Cody’s shoulder, and Cody wrapped his free arm around him. It was probably the least comfortable place to rest one’s head, with his armor and all, but Obi-Wan seemed perfectly content to stay like that for a while. Cody wasn’t about to complain either.
“I think we could find someone to fix the book the shinnies broke yesterday,” Obi-Wan offered and pushed himself back to a fully standing position. Cody was surprised that he already knew about that. “News travel fast in this battalion,” he explained with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Do you think that’s possible?”
“Sure, I’ll start asking around when we get to Coruscant.” He handed Cody the two books he was still holding and then passed him the cup of caf that had been long forgotten on one of the nearest desks. Cody grabbed the last item after-mindedly, suddenly enchanted all over again with the three books that were now his. “I may get you more books if you’re going to smile like that every time.”
Cody laughed and shook his head in disbelief.
“Too bad I don’t have a proper place to store them. The barracks back in Coruscant are hardly a safe enough place for antique books.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Obi-Wan stated simply and winked at him. They smiled at each other and suddenly became aware of the tell-tale noise of the troopers walking down the hall to the bridge. Obi-Wan eyed the door and then kissed Cody briefly before anyone could see them. He then composed a serious voice which contradicted the sparkles in his eyes and instructed, “go and get those to your quarters before we’re on our way. I’ll see everything is in order for our departure.”
Cody smiled widely at him, the gesture ripping away any formality from his next words.
“Sir, yes, sir.”