Chapter Text
It started on a whim, a rare impulse that he indulged, and grew far beyond his control. And as was usual with his impulses, the ones that are true impulses and not just looking like an impulsive decision, it involved Anakin. Of course it involved Anakin.
“I wish you would just come out and say you're going to see Padme,” Obi-Wan sighed as he cut off Anakin from another awkward explanation of where he was going and why. It was so painful to listen to, especially since at this point even the Council was taking bets on when Anakin would come clean about visiting Padme.
There was still some strong denial on what type of relationship they had, but no one was inclined to kick Anakin out over it until he proved he could not let go of her and do his duty over her. Which he kind of had, but since protecting her was always part of his mission, it wasn't quite full proof they required. Not to mention Obi-Wan had been doing a lot of fancy talking to cover for him and reminding everyone that they did choose to Knight Anakin before he met the usual requirements for mental and emotional maturity. And he hadn't even gone through the traditional trials.
Anakin sputtered. “No-I- No why would I do that?”
Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. “You have a terrible poker face and I have eyes. I saw you two back on Geonosis.”
“Well you can't kick me out of the order! You need me!”
“Anakin.” Obi-wan resisted the urge to throttle him. “Why would I have kept silent on this if I was planning on kicking you out of the order, which by the way requires nine of the Council to agree on kicking someone out. I was also not saying something to avoid you being put on probation and the usual run around people have to deal with when in relationships- Master Mundi has to talk with a soul healer every month to ensure he's not slipping.”
“It's not like you understand what it's like to be in a relationship.” Anakin crossed his arms.
“Did you even listen t-” Obi-Wan shook his head and acted on the first impulsive idea he had. If he wasn't going to listen, maybe demonstrating would get it through to him. He turned to Cody, who was pretending not to listen to the conversation (he was good at that, Rex's poker face was not nearly so good) and kissed Cody. Cody stiffened but returned the kiss after just seconds.
Anakin sputtered as they broke apart. Obi-Wan smirked at Anakin. “You were saying?” He shook his head. “Anyways, your excuses were just wasting our time, we're on leave, darnit.” He then just dragged Cody out of there while internally panicking because what the heck did he just do? Why oh why did he act on that stupid impulse? Just because he'd wanted to kiss Cody for months didn't mean he had to act on the first 'opportunity' and take away Cody's autonomy.
He sighed in relief as he closed the door behind him. He tucked his hands into his sleeves to hide any signs of embarrassment; the urge to rub the back of his neck was strong.
“Sorry about that Commander,” he apologized. “I should have asked before acting. And I should never have used you to try to get Anakin to understand.”
Cody seemed to have recovered from the shock though there was the hint of a blush lingering on his cheeks and ears. “It's okay. Anakin is pretty dense. But- uh, you realize everyone is going to think we're dating now, right?”
Obi-Wan groaned. “I know... There's a reason I don't act on impulses usually and short-sightedness is the one. I suppose we'll have to stage a break up or something...”
“I'd rather not. If it's known we were dating and then we have to do a convincing break up, it might be enough to have me reassigned, and would divide the men as they argued for one or the other of us.”
“That's true, I suppose. But then we'll have to fake date. Are you truly okay with that?”
Cody shrugged. “It shouldn't be too hard, we spend most of our time when not on missions in the same office, and if they wonder why we're not showing affection most of the time, we can always claim professionalism.”
“But we'll still have to show some affection when off duty.”
“To be honest, General, they wouldn't expect either of us to show much affection. Neither of us are known to be affectionate. Add a little bit of touching here and there and the occasional kiss and they'll probably believe it.”
“And they'll probably expect a Keldabe kiss too,” Obi-Wan mused. “But also, when off duty you should really call me Obi-Wan otherwise that says some... unpleasant things about our dynamic.”
“How do you know about Keldabe kisses?” Cody asked, then paused. “Obi-Wan.”
Obi-Wan grinned at him, pleased with the use of his name (and a little annoyed at how warm and fuzzy it made him feel, he shouldn't be getting so attached they're just fake dating!). “Well, I did spend a year on Mandalore back when I was a teen.”
“...You've known this whole time about our culture and not said a word?”
Obi-Wan shrugged. “I didn't see the need to. Not because I didn't want you to know, but because I felt like I was intruding because while many of the words and customs are Mandalorian, you have all made it your own unique culture. Just because I understand the Mandalorian origins, doesn't mean I understand the actual meaning.”
“Oh.” Cody regarded him. “Well, we're on leave on Coruscant for a few days, how do you want to play this?”
“Well, you can stay in my rooms.” Obi-Wan smirked. “Ahsoka usually stays in the padawan dorms or the 501st barracks and Anakin never stays in his old padawan room, even though he never requested a new room when he was Knighted due to the war. And I have an idea for our first date. Well the first date everyone knows about. I'll take you to Dex's.”
“Dex's?”
“Dex is actually how I found Kamino, he gave me the coordinates. It's exactly the place I would bring someone I was serious about. Plus you'll enjoy it, and Dex won't care about clones.”
“Okay. We should probably get our story straight about dating before we go there, though.”
“Hmm. Well, we're going on our first obvious date because we figured the lothcat was out of the bag. So the biggest question is when did we start dating?”
“What about... after the battle at Kamino?” Cody suggested. “Or... maybe we didn't start dating then, but that's when it started? We did start spending a lot of time together after that, with you helping me grieve 99 and deal with it all.”
“That could work... now...” They continued making plans from there.
And the plans worked, they were months into fake dating, and no one was any the wiser about it. They were pretty well versed in casual touches, they traded vambraces like on Mandalore (that got some reactions from those who didn't quite believe it yet), and all in all were getting along pretty well even in close quarters. They were sleeping in each others' quarters more often than not at this point.
There wasn't really any pushback from the council. They just did what they usually did when Jedi got themselves into long term relationships- give the rules, monitor heavily initially, interview the couple together and apart to ensure that neither is being coerced and it's a relatively healthy relationship, and if something is up, there's counseling offered initially no matter what, so anything gets sorted out relatively quickly. Then monitoring lightens up to a brief check in once a month with any red flags requiring more sessions and any difficult missions, get more sessions.
...this naturally had the side effect of making Obi-Wan and Cody both more stable emotionally and mentally than either had been for much of their lives. They were dealing with the emotions, and that led to healthier habits like sleeping and eating, which made their medics happier. There were still issues, but they worked them out. Neither was comfortable admitting just how happy they were with their fake dating, how maybe it was becoming less and less fake as time went on.
Then, they were given a reason to regret it.