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Cody noticed it slowly. Various shops they stopped at had decorations up. Trees are covered in small colored lights with wrapped boxes around the bottom of the trees.
Some had new pastries and drinks out for people to buy and taste. Things like peppermint and gingerbread.
Cody noticed Obi-wan would smile and accept a cup of tea with a small polite thanks.
Cody didn’t know what was happening. What was everybody doing? Everywhere he looked people were being joyful and handing out goodies left and right.
Even the temple was getting in on it. Just that day Cody spotted several knights putting up a tree and arguing over the best decorations. What even was tinsel and why did it get everywhere?
Cody almost didn’t want to know when the older one quipped about it being worse than sand. From what Cody has heard Anakin complain about, Cody guessed he really didn’t want to know.
Cody was so confused over what everyone was doing, he brought it up to his former general turned lover.
“Obi-wan?” Cody was sitting on the couch in their apartment with a movie on the holoscreen.
“Yes, Dear one.” Obi-wan came back into the room with a cup of tea in his hands.
Cody could smell the mint from here. “What’s going on?”
Obi-wan frowned. “I don’t quite get what you mean, Cody.”
“I mean with the trees and lights and drinks and cookies. I don’t know what’s happening. What is going on with everyone.” Cody reached out when Obi-wan froze and his teacup tilted in his slack grip.
“You don’t know what Christmas is? Well, the whole galaxy really hadn’t had a proper one for the past three years with the war and I guess I was a little busy to not give you a gift but surely on Kamino you must have had… oh. Right. Bastards.”
Cody tried hard to follow Obi-wan’s thought process. “What’s Christmas?”
Obi-wan opened his mouth to answer but the doorbell rang long and loud. “Anakin is here. I’ll tell you later?”
Cody couldn’t do much but nod. “Okay.”
That night while they were in bed wrapped around each other, Obi-wan explained about Christmas. About the treats and presents and trees and other traditions, people do around this holiday.
Obi-wan fell asleep before Cody could ask about what traditions Obi-wan did with his family.
Cody went over all the new information in his head. Were any of his brothers as confused as he was? Maybe he should meet up with the few that stayed on Coruscant to see what they knew.
Tomorrow. Cody decided. He would contact his brothers tomorrow.
Cody rolled over to sleep, worry and anxiety running through his mind.
****
“Cody!” Wolffe raised his hand over his head and flagged him down.
Cody moved between the tables and sank into a booth in the back corner. Dex had the best food and Cody couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into a nerf burger.
Cody felt bad because since he was Obi-wan’s life partner, Dex extended his no-payment plan to him. Cody had bartered after he found out and talked Dex into a discount instead of free food. Dex laughed loudly and agreed.
Cody sighed as he met the gaze of his batchmates. Bly and Wolffe were seated opposite him in the booth.
“Do you guys know what Christmas is?” Cody didn’t bother saying hello. By the scrunched-up brows of both his vode, they didn’t know either. Cody explained what Obi-wan told him last night.
Quiet fell as Cody let the information sink in.
“Let me get this straight. We have to get presents and decorate a tree and make cookies?” Bly frowned. “It doesn’t sound that hard.”
“What kind of tree? Can it be any tree or does it have to be a certain one?” Wolffe slurped up his milkshake.
Cody noticed it had a red and white look to it. Peppermint. Again. Cody rested his head in his hands. “I don’t know what to get him. He’s been drinking a lot of this peppermint tea lately. Should I get him that?”
Dex came over to their table. “Cody. How are you and Obi-wan? Still doing good?”
The subtle threat hung in the air. Cody let his smile grow. He still remembered the first time they came to Dex’s after Cody and Obi-wan started their relationship.
Dex had successfully gotten Obi-wan to help out in the back lifting some heavy boxes. Dex claimed his back was hurting. Obi-wan had gotten up to eagerly help out. Once the redhead had vanished to the back room, Dex had cornered him and threatened him about treating Obi-wan right. Cody had accepted it with an easy smile.
“Things are good. I just can’t figure out a present for him for Christmas.” Cody shook his head. “I don’t know what to get him.”
Dex chuckled. “Food is the way to go with him. Can’t tell you how many times I spotted him in here over the years begging me to make him some snickerdoodles. I keep telling him that I run a diner. Not a bakery. I make burgers and tubers. Not cookies and pies. Enjoy your food.”
Cody watched as Dex walked back into the kitchen. “Snickerdoodles? Hmm. Bly? I think we need to do some research.”
Wolffe groaned. “Really?”
“Yes. We need to find out more about Christmas and I need to find a way to make snickerdoodles.” Cody popped a fried tuber into his mouth. “Come on. Eat up. We are heading to the archives in the temple after lunch. Since you both live there you are not escaping this.”
Wolffe huffed. “Fine.”
“Cheer up, Koon Jr. You can show your Buir your incredible baking skills.” Cody teased.
Wolffe shot him a glare.
“What? Mr. Secura here can help too.” Cody shot a smirk at Bly before taking a huge bite of his burger.
Bly tossed a tuber at him. Cody knew Dex would kill him if he started a food fight, so he brushed it off.
Cody’s mind turned to what exactly was a snickerdoodle cookie?
****
Cody poked his head into the apartment he shared with Obi-wan. Obi-wan was supposed to be at a council meeting. Cody knew he would be gone but it didn’t hurt to check.
He waved at Wolffe and Bly. They were carrying bags of ingredients. After they went to the archives, they headed back out to the kitchens to pick up the things they needed to make cookies.
Wolffe set down a bag of flour and a bag of sugar. Bly set down a bag full of smaller ingredients like eggs and baking whatever it was called. He thinks the recipe called for powder. He really only skimmed it to get an idea of what to do.
“Okay. First, we need a bowl.” Cody reached under the counter and pulled out the big bowl Obi-wan used to serve pasta. “And the oven needs to go on. What temperature?”
“Um… 4 hundred something? Since you didn’t take the recipe with us I can’t remember.” Bly dug through the bag and set out the ingredients.
“425?” Cody called back. He remembered Obi-wan telling him that that was the preferred temperature for a lot of dishes. The other one was 350 and he didn’t think that was the right one.
Cody didn’t get an answer so he turned the dial to 425 and let it heat up.
“Okay. First… I’m pretty sure it’s sugar, butter, and eggs that go in.” Cody pulled the bowl closer to him.
“How much?” Bly pulled the string to open the sugar.
“Um… One I think?” Cody grabbed one of Obi-wan’s drinking glasses and scooped up some sugar.
“Why are you using that?” Wolffe popped open the butter tub.
“The recipe said a cup. This is a cup.” Cody poured it into the bowl. “Now for the butter.” Cody frowned. “Bly? What’s the difference between butter and shortening? Aren’t they the same?”
Bly shrugged. “I’d say they are. I really didn’t notice a difference when Aayla was teaching me some of her people’s dishes.”
“Okay. We need a cup of this too.” Cody snatched one of Obi-wan’s spatulas and started putting butter in the cup. He gave up halfway through. It was messy and the cup was getting slick in his hands. He eyeballed it and scooped four huge spatula fulls and called it good.
“Eggs.” Wolffe elbowed him out of the way. “I got this. Buir was teaching me.” Wolffe cracked two eggs. He poured them into the bowl. “Uh oh,” Wolffe muttered.
“What? What’s wrong?” Cody tried to look into the bowl. “There’s not a dead baby animal in there is there?”
Bly choked. “What?!”
“Yeah. During the war, we found some eggs. Boil had the bright idea to cook them. He cracked one open and a dead baby bird fell out. Obi-wan told us that eggs if left long enough become baby birds but if you catch it early enough it’s good for eating.” Cody spotted the usual pale yellow circles and goopy clear stuff in the bowl. A few white pieces were mixed in the goop.
“That’s gross! And nat borns eat them?” Wolffe looked sick. “I’m never eating eggs again.”
Cody shrugged. “Okay. You did good at cracking them. I don’t see what the problem is.”
“Dead baby birds, Cody! That’s the problem!” Wolffe glared and moved away. “I got a few shells in but that’s okay right?”
“That’s fine. They are small so it shouldn’t be a big deal.” Cody pulled the flour to him. “Now for the rest of the stuff.”
“Aren’t we supposed to mix it?” Bly poked at the rest of the eggs warily.
“Not yet, I don't think. Not until the end.” Cody grabbed a fresh cup from the cupboard. “It said two and three-fourths cups of flour.” Cody dumped two full cups and one almost full one. “Okay, now comes the tricky part. It said to use teaspoons so I guess that means the spoons Obi-wan uses for tea?”
He got a round of nods so he pulled open the drawer and grabbed Obi-wan’s favorite spoon that he uses to get the tea bags out with. It was nice and large.
“Now for the baking stuff, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and the cream of something I can’t remember right now.” Cody measured the other ingredients. He had to pull the glass back from the sink because he remembered that the recipe called for another fourth cup of sugar. He didn’t know why it didn’t go in at the beginning with the other sugar but shrugged and added it anyway.
“Cream of tartar?” Bly read slowly. “Isn’t tartar a sauce that you eat with fish?”
Cody stared at the bottle. “Let’s not add that. Cookies are meant to be sweet right? Not fishy.”
Cody mixed it all together with one of Obi-wan’s big spoons. The dough looked a little off. It was lumpy and grainy so he added a couple more scoops of butter. He did end up eyeballing that ingredient.
Finally, the dough looked like dough. Cody pulled out the sheet pans and placed spoonfuls on the surface.
He slid the pan into the oven. “Now we wait.”
It was a little later in the day than he liked. Cody sat on the couch with his vode. They talked and laughed and completely forgot about the cookies in the oven.
“What’s that smell?” Bly’s nose was wrinkled.
Cody leaped to his feet. “Kark. The cookies!” He ran for the oven and pulled open the door. Dark brown flat lumps greeted him. They didn’t look like the picture he saw in the book.
Smoke poured from the oven and an alarm started blaring.
“Kriff Cody. Did you set the oven on fire?” Bly shoved him out of the way. He picked up the pan with a towel and dropped it into the sink. The water spout was turned on and a burst of steam rose from the pan.
“The cookies are ruined.” Cody stared at the sad black lumps.
“And we don’t have any more dough.” Wolffe set the empty bowl into the other side of the sink.
The front door opened right then. Obi-wan entered at a fast pace. He came to a halt about three steps into the kitchen. “Cody? Bly? Wolffe? Is everything okay? I got a message about excessive smoke in my apartment…. Oh, dear.”
Cody was a little upset. The cookies he made were a flop. Obi-wan had to throw out the whole tray.
Bly and Wolffe had left with murmurs of apology and excuses that they needed to get to their homes. Traitors.
“Cody, dear, what were you trying to make? Maybe I can help.” Obi-wan’s arms came around his waist in a hug.
Cody sighed deeply. “I was trying to make you some cookies. Dex said you liked snickerdoodles and I thought it would be a good Christmas present.”
Obi-wan was quiet. “How about I show you how to make a different type of cookie? The process is pretty much the same. Were you following a recipe?”
“Sort of?” Cody winced. “I found one in the archives but I didn’t check out the datapad. Madam Nu still scares me.”
“She scares a lot of people.” Obi-wan nodded thoughtfully. “I’m free tomorrow. How about you and I make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? Then, once you master those, you can make me some snickerdoodles.”
“Okay.” Cody kissed Obi-wan’s cheek. “I’m sorry for messing up your kitchen.”
Obi-wan laughed happily. “This is nothing, Cody. You should have seen it five years ago when I made cookies with Anakin and Aayla. They got into a flour fight and it took them four hours to clean my kitchen from top to bottom. This is practically pristine.”
Cody snorted. “I can see Skywalker and Secura doing that.”
“Dear? It’s okay. Not everyone is good at baking. We all have talents we are great in and areas where we struggle.” Obi-wan tugged on his hand. “You can help me clean up and then we can go somewhere for dinner because honestly, I’m way too tired to cook.”
“Thank you, Obi-wan. For understanding.” Cody leaned over and kissed him.
“You are welcome.” Obi-wan led him to the sink. “I’ll wash you dry.”
Cody fell into the domesticity of washing dishes. He fell asleep that night with a smile on his face. Maybe tomorrow he would have better luck making cookies.
****
Cody found that when he actually followed a recipe and used the right measuring utensils, he was actually good at baking.
Obi-wan showed him how to make his second favorite cookie and told him what cookies were who’s favorites.
“Anakin loved double chocolate chip cookies. If you ask me, that’s a sugar coma waiting to happen. Ahsoka… I haven’t really baked for so you will have to ask her. Plo loves regular chocolate chip cookies. Mace loves pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal.” Obi-wan beat together the butter and sugar.
Cody helped Obi-wan make the cookies and when they came out, happily ate a few. “These are good.” Cody paused with a cookie held halfway to his mouth. “Obi-wan, ner cyare?”
“Yes, Cody?” Obi-wan’s blue eyes sparkled in happiness.
“Can we keep my first attempt between the two of us? I don’t want Skywalker to know how badly I botched making cookies.” Cody looked up when Obi-wan’s laugh burst forth.
“Yes, Cody. Your great cookie caper will stay between us. But… Bly and Wolffe were also there.” Obi-wan’s chuckles died down.
“I got enough blackmail from them to keep them quiet,” Cody smirked and stole another cookie. “Perks of being the oldest.”
“I thought Fox was the oldest.” Obi-wan’s laughter was a bright thing that always made Cody smile.
“That’s what that shabuir wants you to think.” Cody threw back his head and laughed with Obi-wan.
****
And that’s the tale of Cody’s Great Cookie Caper. Merry Christmas!