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They were soldiers and the Galaxy was crumbling down despite their best efforts. They found each other in a war. Because of it. They had duties and they had brothers to protect and civilians to save. They had to endure.
In the middle of it all, there was softness. In the glimmer of their eyes when they saw each other across the room, in the touches shared late at night after many reports had been done, in the way words meant for ranks curved into the lovely shape of pet names.
And when everything exploded and they knew pain like they never did before, there was the harshness of the only planet that would offer them the cover they needed. The brightness of two suns that hardened their skins even more. The sand that found a way to rub against wounds, physical and otherwise, making them hurt anew. And the soothing presence of the baby wrapped in blankets, cradled close to Cody’s chest.
Obi-Wan had lived what seemed like many lifetimes of pain and struggle. Cody’s entire existence was tied to war. Their souls were already so scarred, it felt like carrying a Coruscanti skyscraper in their chests. And somehow in the crevices of a Galaxy that had done barely anything but hurt them, they’d found themselves with Luke in their care.
Luke extended their tiny hands at them, with eyes as clear as Tatooine’s sky right after dawn. He was light like a feather and he demanded to be carried around. As if he longed for the beating of another heart paired up with his.
Obi-Wan usually woke up from nightmares, wondering how the Force allowed them to be forged into weapons and ached for the gentleness he’d lost and that Cody hardly knew. But then, the first sun was barely rising when a soft humming reached him, followed by even softer words. A lullaby, and the sound of Luke’s tiny laughter.
Cody was moving across their kitchen while singing in Mando’a and patting Luke’s back in a rhythmic caress. His eyes were lost in the sandy landscape, and Obi-Wan’s breath was taken away when he saw the warmth in them. He stepped into the shy beams of sunlight and drowned in the sheer love that was filling the room.
They’d met so far away from tenderness, but it seemed like Cody’s true purpose in that whole damn Galaxy was to bring Luke softly back to sleep and to make Obi-Wan’s insides melt with every gentle smile.
They looked at each other and Obi-Wan approached him with silent steps. He breached the last inches between them, mindful of Luke’s presence, and kissed Cody savoring the smiles on their lips. Luke protested the tightness around him. They giggled.
The darkness of their past and future sometimes was overwhelming. The weight they carried around sometimes threatened to bury them in the sands of Tatooine. But right there, Obi-Wan thought, there was a lightness in their chest. There was a beacon of hope, their own source of light.
They’d never stop being soldiers, they’d protect it at all costs.