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Some days, being a teacher was a gift. Some days, his students actually appreciated the chance to stretch their legs in the middle of a long workday, actually paid attention and gave a modicum of effort in their games and activities. Some days weren’t the first day after Spring Break.
It wasn’t even noon yet, but if Obi-Wan had to blow his whistle one more time at careless Freshmen and Sophomores swinging hockey sticks like baseball bats, he was going to lose his damn mind.
He took a breath. There were only 35 minutes left in this class before he had his planning period and could hide in the teachers lounge until after lunch, when maybe things would be calmer. Just 35 more minutes, Obi-Wan could do that. Obi-Wan had dragged Anakin Skywalker kicking and screaming through his teenage years, had defended his master’s thesis, had gotten shot before. A gym full of screaming and bickering pubescents was nothing, he—
“JACEE MULN, YOU LYING, CHEATING, LITTLE WORM!”
—was going to commit a murder, apparently, if Obi-Wan didn’t get more tea in him ASAP. Obi-Wan turned to where Quinlan was animatedly talking about something with Siri, probably trying to convince her to play some less-than-appropriate songs over the radio speakers again. Whatever it was, Obi-Wan wasn’t making that his problem, they could deal with Vice-Principal Windu if there were more complaints because Obi-Wan just didn’t have the bothers to spare today. “Vos!” Quinlan’s head jerked guiltily before he looked over at Obi-Wan with raised eyebrows and a guileless smile. Brat. Obi-Wan held up his thermos and waved it towards the gym doors. “I’m going to refill, you’ve got watch of the miscreants until I’m back,” he said, and didn’t even wait for Quinlan’s dismissive wave of acknowledgement before making a beeline for the doors.
~~~~~~
Of course the troll had drank all of his tea over break. Of course he did. Because it’s not like Obi-Wan had labeled that tea, not like he’d penned a clear, underlined message on the tin Obi-Wan kept his stash in, “Obi-Wan Kenobi, DO NOT TOUCH without explicit permission. PRINCIPAL YODA THIS MEANS YOU.” No, not at all, why would Obi-Wan do something silly like that, clearly he loved it when people took the one thing maintaining his sanity without so much as a by your leave.
Obi-Wan side-eyed the expresso pot. Coffee was an abomination, and if Cody ever found out Obi-Wan would never hear the end of it, but if his other option was returning to the gym without more caffeine in his system…
Obi-Wan sighed and reached for a mug.
He had just started to pour, with the fumes themselves already forcing his eyelids back open and easing his imminent headache, when the door opened. Drat. Nothing for it but to be polite, then. “Good morning,” Obi-Wan looked up, and…Oh. Oh wow. Okay. Mornings were kind of great actually, Obi-Wan took back every single bad thing he had even ever thought about them.
Standing in the doorway was Cody Fett, the most recognized math teacher in Coruscant County and possibly the most exasperating man Obi-Wan had ever met. Seriously. What sort of math teacher needed forearms like that? It couldn’t possibly require that much effort to move a marker across a whiteboard a couple times a day. Ridiculous.
And if Cody’s arms were ridiculous for a math teacher, his legs were positively indecent. Obi-Wan was a physical education instructor, his entire livlihood revolved around fitness, and he didn’t fill out his slacks anywhere nearly as attractively as Cody did the shorts he had apparently decided it was once again warm enough to torture Obi-Wan with. Bastard.
You’d think, with that much attractiveness, surely there had to be something wrong with his face, right? Wrong. Outrageous cheekbones, and a scar that only drew attention to such lively eyes, and—
“Oh hello, Obi-Wan!”
—that was a mustache. A mustache. On Cody. Framing the top of his cheerful little grin. Stars, it looked so fluffy and soft.
“Obi-Wan?”
He wondered what type of product Cody used. Does he brush it? Would it smell nice, like his shampoo, or does he have some sort of oil like Obi-Wan bought for his beard. What would it feel like agains—
“OBI-WAN!”
Obi-Wan jerked upright to the sensation of hot liquid sliding past his fingertips, and a very concerned Cody Fett looking about two seconds away from seizing the coffee pot and forcibly sitting Obi-Wan down until he responded.
“Cody! Wait just a moment, hello, terribly sorry I must have zoned out for a moment, here let me just-” Obi-Wan hopefully made words actually word properly as he flailed about for paper towels and focused on controlling the blush he could feel painting his checks and ears.
Cody relaxed and laughed, a quiet little huff of amusement, before helpfully handing over a roll of the good paper towels from the art cabinet. Good man, that Cody.
“Here, those thin little brown ones just seem to make things worse when you try to use them.” Cody shook his head. “Honestly don’t see why we bothering buying them, but….” As ever, the school board and their penny pinching thought differently.
“No matter, it’s all cleared up now! Sit down, I just got here myself. How was your break? You and Rex went down to visit you older brother, correct?” Obi-Wan hurriedly threw away the disposable towels and sat down across from Cody, definitely not struggling to keep his eyes away from, well, that.
“We sure did. Wolffe regrets our births more with every visit, or so he claims. Doesn’t stop him from being to first to bring teeth into a fight.” Cody smiled fondly. “Plo was there to reel things in before we got too out of hand though, and no one needed bailing out this time, so I’m calling it a win.”
Obi-Wan grinned accross the table at him. “Well imagine that, not a single visit to the jail for any of your horde? I’m impressed my dear, how ever did Plo manage?”
“He’s Plo.” Cody shrugged, and fair enough. Plo Koon had the sort of air about him that could make a stonehearted bank robber rethink his life choices and call his mother for a chat. The Fett boys, ferocious sweethearts that they were, didn’t stand a chance.
“How about you?” Cody leaned forwards and gestured at the drying table between them. “I shudder the think about what sort of mischief you and Vos got up to if he has you fetching coffee for him again. Did you lose a bet?”
“Hmm?” Obi-Wan wasn’t at all distracted by the way the mustache moved as Cody talked, or the way the fluorescent lights played across it, not at all. Right, Cody had just asked about Quinlan, Obi-Wan had better say something before he made things weird. But not about the mustache. They weren’t going to talk about that, apparently. “Oh no, the coffee was for me, I needed a little bit of a pick-me-up this morning,” Obi-Wan smiled at how successfully he had not brought up Cody’s new facial hair. Cody, however, did not. Quite the opposite, rather. Cody froze in place, and furrowed his brow before he began talking in a slow, measured pace, as though to a small child.
“Obi-Wan, are you…okay?”
Well that was just insulting, but Obi-Wan supposed after their many, many, ongoing beverage debates it was only to be expected that Cody might be a tad bit disbelieving of his willingly drinking such waste. Truly, the depths students drove him to. “Oh yes I’m quite fine, our esteemed principal just saw fit to drink all of my tea while overseeing the remodeling over break, and so I hadn’t realized I wouldn’t have any today.” Obi-Wan’s lips twisted sourly as he recalled the chaos he’d fled from. “And with it being the first day back from break, well…”
Cody sank back with a grimace of his own. “Yeah, my kids are being right terrors themselves. First block is all travel kids though, so they’re someone else’s terrors now.”
They sat in a moment of silent sympathy and mutual support, before Obi-Wan finally couldn’t take it anymore, he had to ask. It was rude, yes, but Cody had forgiven him ruder and Obi-Wan just had to know, it would simply steal his sanity and haunt his soul if he didn’t. “Cody, about your new musta—”
The trilling of the school bell interrupted him, and Cody launched himself upright with a curse, Obi-Wan was thinking more than a few words himself.. “Kriff I lost track of the time, catch you later Kenobi!”
And then he was gone, dashing through the door into the fray in those shorts, hmm, those shorts, taking his mustache and Obi-Wan’s only chance of focusing today with him.