Work Text:
They made it. They were finally free.
The Clone Wars were over. The Jedi had prevailed, had killed the Sith Lord. The Separatists and the Republic negotiated an agreement, ceased all fighting. And Cody and his brothers were finally free.
Senator Chuchi and other senators the clones had fought alongside for years and had protected as well had not forgotten all their effort. They pushed for their rights, for pension for those who wanted it, for aid and enough finances to start out their lives.
They had been made for the Jedi and the Republic. They had fought for both. Died too. They deserved something in return now.
It had been quite the legal battle. Many didn’t see them as more than meat droids. Many would have been all too happy with discarding them since they no longer needed them. Would have just left them to fend for themselves in the wide galaxy. With nothing to their names.
Luckily, the clones had made many friends over the years and these friends hadn’t forgotten them.
Cody had begun his new life working alongside the Jedi in their Service Corps. Many of his brothers did the same. So many, actually, that the Jedi had created a new division entirely. The clones working for them wouldn’t be called Jedi, they were more like business partners.
What mattered to Cody most, was that he no longer had to keep fighting and killing to make a living. He would still be helping people. And Obi-Wan at the Jedi Temple was just a short ride away.
Even when the whole galaxy had opened up to him, Cody couldn’t stay away. Something had been growing between him and Obi-Wan during the war and now, they had all the time to figure out just what that something was.
The small flat he had found on Coruscant was tiny, but still a luxury compared to his single room on the Negotiator. He had managed to find one on level 36 which wasn’t too bad. Cody was well aware of the stuff going on in the lower levels.
He got home from work, stopped for some food, then crashed on his bed after dinner. He was still getting used to this new life, new work, new routines. It was tiring, in the best of ways, and his body had been through it in the war. He wasn’t as young as he used to be. Their rapid ageing didn’t help either, but he was told some people were working on that too.
He fell asleep quickly, did so most days. He had been taught to fall asleep anywhere, on a flying ship, on rocky ground with nothing around. In armor or a blaster in hand. Sometimes he got nightmares, what clone didn’t.
This night, though, Cody pulled his blanket up to his face, made himself comfortable and slept.
He could sleep in now too. He had free weekends. It was amazing and novel. Cody still woke up early every time, his body and internal clock used to the early mornings, but that was fine. He could still lounge in his bed for as long as he wished.
At least that had been something he used to do the first few weeks after moving into his flat. Now, when Cody woke up, he didn’t stay idle for too long. He liked having something to do.
They didn’t get much light on this level of Coruscant, but it was clearly a day already. He got up from bed, changed, thought about what he might get for breakfast as he went to wash his face.
He went through the usual stuff, breakfast, dishes, then he thought he might get a head-start on laundry while his hamper wasn’t overflowing. Not that he had enough clothes to make it overflow.
Cody halted in his bedroom. He didn’t have quite enough dirty clothes yet to fill up the whole washer. He eyed the sheets. It would be noon soon. When had he last washed them?
He took his pillow and smelled, grimacing slightly. Yeah, that wasn’t the freshest aroma. Cody needed to do something about these dirty sheets, only they wouldn’t dry before the evening.
Automatically, he moved toward the closest, not even thinking and then froze with his hand on the know. There was a reason why he always got up super early when he wanted to wash his sheets. He only had that one pair. There were no other clean sheets in his ownership.
Cody looked around his flat. It was bare, his one shelf empty, no pillows, not even a sofa. He only had one old arm-chair that he had found for cheap during a sale. He had two holo-novels from Obi-Wan on his bed-side table, but that was it. One pillow, one duvet. His bathroom only carried the essentials too. He had nearly slipped on the floor several times.
“Right,” he grumbled to himself and sighed. The sheets could probably survive one more night. He had slept on mud before, this was fine.
But he was no longer in a war. He had salary now, something to his name. He could just go out and get new ones.
This flat was his for the foreseeable future. It didn’t need to be so sad and empty anymore. He wasn’t leaving.
He commed Obi-Wan.
They meet up at Dex’s diner, ordered some lunch and then Cody told him about his plans—it was about time he bought all the stuff for his flat. Something that would really make it his. And a home.
Obi-Wan knew just the places. Some mostly from reputation, rather than his own experience, but it was a good start. At least he knew which district would be the right one, where the shops would be in Cody’s price range, and would have the things he might like.
As for the things he liked… well, Cody himself didn’t really know.
“We have the whole day, you can look at everything,” Obi-Wan told him with a smile.
Cody chuckled. “I just might.”
Obi-Wan linked their elbows and led them down the street. “Where do you want to start?”
“I need some bedsheets.”
“Oh,” Obi-Wan laughed. “Then we better get to it.”
“Yes. I only have one pair. It’s become a problem.”
“Cody! You’ve had that place for weeks now,” Obi-Wan said, more amused than anything.
Cody just shrugged. He had made it work so far. But now, it was time to get some clean sheets, some new ones. “Yes, and it’s a problem today.”
Obi-Wan shook his head. They entered a store. There were fabrics everywhere, as far as he could see. Cody’s mouth hung open at the sight. There were this many options? How the hell was he supposed to pick from this?
“We do I start?” he asked, feeling so little in this vast store. And it was just the first one they had entered. This wasn’t Cody’s world and it was becoming overwhelming too fast.
Obi-Wan put a hand to his forearm and patted it gently, his presence calming. Cody didn’t have to do this alone. He felt ridiculous stressed out from a store, but this was all so new and more often than not, Cody felt like he was grasping at straws. He didn’t have training for this. He didn’t have real-life experience like finding new recipes and buying pillows.
“How about the fabrics? Let’s try some. You can touch them, find what feels good to you.”
Cody nodded. That sounded like a good strategy. His mind latched onto it. One step after another and he would reach his goal. It didn’t have to be that different from his combat training.
They found the fabric samples. Cody didn’t know half the names, but Obi-Wan kept handing him scraps of fabric to feel, to rub his fingers against. Then, even Obi-Wan didn’t know all the names, but he still touched things and gave them to Cody to do the same.
Any anxiety he might have been feeling was quickly gone as he watched Obi-Wan. The man made his distaste well-known, cringed and grimacing when he touched something course or in any way unpleasant. One fabric from an Outer Rim world was perpetually damp, apparently, and Obi-Wan face of disgust had Cody laughing and clutching at his ribs. Until Obi-Wan had chucked the piece at his face—which truly had the oddest texture.
They didn’t start a fight like some children, but it was a near thing. A couple of glares from the attendants, and they moved to another section of the store.
“I think I want the cotton sheets,” Cody said, his mind set. Obi-Wan had told him a lot about the fabrics he knew and the cotton both felt nice and sounded like a good fit. Something he could easily take care of. And they wouldn’t come undone after the first few washes either.
By the time they had made it to that cotton sheets section, more than two hours had passed. Cody hadn’t even realized how long they had spent on testing out the fabrics. He was picking his own bedsheets for the first time. He had many questions and was rather meticulous about the whole thing.
Some moments, Cody felt like a kid. He knew nothing about this kind of life, not really. But the fact that he got to do this, no matter how late, meant everything to him.
And made all that much better with Obi-Wan by his side.
If he had thought the fabrics were too many, the designs and color combinations seemed infinite.
But the search didn’t last long after his eyes landed on the most magnificent blue shade. A familiar one. Cody approached the set, smiling to himself. Obi-Wan followed, inspecting it as well.
“This one?” he asked, his own hands running across the swirls of thin lines.
The design was nice, sure, but it was the color that had made him decide on it. “Yes,” he said, a little too soft, a little too quiet.
There was silence. Cody turned to Obi-Wan only to find him with his face flushed red, turned away from him, eyes on the sheets. “Why this particular design?”
Cody grinned and looked at the package in his hands. Whatever they had been building together, working towards, its culmination wasn’t going to be reached in some random bedsheet store.
So instead of splitting open his heart, Cody upped his grin. A joke was safe. Always had been. And if Obi-Wan decided to read more into it—to see the true meaning—that was up to him. “I don’t see you around the Temple as much, what if I forget those stunning eyes of yours?”
Obi-Wan nearly choked on air. “You’re terrible, Cody.”
Cody merely hummed and took the package. The color was almost like Obi-Wan’s eyes, but nothing was quite like the real thing.