Work Text:
Cody walked down the hall of the GAR clone barracks on Coruscant. After spending nearly two months on a planetary siege with the 501st, the whole 7th Sky Corps were glad to be given a weeks leave.
The Commander was using his time to organise placements of new troops, as Kamino had recently sent word of a whole new Brigade worth of soldiers who were ready to get out into the field.
The General, Obi-Wan as he insisted to be called, had invited him to his quarters in the Temple to discuss the issue over dinner. Cody was honestly really excited to see what the Jedi would make, as he’d said he was cooking himself.
It wouldn’t be the first time he’d eat with his General, or the first time they’d had dinner on leave together but it would be a first to be cooked for personally. Cody couldn’t think of anyone better to share it with.
As he reached the exit however, the Commander suddenly heard small, crying sounds coming from an alcove by the open doors. He instinctively redirected himself to find the source of the little sobs.
When he turned into the alcove, it was to find Rex’s kid Commander curled in on herself crying, her head resting on her knees.
“Hey, Kid.” Cody said, trying to sound soft, the way Obi-Wan did when speaking to distressed troops.
She snapped her head up and furiously wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Hey.”
“Are you okay?” He asked cautiously, crouching down to be level with her.
“Yeah, sorry,” Tano said quickly. “I’m fine.”
“Well,” Cody smiled at her, thankful he wasn’t wearing his bucket. “I can’t really say I believe that.”
She laughed quietly before the tears rebounded their attack on her eyes. “This is so stupid.”
“Why’s that?” Cody asked, remembering that asking what the problem was might not always be the best way to get an answer.
“Because, I’m never scared in battle.” She explained. “I can run into fights against those droids without any hesitation and it’s so ridiculous that I can’t even-”
“Are you scared now?” He asked and got a small, regretful nod in return. “Why’s that?”
Tano looked out the large exit doors to the barracks. The night was almost black out there, late into the evening. Cody understood. “Is it the dark?”
The mini Commander didn’t take her eyes away from the night. “What’s in the dark.”
“Ah,” was all Cody could say. He’d once heard someone on the holonet talking about the things that lurked in the dark that women and girls had to be afraid of.
“That why it’s stupid.” Tano started again. “I’m a Jedi, or I will be soon. I could kill anything or- or anyone out there.”
“But that isn’t the point?” Cody asked and the kid nodded.
The sat in silence for a moment before Tano started crying again, silent and numb this time. Cody tried to distract her. “What’re you doing here anyway?”
She wiped her eyes and smiled. “Echo and some of the others let me do their hair.”
“Did they?” Cody asked, wondering how that turned out.
Tano moved to sit cross legged and took out her holo pad. She took a second to find something before turning the screen around.
“Woah,” Cody said genuinely. The holopic was of Echo smiling and showing off a surprisingly well-cut fresh hair style. Fives was high-fiving the kid in the background and Rex was smiling at them all. “How’d you do that?”
“With razors and combs and stuff.” She answered and Cody gave her a ‘really?’ look.
“I meant how did you learn to cut hair?” He clarified.
She smirked, she absolutely knew what he’d meant. “The holonet.”
Cody hummed. “Well you’ve done a great job.”
“Thanks,” The kid said, seeming a little uncomfortable with the praise, as she put the pad away.
“If you were hanging out with Torrent,” Cody ventured. “Why didn’t you ask one of them to walk you back to the Temple?”
She looked away and the Commander thought he might not get an answer. “At first, I didn’t realise how late it had got.”
“Why not go back?” He asked carefully.
“I didn’t want,” she started, mumbling. “I didn’t want them to think I can’t be trusted to lead.”
“Oh,” Cody said, thought for a moment and then spoke up. “You know those men love you right? Rex is always singing your praises and none of them would mind helping the person they consider a sister.”
Ahsoka smiled. “I know that, I do. But I couldn’t just walk back in their and admit-”
She stopped and Cody finished for her. “That you’re scared?”
The kid nodded. The Commander stood up.
“Come on,” he said, holding out a hand. “I’ll take you there, that way you won’t be alone and your men don’t have to know.”
The mini Commander sniffed. “You don’t have to. I don’t want to be a pain.”
“You’re not a pain,” Cody thought that might not convince her. “I’m heading that way anyway.”
“You are?” The Kid said as she stood up. “Why?”
“I’m going to see General Kenobi.” Cody said plainly, walking over to the doors and stopping, waiting for the mini Commander to follow.
She eventually did.
The two Commanders stood there, starting out into the darkness side by side. Facing it.
Cody held out an arm, the way he’d seen dads give their arms to their daughters. Ahsoka’s looked up at him and slid her arm through his.
They started walking.
“So why are you going to see Master Obi-Wan?” The kid piped up after a moment of silence. Cody didn’t know if she actually cared or was just distracting herself from the near-black surroundings.
“We need to go over some paperwork.” He said.
“Sounds boring.” She responded and Cody wondered if she did her own reports and if not, who did?
“Yeah, but he’s making me dinner too.” The Commander told her.
The kid laughed. “Poor you.”
“What?” Cody started. “Is he not a good cook?”
“From what I hear from Anakin he can’t even-”
She was cut off by a noise from the darkness, something falling or moving or something like that. Ahsoka clutched tighter to Cody’s arm.
“Its okay.” He reassured her. “You’re okay.”
“I feel so stupid.” She said, but didn’t stop holding onto Cody.
“You’re not stupid.” He said.
She sighed, frustrated. “I shouldn’t need someone to do this for me. I’m better than this.”
Cody thought for a moment. He sighed.
“Last time I was on leave, Kenobi took me out to Dex’s to try proper food for the first time.” He opened his anecdote.
“Romantic.” The kid laughed and Cody’s head snapped to her. She smiled devilishly at him and the Commander chuckled.
“You’ve spent too much time with Rex.” He said.
Tano gave him a puzzled look. “What?”
“On Kamino, Rex was always trying to set our trainers up with each other.” He explained. “Even did it with the Kaminoans sometimes.”
The kid laughed. “Once, after a battle, a local came up to Rex and started flirting with him. He looked like he didn’t know wether to run away or throw up.”
“Yeah, he’s only interested in other people’s love lives.” Cody agreed. “But back to what I was saying-”
“About your date.” Ahsoka nodded.
“It wasn’t a date.”
She raised a white eye mark. “Okay.”
“It wasn’t!” Cody claimed and the kid laughed. “Anyway it’s not important. The point of the story is when the waitress came over to take our orders I couldn’t order.”
“What?” The mini Commander asked.
“I couldn’t order!” Cody repeated. “It was like I couldn’t speak. I was so scared to just ask for what I wanted. I just looked pathetically at Obi-Wan and he had to order for me. I felt so stupid.”
“Why were you scared?” She asked.
“I don’t know,” the Commander answered honestly. “Anxiety or something. But then next time Obi-Wan took me out-”
“On your second date.” Tano smiled.
Cody ignored her. “He asked me if I wanted to try and order for myself. He said it was brave if I did, brave if I didn’t.”
The kid turned confused eyes on him. “What?”
“Brave if I did, brave if I didn’t.” Cody explained. “Brave to try something new, push myself out of my comfort zone and brave to let him order for me and let someone else look after me and meet my needs.”
The mini Commander hummed.
“If you’d walked to the Temple by yourself, that would have been brave.” Cody started. “But letting me help you? That’s not stupid. That’s just as brave.”
Ahsoka smiled.
When they eventually reached the Temple, the mini Commander hugged him. Cody was thrown off guard for a moment before hugging back.
As she ran off, presumably in the direction of the Padawan rooms, Ahsoka’s yelled. “Good luck with your date!”
Cody laughed. Yeah, Skywalker was a walking pain the the shebs but his kid? She was alright.
Must be the clone influence, obviously.