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Anakin frowned at his arm. His robotics had been playing up during the battle and he wanted to tinker with it.
He looked around the small shuttle taking back to the Resolute. It was only him, Ahsoka, Rex and three of his most trusted men. Fives and Echo were chatting and Jesse seemed to be staring at the wall opposite him, lost in thought.
He was among friends and they had a another hour and a half of the journey; he’d be fine to clean out his prosthetic.
He took the thing off and the only reaction was Rex doing a quick double take before settling back down. Jesse didn’t react, Fives and Echo were too absorbed in their own conversation to notice and Ahsoka’s hadn’t looked up from her datapad in the last forty minutes.
He started working.
The peacefulness of the ship didn’t last long however, as Ahsoka’s suddenly gasped loudly. Fives and Echo looked over, Jesse woke from his own mind and Rex and Anakin looked at her.
“You good Snips?” Anakin questioned.
His Padawan just laughed. “You’re not going to believe what I’ve just found.”
“What?” Rex asked. “What are you looking to at?”
He tried to lean over to see the datapad and Ahsoka pulled it away. “Wait, wait. Let me explain first. I was messaging Barriss-”
“Aww,” Fives cooed. “The Commander’s got a girlfriend.”
“Shut up!” Ahsoka ordered.
“Fives could you at least pretend to respect us?” Rex said, exasperated by Fives’ constant insubordination. Anakin personally found it amusing but he’d never tell the Captain that.
“Unfortunately he can’t , sir.” Echo said with a sympathetic look.
Jesse smiled. “It’s a medical thing.”
Ahsoka laughed. “We’re afraid it’s incurable.”
Anakin frowned, processing what Fives had said. “Hey didn’t I say no dating till you’re a knight?”
“No?” Ahsoka said. “You said no boys.”
Jesse grinned wider and slapped the General on his shoulder. “Heteronormativity coming back to bite you, there.”
Anakin grumbled and Echo cleared his throat. “Anyway, what made you gasp like you’d seen a ghost?”
“A ghost in a dress.” Ahsoka said plainly and Rex gave a confused laugh.
“What?” Fives asked.
“Okay, so, Barriss has been doing some propaganda research,” Ahsoka’s started. “As part of a task trying to figure out why planets are joint the Seppies-”
Anakin gasped, cutting her off and grinning. “Is it a propaganda caricature of a member of ghost Company in a dress?”
Fives grinned too at the suggestion. “Oh, we could hold that over them for months.”
“No it’s not that.” Ahsoka said. “They’ve leaked a video- it must be to make him look incapable but- it’s a video of Master Obi-Wan as a Padawan-”
Ahsoka cut herself of laughing too much to speak and simply turned around her datapad.
Anakin’s jaw fell open at the video it was playing. Rex and Jesse started laughing at it as Fives and Echo tried to lean in to see as well.
Playing on the screen, was a video of Obi-Wan around his twenties, stood with Quinlan in one of the Temple’s undercover missions costume rooms.
The pair were laughing and smiling but what really caught Anakin and his men’s attention was that they were dancing in massive ballroom dresses.
“What the kriff?” Jesse laughed. “When was this?”
“He look our age.” Rex commented. Fives and Echo finally got round to see and began laughing with them.
Anakin watched as Quinlan grabbed Obi-Wan’s hand and spun him around. His dress was a bright pink and Vos’ was an equally blindingly bright blue. It looked odd, because they couldn’t here the music, but it was obvious his old master was having fun.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smiling that much.” Echo commented as Fives lost his marbles laughing.
“That’s Quin for you,” Anakin said. “They’re like brothers those two. Could talk each-other into anything!”
Fives bashed his shoulder against Echo’s. “Like us, yeah?”
“You will never get me into a dress.” Echo said adamantly.
“How effective is this as propaganda?” Rex asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Dunno.” Ahsoka said. “We didn’t get that far in the conversation.”
“Turn the sound on?” Jesse requested and Ahsoka did so.
It turned out, the pair of Padawans were also singing.
“There’s a diamond castle in my mind,” came Obi-Wan’s slightly distorted voice through the speaker. “and some day soon-”
Quinlan took over, lifting Obi-Wan up by his waist (clearly defined by the bodice of his dress.) and scream-singing. “WE’RE GONNA FIND IT!!”
Obi-Wan laughed. Hearing his master laugh when he was young reminded Anakin of growing up. Specially it brought back memories of dancing and singing and laughing in the kitchen as Obi-Wan taught him to bake.
“Oh, my God.” Echo laughed and Anakin joined him.
“Hang on,” the General suddenly remembered. “I know what they’re singing!”
Ahsoka laughed. “Terribly?”
“Wait a minute, I think Kenobi’s pretty good!” Fives interjected.
“Guys!” Anakin got their attention. “This whole thing is a reference to The Diamond Castle!”
“The what?” Rex asked.
“It’s a movie! The song’s from a movie and the dresses they’re waring look like the dresses the two main girls wear!” Anakin told them.
“I’ve just looked it up.” Jesse said, looking down at his own datapad. “Do you mean ‘Barbie and the Diamond Castle?”
“Yes!” Anakin clapped. “That’s what they’re referencing!”
“Why do you know that?” Echo asked.
“From the ages of ten to fifteen, Barbie was childhood.” Anakin proudly admitted. He wasn’t ashamed of who he was.
“You were still watching Barbie movies at fifteen?” Ahsoka asked at the same time Rex said, “this explains so much about you.”
Anakin tried tried to cross his arms in defiance, only to realise that he only had one functional hand at that point. He started putting it back on.
In the video, Obi-Wan and Quinlan’s song came to an end and the two went into a fit of laughter. As Obi-Wan approached the camera to turn it off, Quinlan yelled to him in the background, “now we just need some identical twins to kriff us!”
Obi-Wan started to laugh and the video cut out.
The whole shuttle burst into laughter. They were all thinking it, how could they not be? Anakin’s brain immediately made the connection between identical twins and their identical army of men.
“I hadn’t heard that part!” Ahsoka laughed.
“in the movie,” Anakin explained. “The girls love interests are twins.”
Fives gasped for breath before calming himself slightly. “We absolutely need to set up these Princesses with two Brothers.”
“Agreed.” Echo said as Jesse nodded. “Absolutely.”
“Okay Obi-Wan’s sorted.” Rex said. “It wouldn’t be too hard to push him to Cody.”
“If they’re not already together.” Ahsoka commented and Rex hummed.
Anakin pulled a face. “Cody and Obi-Wan?”
“Sorry sir,” Rex started. “But you’re the only one who can’t see it.
“Well, you and maybe them.” Fives said and a murmur of agreement when around the shuttle.
“So we just need to pick someone for Vos.” Jesse said.
“Here me out, here me out.” Echo started. “Fox.”
“What? He’d hate Quinlan!” Anakin argued. Those two were complete opposites!
“Exactly!” Fives agreed, seeming to get what Echo was talking about. “Annoyances to lovers!”
The group laughed.
In the end, they decided not to tell Obi-Wan about the video, spare him the embarrassment… they also decided that matchmaking Fox and Quinlan was perfect and that Cody and Obi-Wan would get there on their own.