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Wolffe slowly woke up to find that he wasn’t in his bunk, or his room. In fact he wasn’t even lying down. He was stood in a meeting with Plo, Ponds and General Windu.
He’d fallen asleep mid meeting.
Luckily the Commander had his helmet on, so hopefully no one noticed his little nap. It’s not like he didn’t already know the details of the debriefing, he was at the battle after all.
General Windu was wrapping up so Wolffe was pretty sure he’d gotten away with falling asleep. “Overall I’d say this battle highlights the strategic intelligence of Commander Ponds’ eight part conflict management plan.”
“Thank you, sir.” Ponds said proudly, shooting a smirk to Wolffe, who rolled his eyes. So what if he’d told Ponds his idiotic plan was dumb? Just because it worked doesn’t mean he was wrong. Any plan with over five steps was just nerdy.
Plo’s cheeks pulled upward as he rose to his feet, a subtle movement that Wolffe had learned translated to a wince. “Thank you gentlemen for going over this with me, I apologise for my lack of involvement.”
“Not at all sir.” Wolffe said immediately. It wasn’t the General’s fault that he’d been injured.
The Commander watched as General Windu reached over to place a hand on his upper arm. “Make sure to get your wound re-checked.”
Under his helmet, Wolffe was staring at the two Jedi with an absolutely gobsmacked expression. What?
Plo moved a hand to cover Windu’s. “I plan to.”
Then Wolfe’s General left. Just, walked out the door like everything was normal. Windu’s eyes followed him for half a second before turning back to the Commanders.
“Ponds, Wolffe.” He nodded at them and they chorused back at him, “sir.”
General Windu took his leave just as Plo had: casually.
The moment the doors slid closed behind him, Wolffe’s helmet was off and he was rounding on his brother. “Did you see that?”
“I don’t know what I just saw.” Ponds said, looking lost for words, but obviously the obsessively organised chatterbox always had some spare. “For my General a touch on the shoulder is, like, the equivalent of a hug!”
Wolffe brought a hand to his head in shock. “And a hug for you is the equivalent of a kiss on the cheek for a normal person.”
“I know!” Ponds panicked at him. “I’ve never seen him so emotionally irrational!”
“This is ridiculous!” Wolffe declared. “We know these men. We know they’d never break their code.”
“You’re right.” Ponds took a breath to stabilise himself, then seemed to get even more panicked. “Kriff, you are right!”
“What’s the matter?” Wolffe demanded.
“They’re not breaking the code!” Ponds claimed.
Wolffe sighed. “That is the conclusion we came to, yeah.”
“But that’s the problem.” He brother went on. “They’re pinning.”
“No, no way,” Wolffe said adamantly. “General Koon does not pine.”
“Yeah? Then explain that!” Ponds gestured forcefully at the door.
“That was… us seeing things.” Wolffe waved his hand absently.
“We are the best of the best; we don’t see things.” Ponds argued. “Just admit it: they’re in love and they’re perfect for each other.”
Wolffe frowned at him for a moment. Held his gaze. Then broke with a sigh. “They’re in love and they’re perfect for each other.”
“Thank you.” Ponds said. “We need to help them.”
“They’re grown men.” Wolffe said. “They can figure this out for themselves.”
“But they’re also grown Jedi.”
Wolffe grimaced, his brother was right. “We need a plan.”
“Okay,” Ponds started. “Part one-”
“No parts.”
“Fine,” Ponds huffed. “We close down a mess hall and set up a romantic dinner. Then we find away to get the Jedi there and I’d say that’s enough of a shove to get them to sort things out by themselves.”
Wolffe grumbled. “That’s a lot of evidence, and it makes a bloody track pointing in our direction.”
Ponds started at him for a moment. “We’re matchmaking, not murdering. You do know that right?”
“Fine! Let’s clear a mess! I’ll set up a dinner and then you get the Jedi where they need to be.” He marched out of the room and started down the hall, not waiting to see if Ponds was following him.
“Wolffe, wait!” Ponds called from down the hall but the Commander didn’t acknowledge him.
He reached the mess hall and the doors slid open for him. “EVERYBODY OUT!”
A hundred heads turned to him and the ones with brains in them began clearing up. A couple, mostly Ponds’ men, just looked at him. Unacceptable. “FASTER!”
The ones already clearing up abandoned their tasks and just flooded out. The others took the hint and left.
A member of the kitchen staff pointed to himself from across the room and Wolffe huffed. “YES YOU!”
The kitchen staff began leaving as well and a very angry cook stormed up to Wolffe. “Is there a reason I’m being kicked out of my own kitchen?”
“No.” Wolffe told him. “Just leave.”
The cook looked taken aback but did as asked. By the time Ponds got there, the mess was empty. “How did you do that?”
“I’m scarier than you.” He said simply.
“With a name like Wolffe?” Ponds ventured. “I’m surprised they don’t think you’re a furry.”
“Listen the mess is clear, you happy?”
“Not until our dads are together!” Ponds smiled at him.
“Don’t call them our dads, that’s weird.” Wolffe accused.
“But they’re our fathers.” Ponds said with mock confusion and Wolffe just rolled his eyes.
“You think you can get the Jedi here in,” Wolffe checked the time. “Thirty minutes.”
“Is that enough time for you to set up a nice meal?”
“I have my ways.”
Mace quickly made his way to the mess. The emergency Ponds had described had definitely sounded like something time sensitive.
As he reached the mess he took a breath, he was a Jedi. A very good Jedi and he could handle whatever disaster his men had caused.
He opened the door.
It was dark in the room. Only one table lit by some defective flare stick being used as a makeshift candle. The table had two meals set out, a solid version and a liquid version, with one of Plo’s food tubes set out neatly like the cutlery in front of the solid food.
Plo stood in front of the table, leaning on it and apparently waiting for him.
Mace could not handle this.
“It seems we have given our men the wrong idea.” Plo said simply, gesturing around the obviously romantically set up meal.
Mace had half a mind to run away, but he wouldn’t. Not from Plo.
He’d known he’d taken a risk doing something as intimate as placing a hand on his friends shoulder. However, his concern had been of overstepping boundaries with Plo, not that his men would do it for him.
“I apologise,” he said before turning around to leave. “Ponds will be reprimanded for this.”
Force, Mace was so embarrassed.
“Mace.” Plo called out and the General stopped, of course he did; he loved the sound of his name through his best friend’s mask. “I can sense your feelings for me.”
Mace really hated the force sometimes. “And I yours for me.”
“Please turn around.” Plo instructed and Mace reluctantly did so. “I’d never ask you to break the code for me.”
“And I would never ask that of you.” Mace said quickly, before his mouth got the better of him and he just started talking. “The thing is, I want to. I want to break the code for you. I’d never ask you to do the same but…”
He hadn’t known where he was going with that.
“I want to.” Plo said and Mace looked at him.
Their relationship had never been a question of wether feelings were returned but a question of wether they were strong enough to bend the patterns of the Jedi’s lives.
“You know, Qui-Jon Jin believed the code was not something to be followed as strictly as the Order enforces.” He said.
“You disagreed with Qui-Jon constantly and consistently. What has changed now?” Plo teased.
“Well,” Mace started, walking towards the other Jedi. “Call me a hypocrite, but now that I have experienced love, I can say with serenity that this,” he took Plo’s hand. “Could never lead to darkness and if it did, I’d know there was someone on the other side to pull me out. Even if it was just a memory.”
Plo chucked. “You have a way with words, Master Windu.”
“Master Koon,” Mace all but whispered, leaning close to the man he loved. He raised a hand to Plo’s face and tilted it to the side, he turned the other way and touched his cheek to the opposite of Plo’s.
It was a Kel Dor gesture of love that Mace may or may not have found out by searching up ‘how to Kel Dor kiss?’ On the holonet.
Plo chuckled deeply as they came face to face again. He leaned forwards and touched the front of his mask to Mace’s lips.
A Kel Dor kiss and a human kiss.
“Now,” plo said. “It would be a shame to waste this meal.”
Mace eyes the food. “Our Commanders will be in trouble for this.”
“Agreed.”
Ponds and Wolffe looked at each other from where they’d been watching the conversation through their hidden cameras.
“Worth it?” Ponds asked.
Wolffe nodded. “Worth it.”