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“Anakin, what…” Cody’s General starts. Stops. The urgent mission plans on Cody’s datapad take an immediate hit to their ability to keep his attention. Regardless, he pushes on.
“Don’t be angry, Master.”
Cody resettles, and focuses harder. If there’s one thing he’s learned in his time serving in the Grand Army of the Republic, it’s that when his padawan gets into trouble, it’s only a matter of time until Obi-Wan winds up buried in the same pile of osik. And then it’s up to Rex and Cody (often just Cody, because apparently the GAR’s got a shortage of brain cells on top of everything else) to dig them out. A valiant attempt at ignorance may not stop that from happening, but it can certainly delay it.
“I - how did you even…”
A crash and a strange scrabbling noise sound from the next room. The words on the datapad begin to blur together from how hard Cody is squinting at them.
“Listen. I can explain! Just - hold on - I need to -” Another crash.
Cody slams the datapad down, defeated. He wonders if anyone has begun a betting pool on the likelihood of him going grey before the war is over. He wonders if there actually is any caff in that brown mud Choke serves or if the 212th’s cook has possibly been recruited by Seps to commit sabotage via decaf beverage.
He hears another crash, an “ Oh for Force’s sake, Anakin!” and stands up from the armchair in Kenobi’s room, marches into the adjoining main living space.
And stares.
Obi-Wan’s ornamental vase has fallen from its shelf, cracked and leaking water. Bits of broken rare flowers are scattered all over the floor. Cody had gotten Obi-Wan those on their last mission specifically for their ability to stay alive for long periods with little light. He would be more upset about that, truly. If it weren’t for the more pressing matter of the squirming animal currently being hugged to Skywalker’s chest.
“Anakin…” Obi-Wan begins again, reaching forward helplessly and then pausing. But the younger man is busy restraining the enthusiastically thrashing bundle of fur, who seems determined to lick every part of Anakin it can reach. Anakin doesn’t actually look like he minds this; it’s more a play-wrestle than anything else.
“Where did you get a dog?” Obi-Wan finally asks, when Cody can’t come up with anything to say.
Anakin looks up. “Oh, Rex gave him to me.”
Right.
“And where did Rex get a dog.” Cody’s words are flat, disbelieving.
Skywalker opens his mouth, stops, then looks down, frowning. “I actually… I forgot to ask...” He brightens. “But we’ve all been taking care of him, and I think he used to be a stray because of all these scars. Isn’t he perfect, Master? I was thinking of naming him Jaig, but the troopers already voted on Benny.”
The dog has finally settled down somewhat and is hanging limply in Skywalker’s arms, tongue out and tail wagging.
“Well, yes, Anakin, he’s very cute,” Obi-Wan says hesitantly. It’s not that Cody doesn’t like dogs, as much as he has never had any personal experiences with them.
So he has far less hesitation when he says “General, I’m sorry to say that smuggling live animals off of Republic planets and onto military ships could get you and Rex into serious trouble. You probably won’t be able to keep it.”
Skywalker looks less like this is a reasonable statement of fact and more like Cody just took the dog out of his arms and murdered it right there in cold blood.
“But -” He looks down at the dog, looks up at Kenobi, back at the dog.
“I’m sorry, Anakin,” Obi-Wan says gently. “Cody is right. He might be able to stay with you briefly, but have you or Rex talked about the logistics of this dog? What are you going to do with him on campaigns? Did you even look up the regulations?”
Anakin shrugs, rubbing his face in the soft fur on the dog’s forehead. “No… not really. I was so caught up in the euphoria of having a dog that for a few days I lived in a world where regulations didn’t exist.”
And honestly, yeah, that seems about in-character for Skywalker. The thing is, this liaison with the 501st is going to last the next six rotations at least. And Cody knows his men - if they get to play with the 501st’s dog and then can’t get their own, Cody’s going to be dealing with sulky troopers and malicious conformity for the next two months.
But he can’t see any way for them to get rid of the thing, so he’ll just have to try to… keep it out of sight for now. Yeah, they can do that. And the dog will be spending all its time on the Resolute, at least. There won’t be a dog running loose on Cody’s ship. He’s putting his foot down about that.
“You don’t need to mother me, Cody, I’m perfectly capable of moderating my own sleep schedule.” Cody, midway through marching Obi-Wan through the door of his bedroom, leans around him just to give that statement the reaction it deserves. Obi-Wan sighs, but tellingly does not argue the point.
Cody hustles his General forward and shoos the dog over to the other side of the bed. The animal huffs but obligingly relocates. Then Cody shoves at Obi-Wan until he laughs and swats him off, kicking him lightly in the leg.
“Alright, alright! I’ll just do some light reading - oh, don’t look at me like that, I’m allowed to read! - and then I’ll go to sleep.” An ordinary man might be fooled by his General’s sincere expression and eminently reasonable tone. Not Cody. He’s been on Obi-Wan wrangling duty for two years. He is exceedingly familiar with Obi-Wan’s genuine intent to sleep, but sudden pressing need to do literally anything else.
Cody is stalwart and principled, unable to be pushed around. The fact that there is a dog laying on the bed three days after their liaison with the 501st began is a fact of no consequence.
Anakin brought him onboard for some legitimate reason Cody can’t remember, and then fell asleep in the common room, that’s all. And Rex is helping some of the pilots move equipment… or something. And whenever he does end up onboard for reasons like that and isn’t busy being doted on by the 212th, the dog has taken to following Cody around. Like some kind of personal assistant that cannot do any of the useful things a personal assistant usually does and also doesn’t listen to orders like “go away” and “get.”
Now he’s followed them into Obi-Wan’s room, hopping right up on the bed and laying down like he pays rent. Cody also lays on this bed and does not pay rent, but the point stands.
Cody retreats to the main room, eyeing his General suspiciously, but Obi-Wan really does seem to be settling down, kicking his boots off onto the floor and frowning at an article on his datapad.
Cody knows better than to think this will last, but he has two separate comm meetings he needs to take in the suite’s sitting room. He’ll just check in regularly, and hassle Obi-Wan back towards the bed when he decides he needs to reorganize all his teapots, or create a new draft of the Senate Procedural from scratch or something.
His first meeting goes well, but takes longer and occupies more of his attention than he expected. When it ends, he darts over to the door, hitting the controls and scanning the room for his General.
His General who is… still on the bed, in the exact same position he left him in. Cody looks around the room again, then squints at the Jedi suspiciously. He’s paying attention to what’s on his datapad, but every once in a while he shifts and then looks down morosely. The dog has shifted, asleep with his head laying on one of Obi-Wan’s thighs. Obi-Wan must catch the corners of Cody’s mind, because he looks up, and his expression turns mulish.
“See, dear? Right where you put me.”
“Really?” Cody drawls, crossing his arms over his chest. Obi-Wan’s eyes are drawn predictably downwards, which is most of the reason Cody does it. “And if there was not a dog lying on you right now, where would you be?”
Obi-Wan makes a face, then sighs. “I can’t move the dog Cody, look at him. He’s completely at peace and has chosen my lap to fall asleep in. How can I betray that trust?”
Is this, Cody wonders, what it would take to get Obi-Wan to stay still until he falls asleep? Cody’s head in his lap? Or is the dog a special case? Regardless, he makes no effort to help his General, simply nods, satisfied, and heads back into the other room. The Jedi’s despondent huff follows him.
“Rex needs to give this dog a medal,” Cody says the next time he walks into the room. Quietly, though. There, still in the same spot on a real bed, before 2200 hours, is Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, asleep. Not injured, not unconscious from fatigue, not meditating. Just… asleep.
Sprawled across Obi-Wan’s thighs is the happy progenitor of this momentous occasion, snoring peacefully. Cody was going to kick the dog out when he went to sleep, but he’s unable to stomach the thought of undoing such a miracle, so he just strips off his armor as quickly and quietly as possible. He creeps over to the bed, slipping in beside his Jedi easily. Neither Obi-Wan or the dog wake, and Cody grins victoriously, rolls over, and thinks about how many more times he might be able to get this to happen before the 501st leaves.
The answer is: quite a lot, actually.
It turns out that a few well timed praises and treats, as well as the sneaky collaboration of other members of the 212th is all it takes to convince the dog that Obi-Wan’s place is the best possible option for taking a nap at every opportunity. Skywalker is rather put out by this, but significantly cheered when Waxer points out all the excellent blackmail material he could be getting over the next few days.
When the 501st finally takes off, it’s a day early, to everyone’s chagrin. Tranch has launched an all-out assault on one of the only Republic planets still mass-exporting medical equipment to them, and the 212th is awaiting orders on recent movements being made by Grievous nearly thirty parsecs in the opposite direction.
Cody watches through a viewport as the ship detaches, sending on final farewell comm to Rex and resigning himself to attempting to sit on Obi-Wan himself to make him fall asleep. But there’s work that needs to be done first, a briefing the analysts need to give him on Grievous’s latest movements, and he still has to file all the forms for the new transports they got to replace ones that were shot down last mission.
He heads for the war room at a clip, holding the door between hallways so the dog doesn’t get his tail closed in it again. When he’s through, he lets it slide shut and keeps going. Then stops.
He looks down, slowly.
The dog pants back at him, not a thought behind its big brown eyes.
But…
Rex left. Rex left and Skywalker left, and -
The realization hits him at the exact same moment that his comm starts to chime a very familiar tone. Making the kind of split-second decision that has been winning a galactic war, Cody spins, changing trajectory and sprinting for the control room. His comm stops beeping for a second, and then resumes, more urgently. The holocall request is layered over a steadily increasing barrage of text messages, no doubt from Cody’s little brother and his idiot son-in-law.
He crashes through the bridge door, startling two ensigns. “Gun it,” he barks at the startled captain, “Now!”
”Yes sir! To where, sir?” The entire bridge comes alive at once, crew to their stations and one technician’s hand poised over the shipwide battle stations alert.
”Anywhere, I don’t care. Go and go now. Lieutenant, do not set off an alert. All personnel stand by.”
“Stand by for what, sir -”starts Crys in concern, but Cody isn’t paying attention.
In the distance is the familiar shape of a large ship coming out of hyperspace. Cody marches to the window as their own hyperdrive hums to life. He notes with great satisfaction that Rex miscalculated the distance in his panic. Or more likely, Skywalker did.
Cody’s comm screams at him, and he slaps it with the heel of his hand to silence the sound entirely. No matter. They’re too far away to catch them now.
With a familiar whoosh, the Negotiator jumps into hyperspace, leaving the system far behind. Aboard it is one of the most valuable assets Rex could have been so foolish as to have forgotten.
His name, Cody has just decided, is Tranquilizer - Sargeant, first class - in deference to his important role as a member of 212th command-track personnel. And Cody is not planning on giving him back any time soon.