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Mace wakes up from a nap on his sofa, three tiny warm bodies curled into and on top of him. They're extremely cosy, and don't weigh nearly enough to squash him. And Waxer's foot digging into his ribs is somehow comforting rather than annoying.
Somewhere to the side of him, there's an argument happening.
"Can't leave any evidence!" That's Padawan Vos. Wonderful. Mace can blame him for whatever trouble they're up to.
"Need to docwument." Cody responds. "Plans are writ down for pwopper ananalysis and comparin to awfter action weports so can be doin better next time."
"Shsssh." Obi-wan attempts to whisper, somehow ending up louder than if he'd spoken normally. "We wakin Master Wimdu."
Cody's force presence immediately tints with guilt, and Vos's with defiant determination. Mace slits his eyes open and turns his head to examine the children grouped around his coffee table.
"Precisely what mischief are you up to now?" He asks.
Obi-wan beams at him and holds up a sheet of flimsi that had been lying on the table. Mace squints at it. It's another drawing in wax crayon. His children seem very taken with the medium. At the top is scrawled 'PLN' and some numbers which are probably the date, then "v1". Only Cody would write version numbers on his drawings. Mace is going to brag about this to everyone he can pin still long enough to listen. He has the best children.
At the bottom of the page there is a small green blob with two big black eyes and long squiggles protruding from the sides. Mace has been in the crèche often enough to recognise a child's drawing of Master Yoda. Above Yoda, there's a giant rectangle, helpfully labelled 'dor'. And on top of that is another, smaller, rectangle, this one filled with little dots and labelled 'glitr'.
"I want to be able to claim plausible deniability," Mace tells them, "so I'll leave the details in your extremely capable hands."
The children beam at him. Except Cody, who nods seriously.
"Wight." Obi-wan says. "Cod'ika an Wax'ika and Boil'ika goes dat way. Me an Wool'ika goes dis way. Evyone else get weady."
Mace folds himself down onto the grass and watches his children stalk towards one of the ponds in the room of a thousand fountains.
"Do you know how to swim?" He asks. It probably is best to check that before any of them end up in the water.
It gets him a derisive scoff from Trapper.
"We learned swimmin wery fast or we drownded."
Mace needs to talk to Plo. That lightning is going to come in very handy when he finds whoever raised his children the first time.
The front line of children start poking about in the reeds at the side of the pool. Something every Initiate has done at one point or another. They're looking for bait.
It's not long until the first startled yelp, and the thump of a small body hitting the ground. It's followed by an offended croak as a small green amphibian leaps out of the reeds, and the excited whispering of the other children, as they attempt to surround it.
The children do not have a lot of coordination. Two bump heads with a laugh as they both dive for it from opposite directions, and the frog easily hops through the gap they left.
"S like sparring wiv da General." One comments around a giggle.
"Hey!" Obi-wan protests.
The frog takes advantage of the laughter to make its escape, weaving and hopping through uncoordinated feet and clumsy hands. Eventually it's Trapper, true to his name, who holds up his slimy prize, to the triumphant cheers of his brothers.
"Dis goin to work?" Cody asks, dubious.
Obi-wan grins at him.
"Where you think I learned spwingin da twap?"
Cody looks incredibly pained, but gives a resigned nod.
"Send Wool'ika." He says. "Wool'ika has best tooka eyes."
"Member," Obi-wan tells Wooley seriously, "no lyin."
"Never lies." Wooley replies, shaking his head with exaggerated sadness. "Only twuth fom certain poin of wew."
"Master Yoda!" Wooley calls, hurrying after the tiny green Master, only to trip and end up sprawled on the ground. Mace tries to step forwards to help him up, but is stopped by Cody's hand on his knee. Ah. All part of the plan then. He commends the commitment to the part. And he had rolled as he fell.
"All right you are, young one?" Master Yoda asks.
"Master Yoda!" Wooley says, pulling himself up so he's sitting, tooka eyes in full effect. "Deres a fwog!"
Yoda tilts his head.
"A frog, there is?" He asks.
"Mmhmm!" Wooley answers, nodding shyly. "In der woom over dere." He points at the door Mace's children have carefully laid their trap in, then looks up at Yoda from under his lashes. It's masterful. "It scarwed me." Mace can absolutely see why he was chosen for this role.
"For myself, see this frog, I will." Yoda declares. "Frogs scaring younglings in the temple, we cannot have."
Yoda shuffles towards the door, cane tapping against the floor. Mace can feel the little bodies around him vibrating in anticipation, but they all manage to keep the feeling out of the force. It's a spectacular effort. He is extremely proud of them.
As the door swishes open, the bucket of glitter falls, dropping it's contents directly onto Master Yoda. He'll have to commend Longshot's grasp of angles and gravity.
Mace's children scuttle away, fast, even Wooley is suddenly missing from the corridor. There's a flash as Vos, who apparently already knows how to cloak himself in the shadows, takes a holo of Master Yoda, drenched in silver glitter, and then runs away cackling.
Yoda twitches his ears, causing a cascade of glitter to drop onto his shoulders, and turns his head to look directly at Mace. The only other person in the corridor.
"Grown out of such pranks, I thought you had."
Force dammit.
"You scared of frog?" Boil asks Wooley.
"Made me jump wen it jumped." Wooley says sagely. "Counts as scawy." He shrugs. "Nough true for force."
"Could've mimagined it big." Crys adds in. "As big as a moon. Den it be scawy."
"Or small." Trapper adds. "Small nough to get under der armour an crawl aroun bein slimy."
"Ewww!"