Chapter Text
“Who needs this many pumpkins?” Fives asks, wrinkling his nose. Well, Anakin assumes that’s what his face looked like underneath the helmet, but he can sense the ARC’s distaste through the Force. And honestly, Anakin feels the same. It looked like the pumpkin patches stretch on forever into the distance in a sea of orange.
“I don’t know, Fives. How long do you think the whole GAR would last if we all had pumpkins?”
“Honestly, sir? Judging by the amount we’ve seen already, I’d say a good year or so.”
Anakin whistles, the sound echoing in the open field. “What do you say if we just took one?”
“Sir?”
“Well, since there are probably millions of pumpkins, no one would notice if one goes missing. Or even a few.”
“General, I know you’ve got wild ideas, and while I’ll usually support them, I don’t think we’re allowed to just steal pumpkins from this patch.”
Anakin raises an eyebrow. “Tell me, Fives. To whom does this pumpkin ‘farm’ belong?”
“Uhhh, I don’t know, sir. I’m sure the owner lives around here somewhere.”
“Fives, you know, the nearest city is like a two day’s journey from here. Which means, these pumpkins are all wild. No one takes care of them.” Anakin could feel Fives’ surprise in the Force. “You don’t honestly think I would just steal a pumpkin from someone, do you?” he asks, frowning.
“No, of course not, sir! I know you would never do such a thing, but…” Fives hesitates. “You weren’t exactly wrong, though. Even if all these pumpkins did belong to someone, they never would’ve noticed if one went missing unless they're, like, absolutely insane about their pumpkins. Besides, they could feed the whole GAR for a while, and…” Fives trails off, most likely deep in thought.
“You’ve never tasted a pumpkin before,” Anakin guesses.
“Yes, sir,” he answers quietly. “Never got much of a buffet on Kamino. It’s always been ration bars,”
“And the occasional nerfburger at Dex’s,” Anakin adds.
“And the occasional nerfburger at Dex’s,” Fives agrees.
“You know what,” an idea pops into Anakin’s head. “Why don’t we just take, let’s say, five pumpkins from here—since it’s all wild anyway—and bring them back to the Resolute and give everyone a try with it?”
Fives stops walking and turns to face him. “Sir, you really don’t have to–”
“But I want to.”
Anakin could practically feel Fives’ grin as he said, “If you really insist, sir. I won’t stop you.”
Back on the Resolute, Anakin now had five whole nice pumpkins with him that he and Fives had picked out themselves.
“General, what’s this?” Rex asks, walking into the hangar and seeing the pumpkins.
“Captain Rex,” Anakin greets cheerfully. “Fives and I found some wild pumpkins, so we’re going to try them today! I bet you’ve never tried a pumpkin.”
Rex blinks at him and says slowly, “Can’t say I have, sir.”
“Great! Have someone bring two of these to the kitchen, will you? And get Chef to look at some recipes. He’s not called Chef for nothing.”
“Yes, sir. But what about the other three?”
“Leave them here for now,” Anakin muses with a finger on his chin thoughtfully. “I have a feeling someone will see to them soon.”
Rex has learned not to question a Jedi’s “feelings”.
Later that night:
“Hey Echo, you know those pumpkins that Fives and the General brought in earlier?” Jesse asks.
“Yeah, what about them?” the trooper asks, looking at his brother suspiciously.
Jesse grins and rubs his hands together. “Well, what if they had faces?”
“What do you mean what if they had faces? Pumpkins don’t have faces.”
“But like, we can carve faces into them.”
Echo sighs, exasperated. “But why?”
“Because we already have enough to eat for tomorrow! And besides, no one’s claiming them so we can have some fun with it.”
“What kind of face are you going to carve into it?” Echo muses.
Jesse gives him a conspiratorial wink, “The idea will come to me when I start my handy work.”
They stop by a munitions closet and pick out a couple knives. Jesse nearly jumps out of his skin when a voice filters in from outside the door. “What are you two doing?”
“Tup!” Echo says excitedly.
“What are you guys doing?” He repeats, looking suspiciously at the knives in their hands.
“We’re decorating the pumpkins.” Jesse informs him.
Tup squints his eyes. “Did the General say you could?”
“Well…no. But,” Jesse adds at the sight of Tup’s panicked expression, “It’ll be a nice surprise.”
“It’ll be cute,” Echo agrees, and Tup looks at him exasperatedly.
“Fives has too much influence on you.”
Three minutes later, they’re all in the hangar carving pumpkins.
The next morning:
Rex walks with Anakin to the cafeteria early next morning for a cup of caf. He notices the three pumpkins from yesterday sitting on a table. Except now, they all had faces and were staring at him. “What the—”
“I told you,” Anakin says smugly beside him. “Someone—or rather, multiple someones saw to them.