Daensa Week: Day 7: Free Choice

Removed

This one will wind to some dark places, and I am not sure it will get better yet. Also Jango Fett is not such a good person in this. Frankly, neither is Qui Gon Jinn.

We start on Melida/Daan. Obi Wan has been with them for nearly a year and The Young are winning, pushing for their peace. The Elders are approached by the Sith (Plagius or Sidious, it matters little) with an offer to pay to be allowed to take The Young. The Elders agree and the Young, Obi Wan included, are removed from the planet. For their trouble, the Elder are paid with enough weaponry that they wipe the planet of any life within five years.  Many of the children have a mild force sensitivity that seems to behave strangely around Obi Wan.

Most are used for experiments, including Obi Wan. Some are used to further Mauls training in the dark side of the force. Maul…hates these pitiful souls less than he does most.  He still does every horrible, vile thing that his Master requires but does not go out of his way to cause pain and offers the compassion of a quick death to the ones he can. He even speaks to the subject in between experiments and feels something like a kinship with them.  

For ten years Obi Wan and the rest of the Young are experimented on and tortured in every manner imaginable. Most have died in agony and the ones that live consider the dead the lucky ones. To the fascination of the Sith Masters not a single one of the force sensitive children have reached for the dark. It is almost like they are incapable of it. 

When it comes time for Jango Fett to become the template for the clones, he is also given Obi Wan Kenobi as stress relief. As this Jango has no want for sex, this means being an outlet for his anger, a punching bag. At Jango Fett’s insistence force suppressing cuffs and a force suppressing collar are sealed (welded) onto Obi Wan. This leaves him entirely unable to actively use the Force but Sith experimentation has left a passive ability to heal from almost anything. In this situation this is not actually a positive.  (Another side effect no one can figure out, he stayed looking 16 until Cody's batch reached that age, then proceeded to age along with them). At the time that Obi Wan was gifted to Jango Fett, 5 of The Young, other than Obi Wan, still live.  He is pulled from them, knowing that he will never be allowed to ask after them. 

Jango Fett is only given a single qualifier as to what he can use Obi Wan for: If he kills Obi Wan, they will not replace him.

On Kamino he is an anachronism.  When not acting as Jango Fett’s punching bag he drifts through the halls, speaking rarely to the non clones.  Several of the trainers watch him with a strange twist of guilt on their faces. They watch the bruises that are so consistent in size and shape that it looks like a patch of purple, black, and green moving across his skin over time. They take in the perennially blistered and infected skin around the collar and cuffs.  They see this and say nothing. 

For the clones it is both different and the same. They grow up knowing that this Obi Wan was no more free than they were. No matter the circumstances of his birth, he was a brother. To be protected when they could.  He held their secrets, their fears. He was the primary source of compassion in their lives. He protects them when he can and they never begrudge the times where he can’t (When he finds out about Priest’s fight club, he vanishes into Jango Fett’s apartment. No one knows what was said or done but when they emerge, Janog Fett is willing to exert himself to end the Fight Club and Priest’s other abuses. Obi Wan limps behind him with 20 meticulously broken bones in his right foot).

In this universe, as a last act of pettiness, Qui Gon Jinn takes Bruck Chun as a padawan a year after he leaves Obi Wan on Melida/Daan. His attention inadvertently prevented Xanatos from getting into Brucks head. They are a middling pair. Both are just a touch too arrogant to truly work well with others and they do tend to echo each other's worst traits but it is subtle enough that Bruck makes it successfully to knighthood a year before the Naboo crisis.  Jinn still finds Anakin on Tatooine, still wins his freedom and brings him back to the temple.  Though he had been unaccompanied at the start of the mission, his report means that three other knights ended up on Naboo with him. With this extra manpower Darth Maul is taken alive, to be locked in a cell in the Jedi temple.  Qui Gon Jinn lives to take on Anakin’s training. 

This Anakin is not as confident in his abilities. No matter what he does, he always gets the sense that Jinn expected better. By the same token Jinn is not too young and grieving, not overwhelmed with sudden responsibility. Palpatine cannot get the same hold he had on Anakin in another life. 

It is Anakin that finds Kamino in this life. Jinn clocked his crush on Padme and decided he did not want them alone together (Less chance of the Chosen One deciding to leave).   The clones, believing that Obi Wan had been given to Jango Fett by the Jedi (Something that Obi Wan can’t quite dispute), hide him from Anakin. After Fett’s death, they feared that Obi Wan would be taken away.  So they decide to hide him in the 212th with Cody. 

The two had been inseparable for years now, soulmates though neither thinks the term (In my head this is a queerplatonic relationship, in part due to the trauma they both have undergone). In fact, in this world Cody’s scar is deliberate, something that he (along with Fox and Ponds) devised to ensure that no matter how disoriented or afraid, Obi Wan would never see Cody as Jango Fett (His ability to tell the clones apart is not based in the Force, due to the cuffs. That does not stop Obi Wan from being able to tell each clone apart, no matter what).  

And so to the 212th, under General Qui Gon Jinn and his Padawan Commander Anakin Skywalker, goes a trooper named Shield (for Obi Wan has always been their shield).  The clones do not, can not, trust the Jedi.  They almost never remove their helmets in this world, save for when they were safely in the barracks so that Shield could move around freely.  The Jedi could not sense him, due to the force suppressing cuffs and collars. 

If we were to go with the cliches, Obi Wan would be revealed by accident in the most dramatic way possible. 

This is not what happened. The clones know that Obi Wan hiding as Shield is not a long term solution and the medics would really like permission to remove, along with help removing, the Force suppressors.  

8 months into the war, Plo Koon earns the full trust of the clones. With Obi Wan’s permission Wolffe approaches his general to tell him and abbreviated version of what was going on (a non clone who was living as a trooper, he had been on Kamino as Jango Fett’s punching bag, they want him to become an official member of the GAR so that he doesn’t need to hide any more).

Jedi Master Plo Koon is faintly horrified by even the vague details and agrees to meet with trooper Shield. When he asks about having Qui Gon at the meeting, Wolffe twitches. All the clones know who General Jinn is to Obi Wan, so they trust him even less than most Jedi. Jinn is not cruel to the Clones, but he treats them as he does most people he interacts with (Jinn cares little for the practicalities of their lives, so long as they continue to act in the way he expects. Thus he will call them by a preferred name if they request it but never asks for their names).  The next time the battalions meet, Cody and Shield meet privately with Wolffe and Plo Koon. 

Shield removes his helmet; gaunt faced, red haired, and clean shaven (Having never grown a beard due to some mix of injuries and the Sith experiments). Plo thinks he looks familiar and Obi Wan bows respectfully. Plo gently begins to ask for information.  Obi wan gives his name, but it still takes Plo a number of minutes to realize who he is talking to (In his defense it had been more than 20 years and Obi Wan is not the only youngling that has decided to leave the Order). Even after Plo realizes who Obi Wan is, they talk at cross purposes for several minutes. Plo Koon, of course, was under the impression that Obi Wan left the order to be with a girl two decades before. Obi wan believes he was rightfully abandoned for endangering Master Tahl, and cannot quite disbelieve the idea that it was the Jedi, or some Jedi, that gave him to Jango Fett.

As soon as Plo begins to gently question how Obi Wan ended up where he was, it became clear to the Kel Dor that information that was given to the High council twenty years before was at best wrong, at worst an outright lie.  He is horrified to see the mass of scar tissue and metal on Obi Wan’s neck and wrists and vows to help get it removed (Due to the burns and infection from when it was welded on and Obi Wan’s extraordinary ability to heal, flesh had grown over the edges of the metal), which would need to be done by the Temple Healers. He is heartbroken to realize what the clones, and Obi Wan, believe about how Obi Wan ended up on Kamino.  At the end he asks Obi Wan what he wants, going forward.

Obi Wan thinks for a moment, “To stay with Cody or, barring that, to stay with the clones in general. If possible, find out how the rest of The Young died and maybe be able to give them some kind of burial. If their remains can be found, that is.”  

After the campaign, Plo conspires to have the 212th and the 104th recalled back to Coruscant. There he could have Obi Wan meet with the council in person. Coincidentally Bruck Chun, with his commander Alpha-17, are also on Coruscant. Knowing that having troopers appear before the council without their associated Jedi would raise many eyebrows, Plo has Qui Gon Jinn, Anakin Skywalker, and Bruck Chun called to the Council with order to bring Commander Cody, Commander Alpha-17 (since Obi had indicated having Alpha there would make him feel better), and trooper Shield with them. Wolffe waits with them while Plo briefs the Council. The Jedi in the waiting room are curious and confused as to why this one specific trooper (Shield/Obi Wan) has been called in and why all of the present clones seem to be hovering protectively. 

They are called into the Council Chamber. Plo has told them very little (What Wolffe had told him plus that the non clone in question had been temple raised and was currently in Force Suppressing cuffs). In part he wants to see if the others will come to the same conclusions that he did. In part because while he doesn’t believe that any Jedi would have done what the clones think they did, he needs to be sure (and seeing their reaction to Obi Wan and his story first hand was the only way he could be). 

When Shield removes his helmet, the only person who recognizes him immediately is Bruck Chun, who blurts out “Oafy-Wan?” and then is horribly embarrassed about it (At 13 he had been a bully, but he had grown into a decent adult, particularly since he was fighting a war, and is embarrassed that his first thought when seeing the other man was the insulting nickname from two decades before). The clones are not impressed with Bruck Chuns reaction (Alpha is growling outright at his general). Before Bruck could apologize, Yoda said Obi Wan’s name. 

Obi Wan nods agreeably and says that is a name he has been called.  A question about the Force suppressing cuffs and collar (still covered by his blacks), has Obi Wan answering “Jango Fett insisted that I be unable to use the Force when I was given to him.” (Whenever he speaks of Jango, it is alway ‘Jango Fett’). It also becomes clear to the high council, Bruck Chun, and Anakin (though the latter has no idea of the backstory) very quickly that Qui Gon Jinn had lied to the council about how and why Obi Wan left the Order.

Every question that is asked of him seems to have a horrifying answer. When asked about The Young, he explains about the group of children trying to stop a war (the youngest was 5, the oldest 14 when he joined). The High Council grows very quiet as he speaks, this was not what they were told. Qui Gon Jinn shifts a little as a twenty year old lie is exposed, particularly as he is given a look from various members of the council that say they will be discussing this, soon. Mace asks why Obi Wan is so sure the Young are dead (as finding out how they died is one of the horrifically few things that Obi Wan is asking for). Obi Wan is silent for a moment then responds that he doesn’t for sure, but it has been 10 years and he hopes that the rest of the Young had found something like peace and that death was the most realistic way of that happening. He is asked why Obi Wan never tried to contact the Order during his year on Melida/Daan. He clones bristles at even the suggestion that their Shield was in any way responsible. 

Obi Wan gave a semi confused look and said “My comm unit, like my lightsaber, belonged to the Jedi Order. How would I have done that?”

 This was news to most of the Jedi present (Neither the comm or the light saber should have been taken). With the exception of Qui Gon Jinn (who admits that he should not have lied to the council but doesn’t think he did anything else wrong), Obi Wan (who has a skewed vision of how he should be treated), and the clones (who know this entire story and have moved onto anger) the entire room is abjectly horrified to realize that Jinn had abandoned Obi Wan in a war zone, weaponless, and with no way to call for help (Plo Koon in particular is halfway to breaking out the adoption paperwork for the entire GAR most of the time anyway, right now he is practically vibrating with the need to get them all away from a war). 

 Mace Windu brings the room back to order. He declares that the council needs to speak with Master Jinn (and the way that he said Qui Gon’s name indicated that the Master in the title might be temporary).  He asks Bruck and Anakin to escort the clones (with Obi Wan) to the healers so they could begin to get the cuffs and collar off.  It is up to Obi Wan if he wants to wear his helmet until he reaches the healing hall or not. The council could not guarantee out of hand that Obi Wan would be allowed to stay with Cody, but they would do everything in their power to make sure it happened. 

Just before they leave, Obi Wan bites his lip and visibly struggles with something he wants to say. When prompted he explains that he has (over the course of his time on Kamino) seen virtually every step in the growth and decanting process for the clones. Every step except one, where he believes that something is embedded in the brains of each clone. He doesn’t know what it is or what it does, but he asks that the Jedi Council investigate since he is afraid it is something that will hurt the clones. 

The walk to the healers was tense. Bruck and Anakin were both trying to silently work through what had just happened. It is a bit sad that neither are surprised at Jinn's actions. Vokara Che and Bant Eerin are the ones that meet them. Bant is angry with Obi Wan (because from her perspective he just left 20 years ago and never contacted her or their other friends again) but Bruck of all people stop her from saying anything hurtful by telling her there is more to it than she realizes.  

Once they have all piled into a private room, Healer Che asks Obi Wan to take off his armor (No there was no good reason that the various hangers on were allowed to be there, they just kind of kept following and no one said anything about it). Obi Wan requests that the head medic for the 212th be called down, as he has been the most involved with treating his injuries and so would be able to answer questions better.  Cody helps Obi Wan remove his armor (The cuffs affect the way that his wrists bend, making it harder to put on or remove certain pieces of the armor). 

When his top comes off, all movement in the room ceases.  The skin of his torso is a patchwork of green and brown (the bruising he received over the past 10 years was so regular and deep that even 8 months after Jango Fett died they were still healing. The only reason that he did not have actual nerve damage was his healing abilities).  While the Jedi in the room can barely react under the horror of what they were seeing, Alpha looks at the patchwork, pleased. He comments that it all looks to be healing well. 

Under the bruises were a map of scars, telling a horrifying tale.  The worst of which sat on each wrist and the base of his throat, metal digging into flesh and embedded in thick uneven scaring (A note on Obi Wan’s healing, as long as he lives he will heal. Things that should have become debilitating, life changing injuries heal into simple scars. Things that should have killed him because of infection do not. It does not speed up his healing, and though it takes much more he still bears scars).

When he is asked he tells them that the metal cuffs had been welded onto him. And yes he felt every minute of the metal being superheated.  Obi Wan would prefer to remain awake when the metal is removed (no they would not have to worry about him flinching because “Jango Fett did not like it when I flinched from the pain he wanted to inflict”). By the time he has won that argument, the 212th's head medic, Hypo, has arrived. 

The process of removing each metal band takes 3 Jedi healers working in tandem and hours of painstaking, deeply disturbing work.  They save the collar for last. As the last piece of metal was pulled from his flesh, Obi Wan inhaled sharply. 

“Three of the Young are still alive” he breathes, even as he doesn’t move.

Cody, who had been sitting carefully with Obi Wan, grips his hand. “Then we will help you find your family.” He promises. 

In a Cell in the lower levels of the Temple, Darth Maul perks up as he feels a familiar Force Presence. He calls attention to a guard and demands to see Obi Wan Kenobi. The guards do not know who this is but pass along his request to the high council, who are a bit confused.

I am not sure where exactly it would go from here.  I would kind of want to see the 212th being handed over to Obi Wan, though I am not sure how it would be justified. I figure that the first time that Obi Wan meets the Chancellor he has a bad reaction (Due to the Chancellor being one of the people that had experimented on them) but is able to hide it, and passes along his suspicions. They do eventually find the three other surviving Young (Nield, Cerasi, Roenni) as well as children that they (and various other members of the Young over time) had been forced to have, there was even a child who had been fathered by Obi Wan (Who does not remember this and is deeply unhappy with those facts) who have all also been experimented on.  

The crispiest F*ck You I’ve heard from Chyler

Protective Rage Obi Wan

Here is another story idea that is the culmination of several ideas that I need to get out of my brain soup. 

It starts on the bridge of the Negotiator, in orbit over Coruscant. It is a full bridge, including Rex and Cody, Anakin, Obi Wan, and Ahsoka. In comes a very injured, filthy Quinlan Vos limping in (among other injuries is a compound leg fracture that is visibly gangrenous). 

Vos presses a data chip into Obi Wan’s hand and tells him that it is coded just before he collapses. He is delirious and rambling about needing to protect ‘them’ so that ‘he’ doesn’t have to deal with Vos any longer, with some of the phrases he uses in regards to himself remind Cody of how Fox speaks (Everything was sparked by Fox having a shitty day, what with the abuse by the senate and the mind control by the Chancellor. He said some poorly phrased mean things to Vos, who took them a little bit too much to heart.  Something to the effect of “Take your abnormal powers and go do something useful with them”) and how Vos thought ‘he’ had seen him beyond being a Jedi and he was tired of having his heart broken (Here Jedi are called Abnormal, child stealing freaks of nature so often that hearing any one part brings the rest). 

Obi Wan is basically cradling his head and soothing him while Vos lay on the floor. He refused to let the medics anywhere near Vos, saying that Vos’s gifts (his psychometry) were such that he could only be treated by a Jedi healer (The medics are visibly and audibly unhappy about this but Obi Wan actually makes it an order).   Obi Wan has them call the Jedi Temple to send Bant up for Quinlan, also asking her to bring the her decoder (Reeft had built one for each of his crechemates) as that was the only thing that could decode the data chip that Vos had given him (Obi Wan’s was in his quarters in the temple).

Bant and a Padawan Healer arrive, wearing slightly strange looking robes and gloves. The Padawan takes Obi Wan’s place sitting at Vos’s head, while Bant starts pulling out crystals and other things to diagnose everything that is wrong before they move him. Obi Wan takes the decoder and steps away to read the data chip. Bant turns to the Padawan and goes: “Pop quiz, why do we have special gear for Master Vos?” The Padawan responds after a moment of thought “His Psychometry is so strong and his injuries have wiped his shields , so without the specially made clothing we are wearing or shields as strong as Master Kenobi, he would feel anything and everything that got within about two feet of him. That would likely drive him into insanity and death.” (The Medics, who had been looking mutinous that they were not allowed to treat someone on the ship, started to look a little sheepish).

 Though Obi Wan still appears to be entirely calm as he read the information that was on the data chip (The inhibitor chips and Order 66, maybe proof that Sidious was trying to turn Anakin, maybe something about how Sidious had fucked with Anakin’s mind, leading both sides of the war) but very abruptly both the Padawan and Ahsoka (Not Anakin, he is a bit oblivious empathically) faces turn to look at Obi Wan as he very politely and very calmly excuses himself. 

Bant, still working on stabilizing Vos, says absently “Huh. Haven’t felt Obi get that angry in years.” Everyone in the room just looks at where Obi Wan had exited, because he does not seem angry. Bant continues with “Last time was when Anakin was about 11, his writing teacher didn’t like him and was deliberately sabotaging his work.  Obi found out, left Anakin with Quinn and Aayla, then proceeded to track the teacher down and beat the shit out of him. He threw him through two windows, methodically breaking every bone in both his body, all the while calmly explaining why the teacher’s behavior was unacceptable. As soon as the teacher healed, he decided that teaching was no longer his calling. Last I heard he was somewhere in wild space, trying to stay as far away from Obi or Anakin as possible.”

Cody receives a message from one of the hanger crew saying that General Kenobi had left the ship, stating that he had some business to attend to. In the background is Anakin, looking shocked and going “That’s what happened to that teacher.”

Meanwhile, the Senate is in session. It is one of the rare sessions it is being broadcast live to the entire galaxy, so there are new crews recording when High General Obi Wan Kenobi enters and uses the Force to launch himself into The Supreme Chancellor’s pod.  Obi Wan breaks the Chancellor’s jaw (thus preventing him from speaking and activating Order 66), and proceeds to very methodically beat the shit out of him.  All the while ranting very calmly about why the Supreme Chancellor's actions were unacceptable. He spends quite a bit of time on “How dare you enslave the troopers” and “You are not laying a hand on Anakin again” and “Killing off my family is bad”. 

Though he can’t speak, it becomes clear that he is the Sith they have been looking for. There is force lightning, which just seems to be absorbed by Obi Wan’s rage. A red lightsaber is pulled. Obi Wan catches that arm, breaks it and throws the lightsaber away.  Eventually he kills Palpatine, either just beating him to death, or pulling his own lightsaber and decapitating him.  Then he uses the force to pull Amedda to him. 

He’s just holding Amedda above the rotunda and says to him, “Now that that is taken care of. I’m sure you are just as concerned with the Clones' lack of rights as I am, right?”

Amedda has never been more sure in his life that he is very concerned about Clone rights.

Obi Wan beams at the entire Senate and says, clear as a bell, “Oh good, I had hoped I would only have to kill one politician today.”

With Obi just standing there, holding a dangling Amedda, the Clone Rights bill is passed unanimously, full citizenship is granted along with guaranteed representation in the Senate. The senate is sure that they all get back pay, all the way back to their decatning date, since they have trained all of their lives. The Clones are given a small planet with its own terraformed moon in the mid rim.  The Kaminoans decide that they will be handing all of their research off to the Clones without argument. 

Obi Wan lands the pod, puts Amedda down, and waits patiently to be arrested. He is very aware that he just beat a man to death on galactic wide and live.  He is more than willing to face the consequences (he has no idea what the consequences are).  No one can quite figure out if what he had done was illegal or not, technically the Supreme Chancellor was a Sith and the leader of the Separtist so as both a high general and a Jedi, Obi Wan was allowed to kill him. However he did just beat a politician to death on live TV.  The Coruscant Guard looks at each other going, “uhhh, he just beat a man to death…for us. We’re not arresting him.” 

The GAR look at each other and go ‘soooo…clearly General Kenobi is the leader of the Vode.’ Commander Cody is really glad he is in his armor because he is having a highly inappropriate reaction (he is not the only one having a highly inappropriate reaction. Most of the galaxy may be having a bit of a crisis.)

The Separatists declare they are surrendering to High General Kenobi.

Deathwatch sees this fight and collectively goes “Kenobi is our Mandalore, right?” They capture Maul, who is also a bit conflicted (he hates Kenobi, but he might hate his former Master more and the violence was beautiful), which lets them capture him and deliver him to the Coruscant temple (They are the sixth crime syndicate to deliver their leaders to the temple, having decided to go straight.) They are very clear that the Darksaber is for Obi Wan Kenobi. Death watch decides that they need to prove themselves to their new Mandalore, for having not realized he was their leader earlier. They rewatch the fight, realize that their Mandalore has FEELINGS about slavery, also loves the clone army. So they set off into the galaxy to prove their loyalty by eliminating slavery, and possibly by offering assistance to any clone that they come across. 

The New Mandalorians talk amongst themselves and are like “Look, I know we’re pacifists but…” and even Satine is going, “No, no that’s fair.”  There is some more furtive discussion and they start going “Maybe we can have a little violence?” and Satine’s advisers start talking about how Satine and Obi Wan had a Thing once upon a time and wouldn’t it be nice if he was their Duke, maybe as a way to offer the Clones citizenship (I am feral over CodyWan but this could also be a lead in to Obitine  or Cody/Satine/Obi Wan.)

Mace Windu and Yoda arrive at some point and Obi Wan asks about Vos. Fox is hovering right there, trying to pretend that he is not concerned (Vos had not come to bother them in weeks after Fox had screamed at him after a really shitty day. Fox does not want to admit that he missed the Kiffar). Obi Wan, with an eavesdropping Fox, is told that Vos’s leg had been broken and ignored for at least five days, that he was likely to lose it (He had to have dropped at least 100 levels to get a break like that). They also say that he is not healing (Fox’s words did some deep damage, triggered other issues, and left Vos feeling like he had nothing to wake up for.) like he should and he is comatose in the Halls of Healing. Fox manages to get permission to follow them to check on Vos, for “official” reasons (he says it’s because his men would be concerned and to keep them from cluttering up the Halls of Healing. It absolutely has nothing to do with the way his stomach dropped when he heard that Vos had been hurt). 

On the ride back over to the Temple, Mace and Obi Wan talk about  Vos’s ramblings at the beginning. From the way they talk it really isn’t clear if they are aware that Fox is the one that spoke so harshly to Vos or not but Fox recognizes his own words.  Once they get to the Halls of Healing it becomes really obvious, really quickly that Fox being there is helping Vos heal.

At some point Obi Wan finds out that he is considered the unofficial, and if he wanted official, leader of the Mandalore sector.  By this point he has already left the Order to lead the Vode (and get together with Cody for the CodyWan version).  Anakin and Padme have also joined them on their shiny new planet and are happily pregnant.

i like my coffee how i like my coffee—i like my coffee :- )

I know Kara's usually compared to a puppy or a golden retriever but I always think of her as a particularly kind and gregarious big cat (like a v tame lion or tiger) and now I can't let go of the hc that Kryptonians purr

The first time Kara spends the night is a bit of an accident. She's waiting on the couch while Lena fixes them a drink, and Lena returns to find her head draped over the backrest, mouth gaping open and glasses askew, completely conked out. 

Between the options of getting her to her apartment with a forklift and waking her up, Lena decides to let it lie. In the case of a midnight emergency, she has a secret backup super suit in the office anyway. 

She gently picks the glasses off Kara's face and grabs a pillow from the bedroom. She tucks it beneath Kara's head, and Kara turns her face into it and gives it a good sniff. With dawning horror, Lena realizes she forgot to change the pillowcase. 

Trying to wrest a very soft and teareable item from a slumbering Kryptoinian’s grip is a lost cause, and Lena can do nothing but watch, mortified, as Kara makes a face in her sleep and drags the possibly very stinky pillow from underneath her head to hold it in her arms, and lets out a relieved little sigh. 

Lena is ready to turn away and nurse her embarrassment in private when she hears a strange noise, a sort of soft, interrupted breathing. Does Kara snore? Oh, Lena is going to use this. 

She turns halfway in Kara's direction, closing her eyes and concentrating on the sound. It's quiet and regular with a distinct rise and fall, a low frequency warbling, and it has a strangely soothing quality to it; the more Lena listens, the more she wants to hear, almost like a---

---a purr. Kara, on her couch, clutching Lena's used pillow to her chest, purring. 

Lena flees to her office, filled with a sudden inexplicable energy, face flaming with something that feels, unfortunately, like more than embarrassment.

. 

. 

The second time Kara spends the night is a bit more intentional. 

"Never ever ever?" Kara asks in horror. 

"Well, unless you count boarding school."  

"Obviously I don’t! Mandatory sleep arrangements are not a sleepover, Lena!" 

And so Kara shows up Friday evening at Lena's apartment, equipped with snacks, board games, and two sleeping bags. 

They camp out on the living room floor after many harrowing but obligatory sleepover activities as per Kara’s direction. Kara snuggles into her sleeping bag until only her head is visible, and barely that in its entirety. She smiles at Lena. Over the hum of the fridge and the occasional traffic outside, Lena can hear her start to purr.

Lena wants to ask, wants to reach, wants to touch, but Kara closes her and is out like a light, rolling onto her side, her back to Lena, even as the purring continues.

Lena wonders what it would be like to feel it, to simply reach out and press her hand to Kara’s back, let those powerful vibrations travel up her arm, sense the corporeal manifestation of Kara’s contentment and comfort and ease.

Fuck. How invasive would that be? Lena’s in her own little sleeping bag, Kara in hers, a clear delineation between them. Kara had rolled onto her side, showing Lena her back. She trusts Lena enough to fall asleep in her presence, to---to purr about it.

Lena turns over, curling her hand to her chest, and allows that addictive, peaceful sound to lull her to sleep.

.

.

The seventh time Kara spends the night, Lena just invites her to bed. 

"Come on," she says. "My couch is sick of you. Give the poor thing some space." 

Kara doesn’t always seem entirely at ease in her body, but she sprawls all over Lena’s mattress, linking her arms behind her head, filling Lena’s space with her presence as naturally as if this bed has always been hers. Lena watches her from the corner of her eye as she wriggles a little in the sheets, hugging her pillow in one arm, luxuriating in the simple comfort. She’s magnetic.

Lena debates her options before picking her satin pyjama set and climbing in beside her.

Kara immediately flops onto her side, head propped on her arm, grinning. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Lena has left barely an inch between her body and the edge of the bed. She touches it, a reassurance, a promise. “Oh?” she asks. “Come here often, then?”

Kara leans closer. “I wish,” she says, voice low.

Lena stares at her for a fraction too long, laughs awkwardly to compensate, turns away to turn off the light. “Goodnight, you flirt.”

Kara reaches out and squeezes Lena’s hand in the dark. “Goodnight, Lena.”

.

They fall asleep on opposite sides of the bed. Lena knows this for certain; she checked. She can remember touching the edge of the bed just before falling asleep. But she wakes up---she wakes up with her arm wound around Kara’s belly, Kara’s butt tucked into her groin, Kara’s body vibrating palpably against her own.

Sleep foggy and enamored, Lena reaches an unthinking hand to press directly over Kara’s purring chest.

“Hey,” a muggy voice greets her. Kara turns over onto her back, shoots her a blurry smile.

“Shit.” Lena tries to snatch away her hand only for Kara to grab her arm, keeping her hand against Kara’s chest. The vibrations intensify. “Sorry,” Lena mutters, eyes fixed on her own hand.

Kara grips tighter. “You like it?” she asks, her voice sleep-rough.

Lena swallows. Nods. Denial would be absurd at this point.

“It’s for you,” Kara rasps.

Lena feels her heart in her throat. Her eyes find Kara’s.

“I like your bed,” Kara says, words plain and eyes intense. “I like you.”

Kara’s purring swells and dips with her breath, loud in Lena’s ears, tangible against her skin. Lena puts her weight on the palm braced on Kara’s chest; Kara strains upward in an impressive show of core strength. They meet somewhere in the middle.

Kara kisses sweet and simple, a little sluggish with sleep, still gripping Lena’s forearm. The purring deepens, a low, insistent hum between them; a reassurance, a confession, a gift. Lena turns her head away, overwhelmed. Takes the hand off too.

“What?” Kara sits up further, hand sliding up to grip Lena’s wrist, thumb against her palm. The purring quiets. “What’s wrong?”

I just feel really loved right now, is a thought Lena could never verbally express in a million years.

“Gosh, Lena, are you crying?” Kara digs her thumb into the heel of Lena’s palm. “I’m that bad, huh?”

“The worst,” Lena agrees. Sniffs.

Kara smiles. “Okay. Let me try again? I’m a very good student.” 

Lena wipes a knuckle under her eye. “A real teacher’s cat,” she says.

Kara doesn’t dignify that with a laugh, but she does dignify it with another kiss. Lena slumps forward into her until Kara's back flops back on the bed and her arms come around Lena, physically cocooned within every tactile expression of Kara’s affection.  

Lena has no particular physiological mechanism to showcase her appreciation, so she pours it into the kiss instead.

Part 3/7 - Previous / Next / First

Track: ‘Soldiers’ - Otherwise

Wolffe didn’t understand what was happening when Plo Koon was suddenly handing him his lightsaber. And he still couldn’t quite put the pieces together when he noticed Cody go flying through the air under Padawan Tano’s guiding force. But he definitely understood the tightness of fear in his chest when Rex and Cody ran directly at the Sith Lord who had just beaten one of the strongest Jedi he knew to exist.

“Son,” Plo Koon's voice cut through Wolffe's fear, a sense of calm in his storm, and dragged Wolffe back to the Kel Dor and his offered saber. “Your family needs you.”

Wolffe's world shifted to an odd halt as he considered what was happening. Thoughts that haunted him flooded through him, bit at the edges of his mind with doubt. What was he going to do? What could he ever do?

Wolffe has felt useless before, has lost everything in an instant. He has watched his brothers die often enough to wade constantly in hopelessness. And he remembers fruitlessly hugging his brothers close when they were all just cadets, wishing for an option other than the trials for war. There were so many times Wolffe, the supposed strong and intimidating commander he was, had only felt pointless and worthless. So many times he had cried to the galaxy to give them all something to hope for, something to make all the pain worth it.

And yet, Wolffe realized in a bright instant, he always had it. In his stillness he remembered how Plo Koon called him son, and meant it as much as Wolffe did calling Plo his Buir. How after each battle he would come back to the 104th and be greeted with just as much warmth from his brothers as respect, finding strength in each other. That at the end of the day, it was his family that had always kept him fighting, striving to stay hopeful and survive. It always had been and always will be his family that makes this life worth living, and he would do anything and everything to keep it that way.

Wolffe locked eyes with Plo Koon for a moment just long enough to convey everything he knew the Jedi could already see clearly. And as the world came crashing back to him he took the saber without an ounce of hesitation. 

with new pictures of Hayden Christensen floating around I keep seeing people saying 'imagine if Anakin didn't turn bad, the biggest problem for Luke and Leia would be that their dad is a dilf and all their friends swoon over him when he comes to pick them up from school'

and yes of course that's valid because Anakin would absolutely be casually leaning against his modified speeder with sunglasses on dressed in black like a model but please imagine the twins getting horrified by their friends drooling over him and going "dad you're not allowed to show your face at school now, mom will come pick us up" but HAVE YOU SEEN RECENT PICTURES OF NATALIE PORTMAN?

the twins have zero ideas how hot their parents are, they're just their lame parents, they don't realise that their mom has the face of Natalie Portman and the second their friends see her they're like "your father is a dilf and your mother is a former queen and the nicest AND hottest milf in the galaxy?? you guys are so lucky"

Leia is traumatised and almost shaking, saying, "this is the worst. I can't believe our parents are...." She makes a horrible gagging sound. "...Hot."

"I know, I can't believe it either," Luke groans.

"Next time we'll ask Obi-Wan to come pick us up."

"Oh good idea! It's not like anyone would find old uncle Ben hot!"

"Yes, that's impossible," Leia replies, relieved.

"Impossible!" Luke laughs.

I should probably not find Dark Rey that attractive

this is so tender

ThEReS No PoSsIbLe sCeNaRio wHeRe KaRa cOuLd hAvE tOlD LeNa AnD iT dIDnT eNd BaDLy

me, pulling up 500 fics from aO3: