Cody learns to love

The one (and by far not only) chapter where Cody doesn't get his beauty sleep

  "Another song, please!" Kote begged even as his eyes were closing.

  "'Lek, Kot'ika," there was a sharp laugh and then there was nothing but the warmth in Kote's bed, the hand gentle rubbing on his back and the hum of an ancient mandalorian lullaby.

  Warm and content, Kote let himself close his eyes and felt himself drifting off to sleep.

  Someone was ruffling his hair, drawing small circles on his scalp and wasn't that just so comfortable? Kote has never felt so safe.

  Then the lullaby ended but by the time, Kote was so sleepy he barely registered it. Then he felt someone press a gentle kiss to his temple and adjust his blanket.

  "Jate ca, ner ver'dika," gentle fingers cradled through his hair for the last time. "Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum, Kot'ika."

***

  Cody's eyes snapped open. He stared into the dark for a moment, trying to remember where he is. He registered the sound of crying. He was no longer a kid, right. He was 28 and had ten brothers in his care, eight of which were children. And fuck, if Boba woke up Wooley... Cody apparently wasn't getting any more sleep that night.

  "Shhh..." Cody hissed in Boba's general direction as he scrambled out of his bed to Boba's crib, running into furniture on multiple occasions. The room has gotten pretty crowded. It never was exactly big and he always kept the youngest child close by. Now they officially ran out of space so he had Wooley and Boba both in his room. He was still figuring it out but he had to figure it out fast. Because not only Boba was up every hour or two to give him a new headache but Wooley, apparently, couldn't sleep through Boba's crying. Not that Cody could blame him.

  "Sleep!" Wooley whined from his little bed.

  Cody finally reached Boba and scoped him into his arms. "Shhh... Let's just go back to sleep," he whispered as he rocked the baby. It didn't seem to work. Stuffing a pacifier into Boba's mouth apparently didn't work either. Cody would have to find that in the morning.

  He settled on taking Boba to the living room. He rocked him while he started heating some milk for him and prayed that Wooley would go back to sleep and everyone else were sleeping soundly enough not to be waken up.

  Cody remembered Fox, oh sweet Fox, who loved his beauty sleep and would sleep for hours straight. Echo was also a cute, sleepy baby but Fives made a point of waking Echo up. Wooley never slept particularly well but he was generally quiet as long as someone was holding him, leading to Cody doing basically everything with Wooley perched on his hip but it worked. The others were just as bad as Boba.

  "Cody!" Wooley toddled over to him, nearly killing himself on the furniture as he was too sleepy to give a shit about his surroundings.

  Cody shushed the still screaming Boba once more as he knelt to Wooley. "Go back to sleep."

  "Sing," Wooley demanded because of course he did. Wooley always wanted a lullaby before he went to sleep.

  "Go back to bed and wait for a bit," Cody ordered. The only response he got was Wooley staring at him like he just spoke in dai'bendu while rubbing his eyes. Cody sighed and adjusted his grip on Boba so he had a free hand to offer Wooley. "Come on, kid."

  Wooley obediently let himself be led back to bed and be tucked in. Cody promised to sing to him later but secretly hoped the exhaustion will win and Wooley will go back to sleep before he returned. He still had to put Boba back to sleep.

  "Shh... Just stop crying, Boba," Cody tried rubbing Boba's back gently and then gave a second chance to the pacifier. The results were similar to his first attempt but at least he finished the preparation of Boba's milk. "Are you hungry? Are you?"

  Boba was hungry. Cody was rewarded with a bit of silence as Boba sucked on his bottle and he was going to enjoy every single second of it. In all parenting guides, he read about the magic of having a baby around. Cody got fed up with that magic when he was no older than five years and two months.

***

  Kote was looking forward to meeting his little brother. He was going to do so many fun things with him! And he would finally get a play mate! He couldn't wait for buir to come back from the hospital with his little brother.

  Finally, the door opened and Jango Fett stepped inside. His armor was cool and shiny as always but Kote couldn't focus on anything besides the little bundle in Jango's arms. Was that his little brother? He was so... small. How was he going to play tags and spar with Kote when he was so small?

  "Is that-"

  "That's Bly," Jango said, setting the little thing - Kote's little brother - on the couch in their apartment. Bly apparently didn't like it and started screaming and crying. He must be really sad or maybe in lots of pain.

  "Buir, why is he crying so much? Is he sad?"

  "Kids cry," buir dismissed him as he helped himself to a glass of the drink Kote wasn't allowed.

  "But buir, he must be-"

  "He is your little sibling. Silence him."

  Kote looked at Bly, then back at buir. Was he supposed to- was he supposed to comfort Bly? But he didn't know how to treat sadness. So he just hovered above him, unsure of what to do.

  "Didn't you hear me? Make him stop screaming!" buir yelled at him.

  "But... I don't know how," Kote sniffed. He didn't want to anger buir. And he didn't want the afternoon to go this way either. It was supposed to be fun! Bly was supposed to be his new best friend and they were supposed to be happy and playing. But Bly was so tiny and he was crying and he probably didn't like Kote at all.

  "You are a big brother now, Kote. You have to be a little responsible."

  "But-"

  "No buts. And he better be silent when I come back from the 'fresher," buir said in the tone he always used when Kote was being a dummy and disappeared on the fresher. Kote sniffed.

  "It's okay Bly! You don't have to be sad," Kote tried.

  It didn't seem to work. Bly continued crying without as much as looking at Kote. Was Kote doing it wrong? He was a terrible big brother, wasn't he? But he wanted to be the best brother in the universe! No, he had to do better. He was going to learn how to comfort Bly and he was going to be the best big brother there is and Bly was never going to be sad again. Kote will be the best big brother ever. He promised that to himself.

***

  Cody continued rocking Boba as the boy drank. No matter how much tiring parenting so many children was, Cody knew he could never give them up. He used to wonder, with Fives and Echo when the house was getting crowded and Cody's time was shrinking, if it wouldn't be better to give them up for adoption. He would have more time and resources to raise the other kids and the babies would get a real family, with a mother and a father that would love them, have time for them, could afford to spoil them. But he was still a mandalorian. And to mandalorians, family means everything. So instead, he kept the kids and just worked harder, pushed his limits to make time for each of his little brothers, learned to save money so he had enough to treat the children like they deserved.

  "You happy now?" he asked Boba who giggled. Now that was new. So far, the baby was mostly grumpy. "So now that you had your midnight snack, we could go to sleep. What do you think? Ready for bed?"

  Boba was, in fact, ready for bed. He snuggled into Cody's chest and closed his eyes. Cody was more than happy to return Boba to his crib, throw the fluffy blanket over him and kiss him good night. He crouched to Wooley's bed too and gently ruffled Wooley's hair. Wooley won't probably even remember he ever woke up and asked for a song, but Cody still felt a little guilty.

  "I will sing you an extra lullaby tomorrow, I promise," he kissed Wooley's forehead gently. That was problem for future Cody. For now, his beauty sleep was waiting.

  Mando'a translations:
  'lek - yes, okay
  Jate ca, ner verd'ika. - Good night, my little warrior.
  Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum. - I love you.
  buir - parent