Cody learns to love

The one chapter where Cody meets someone at the park

  Cody and Obi-Wan decided to take the kids to the park. Cody was honestly surprised Obi-Wan still hasn't left but he wasn't about to complain. He was glad to ave Obi-Wan by his side, even if he felt a little guilty. Cody's little siblings weren't Obi-Wan's responsibility, he didn't have to play in the sand with Wooley, or catch Fives and Echo under the big slide.

  "You don't have to be here, you know?"

  "I want to be here."¨

  "Well, then you will have to stay for lunch. I'm cooking today."

  "I must say that from what the children told, I'm kind of scared of your cooking."

  "My cooking is not that bad, they're just picky. I was thinking about making tiingilar today." Cody said. He didn't really have any plans on what he wanted to cook but tiingilar was always a good option. The kids liked it, Rex loved it and it was simple to make a Fox friendly version.

  "I guess I will give your cooking a shot."

  "How generous of you." Cody chuckled. "I must warn you, though, Wolffe is probably bringing his half feral friend."

  "You mean Tanya?" Obi-Wan looked amused. "She's nice, at least in class. One of the smartest kids, I'm teaching, I think."

  "Yeah, she's clever. The brains behind her and Wolffe's pranks."

  "Wolffe once told master Plo that they only prank the bad teachers."

  "The bad teachers and Fox, apparently. Like every time Wolffe sleeps over at Tanya's, Fox gets a prank call at some unholy hour in the morning. I belive they asked him out at three in the morning the last time. Fox'ika hates it."

  "Can't say me and my friends were much different at their age. We called my father and pretended we were from the social services once. He was actually nice to me for the next three days. Well, nicer than usual."

  Cody snorted. "Wolffe asked me if I had Jango's number once, said that him and Tanya wanted to prank child support out of him. They probably wouldn't, though. I didn't get a single credit out of Jango and I'm actually taking care of his kids so..."

  "How come? I mean, you have every right to get child support from him."

  "Child support is a percentage out of his monthly income. And Jango is a bounty hunter which... it's not an official job so as far as the Coruscanti government knows, Jango is unemployed and doesn't have an income. And there isn't a thing like child support in mandalorian society, everyone just assumes that parents will love their children."

  "Bounty hunting isn't taken as an official job by Mandalore's government anymore," Obi-Wan informed him.

  "Should've expected it. Kryze and her oh so helpful reforms."

  "In her eyes, getting rid of violence is a way to make the mandalorian society better."

  "Mandalorian culture is about violence."

  "I know. I'm not saying what she is doing is right. Satine used to be different, you know? She was raised as a pacifist but not an idealist. After her father was killed, she radicalized. Her ideals now... they aren't bad, they just don't work in our world."

  "You talk like you know her."

  "I used to know her."

  "You. Used to know Satine Kryze. Just how did you happen to know the mandalorian duchess?"

  "We met by a coincidence. Dated for a while... Then we started arguing about politics way too much. I haven't seen her in years."

  So there went Cody's hopes. Satine Kryze was the stark opposite from him and it wasn't just because she was a woman. As far as he knew, she was blonde, with blue eyes and pale skin. If that was Obi-Wan's type, Cody didn't stand a chance.

  "It looks like Echo needs help climbing. I will be right back," Cody excused himself. Echo didn't look in need of help but Cody didn't really want to know more about Obi-Wan and his ex-girlfriend who happened to be a duchess. Obi-Wan's standards were much higher than Cody thought. He guessed he shouldn't be surprised, Obi-Wan could have high standards with those looks.

  "Cody!" At least Echo seemed happy to see him.

  "Hi Echo. What are you playing?"

  "We have a fortress here and Jesse is trying to break in and Kix is the healer and he always heals us when we get killed."

  Cody didn't really want to know what exactly 'killed' meant. Over the years, he's learned that kids were much more brutal than people thought. A lot of their games involved 'shooting' or 'stabbing' and therefore 'dying'. And even if it was all just their imagination, it wasn't the pure innocence that kids were apparently supposed to represent. "That sounds fun."

  "Echo! Echo, help! Jesse is getting close! I'm out of munition!" Fives yelled and Echo immediately climbed up into the 'tower' Fives was in. Cody just fondly shook his head. He guessed he will have to return to talking with Obi-Wan. He just hoped they were going to change the topic. He didn't really want to know any more about Satine Kryze, not as a politician and even less as Obi-Wan's ex-girlfriend.

  Only he never made it the whole way back to Obi-Wan.

  "Jango?" A woman's voice asked behind him. If Jango got another girl pregnant, Cody was going to kill. Jango, not the girl, obviously.

  "I'm not Jango." Cody turned around. He saw a woman who was holding a toddler, he looked a little younger than Wooley and, guess what, exactly like any other Fett sibling at that age. The day couldn't get any better, could it?

  "I see. You're not old enough to be him. But you look so similar you just have to be related."

  "Jango is my father," Cody explained.

  The woman looked at her child, then back at Cody. "Oh. And those children are yours or-"

  "They're Jango's. He doesn't really care about any of us so... if it's child support that you want, you are probably not getting it."

  "I should've expected this." The woman sighed. "I'm Elysia. And this is Tup. He's your brother, I suppose."

  "I'm Cody." What was Cody supposed to say?

  "Well, I guess we will be seeing each other. We just moved to Little Keldabe."

  Was Cody delusional or did that woman really look like she wasn't going to dump a child on him? Maybe this wasn't that bad. "I will be looking forward to it."

  "Well, we will have to get going. Have a nice day, Cody," Elysia wished him. She looked at her son. "Will you say 'bye', Tup? Bye!"

  "Bye," Tup said. He even waved at Cody shyly. It was cute.

  "Bye." Cody waved at him back. Having a cute little sibling that he didn't have to take care of was great. At least one of his siblings had a mother that actually cared. Or maybe there was more and Cody just didn't know them.

  Obi-Wan joined him as he watched Elysia walk away. "Who was that?"

  "My stepmother, apparently. And a cute little vod'ika that I don't have to care of."

  "So you are making friends with your father's one night stands now? Guess you will have a lot of friends," Obi-Wan joked.

  "You see a friend, I see a potential free babysitter."

  "So you are smart too... You really are a catch, you know?" If Cody didn't know better, he would say Obi-Wan was flirting with him.

  "Well, I'm certainly not as much of a catch as a mandalorian duchess." Did Cody really just say that? He seemed to be saying random stuff he shouldn't say around Obi-Wan a lot. Was that what love was like?

  "What? Are you jealous?"

  "Maybe."