Surprise! It's a Baby!



Dooku picks up the infant and resists sighing at the sight of it. The babe has already half escaped from it's swaddle, one little fist in it's mouth and robin's egg blue eyes staring up at him with bewilderment. It make sense that the babe is confused, after all, this is the first time that Dooku has bothered to visit the little thing after it was decanted from the rented Kaminoan cloning tube. He wouldn't be here until it was grown to a satisfactory age if it wasn't for the fact that the facility was manned only by med droids and the babe needed skinship after decanting to develop properly. Human biology was such a hassle and currently the little thing was hardly longer than the hilt of his saber.



"Don't put that in your mouth, little one." Dooku says to the babe, gently pulling it's fist out of it's mouth and watching in facination as it's little nose scrunches up in displeasure, warping its many many freckles. It almost seems to glare at the older man, much like the babe's template, it's halo of copper curls giving the impression of a sun as the lab lights shine through the strands. The babe fusses quietly at him and Dooku doesn't bother to hold back a sigh this time as he pulls the babe close and rests it against his collarbone so that the babe can press into his bare skin. The babe immediately relaxes into the contact, the warmth of the babe's force signature shining like a nebula of newborn stars. Dooku calls over the project's information, using the force so that he wouldn't move and disturb the little thing, and reads over the datapad, free hand cradling over the back of the babe's head as he leaned back into the reclined chair. It's hair was surprisingly soft.



…



JC-70/100: Failure. - Recycle attempt results.



JC-71/100: Failure. - Recycle attempt results.



JC-72/100: Success. - Continue to nurture.



JC-73/100: Failure. - Recycle attempt results.



JC-74/100: Failure. - Recycle attempt results.



…



Dooku clicks on the only labeled success out of a hundred to read into it further, glad that he doesn't have more little babes to deal with other than little 72 here. He ignores it's fragile breath puffing against his neck and the feeling of it's little nails pressing into his skin as he continues to read the babe's file, thumb absently stroking the back of it's head.



…



Due to the impurity of the genetic sample provided, results have more variety than preferred. JC-72/100 is fortunately one of the closest to the template out of all of the other attempts. However, some discrepancies have been noted: Off color patch of hair behind the right ear. Brown speckles in the eyes. Incorrect hair texture. More discrepancies have yet to have been noted due to the current age of the subject and the constant shifting of the subject's internals as it continues to develop.



…



Dooku skims the rest of the file as he lays with the babe, letting the little thing sleep at it gets it's allotted time of skinship, humming an old folksong absently as he finishes up the needless details about the babe's heath as well as it's impressive midichlorian count. The Count pauses as the babe starts to fuss again, Dooku reaching out with the Force to brush over the little thing's mind to see what it needs and sighing when all he senses is hunger.



"Well that's to be expected. You have just been decanted." Dooku sighs to himself and waves over one of the medical droids to fetch him a nutrient drink for the babe before getting to work on changing it's position so that he could cradle it in one arm rather than let it lie on his chest. The medical droid rolls over with a bottle that the babe refuses to latch onto at first until Dooku squeezes a drop of the warm drink onto it's lip so that it can taste what it is. The babe then happily latches on, gumming at the rubber nipple with it's toothless jaws. Dooku leans back into the chair again and gently rocks the babe as it eats, thinking back to when he was a younger man with a softer heart, where he had wished that he could do this sort of thing with Sifo…



He is that man no longer, unfortunately, so here he is with a babe that won't receive all the love that soft heart could have given.



"Feel better now?" He asks the babe once the bottle is empty and it squirms with discomfort, trying to escape from it's swaddle again. Instead of letting it free for more prescribed skinship, Dooku burps the babe, careful to lay a towel over his shoulder, and then sets the babe down in the incubator that it sleeps in when not held. The little thing stares up at him sleepily, freckles stretching on it's cheeks as it yawns. The Count observes the tiny little lump of not-yet-sentient as he pulls his black tunic back on. The warm glow of the incubator reflecting off and through the babe's hair, coloring it like a sunrise, makes something in his chest twinge and before he can help it, Dooku leans down and presses his nose to the top of the babe's head in a small gesture of affection that he should not be giving. He basks in it's warm force presence, the small bursts of new sensations and simple emotions swirling around his head like the flying embers of a simmering fire.



"I'll see you soon, Solei." He promises the babe as he pulls back and forces himself to step away from the little thing he had just named before he could convince himself into staying with it just a little longer.



"Message Nala Se and order a recipe for the reversal of the rapid aging gene." Dooku orders the medical droid as he stalks down the hall of his tucked away med center, not even looking at the machine as he tries to put as much distance between him and the babe as he can. He reasons with himself that he's asking for the recipe so that he can have more time to mold the babe into the perfect apprentice, much like how Sideous had started twisting Skywalker since he was but a youngling, but a voice that sounds suspiciously like Sifo brushes against the inside of his skull.



"Are you sure that's all it is, my Sweetheart?" The Count clenches his jaw and ignores the voice of his long dead husband. Because yes, that's all it really is.



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"I'm not really seeing anything of note here, Sir." Cody comments through his bucket and Obi-Wan silently agrees as Ghost Squad efficiently sweeps through yet another empty room of the hidden research center that they had been deployed to. It appeared to have had something in it previously, but was recently cleared of any equipment if the scrapes on the floor were any indication.



"Regardless of if there really is a weapon here or not, there has been evidence of Dooku visiting here frequently." The jedi responds instead, following the troopers back into the hall and towards the last room of the small facility. This room is the biggest out of the whole building and Obi-Wan assumed that's where most of the production of the weapon is taking place. Boil slices open the door and Waxer steps into the room shortly ahead of the rest of the Squad. The room is filled with a single large tube that Obi-Wan finds strangely familiar along with a significant amount of medical equipment, for some reason. Was the weapon organic in nature, like the Silooths of the past?



"All cle- WOAH!" Wooly starts only to be cut off as a medical droid lunges at him with a mechanical scream. The trooper leaps back and shoots at the droid, awakening a small mass of even more medical droids that lurch forward with their needles and scalpels aimed for the trooper's throats and eyes despite the blaster fire, shrieking. Obi-Wan cuts down a few of the droids that try to take him down, a little shaken at the fervent way they had immediately went against their doctoral programming to do no harm to sentient life in favor of killing the intruders. These must be special orders from the Techno Union.



"What the kark was that?" Trapper asks in the sudden silence once all the droids had stopped attacking, his hands clenching and unclenching around the grip of his blaster in unease.



"Something that doesn't bode well for what this facility was producing." Obi-Wan says grimly. The jedi catches movement out of the corner of his eyes and whirls around at the same time as the troopers to see one of the heavily damaged Medical droids has stood back up again, spreading it's arms to shield some kind of small pod from sight, sparks spurting from the severed wires in it's shot out torso casing. Cody takes a half step closer to the droid and it hisses in warning, but doesn't otherwise move. Obi-Wan carefully reaches out with the Force, feeling around in the droid for it's power cell with his mind, and then yanks out the component with a crook of his index finger. The droid crumples with a metallic clatter and the troopers wait for a long silent second before relaxing when nothing else happens.



"That was so weird. I've never seen an aggressive Medical Droid before." Wooley comments as he kicks at one of the downed droids and Obi-Wan can practically feel the furrow between his eyebrows from behind his bucket.



"They must have had some special programming to protect the weapon they were working on." Cody comments as he steps closer to the pod that the final droid had been shielding and freezes for a long moment when he looks inside through the transparasteel lid, mind bliping out in shock. Obi-Wan frowns in concern and almost startles when the Commander throws himself into sudden action, scrambling to holster his blaster so that he can use both hands to open up the pod. The jedi general hurries over to his Commander right as the pod opens up, the quiet atmosphere of the lab immediately fills with the sound of high pitched hoarse crying. Obi-Wan can't help but gape as Cody lifts a young child into his arms, basically a baby, shushing them gently as the little being starts to quiet now that they're being held. The jedi forces himself to move closer to his Commander so that he can peer down at the baby and their tear streaked cheeks. They must have been crying for hours.



"That isn't the weapon is it?" Waxer asks weakly from somewhere behind them but Obi-Wan can't tear his eyes away from the whimpering child that is oh so terribly small, mind whirling with unanswered questions. Their hair is a coppery red and their skin that's visible is covered in a riot of freckles that lets the jedi know that the baby is Stewjoni, like he is. He reaches out with a hesitant hand and runs a gentle knuckle over the baby's soft cheek, feeling the bump of a developing mole and blinks in shock when brown dappled blue eyes open up to look at Obi-Wan in confusion. All the air leaves the man's lungs as it feels like he just got hit in the stomach with an iron rebar because Maker, they're so bright in the Force. Like a little Star.



"General?" Cody asks from above him and Obi-Wan has to force himself to clear his mind and actually speak his revelations to Ghost Squad because he suddenly remembers where he had seen that tube before and he definitely recognizes who the baby looks like. The moles on their right cheek and forehead were a dead give away.



"Unfortunately, this is indeed the 'weapon' that we were looking for men. It seems that the Separatists have started trying to create artificial force sensitives." Obi-Wan can hear himself say as he can't take his eyes off of the baby in Cody's arms, their crying appears to have tired them out and they're dozing off. The image is a cute one, if not one suited to the atmosphere they're unintentionally making with their existence.



"And I can recognize my own face from baby pictures easily enough, so it appears that Count Dooku has decided to use my own DNA for this project." The jedi continues, admitting to himself that he's going into shock as he doesn't react to his men's loud exclamations of shock, their force signatures buffeting against his shields as they try to make sense of the situation. Obi-Wan instead slowly leans forward to press his forehead against Cody's collarbone, eyes not leaving the sight of the swaddled child in his Commander's arms and his shaky fingers running through the infant's soft curls.



"Do you want to hold him, General?" Cody asks quietly, moving the warm bundle toward him just a little only to freeze when the baby's nose scrunches up in displeasure and they try to curl into the Commander's armored chest.



"I probably should so you and the rest of Ghost Squad can cage me in a protective formation when we make our way back to the LAAT." Obi-Wan admits, hesitating for a moment before taking the baby into his arms, heart squeezing in his chest when they bury their nose into his robes and let out a little sigh. Now unburdened, Cody starts giving orders to the other troopers. Ordering them to download as much of the research data as they can before deleting the originals and taking pictures for documentation before destroying the things that could be used to replicate the experiment. Ordering them to find Obi-Wan's genetic sample that they used to make the baby that's sleeping so soundly in his arms.



"What am I going to do with you?" He asks down at the child, feeling like he wanted to sit down and like he wanted to run away all at the same time. The baby does not reply instead quietly snuffling in their sleep. Obi-Wan sighs and finally tears his eyes away from the infant in his arms as a familiar feeling washes over him. Looks like he will be an unexpected caretaker to yet another child.



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Solei wakes up somewhere that smells like Home but does not sound like Home. It smells like the liquid that stings when it's wiped over little scrapes and needle marks and it smells like the jelly patches that go on top of those scrapes and needle marks. But it sounds louder than Home. Like it's filled with people, all of them talking or walking or moving stuff around. They blink open their eyes and are met with darkness, which isn't weird cause Solei likes to cover their head with their blanket cause their care-take-rs never turn off the lights and their pod always has lights on too. The squishy mat-tress under them doesn't feel like their pod though. It's harder than their pod. They press at the mat-tress under them with one hand ab-sent-ly as they fully wake up and wonder if Ya brought them somewhere new while they were sleeping.



They do remember being taken out of their pod by white and orange hands, the mind a-tta-ch-ed to them feeling warm and gentle like a sunbeam. Solei reaches out with their mind to try and find Ya or the sunshine hands only to frown when they in-stead sense a lot of Big men that feel Little in-stead of Ya or any of their care-take-rs. They go to in-vest-i-gate more when they sense a Big man that ac-tu-ally feels his size sitting beside them and reels their mind back in shock as that man reaches out with his mind to meet theirs halfway. Like Ya does but this man feels softer somehow.



Solei peeks out of their blanket to look at the man only to startle when their eyes meet, blue meeting blue, and pulls the blanket back over their face again. The man's e-mot-ions take a dra-ma-tic dip towards sadness and Solei feels a little bad about making the man sad, so they peek out of the blankets again. Only this time the man is closer, kneeling on the floor beside them, and Solei hides again but not before no-tic-ing that his hair is red too. Like before, the man gets sad again and Solei peeks a third time only to smile as the man is making a funny face at them. They cover their eyes again with the blanket and wait a second before looking at the man again giggling when he's making an even funnier face. They almost cover their face again but the sudden quiet-ness of their sur-round-ings makes them sit up instead. All of the Big But Little Men are looking at them and the Red Haired Man with-out trying to seem like they're looking at them and it makes Solei feel nervous, like when Ya gives them a health exam.



"Hello little star." The Red Haired Man says with a soft smile and Solei turns to look at him again, reaching down to wrap their blanket around themselves. Seeing this many people that are shaped like Ya is weird. Ya is usually the only one shaped like him that they ever see and now they're seeing a lot more. Though for some reason all of the Big But Little Men have the same face even if they feel different.



"Hel-lo." Solei says to the Red Haired Man and they fiddle with the blanket nervously, but that doesn't seem to make the man annoyed like it would Ya, in-stead he just smiles even more gently at them.



"Ya's friend?" Solei asks, pointing at the Red Haired Man quest-ion-ing-ly and he looks a little confused before it seems like he un-der-st-and-s who Solei is talking about.



"No, I'm his… his grandson." The man says and Solei frowns because they don't know what that word means.



"Gr-and-son?" They sound out in confusion and the Red Haired Man pauses, blinks a few times, and then tried to explain.



"Do you know what a son is?" He asks and Solei is happy they know what this word is, pointing to themselves.



"Is me an-" This time they point di-rect-ly upward.



"Big light out-side." They finish proudly and startle a little when some of the Big But Little's grin or try to hide their mouths with their hands. The Red Haired Man look amused as he asks another question.



"That's… well... How about Parent? Do you know what that is?" He asks and Solei nods.



"Baby in book have pa-rent. Big per-son who take care of baby." Solei had then asked if Ya was their pa-rent but he had said no, that Solei doesn't have pa-rents, and that made them the quiet kind of sad until Ya's next vis-it.



"Grandparent is the parent of your parent." The Red Haired Man explains and Solei nods in und-er-stand-ing. So Ya had a baby and the baby grew up and had a baby and that baby was the Red Haired Man.



"Oh. Okay." They say as they try to count how many babies that was only to not be able to control their fingers quite right and ends up opening most of their hand. They clench their fist and try again only to just end up opening their whole hand as they look at it. They only look back up from playing with their hand when the Red Haired Man, slowly reaches out to hold their hand in his really big one.



"My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Do you have a name?" He asks carefully and Solei makes sure to remember the name, thinking it over and over a few times. It's a very long name.



"Solei." They eventually answer Obi's question, pointing at themselves with their free hand before fo-cus-ing on Obi's hand cause it was so warm.



"That's a lovely name." Obi says as he continues to hold their hand in his. It has weird hard and smooth parts in the same spot that Ya's hands do. Ya was always too cold, even when he held Solei, but Obi was just the right amount of warm. They hold out their spare hand towards Obi, opening and closing their fingers as they try to smile at him.



"Hug?" They ask and Obi's face makes this weird expression like he was sad but also happy and something else, but he still picked Solei up without sighing and Solei happily presses their face into his just as warm neck and relaxes all at once as Obi's warm hand starts rubbing their back too. This is better than Ya's hugs, Solei quickly decides and lets out a happy noise as they finally feel just the right amount of warm for the first time ever.



"Sir? Are you alright?" One of the Big But Littles asks and Solei turns their face to look at him curiously with one eye as they try to stay as close to Obi as they can. He looks con-cern-ed for some reason and Solei wonders why.



"Ah, yes Bones, I'm fine. I just forgot that there's nothing quite like contact with my own species." Obi says as he stands from the floor to sit on the mat-tress and Solei reaches out with their mind to see what his words mean only to frown when all they notice is that he feels all funny on the inside. They can't figure out what the feeling is but it's warm and shaky.



"Pardon, Sir?" The Big But Little asks and Obi waves the hand that had been rubbing Solei's back. They pout at the loss of the hand and grab the wrist to move it back to their back, much to everyone's am-use-ment. Solei then gets dis-tract-ed by Obi's beard as he and the Big But Little named Bones talk about boring stuff, something to do with ch-ar-ts and sto-len da-ta and heart de-fect-s and ther-mo-reg-u-la-tion problems. The child instead sticks their fingers in Obi's red beard and tries to count the freckles that they can spot through the hair, being careful not to tug. They acc-i-dent-al-ly pulled Ya's beard once and they didn't like the look he gave them after-wards so now they're always careful not to pull. Obi doesn't seem to mind their fingers even if his head is tilted back at an aw-kward angle so Solei thinks they're not in trouble.



"Solei-" Obi says, words filled with something that the toddler couldn't des-cr-ibe and they look up to meet the man's eyes, fingers freezing in his beard.



"Would you like something to eat?" He asks and Solei brightens with a smile, nodding even as the side of their head is still pressed to his shoulder.



"Yeah! Food food food food-." Solei chants their little food song, wiggling out of Obi's arms and onto the bed in excitement. They hold out their hands, making sure to sit pr-op-er-ly like Ya taught them to, and wait patiently only to blink in confusion when the man that had just been holding them laughs, his mind feeling all warm and gooey again for some reason. Bones hands them a pre-opened tr-av-el pouch filled with something as Obi continues to chuckle at what-ever it was that he found funny and Solei puts aside that confusion to instead suck at the stuff that was in the pouch. It was bland mushy stuff, but Solei has had worse so they don't mind, feet kicking against the edge of the bed.



The pouch was actually really big but Solei was de-ter-min-ed to finish it and so finish it they did!



Though Obi still kept talking to Bones about boring stuff as they did. Blech. Solei looks down at the empty pouch and fur-rows their brows as they wonder where to throw the trash out. Usually they would give trash to one of the Med Droids but they didn't have med droids here. As Ya always says "Use your eyes and then your head." What-ever that really means 'cause Ya would say it with his important ex-press-ion on his face. So they use their eyes to find some kind of bin for their empty pouch. Ah! There was one! Solei sticks the mouth of the pouch back into their mouth and care-ful-ly climbs off of the bed, cling-ing to the sheets as they con-trol their slide to the floor.



Cold! No shoes!



Solei grumbles wordlessly as they use the edge of the bed for bal-ance before they con-tinue their miss-ion. They have reached the bin! It has the same shapes above it that the trash can the Med Droids from home use. Con-fi-dent-ly, Solei drops the pouch into the bin with a nod, ig-nor-ing the chuckles they can hear coming from the other Big But Littles in the room.



"Good job, ad'ika." One of the Big But Littles in the bed closest to them pr-ais-es and Solei smiles at him happily before reaching out to gently pat his fingers that were poking out of a cast.



"Th-ank you. Get better fast?" They thank him and tell him to get better soon at the same time, much to his ap-par-en-t joy.



"It's 'get well soon'." The Big But Little corrects and Solei nods sagely as they keep this in mind.



"Get well soon." They parrot back before pointing at their chest and introducing themselves.



"Solei. You?" They ask, curious because he was nice and they want to know more about people that are shaped like Ya, shaped like them. The Big But Little smiles a little wider as he points at himself with his good arm.



"I'm Trapper. Nice to meet you, Little General." The Big But Little, Trapper, says and Solei beams at him, clapping quietly. They go to say more but they feel Obi's mind brush over theirs with a gentle re-quest to come back to him. Solei pouts a little but waves at Trapper with a quiet 'Bye-bye' before taking the time to walk back over to their bed again, blanket trail-ing behind them. Now climbing back onto the tall bed might be a bit harder than getting off of it. Solei doesn't worry for too long though because they don't even have enough time to even think about how they might climb up onto the mat-tress before Obi is gently picking them up and holding them close again. Warm!



This time Solei in-vest-i-gates Obi's big bill-ow-y sleeves, sticking their own arm into the ex-tra fabric and trying to see if Obi hides anything in them. Mmm. Nothing. Solei sticks their head in there just to be sure, ignoring the sound of laughter. Obi takes the sleeve off their head carefully and then ro-tates them back to Bones, who points a de-vice at them until it beeps.



"That should be all that I need from them for now, Sir. I'll send you their meds once they're synthesized, but you're both free to go." Bones says as he reads something on the de-vice and Solei reaches for it with their mind, wanting to see what it was for. The thing hops out of Bones' hand and Solei fumbles it for a mo-ment as they have to work to grip it with both hands. The thing has a lot of words on it, most of them that Solei can't read yet. The child frowns and then frowns even harder when Obi sighs, taking the thing back, and hands it back to the wide eyed Probably Doctor.



"…Sir, are they supposed to be able to use the force as a tubie?" He asks Obi after a long and quiet second, taking the de-vice back be-late-dly after a lot of blinking.



"Not really, no, but I suspect Dooku has been teaching them." Obi says and Solei looks up at him in confusion. Who is Dooku??? They ask the question by dropping it right against Obi's brain shield and smiles when the red haired man startles a little.



"Dooku is my grandfather, remember? His name is Yan Dooku and you call him 'Ya'." Obi explains, looking down to meet Solei's eyes and the toddler nods seriously. Ya is Dooku and Dooku is Yan. Solei prefers Ya more. Easier to say. Solei gives this thought to Obi and grins when the red haired man smiles like he's sur-prise-d by the smile.



"Yes, well. You have yet to practice more. It will get easier to speak with time." Obi says instead, speaking directly to Solei, much to the confusion of the Big But Little's in the room. Bones has gone off to do something and Obi is now standing from his seat on the mat-tress, keeping Solei in his arms and grabbing their blanket from the bed while he's at it.



"Nuh uh." Solei says, just to be con-tr-ary. Ya hates it when they do this, but doesn't punish them with anything other than time out. Obi doesn't seem to mind though and swiftly replies.



"Uh huh." Before pausing, sighing, and ruffling Solei's hair as they both leave the place that smells like home. As the two walk the halls, Solei makes sure to wave and smile at every Big But Little that they see, de-light-ed that every man is just as happy to see them as they are to see them. Obi seems a little em-bar-rass-ed for some reason but Solei ignores it as they look for Sunshine Hands. They don't find him by the time they get to where Obi was taking them: a small room with a desk and plants and a fancy clay tea set that looks like one that Ya has, but in red instead of green. Obi sets them down on the bed, wrapping Solei in their blanket from home and brushing their hair out of their face.



"Obi. Where Sun-shine Hands?" Solei asks as Obi looks like he's about to go some-where in his head as he kneels on the floor next to the bed. Ya does this a lot too, so it makes sense that his baby's baby would do it too. Ge-net-ic sim-i-lar-i-ties, yes.



"Who? Show me, little star." Obi asks opening his brain shield a little for Solei to be able to connect with him. The toddler reaches out, unafraid, and something snaps into place and all of a sudden Solei can feel Obi really really well!! Solei lets out a cry of surprise, reaching up with both hands to hold their temples in shock, confused and tearing up at the sen-sat-ion.



"Oh, I am sorry. I don't think either of us intended for that to happen." Obi shushes gently as he moves to sit on the bed, reaching out to pull Solei's hands from their hair as his mind soothes over the alarm with a pres-ence that feels like a mir-ror-ed lake. Solei frowns, completely having forgotten the question they had asked before and leaning into Obi's chest to hide their tears, a little scared.



"I know. I'm sorry, little star." Obi continues softly, dropping a kiss on the top of Solei's head as he rubs their back with a warm steady hand. He's feeling a little scared too, but as Solei peeks at the feeling, Obi hides it away to instead give them calm emotions. Solei still sniffles loudly, tears flowing down their cheeks and keeps hiding their face from Obi's eyes. They stay like that for a while, Solei getting sleepy after their tears dry up and they pull away from Obi's chest with a little hiccup, rubbing at their cheeks. Obi smiles in re-lief at their face and Solei smiles back.



"Do you want to sit with me while I work? I have some forms to fill out." Obi asks while also sending mental impressions of the meanings of the words and Solei nods, curious. Solei ends up sitting on Obi's legs so that they're tall enough to reach the desk, new data-pad in hand and scribbling on it with a stylus as Obi does his work. They don't know what his work is, but it seems to be a lot of drawing on his own data-pad and speaking to people on his com-mun-i-cat-or. Solei finishes their masterpiece with a satisfied nod and holds it out to Obi, proud of their drawing.



"-you'll need to divert the shipping to- That looks very nice little star! Thank you for showing it to me- to Coruscant. The men need this to be distributed and most of the GAR outposts are centralized around-" Obi takes the time to compliment Solei's drawing, pressing a kiss to their temple before going back to talking to whoever it was on the holo-thing-a-ma-bob and Solei gets to watch the Big But Little in the holo look really really confused about it. Solei waves at him with a big smile before starting another drawing, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside from Obi's kind-ness. Ya was never this nice to them and they like the nice-ness a lot more than the cold!



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Solei wakes up VERY dis-ori-ent-ed, the room dark and on a bed with Obi. Who is also asleep but on his side. When did that happen? Did they fall asleep on Obi's desk and he put them to bed? Ya used to do that when they were little, but he hasn't done it since Solei got their Age Treat-ment. Solei struggles to sit up, Obi's arm was hugging them close and it was heavy! Bones did say something about Solei needing more "Species Social Contact" but they didn't think that meant all hours cuddles!



It is pretty nice though...



Solei gives up on trying to move Obi's arm, turning to tuck their face into his chest, the fabric there softer than his weird robes from before. Solei can't sleep though. They're up and they wanna do something! Maybe they could find Sunshine Hands. They close their eyes and reach out with their mind, immediately noticing Obi's bright mind, flashing with weird colors and emotions as he dreams. Solei resists poking it as they go back to searching the ship for the man with the Sunshine Hands.



It takes a bit, but they find him! He's awake and doing stuff all by himself in a little room. He's sleepy and stressed and wanting something warm. Solei can get that for him! The child uses their mind to fold space with a wiggle and all of a sudden they're across the room rather than in Obi's arms. Obi has like, a lot of his big brown robes and Solei grabs one before folding space again to be standing beside Sunshine Hands. Oh! He's a Big But Not Little At All! He even has the same face as the others but with a scar.



"Robe?" Solei offers to the tired but warm feeling man and startles when the man violently lurches in his seat at the sound of their voice, head whipping around to see who had spoken to them. Solei just holds up the heavy brown robe to the man, who is dressed mostly in a stretchy black body suit thingy.



"When did you get in here?" Sunshine asks after a long moment of just staring at them and Solei just smiles, not knowing how to explain about folding space with their brain. Sunshine just sighs and gently takes the robe, wrapping Solei in it, and then picking them up to cradle to his chest as he went back to his work. The whole time he's grumbling about "tubies" and "force os'ik".



"You wanted warm. Got you Obi's robe. That's warm." Solei points out, wondering why they're the one wrapped up in the robe and not Sunshine.



"I wanted a warm drink, caf, you need the robe more than I do." Sunshine points out and Solei pouts as they get comfy anyway, basking in Sunshine's warm mind. It reminds Solei of the time that Ya took them outside and they took a nap out in the grass, the warm sunshine soaking into their body even through their paper scrubs. Where are their paper scrubs? This red sleeping shirt is nice but it's way too big for them it's hard to walk around in.



"Nooo." Solei grumbles, happy to have found Sunshine Hands but not expecting him to be like this at all. He's grouchy on the outside. Kinda.



"Yeeessss. Bones' report says you can't regulate your temperature correctly and the Negotiator is cold." Sunshine says, reaching out with a hand to pull the hood of the robe over Solei's head and they sulk as they don't even get to play with Sunshine. He just holds them close as he does work, even when they ask him a whole bunch of questions, and it's boring. So boring that Solei starts to fall asleep again, lulled by the sound of his heart beating against their cheek.



That's when Sunshine's communicator makes a noise and wakes them up again. Solei blinks blearily and Sunshine sighs with a quick glance down at them. He opens the think and a little holo of Obi pops up, panicked and in his jammies still.



"Solei is missing! Cody can you- ah." Obi cuts himself off when he sees Solei in Sunshine's, Cody's, arms. They blink at him sleepily and resist the urge to swipe their hand through Obi's image.



"I found your Tubie, sir." Cody says, amused but not showing it other than in his brain. Solei pokes at his cheek and smiles when the man startles. He carefully grabs Solei's wrist and tucks their arm back into the robe swaddle. Aw.



"I'm not quite sure how they made it to my office, but they arrived an hour ago." Cody continues like he's giving a report and Solei grumbles at being caught.



"I'll be there shortly, my Dear. Thank you for looking after them." Obi says, relief flowing off of him in waves that the toddler could feel through their weird brain hand hold thing before the holo call closes. Solei sends back the feeling of "sorry" because they didn't mean to worry Obi, they just wanted to find Sunshine.



The connection lights up with the attention and Obi asks again who "Sunshine" is through it. Guess he heard more than just the sorry. Hmm. Solei needs to figure out how this hand holding thing worked. They send Obi the memory anyway. Of Solei crying for a very long time, scared. Then their pod opening, warm hands and a mind of Sunshine gently picking them up. Making the fear and the loneliness go away so that Solei could sleep. Obi sends back a feeling of surprise and then amusement.



The amusement lasts a while, even as Obi urges them to go back to sleep cause he can feel how sleepy they are. Solei argues a bit, saying that they're not sleepy and they can stay up longer, but then Obi, the cheater, sends them a steady feeling of sleepiness and forces Solei to fall asleep anyway! And Cody is a traitor too because he's rocking Solei the whole time!



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Obi-Wan knocks on the door to his Commander's office with carefully suppressed stress. Stars, and he thought Anakin was bad enough. Turns out Solei was going to give him a run for his credits. How did they even get on the other side of the ship without being seen?



"Come in, Sir." Cody says and Obi-Wan doesn't wait to enter the organized space, still flustered and amused in equal measure. The both of them are probably as casual as they have ever seen each other. Cody stripped down to his blacks and Obi-Wan wearing loose linen sleeping pants and an open under robe. Solei is, as intended, out cold swaddled in one of his outter robes to prevent another escape.



"This youngling-" The jedi sighs heavily, reaching out to take the toddler into his arms and attempts to ignore the amusement that Cody is oozing into the Force.



"They were looking specifically for you, you know." Obi-Wan comments as he tucks Solei into the crook of his arms, careful to support their head just like he remembers from Creche duty so many years ago. That actually catches Cody a little off guard.



"They were? I didn't even know they remembered meeting me." He comments, now using his newly freed hand to do twice as much data work than he had been able to do before. Of course.



"Your meeting was so memorable that they gave you a nickname." Obi-Wan says as he rocks the infant in his arms to prevent them from stirring again. The little one seem determined to stay awake despite their sleepiness. He waits for the Commander to look up at him in curiosity before telling him the delightful nickname that the little star has for him.



"They call you Sunshine." Obi-Wan says, trying to hold back a laugh at the incredulous expression that crosses the Commander's face.



"That's some force osik, sir. They cannot possible call me the same thing that you did." Cody says as he schools his expression back to something neutral.



"It is a little related to the force." Obi-Wan admits and explains further when Cody raises a questioning eyebrow at him.



"Your force signiture is quite warm. Like laying in a sunbeam on a cool day. And quite like a sunbeam, it seems that the youngling likes to bask in your presence." The jedi elaborates and bites back a fond smile at the embarrassed look that crosses his Commander's face. Should he tease him a little further?



"I don't blame Solei either. I find myself often basking in your presence as well." Obi-Wan continues and feels a little thrill of delight at how red Cody's ears get at the comment. He should flirt with his Commander more often if it gets him reactions like these. The competent man can be surprisingly cute at times.



"I'll keep that in mind, General." Cody says stiffly, ignoring his flushed ears admirably.



"Now I think you and the Tubie should try to catch up on as much sleep as you can. We're going to be reaching a spaceport in a few hours for resupplying before we can set a course to Coruscant." Cody changes the subject and tries to get some privacy at the same time and Obi-Wan concedes that he really should catch up on some sleep.



"Of course, Sunshine. Thank you for worrying about us." Obi-Wan rests the tips of three of his fingers against the back of Cody's hand for a moment, not too long, before pulling back.



"You get some rest too, my Dear." He suggests lightly and smiles to himself at his Commander's rose petal ears before closing the door behind himself. He looks down at the firmly asleep child in his arms and sighs through his nose.



"Now if only you would cooperate, Little Star. Tonight would be perfect."



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Solei thinks that this is the coolest place ever! There's so many people in so many different shapes and colors! And so many smells! Lots of them good and yummy but some of them bad! Solei tried to grab one of the yummy smelling things with their mind, but one of their their "baby sitters" Waxer, snatched it out of the air and gave it back before they could get it.



"AH!!" The toddler cries out in shock and pouts at the Big But Little that has betrayed them!! All that does is make Boil laugh at them!



"I dont think you're allowed to have food like that yet, Little General." Boil explains, but Solei doesn't care! They wanted that! It smelled good!



"Now, what color shoes do you want?" Waxer asks as he points at the selection of little velcro sneakers at the market stall in front of them. Apparently, this spaceport didn't have any prop-er sh-ops, whatever that meant, so they were shopping in a big open air "baz-aar" instead.



"Gree-n." Solei points at a nice dark green pair. When Waxer picks them up by their straps, they smack together and the soles light up white just for a little bit. Solei is fascinated and smacks the sole of one shoe with an open palm as soon as Waxer let's them hold one. It lights up again.



"That's convenient. It'll help us keep track of them when in darker areas of the ship." Boil comments as he goes to pay for them as Waxer straps the shoes onto Solei's feet. They fit! The two ARC Troopers had already bought the rest of Solei's clothes: soft pants, shirts, and even a little set of robes that made the two Troopers giggle for some reason. That's when Solei saw it: Tiny Trooper Helmets.



"OH OH! LOOK!!!" Solei shouts, pulling on Waxer's filter a little and pointing at it in delight. The two Troopers still before glancing at each other and Solei can feel them thinking the same thing.



'We need to get one for the kid.'



And that's how Solei heads back to the ship with the little Plastoid trooper helmet plopped down onto their head, a "rainbow wand" that looks like a little light saber, and their baby sitters already planning how they're going to paint both in 212th yellow. Solei is too delighted by making their "saber" green to even notice the very amused looks that they're getting from the other troopers. Painting their helmet was just as fun too! They put a yellow hand print right on the top of the helmet's head and then did the same for Waxer and Boil's helmets. They seemed really happy with them and Solei made sure to keep the Numa decal as clean as possible. When the paint was dry Waxer washed them up in the sonic, dressed them up in the little robes, and gave them their new toys before showing them a small training room.



"Okay little General. Ready to have a saber duel?" Boil asks as he holds up a staff and Solei can feel themselves start to shake with excitement. They've always wanted to Duel! Ya is a really really good duelest and Solei loved to watch him practice when he visited. So they got into position with a sage nod, dropping the helmet down onto their face. Both ARC Troopers wanted to laugh at that for some reason, even though their faces didn't move. Solei ignores that and gets right into fighting with Boil, his staff meeting every strike of their saber with little snaps of cheap plastoid on metal. Waxer cheers them on, clapping whenever Solei gets a particularly satisfying strike in. Solei, trying to make the experience complete, even makes the lightsaber sounds with their mouth.



"Well well well~ what is this?" Obi's voice asks from behind and Solei whirls around excitedly, hands up and saber going flying as they run towards the man.



"Obi!! Lookit what Waxr an Boiwl got me!" Solei says excitedly, patting at the cheeks of their helmet before pausing. They realize the dropped their saber and run back to grab it before showing that off too, swishing the green plastoid "blade" in the air.



"How fun! I didn't even know they made trooper helmets this small." Obi says as he picks Solei up, propping them up on his hip. Solei takes the chance to tip the helmet off of their face and grins at the man, showing off their very few teeth.



"They found a stall with some mini trooper helmets being sold, looks like they were modeled after some grainy battle footage and popped out of a low grade fabricator." Waxer explains and Solei nods in agreement despite not knowing what he meant.