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The Clone Wars began when Anakin Skywalker was thirteen years old. Which meant the Republic had looked at a traumatized child with anger issues and extraordinary power and gone: yeah sure, put him in combat.
Obi-Wan had nearly committed several crimes over it.
“He is thirteen,” Obi-Wan said flatly during the Council briefing.
“He is also one of the most capable Jedi in the Order,” Mace Windu replied.
“He is thirteen!”
Across the room, Yoda looked deeply tired already. “Capable, Skywalker is. Still a child, he remains.”
“Then why are we deploying him?”
Nobody answered quickly enough and that was answer enough.
The war changed Obi-Wan first. Something inside him sharpened the moment he stepped onto a battlefield and realized Anakin would be beside him.
Obi-Wan had always been protective. Now he became terrifying.
And Commander Cody— well. Cody had one look at a tiny angry Jedi adolescent, a sleepless war general Obi-Wan, and the Republic’s complete lack of concern for either of them and decided that they were his now.
It happened gradually. Then all at once.
At first Cody simply started hovering.
“General Skywalker should sleep,” Cody informed Obi-Wan after hour thirty in one particular campaign.
Anakin looked personally offended. “I’m not tired.”
“You walked into a wall ten minutes ago.”
“Nuh-uh!”
Obi-Wan pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve tried. He’s impossible.”
Cody handed Anakin a ration bar. “He’s thirteen, General.”
Anakin immediately took the ration bar. The traitor.
After that, Cody started keeping extra supplies for him. Things clones were never issued enough of but somehow Cody always managed to “find.”
“Commander,” Rex said carefully one day, “is that hot chocolate.”
Cody looked up from where Anakin was half-asleep against his shoulder in the gunship. “…No.”
“It has marshmallows.”
“You’re hallucinating.”
Rex stared. Then slowly backed away.
The thing was Anakin was young enough that he had not yet learned how to hide exhaustion properly. Or fear. Or loneliness. He still crawled toward warmth instinctively. Still leaned into affection before embarrassment caught up with him.
Which meant that after difficult battles, he gravitated toward Obi-Wan and Cody like they were gravity itself.
One night after a bad battle, Cody found Anakin asleep in Obi-Wan’s quarters curled up under both their cloaks like a tooka kitten.
Obi-Wan looked down at him helplessly. “He had a nightmare.”
Cody softened instantly. “Oh.”
Anakin stirred slightly in his sleep, one hand tightening reflexively in Obi-Wan’s robes.
That did something catastrophic to Cody emotionally. “Well,” Cody said roughly, already sitting down beside them, “guess we live here now.”
Obi-Wan snorted softly. “You say that like you haven’t basically moved in already.”
“Fair point.”
The dating happened almost by accident. Which was honestly impressive considering literally everyone saw it coming except them.
Waxer knew before Cody did. In fact, Cody’s entire battalion knew before Obi-Wan did. Anakin also knew before both of them and found the situation hysterical.
“You’re in love with Commander Cody,” Anakin informed Obi-Wan while eating cafeteria noodles.
Obi-Wan choked on tea. “I most certainly am not.”
“Okay.”
“I’m not.”
“You literally made him soup when he had the flu.”
“He was ill.”
“You tucked him into bed.”
“He had a fever.”
“You threatened a medic for waking him up.”
Obi-Wan paused. “…In my defense, he looked comfortable.”
Meanwhile, Cody was having a similar crisis elsewhere.
“You are aware you look at General Kenobi like he hung the stars, right?” Boil asked.
Cody nearly dropped his datapad. “I absolutely do not.”
“You carried him bridal style after he sprained his ankle.”
“He was injured.”
“You called him ‘cyare.’”
Cody froze. “…Did I?”
Waxer looked up slowly. “Oh Force, you didn’t know you did that?!”
The actual confession happened because of Anakin. Naturally.
They had just finished a brutal campaign, and everyone was exhausted. Obi-Wan had a blaster burn across his ribs and Cody looked one inconvenience away from murder.
Anakin sat between them in the medbay eating contraband cookies from the 212th. “You know,” he said casually, “normal people would just kiss about this.”
Obi-Wan blinked and Cody stopped mid-bandage.
Anakin looked between them. “…Oh my Force, you two aren’t together?”
That was apparently the final straw. Cody looked at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan looked at Cody. Both were exhausted enough to stop pretending.
Then Obi-Wan grabbed Cody’s armor plate and kissed him directly in front of the entire medbay. The 212th exploded into cheering.
Anakin looked deeply vindicated. “I KNEW IT!”
From then on things settled into something strange and warm and painfully domestic despite the war raging around them.
Anakin started referring to Cody’s quarters as “home base.” Cody started threatening anyone who looked at Anakin even mildly wrong. Obi-Wan started sleeping more because there was finally someone else helping him carry the terror of keeping a child alive in a warzone.
The three of them became inseparable.
“You are hovering,” Anakin complained during one mission.
Cody did not look ashamed. “You almost got shot.”
“I was fine.”
“You are thirteen.”
“I’m a Jedi.”
“You are a child Jedi.”
Obi-Wan nodded approvingly beside him. “Excellent point, Commander.”
“YOU ARE BOTH OVERBEARING.”
They absolutely were.
A bounty hunter once grabbed Anakin during a hostage situation and the poor man made the mistake of threatening him over an open comm. “Stand down or the boy dies.”
Silence answered him. Then Obi-Wan’s voice: “You have made a catastrophic error in judgment.”
The man laughed nervously. Then Cody’s voice cut in cold enough to freeze blood. “You have exactly thirty seconds before I introduce your spine to the outside world.”
Waxer later described the rescue mission as: “deeply upsetting to witness emotionally” because Cody and Obi-Wan had torn through that compound like divine retribution.
They found Anakin unharmed eventually sitting atop three unconscious mercenaries looking deeply unimpressed.
“You took too long,” Anakin complained. Obi-Wan dropped to his knees immediately checking him for injuries. Cody looked moments away from an stress-induced heart attack.
“You were kidnapped,” Cody snapped.
“And I escaped.”
“You are not helping.”
Anakin finally softened seeing the genuine panic beneath their anger. “…I’m okay.”
Obi-Wan closed his eyes briefly. Cody just grabbed the back of Anakin’s neck and pulled him into a crushing hug hard enough to squeak armor.
Anakin froze, then melted instantly. Because no matter how much he pretended otherwise, he had never really thought he’d have parents like this again. Not after his mom. He didn’t think he’d have people who stayed. People who worried. People who looked at him like losing him would destroy them.
The war still hurt them. Still scarred them. Still left ugly things buried beneath their ribs. But it never isolated Anakin the way Palpatine wanted.
Because every time Palpatine tried pulling him away, there was Obi-Wan. There was Cody. There was an entire battalion ready to commit atrocities for one scrappy teenage Jedi.
“You should be wary of attachment,” Palpatine warned carefully one evening.
Anakin blinked. “…Why?”
“It can cloud judgment.”
Anakin thought about Cody threatening a senator for insulting him. Thought about Obi-Wan sleeping outside the medbay after every dangerous mission. Thought about warmth and safety and belonging.
Then he frowned. “I think you’re a liar.” And walked out of the office.