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Cody was tempted to ignore her. He was tired and his ribs were aching from a blaster shot his armour had prevented from killing him on the spot but not enough to mean he didn’t have an ugly bruise all across his chest. He wanted to shovel some tasteless rations into his mouth and crawl into his tent for a couple of hours, not babysit a shiny Jedi.
But Tano had this slightly lost expression as she tried desperately to stay out of everyone’s way, arms wrapped around herself trying to look as small as possible.
Fierfek.
He broke from his determined march to the mess tent with more than a little regret.
“Commander Tano.”
She startled, staring at him with wide eyes like she was worried she was about to be told off. Cody had been told he gave off that impression.
“I’m Commander Cody, we haven’t been formally introduced.” He pulled off his helmet, tucking it under one arm.
She looked him up and down, gaze lingering on the scar. The Jedi rarely had any trouble telling them apart — Kenobi had said something vague and meaningless about their unique presence in the Force — but Tano was still in training so maybe her abilities still needed some fine tuning and she needed all the visual clues she could get. He wasn’t going to hold it against her.
“You can call me Ahsoka,” she said, uncertainty colouring her tone.
“Of course, Commander,” he said, offering her the same smile he gave Kenobi when he was insisting Cody use his first name, a smile that could pass as professional, but had a hint of a tease in it.
He didn’t know if Tano was apt enough with the breadth of human facial expressions as Kenobi, or if the Force provided her with some insight into his intentions, but she smiled back. It was small, and a little hesitant but he’d take what he could get.
“Have you eaten?” he asked. She didn’t look like she had and he was starving.
Tano shook her head. “I was- Skyguy, that is, General Skywalker, he said-” She sighed. “I didn’t know where to go.”
Skyguy. Rex was going to love this kid.
“Come on, I’ll show you to the mess. I’ll even let you in on the trade secrets of which coloured mash tastes the best.” He wasn’t the sort to give her a conspiratorial wink, and she was probably old enough that it would feel patronising, but he did shoot her a slight smirk. “It’s the red stuff.”
She laughed, falling into step beside him, shoulders loosening up. “I liked the green stuff I had earlier.”
He groaned. “You really are 501st material. No taste at all.”
He led the way through the camp, slipping easily between the organised chaos of his men. He could see why it would be overwhelming, everyone seemed to have somewhere to be, even if that intention was just heading to the camp toilet.
Cody liked it, it was familiar and full of life and he had long ago mastered the art of walking like he knew where he was going even while wandering aimlessly. It helped that as a Commander, and certainly one with his reputation, the bustle around him tended to part with little effort on his part. But if you didn’t know what you were doing that certainty could be intimidating.
Tano would get used to it, everyone did.
“I know what you’re doing,” Tano said from his elbow, a hint of childish sullenness slipping into her tone.
“And what’s that?” he asked mildly, playing dumb.
“Did Obi Wan tell you to be nice to me?”
“The General and I haven’t discussed you,” he said, which was mostly true. Kenobi had talked at length in Cody’s direction about how worried he was about Skywalker’s readiness to take on a padawan. Tano herself had only been peripheral to the conversation. Cody would argue that to qualify as a discussion, he would need to provide more in response to Kenobi than the occasional sound of agreement/shock/concern or whatever else Kenobi needed to keep going.
Cody hadn’t worked out if the Force told Jedi when people were lying or not, but he wasn’t one to take chances when there was no reason to.
“I don’t need to be looked after. I’m not a child,” Tano said and Cody could hear himself and half his brothers in her tone. That rush to grow up seemed to be something all kids had in common. And at least in the case of Tano and Cody, they hadn't been given much choice in how fast they'd had to grow up.
He stopped in his tracks, turning to face her. She was glaring at him with something like stubborn anger that was trying to hide something more vulnerable. She was going to be taller than him, he noted, even as a child that was obvious, but for now he towered over her.
“You see these men?” He gestured, and she glanced around almost unwillingly before she looked back at him. She nodded and there was a hardness to her gaze like she was expecting a lecture.
“They’re my responsibility, all of them.”
He wondered sometimes how the nat-born officers felt about their men. He wasn’t foolish enough to think they didn’t care about each other. They did, he’d seen it. But he couldn’t imagine it was the same. These were his brothers, he’d grown up with them, he loved them.
“I’m not treating them like children when I check in and make sure they are all holding up okay. That’s what being their Commander means,” Cody said. He wished he had more time for them, wished the sheer size of the battalion didn’t mean he mostly checked in on the officers who in turn checked on their squad leaders who would keep an eye on their troopers. It was more distance than he liked. Still, he paid attention; he noticed when people were struggling.
The crowd drifted around them with ease, hardly seeming to notice they were stopped dead in the middle of one of the main pathways through the camp.
His assertion didn’t seem to soothe Tano.
“But you’re only doing this because you felt bad for me. I’m a Commander too. I’m not your responsibility,” she insisted. She wasn’t wrong, she was Skywalker’s and Kenobi’s and probably Rex’s once he'd had a chance to properly meet her. But Cody had always had a weakness for his younger brothers and Tano shared at least some of those qualities.
“Sympathy isn’t the same as pity. I feel bad because I get it. I replaced Alpha-17 as Commander of the 212th several months into the war,” he said and then realised Tano would have no idea who Seventeen was. Wasn’t that a concept? “He was one of our trainers back on Kamino. Those were large boots to fill, and I was stepping into a battalion full of men that already knew how to work with each other. It can be a hard role to slip into, to command people you don’t know and who don’t know you. I wouldn’t have managed without the support of the already established officers.”
Rex had just been a little 212th ARC back then, still a little too stiff with the regs and too self-conscious about his hair to let it grow out even a little.
“I know how much pressure you must be feeling, like you only get one chance to make a good impression. But you aren’t expected to do this alone. Rex is an excellent Captain, he’ll have your back. Just don’t let your pride stop you from accepting help. That’s a sure way to being a subpar officer.” He was regurgitating a lesson from Seventeen, albeit with slightly less instilling of the fear of Prime. He hoped Seventeen was proud of the man he’d helped shape Cody into.
“Oh,” she said and the stripes of her Lekku darkened. She shifted her weight between her feet looking like she had something to say.
“What are you thinking?”
She hesitated before opening her mouth.
“You aren’t what I was expecting,” she admitted.
“Has Rex been talking shit about me?” Cody asked.
She giggled, seeming delighted when he swore. “No, he didn’t mention you.”
That little shit.
“Just I heard some of the 501st clones, I, uh, I don’t know their names,” she said embarrassed. He nodded her on, learning even the officers' names would take more than the few days she’d been here. “Well, they were talking about you like you were something of a legend.
Cody made a face. “The military is a hot bed for gossip. You’ll learn to filter most of it out. Some exaggerated stories from my training have made it to the Troopers and from there it got even more exaggerated. It leads to some of the shinies being a little wide eyed around me.”
So they were only slightly exaggerated, and his military history was more than enough to have the men gossipping on its own, but Tano didn’t need to know that. The fewer people looking at him like he was about to roundhouse kick Dooku the better.
“I guess it’s just hard to imagine you being nervous when you’d already accomplished so much. I haven’t done anything like all that,” she said and she had her arms around her chest again. She really was far too young for all this.
“Ask Rex sometime about how we met. Tell him I gave you permission to get the real story and not the version he tells to spare my pride,” Cody said, taking a hit for the greater good. Rex better be grateful; he loved telling that story and Cody hadn’t given him many opportunities.
“Is it embarrassing?” she looked hopeful and Cody fought the urge to roll his eyes.
He smiled at her instead, sensing her mood picking up. “Far more embarrassing than missing dinner because you were too nervous to ask someone for directions.”
She looked delighted and he did roll his eyes that time.
“Now come on, let's get you some-” he grimaced “- green rations.”
They started walking again and there was a little more energy to her gait.
“As long as I don’t catch you eating the grey stuff,” he said, because he wanted to set up the pecking order nice and early with this one.
“What’s wrong with the grey rations?” She asked.
“They’re Rex’s favourite,” Cody said, with as much disdain as he could possibly manage.
Tano let out an undignified snort of laughter, elbowing Cody’s side in glee.
All in all, it probably had been worth delaying his dinner for.