#should take a leaf out of moddy's book and have the story tags all be one word huh

[crispyjenkins]

very quick scene from time travel boba

for @realizationin321 because they've been so hype and kind on all of my wip ask game posts (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) and i'm not above letting someone enable me

(in reference to this post. Obi is almost 18, Boba is 5, Jango is 22-ish. Obi-Wan has been stuck on Mandalore for almost two years.)

“You’ve never met him?”

It isn’t the first time one of their hosts has asked Obi-Wan this, nearly every Mando’ade that’s realised he only knows what Jango looks like from holos has been curious, but that doesn’t make it any easier to explain.

Hmming, Obi-Wan pulls their thin blanket up to cover Boba better, where he’s using Obi-Wan’s arm as a pillow and sleeping on his back like he has not a care in the world. Across the firepit, their current host lounges across several cushions, Kal Skirata’s gaze as discerning as it is friendly, and though many of the Mando’ade Obi-Wan has met in the past year claimed to personally know Jango Fett, he actually believes it of Kal.

“Truth be told,” Obi-Wan says with a small smile, “I hadn't even heard his name until I met Boba. Last my people heard, Jaster Mereel was the leader of the True Mandalorians.”

Kal snorts. “Jango was Mand’alor for all of a tenday before the Haat’ade were massacred.”

Obi-Wan hmms to himself again, not answering right away, as he brushes Boba’s curls off his forehead; Maker, but they both needed a haircut. “Many say he still is.”

“If he’s even alive!” Kal laughs, though there is no mirth in it. “But he never did pass the title on, so if he is alive, yeah, he’s Mand’alor still.”

The night sounds of the desert outside Kal’s tiny shack are actually comforting in their familiarity, Obi-Wan having grown quite accustomed to them since the start of his mission. Of Qui-Gon’s mission. Force, but is... is Qui-Gon even still looking for him?

He’d heard that Satine had been elected a duchess of sorts, but then nothing else, not with Vizsla and Death Watch keeping Obi-Wan and Boba on the run all over Manda’yaim; surely when Qui-Gon finished the mission, he had told the Council he was still missing?

Obi-Wan isn’t sure, because Qui-Gon certainly hadn’t told anybody after he was stranded on Melida/Daan.

The five year old in his arms snuffles, his closest hand twisting into the fabric of Obi-Wan’s borrowed tunic, and Obi-Wan gently taps his forehead against the side of Boba’s head in an almost-Keldabe.

Kal watches this all silently, but not without a tiny smile tugging at his lips. “Jango would be proud, how well you’re taking care of him.”

Obi-Wan blinks at him. “I’d rather thought he’d have a conniption if he knew who was taking care of him.”

“Hm, you’re not wrong about that. But Jango is weak for ad’e: one word from Boba and he’d be at your feet.” Something sly and amused crosses his expression, and Obi-Wan doesn’t trust it for a moment. Indeed, when Kal next opens his mouth, it’s “So how many Mando’ade have asked if you’re his riduur?”

“All of them,” he sighs. It had taken a little while, and he’d had to ask a random Mando in Cirillia about the meaning of the word, but, yes, Obi-Wan is well aware of the sorts of stories their different hosts are sharing about him. And he can’t even blame them, not when Boba calls him buir just as often as he calls him vod. “Boba certainly doesn’t help matters, with the way he talks about us both.”

“Y’know, I never really expected Jango to physically have a kid,” Kal says, sitting up a little straighter only to stretch out his legs until his boots almost touch the brazier. “A foundling someday, maybe, but he’s not... Kriff, I don’t know the word in Basic.”

Obi-Wan just chuckles, because even at seventeen, he knows the same about himself. “I believe the scientific term is asexual,” he murmurs, “But my people tend to just say Indifferent.”

Kal’s face scrunches, the shadows from the fire cutting him into even sharper relief. “Oh, that boy is far from indifferent.”

Laughing outright, because Boba had once said the same, Obi-Wan decides he likes Kal, even if he maybe doesn’t trust him enough to reveal that he’s a Jedi or that Boba is a clone, that Jango had gotten around his asexuality spectacularly to have a genetic child anyway.

Boba, of course, doesn’t know the details, but apparently Jango had never been secretive about his origins, and Obi-Wan only feels his respect for him growing. Maybe someday he’ll even get to meet the man, and see how much Boba’s hero worship had colored his stories.

“You said you got separated from your mentor.”

All at once, Obi-Wan’s good mood evaporates, Kal clocking the change with narrowed eyes, but Obi-Wan doesn’t know if it’s in sympathy or distrust.

“Over a year ago now,” he answers softly, glad their borrowed blanket hides him tightening his grip on Boba’s skirts.

“Wait,” Kal mutters, “that’s... You’ve been taking care of him that long? You’ve been on the run that long?”

“I couldn’t very well leave him behind, Kal.”

“You’ve been running from Death Watch, from Vizsla, on your own, for over a year.”

He’s quick to shake his head. “No, not alone: we wouldn’t have made it this long if it weren’t for the Haat Mando’ade and the old clans.”

Kal snorts. “That humility is quite the contrast to Jango’s arrogance, vod.”

“... Something tells me he will not return to Manda’yaim the same as he left it.”

Mando’a: Mando'ad/e — lit. “child/ren of Mandalore”, “Mandalorians” Haat'ad/e — lit. “true children of Mandalore”, True Mandalorians (slang shortened to Haat'ad/e) Mand'alor — “Sole ruler”, contended ruler of Mandalore Manda'yaim — the planet Mandalore ad/'e — “child/ren” riduur — “spouse”, “partner”; when gendered in Basic, “husband”, “wife” buir/e — “parent/s”, gender neutral vod/e — “brother/s”, “comrade/s”, “sibling/s”, technically gender neutral but used most often in fandom as “brother/s”