Title: Back Together (1 of 6)
Author: djcati
Fandom: Star Wars post-NJO
Characters: Wes, Hobbie, Kyp, Jaina
Summary: Wes and Hobbie are, after five years of fighting separately in the war, back together...? Hands up everyone who feels sorry for Wedge.
Rating: PG
Notes: OK. This was originally a standalone sequel vig to Codenames and Dances, and my first attempt ever at writing Hobbie, back in September 04. It multiplied the way plot bunnies do, and grew into a longer story that taught me, 'hello, you can write humour better than angst or romance, kthx'. Maybe I've written better since then, but I'm still quite proud of this whole story... ; (Though I have to say, I'm surprised I got away with so much subtext on TFN...)
Words: 2441

Derek Klivian - Hobbie to his friends, and friends' friends, and a fair few enemies, too - rounded the corner to the pilots' lounge sector, paused mid-step, and then continued backwards as if he had intended to do so all along.

"Hobbie!" a voice hissed from the corridor he had almost walked down, and Hobbie winced. "Hobbie, get over here!"

Hobbie took a deep breath and brushed down his clothes, as if it would help him prepare for what he knew he was about to face. Grimacing determinedly, he stepped round the corner again, walked forwards a few metres, then stopped a safe distance away from the entrance to the small, secondary pilots' lounge.

"No, I mean here!" the voice insisted, in the same, quiet hiss.

Hobbie hesitated, taking a moment to study the scene before him. Wes Janson was not-quite-standing - crouching, really - in the middle of the corridor, an ear against the door to the lounge. That was all there was to it, all Hobbie could see, and he was sure he didn't really want to know why Wes was like this, but equally sure he was about to find out. Reluctantly accepting his fate, he walked the rest of the distance and stopped right in front of his friend. "What is it, Wes?" he asked in a resigned tone of voice.

Not moving his head away from its position by the door, Wes reached up and pulled Hobbie down so their heads were level. "Ssh! And listen!"

Hobbie blinked, turned his head to glance round the corridor, and then looked back at Wes. "To what?"

Wes stabbed a finger at the door and, dutifully, Hobbie leaned in closer and pressed his own ear against the durasteel surface. Despite the thickness of the door, and its generally air-tight qualities, there was indeed a faint thumping to be heard; a regular rhythm, accompanied by light tones as if from a cantina band's instruments - albeit a low grade of cantina band.

"It's music, Wes," Hobbie told him, sighing and moving to stand up.

"Exactly!" Wes pulled Hobbie down again and met his gaze triumphantly. "Music! In the pilots' lounge!"

Hobbie frowned thoughtfully, trying to think of a reason for this to be unusual. "Wes, I don't think I'm getting this. Explain it to me."

"The pilots' lounge, Hobbie!"

"Yes."

"The small pilots' lounge!"

The adjective was relative; the lounge, though it was indeed the smaller of the two in this sector, was at least half the size of the mess hall. "...Yes," Hobbie replied blankly.

"The small lounge has no music system!"

Hobbie blinked again, glanced at the door, and back at Wes. "Brilliant, Janson. You didn't apply for a position in Intel, did you? After the Wraiths? I'm sure they could use someone like you again now." Hobbie rolled his eyes. "The lounge obviously has a music system, because otherwise, why would we be hearing music from it?" Unless we're both hallucinating, he added silently, though the coincidence would be scary.

"No, it doesn't!" Wes replied, still hissing in an excited tone. The grin on his face was still triumphant, and it made Hobbie wary. "It does now, but it didn't, which means someone installed it for a specific purpose!"

"I'm serious about that job in Intel; I'll speak to Iella on your behalf, if you want."

"And," Wes continued, obviously deciding to ignore Hobbie's sarcastic interruption, "we need to find out what that purpose is!"

"Which is why you're sitting here listening to some poor quality music through a durasteel door, I guess?"

"Yes!" Wes paused for a moment, concentrating on what he could hear through the door, and then his grin turned into a thoughtful frown. "It's stopped."

"Oh, good," Hobbie said, and moved to stand up. He was quickly pulled back down by Wes.

"Now someone's talking. It's..." Wes concentrated again, still frowning thoughtfully. "Durron and Solo."

"Oh, scandal." Hobbie couldn't move to stand up this time, as Wes had kept a hand on his shoulder. "Are you done playing detective yet?"

Suddenly, Wes stood up, and Hobbie overbalanced, falling face-first into the floor. He scrambled to his feet as Wes set off down the corridor, hurriedly catching up with him as he turned left at the next corner. "Wes? What are you doing now?"

"Got to find... a control room."

"A control room."

Wes nodded, stopping suddenly outside a door with a hand-written sign reading 'Spec. Ops - keep out'. Hobbie almost fell over him, grabbing on to Wes' shoulder to avoid falling to the floor again. Wes turned to face him, the triumphant grin back on his face. "Got it!" he hissed.

Hobbie closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. He was still standing outside a provisional 'Spec. Ops' room, in front of Wes Janson, about to follow him into yet more idiotic trouble, he was sure of it. "What, exactly, have you got?"

Wes was now studying the flimsiplast sign carefully, as if for hidden clues, though it was fairly evident that the big black lettering was all there was to it. "Durron and Solo didn't put that music on; someone outside the room is controlling it."

Hobbie stared at him incredulously. "How do you know that?"

"Ssh, don't interrupt me, I'm in the Intel zone. From what they were saying." Wes was still studying the sign. "Which means, if someone's controlling it from somewhere else, and the system was set up recently, it must be fairly close."

"But-"

"And the cables trailing along the corridor were a pretty good clue, too."

Hobbie glanced down and, for the first time, noticed the black wires poking out from under the door to the 'Spec. Ops' room. They were tucked in against the corner between the wall and the floor, but weren't hidden otherwise, and they clearly led to the room from the lounge round the corner. "Ah, yes, I noticed those too. Of course."

"So our guilty party," Wes continued, the grin spreading across his face yet again, "is in here." He knocked on the door to indicate it, realised his error and, to cover for it, quickly keyed the door open and stormed in.

Hobbie stood in the doorway warily, glancing round the room. Indeed, the evidence was fairly conclusive. There was a big holoscreen showing a picture of the smaller lounge, focusing on a couple in the centre of the room, who were... Hobbie stared at the screen for a moment. "Wes, I thought you said it was Kyp Durron and Jaina Solo?"

Wes turned round again, drawing Hobbie's attention away from the screen and towards the centre of the room they were actually in. "Yes," he hissed triumphantly, realising a moment later that the need for secrecy was gone. "It is," he continued in a louder voice, "but even better, look who the culprits are."

Sighing, Hobbie looked past Wes and at the area by the control desk. He studied the two people standing there - Jagged Fel and Tahiri Veila, both looking rather sheepish - with disinterest, and turned back to Wes. "Uh huh."

"Guess what they were doing!"

"I don't particularly want to-"

"Kissing!"

It was moments like this that really caused Hobbie to compare Wes to a twelve-year-old child. But then, that was a little unfair - the child would probably be less embarrassingly enthusiastic about the whole affair. "Oh no, oh Wes, what terrible scandal you have revealed today," he said in a monotone, rolling his eyes. "Quick, let's find a holoreporter."

"Don't you see, Hobbie?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't." Hobbie paused, then narrowed his eyes at Wes. "This is just because you didn't want someone to pull a better prank than you, isn't it? That's why you had to find them."

"Um," someone said, and Hobbie looked up to see Tahiri waving a hand vaguely to get attention. "Can I say something?"

"Why not?" Hobbie shrugged. "I'm getting tired of Wes' voice, anyway."

"We weren't playing a prank," she continued. "We were matchmaking."

"But it was her idea," Jag added. "I had nothing to do with it."

"Apart from setting up the camera, and the sound system, and making sure Rogue and Goddess were alone in the room, and-"

"OK, OK, maybe I had something to do with it."

Hobbie nodded sympathetically and glanced at the holoscreen. Durron and Solo were still in the middle of the room, kissing; they obviously hadn't noticed the camera yet. "This is fascinating, and it has always been my dream to get involved in kids' romantic meddlings. Now that that objective has been fulfilled, I think I'll take Wes away to drug his caf and stop him being annoying for the rest of the day."

Wes had moved away from the centre of the room and was now stood over the control desk, leaning round Tahiri to look at the system. "Wait, Hobbie. Just think what we could do with this!"

"No, thanks."

Ignoring him again, Wes selected a disc from the stand by the sound system and inserted it into the player. He pushed a button and, after a second's expectant pause, a loud, upbeat, fast song bounced its way out of the speakers and filled the room. Grinning, he turned up the volume.

Hobbie looked up at the screen as the sound played through the pilots' lounge, too. The couple in the room had been distracted from their previous activity by the music, and were looking round the room, frowning. Suddenly, Durron looked up and noticed the holocam in the corner of the room, and his shocked expression turned to amusment, then annoyance, and then the image was gone, faded into static.

Slowly, all four occupants of the 'Spec. Ops' room turned to stare at each other. A long moment passed and then, with silent agreement, they all simultaneously bolted for the door. Somehow, both Wes and Hobbie found themselves being pushed aside by Jag and Tahiri, who reached it first and pulled it open, running down the corridor opposite the lounge area. Wes grabbed Hobbie's wrist to stop him mid-fall, and dragged him out behind the other two, who were already at the other end of the corridor, turning the corner.

But suddenly, the empty space the two of them had expected to encounter in the middle of the corridor was gone, replaced by the decidedly more solid form of Kyp Durron. Quickly, Wes dragged Hobbie round to face the other direction, almost overbalancing both of them - but this was futile too, since the other side of the corridor was blocked by Jaina Solo.

"Wes and Hobbie," Jaina said slowly, no trace of amusement in her tone or expression - bar the odd twitch in the corner of her mouth. Which could just as easily be anger, thought Hobbie.

Letting go of Hobbie's wrist, Wes stood to attention and snapped off a salute. "That's us, Colonel Solo. Looking for us for any reason in particular?"

Behind them, Durron snorted, and Hobbie glanced round at him. He glared back, then winked, quickly glaring again as Jaina looked up. Hobbie frowned and looked sideways at Wes, who nudged him. "Salute," he hissed.

The twitch was definitely amusement, Hobbie decided, as Jaina's glare faltered at Wes' command. "Indeed, Janson. Just want to know what you were doing in there," she said, indicating the open door to the side.

"This is ridiculous," Hobbie murmured to Wes under his breath. "You know what happens now, don't you?"

Wes nudged Hobbie again, looking back at Jaina. "We just, uh, found... someone..." He trailed off as Durron stepped into the room, looked round, and then stepped out to stand next to Jaina. "In there," he finished weakly, indicating the room half-heartedly.

"Not a bad prank," Durron said in an almost-congratulatory tone of voice, wincing at the elbow Jaina gave him in his side.

"What he means," Jaina said firmly, "is that this was stupid and you'll regret it."

"Looks like you two enjoyed yourselves," Hobbie pointed out, then winced. Now they would really think he and Wes were responsible.

Durron smirked at that, and Jaina flushed, glaring at Hobbie. "And it won't go unpunished," she added menacingly.

"Excuse me?" Wes replied incredulously, all humility gone from his voice. "Solo, you're not even half mine or Hobbie's age-"

"Thanks for the growing old reminder," Hobbie said with a frown.

"-you really think you can punish us for this?" Wes continued, again ignoring the interruption, and the fact that each comment was simply making the other two more and more convinced of their guilt.

"Nope," Jaina said, suddenly grinning triumphantly. "But I think Wedge will find a way to."

Hobbie sighed and turned to Wes. "I hate you," he announced. "The first time I meet up with you in years, and within the week, you've pulled another stunt like this. I hate you," he repeated vehemently.

Wes shrugged, grinning. "Well, wouldn't want me to have changed, would you? And you know you love me really."

"I don't think I've ever hated anyone so much in my life," Hobbie assured him, falling in step behind Jaina resignedly as she led them down the corridor towards Wedge's office. "Ever," he added firmly.

"But doesn't this just bring back memories?" Wes asked cheerfully as they stood outside the office door, Jaina having entered to speak to Wedge.

"Yes," Hobbie replied. As the door opened again, and they were ushered in, he glanced sideways at Wes and grinned. I hate you, he mouthed.

Wes simply stuck his tongue out childishly, and nodded towards the desk at the far end of the room, where Wedge sat, trying very hard to frown disapprovingly at them.

Hobbie sat down in one of the plasteel chairs in front of the desk, almost falling off as Wes sat with a sudden thump on the chair beside him. Both of them looked at Wedge for a moment, then Wes grinned. "We're back, Wedge."

Wedge nodded, but didn't quite lift his head up on the second nod; instead, he hit his head on the desk with a loud groan, and let it rest there. "I know," he moaned, and Hobbie couldn't help mimicking Wes' grin. "And I'm going to sue whoever's responsible."

"You," Hobbie supplied, and grinned again at Wedge's sigh. Yes indeed; Wes and Hobbie were back together again, and the galaxy seemed just that little bit more fun. But it would be more fun if they were actually responsible for the prank, Hobbie admitted to himself. Oh well. Can't do everything.

But they could certainly try.