[A/N: Sorry for the length of this one, but I promise a bigger chapter over the weekend!]
Jagged Fel had faced many formidable adversaries throughout his life. He had spent sleepless nights in the midst of do-or-die battles and stared down scheming politicians without batting an eyelid.
But he had never before in his life had to admit defeat after being drenched from head to foot in soapy bath-water while his opponents ran around the apartment, stark naked, pretending to be a Chiss clawcraft and a Star Destroyer respectively.
He wished his wife would get home. He wished he could be rendered Force-sensitive just for one evening. He wished he had some whisky-
Wait a minute! The last he did have!
Jag pulled himself off the couch, still leaving soapy puddles wherever he stepped and dragged himself to the kitchen where he had to scramble around in the topmost cabinet for a few minutes before he found the bottle of aged Corellian which had been presented to them by Lando Calrissian. He poured himself a stiff drink, closed his eyes and took a sip. Much to his surprise, he found that the liquour worked! The twins' capering didn't hurt his ears quite so much anymore! In fact... the house had fallen eerily silent.
Jagged Fel turned slowly to find two pairs of identical green eyes staring at him from the doorway.
He looked from one to the other, now fully clothed, standing solemnly in quiet attention before him.
"So are we clear on this?"
Two brown heads nodded assent.
"And Mommy doesn't need to know."
Again, the two simultaneous nods of assent.
"And you don't pull a stunt like that again."
His twin sons shared a brief look of dismay. The bucket of bathwater rigged on top of the wardrobe had been an awfully good trick.
Jag didn't let up on his utterly serious stare.
They sighed.
"Alright, Daddy. We won't do it again," they droned, eyes studiously on the carpet.
Jag straightened up on the couch.
"Good. Then I won't be driven to the bottle again."
Davin, the elder of the twins by three and a half minutes, spoke sombrely.
"Grandma Leia always says that that stuff is very bad for you. She says it makes your head go woozy and you end up doing a lot of crazy things."
Jag smiled wryly to himself thinking Leia probably had very good reasons for believing so.
"Well, you know what your grandfather's always saying about her."
"That she's always right?" the two chorused in unison.
Jag nodded, smiling benevolently.
"She's certainly right about that. And it's something you would do well to remember throughout your lives!"
"But then why were you drinking it, Daddy?" Che piped up.
Jag held up a stern finger.
"Because the two of you were driving me to doing crazy stuff!"
The little boy looked away abashed. Jag put a hand on top of each of his sons' heads.
"But I'll still be glad if you two didn't tell your mum about it, ok?"
The twins exchanged a glance.
"Daddy?"
"Hmmm?"
"Can we ask you something?"
Jag looked from one of his boys to the other curiously.
"Of course you can, son."
"Can we have a pet?"
Jag's eyebrows jumped up and he felt a faint foreboding in his heart.
"Pet?" he asked cautiously, "What pet?"
"Whisperkits!" they both chimed joyously.
"Whisperkits?!" Jag exclaimed incredulously, "Where would you find whisperkits?"
"There's a brand new litter in the Jedi Temple! We've been visiting them for two weeks! But they run away sometimes and we're afraid they'll get hurt. So we wanted to keep them here with us!"
Davin, the more diplomatic of the two, always managed to put up a cogent argument.
Jag's brows drew together.
"I'm not sure that would be such a good idea, son. Whisperkits need to be taken care of. You know neither your mother nor I have the time."
"You wouldn't have to! We'll take care of them!"
"Wait. Them?! How many are there?"
"Six."
"Six?! Oh no. Absolutely not!"
Two lower lips trembled in front of his eyes, but Jag forced himself to be adamant.
"I have strong doubts whether you'd be able to take care of even one!"
"We would! We promise! Please, Daddy?" the twins beseeched him.
It was a test of will, Jag recognized.
"The two of you spend all day at the Temple. If you brought the whisperkits here, who would look after them while you're gone?" he tried to reason.
It was Cherian who came up with an instant answer.
"But we can take them with us when we go to the Temple! Their mommy's there. They can go to her while we're training and we'll pick them up when we come back!"
Jag passed a weary hand over his face. Five-year old logic sounded so absurdly simple most of the time, he was tempted to accept it!
"It wouldn't be quite so simple, I'm afraid. We can see about a pet when you two are older and more responsible, alright? But not now."
The twins knew when they'd lost an argument with their father. But they never liked it. Their faces fell, arranging themselves into similar expressions of heavy sulking. But Jagged Fel remained immovable.
It was time for Plan B.
So as soon as the door to their apartment swooshed open that evening, the twins rushed to jump their mommy first and as soon as Jaina had scooped her little boys into a warm hug, they grew very serious and announced,
"Mommy. Do you know what we caught Daddy doing today?"
Jag, standing within earshot, waiting for his turn to greet his wife, froze.
He couldn't believe his ears! He had just been double-crossed by his own twin sons!