He groaned as he started to wake up, his head throbbing terribly. Even behind his eyelids, the light was way too bright for his comfort. He started to shuffle around his bed, doing a mental check of what hurt, and was relieved to find out that only his head was hurt.
"General?" He could hear the sound of footsteps coming towards him. His sloppy grip on the force telling him that it was Kix who was getting closer. Cracking open his eyes, he could see the blurry outline of the clone.
"What happened?" the light dimmed down, letting him open his eyes completely and confirm the fact that he was in the med bay. Again. Anakin slowly sat up, groaning at the way his head pounded. He cringed away when Kix started to shine a light into his eyes and tried to swat away his hand.
"My head is killing me Kix, think you can do that another time?" He frowned when he got no response, but still let Kix grab his chin to keep him still while shining the light into his eyes. A frown was prevalent on the clone's face.
"How do you feel sir?" Kix turned off the light and typed something into his datapad. Anakin rubbed his eyes, trying to relieve his headache in some way.
"My head feels like someone hit me with a brick, but I'll be fine. What happened anyway?" Kix stopped typing into his datapad and looked up at the Jedi.
"Think you can repeat that in Basic sir? You've been speaking in Huttenese this entire time." Anakin blinked in surprise, he didn't realize that he was speaking in his native language.
"Sorry, I didn't realize, where's Obi-wan and Ahsoka?" Kix set down his datapad and started to inspect Anakin's head again, shining the light into his eyes and inspecting the bandage.
"You're still speaking in huttenese, I think you hit your head harder than we thought." Anakin didn't answer him, instead, he was trying to make that mental shift over to basic that would let him communicate with the clone. But every time he would try to formulate the sentence in basic, it would just fall apart.
"Can you call Obi-wan and Ahsoka?" Kix rose an eyebrow at him.
"Do you want me to call General Kenobi and the commander?" he didn't even bother answering verbally, he just nodded his head. The two of them sat there, Kix asking Anakin some more questions, trying to figure out why his general suddenly forgot how to speak Basic.
"Can you understand me?"
"Yep."
"…is that a yes?" Anakin repeated himself while nodding his head, trying his best to show that he was saying yes.
"Ok, do you happen to know any other languages? Do you think you can try switching over to that language?" he hesitated for a second, the only other languages he knew was the basic slave language and the Huttenese slave language, languages he swore as a child to never repeat in front of a free person for the sake of slaves everywhere. The last thing they needed would be their masters understanding what they whispered to each other. But then again, this was Kix they were talking about, and Kix always kept his patient's information to himself.
Anakin used his hands to sign that he knew two more languages in the clone's sign language, but that the medic would have to keep it a secret.
"Understood sir." Anakin relaxed slightly as he started off with the Basic slave language, the harsh vowels traveling smoothly out of his mouth. When Kix motioned for him to continue, he switched over to the Huttenese one, the harsh vowels combined with clicks and low whistles flowing out of his mouth, making it seem like he was humming some sort of tribal song under his breath. But when Anakin tried to switch back to Basic, he just couldn't. Anakin started to pout as soon as his master and student walked into the room, the two of them looking relieved and a little bit worried.
"Kix, Anakin, how are you feeling?"
"Yeah, that was a pretty nasty hit you took Sky guy."
"Ah, hey master, hey Snips, feels like someone gave me shaken baby syndrome but I doubt you can understand me." Based on the look he got, he was right.
"Commander, General, we think General Skywalker hit his head harder than we first anticipated, although he's able to understand us, he has suddenly forgotten how to speak Basic and has reverted to Huttenese."
"Oh, he will be fine by tomorrow, this isn't the first time this has happened."
"Wait what?" they all turned to Obi-wan, who clarified upon seeing their confused looks.
"There was an incident during a training session when Anakin was ten, he got a concussion and when he woke up the next day, he would only speak Huttenese. He was fine after a good night's sleep but doesn't remember anything about it." Anakin blinked in surprise at that because he definitely does not remember anything about that.
"Oh, is that so?" Kix typed more stuff into the datapad while speaking. "General, you can either stay here in the med bay where I can observe you or you can spend your day with General Kenobi- "
"Obi-wan." To make his point, he even pointed at Obi-wan with his thumb, making his master and Ahsoka smile in amusement, but Kix wasn't done yet.
"-under the conditions that you wear this portable monitor." Anakin took off his glove and shoved up his sleeve so Kix can put on the portable monitor on his wrist. None of them were surprised at his eagerness to leave. Kix shook his head playfully while strapping on the monitor.
"If you're going to be doing something that requires you to take off the monitor, please send me a message so as I don't assume that you just dropped dead and need my assistance." Anakin nodded along with the others, practically jumping off the bed the first chance he got and leaving with his padawan and teacher. Anakin was trying his best to talk to the two of them, strictly through the clone sign language, but it was a little bit difficult since they had discovered that even over the force bond, he only spoke in his native language.
"Anakin, do you mind telling me what 'Whoka' and 'bacoke woceuea' mean?" Anakin blinked in surprise at Obi-wan's question. 'Whoka' means brother in his language, while 'bacoke woceuea' means beloved family, but they were also very sincere and loving words, words that were only reserved for closest family members. Anakin thought nothing of it and tried his best to tell his master the definition and the meaning behind the words, as well as how loving it is for someone to receive those words.
"Oh, is that so…" Obi-wan stroked his beard thoughtfully. Ahsoka rose an eyebrow at her grandmaster's reaction.
"Why do you ask master?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Obi-wan shrugged his shoulders before looking up at Anakin," it's just that that was the only thing Anakin called me by when he forgot how to speak Basic for the first time." And while Obi-wan had a knowing smirk on his face, one that Ahsoka quickly mirrored, Anakin completely blanked and stared at the two of them as he tried to fight the upcoming blush.
" General Kenobi, General Skywalkers heartbeat is elevated, is he okay?" Anakin lost his battle and felt his face turn a bright red, even feeling his ears turn a bright red as he averted his eyes, trying to cover his face with one hand. Even though Ahsoka and Obi-wan were chuckling at his reaction, feelings of love and appreciation were coming from his teacher.
"Yes, he's fine Kix, we're just embarrassing him a little bit."
"Very well then, continue sir." If Anakin wasn't so embarrassed, he would have been offended that his medic just threw him to the dogs. Anakin wished the ship could just swallow him whole.
"It's okay Anakin," Obi-wan reached up and ruffled his hair," you're my bacoke kaae whoka, as well."
"And what about me master?"
"Yes Ahsoka, you're my bacoke kaae whokena." Although it was clear Ahsoka didn't know what he just said, she whooped in excitement. Which made Anakin realize something if Obi-wan knew how to say beloved little brother and sister in the Hutt language…
"Obi-wan! You just wanted to embarrass me!" Even though they couldn't understand him, they understood his feelings of indignation.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The grin on his face said otherwise. Anakin sighed, letting his blush fade away.
"You're lucky I love you."
"Yes, I know, I love you too." Anakin let out a strangled squeak when Obi-wan answered in Huttenese and his face turned red all over again.
"Obi-wan!"
Even though he was embarrassed, he couldn't stop that warm feeling in his chest for a really long time.
