Magnet for Trouble
By Rey
Chapter summary: Kote and Ruusaan continue to be rained on with children, and learn something pretty upsetting in a throwaway line.
Nickname used:
Ko'ba: Kote-Ba'vodu: Kote-parent's sibling: here, a term denoting familiarity and assumed closeness without the speaker being adopted into the family
39. The Premade Crew, Part 2
Several days spent with the various not-children children, especially Din and Cara, has taught Kote and Ruusaan – all the adults, really – to be wary whenever they catch sight of little heads drawn close together, crowding a flimsy or a datapad or a comm or even just thin air. Because, sooner or later, there will be something those little plotters do that they must watch over or fix or aid or prevent or at least tone down. The pottery project, for example, and the frozen-fancy-meal sale plan, and the landscaping plan, and the expansion project, and the homemade ammunition factory project… well, those.
And then one morning, Din, Cara, Grogu and ED-D1 the exploradroid that the family just call Eddi by now trundle to the large lean-to beside the farmhouse where Kote, Ruusaan and a handful of Jango-lookalike children are preparing breakfast as per usual, and with the quartet are four new children – well, three of them are adolescents, actually, it seems – who look all chummy with them nonetheless. One of them is even a Jango-lookalike, but this one somehow doesn't behave and dress like the others.
It's Cara who takes the lead, as per usual, as Din still seems unsure whenever they have to deal with Kote and Ruusaan, although the spouses notice that they somehow have no trouble speaking to the other adults. And what the little, cheeky stray Alderaani says – in Basic, while they are still learning Mando'a – as they motion to each named person is, "Oldies, these are Greef Karga, Fennec Shand, Miggs Mayfeld and Boba Fett. Everyone, the giant is Ruusaan Fett and the zabrak mix is Kote Eldar, owners of this farm. The other, bigger giants over there are Arla Fett the elder and Farre Vizsla, and their kid Farla, and someone else who goes by Karz Rau – hey! Don't go away yet! You owe me another match! – and the other oldies are in the house or… somewhere else. Uh, I think they're with the expansion team? It's Trantos and Nate and Tate and Aven, right, Ko'ba? Thought you gonna join them and supervise there, honestly. We can take over cooking, you know. I'm not that fond of explosives."
Kote reels. Mentally and almost physically. And, beside them, Ruusaan slides into a crouch in a movement that is more falling than any deliberate thing.
But, really, Boba Fett? While the other children never claimed that they used to belong to Ruusaan's clan or Kote's or any other clan*(1)? While they are all Jango-lookalikes?
`Why claimed only one child as family out of so many? Couldn't? or wouldn't? Where did we go wrong with Jango, in that other time? How can we prevent it now?`
Distantly, Kote notices Cara prattling on, Jango-lookalike Boba sidling up to Ruusaan, darkly coloured Greef and lightly coloured Miggs exchanging awkward, nervous looks, Din looking from Kote to Ruusaan and back while holding Grogu close as if just one second away from bolting out of this little crowd, and Eddi already buzzing away – `Fleeing?` – towards the armourer and their spouse. Distantly as well, Kote notices that Fennec – long braided black hair, brown eyes truer and deeper than Ruusaan's and Jango's and these lookalikes, seemingly older than Din and Cara by a couple of years – is sidling up to them, and touching the back of their hand, looking up at them, squeezing the tips of their fingers gently, perhaps trying to ground them without blocking much of their movement – if they are inclined to move, in the first place, after such an implication delivered so suddenly and so flippantly!
But neither Kote nor Ruusaan can wallow – there is never a chance to wallow in anything, these days – because the tuber soup cooking up behind Kote is now bubbling audibly, and the gravy on Ruusaan's workstation is beginning to smell burnt for lack of stirring, and the rest of the children – not cooking and not away exploding hardened earth – are queuing up for breakfast, and a baby is yowling in the house, followed by more and more and more.
Kote stirs, just as their spouse does, and the two of them end up clinging to each other – chest to chest, shoulders to shoulders, forehead to forehead, with Ruusaan's arms and bolded legs wrapped round Kote and Kote's arms cradling their head. Just for a moment. Just for a moment. And it must be enough.
The two of them are here, and the children are here, and they are all safe, and it must be enough.
Footnote:
*(1): Ordo and siblings never told Kote or anybody else that they used to be Skiratas. It's by design.