Smile
Chignon 2.
Gree knew he wasn't the only clone Commander in the GAR with a female Jedi General.
As far as he knew, he was the only clone Commander in the GAR with a female Jedi General and a female Jedi Commander. It was always a source of curiosity to him, noticing the small, subtle differences in the way Commanders like himself, or Bly, treated their commanding officers, as opposed to others, like Cody or Rex. There was an awareness that General Unduli and Commander Offee were women, but under most circumstances, most of the time, regulations and rules were firmly in place, and they were exactly what they were supposed to be – superior officers, a higher ranked Commander and General, and Jedi.
As was General Unduli's way, she was formal with the men, distant but not too distant, warm but respectfully cordial all the same, even in the off hours when they were not fighting, planning, working. She was kind, and the men looked up to her. Much as some of the good sergeants on Kamino were looked up to as pseudo-fathers, General Unduli was looked up to as something vaguely like a mother, when she wasn't being looked up to as a General. Commander Offee, in a similar sense, was considered something somewhat like a sister, except when she was being a Commander. It was hard to define the relationship at times. It always had to remain strictly formal, but the Jedi were kind, when they were not boxed in to the officialities of the Jedi Order or the GAR.
It was in those vague areas, where roles were not clearly defined, that things changed. Neither of the Jedi encouraged anything, particularly not General Unduli, who seemed quite above the awkward attempts of the soldiers to try to talk to a woman about much of anything. Such attempts were generally met with a bit of dry amusement, and the conversations were shut down fairly quickly, if politely. Commander Offee, being younger and less certain of such things, could usually be coaxed into longer conversations, sometimes even with attempts at flirting.
Even so, he doubted either really knew how much the men in the 41st admired them – for the most part professionally, but it was hard not to admire them personally as well.
He was going to have to make sure any idiot who was recording this on his helmet's scanners kept it to himself.
The two Mirialan Jedi were walking through the hangar bay towards one of the transport shuttles, looking very much not like Jedi. They each wore an expensive dress of fine shimmersilk and velvet, the General in brown and blue, the Commander in violet and lavender, their hair coiled up neatly on their heads, the General's hair in a braided black loop shot through with silver, the Commander's in a twisting chignon at the nape of her long neck.
They moved silently, if swiftly, and as the men, one by one, became aware, sound in the hangar faded out as men stopped to stare.
Gree moved quickly to intercept. He knew they were heading out on an undercover mission, and would be gone for an unknown length of time.
He reached their transport just a moment before they did, and greeted them. "General. Commander."
"We will be in contact, Commander," General Unduli stated. "Please take care of things until our return."
"Of course, General. Good hunting."
"Thank you. May the Force be with you."
General Unduli frowned slightly as she took a bit of her skirt in hand, lifting the hem enough to make it easier for her to walk up the ramp into the transport. Commander Offee was gathering her skirt to do the same, picking at the shimmering fabric.
The colors suited her, deepened the hue of her skin and warmed it, the collar of her vest creating an attractive contrast to the color of her neck. There was, however, no time to stand around and admire. Gree cleared his throat and offered a hand. "Commander?"
She blinked up at him, then smiled, placing one of her slender hands in his gauntleted one. "Thank you, Commander Gree."
He did not ascend the ramp with her, but moved to one side of it as she moved upward, her hand slipping out of his as she moved within. He stepped aside as the ramp began to rise. Commander Offee could be seen just inside, looking back towards him, still smiling.
She could not see the smile he sent her in return, so instead he gave her a wave.
The door sealed, the landing struts retracted, and the transport ship lifted and headed out into space.