Oooh. Hm.

Oooh. Hm.

Eldra/Cody, (idk, Eldra got rescued by the Jedi and lived AU) Eldra heard there's a clone commander that likes to punch Grevious and spin kick droids. She'd really like a spar.

“He what?” Eldra asks, maybe a little too loudly for the quiet training salle.

Maul wrinkles his nose, like he doesn’t get into shouting matches with his not-padawan practically daily at this point. “He punches droids,” he says distastefully. “With his fists. And kicks them.”

“Droids?” Eldra presses, impressed, and tries to calculate if Obi-Wan and his battalion are currently close enough to reach. She saw Anakin the other day in the refectory, so—maybe they're even on Coruscant.

“Grievous, as well, I believe,” Maul says, and eyes her with the wariness of almost twelve years of familiarity at this point. “Eldra—”

Eldra smirks at him. “You spend so much time with Obi-Wan that you must know his commander,” she says, pointed. “Introduce me.”

“I do not spend time with Kenobi,” Maul says crossly, but when Eldra grabs his arm and hauls him forward, he only struggles a little, which is practically permission where Maul is concerned.

“Enough time to know is commander has punched Grievous,” Eldra says, and when Maul sighs like she’s the greatest trial in his life and redirects her to the left, towards another set of training salles, she laughs. “You wouldn’t have told me if you didn’t think we would be friends.”

“A gross miscalculation on my part,” Maul says coolly, and shoves her through the next door, taking up residence in the opening with his arms crossed and an expression that says he’s been dragged here entirely against his will.

Eldra snorts, not about to let that stand, and hauls him into the room by the neck of his robes, ignoring the way he hisses at her in indignation. “Master Kenobi!” she calls across the room, to where Obi-Wan is flat on his back on the mats, his grandpadawan perched on his stomach and grinning with sharp teeth.

“Knight Kaitis,” Obi-Wan wheezes, head thumping back as he groans. “Maul.”

Eldra smiles at his grandpadawan, offering the little Togruta girl a hand up and slanting a surreptitious glance over at the clone with them. He’s leaning back against the wall, stripped down to his blacks, with his legs stretched out in front of him, and Anakin's captain is sitting with him, but—Eldra only has eyes for Obi-Wan’s commander. He looks like he practices kicking droids for fun, given those thighs, the muscling across his shoulders.

“I see you won this round,” she says, raising a brow at the Togruta girl, who grins back.

“I think seeing Knight Opress in the doorway distracted him,” she says cheerfully. “You’ve got good timing.”

Maul scoffs, like Eldra can't feel the flicker of something that’s definitely not annoyance that washes through him. “As expected from Master Kenobi,” he says disdainfully. “Beaten by an initiate—”

“I'm a padawan,” the girl says loudly, just as Obi-Wan pushes himself up and says with indignation, “Well, you try fighting her and see how well you fare, Maul—”

Eldra snickers, leaving them to it, and heads right for the commander, who’s watching his general with amusement and no small amount of judgement. Rex is the one who notices her coming, and his eyes widen as he elbows the other clone hard.

“Ow,” the commander says, jolting, and turns a scowl on him. “Rex, what—”

“You're Obi-Wan’s commander?” Eldra asks, stopping right in front of him. “The one who punched Grievous?”

The man blinks at her boots, then glances up, brow rising. “That’s me,” he says after a moment, bemused. “Commander Cody, sir.”

“I'm Eldra,” Eldra says decisively. “Spar with me. I want to fight you.”

Rex winces. Then again, he had to take two back to back missions with her and Anakin, so Eldra supposes he’s excused. They were dangerous missions. She didn’t even get to fight one single Sith, though, which was disappointing.

Cody's other brow rises to join the first, and he flicks another glance over her, assessing. Not sexual in the least, which is gratifying, because Eldra would hate to have to kick him in the balls so early on, but careful, which is even more so. Not writing her off because she’s a Twi’lek is a good start.

“I don’t exactly have a lightsaber,” Cody says, but he’s already pushing to his feet, so it’s very definitely not a no.

“I won't use mine, then,” Eldra says, and pulls off her outer robe, then her lightsaber, dropping them on Rex's other side. “Come, Commander Cody. If you win, I’ll treat you to dinner.”

Cody snorts, but there’s something like anticipation spreading across his face as he follows her towards the other side of the training salle. “And if you win?”

Eldra smirks at him. “You have to tell me exactly how you managed to punch Grievous in the face. And teach me how.”

Cody laughs, offering her his hand, and when Eldra clasps wrist with him, he squeezes firmly, clearly not afraid to break her. “You’ve got a deal.”

“Perfect,” Eldra says, and he promptly tries to flip her over his shoulder, but Eldra is expecting it, because it’s exactly what she would have done.

This, she decides, is going to be a very good relationship.

[On AO3]