#mulletwan

Of course, he had been planning for the upcoming school year all summer with his notepad and laptop tucked into an empty space on the counter when there were slow days at the shop, but he couldn’t help but feel unprepared. Each year brought new challenges, new kids, and an endless supply of phone calls with angry parents who were convinced he wasn’t doing his job right. 

With a sigh, Cody tried to clear his head and sat heavily on an empty park bench that overlooked the sidewalk.

It was a hot day, but not hot enough to keep people inside their houses. The sidewalk was filled with bikers, teenage skateboarders, and families watching the ducks swim around in the river. 

Cody planned to join them.

Fingers trembling a bit as he wished away the remnants of anxiety, Cody pulled his socks and orange roller skates. A small smile crept onto his face as he put them on and stood on wobbly feet to straighten his matching orange shorts. 

Here we go Cody, no more stress today. 

Tossing his bag behind a bush, hoping no one would think to steal an old, dirty gym bag, Cody set out onto the busy sidewalk and pushed to the edge closest to the river away from most of the crowd. 

Though he skated once a week, if not more, his first few minutes were always unbalanced and Cody held his arms stiffly at his sides as he propelled himself slowly along the edge of the river. 

After a few minutes, he felt himself finally start to relax. His muscles untightened and the tightness in his chest seemed to loosen just a little, especially as he began to watch a group of swans float along the very edge of the water. 

He had taken his eyes off the sidewalk for just a second, but that was already too long and he heard a man’s voice ring out from right in front of him–

“Watch out!” 

Cody barely had time to rip his eyes away from the swans before he saw a flash of auburn hair and yellow and suddenly he collided with something– someone. 

Toppling backwards to the side and landing with a loud thud, he thanked his lucky stars that his head had just missed colliding with the pavement, and instead bounced against the grass. His calves and elbows, however, met a somewhat worse fate and scraped against the sidewalk.

That will hurt tomorrow.

Taking a moment to collect himself and catch his breath, Cody stayed on his back, eyes trained on some oddly shaped cloud in the sky. He blinked a few times, pressing a hand against the back of his head to find that it just felt a bit sore; the hit likely hadn’t been bad enough to cause a concussion. 

Suddenly, just as he was about to sit up and make sure he hadn’t caused too much damage to the other skater, a head appeared in front of his eyes hovering just above him. Well– at least he thought it was a head; his eyes produced a blurry image of something floating above him and he tried to focus his eyes. 

For a moment he started to think he might have a concussion after all. 

“Are you–?” The image above him became clear just as the man above him began to speak in a English drawl that sounded so very similar to–

“O-Obi-Wan?” He asked as his eyes widened. The man leaning over him certainly looked like Obi-Wan, and sounded like him too, but his hair was styled as a mullet– a goddamn mullet, and his facial hair was a little bit less well-kept than he usually left it. Not to mention, Obi-Wan usually wore glasses, and the man above him had no glasses but those same ocean blue eyes. 

“Mr. Fett– I mean– Cody!” His hunch had been correct judging by Obi-Wan’s raised eyebrows and the concern– then shock– that curled over every feature of his face. He had always been so expressive. “I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean…” Obi-Wan looked nervous, especially when his cheeks slowly developed into a pronounced red and he shut his open mouth with a snap. 

“That’s okay– could I sit up?” Cody asked awkwardly under Obi-Wan’s piercing gaze; he felt his own blush begin to stain his cheeks. 

For a moment, Obi-Wan stared at him and Cody could not help the pit that settled into his stomach. Obi-Wan looked… good. Stunning. 

His lips were the same rosy red that had always been, and his beard almost looked better unkempt, but the mullet– the mullet suited him better than the side-parted, neatly organized look he had taken to wearing for the past year at school. It lined his face and jaw so perfectly and made him look much more– well… hot.

To put it simply. Not that he didn’t look hot in his button-ups and khaki pants and goddamn sweaters; Cody loved Obi-Wan’s sense of style. Perhaps it was the contrast from his usual attire that made Cody’s heart beat just a little bit faster. 

Normally kept his athletic form hidden beneath a well-tailored pair of slacks, but now, it was all on show. 

Cody swallowed as Obi-Wan extended a hand to him to help him to his feet. 

Cody was surprised by how strong his grip was and how easily Obi-Wan seemed to pull him onto his unsteady feet. Cody wobbled on his skates, barely maintaining his balance, but Obi-Wan caught him with an arm curled around his side and smiled gently as Cody finally seemed to stop rolling out of control. 

It was certainly Cody’s turn to be embarrassed. 

“Sorry, I should be better at this.” He murmured before catching sight of Obi-Wan’s yellow, half-zip top. The zipper had been pulled down far enough that the red curls of Obi-Wan’s chest hair were peaking out– chest hair that Cody had no idea Obi-Wan possessed, but it made the entire situation that much worse. 

Fuck him and his hot fucking chest hair and stupid fucking mullet. 

Cody wanted to say that, but instead, he tore his eyes away and tried to blink away the image. 

“Oh– oh… Cody you’re bleeding.” Obi-Wan’s English accent rang out again and Cody looked back up at him, not noticing any blood himself, “Here on your elbow– I think on your leg too.”

Cody twisted around to find that indeed, blood seemed to be dripping down onto his forearm and down the back of his leg. Shit. 

Cody was about to say goodbye and head back to his old gym bag with a hope that it contained some sort of bandage when–

“I’ve got some plasters in my bag just over there. It’s my fault we bumped into each other anyway– at least let me bandage you up.” Obi-Wan stared at him expectantly, eyes soft and lips curled into a slightly guilty smile. 

Who was Cody to say no to that face?

So he agreed, notably without hesitation, to go with him.

He let Obi-Wan guide him across the busy sidewalk and up the hill until they reached an old oak tree where Obi-Wan had left his own ratty gym bag. Next to the old tree was the edge of the road where Obi-Wan told Cody to sit while he rummaged through his bag. 

“Here they are.” He murmured as he knelt in front of Cody, shorts riding up on his markedly well-muscled legs as he ripped open the packaging of the first bandage with his teeth. 

Fucking hell–

“I didn’t know you were a skater, Cody.” Obi-Wan said, concentration painted across his features. "I would have invited you to gym class when we started that unit. The kids could always use a little extra instruction."

“Oh– I’m really a beginner. I only started this summer– it gives me something to do.” Cody said, realizing it made him sound slightly more lonesome than he meant it to. Not that he hadn’t been just a little bit… well– lonely, he just didn’t want to give Obi-Wan that impression. 

He followed up with a big smile and then a little frown as Obi-Wan’s shoulder nudged against a bruise on the inside of his knee as he tilted Cody’s calf to an angle where he could reach the small, bleeding cut.

The little wrinkle that formed between Obi-Wan’s eyebrows as he concentrated on placing the bandage on Cody’s calf was unhealthily attractive– Cody could barely tear his eyes away.  

Before Cody could say something he would regret later, Obi-Wan had already sat up a bit and was beginning to search through the small first-aid kit for another bandage. 

“Looks like we had the same idea then.” Obi-Wan said as he pointed a finger to Cody’s head after a moment of sifting through his supplies. For a moment, Cody was confused, before he realized, embarrassment leaking into his cheeks, that he had also chosen to grow a mullet over the summer. He had figured it would match the mustache he had managed to maintain during the last half of the school year. 

The same mustache Obi-Wan had complimented. Twice. 

“I think it looks better on you.” Obi-Wan said with a hint of an embarrassed smile, “I was planning to cut my hair again for the new school year anyhow.”

“No!” Cody said much too quickly, “Sorry– I just meant… It looks good on you. I think you should keep it– the students will probably love it.” That made Obi-Wan smile widely, the blush on his cheeks ever-present and so adorable that it made Cody want to reach out and caress his face with the pad of his thumb. 

Instead, he kept his fist clenched at his side.

“Oh I’m sure they would. I can hear it now– ‘Look! Mr. Kenobi’s trying to be fashionable!’” Obi-Wan said with another large grin as he placed another bandage across Cody’s elbow and moved upward to sit next to him on the curb. 

“At least the two of us together will single-handedly stop the kids from latching onto this trend. We can keep it to ourselves.” Cody said with a shrug and attempted but failed to avert his eyes from the skin of Obi-Wan’s thighs that were left exposed to the ungodly shortness of his shorts.

And Cody had thought his own shorts were short.

“I suppose you’re right, Cody.” Obi-Wan said with a hearty chuckle and absently stroked a hand through the longer hair on the back of his head. 

There was a momentary pause in conversation, though it wasn’t quite awkward, just filled with a familiar tension that Cody swore he could feel in the air. It was the same tension he felt every time he passed by Obi-Wan in the teacher’s lounge. 

Cody cleared his throat. 

“Um– thank you for the bandaging Obi-Wan.” Cody murmured and suddenly noticed he was copying Obi-Wan as he ran a hand across the curls on the back of his own head. 

“My pleasure– again, it was my fault, really. At least I have a lot of practice bandaging up arms and legs. Gym class can get a little rowdy sometimes!” He smiled brightly and Cody allowed himself a nervous chuckle. 

“Are you ready for the school year?” Cody asked, “I’m sure as hell not.” He added for good measure. 

Obi-Wan nodded enthusiastically, much to Cody’s surprise. 

“Don’t get me wrong, teaching can be exhausting, but this summer has been rather… boring.” Obi-Wan shrugged and played with the zipper of his top with nimble fingers.

Cody resonated with him; his own summer hadn’t quite been one for the books. The thought was accompanied by an immediate urge to say something– anything really– to ask Obi-Wan out on a date. 

Would that take it too far? Was it a good idea to do that just before the school year began? Would it be awkward if Obi-Wan said no?

Cody tried to think.

“I can’t say my summer was much more interesting.” Cody said with a lopsided smile that he meant to look much more natural, “I became a barista– just for something to do.” He added with a shrug and Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow.

“Really? That’s quite impressive. Have you perfected your latte art?” Obi-Wan asked with a touch of sarcasm in his tone and a wide grin that simply lit up his entire face.

“I have– I make a pretty damn good heart.” Cody drew a heart in the air with the tips of his index fingers. 

Then an idea– one more natural than asking Obi-Wan out on a lousy half-assed dinner date– struck him. 

“Hey– what if you stopped by the coffee shop sometime? I owe you a free latte– foam art included– after this one. Maybe we can go for a skate after?” Cody’s heart pounded loudly in his ribcage as he watched Obi-Wan’s facial expression for any indication of his feelings.

Please for the love of god, let him say yes.

Obi-Wan’s grin grew even wider, “How about tomorrow? Say– ten?” 

Cody could have cried.

“It’s a date.”