Work Text:
The door to the bedroom slides open and John groans as the light hits his eyes, blinking the sleep away before seeing his youngest ad in the doorway, holding their stuffed tooka and blanket. He holds out his hand and helps them clamber onto the bed. The ad’ika clings to him as he turns over to wrap them into their blanket with their tooka and snuggle them both into Si’s warm embrace.
“Nightmare, cyar’ika?” he whispers, gently brushing their hair behind their ear.
“‘Lek, buir,” they say, nodding into his chest.
“It’s alright, we’re both here. We’ll protect you from the nightmares, darling,” Si rumbles as he wraps his arms around them both. It’s fairly easy to fall back to sleep after that, in Si’s arms and their youngest between them.
- - -
Si wakes up to the feeling of the rest of the Temple rising with the sun. He slowly opens his eyes to see the colors of the early morning shining on his anakai’a , his own shoulders blocking the light from waking him and their ad’ika between them. Johnny always looks so peaceful hen he’s asleep, the stressed wrinkles that the war had put there relaxed. Both Johnny and their ad’ika have a solid hold on his front lek and he didn’t particularly feel like getting up this early in the morning, immensely grateful that he has that choice.
- - -
John wakes up against Si, being held close with one arm while he cradles their youngest on top of his chest with the other. As tempting as it is to go right back to sleep, it’s entirely too quiet in their housing for how late in the morning it was. The other ad’ikase should be up by now. So he carefully slips out of Si’s grip and slips on a tank top and pants before heading out of their room. He hears whispering coming from the kitchen, so he heads that way. He suspects that Si would have gotten up earlier to check on the whispering had it not been for Roba taking his montral as twisted trophy when Si had been captured just before the war.
“No, you’re supposed put it in after!”
“You could have told me that before!”
“Now, what’s going on here?” John asks as he leans against the wall.
“Buir!” Both ad’ikase whirl around still hiding whatever was on the stove.
“What are you trying to make? Maybe I can help.”
“Noooo, it was supposed to be a surprise, buir!”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, you aren’t supposed to be awake yet!”
“And what’s the special occasion?”
“It’s Si’buir’s birthday.”
“I suppose that is today, hmm? Tell you what, why don’t I help you prep this for Si, and then you can help him with something for mine, hmm?”
“…okay,” they both reluctantly agree.
“Jate. Now what were you trying to make?”
“ Ba’vodu Kote’s spice rolls! You and Si’buir always say how much you like them!”
“We thought we would try and make them, but we’re having a bit of trouble.”
“Well, why don’t you tell me where you were and we’ll try and salvage them?”
- - -
The rest of the day is surprisingly low key, mostly because Master Ti had dropped by and offered to watch the ade for the day so that John and Si could spend the day with each other without having to worry about the little ones. They took advantage of it and had a lazy spa day, applying face masks that are friendly to both of them and cuddling after a nice long bubble bath, revelling in the time they got to take in taking care of each other. They reminisce on their early relationship before they were friendly, back when Si had been tense and on guard about letting John near the ad’ikase, back when their youngest was still in a sling on Si’s chest. John took his time gently washing Si’s lekku and montral and Simon scrubbed at John’s scalp, almost managing to soothe him to sleep. John gently massaged at Si’s scars and montral stump that the removal of had left him half deaf, soothing his riduur into a relaxed sleep. They managed to get into comfortable night clothes before they pass out in each other’s arms in their bed.
When they do wake, it’s a slow thing. They take their time waking up, something they hadn’t had the luxury of when they had been at war. This was Si’s first birthday without having to worry about the war in almost 4 years. The peace and quiet sometimes made them both jumpy, but being with each other made it just a little bit better. Even with the pair of them technically being the only reason the war ended how it did, with mostly everyone whole and healthy, they didn’t get many moments of peace. It was mostly due to the fact that they had decided to adopt the younglings that Si had rescued before the war.
Even then, they take advantage of the quiet and content atmosphere to just be with each other when it comes, listening to the other’s biorhythms and slowly syncing their breathing and sinking back into a shallow type of sleep. They just lay there until they decide to move. No flimsiwork demanding their attention. No sirens demanding they be alert. No military schedule to make them get up. No campaign to keep them on guard even as they rested. No Sith threatening their entire way of life. No chips threatening to take the free will of the millions of Vod’e.
They don’t need any fancy gestures. They don’t need any fancy restaurants. They don’t need any fancy gifts. They don’t need any fancy meals. They just needed each other. This was more than enough for the both of them. No need for stress or worry of the extravagant gestures other cultures seemed to value. They were one with each other, and a team at the same time. They balance each other out.
Just Si and John.
That’s all they needed.