#and just glare intimidatingly in the background at whoever she's maiming

[the-starry-seas]

I wanna hear specifically about how Kit and Leia interact because that thought hadn't crossed my mind?!

So in this AU, the war ends in 19 BBY with Palpatine getting reduced to a fine mist, as he should have been. Thorn declares himself the new marshal commander of the Guard and exiles Fox from Coruscant with the suggestion that Fox finally go on a bangcation with the Organas. Fox does exactly that but then the whole Anidala mess goes down and they go straight back to Alderaan to meet Leia.

Once the Organas are settled in with the new baby, Fox comms Thorn to say he's on his way back to Coruscant to see what's going on. Thorn comms back to let Fox know that he's still exiled but Thorn is sending Kit to join them on Alderaan. Fox is not pleased with this. Thorn is finally able to get Fox away from his work datapad for more than five minutes, so Thorn does not give a shit.

Kit takes one look at Leia and wants to know why she's so small. The senators weren't exactly doing the whole 'bring your kid to work day' thing, so she's the first baby he's seen. He's immediately worried about how she's just completely defenceless and doesn't even have any hair. And she's going to grow up at half the rate of a clone??? Hm.

Leia has three parents but that is no concern of Kit's, who decides that it's his job, also, to protect her. Fox manages to calm down the overprotective instincts a little by the time Leia is old enough to be running around and getting into trouble. Kit therefore decides that while Leia obviously needs a bodyguard, she also needs someone to get into trouble with her and encourage her every bad idea. There's no reason that he can't be both!

Kit is fearless. Leia is fearless. Fox has chronic anxiety. This third thing started when he was a cadet but is still directly related to the first two.

Kit is constantly sneaking her candy, no matter how many times their parents tell him not to. She likes plants like him, but is actually good at keeping them alive, so he asks her to infodump about her flowers all the time. He loves nature and often goes cross-country hiking, but with a little kid in tow, he switches to cross-country horseback. Leia develops a love for riding and gets better at it than he does.

Leia is obsessed with various' kids shows, because like, she's a kid. Kit has a spreadsheet to keep track of the characters and what they do and what plots are happening. He listens very seriously to all of her theories and gushing. He has scheduled time set apart for every episode and teaches her how to microwave popcorn without burning.

Since Kit enables all of Leia's bad ideas, he's her confidant and she trusts him more than anything. When Leia starts getting independent and running off into the woods on her own, repeatedly slipping the attention of the royal guards, her parents beg her to take Kit with her. Leia is not impressed with the idea that she needs someone looking out for her. Kit promises to never tell their parents where they go, and to never listen to them and bring her back early to whatever social event she has no patience for. She finds this delightfully acceptable.

They develop a habit of going off into the woods and playing board games on his datapad. He lets her win while she's learning, but once she has a handle on the rules, she has to earn her wins. She likes that he doesn't go easy on her because she's a girl/princess/little kid. He always carries her piggyback because she likes being taller and he's always touched by how much she trusts him. He pretends to fuss whenever she drops leaves into his hair but they both know that he doesn't actually care. There's an old tree that Breha's mother planted that they like to hang out under when they don't mind the idea of being found by the guards.

I have a headcanon that there's a tradition on Alderaan that there's a heritage breed of working dog that's still used as part of the palace protection detail. Kit, being a dog lover, is allowed to have several dogs of his own. He's also allowed to hang around the kennels and help socialise the new litters whenever they come about. He brings Leia sometimes and she charms everyone into letting her keep one of her own. Nobody asks the parents about this beforehand, they simply can't say no to Leia and Kit deploying the 🥺 look in unison and those rascals know it. They use 🥺 to get away with a lot of things.

By the time Leia is ten, she and Kit are BFFs, and Kit would literally let her get away with murder. (Thanks to Mereel Skirata's cure for the clones' accelerated aging, Kit is eighteen at this point in time, and looks to be in his early twenties instead of thirty-six.)

In fact, Kit is with her when the kidnapping happens. His presence is planned for by Nokru's crew, who stun him and leave him for dead. Leia is unaware it was a stun bolt and is screaming hysterically over her favourite brother getting murdered in front of her.

Fortunately, Kit is not dead. Instead, he is overflowing with a bone-deep murderous rage, and looking for someone to take it out on. He and his dad Fox are exactly the same in that way.

The Organas still call on Obi-Wan to help rescue Leia, because he's a Jedi. It's not just Bail that goes to Tatooine, however, it's also Fox and Kit... and Cody and the Nulls. Fox begged Mereel to help rescue his daughter, and they had ties to Cody, who needed no more convincing than hearing that they planned to recruit Obi-Wan.

Most of the Kenobi show progresses as usual, with the exception that Fox and Kit get to turn Nokru into the same sort of fine mist that was Palpatine's fate, ten years ago.

And with the exception that when they find Leia, she screams with delight in a way that shatters every piece of glass in a ten-block radius, and flings herself into Kit's arms. He kneels down to catch her properly, and because his knees give out at the sight of his sister safe again. They're both crying for a solid twenty minutes after that, and Fox isn't any better, honestly.

The Nulls go back to Mandalore, Cody and Obi-Wan go back to Tatooine, and Fox and Kit and Leia go back to Alderaan. The entire flight back, Leia will only fall asleep in Kit's arms, and Kit can't sleep soundly without knowing where she is, either. Fox thinks they're the most adorable thing ever and takes so many pictures.

Nine years later, Kit finds a second joy in life: tormenting Han Solo.