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Chuck comes to Stacker at the ripe old age of eight. He’s angry and refuses to say goodbye to his father.
Herc Hansen looks at Chuck (who’s stubbornly staring out the windows that stretch on forever above them; cruisers fly past outside, and Mako leaves Stacker’s side to stand next to Chuck. They point thing out to each other) with a pained look on his face. “Sorry,” he says. “It’s been tough since his Mum passed.”
Stacker nods. He looks back at Chuck and Mako. There’s a tiny seed of worry in the back of his mind, about anger and the Force and it what it can do to even the most promising of Padawans.
“We’ll teach him well,” Stacker says to Herc.
Herc seems more reassured by this than Stacker.
The council cautions him against two Padawans at once, but Stacker stands fast, a rock in flow of the river around him.
The council concedes.
When Chuck and Mako are 15, Stacker takes them to Hoth. Mako finds it delightful. Chuck hates every second of it.
He doesn’t expect how the snow gives under his boot, and he falls face-first into the snow as they exit their transporter.
“Are you alright?” Mako asks through her laughter.
Chuck’s head comes up, and he glares at her over his shoulder. His hair is more white than red. “Shut up, Mori.”
R2-D6 (no relation) titters behind Stacker as they descend the ramp. “Behave,” he reminds them.
Chuck grumbles and Mako giggles. They’re on their best behavior, except for the last night, when they sneak out in cruisers and race around the caverns and canyons. Stacker pretends not to know, and Chuck and Mako pretend not to know that he knows.
Chuck and Mako turn 17 with a handful of months between them. Mako holds it over Chuck exactly once.
The Council hosts a function where only attendees over a certain age may drink. Mako is that age. Chuck is not.
It backfires when Mako takes one sip of her drink and nearly spits it out for the taste. Chuck spends the rest of the evening leaned back in his chair and shooting Mako looks out of the corner of his eye. Mako pretends not to notice.
Stacker trades stories of hell-raising Padawans with Sasha and Aleksis. The three of them laugh quietly behind their own glasses at Chuck and Mako’s faces.
When Chuck and Mako are 21, Stacker finds himself embroiled in a rebellion. Chuck and Mako, freshly minted Jedi knights, mirror his moves. Stacker watches Chuck and Mako, worried about surviving, worried about their anger, worried about if the Dark Side will finally latch on to them. The Council always worried about Chuck. Stacker always worried about Mako.
The Jedi win. Chuck and Mako continue on as before. Namely, being a pain in Stacker’s ass.
Stacker receives a hologram message from Mako. Chuck sits in the background with a rag held to a cut over his eye. Mako looks unamused.
“We’re fine, I had to bail Chuck out of some kind of mess with bounty hunters.”
Chuck makes a face and starts to protest, but Mako just rolls her eyes and terminates the connection.
Stacker spends the rest of his afternoon smiling. R2-D6 chitters in binary about becoming soft in his old age. Stacker threatens R2-D6 with reprogramming.
At 22, Chuck comes to Stacker at the Academy. Chuck sits in one of chairs in front of Stacker’s desk for a long moment.
“Love–” He blurts it out, as though it’s a deep, dark word capable of throwing the world into chaos.
(Not that long ago, it nearly did.)
“If a Master doesn’t love his Padawans, there is no relationship and everything falls apart." Chuck doesn't look convinced. "Love might have nearly destroyed the world, but it was love that saved it,” Stacker says.
Chuck looks relieved, then confused. “Then why-?”
Stacker shrugs. “I suppose one of the founders of the Old Order had really bad sex.”
Chuck laughs.
Six months later, Stacker meets Raleigh. Chuck and Mako never say anything and continue on the way they always have – going off, getting in trouble, rescuing each other.
Stacker trusts their judgement. Chuck and Mako take their own Padawans, and the cycle begins anew.