Chapter Text
After the tiny incident with the karking ambush and waiting a few minutes they actually arrived at the bar surprisingly quick. Taking cover amongst civilians had actually worked, sticking together without looking suspicious had been the hard part.
Not like wearing their formal greys made it possible for them to just disappear amongst a crowd, but it was dark and as long as they didn’t wear their caps the guys from the roof should not be able to recognize them from above.
So they finally arrived at the Black Bandit, a bar that could not be more different from 79th, at least tonight. As far as Jesse could see they were the only clones, but to his surprise the nat-borns didn’t seem hostile or annoyed by their presence.
A cute vurk girl even smiled at them as they walked past her, following not-Sheev towards the bar.
The barkeeper was a friendly rhodian with too many piercings to count, grinning wide as they approached her: “Oh, some clones again, where did you leave Missio?”
Missio?? Kriff. But also - not-Sheev was in the guard, it was reasonable for him to know his old batchmate. Still, it was difficult for Jesse to not seem too curious about his lost brother as the Corrie answered:
“On shift, poor dude. But there has been an incident on Orto Plutonia a few weeks ago and the Pantoran senator is going to return tonight, so he has to make preparations for this. And generally making sure that none of our glorious senators trips over their own feet.”
The change of tone and posture was again surprising - suddenly their Corrie seemed relaxed, but also bitter, almost cynical. Was this why they always seemed so upright? To avoid letting any of their actual opinions show?
“Fierfek, would all be better off if those kung accidentally stumble off da lapti porko publiko dome, karking schutta…”
Not-Sheev nodded, making Jesse wonder if that guy actually understood all of her words, or just guessed from the context - most insults sounded similar in all languages, so guessing what schutta meant wasn’t hard, and lapipoko publikodom was probably a large building, or something. But wishing their senators death was somewhat concerning… why did they follow that vod’e again? And sure, he only tolerated the barkeeper's wish, still.
“So how about four Sternis? Don’t want to disturb my brother’s to much.”
Not-Sheev smirked, and Jesse immediately turned around to check on Fives and Echo, who luckily seemed to have missed the conversation. Instead they looked around the bar, but mostly at the kids hanging out here.
Almost everyone who had hair had died it in fancy colours, a wookie at the door had pink and purple strands of hair around their head and shoulders, a human boy had a mohawk in a bright green tone and the yellow skinned mirialan girl next to him had a few bright red strands creating a nice contrast to her black hair.
They really looked wizard, and perfectly fitted into the establishment. The music was louder than at 79th, quick beats and heavy drums, and despite the strange language of the current song Jesse could feel the anger of the artist bleed through. But it was good, much better than the spiceless music that the holoradio or 79th usually played.
“Like it?”
Not-Sheef pushed a bottle into his hands before leaning against the counter next to him, smiling almost shyly.
“It's… different. Do you know what all those slogans mean?”
Jesse pointed at the graffities some kids had painted onto the walls - things like “a.c.a.b.”, “eat the rich” or “sex is good but have you ever fucked the system”.
Fearing to sound dumb for asking about them he added:
“I mean, I get what the words say, but why would someone write them onto walls?”
The clone next to him took a deep breath, before nodding towards Echo and Fives who had taken a seat next to the pierced vurk girl and her friends from earlier.
“I am bringing them their beers, then we’ll talk, yeah?”
Jesse nodded and watched the guy move through the room towards his younger brothers, quickly handing them their drinks before returning to him.
“So you already know that this bar belongs to a gang, and the gang has a semi coherent ideology that this place represents. Basically they don’t like hierarchies, and they believe that this system of capitalism with a liberal, representative democracy is enforcing violent hierarchies. As an example through wage labour and exploitation, or through the police and military. Luckily we’re not included in a.c.a.b. though.”
Not-Sheev added with a smirk, already guessing Jesse’s question.
“Jep, you’re not. You’re our working class brother’s and welcome to smash the system with us.”
The barkeeper suddenly said from behind them, smiling wide as the two turned around before shoving two shot glasses with a glowing, blue liquid towards them.
“Here, on the house. T rarely brings newbies around, so we need to make a good impression.”
And… Well, they did, to his surprise. Definitely, they managed that.
A bar with decent music that transported feelings, a gang that tried to fight injustice and viewed him and his brothers as actual people? It was a better place than he had expected.
“Thank you… Oh, and the barkeeper had called you T, I don’t want to overstep and if you don’t want me to know your real name that's fine, just…?”
He gave not-Sheev a curious look. Yeah, he really wanted to call him something different than “not-Sheev” in his mind, and maybe after getting to know him better the Corrie would feel more at ease?
Which… well, at least now he was tense again, biting his lips before taking a sip from his beer and mumbling:
“Okay, but you need to promise to let me explain, yeah?”
“Sure, promise?”
Jesse was unsure what would come now, but the guy had already proved to be great and fairly competent, so…
“Okay, so, well, my name’s Tirol.”
Jesse almost dropped his bottle, staring at the vod in front of him with wide eyes.
“You… what?”
The guy scratched the back of his head, taking another deep breath.
“I- I know I’m a coward, but I- I saw you today and could not not talk to you… but I know what you guys think about the Guard, and… well, I was scared to just approach you. Figured having lost you would be better than to lose you again.”
Jesse took a deep breath before looking at Tirol again, trying to make out similarities to the brother he once knew.
Except…. If this was really his batchmate, then Coruscant had deeply changed him. Not like he had not been considerate, nice and friendly today as well, but back on Kamino Tirol had been almost invisible to everyone who wasn’t looking, had shown impressive self restraint and patience.
He had been patient today as well, just not like back in the days, he had exhibited the patience of a leader, not of a kid left behind. His kindness seemed less inspired by fear and trying to fit in like before and more like a conscious choice… it was weird, how different their dynamic felt now.
Back in the days, Jesse had been brash and loud and through that dominated their relationship, but now he found that next to Tirol he actually wanted to be quiet. To listen, to learn, to understand.
“Are you mad at me, Jesse?”
Just a question, not even with a heavy or sad tone, just calm and collected. Because Tirol would accept whatever answer Jesse chose to give, would not fight to force a conversation upon him.
Kriff, it was a level of serenity worthy of a jedi.
“No, I’m not. I think I get it.”
Jesse took a deep breath before leaning closer towards his brother while taking a sip from his beer.
“I- You know, I was often wondering how you and Missio were doing… Is he doing well?”
Tirol smiled softly at him, eyes warm and kind.
“Yeah, he’s a sergeant now, working in the senate, doing lot’s of their security, he even got ARC training. I- I’m really proud of him.”
He sounded proud too, smiling fondly and taking a sip from his bottle. Tirol really seemed content and like he was doing well, easing Jesse's worries. Until now he had not realised how much he had worried about his batchmates, and how not knowing how they were doing bothered him. And obviously Tirol had thought about him too, had maybe even missed him.
“I’m glad that Missio is doing well, how about you?”
“Oh, I’m just a corporal, but I prefer it that way. I don’t really like ordering vod’e around, receiving orders is enough for me.”
Tirol chuckled.
“No, too much responsibility. And I don’t need a rank to care for my vod’e, but I really don’t want to send soldiers to their death.”
Death? Jesse had not thought that this would be a concern to the guard, after all Coruscant was rather se- okay, well, they got ambushed and Tirol had treated it like a normal occurrence. So maybe triple zero was not so safe after all?
Either way, not wanting too much responsibility was understandable.
“I’ve gotten sergeant too, and not wanting that responsibility is understandable. Hardcase, one of my men, had rejected the offer of promotion twice for the same reasons.”
Nodding, Tirol hummed approvingly before taking another sip from his beer and looking over towards Fives and Echo. The two clones had joined a drinking game now, one of the nat-borns had gotten a bottle of bright green liquor out, despite the barkeeper being right there. But… if they were all from the same gang, maybe bringing your own drinks was accepted?
“Your men seem great, the two kids too.” Tirol commented, with a smirk. “But I bet they drive you crazy at times.”
Chuckling, Jesse nodded.
“Abso-karking-lutly. Menances, the lot of them. Luckily our CMO has my back.”
“Yeah, thank’s the stars we have vod’e with us, huh?”