Chapter Text
Rex yawns, rubbing his eyes as he trudges into the mess hall. 0500, standard. No one else is up, save for the dregs of the night cycle crew and some freaks who want to be up at this time. Rex himself is only up because he has a meeting at fuck-off in the morning.
He groans, limbs moving on autopilot as he prepares a nice, warm cup of caff. He frowns a little at the colour, a little darker than how he usually takes it, but oh well.
"Rex!"
The Captain looks up tiredly, smiling at Fives waving enthusiastically from one of the tables. Echo sits next to him, similarly smiling. Rex walks over, sitting down at the table with the two ARCs.
"Fives. Echo. You two been here long?"
Echo shakes his head, yawning. "Nah. Just got dropped off an hour ago. Wanted to wait here for you."
Rex's heart warms at Echo's words. His ad'ike are so thoughtful. He takes a sip of the caff.
And immediately spits it out, making a noise of disgust. Decaf. His caff is decaf. Horrified, he shoots to his feet (ignoring the stunned looks on his ARC's faces) and makes a beeline to the caff machine. The caff jar sits innocently next to the kettle, unassuming. Traitorous. He flips it around.
Decaf.
He's going to throttle Fives.
"Fives." Rex grits out with more gravel than he intended. Fives looks back at him with an expression of pure fear. Good. No one messes with Rex's caff. "Where's the real caff?"
"What? I-"
"Don't bullshit me, Fives!" The Captain snaps back, stalking over to the table and the terrified ARC. "Where. Is. The. Caff."
"I don't know!"
"RAYSHE'A!"
Fives yelps, scrambling backward into the safety of his twin. Rex's gaze snaps to Echo. Echo is looking down at Fives, biting the inside of his cheek like he's trying…not to…
"Echo."
The ARC looks up, smiling as innocently as the decaf on the table. "Yes, sir?"
"You didn't."
"Didn't what, sir?"
Rex groans, looking down at the ground in defeat and leaning against the table. "I trusted you, Echo. I pull you off the Rishi Moon, I promote you to ARC trooper, I give you my books to read. And this…" He looks forlornly at the decaf. "This is the thanks I get? Really?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, sir." Echo says, sticking stubbornly to the facade of innocence.
"Where's the real caff, Echo? I have a meeting in 30 minutes."
Echo sighs, defeated as he pulls the caff tin out from under the table. Fives stares in betrayal at his twin, for once, shocked into silence. Echo has the gall to grin smugly at his ta'vod.
"I should've left you two with Cody." Rex mutters, his tone lacking heat as he stomps back over to the caff machine to fix what Echo had done.
"Nah, you love us!" Echo calls back, the grin evident in his voice.
"Just Fives at the moment!" Rex retorts over his shoulder. He snorts at the cheer of triumph Fives lets out, prepared for the squabbling. Eventually, he gets his caff and sits back down at the bench - though he keeps his mug closer to himself than usual.
"Honestly," He starts, rolling his eyes good-naturedly, "I'm going to end up 'accidentally' leaving you behind on the next mission we go on if you pull this shit again, eyayah."
"Oh, yeah?" Echo replies, grinning. "What's our assignment this time?"
"I dunno." Rex admits. "Something about Jedi Master Piell." The Captain chuckles. "Might leave you there, actually. Much more convenient. Then I won't have to worry about my caff anymore."
Fives and Echo laugh at that.
~*~
Rex sits in his quarters, staring at the wall. It's grey, so grey, like the colour and joy has been leached from the world. The colour left with Echo on that planet.
Echo.
The Captain's head drops into his hands. Oh, Echo.
He never would have left him there.