Chapter Text
Quite the curious smell lead Captain Rex to the hanger.
The smell certainly wasn’t uncommon either. In fact Rex found the smell to be comforting, for the most part. Something to remind him of his pseudo home away from home, on a ship floating in space. Really it wasn’t exactly homey from an outside point of view, but his family belonged with his jedi and brothers.
The mental states of each jedi and clone had taken a beating from the seemingly never ending war against the Separatists. His Commander was suffering a bit more he imagined, the padawan was constantly being restrained by her master. Rex suspected the General was being overprotective, but he knew Ahsoka didn’t heed well to restrictions and most certainly didn’t believe Anakin was being overprotective.
Entering the hanger, Rex held his helmet tucked between arm and hip. The smell now being identified as ship fuel, was pumping into the fighters. Once again Rex sunk in familiarity as he heard casual banter between master and padawan.
“No Ahsoka, this one goes there, that one goes there.” One voice is frustrated.
“Ok, but you told me otherwise, how am I suppose to help you if you’re just doing this yourself.” Another voice is exasperated.
“Hey you came down here to help me repair this, and that means you listen to my advice.”
Ahsoka sighs, a bit angered from the way her Master was treating her. Ahsoka knew they were all just under pressure. Anakin especially hadn’t gotten the chance to wind down after the fifth battle they’d had in a month. Her master was too tightly wound and nothing Ahsoka said to him would ease any tension. Deep inside she knew that she was the source of the tension in the first place. She felt as if he was hindering her and pushing her down instead of pulling her up. A real master would encourage her not discourage.
“You’re an idiot you know that?” She tried to say with force even though they were placed back down under the Twilight. “Once again your head is too thick to get through that I am trying to help you.” Ahsoka enunciated each word harshly given that she couldn’t gesture with her hands how annoyed she was.
A grunt is all she gets in reply, her master is deep inside his work. Ahsoka raised an eye-marking, pushed her lips out and calmingly slid her self out from under the fighter. The padawan was adamant to ever help Anakin with his ship again.
Oil stains cover her orange skin and lekku, she probably reeks of the disgusting gas smell too. She should probably mention to Anakin to turn on a fan to cycle clean air. Ahsoka sat herself up and attempted to wipe most the oil and dust off. Footsteps alerted her to a new presence inside Anakin’s own personal bay for the Twilight. The padawan glances up to see a gloved hand stretched out to help her stand up.
“Hi Rexter, Master Skywalker and I were just repairing and refueling the Twilight,” her voice must of sounded unenthusiastic because Rex noticed that she sounded a bit defeated.
“Something wrong little ‘un?”
She puffed her cheeks out and glared at Anakin’s boots sticking out from under the Twilight. “No, nothing at all,” she said sarcastically. She made a quick mental note to learn to keep her emotion out of her voice. Anakin must of snapped out of his mechanic haze with a startle because their was a large bonk from underneath the ship. A low groan followed as her master pushed himself out from under carriage of the ship.
“Rex, good to see you.” He said while massaging his forehead.
The clone captain was able to keep the emotion out of his voice unlike Ahsoka, she could tell he was internally laughing at him.
“Good to see you too General, the Commander here was just telling me about you two repairing the Twilight.” Ahsoka could swear the Captain knew everything, even picked up on her previous distress when he first walked in. And now maybe as a way to resolve their argument, he was bringing up the situation that caused the problem in the first place. Quite the bold tactic, Ahsoka thought. Anyways she was thankful for Rex, doing his best to help in a helpless circumstance.
“It really was just me fixing,” Anakin mumbled underneath his breath. Ahsoka’s head snapped up almost giving her whiplash. Later thinking back on it, Ahsoka would realize Anakin immediately regretted the words that came out of his mouth. His face had dropped too suddenly for the words to mean something hurtful. As a Jedi, Ahsoka knew her emotions should not control her words or actions. Most importantly her anger, which had finally boiled over.
Ahsoka practically exploded, her eyes flared and shot straight towards him. As she stalked up to him, Rex tried to put a hand on her shoulder to hold the Jedi back. It was already too late.
“Are you really serious right now, tell me in the face that you are serious. I have done nothing but to help you for the past two hours but still you neglect to be grateful for my help.” She growled, fangs showing.
“I could be in my quarters getting the rest I deserve after a long month of constant fighting. But I stayed like a good padawan and repaired the kriffing ship.”
“Snips I-,” Anakin tried to speak.
“No you don’t get to talk because you probably haven’t noticed or never really cared that recently you’ve been putting me down constantly, I am trying to be a good padawan for you but I’m tired of this fighting, and I’m tired of loosing good men to the Seppies.” Her anger had already reached its highest point and now she was in steady decline, voice losing power as she spoke. Now she was just spitting out her personal feelings that as a Jedi she was never suppose to reveal.
Anakin was left speechless, as was Rex who stood of in the corner useless in trying to stop Ahsoka’s rage. She stormed off, not thinking of anyone else’s feelings but her own. All she could hear was her own heated breaths and the fast pounding of her heart. Voices in her head reminded her to be mindful of her feelings but Ahsoka could hardly find it in her to care.
She made her way to her quarters, happy to be rid of the overwhelming smell of gas and the booming presence of her master.
——-
Rex knew an outburst was bound to come from either of the Jedi. It wasn’t a surprise that Ahsoka was the one to do it either. After her dramatic exit, Rex had no choice but to turn towards his General.
He wasn’t looking too great if the solider was to be honest. After all none of them ever seemed to be in perfect condition anymore. Too much fighting, too much war, too much killing.
Not enough sleep.
The General excelled at not enough sleep. Unfortunately, he did not excel at having a meaningful talk with his student or else they wouldn’t be here. The artificial lighting from above has turned cold and it caused the bags under the Jedi’s eyes to be more pronounced. Rex had never seen Skywalker so unsteady and afraid. Usually his confidence was unflappable, now he radiated only insecurity. No real words were conveyed between the two, but Rex did not need to hear words. He didn’t even have to be force sensitive to feel what Skywalker felt.
Finally the silence became deafening and Rex needed to speak. Unsteadily he began, “Sir maybe I can try talking to her.”
It took a bit too long for Skywalker to respond. “No Rex, I’ll speak to her later,” he sighed loudly, “This is my mistake and I will handle it.”
Rex didn’t think he sounded too sure of himself. “Okay then sir and um, you may want to excuse yourself from your hanger, the gas smell is getting a bit too strong.” Rex tried for maybe a small joke to illicit some response from his General.
“Okay Rex.” Anakin responded moments later, words soft and faded out as if he wasn’t fully there.
Rex exited the hanger blowing out air that he didn’t know he was holding in.
Anakin only moved back under his ship, ignoring Rex’s words of advice. He hoped for mind numbing work to take him away from his issues.
The gas fumes continued to fill up the jedi’s hanger, the fan which is suppose to filter away the fumes was long forgotten. Usually this task fell to a padawan to remind her master about it, but she was long gone.