Chapter Text
Rex was exhausted. It wasn’t a normal kind of exhausted either, or at least the kind he was used to. Early in the war, he spent days at a time awake on campaigns. He slept on rocky terrain without so much as a blanket to cushion his back, and he walked hundreds of kilometers without so much as a break for water. None of that compared to the exhaustion he felt while pregnant with his daughter.
He was a few weeks out from his due date and Rex hadn’t slept well in weeks if not months. Every night, he tossed and turned in bed surrounded by a mountain of pillows of which he didn’t even know the origin. No matter which way he turned, his baby seemed to shift with him to find the least comfortable spot she possibly could. Most mornings, Rex woke more tired than he was when he went to bed the night before. It didn’t help that he found himself climbing from his bed a minimum of four times a night, as his bladder was seemingly the most comfortable pillow in the entire galaxy. Or, at least it was for his daughter who seemed to lay all of her weight into it whenever the opportunity presented itself. So, he was tired in a way he felt deep in his bones and he had seen more of the inside of the refreshers on the Resolute than he had in his entire time with the 501st.
Fives was pretty damn tired too, even if he didn’t want Rex to know that. More often than not, he was awake whenever Rex was, stirred by his husband’s shuffling to find a decent place to lay. He did what he could to help, holding pillows in place as Rex rearranged the blankets in what he swore wasn’t a nest but was most certainly a nest if Fives had ever seen one. He knew better than to point that out though, and indulged Rex in his organizing, sure to rub his thumbs into the sore spots at the small of his back when he finally settled back down into the bed.
Beyond struggling to sleep, just being pregnant in general had its own challenges. Try as they did, both Rex and Fives struggled to take a shower together anymore. At one point in their lives, it had been part of their morning routine to combine their warm water ration and spend the first moments of the day together, but the stall had either shrunk or Rex’s belly had gotten big enough that there wasn’t any room to maneuver in the space around each other anymore. He had also long since given up caff in an attempt to sleep more than a few hours each night although the efforts were largely in vain as he still stared at the walls of their room until their alarms chirped. To top it all off, Rex could barely pull his own boots up his legs. Every day, Fives sat in the floor in front of the bed and pulled on Rex’s socks and shoes, then braced his back and helped him off their abysmal mattress that sunk in a little too much to provide any support worth mentioning.
Fives did what he could to help, but there were moments where Rex missed the independence of being able to shave his face without his stomach butting up against the sink vanity every time he leaned in for a better view.
Their mornings looked a lot different than they used to, and within a few weeks, they would look even stranger. Mornings would begin to run into days and days would begin to run into nights and Rex would inevitably give up wearing a shirt to bed in general because his little one would scream to be fed almost immediately after being put back down from the last time. No, their mornings had very much changed and would continue to change and that wasn’t something that upset either of them. Rex was just excited for the day he would be able see his own kad again.
The worst part by far though was dealing with GAR command.
Most of the Jedi Generals didn’t pay Rex any mind, content to let him exist in whatever way was most comfortable for him. There were no comments made about his habits or his usefulness or how long it began to take him to cross from one end of the ship to the other. Both Obi-Wan and Anakin had made it a habit of offering him a hand from his chair whenever they could, and more often than not, Ahsoka knocked on his office door while he was working with two cups of tea and her own data-work in hand to keep him company. The Jedi weren’t the problem at all, and aside from a few random stares from the younger ones, the other troopers were as respectful as they had always been, if a bit more cautious than before.
No, the problem was everyone else.
Rex woke up exhausted like every other day, pulled himself from his bed, and dressed himself as well as he could until Fives finished with his own shower to help him with the rest. Breakfast was uneventful as usual, and the day as a whole went by peacefully.
That was until the meeting.
In the notice of the meeting in his datapad’s calendar, Rex had been informed that it would only take about an hour total to cover everything on the agenda. He didn’t know all of the people that showed up via holo, and he couldn’t be bothered to memorize their names and faces either way. The people at those meetings cycled depending on the system and it wasn’t worth the effort. In his head, he allotted two hours instead of one, to account for the typical dramatics from characters such as Tarkin. Four hours in and he had had more than enough of the droning voices yelling the same arguments he had heard for years.
At that point in the nearly endless meeting, Rex had boosted himself from his spot at the oblong table no less than three times to run to the refresher across the hall, moving as quickly as he could when he could quite literally feel his baby sitting on his pelvic bone. He swore that he did not waddle, but Fives said he moved like an Ewok in a hurry.
Well aware that the torture wasn’t likely to end soon, Rex again braced his hands on either arm of his chair and lifted himself out of it, putting one hand on the table in front of him to steady himself once he was on his feet.
“Are you going somewhere, Captain?” a voice called from across the room.
Rex looked up in shock at the sea of holos looking at him from their respective seats at the table. “The refresher, sir,” he replied, although he wasn’t all too sure who had spoken.
“Hmm,” one of the shimmering blue figures hummed, bringing a hand up to rest at his chin. “So, your position here with the rest of GAR command is not important enough to sit through in its entirety? Surely you can resist leaving after having such a continued absence today.”
“That’s not the problem at all, sir,” Rex said. He had come to expect the occasional harsh comment or narrow eyed sneer, but no one had ever been brave enough to say something to him publicly. “I intend on coming back just as soon as I can. But, well,” Rex couldn’t help but huff a humorless laugh and gesture at his middle, “I can’t say I’m in control here.”
“Well, go on if you must then,” the man said haughtily, waving a hand towards the door. Taking the dismissal as it was, and knowing better than to argue the point, Rex turned and made the short walk to the door. Right as it slid open then, he heard the man begin to grumble again. “Pregnant omegas in high command. Who would’ve thought the war would come to this of all things.”
Before he could step through, the door closed in front of Rex and he stared at the dull durasteel in shock. He turned to look over his shoulder and struggled to find a response.
Anakin jumped in then, slamming his hand down on the table. “That is enough!” He exclaimed. “Rex, go on. This doesn’t need to be your problem.”
The door slid open again and Rex exited the room into the hall beyond as shouting started in the room behind him.
Rex was just really tired.
***
When the door slid open to Rex’s bunk room, all of the lights were still off. He knew for sure that Fives had gotten off his shift a few hours earlier but he wasn’t in the recreation room down the hall when Rex stopped by a few minutes prior. Stepping in, he hit the button for the lights inset in the walls and settled down on the bed to wrestle his boots off his feet. He had successfully removed the first one when the door slid open again.
Fives walked in and froze when he saw Rex sitting hunched over on the bed, huffing as he struggled with the zipper on the other boot. Without a word, Fives set the mugs in his hands down on the table next to the bed and kneeled in front of Rex to pull the offending boot off and cast it away towards the wall. He slipped the stirrups wrapped around the soles of his feet off the back of his heels so the pants wrinkled with the loss of tension, then carefully stripped off each sock before balling them up and throwing them vaguely towards the hamper across the room. Rex nearly fell back against the bed in relief with he tight boots no longer squeezing his swollen ankles and calves, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to breathe laying flat on his back anyway.
“Long day?” Fives asked, boosting himself off the floor.
“You could say that,” Rex replied. He took Fives’s outstretched hands and stood from the bed, rubbing at his sore hips once he was on his feet again. “Had a meeting with karking command. You know how they can be with,” he gestured aimlessly at his rounded stomach, “all of this.”
Fives leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Rex’s lips. “Little one giving you trouble again?”
Rex collapsed so his forehead rested against Fives’s collar bone, and his riduur wrapped his arms around him and kneaded his thumbs into his back. It had gotten significantly harder to wrap themselves up in each other as the months dragged on, but they still tried their best.
“Some shabuir in his cushy office back in the Core thought I used the ‘fresher too often. It’s handled, but you know how it is. Evaar’la tuur, ruug'la osik.”
“Kark ‘em,” Fives replied, pulling back to look at Rex. “Not much they can do about it is there?” He brought his hands back around to rub gently over Rex’s stomach.
“Not anymore,” Rex laughed. “How was your day?”
“The same as usual. Drills to run, shinies to torture.” Rex huffed and crossed his arms. “But I’m more interested in tonight,” Fives added.
Rex quirked an eyebrow at him. “Tonight? Am I forgetting that I agreed to something?”
“No,” Fives replied, leaning in to kiss Rex’s nose because he thought it was cute and it would undoubtedly make Rex smile. Sure enough, he ducked his head and laughed as Fives pulled away. “We’ve celebrated in a way before. But it's Kartayl’tuur.”
“Oh!” Rex exclaimed. “Lover’s day. I can’t believe I forgot.” He slapped a hand across his forehead. “Kriff, Fives I just-“
“Shh. It’s been a weird year.” Fives pulled Rex’s hands into his own and laughed. “In your defense, we don’t normally do much anyway. We usually just turn on a holo, drink some cheap liquor, and have sex until one of us falls asleep.”
“Is that not our plan tonight?” Rex asked through his laughter.
“Well we can turn on a holo if you want. But considering you can’t drink, I don’t think that part would be very fun. As for that last bit,” Fives started, undoing the belt of Rex’s grey uniform, “I’m sure we can figure it out when we get there, but I have something else planned first.”
Once the black belt was pulled from around his ribcage, Fives undid the tie looped through the fabric of the uniform top keeping it cinched to fit his very unclone-like figure. The top loosened all the way around and fell like a sheet over Rex’s form, leaving nothing to accentuate the painful looking curve of his back. Fives found the hidden zipper in the neck of Rex’s uniform and pulled it around the awkward curves sewn into the uniform until the whole thing fell open like a jacket to reveal the white tank top underneath. After pushing it from his shoulders, Fives rolled the elastic band sewn into the pants below his stomach and untucked the white under shirt and pulled over his head. Rex pushed at the pants until they fell in a heap on the floor and he stepped out of the pile of fabric at his feet. With a practiced hand, Fives reached around to unlatch the support bra Rex had taken to wearing a month or so prior, and Rex sighed in relief as it too fell away to the mess on the floor.
Fives circled Rex and pressed up against his back and mouthed at the faint scar of his mating mark on Rex’s neck before wrapping his arms around him to cup at the bottom of his rounded middle. As gently as he could, he lifted some of the weight of it from Rex’s hips, and Rex tossed his head back and sighed deeply, leaning into Fives’s hold as he did.
“Frankly, cyar’ika,” he said, “I don’t give a damn what you do to me later because I don’t think anything will feel as good as this.”
Fives chuckled and kissed at the mark on Rex’s neck again. “Are you ready?”
“Mmhmm,” Rex hummed, although he didn’t sound terribly sure. Fives lowered what weight he had taken until the bump settled heavy on Rex’s hips again. “Kriff. I know Kix said she’s not a big baby, but it feels like I’m carrying around a melon strapped to my abs.”
“That would be because you are,” Fives replied, moving around him to a pile of fabric laid at the end of the bed. “It’s just a small melon.” He shook out the messy and held up a blue fleece robe for Rex to inspect.
Rex raised an eyebrow but didn’t question it any further as Fives helped him to pull it up each arm. Rex secured the tie around his ribcage, the fabric arcing away with the curve of his stomach and falling to his calves. “This is new,” he said.
“I thought it might be a little comfier for a while,” Fives replied, taking his hand and leading him to sit on his side of the bed. “Sit back.”
Rex shuffled back on the bed as best as he could, huffing as he did, until his back hit the stack of pillows behind him. Fives leaned over to reach for one of the pillows set off to the side, raising a questioning eyebrow at Rex as he did.
“You can touch any pillow on the bed, Fives,” Rex said, exasperated. “It’s not a karking nest. I have never made a nest before.”
“Okay!” Fives conceded, grabbing the pillow and tucking it close to Rex’s side. He reached for a peculiar looking cylindrical pillow he had sitting on the end of the bed, and he slid it behind Rex to cradle the small of his back.
“Oh,” Rex gasped, tension seeping from his back as he rested his weight down more fully.
Finally, Fives crossed the room for the mug he had brought into the room with him and handed it to Rex.
Rex breathed in the steam of the tea before taking a small sip and it warmed him down to his core. It tasted floral with hints of orange and vanilla and it had just the perfect little bit of sugar stirred in. He savored the taste then looked over at Fives, squinting his eyes as he did.
“You commed Riyo, didn’t you,” he said.
Fives smiled wide and innocent but his silence was an answer enough.
“You did!” Rex exclaimed when he didn’t get an answer. “Did she send all of this? How on Coruscant did you pull this off?”
Fives plopped down at the end of the bed by Rex’s feet and popped open the cap to a bottle of lotion that Rex was confident they hadn’t owned before.
“Technically, Fox had it all shipped in with the last resupply. Came with the regular shipment of civvies, cigarettes, and booze Anakin has brought in for us. All of it was Riyo’s idea though. Fox doesn’t strike me as the tea type.”
“Yeah, well Riyo isn’t either. This is just what she drank when she was pregnant with Lyra. She always has a cup of it for me when I go see her,” Rex replied, sipping the warm tea and sinking back into the plush pillows.
Fives reached forward with lotion on his hands and rubbed it methodically into Rex’s calves, messaging away the tension in the muscles. He moved his hands lower and rubbed at each swollen ankle, digging his thumbs into the tender joints. “I know you’ve been struggling to sleep,” he explained as he continued to massage the lotion into Rex’s legs. “I wasn’t sure how to help you so I commed her a few weeks ago for ideas. I knew you wouldn’t but I couldn’t watch you suffer through it anymore.”
When Fives looked up at Rex again, he was still sipping at his cup of tea and his eyes were misted over but he was smiling and that was acknowledgment enough.
“Thank you,” Rex whispered eventually.
“It’s my pleasure,” Fives responded, adding more lotion to his hands as he spoke. He moved lower and took Rex’s left foot in hand. He started to work the lotion in, focusing on the tended arch. “You have had to do all the hard work with this. So if this is all I can do for right now, then I just want you to be able to sleep again.”
“You do more than your fair share.” Rex hummed contentedly and set his cup of tea down on the side table with a dull tap. “We’re getting old, Fives. We used to spend this holiday drunk and horny. Now look at us.”
Fives eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled at Rex and that certainly didn’t help his case. “I like to think we’re just changing. After all, you’re two years older than me no matter which way you spin it. My way actually works in your favor.”
“You’ve always been an ass,” Rex grumbled.
“Yeah,” Fives replied with a laugh, setting Rex’s foot back down on the bed and picking up the other one. “But I’m your ass.”
There was no reply that time and when Fives looked back up at Rex, his eyes were fluttering closed. His hands were settled on top of his bump and he had sank back into the pillows piled around him. He was breathing in little puffs, his chest rising and falling evenly as he did. Carefully, so as not to disturb him, Fives set his foot back down on the bed and stood. He crossed to the head of the bed and pressed his lips to Rex’s forehead.
“Sleep well, love. Briikase kartayl’tuur.”
Fives changed into his night clothes and washed his face and gathered up Rex’s uniform from the floor to be washed in the next day’s laundry. He shined the buckle of Rex’s belt and the toes of his boots and shoved it all back against the wall out of the way so Rex wouldn’t trip when he was inevitably up again to use the ‘fresher in a few hours. When he was done, he flipped off the overhead lights and slid in his side of the bed and settled down to rest. Morning would come early, but it was quiet and warm and Fives was content in a way words couldn’t describe.
They weren’t as young as they used to be. The war had taken too much of them and too many responsibilities hung heavy around their necks. They weren’t as care free anymore and their days of passing a bottle of dark liquor back and forth on the floor of their bunk room had long passed. But they had each other and, soon, the little life kicking out steadily below Rex’s clasped hands.
This, Fives thought, is better.