Work Text:
Thunk.
The galaxy was a messed up place.
Pirates raid innocent villages, crime lords took advantage of people struggling to survive, sith and jedi running around starting wars and squabbling at which side was right.
Rex honestly couldn't care about any of that right now.
Thunk.
He was tired, hungry, cold and worst of all, out of kaff.
The famed captain of the 501st was doing his best to focus on the mountain of flimsi and datapads before him, pretending that the irregular footfalls of men running in the halls wasn't getting on his nerves. That the sound of their laughter and shouts of joy didn't bring about a pang of longing.
Thunk.
The weather satellites that controlled the climate of Coruscant experienced a malfunction of sorts in the middle of the night. The many citizens of the Republic capital woke up to blankets of white and freezing temperatures.
The Coruscant Guard became more hectic than ever; directing traffic, delivering supplies to areas where the power shorted out and helping the elderly reach their destinations safely because yes, they really needed to go out and get that one ingredient for their special soup or the whole thing would be ruined.
Thunk thunk.
The battalions that had been currently refueling or on leave at the time now found themselves stuck. While the impressive Venator class ships themselves were built to withstand the chilling vacuum of space, the locking mechanisms of the docks on Courscant, were not.
The Jedi generals decided to let the CO's of the respective battalions use this opportunity to run through "snow-climate drills," as General Windu so eloquently put it.
An un-official snow day if Rex ever saw one.
Thunk.
The landing field that stretched out before the barracks was a battleground. Battalion against battalion, squad versus squad.
The flashes of snowy projectiles hurling through the air with enough force to leave behind a virtual smoke trail as bits fles up at the high velocity found their marks and shattered in a spray of white dust against cold plastoid. Laughter rang out and echoed from the open bay doors. Make-shit sleds zipped down from higher mounds of the white precipitation, sending sparks as the scraps of metal hit exposed duracrete rather than patches of ice or snow.
Thunk.
Don't get him wrong, Rex would love to be out with his brothers, having fun in the snow. He liked snow, or at least he thought he did, he never actually had any real experience with it yet.
Alas, he was inside. Cold because the energy was being rationed, tired because he really hadn't been sleeping the past few weeks, hungry because he's been up since Commander Tano had called him before the break of dawn to excitedly tell him about the snow and being stuck with meeting after meeting to try and find a clear way to deal with the dilema, effectively missing the regulated breakfast mess time. Out of kaff because his personal stash had finally run dry, and he refused to drink the decaf that was supplied in the mess.
So, here he was, a miserable bundle of shivering plastoid, alone, in the dark and wanting to choke the life out of the next trooper that threw another snowball at his window. Force help him-
T H U N K.
Slamming down his stylus, Rex angrily stalked out of his office, the doors swooshing open a bit stiffly from the cold. The laughing of passing troopers was louder now as he passed them, some calling out in greeting to join the fun.
The grey flooring was slick with slushy pikes of snow and puddles and muddy tracks of hundreds of boots rushing in and out.
He shoved his helmet on and mashed the button that connected the barracks to the hanger and braced as they slid open. The gush of the biting breeze didn't really affect him, but it still managed to seep through the gaps of his armor.
Before rushing out to seek the vod that was tormenting his window, he took in the sight of the blinding white. From his vantage point, a story or two above the floor of the hangar, it was somewhat breathtaking.
His thoughts were interrupted by loud groans and cheering alike.
"Ha HA! Hand over those credits Bly!"
Rex had to do a double take at what he was staring at.
Loosely assembled under his window was Bly, Wolffe, Ponds, Fox, Gree and Cody, who was tossing a snowball lightly into the air before catching it again without having it fall apart. Sans-helmet Bly looked very forlorn as he handed a few credits to a very smug looking Ponds, also without his helmet.
Moving a few steps to stand directly above them, Rex glowered, "the kriff are you maniacs doing?"
Wolffe's helmet tilted up to look at him. "Throwing snowballs at your window to see how many it would take before you would finally come out. Ponds won."
"I see that. What I meant is, why are you throwing snowballs at my window?"
Gree shrugged. "Because it was entertaining? Also to get you out and oh I don't know, enjoy life?"
Rex seethed somewhat. "You're all high-ranking Commanders in the Galactic Army of the Republic and instead of taking your duties seriously, you're running around playing in the snow, wasting valuable time that could be used to catch-up on weeks worth of reports?"
"Yes," said Fox looking shiftily at Wolffe, "because as you will soon learn vod'ika, the paperwork never end. Snow on the other hand, does." With that, he promptly pounced at Wolffe, the two tumbling down in a puff of white powder. Bly cackled, egging the two on.
"Common' Rex, relax a little, enjoy the snow with your ori'vods," Ponds smiled.
The captain frowned.
"Sorry, not interested. Unlike you lot, I actually act appropriately for my position."
In all honesty, he wanted nothing more than to join them. Let loose, have fun for once, but it was a matter of pride for him.
He worked too hard to get here. Too hard to just throw it away. All it took was one bad report about his behavior and he was sure to be shipped back to Kamino.
He'd been working with Skywalker for a little over a year, and while his general was very lax and open with his men, the fear of being decommissioned still lingered in the back of Rex's mind.
Being made with blond hair wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to be the same. But he wasn't.
The Kaminii watched him, always. Pushing him, threatening to end him for any more mistakes that were never his fault. Rex pushed himself beyond the limits of their twisted imaginations and clawed his way to the command tack. He wasn't made for it, but he would make himself the perfect clone for them. He had no other choice.
Not like the command clones. They were made perfect. Made to be leaders. The threat of being decommissioned wasn't a constant reality for them. One little mistake didn't mean the end, just more training. Rex had always envied that about them, the way they could be carefree without the constant fear.
In his musing, he noticed Cody pause in tossing the snowball, looking up at Rex with a slight tilt to his helmet.
Rex just about cursed himself to Ryloth and back. Of course his cyare had probably just felt all of that.
They were bonded. Two parts of one. Soulmates, whatever people were calling it.
Every sentient being in the galaxy was born with a mark that matched only one other person. The Kaminoans never liked the marks; made the clones different in a way they couldn't control. From what they had learned from their Jedi though, finding the person with a matching mark, was very, very rare.
That's the thing about the marks. They can transcend time and space. Tethering people together from different planets. Many unlucky souls were either born way before, or long after their match. It was a cruel joke on the universe's part in Rex's opinion, but it made the moment of actually finding your match that much more precious.
In their case, Rex had punched Cody square in the jaw because the smug kriffar had tried to kiss him.
Being bonded to a clone had been…disorienting at first.
Sure, hooking up with a vod was quite common as they rapidly shot through the raging hormones of puberty, with no one to experiment with in the secret hours of the night but each other. Rex didn't judge, he even partook in a few...experiments himself. Sometimes. But that was rare and Rex hadn't been looking for anything serious and was more curious than anything.
Then came the moment of sparring with the upper-class CC's. Alpha-17 had pitted them against each other, pointing out flaws and shouting advice to the both of them.
At first no one really noticed, but at some point in the fight, everything froze because during a brief standstill, the marks on both their arms were clear.
Bly had been the one to excitedly point out that they had matching marks, all but vibrating where he stood. The others had craned to see and even Alpha raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
Poor Cody. Raised by the Cuv'yal Dar with stories of glory and Mandalorian tradition. Of how finding your soulmate was such a rare gift in the unforgiving galaxy. That when you did finally find your match, it was a moment of overwhelming passion, so when he went in like the true romantic he was, he never saw Rex's left hook coming.
Rex won the fight and stormed off.
It was a hectic few years, but Cody was perfect if not understanding. He let Rex sort through what he wanted. They were soulmates, sure, but not all soulmates are romantic.
A few drunken confessions at 79's one night proved otherwise for them and Cody couldn't be happier.
Soulmates were actually bonded together, being able to feel each other's emotions. Not mind reading like Jedi, just a sense of their mood, and if they knew their match well enough, that was honestly the same thing.
Rex should really ask General Skywalker if shielding like a Jedi could keep Cody from feeling his emotions at all time, he would very much like to have some privacy-
T H W A C K.
Rex's head jerked painfully to the side, causing him to stagger a few steps.
Chuckles and low 'ooooo's' broke out below him as the commanders watched the chaos unfold.
Rex sharply turned to look down below once more and narrowed his eyes.
Cody looked up, now without a snowball and shrugged.
"You think too much," he said casually.
Rex wasn't sure what it was. The off-hand jab, the continued choked laughs of Ponds and Bly, or the smile Gree was failing at hiding. That, or the small piece of snow that was leaving a trail of droplets as it slid down his visor slowly. All of them. Rex decided it was all of them.
He did the sane and respectful thing of course.
Rex launched himself from the railing and dived to a now very terrified Marshal Commander Cody.
The two went rolling in the packed snow, the sound of the soft crunching and the clattering of plastoid fill their ears as Rex fought for the upper hand. Cody, the weasel, wiggled his way from under the very agitated captain and swiped more snow at his head. Rex accepted the challenge.
Gathering snow of his own, he made a snowball and launched it hurriedly at Cody's face. In his defence, it was the first snowball he had ever made. Lumpy and not well formed, the lump of snow was almost nothing by the time it reached Cody but the commander was wise enough not to point that out.
The two tussled in the vast white for a few more moments. A wild spray of powder and water. The cold had now seeped through and Rex was pretty sure his blacks were soaked, but he didn't care. He didn't care about the war, the kaminii who were hundreds of lightyears away, the paperwork, none of it.
He cared about how Cody looked in the snow after his helmet fell off during their impromptu spar. How he laughed when Rex managed to get snow in his dark hair, little specks of white, like stars in a night sky. The tension was leaving his shoulders and the unbearing weight was slowly lifting as for once, he allowed himself to not care.
Kriffing Cody, always knowing what he needed.
A good fight to just, let go, be distracted and more importantly, to just be Rex.
Not Captain of the 501st, not CT-7567, not the "mutie" with blond hair. Just Rex.
They eventually flopped down next to each other, helmets discarded and chests heaving. Rex didn't even flinch when Cody slipped his hand into his. He just curled his fingers and held tight. This was his. They were bonded and nothing would change that.
He was too stubborn to admit it, but he loved Cody more than anything. The burst of warmth from his cyare told him that he didn't have too.
Rex stared up at the grey sky.
He decided that he loved snow, and held Cody's hand just a little bit tighter as they watched the white flakes gently drift down around them.