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The music of 79’s pulses in the air around you. The beat thrums in your bones, and your skin vibrates in time with the buzzing energy that always seems to permeate the club.
You’re sitting in a booth with Rex, Jesse and Kix, all laughing at Hardcase teaching Fives and Echo a new dance he learned on the holonet. Echo learns the dance with impressive ease and is somehow managing to mock Fives’ inability to dance while simultaneously dancing literal circles around him. The expression of offense on Fives’ face coupled with the stamp of his foot is enough to send the entire table into a fit of side-splitting laughter.
You’re wiping tears from your eyes when you feel Rex’s shoulder bump against yours. You turn smiling broadly at him as you feel your cheeks heat with shy embarrassment. You and the Captain are good friends, but recently every time you’re around him, your stomach flips and your voice gets breathy. Kix and Jesse tease you about it endlessly, and that only makes it worse.
Your friendship with Rex means everything to you, it’s been difficult coming to terms with the fact that you have feelings for him. You want to be more than friends badly, but Rex has always only been friendly and wonderful to you. You don’t want to ruin your friendship with him.
You turn away, smile fading into something contemplative as you run your fingers along the cool sides of your glass. The condensation is cold on the pads of your fingers, and you watch as the drops fall in steady trails to pool on the surface of the table.
You glance up to see Kix and Jesse leaving the booth and making their way towards the other troopers. Kix immediately ducks to avoid Hardcase’s swinging arms, and Jesse claps Echo on the back while pointing at Fives and saying something mocking. At least, you assume it’s mocking based on the grin of wicked delight on Echo’s face and the indignant shout that leaves Fives.
Rex chuckles from beside you, and you chance a look to the side at him. He’s relaxed, sitting with his arms spread across the back of the booth seat with a small, pleased grin on his face. You gulp as your heart stutters in your chest, swallowing down the flutter of feelings that always seem to erupt whenever you look at Rex for too long. Seeing him so at ease and happy makes your lungs seize with effort and your fingers itch to reach out. He’s just so wonderful. It makes you ache.
“Bunch of idiots,” Rex sighs, fond grin still firmly in place.
“Yeah,” you agree, “but they’re our idiots.”
Rex chuckles at that, shifting closer to you in the dim shadow of the booth. His arm brushes your shoulder, and you feel the hairs on the back of your neck rise with awareness. You sit unmoving, breath stalled in your chest and eyes locked on Rex’s face.
“You know, apparently our friends have a bet going that we’re going to end up together,” Rex says. His expression is thoughtful, and his eyes are trained on you, lids lowered so that all you can see are hooded pools of brown shadowed with dark lashes.
“Is that so,” you stammer, voice shaking with anxiety and nervousness. You’re trying to figure out how Rex feels about that without giving yourself away. Internally you’re reeling, scrambling to come up with a more articulate response than ‘is that so’. And also a plan to murder Jesse and Kix. You can multitask.
“Yeah, it is,” comes his slow reply. Rex seems to be searching you for reactions as much as you are searching him.
“That’s interesting. What did you say about it when they told you?”
Your heart is in your throat as you wait for his answer, pulse thrumming in your veins as you anticipate the inevitable rejection.
“I said that they were dumbasses for making a bet.”
There’s a pause, and then -
“And whoever won was gonna give me the winnings so I could take you out on a date.”
A slow smile spreads across your face as elation races through you.
“Is that so,” you say, leaning forward. In your excitement, you can’t help but be drawn into Rex’s space. One of his hands reaches across the small space, fingers trailing along the side of your face.
“Yeah. It is.”