Chapter Text
“Fives. Punch me,” Rex said out of the blue, eyes serious along with a pained expression. The young ARC looked at the captain in disbelief.
Fives blinked once.
Then twice.
Then he asked, “…what? W-why?”
It was not training time, Rex loves these downtimes as much as any other troopers. He wouldn’t just suddenly ask Fives to spar with him.
Oh. It was a specific request though.
To…punch? Him…???
“One good reason, captain. I’d also punch you if you don’t mind,” Jesse snorted from the side, folding away his blacks into the locker. Hardcase, laying on his stomach with a data pad in his hands, eyed Jesse carefully.
Before the gaze turned to Rex. A brow was raised and Rex seemed to realize in horror that Hardcase knew what he meant.
“You know?” Rex asked carefully. Hardcase always has a way with things… The captain wiped a hand over his face nervously.
“Force. Someone just kriffing punch Rex,” Hardcase sighed, rolling his eyes and sitting up in his bed.
“Well,” Fives started, standing up from his own bed and prepared himself into a stance. “You still haven’t given us a good reason, sir.”
“Yeah, Rex, why—” Jesse was cut off by Hardcase.
“He thinks Commander Tano has a crush on him,” Hardcase spat out, annoyed.
Dogma, who had just entered the room – exiting the refresher in their bunk room – froze in his steps with a very concerned look as their blond captain is being held by Fives as Jesse prepares to punch him.
“W-what’s going on here!?” he screeched, feeling his heart pounding and bile rise into his throat.
Hardcase, who was grinning maniacally at the sight from the edge of his bunk bed turned to see the young clone trembling at the door. The grin dropped immediately as he scrambled to break Rex free from Fives’ hold. Fives complied with a raised brow but didn’t complain.
“Don’t worry, Dogma. They were just messing,” Hardcase said immediately, slowly walking towards the young clone with his right hand slightly outwards. “No one is getting hurt,” the elder clone gave Dogma a warm smile, stopping a few steps before him. All of them were looking nervously at Dogma.
Dogma blinked rapidly because he did not realize that he had been hyperventilating. Upon realizing it, his breathing slowed down as he closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. A soft and gentle pat from a familiar hand on his bare shoulder made him open his eyes again.
“Hey, go put on your blacks,” Hardcase nodded to Tup who was standing behind him. Tup gently tugged Dogma and guided him to their bunks and blacks. There were soft murmurs from Tup and Dogma looked very…upset.
The atmosphere in the room was tense for a few more seconds before it was broken by the chimes of Rex’s comm.
“Rex,” he answered. All eyes were on him except for the two young clones in the room. Hardcase kept an eye on them while glancing once in a while at Rex’s direction.
“Tano. Uh hey, Rex. I uh, need you. I mean, Skyguy told me to bring you with me down the planet,” all eyes were on Rex. Even Dogma and Tup were looking very curious at that point. The captain dared a glance at them before nervously smiling. “Uhm unless of course if you’re busy with your paperwork I don’t mind at all I can totally go by myself or uh I uhm I can ask Fives or Hardcase–”
“No, no,” Rex chimed in. “I’m not occupied. Don’t worry, kid,” he said the last word very carefully, his shoulders were visibly raised. “Which hangar?”
“…”
There was a few seconds of silence from the commander that prompted Rex and Hardcase’s feet to nervously shuffle the floor. The others were now seated on their respective bunk beds, curious as to the sudden development of their captain and commander’s relationship.
“Uh… commander?”
“…right right, sorry. I was looking for something– uh… oh! Right, at the usual hangar. I was reading Skyguy’s text. We’re going down with Twilight,” her voice was even more steady than before. “I need to grab some stuff, see you there, Rexster!”
The comm was hung up, and Rex could literally feel his fingers growing colder and colder. That was not a fun experience.
He sighed after a few moments.
When he looked up, he was met with Fives’ fierce and protective gaze. “You… won’t do anything,” he said carefully. It sounded like a threat, really – with that. And Rex is genuinely relieved with it.
“Of course I won’t,” he answered with a firm voice. “There can’t be anything between us. And… she’s just… a kid,” he frowned at the end of his sentence, gaining curious looks from the others.
“Technically speaking, you’re actually a few years younger than her,” a raspy voice said from one of the occupied bunk beds. Raised was Coric from Del’s side, who was having trouble sleeping the previous night. His hand was gently placed on Del’s sleeping figure. “But it’s good that you’re not acting on her feelings. Now’s… not really a good time for these kinda stuff,” the medic sergeant cleared his throat before continuing, “Be clear with how you feel or at least, with what you want. Don’t give her any hope. But don’t treat her any differently. It’ll just hurt her.”
All of the awake clones nodded at Coric’s words. He was always critical on a lot of things and not afraid to speak his mind. Watching tons of holovids and holodramas and bothering to even crosscheck with facts, his words were always to be taken into account.
All of them basked in the silence of processing Coric’s words. Tup and Dogma were sitting at one of the bottom beds together, Tup leaning comfortably on the other. Fives was leaning on a pole of the bunk bed he was seated in, Jesse staring at the ground with his lips pursed. Hardcase simply stayed at where he was standing, crossing his arms, enjoying the silence.
Rex looked at Coric with a very firm gaze, the two veterans seemingly communicating through eye contact alone. It was driving the younger clones crazy, really, whenever the veterans did that. Or was it envy – that the veterans get to live long enough to develop that kind of communication?
“Oy,” Rex snapped out of that moment to see Hardcase placing a hand on his shoulder. “You should get going, you’re gonna be late,” Hardcase nodded at him, also seeming to communicate something with him through eye contact.
The captain breathed in a few times before placing a hand on Hardcase’s. He walked out of the room with a new breath, the awake clones all giving him supportive looks.