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Rex watched Anakin as he moved around his quarters.
He watched the play of shadows across the lean muscles of his partners bare back as he leaned forwards to grab Rex’s dirty socks and toss them down the laundry chute. One of the perks of staying in the Temple – he may have to sneak in and out of Anakin’s room so as not upset the more hardline members of the Order, but he would wake up to clean clothes every morning.
That, and Anakin’s bed was stupid comfy.
His quarters in the Temple weren’t any cleaner than his quarter’s on the Resolute had been. Worse, actually, because of the sheer amount of crap he’s accumulated over his life. Mostly toy starships – lovingly worn and arranged around the room on almost every shelf. That, plus a wealth of spare parts for his saber, Artoo, Threepio…
Plus just a load of spare spare parts he’s collected “just in-case” .
Rex watched Anakin shuffle around said spare parts – supposedly tidying but really just moving the mess around before he was ready to sleep – and finally plucked up the courage to ask a question that had been on his mind for a while.
“Do you ever think about them when you look at me?” he asked.
Anakin dropped whatever bit of metal and circuitry he was holding to the floor and whirled around.
“Who the hell would I think about?” he asked, which Rex supposed answered his question well enough.
“The other clones,” Rex explained, settling back against Anakin’s pillows.
“No!” Anakin said, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed. “Well –”
He frowned.
“Sometimes, during the war, after we’d lost someone…”
Anakin’s eyes flicker to Rex’s.
“Then, yeah. I would look at you and think about them.”
Rex looked at him.
“What about now?” he asked softly.
Anakin shrugged.
“Sometimes. You’ll do something that reminds me of Fives, or you’ll laugh and I’ll think of Hardcase. But I’m not– I’d never– I don’t wish you were them or anything. I miss them but…”
Anakin smiled at him, soft and full of love.
“They’re not you , Rex,” he said.
Rex slid a hand around the back of Anakin’s neck and tugged him in for a kiss. Anakin shuffled up the bed to make it easier, tilting his head into Rex’s palm. His mechanical hand settled on Rex’s thigh as he leaned in, squeezing gently.
Eventually he pulled back, resting his forehead against Rex’s.
“I love you, Rex,” he whispered into the quiet, perfect space between them.
“I love you too,” Rex replied.
An hour later, and Rex had made sure Anakin was definitely only thinking about him.
If he had any thoughts left, that was.