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"Well this was really an unexpected development," Alpha muses while standing before the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. He was rarely called back to home base (if a clone even has one of those), so Alpha-17 wasn't sure he would actually end up here until he somehow did. It caught him by surprise even though it shouldn't. But well, when you are a pragmatic bastard, not many things surprise you, as often as people think.
Alpha wonders how those Jedi generals can be as optimistic as they can, concerning the general state of things around them (Maybe it's that blasted Force they keep talking about. Maybe it makes them into stupid optimistic fools, who know nothi-).
To sum things up, Alpha ended up on Coruscant. And he can finally go and see his favorite clone out there. The one he spends most of his free time with, the one he likes to spar and fight against, the one he shares all his meals with, and generally the one he actually enjoys being around. It isn't something that he has often or even admits to really. Alpha-17 knows he is a hard clone to please. However Fox is one of the rare ones that consistently continues to do so, without fail. It is both a gift and a marvel, so Alpha appreciates that even more than usual.
Unfortunately his favorite clone does not work with the Jedi. But with one of the worst scums of the galaxy-politicans. So even though Alpha doesn't like anyone, the Jedi can sometimes be bearable in small doses, but polticians.... they are never bearable, and every second he spends in their company he feels both like choking them and then killing them just for good measure (especially that Palpatine guy. He is the worst scum ever, because he makes Fox do horr-/).
He turns around in the direction of the Senate dome, and hopes he meets Fox before any politican tries to get in his way, as they are wont to do usually.
Alpha-17 finds Fox, walking with a limp and bleeding all over the corridor, even if he seems determined to come to his office as soon as possible. If he was any other bystander he would not stop the stubborn rancorn because he looks overly menacing, equipped with armor and everything. But fortunately for everyone he is not just some passing pansy, so he wrangles the stupid vod to a hospital, where they start to bandage his leg and try to find some painkillers or bacta on hand.
"What the frick happened? Weren't you just doing a bodyguard gig? Why do you look worse for wear than me, who was actually present on the battlefield?"
Fox grits his teeth hard, and tells Alpha the situation in a calm voice without a shred of emotion behind it. "I was protecting an incompetent politician, who not only didn't care about hiding or protection, he also didn't care about the people protecting him or anyone around him trying to give him 'supposed illegal orders' which he found insulting on every level."
"Even though I just tried to do my job, and protect the stubborn fool, who didn't know better," after Fox finished Alpha-17 cursed up a storm and fingered his gun holster, wondering if he wanted to shit all over the Commanders work or not. "Did you at least succeed in the task? And is it over?"
Alpha knew no comfort or platitude would frankly help in any way to get Fox out of this karking situation, however he could at least hope there won't be any additional punishment for Fox and his squad because of failed orders. "Yes, we did. I lost three men on the job, but at least most of them came out alive and unscratched," Fox said and Alpha-17 felt his breath easy up a little.
At least not everything was lost. "Now I have to go to my office and finish up the report along with other work that piled up while I was away. Help me up and to the office, will you Seventeen?"
He wanted to argue against that kind of action, but he knew it was useless. Fox would not be detered in the slightest. And that is why Alpha loved him. Though it also made him a bigger pain the butt. "Whatever you say, you banthabrain. Don't go crying to me the next time the medics ask for your blood." Fox only tsked at that, and the other clone helped him get to the aformentioned office that was more of a shoe cabin that anything describing an actual office space.
When Alpha put down Fox on the chair, the hurt clone groaned and immediately went for the stack of papers that scattered around the table when he sat. "I will help you out," Alpha-17 declared and tried to rummage around for an extra chair, that he knew existed around here somewhere. "Nobody asked for you here. Go away," Fox rudely answered, although the other clone only snorted at the rude comment. "I will not. I want to stay. So I will. And you can't do anything about it," Alpha challenged the Commander, and the other glared with little behind it.
By the set of his shoulders, and his hodded eyes Alpha knew Fox was more tired than angry at his disobedience. "Do whatever you want then," Fox said defeated and Alpha grins at the Commander's compliance. "I was planning on it."
They fall back into silence, and Alpha reluctantly starts doing some more paperwork. It maybe isn't the way he expected his quasi-holiday days to go, but he could not imagine them in any other way, but by Foxes side doing whatever they needed to do.
That determination soon dries off, when he has to fill out another useless report that will lead nowhere and amount to nothing.
"Awful karking politicians. Screw this Skiv or whatever his name is, for making everything much harder than it needed to be."
Fox stops looking at his pad, and suddenly starts to maniacally laugh like he heard the best joke in the world. Well, maybe he did. After all Alpha is known for his peak humor. No wonder his beloved appreciates it, more than anyone else. After the fit of laughter subsides, Alpha locks eyes with Fox and quietly asks: "You alright now?"
"Well, not really alright, but I am better with you being here," Fox answers and Alpha-17 sends him his brightest smile to date. "I can say the same thing to you," he flirtily answers back, making the other clone duck his head, probably in embarassment. "Don't distract me from my work with your flirting. Get back to it quickly. Because as soon as we finish this, the sooner we leave this hellhole."
Seventeen nods in agreement and continues to focus on his voluntary chosen work. Whereas in his head, he is patting himself on the back for making the most hardheaded and no-fun clone in the whole galaxy, laugh with tears of joy and probably sadness too.
All in all, a good days work to be sure.