Work Text:
"Heya little lady."
Riyo smiled as she turned her head: only a clone would call her "little lady".
"Good evening Thorn, how was your day?"
"Today was easy, better than most days," the clone said quietly with a shrug, genuinely relaxed as he leaned nonchalantly on the bar waiting for his table order to be ready. "Still waiting for a late Jedi?"
"I could just come alone to relax," the Pantoran remarked.
"Hmm... yeah, no. You don't strike me as the kind of person who'd come to a place like this to relax. Let alone alone. Or... has our little lady met a suitor?"
With warm cheeks, she was quick to disabuse him, knowing full well that people with a crush were the target of constant and merciless teasing. She would know a thing or two about that, she had done exactly that to her brothers and... pretty much everyone else her age when they were in new crushes.
"Of course not, I'm waiting for Ahsoka!"
"Can't Ahsoka be a suitor?" The clone asked seriously, turning his head to ask the barmaid for an extra drink before looking at her to wait for her answer.
It looked like she would not be waiting alone today either, so much the better.
"Ahsoka is a Jedi, Jedi don't do romantic relationships because they're married to their work, anyway my own work is too important for me to be distracted by either a man or a woman."
"Well said, I hadn't noticed the 501st was there, are you going to do your girls nights out every chance you get?"
"Do you do boys' nights out every chance you get?" She retorted, dodging at the last moment a clone that almost hit her head-on because he was not looking where he was going.
Thorn let out a surprised laugh but replied with an amused wink:
"Darling, we're here every night!"
"Are all clones this charming?" She teased in the direction of the same little group as last time.
Stone was easy to recognise with his lack of hair and his tattoo, and as there was no reason for the others to change, she assumed after a careful look that it was Thire to Fox's right, Fox's eyes were a little lighter than Thire's. The details were minimal but they were still clear.
Very small but there, even identical twins were not carbon copies, you just had to know what to look for.
"None of them are as charming, in any case," Thire replied matter-of-factly.
"I wouldn't bet my life on that statement."
"Me neither, Thire," Riyo chuckled, before adding to Thorn: "There's always someone better than you.
"And if there isn't? There has to be someone better."
"The best perceived is perhaps not as good as someone who hasn't yet taken part in the ranking," she pointed out wisely. "I know something about that, I earned my current job that way."
In order to be elected Senator of Pantora, she had taken intensive courses and seminars in politics and negotiation, history and economics, law and language, and much more, she had had her chance and had taken it precisely because no one was waiting for her.
She would never say she was the best for the job, but she had been the best of the candidates at the time, and now here she was, finally becoming the Senator she had dreamed of being, just... not in the Pantoran Senate but in the Coruscant Senate.
"Is everything all right, Thire?"
"Yes... yes," Thire replied with renewed confidence after looking at her strangely. "Except I'm not Thire, he is."
And he pointed to Fox.
"No, this is Fox."
Fox had not say anything until now so it was difficult to get confirmation in his voice, but...
Fox made a sound of surprise, but did not stop her from taking his face in her hands to orientate it differently. Hmm...
"No, if someone here is Fox it's him, his eyes are lighter than yours."
"Really?" Fox and Thire asked at the same time, raising one hand in an identical movement to touch the edge of their eye before exchanging a surprised look.
"Is it true?"
"How should I know, I can't see my eyes when I'm looking at you."
"It's subtle but it's there."
"I never thought a Natborn would pay enough attention to be able to say that."
"Stone, that's slightly insulting."
"On the contrary, she's better than the others, it's a compliment."
"You're implying that Natborns are stupid."
"Lots of people are extremely stupid," Riyo confirmed, shaking the ice cubes in her glass with her straw before taking a sip.
"It's the same with clones, don't worry."
"And it's not very reassuring either, Fox."
"Shut up, Stone."
"Sir, yes, sir."
"Are you always so formal, even with each other?" She asked the group, understanding that they were teasing each other, but curious nonetheless.
Did they even know how to communicate other than by giving orders?
"We don't even know how to be completely informal," Thire admitted calmly. "All our lives are and always have been organised by protocols and calibrated interactions with a hierarchy."
"What's more, informality is a trap we can't afford to fall into," Fox added firmly, looking down at his glass. "At the end of the day, when a superior gives us an order, we have to obey without question, without hesitation, without faltering. Threats and hatred fall on us like an avalanche and we have to take everything without rebelling, and anyway, can we really complain?"
"Of course you can... you're just doing your job, all the time, you don't deserve this."
"We're trained to shoot enemies. Have you ever killed a sentient being?"
"No, I never... I've never fought," Riyo admitted, a lump in the throat."
"I've already killed someone," Fox said calmly, his body tense and his eyes haunted despite his impassive face, "and I'll probably have to do it again. I can't even trust anyone with that information, most of the other clones wouldn't understand, they wouldn't accept it."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Riyo murmured. "You do your duty to the best of your ability, with all the complications and horrors that go with it, hating yourself for it makes no sense."
"Even if we fail? Even if we deliberately let civilians die because we decide not to go and save them and do something else?"
"It's a war, Fox. You can't save everyone, no-one can. It's... utopian to think that, you're hurting yourself for nothing. Those are... nice sentiments, but you're not responsible for the damage you're trying to limit. You wouldn't have to get involved if others hadn't decided to start and knowingly aggravate this war."
You did not have to be a mind reader to realise that the whole table was hanging on her every word and Riyo once again felt sorry for those poor men and all they had to go through. Their whole lives were a nightmare, and no matter how you looked at it, it was because of the Republic.
She did not know what choices she would make in their place, she did not know if she could make the kind of moral sacrifices they were making, but... there was a reason she had not wanted a military career. It took all sorts to make a world, a population filled with people as fragile and well-intentioned as herself would have been wiped out long ago. It was a struggle for survival.
"Yeah... thanks, I guess?" Stone said very slowly before changing the subject so abruptly that Riyo obviously got the message. "Enough about our job, what do you do? You didn't tell us last time."
Riyo straightened slightly, grabbing her glass to gain time to quench her thirst. Why had he asked that question? And what's more, they were all looking at her with the same sly, expectant smile!
"I-"
"Riyo, why do I always find you in the same place?"
The whole Pantoran pantheon bless you, Ahsoka.
"Company is good," she replied, turning away. "You're late. Again."
"It's not me, it's Rex!"
"What have I done now?"
The Togruta quickly sat down on the edge of Riyo's chair and ducked down to remain unnoticed and sighed as she straightened up when Rex presumably wandered off into the crowd after losing sight of his Jedi Commander.
"I've learned how to shave hair," the Padawan murmured with a big smile before looking Riyo’s. "The texture is very strange, it was fun, but Rex left me manage on my own and that made me late".
"Next time make them all bald, it'll be quicker," Stone advised, running a hand over his smooth head.
Ahsoka nodded with a smile.
"Good idea, it'll be fun to see their faces. Guys, I'm borrowing Riyo again, it has been a long time!"
"Good evening to you all," the Pantoran continued, relieved to dodge Stone's trick question.
"Come back whenever you like, we're often here," Thorn whispered with a wink.
"Enjoy your evening."
"No alcohol for minors, don't encourage bad behaviour."
"Fox, stop being such an off-duty killjoy about unimportant stuff!"
"What do you mean, unimportant? Alcohol destroys young people's brains, I've read it in-"