Work Text:
It’s been a year, since he walked away from the wreckage, permanently disfigured.
Does he blame Rex?
Not in the slightest.
He’d seen the fear and sadness in Ahsoka’s eyes the second he raised his blasters. If he knew his captain, the man was probably devastated as well.
But no one came for Jesse.
He crawled his way off the siths-damned planet and not one single brother had come for him.
He’d learned to accept that Kix was gone. And maker, did that hurt.
The first cut stung, but it wasn’t enough. Only one blood trail dribbling down his wrist wasn’t enough . It needed another. The second slice was dangerously satisfying.
He just wanted to not feel, for once.
He settles against the wall in the damp alley, blood pooling on the ground.
Someone shouts. He doesn’t mind it.
The voice grows nearer, a resounding curse, one that hurts to hear because he’d heart it spoken many times in his best friend’s medbay, falls from the strangers lips.
His face is being held. His name being called. His bleeding arm is being wrapped. But he’s out of it, slowly slipping unconscious, despite the stranger’s frantic pleas.
And the darkness overtakes his mind.
When Jesse opens his eyes again, he’s in a ship, not a grimy alleyway. He’s in what looks to be the small medical corner of a GAR shuttle.
But that’s impossible.
His heart rate spikes—that, he can tell from the rapid beeping of the monitor above him.
Whoever was taking care of them really knew their shit.
And his name is being called again.
This time, he sees the source.
Those eyes hurt to look at.
The tattoo peeking out from his hair.
Jesse knows that he must be dead.
“Jess-“ Kix—who has to be dead too—chokes on a sob. “You fucking di’kut. My di’kut’la Vod’ika. What the hell are you doing to yourself?”
Jesse recoils. The voice, it’s too real.
“If I would have been a minute too late, my best friend in the fucking galaxy would have died before I had a chance to kill him myself.”
That meant that Jesse wasn’t dead. Bile rises in his throat and he swallows it down. His throat burns. He deserves pain anyways.
Finally, he manages to say his brother’s name. The walls come down and he lets Kix in. The medic lets his forehead fall against his brother’s shoulder with a sad smile. “Jesse. What happened to you?”
The ARC trooper was silent. So silent, that Kix had to look up and make sure he hadn’t passed out again.
Jesse’s eyes brimmed with tears. “After Maul…Nobody… fuck …I was alone, Kix.”
Kix’s stomach rolls. The damn separatists kept him from his brother when he needed him most.
Kix returns his forehead to Jesse’s shoulder. “Hey. I gotcha Jess. I’m not gonna leave you.”
It’s small and keening, but Jesse whispers a ‘thank you’
Kix smiles, because his brother is going to heal. He’s going to make sure of it.