Chapter Text
“Seriously, Fives? You got Ahsoka kriffing socks?! It’s her 15th gota’tuur, for force’s sake.” Rex smacked his palm to his forehead, already feeling a migraine coming on.
Fives snapped back, trying to defend his decision. “Then what am I supposed to get her? There isn’t exactly a helpful handbook on ‘What Gifts to Give a Teenage Togruta on Her Birthday’!”
Fives looked around helplessly at the increasing number of vod’e surrounding them, silently pleading them to jump in and save him from Rex's growing irritation.
“Fine, I won’t get her socks. Maybe I’ll give her one of my blasters! It would be good for her to practice with the—….”
He trailed off as he saw the murderous look on Rex’s face. His brothers around him snickered, all of them knowing what was about to happen. Fives took off as Rex chased after him, shouting empty threats of mess hall duty for months and swamp patrol with General Yoda; that is, until they both noticed Commander Tano up ahead. Or at least, Fives did.
He abruptly stopped in the middle of the chase, causing Rex to promptly run into him, fall over, and then scramble to stand at attention when he finally noticed their al’verde.
“Nice one, Rex.” Fives muttered sarcastically to Rex as he struggled to keep his balance.
“Commander, sir! I uh–didn’t expect to see you here.”
Commander Tano smiled widely at both of them, bouncing on her toes to try and better match their height. “At ease, men. I told you, Rexter, you don’t have to call me Commander! My name’s Ahsoka, you know.” She grinned at both of them, internally laughing at their stiffness.
“And anyway, why would you expect to see me here? You’re not…hiding something, are you?” Rex began to sweat from nervousness, but he wasn’t nearly as bad as Fives, who was genuinely shaking. Ahsoka giggled as she watched their faces, enjoying their uneasiness and genuine fear.
“Don’t worry, Rexter, Fives, I was just joking!” She laughed at the priceless expressions on their faces, wishing she had her datapad so she could take a holo of them. She made a mental note to tease them again and actually get a holo of them, but she’d have to do that later. Ahsoka then waved and ran off, shouting about some new Jedi assignment General Skywalker had given her.
***
“Gar ge blew cuun hukaatir, vod!” Rex whisper-shouted at Fives in case the Commander could still hear them, even though she was long gone. He still remembered what Kix had taught him about Togrutas’ heightened senses and hearing, and he wasn’t about to take his chances. Maybe he’d save it for another time.
“Guuror gar're any jate'shya!” The headache Rex had completely forgotten about in the wake of their young Commander suddenly reappeared, banging against the confines of his head like it was trapped.
“Alright, alright, you win. Now let's finish the preparations before she finds out, or you are all on mess duty for two months!” Rex added, raising his voice so the other clones that had gathered to listen in on their argument could hear it as well. They all groaned half-heartedly; after all, they loved their loyal—albeit young—al’verde, and despite the frequent complaints from them, they were excited to show her their surprise. Rex was surprised by how many clones had come forward to help, but he was nonetheless grateful for the extra hands.
“Alright vod’e, let's get to work!”
***
“I could really go for a cup of caf right now.” Rex groaned to himself as he lay back in his office chair, fighting what felt like a million clankers inside his head. The last time he’d had one of these, Coric had to turn off all of the lights in the medbay and play relaxing music. It was mortifying. And Fives still somehow managed to bring it up in the worst possible moments; when he was talking to the General, Commander, or even when Rex tried to flirt with a few girls at 79’s. Luckily, Kix walked into his office at that moment, snapping Rex out of his own embarrassing memories.
“You alright, vod? You look pale. Need me to get you a bacta patch? Or call Coric?”
Rex was reminded yet again of that moment, and quickly rushed over his words trying to explain he didn’t want Coric or a repeat of last time.
“Oh uh–no, I don’t need Coric…although it would be great if you could get me a bacta patch. I’m having another one of those horrible headaches.” Rex scratched the back of his head embarrassingly, a nervous habit that all clones seemed to have. Rex always thought it was Jango Fett’s fault—or ‘The Prime’ as other clones called him—but he was never sure.
“Sure thing Captain! Oh, I’m also getting some caf on my way back; d’you want anything?” Kix stopped halfway to the door, waiting for Rex’s answer.
“Could you get me my regular? And make sure it’s a double shot!” Rex tossed Kix his favorite mug and yelled after him as he ran down the hallway to grab Rex’s bacta patch and caf.
Rex had always been more of a sentimental man, though he would never openly admit it, and enjoyed only a few things with his caf. His favorite mug—a dented aluminum one from his years training on Kamino—a double shot of extra strong and extra black caf, a splash of cream, and sometimes the smallest pinch of cinnamon, just to indulge himself. He hated sugar in his caf, and drank it like he was in an active warzone—which most of the time, he was.
Ahsoka had tried for 3 months just to get him to try a bit of cinnamon with it—and though Rex would never publicly confess it—it was one of the happiest days of his life when he discovered cinnamon caf. He never did tell his Commander how happy it made him, but every time he sprinkled a bit in she smiled wider for the rest of the day.
While Rex was lost in his own reminiscent thoughts of cinnamon caf and azure eyes, Kix had reappeared and was trying to get his attention.
“Captain? Alo’rad? Are you still in there Rex?” Rex shook his head as he snapped back to reality, eyes blurring back into focus as he saw Kix standing in front of him with a steaming cup of caf and a faint scent of cinnamon surrounding him, hands waving in front of Rex’s face to get his attention.
Kix glanced suspiciously at the datapad lying abandoned on Rex’s desk, as though it was hypnotising Rex like some Separatist device.
“You’re still not finished with the mission report? You started that an hour ago, Rex, are you sure you’re okay? This is really unlike you.” Kix said the last sentence with a smirk, clearly remembering Rex’s constant pestering of others to finish their own reports and assignments.
He placed Rex’s steaming mug of caf on a stack of obviously overdue mission reports and complaints, and handed Rex his fresh bacta patch. “I’m fine, Kix, just got…lost in the moment. Now, where are those streamers I told you to order for…” Rex lowered his voice in case Commander Tano was near enough to hear. Kix rolled his eyes and leaned down so he could make out what the Captain was trying to say.
“...Operation gota’tuur?”
***
As Ahsoka wandered through the hallways of the Resolute, she pondered why Rex and Fives were acting so weird.
Maybe she said something wrong? Or had something in her teeth? As she contemplated the odd behavior of the clones, she heard her stomach rumble and decided it would be a good time to go to the mess hall.
After Anakin’s extensive training session, Ahsoka was drained both mentally and physically, and all she wanted was a good meat ration bar. When she got to the mess, she tried to disappear into the shadows so as not to draw attention to herself—which was, in the end, futile to the very observant clones.
“Commander in the hall–stand to!” The supervisional clone in the mess hall—from what Ahsoka could remember, his name was Sketch— shouted for the whole room to hear. Immediately, all of the clones in the room straightened and stood at attention, just as they were trained to do on Kamino.
“At ease, men!” Ahsoka automatically said in response, face burning from embarrassment as the hall went silent. She straightened up and tried to look more official as she strolled in a mock casual manner towards the line. As she grabbed her ration bar and small cup of steaming caf—Anakin still wouldn’t let her get a full-sized cup—the normal chatter of the room gradually increased, although she still noticed it was considerably quieter than before.
She slowly chewed through the mostly tasteless bar and speculated why the normally rambunctious and chaotic 501st were suddenly being…careful around her? Yes, something was obviously wrong, she decided.
***
“Hardcase, Fives, Hevy, set up the hover balloons! I’ll get the holo-projector confetti. And someone else get the food prepared! We don’t have all day, boys, Commander Tano will be back soon from General Skywalker’s diversion.”
Rex directed the soldiers around the barracks like they were off-world and stealthily infiltrating a Separatist base, as more clones poured in to help set up decorations, and tables overflowing with copious amounts of junk food and fizzy drinks. Denal and Sterling then brought in the small but overly sweet meiloorun cake with the Commander’s facial markings messily drawn on with frosting, nearly dropping it on the considerably dirty barracks floor.
Some of the younger clones even thought it would be a good idea to bring in a sabaac table, which then gave Rex the fun job of explaining to a bunch of shinies that a 15-year-old should not, in fact, be betting; although that wouldn’t stop Ahsoka most of the time.
While Rex was setting the holo-confetti projector he’d borrowed from Senator Amidala to the 501st blue he knew Ahsoka loved, Hevy, Hardcase, and Fives were still messing around with the hover balloons. Rex had picked the designs of the balloons out himself; a loth cat, porg, clone trooper, and finally a mini LAAT/i shuttle.
“Ve'ganir bic tome men! cuun al'verde cuyir coming nusujii!” Rex stood up and walked over to them, staring them down with his signature glare—or as his al’verde called it, the ‘Captain Stare’.
“Yes, sir!” Fives mock saluted him and waved Ince and Dogma to come help him set them up.
Others started arranging the gifts, and when Rex looked over after reprimanding his brothers, he was shocked by the sheer amount of them. The table that was holding them was starting to bend, and he was surprised it was even still standing. Rex hoped Ahsoka would like the party; it had taken him and the others months to plan—though he was the main conspirator, of course—and they had all spent most of their off-duty time on Coruscant and what little credits they did have trying to make it work. Rex himself had spent a few weeks of his time struggling to find something to give to her, and though it wasn’t the most expensive thing ever, he knew she appreciated the little things.
Besides, if she didn’t like it—though he truly hoped she did, it had taken him way too much time to research what she might like—the others had brought plenty of gifts to go around.
As the soldiers finished putting up the remaining decorations, Rex looked around with what finally felt like peace. Perhaps just this one day, he could let his guard down.
“Form up, men! It’s time to give our al’verde the best time of her life!”
***