Chapter Text
While there were many perks to being a temple guard, the best in Fox’s opinion was that people were not allowed to talk or interact with him when he was on duty. There was something relaxing about standing in a hallway and being treated the same as the decorative vases that lined the hall. He especially enjoyed listening to all the conversations that happened around him.
Currently Fox was watching General Skywalker have an argument with his padawan while he stood guard outside of the Jedi Council’s chambers. He wasn’t sure what exactly the fight was about since it had been going on for a bit before they stopped to argue in front of him.
“Why are you always treating me like a child?” Commander Tano groaned.
“Because you are a child, Snips.” General Skywalker replied, crossing his arms in agitation. “Besides, it's not my choice, it's the council’s. They think you still have a lot to learn before you can go on stealth missions.”
“But how will I ever learn if I’m not allowed on stealth missions?” The togruta whined.
“I guess you can spend your time at the temple looking for a master of stealth to teach you.” Skywalker shrugged. “Either way it’s not my problem.”
“Aren’t you my master?” The commander raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you be the one teaching me things?”
“But how can I teach you when I’m busy on a mission?” The general shot back an equally skeptical look.
“You could take me with you.” The girl batted pleading eyes.
“Ah I’d love to, my padawan, but the choice has already been made.” Skywalker patted the top of the girl’s head. “I should be going now. I’m running late to the meeting as is.”
“It just wouldn’t be you if you were on time Skyguy.” Commander Tano shook her head and shoved the offending hand away. “Go on then, I’ll see you in a week.”
“Alright, stay out of trouble, Snips.” With that the general waved as he walked right past Fox and into the council chambers leaving the togruta alone in the hall.
Once her master had disappeared the togruta’s joking attitude turned back to the earlier pouting. She began pacing back and forth while venting her frustration to the air.
“Oh yeah I’ll just find a master to teach me stealth while you’re gone. Because it’s so easy to track down a jedi shadow.” Commander Tano threw her arms out dramatically. “He’s so annoying. Not even bothering to set up a curriculum for me when he dumps me at the temple. I guess I could see if Master Kenobi is free. He might know someone who can train me.”
Right as the commander looked to have made up her mind Fox’s comm vibrated to let him know that his shift had ended. He glanced down the hall to see one of the other guards coming to replace him so he moved away from the wall, removed his mask, and ran a hand through his hair as he took down his hood.
“Good afternoon, Commander Tano.” Fox greeted when the girl turned around.
“Ah!” The girl jumped in surprise. “Captin Fox, when did you get here?”
“I’ve been standing guard here for the past six hours.” He explained as he rolled out his stiff shoulders. “I just got off shift.”
“Wait, you were standing right there the whole time?” The shock on the girl’s face was replaced by confusion. “How did I not see you or at the very least sense you?”
“It’s kinda part of the job. Plus clones have a weak presence in the force.”
“Maybe but still…” Commander Tano tapped her chin in thought. “You’re pretty stealthy right?”
“I’ve been told so.” Fox shrugged, he scrolled through his missed comms. “Although my brothers usually say sneaky or sly.”
“Could you teach me?” Her eyes lit up.
“Teach you what?” The clone questioned as he looked up from his comm.
“How to be stealthy.” The commander explained. “You heard Master Skyguy, I can’t go on stealth missions until I get some training.”
“Wh- I- Me?” Fox stuttered in shock. He was caught off guard at the idea that Commander Tano thought he had anything to teach her. “I don’t think there’s much I know that you don’t.”
“What do you mean?” She looked surprised at his reaction. “You have way more experience and know way more stuff than I do.”
“I don’t know about that. I’m still just a padawan like you.”
“A padawan who is the captain of the Temple Guard. You get that that’s a little impressive right?”
“Not for a clone. I’m a command class. I was made for leadership.”
“Okay sure but you know way more than me about leading and stuff in that case.”
“I suppose so.”
“So can you teach me how to be sneaky?”
“Are you going to leave me alone if I say no?” Fox sighed, shaking his head.
“Probably not for a week.” Commander Tano crossed her arms and shrugged.
“I don’t really have a choice then do I?”
“Not really.” The girl smiled. “Come on, it will be fun.”
“Alright follow me then.” Fox motioned for her to follow as he turned to leave. “I have a few things to grab from my office before we head over to the Coruscant Guard headquarters.”
“Oh I’ve always wondered what the temple guard offices looked like.” The commander beamed.
“You will wait outside while I get the papers and change.”
The female padawan frowned but continued to follow Fox down the hall.
An hour later and Commander Tano was sitting on the couch in the Guard Commanders’ office while Fox got an earful from Thorn about the situation. His ori’vod seemed to be enjoying the predicament as much as the girl was. The similarity between their two grins was almost eerie.
“Wow and I thought Cody had a weak spot for vod’ika.” Thorn laughed as Fox finished his explanation. “You’re going soft in your old age, Fox’ika.”
“I’m younger than you, ba’buir(grandpa).” Fox groaned as he pushed his brother off the corner of the desk he’d been leaning against.
The desk that Fox used originally belonged to Commander Dodge but since he’d been killed in an assassination attempt a few months back Fox had taken over some of his former duties. It was a temporary position until the Chancellor promoted or requisitioned a replacement but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to do that. So for now Fox was running what the Guard classed as ‘Senate concerns’. This list of responsibilities was a catch all for anything the Senate wanted done: arranging escorts, formal clone complaints, building patrol, and pressing criminal issues that were too large for the Coruscant Police to deal with. That last duty was what Fox thought Commander Tano might be interested in helping with since he was currently heading an undercover operation.
“So you want to get some stealth training, Commander Tano?” Thorn clarified as he turned to the padawan.
“That’s right!” The girl beamed before getting a bit uncertain. “If that’s okay with you Commander Thorn. I know that Captain Fox is your subordinate so you have the final say.”
“Captain, really?” Thorn turned to Fox with a quizzical smirk. “Oh how the mighty fall mister top ten. That sixth place on the CC exams means nothing I guess.”
Fox’s only response was to huff and turn back to the reports he was reviewing. It was true that captain was the lowest expected rank of a command class clone. From how well he’d scored on the CC final evaluation, which he took at the same time as his batch, he was guaranteed a marshal commander rank by placing in the top eighty. However since he was determined unfit for deployment that ranking was rather useless. His exclusion from the exam meant that number eighty one was bumped up to a marshal commander to fill the empty spot (that lucky clone happened to be Thorn and it was something the batch would never let him live down). Currently by both his status as a Jedi padawan and his expected duties in the Coruscant Guard he should hold the rank of commander. Commander Tano didn’t know either of these facts and as such called him by his Temple Guard rank which was captain.
“Is that not your title?” The girl asked with a confused look. “That’s what the masters call you so I assumed it was correct.”
“Technically I’m the same rank as you, Commander.” Fox replied. “Though I’m not officially assigned to a battalion so I don’t have anyone under my command.”
“Right now he’s our little errand boy.” Thorn smiled. “Acting Commander Fox if you will. Though we tend to call him Commander for simplicity.”
“I didn’t realize. My apologies, Commander Fox.” The girl bowed her head as she spoke.
“It’s okay Commander Tano. Please just call me Fox.” Heat rushed to Fox’s cheeks at being bowed to. Natborns didn’t need to apologize to him, he was just a tool for their convenience.
“Well if that’s the case just call me Ahsoka.” The commander beamed. “Commander Tano is just so formal.”
“I can’t do that, sir. It’s against protocol.” Fox replied in a stilted tone.
“We can do Commander Ahsoka if you want.” Thorn offers with an easy smile. “And I’d be glad to have your help for the week, sir.”
“Thank you Commander Thorn.” The togruta smiled and gave a thankful bow in Thorn’s direction. She then walked over to Fox’s desk to try and steal a glance at the datapad in his hand. “So what’s the mission, Foxy?”
“Don’t call me that.” Fox sighed as he moved the confidential information out of the girl’s sight. “The assignment you can help me with is a recon mission on some of the lower levels of the city.”
“The lower levels? What sort of information do you want from down there?”
“There’s a lot of different reasons to run recon in the sub hundreds. We can keep up on criminal gossip about drug or weapon sales for busts, get insider intel on possible assasination attempts, or just keep tabs on individuals that might become a problem in the future.”
“So what is this particular one? Are we saving a senator from assaination?”
“Don’t sound so excited about that idea. And no, this is just a standard drug bust.”
“That’s still pretty fun I guess.”
“Not the words I would use but it’s an important job. There has been a serious rise in laced death sticks and I think I’ve found a contact who knows where they’re coming from. It’s also low risk enough for you to tag along.”
“Low risk?! You don’t think I can handle myself?”
“It’s not a question of combat ability, Commander. It has to do with your undercover experience. I’m training a shiny on this mission already and you can get the same experience as them.”
“A shiny?”
“A new recruit. We call them shiny because they don’t have their armor painted or stained yet.”
“You can hardly call Ringer a shiny. He's been here almost three months.” Thorn cut in from his desk.
“He’s a shiny to me.” Fox argued. “Besides, he's definitely shiny when it comes to recon. You know they don’t teach CTs osik.”
“You’re preaching to the wrong brother.” Thorn sighed.
“I know vod. Well we need to be going, briefing to conduct and all.” Fox agreed as he gathered the few pads that had scattered around his desk into a neat stack for when he returned. He tucked his personal pad into his bag and grabbed a supply manifest to read on the way to meet Ringer. “Follow me please, Commander.”
“It was nice meeting you Commander Thorn.” The padawan waved as she left the room.
“Likewise, Commander.” Thorn saluted in response.