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As they made their trek through the forest, Rex couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the planet is. So many trees, though the trees were skeletons now; all their leaves had fallen to the ground. Next to him, Fives was having a great time kicking up the leaves gathered on the forest floor, and yellow, orange, red, and brown leaves were falling around them.
“Can you stop that?” Rex finally asks the ARC trooper when he had to brush leaves off of his helmet again.
Fives giggles, “No.”
“Alright boys, let’s camp here for tonight,” General Skywalker tells them. “We walked a lot today. Tomorrow we’ll be able to get to the Separatist tower pretty quickly.”
Everyone got to work setting up the tents, when there was suddenly a loud squeal followed by a laugh, and Rex immediately drew his blasters and looked around, only to find his little Commander being chased by Fives, who was carrying a bunch of leaves in his arms and throwing them at her.
They were both laughing, and Ahsoka was also using the Force to throw leaves in Fives’ direction in retaliation. Rex sighed, and looked at his General, hoping he would be able to knock some sense in his padawan. Unfortunately, Skywalker was looking at them with amusement and mischief glinting in his eyes, and Rex knew he would have to be the responsible one for the rest of the evening.
General Skywalker walked up and with a single flick of his hand, a wall of leaves swirled like the wind and smacked into the Commander. The little Togruta glared at her Master before saying, “Oh it’s so on.”
The troopers were all staring now, as their General, Commander, and Fives threw leaves at each other, yelling and laughing. Said troopers turned to Rex and even though they all had their helmets on (except for Fives), Rex could practically see the wide pleading eyes of each of his vode, and he sighed again, “Yes, you all can join them.” With a loud chorus of cheers, they discarded their helmets and joined in the fray.
Rex watched as General Skywalker, Commander Tano, and Fives were all being bombarded with leaves by the rest of the troopers and the Captain allowed himself a smile inside his helmet.
“We should make a GIANT leaf pile!” Ahsoka exclaimed.
Jesse frowns, “Sir, what’s a leaf pile?” he asks, looking at the General. All the clones quieted down and did the same.
The Jedi just shrugged, “Don’t know, never made one.”
“Okay,” Ahsoka starts explaining, “a leaf pile is basically where you gather a bunch of leaves and put them in a pile and then you jump in it.”
“You jump in it?” Hardcase questions, incredulous.
“Yeah,” the Commander smiles, showing off her fangs. “It’ll be real fun!”
General Skywalker shrugs again, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. “You heard the Commander, make the leaf pile!” He calls to the troopers. Fives and Echo grinned at each other, and started scooping up leaves and dumping them in a pile, the rest of their brothers quickly following suit.
Rex has no idea what kind of funky business his brothers and the jettise were up to now, but it probably wasn’t good, considering he was now staring at a pile of leaves about 30 feet tall and definitely wasn’t there the last time he’d checked on them. The General and the Commander were using the Force to bring giant piles of leaves to it while his brothers were using their arms to scoop it up. Rex briefly remembers a time when he walked into a conversation between General Kenobi, Skywalker, and Ahsoka, and the oldest Jedi had been scolding them for "frivolous use of the Force”. He was pretty sure what the Jettise were doing now counted as a “frivolous use of the Force”. Kix walks up to him from the medical tent, helmet tucked under his arm and the other hand rubbing the back of his neck. He pauses when he considers the leaf pile. “What is that?”
“A pile of leaves,” Rex replies dryly.
The Medic rolls his eyes, “I know what a pile of leaves looks like, Rex.”
The Captain mutters something before finally taking off his helmet, closing his eyes and breathing in the cold, fresh air. He opens them again when he hears loud squeals, and sees his General and Commander jumping into the pile of leaves. Those di’kuts. He hears Kix sighing loudly and most likely pinching the bride of his nose. Rex briefly wonders how Kenobi had put up with Skywalker for over a decade.
“Rex! Kix!’ Said Skywalker calls out to them, “You should join, it’s really fun!”
“Pleeaaassseeeeeee,” the Commander begs, widening her giant blue eyes. Rex hates it when his Commander does that.
Rex: 0 Commander: 1
“Fine.” He grabs Kix by the elbow, “Kix, you’re coming with me too.”
“What? No!”
General Skywalker lets out a cheer when he sees Rex and Kix walking over. Suddenly, Rex feels a whoosh in his stomach and then he and Kix are being suspended in the air. Rex mentally curses the Force before he and Kix are dropped onto the leaf pile. The impact was… surprisingly soft. It was like landing on a soft cloud where you sank deeper and deeper as you stayed on it. Sprawled on top of the leaves, Rex could clearly see in slow motion; a bright blue, cloudless sky, colorful leaves falling around him, hear Anakin and Ahsoka laughing, hear the joy of his brothers. And just for that short moment, there was no war. No heavy burden of his fallen brothers. The sounds of artillery and heavy machinery that was imprinted in his mind faded into a white background noise. Now, it was just Rex, his Jedi, and the 501st having fun on any other day.
And for those next few hours, Rex let himself go. Laughing with his vode, bantering with his General, having fun with the Commander. When it became dark outside, Rex flopped against a tree, smiling wistfully. General Skywalker soon walked over and sat down next to him. “I told you that was fun,” he said.
“I wish that would’ve lasted forever.” Rex knew it was a silly wish. Clones were bred for war. Soldiers had no time to play around while their brothers were dying all over the galaxy.
“I wish the war ended,” Skywalker murmurs, and he rests his head on Rex’s shoulder. It couldn’t have been comfortable, since Rex was in his armor, but they stayed like that for a long time. Listening to the happiness of their men and the young padawan.