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“Hey everyone, the new paint is here!” Tup shouts at the hangar of the Resolute.
A chorus of cheers echo around the vast area from the clones who were currently in it. Fives runs up to Tup and a couple of other clones who were bringing down buckets of paint from a ship. “Did we get any other colors other than blue?”
Catching up beside him, Echo gives him a look. “The 501st is always blue. Why would you want another color?”
“To spice things up,” Anakin says, walking towards them with Ahsoka and Rex in tow. He smiles at them, “I figured, since a lot of you are close with the 212th and we work with them often anyway, I got us some yellow paint you can add to your armor.”
Rex brightens. “Thank you General, that’s very thoughtful of you.”
“Of course, Rex. I’m sure Cody would love to have some blue on his armor as well,” Anakin replies with a wink.
“Master, can I paint too?” Ahsoka asks, looking up at him with tooka eyes. Anakin glances at Rex before nodding. The little Togruta pumps her fists in the air in celebration, then hurries over to Hawk and helps him get the paints onto the ground with the Force. After all the buckets are taken off the ship, Ahsoka walks to the barracks cheerily with the entire Torrent company at her heels.
Soon, there were buckets of paint everywhere; on the beds, on the floor, on a shelf, in a chair, on the tables, you name it. Paintbrushes were also spread throughout the room, as well as pieces of armor. Ahsoka had decided that since she didn’t have any armor to paint, she was going to use a small paintbrush and paint her nails blue.
“What’cha doin’ Commander?” Jesse asks, scooting next to her.
“Hi Jesse. I’m painting my nails.”
Jesse frowns. “Why? What’s it for?”
Ahsoka just shrugs. “Dunno. I do it sometimes to look cool.”
“Can you paint my nails?” Jesse asks, almost sheepishly. “My armor’s already done, it's just drying.”
The Commander beams. “Of course!”
Five minutes later, Jesse was sporting ten blue-painted nails. Hawk saunters over to them. “Jesse, what do we have here?”
“The Commander painted my nails blue. Now I’m cool.”
The pilot frowns. “But I want to look cool too.” He turns to Ahsoka, “Commander, can you paint my nails?”
Ahsoka opens her mouth to answer, but is interrupted by Fives, who inserts himself into their group. “What’s this about painting nails?”
“How about this,” Ahsoka starts. “Jesse, you paint Hawk’s nails and I’ll paint Fives’.”
Jesse gives her a salute. “Sounds good, Commander.”
Before long, almost all the clones were sporting blue nails. “What’s this?” Rex asks when he’s asked if he wanted blue nails by Echo.
The trooper raises his shoulders. “Commander was doing it, now everyone’s doing it. Fives said it makes us look cooler.”
“And better than the 212th!” said ARC trooper shouts from across the room.
Rex rolls his eyes. “Please?” Echo petitioned. “We can get General Skywalker to do it as well. You know what, the whole legion should do it.”
The Captain raises an eyebrow. “And what happens when that paint wears off?”
Echo shrugs again. “We repaint it whenever there’s new paint.”
Rex considers this for a moment, before deciding to try something fun for once. “Why not?”
Anakin was not expecting his men to get their nails painted blue today. His Padawan had run up to him in the cafeteria, showing off her blue nails and telling him to go to the barracks to see the troopers’ newly painted armor.
“General, look!” Jesse says, showing off both his hands. Tup shoves him away so now he was the one standing in front of Anakin. “General, mine’s better, don’t you agree? See, mine has yellow on it as well.”
“Very…nice,” Anakin manages. He has a bad feeling about where this is going…
“General,” Rex greets. The Jedi notices that his nails have been painted as well. “You know, as the General, you should really match with us,” he adds with a wicked grin.
Anakin sighs exasperatedly. “I’m guessing I don’t have a choice?”
“Nope!” Ahsoka says with a smile.
On their next joint mission, Obi-Wan walks up to Anakin on the bridge, looking thoroughly confused. “Anakin, why does everyone on your ship have painted nails?” He inquires.
Anakin tilts his head at Ahsoka who starts speaking. “I was painting my nails, and then the men just started coming up to me, asking if I could paint their nails too,” she explains. “And then, everyone started doing it! So now, we’re all cooler than you.”
Cody, who’d walked up next to Obi-Wan, looks at the Jedi Master. “General,... you know what this means, right?”
Obi-Wan sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Fine, I’ll get some paint for the 212th.”
Cody shoots Anakin and Ahsoka a smirk. “Our nails will look better than yours.”
Rex, who’d just walked in, glared at his brother. “You’re just jealous, so now you’re copying us.”
The Clone Commander gives the Captain an innocent look. “Call it a fashion trend, if you will.”
Obi-Wan looks at the group. “Why do all of you insist to butt heads with each other all the time? Why can’t we just work together?”
Anakin gives his former Master an evil smile. “Because, Obi-Wan, where’s the fun in that?”