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Heavy footsteps outside the bunk room caught Fives attention 30 seconds before the door slid open and Tup ran in.
“I just saw Commander Rex leaving Commander Tano’s room!”
Fives turned to Tup, unsure why his brother felt this news worth running and shouting, “Ok?”
Tup looked back at Fives, “Ok! That’s all you have to say? Rex just left Commander Tano’s room!”
Fives glanced at Kix, who looked just as confused as Fives felt, as Kix rose and approached Tup, “Ok Tup, why don’t you tell us what happened?”
“Right. So I was walking back from my morning workout, when I passed Ahsoka’s room. She and Rex were standing in the doorway and she was hugging him. Then they said goodbye and he headed to his room.”
Fives thought for a moment, then determined that this sounded like nothing. “Well they are friends, it makes sense that sometimes they hug.”
Tup rolled his eyes, “Yes, but at 0600? Not wearing clothes?”
Fives coughed. No clothes was certainly something.
Jesse chose this moment to finally join the conversation, “They weren’t wearing clothes? In the hallway?”
Tup threw his arms out and sighed, “Well, maybe they were wearing clothes, but they weren’t wearing much! Rex didn’t have a shirt on and I think Commander Tano was only wearing a shirt.” Tup paused for a moment and looked down at his own shirt, “I think she was wearing Rex’s shirt.”
That was interesting, and unexpected.
“You think she was only wearing a shirt?” Kix asked.
“Well, I mean, I didn’t see it so well, but I feel like I saw too much of her legs.” Tup shuffled his foot and looked at the ground, “I wasn’t trying to gawk or anything so I can’t be sure.”
Fives snorted thinking of that little skirt the commander wore when she had first joined the 501st. Fives could see how one of her usual articles of clothing could be mistaken for not being there. “She was probably just wearing shorts or something. She’s got those really short ones she likes to run in.”
Tup turned to Fives, clearly exasperated, “But why was she wearing Rex’s shirt?”
“She probably spilt something on hers so Rex lent her his.”
Tup looked unconvinced, “Yeah ok, but at 0600? Why was he already there?”
Jesse spoke up again, “Yeah vod, that is strange. You don’t think they were…”
“Do not even finish that question.” Kix interrupted.
“Yeah, but you can’t deny what it looks like!” Jesse implored.
Fives almost laughed at the suggestion. “It definitely wasn’t what it looked like. Who knows, those two are so busy they could have been planning or just catching up. Trust me, there is nothing going on between Rex and Ahsoka, it is completely platonic, Rex told me himself.”
At least, Fives was pretty sure Rex had said platonic. Fives had maybe been thinking about the reports of their next destination.
Warm beaches and blue water and light breezes. Ocean vistas, full of lovely inhabitants. Fives had heard the planet was settled by a community of twi-leks centuries ago. They overthrew their masters, stole the ship, found a paradise, and built a community.
Better yet the mission was a milk run. A single commando droid had been located on the planet, clearly badly degraded if the incident reports were anything to go by. It stumbled out of the forest one day, started firing, but it’s targeting systems was so corrupted the only thing it managed to hit were some coconuts that weren’t quite ready to harvest, then proceeded to walk straight into a tree a number of times before one of the colonists finally disabled it.
Fives could picture it now, running into the tree, backing up a few paces, running into the tree again, like one of those simulation characters when they got confused.
Fives had tuned back into the conversation just in time for Commander Rex to say “…tonic relationship with Commander Tano. I never expected it, but there it is.”
Platonic was obviously the only word that made sense there. Fives wasn’t sure why Rex never thought he would have a platonic relationship with Ahsoka, maybe it was just because of everything that Kaminoans had said about how clones were to act around Jedi and how the Jedi were to be revered. No one bought any of that anymore, but Fives could easily see how when Rex left Kamino he would never have expected such a close friendship with their Jedi.
“Yes Tup, trust me, Rex told me himself, his relationship with Commander Tano is completely platonic.”
—
As they hoped, the commando droid was a one off. Somehow it had been jettisoned, landed on the planet, and put on an amusing show before finally breaking down. Echo permanently disabled the droid while the rest of the legion completed planetary scans to ensure there wasn’t a secret Separatist base still holding out here.
With the mission sorted, Torrent was given a few days to spend on the beach. The official reason was to make sure nothing decided to pop out when presented with a small Republic presence. Fives was fairly certain it was because Commander Tano wanted to give them men some shore leave.
The local scenery was just as gorgeous as Fives had hoped. He was particularly taken with a young lady with lilac skin and emerald eyes sitting near a bar. He sat on the beach, doing his best to ingratiate himself from a distance. She finally responded to his wink and smile with a smile of her own and Fives decided it was time to introduce himself.
But before he could rise, Echo plopped down beside him.
“What do you make of that?”
Fives tried not to be too perturbed with his brother, “What do I make of what?” Fives responded, without ever looking away from the lovely bar patron.
Echo rolled his eyes, grabbed Fives jaw, and turned him to look at what he wanted him to see. Now Fives was miffed, and also confused. Echo had turned Fives to look at Rex, sitting on the beach, knees up in front of him, arms draped over his bare knees, toes dug into the sand, staring somewhat longingly into the distance “Rex? What about him? I mean sure, it’s weird to see him that still, but he’s been getting better about that since the war ended.”
That was true, Rex had always had trouble when not on a mission or without reports to complete. But as the post war clean-up wrapped up and it seemed that peace would truly last (and as the corruption in the senate had been taken care of so the Clone Bill of Sentient Rights had finally passed) Rex had started to relax. No longer always on edge, waiting for the next threat, Rex looked younger and sometimes almost seemed to glow in happiness.
And right now, he glowed. Fives was happy to see his ori’vod so happy.
Echo’s voice crashed back in, “No you di’kut, look at where he is staring.”
Fives followed Rex’s gaze to, oh. That was unexpected. Rex was watching Ahsoka. She sat on a rock overlooking the shore, meditating. She sat with her legs folded under her and her hands resting lightly over her thighs. The idyllic scenery and peace no doubt helping her meditate. Her cropped athletic top showed exposing her toned back and midriff/ Her tight shorts showing the impressive length of her legs. Fives could understand why any man would stare at her, he was fairly certain Rex wasn’t the only person on the beach watching her, but Fives couldn’t figure out why Rex was.
“Hm, maybe he is worried about her being so exposed?”
Echo shook his head, “No vod, that’s not what is happening there.”
Fives looked at his brother and Echo continued, “If Rex were worried about her being that exposed, he would not be lounging on the beach. He would be standing, thumbing his blaster, watching her six, not gazing at her the same way you are gazing at that twi’lek over there.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, there is no chance Rex is looking at Ahsoka the way I was looking at her,” Fives nodded his head toward where the twi’lek sat.
What was Echo thinking? Rex would never look at Ahsoka that way because he had no intention of doing with Ahsoka what Fives had every intention of doing tonight.
“Echo, I think you should get your eyes checked, you’re seeing things.”
With that, Fives rose to try and seal up a lovely night for himself.
—
Fives entered the mess hall, expecting to enjoy a cup of caf in peace. Instead he was immediately assaulted with raucous conversation.
“I am telling you, Rex was not in his bunk last night, I can hear his door open and close and he never came back.” Leave it to Jesse to track Rex based on doors opening and closing. Once a scout, always scouting.
“That plus the sounds I heard coming from Commander Tano’s bunk? Yeah, they are definitely a thing.”
Fives looked to Vaughn, “What do you mean the sounds coming from Commander Tano’s bunk?”
Vaughn looked up at Fives, “So I was on duty last night, and as I was making my rounds. I wasn’t snooping or anything, but I heard some things coming from the commander’s bunk. She wasn’t alone.”
“And you think she was with Rex?”
Multiple heads nodded.
What was going on with his brothers? Had they all lost their minds? First Tup, then Echo, now Vaughn.
Jesse continued, “Look, Fives, it all adds up.” Jesse held up his hand and started ticking his fingers up as he continued, “Tup saw Rex leaving Ahsoka’s room early one morning with hardly any clothes one, we all saw the way Rex was staring at Ahsoka on the beach, Rex hasn’t been sleeping in his own bunk at all, and there are certain sounds coming from Ahsoka’s room. They are together!”
Tup was one thing, that was an accident, and Echo was just seeing things that weren’t there, but now the men were spying on Ahsoka and keeping track of Rex’s movement? Fives could not believe it had gone this far. Hadn’t anyone listened to him?
In his frustration, Fives failed to noticed the whoosh of the door opening.
“Come on! There isn’t anything going on between Ahsoka and Rex. It is entirely platonic, Rex told me so!”
“Fives” Ahsoka’s said from behind him.
Fives turned on his heel and stood at attention. It was a formality Ahsoka never demanded outside of a mission, but being caught talking about her put Fives on edge.
All of his brothers were also standing at attention, apparently also falling back on formality to cover the awkwardness.
Ahsoka looked around the room before speaking again, “What is going on here?”
No one spoke.
No one moved.
No one took their eyes off the wall in front of them.
Ahsoka rolled her eyes and came to stand directly in front of Fives.
“Fives, report.” Commander Tano responded to their formality with her own, shifting into what the men called her ‘commander voice’.
Fives took a breath before answering, “The men have been doing some harmless theorizing, sir.”
“Theorizing about what?”
Fives cleared his throat, “You and Commander Rex, sir. Some of the men have been noticing some things and thought it might mean you and Commander Rex were,” Fives paused as he searched for the right word, “fraternizing, sir. But I assured them it was not what it looked like.”
Ahsoka crossed her arms and raised an eye marking, “and how do you know it isn’t what it looks like?”
Fives broke attention as he looked at her, confused, “Well sir, Rex told me. He said it was platonic.”
Now it was Ahsoka’s turn to appear confused, “He said it was platonic?” Ahsoka paused, eye markings scrunched together, before looking back at Fives, “Let’s go visit Rex.”
With that, Ahsoka turned and headed out of the mess. Fives would have mourned his caf as he followed, but he was too nervous about what was about to happen.
Far too soon, Fives found himself entering Rex’s office behind Ahsoka.
“Hey Rexter.”
Rex looked up from his pad, “Ahsoka, Fives, what can I do for you?”
Ahsoka leaned against the desk, facing Rex, “I just stopped by the mess to grab some food when I heard a very interesting conversation.”
Rex turned to Fives, one eyebrow raised.
“Yes, it seems the men have been doing a little investigating. They have somehow gotten it into their heads that we are together.”
Ahsoka paused and Rex looked back at her, “Don’t worry, Fives was assuring them all that you had told them our relationship was purely platonic.”
There was a strange emphasis on the word platonic that Fives didn’t understand.
Did Commander Tano not know what that word meant? That would be surprising, but Fives could not think of another explanation.
Rex sighed, pushed back from the desk and started to walk towards Fives. As he passed her, Rex took Ahsoka’s hand and kissed her cheek.
What the hell?
Rex moved on and finally came to stand in front of Fives.
Fives had yet to look away from the cheek Rex had kissed. Rex cleared his throat and Fives turned to face his commander.
“Fives, when did I tell you Ahsoka and I had a platonic relationship?”
What? How did Rex not remember this?
“It was two weeks ago sir. We had just gotten the scouting reports for our mission. You mentioned how we may get some down time and mentioned wanting to spend some time with Ashoka.”
Fives paused, because now that he said it, it sounded like something not platonic may actually be happening.
Fives continued, quieter this time, “and then you said your relationship was platonic and how happy you are.”
Behind Rex, Ahsoka snickered.
Rex seemed to find the situation far less amusing. His brow pinched and he rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers as he spoke, “Tectonic.”
Fives did not respond. Fives had no idea how to respond.
“I said the relationship was tectonic, Fives. Ground quaking, mountain moving, volcano erupting, tectonic.”
No longer able to contain herself, Ahsoka was fully laughing behind Rex.
Tectonic.
They were in a relationship. It was what it looked like.
Shit.
“Next time we are having a conversation, I expect your attention to be on me and not on your next shore leave, otherwise you will be spending your shoreleave on latrine duty.”
Fives nodded, “Yes sir, I apologize sir.”
Rex looked back up at Fives, “You are dismissed trooper.”
Fives hurried to the door as Rex moved back to Ahsoka. Before he could leave, Rex spoke again.
“Oh and Fives,” Fives turned to Rex but Rex’s eyed didn’t move from Ahsoka, “I believe you have a misunderstanding to clear up with the men.”
Rex then placed his hands on Ahsoka’s face and kissed her. Fives was amazed at the way his commanders melted into each other.
Fives turned and left the room, marveling at how he had missed it.
He groaned, realizing he had to go admit his mistake to all of Torrent.
As Fives made his way back to the mess, where he hoped everyone still was, he swore to himself he would never be distracted during a conversation again.