#CEvalentive2025

[binkyisonline]

𝕂𝕚𝕤𝕤 𝕞𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖'𝕤 𝕟𝕠 𝕥𝕠𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕨

Made for @for-the-sake-of-color (Sith OC Nihlus and Medic Kix) 🖤

@clone-exchange

[for-the-sake-of-color]

"Senator! We have to stop meeting like this, people will talk." "Hello again, Commander! Let them."

For the Clone Exchange: Valentines Day hosted by @clone-exchange Prompt- Fox/Padme for @trooperlaugh

[trooperlaugh]

Shifting, shifting

Happy Clone Exchange Valentines day to at @sidhebeingbrand !

Hosted by: @clone-exchange

Echo paced from one end of the hall to another. In an attempt to keep himself from worrying too much about Rex, he focused on replaying their recently concluded mission.

Gregor and Howzer had been sent to Zeltros for an information exchange with a minor official assigned to the Senate. The plan had been for Echo, Rex and a small team to pick them up before making their way to a rendezvous with one of Chuchi’s informants.

Everything had been going well, timelines were on-track and there was no sign of the Imperials. Then the hotel where Howzer and Gregor had been staying was bombed. Echo couldn’t remember Rex ever losing his composure the way he had when that piece of intel had come in.

Echo could tell from the look on Outboard’s face when he got the comm that it wasn’t good news, but he hadn’t blanched enough that Echo figured the situation was salvageable. When Outbound had relayed the information to the rest of the crew, the five of them had, per usual, turned to Rex for next moves, but Rex hadn’t been standing in his perfect parade rest, ready with a plan immediately. Instead, he’d been frozen, face frozen in horror. His jaw had been moving, but no sound had come out.

“Rex?” Echo had asked.

Nothing.

Echo, Outboard and Heron had exchanged looks.

“Okay,” Echo had said, “here’s what we’re going to do.”

The plan he’d laid out hadn’t been that dissimilar from the one the Batch had used when getting the Syndulla’s out of Imperial custody on Rytloth. They hadn’t even needed to do most of what Eco had laid out. They’d landed the shuttle outside of town and walked the few kilometres in. Rex and Outboard had stayed on the ship.

Gregor and Howzer hadn’t been hard to find. They hadn’t even been in the hotel when it had been blown up, having taken one last trip through the markets for some breakfast. When they’d heard about the hotel, they’d made their way back to help. If they’d still been apart of the GAR, Echo might’ve berated them for not immediately going to their rendezvous. A few months ago, he might’ve done that. Zeltros was a friendly planet though, and from the way that Gregor was shaking, toeing the line of being frantic. Echo could sympathise with the fear and adrenaline that came with being around an explosion, and the need to try and help afterwards.

The four of them had made it back to the shuttle without a hitch.

Rex had locked himself in his room. A routine that he had continued once they found the rooms Chuchi had set up for them on Pasher.

Which left Echo to his pacing.

And to being startled when the door slid open, revealing a very slouched Rex.

“What’re you doing, Echo?” Rex asked. His voice was scratchy, like his throat was raw.

“Checking in on you,” Echo said. He accompanied the statement with a shrug and wondered if he looked anymore like Fives when he did it.

Rex snorted derisively.

“You’re pacing.”

“I can do two things at once,” Echo said. “I’m highly trained after all.”

That almost got him a smile.

“You’re a bit of a shit, Corporal,” Rex sighed. “C’mon in.”

The room was identical to the one that Echo had been assigned. Simple, but the carpeted floor was soft, even under Echo’s boots and metal feet, and the bed was big enough for two. A small dent in the comforter at the foot of the bed was the only sign that Rex had been in the room for the last couple hours at all.    

Rex didn’t go back to the end of the bed. He just stood, swaying a little on his feet, facing the wall. Echo could see the twitching in his jaw.      

They were quiet, until Rex asked, “How’re Gregor and Howzer?”

“Both fine,” Echo assured him. “Sleeping it off down the hall.”

Taking advantage of the bed big enough for both of them to comfortably fit in.

Rex exhaled long and loud, looking around the room with a kind of fragile desperation. When he looked back at Echo, Rex stumbled forward a few steps right into Echo’s chest and planting his face in the crook of Echo’s neck. Echo gave himself five seconds to adjust to this clear departure from their previously established roles.

During the war, Rex’s behaviour might not have been so surprising. All the vod’e were tactile, prone to crawling all over each other having never really learnt what personal space was. Torrent had been no different, and Torrent had been Rex’s. Before they were the 501st or General Skywalker’s or the GAR’s, Torrent had been Rex’s and he had been theirs. They took care of each other. Closeness like this was expected. 

The Batch was even more tactile than Torrent had been, but Echo’d never joined in as much as he once might have. Spending over a year in the cryo-tube hadn’t done wonders for Echo’s desire to be restrained in any way, even if it was just a result of a cuddle.

“Okay, okay, hey,” Echo murmured, running a hand over the back of Rex’s head. It wasn’t the usual soft prickle Echo had expected. “You need a trim.”

Rex’s long groan almost made Echo laugh, but he swallowed it down. There were some things that Echo still couldn’t bring himself to do, less out of respect for Rex as his CO and more out of respect for a colleague.

“C’mon, I’ll do it for you,” Echo offered. “You’ll barely have to do anything.”

“I’ll have walk over to the bathroom,” Rex mumbled.

Echo was glad that Rex’s face was still buried in his vest so that he didn’t catch Echo’s eyeroll.

“I think you’ll make it, Captain. C’mon, no use putting it off.”

Rex huffed one more time but did peel himself off of Echo’s front and managed to slouch into the bathroom. Echo followed a step behind.

One of the perks of being put up by a Senator was that their suite was a little roomier than usual. There was at least enough space for two clones to fit between the edge of the counter and the frosted glass that enclosed the shower.

While Echo dug around in one of the drawers for the clippers, Rex peeled his shirt off, dropping it on the ground. It was such an un-Rex-like move that it convinced Echo more than anything else that afternoon of how tired Rex really was.

Echo promised, “I’ll be quick.”

“Just don’t make it uneven,” Rex grumbled.

“I’m not Jesse,” Echo said, some false offence in his tone.

He caught the ghost of Rex’s tiny smile in the mirror, and didn’t press. He remembered what had meant to be downtime on Imroosia. It had been another one failed attempt at diplomacy with the Seppies that had devolved into fighting. The fighting hadn’t been a surprise. Unfortunately, Jesse hadn’t been expecting the alarm to go off when he’d been helping Rex with his hair. He’d buzzed it so close that the only option Rex had been left with was going completely bald. Rex had not worn the look as well as Waxer.

Draping an unusually plush towel across Rex’s shoulders, Echo flicked on the clippers and got to work. A little pile of blonde curls started to pile up quickly. Echo fought back memories of Omega, her hair glowing, even under Salucami’s dull sun on her first trip off of Kamino.

To get his mind off his sister, Echo looked up at Rex’s reflection in the mirror. Rex had closed his eyes, and a new lump built up in Echo’s throat at the sign of trust. Then he had to keep himself from nicking the back of Rex’s neck when Echo noticed the tears that had started falling quickly over his cheeks. For half a second, Echo considered putting the clippers down, but decided that that would be worse. He did buy himself some time by brushing some of the hair off of Rex’s shoulders. It floated to the floor, and Echo turned the clippers back on.

Rex’s tears didn’t last long and Echo finished getting his buzz in order quickly as well. While Echo put the clippers back where he’d found them, he saw Rex roughly swiping the last of his tears from his face, leaving his face angry and flushed, tacky streaks still on his cheeks.

“Hop up,” Echo said, patting the counter top.

“What?” Rex said, eyebrows hiking up his forehead.

Echo patted the counter again. This time, Rex did as he was told.

“You’re as bad as the shinnies sometimes, you know that?” Echo told him.

Rex’s barked laugh was singular and brittle.

“Cody used to say the same thing.”

Echo winced, turning away from Rex to pull one of the small towels off the shelf by the sink. He soaked it in cold water and wrung it out. He stepped to stand in front of Rex, and started to dab the cloth at his puffy eyes. On a night that had been full of breaches of old protocol, this shouldn’t have felt as inappropriate as it did.

What, Echo wondered, was one more step across the line.

“I know you’re used to being the one in charge, keeping us all in line, making sure everything goes to plan,” Echo started, “but things have changed since the war. Hells, things have changed since you started trying to find our brothers. You aren’t going at it alone anymore.”  

Rex sniffled, said “Damn,” and pulled the towel away from his eyes as he started crying again. He started to lean forward, half aborted the movement, and then followed through, pressing his forehead to Echo’s in a keldabe kiss.

They stayed there, suspended in the comfort and tenderness and sadness of the moment until Rex again broke the silence.

“Promise?” he whispered.

“Yeah,” Echo murmured, “yeah, I promise.”