#gararex

[antianakin]

I am proposing two alternate ships for poor Zeb whose only popular fanon love interest is apparently the dude who committed a genocide against his entire species and honestly Zeb deserves SO MUCH better.

The first is Chewie because, obviously. They've got a lot in common they can bond over!

The second is Rex because if I'm going to give Zeb a human love interest who was a soldier that has trauma in his past, it's not going to be the fucking fascist dickhole. Rex is RIGHT THERE, he's beautiful, he's strong, he's a sarcastic bastard with the best of them, he's loyal and honorable. Why WOULDN'T Zeb be interested in Rex? Plus, they could probably both use some stress relief and they often work together on the same team, so the proximity is helping my case here, too.

[antianakin]

Welcome to the pool noodle!

The only other fic I found was a gen fic where they discuss loss.

If I could write fic, I'd be trying to write fic for this poor pool noodle of mine.

@antianakin how could you make me ship Rex/Zeb with your awesome tags on that post only to let me find out that there is one (1) fic on ao3 for the pairing and it’s explicit

😫😭 I just want some nice getting together/feelings discovery fic for them now

[antianakin]

I like to headcanon that Zeb/Rex are the kind of couple that probably start off as casual friends with benefits and then one day just come to the realization that actually they love each other and have been in a relationship for a few years and everyone around them knew this before they did.

Also, Rex DEFINITELY figures it out before Zeb, but he is a massive shit and so he decides to say nothing and just wait to see how long Zeb takes before he figures it out for himself.

[antianakin]

Zeb brings Rex to Lira San at some point to introduce him to the people there, both the Lasat who had already been there as well as the two Lasat survivors from Lasan. I have to assume that the culture on Lira San is significantly different from the culture that had developed on Lasan. Lira San is literally thought of as a LEGEND on Lasan from what we know which means it has been so long that these two cultures have probably developed in very different directions over time. So while there's probably stuff that Zeb IS familiar with on Lira San, there's going to be so much that he's being introduced to for the first time, as well.

Zeb is so excited to introduce Rex to his people, his culture, but he hasn't really ever spent any time on Lira San himself. He went down quickly to get the other two survivors settled there the first time they arrived and, for security reasons, doesn't go back until after the Empire is defeated. So he's not quite prepared for what it's actually like there. He tries showing Rex things he remembers of his culture, but everything is off or wrong somehow, and he ends up feeling like he doesn't know ANYTHING about these people or this culture and instead of being fun, it's just frustrating and devastating for Zeb, especially since Rex seems genuinely impressed by everything anyway, no matter how wrong it is. Eventually, he just snaps because he can't take it anymore and storms off.

Rex follows and Zeb tries to tell him to leave because he'll never get it and Zeb can't begin to understand. Rex says that Zeb's right, he'll never get it, because his people won't ever have something like this. Rex is never going to find some hidden enclave of the clones somewhere that have been safely and peacefully developing their culture on their own. It's just him and Gregor and Wolffe now, as far as Rex knows and it always will be. So Rex will never understand the pain that Zeb is currently going through by being confronted with a culture that feels like it SHOULD be familiar, but isn't quite. He'll never be confronted with an entire culture that manages to simultaneously bring him so much joy and relief as well as endless pain and devastation.

But this puts him in a unique position of being able to see the Lira San culture through the eyes of an outsider, without the pain it causes Zeb. He offers to show Zeb what HE sees when he looks at Lira San, to let Zeb explore this culture through Rex's eyes instead of his own. Zeb agrees, reluctantly, but it actually works. They go back through the market, the landmarks of this city they're staying in, the surrounding landscapes, the people, the language, the music. And instead of being frustrated at what he CAN'T see, he starts just enjoying being able to listen to what Rex CAN see. He can't always see it himself, he knows that it might take him a while to see it for himself and that sometimes he might NEVER see it, but for now, it's enough that Rex can see it and enjoy it and tell Zeb all about it.

They try a bunch of new foods together, they spar together and practice both the fighting styles they already know as well as try to learn local Lira San styles, they take a lot of trips out across the planet to see its different flora and fauna, they go see performances. Rex and Zeb just... spend a long time experiencing everything Lira San has to offer. And Zeb recognizes the irony in Rex having to sort-of introduce Lasat culture to him instead of the other way around, but he loves Rex so much for giving him this. He already knew how much Rex meant to him, he wouldn't have brought Rex to Lira San otherwise, but this is the moment he realizes he's going to spend the rest of his life with Rex.

In return, Zeb tries to ask Rex about the clones as much as he can. He asks Rex to talk about Wolffe and Gregor, but also about everyone he's lost. He asks about the 501st, and learns about Fives and Echo, about Hardcase and Dogma, about Tup and Jesse and Kix, about Appo and Denal and so many others. He asks about the other captains and commanders and hears about Cody and Fox and Ponds and Bly and Gree and Doom and Monnk. He asks how the clones chose their names and hears so many stories about the different ways clones got their names, some choosing them for themselves and some being given them by other clones, some naming themselves after something they loved and some naming themselves something that sounded cool at the time. He asks about hair and tattoos and learns about whether Rex ever wanted to dye his hair a different color and what everybody's tattoos meant and how the clones learned to tattoo each other when they left Kamino and started to see tattoos on other species.

And Zeb doesn't just ask for these stories so he alone can hear them, he sometimes asks when they're just walking around the marketplace and have picked up a gaggle of little Lasat kids who think they're cool and are perfectly happy to try to follow along with the stories Rex tells about his people. Rex always makes sure those stories are funny or heroic. He saves the sad ones for when he and Zeb are alone.

It turns out that the Lasat also had a tattooing culture of its own. The people of Lasan had had their own styles of course, but the practice itself had been brought there from Lira San, so Zeb asks Rex if he would want to teach the clones' style of tattooing to the tattoo artists on Lira San, so that the style at least could live on even if the clones themselves did not. Rex needs a few minutes to get himself together enough to try to teach anyone anything, but he is more than happy to work with the tattoo artists and pass along what he knows of his people's tattoo culture. Afterwards, Zeb asks if Rex wants to get tattooed with him, something they could share. A piece of both of their cultures, linking them together.

Rex says yes, because this is the moment HE decides he's going to spend the rest of his life with Zeb.

[antianakin]

I have decided that the reason Rex and Zeb aren't in the Ahsoka show is because they're off on Lira San being an adorable married old man couple minding their own business instead of getting caught up in the stupid selfish galaxy-ending bullshit everyone else has managed to completely fuck up.

[antianakin]

I do, too, this is why I ended up shipping Zeb and Rex because if people want to ship Zeb with a traumatized human soldier character with a darker sense of humor, Rex is RIGHT THERE.

It started as kind-of a joke and then became a little more serious and I do genuinely ship Zeb and Rex now. You can find some of the posts I've made on it under the tag "gararex" or "rexeb" (I haven't picked a ship name).

Obikin and Kalluzeb are basically the same ship in terms of dynamics, even though the backstory for both is very different. But they're both, effectively, a genocidal fascist and one of the few survivors of said genocide.

No wonder I hate them both so much.

[antianakin]

I love that this situation means that either Zeb is completely zoning out of the meeting and just thinking about Rex instead which is what ultimately leads him to this conclusion, OR somehow something in this meeting causes him to realize it which says something very intriguing about whatever this meeting is.

I like to headcanon that Zeb/Rex are the kind of couple that probably start off as casual friends with benefits and then one day just come to the realization that actually they love each other and have been in a relationship for a few years and everyone around them knew this before they did.

Also, Rex DEFINITELY figures it out before Zeb, but he is a massive shit and so he decides to say nothing and just wait to see how long Zeb takes before he figures it out for himself.