#if anyone tags this as clone/cest i’m taking your fucking knees

[tending-the-hearth]

thinking about rex and echo finding cody, and the three of them reuniting and hugging, but in the back of each of their minds is The Picture, and they can’t help but know that one person is missing, one spot can’t be filled, their little quartet won’t ever be the same again.

[tending-the-hearth]

thinking about Cody and Rex adopting Fives and Echo but like… both of them being absolute Dads and Cody getting so excited whenever the 212th and the 501st work together, or they reunite at the main clone barracks on Coruscant.

ESPECIALLY in the time soon after Rishi, when these two shinies have imprinted in Cody and Rex like little ducklings, and vice versa.

And the first time Cody sees his 501st boys after being part from his vod’ika and their twins?

like it is the one and only time any of the other battalions other than the 212th and 501st have seen Cody lose his composure, when Rex walks into the barracks with the twins behind him.

just Fives and Echo shouting "CODY!" and running towards the commander, and Cody immediately beaming and opening his arms to his boys, and Rex laughing as he gets tackled to the ground by the very clingy and very excitable Domino twins, and Cody absolutely cherishes every single moment.

and Cody absolutely loathing every minute that he isn't able to be part of the mission to rescue Echo, but standing outside on the platform as the Marauder lands, Kix and Obi-Wan on either side, hovering worriedly, but Cody only cares about the clones inside the ship.

he hears Echo's voice before he sees him, and the sound of one of his boys shouting his name has tears filling his eyes before he can help it, and he's already staggering towards the ship by the time Echo, supported by Rex, walks out.

Of course, they're both moving slower, and they're not at the barracks on Coruscant, but they hug each other with that same ferocity. Echo still nearly takes Cody to the ground, and Cody still holds Echo close like he's one of the most important people in the galaxy (because to Cody, he is). Echo still hugs Cody like he did the first time they reunited after Rishi, as though he's scared everything is a dream, that Cody will disappear if he lets go.

Rex and Cody tuck Echo between them that night, the two older brothers daring the Force itself to take their vod'ika away from them.

[tending-the-hearth]

sitting here cradling my "echo is crosshair's favorite brother" hcs so gently after the latest episode and pushing my own sibling agenda onto everything that happened

bc i'm thinking about crosshair helping mayday, because yes ofc he's being a good brother, but also because crosshair sees echo in mayday: the reg, the one survivor of his squad still standing, the one outsider in a world of new differences.

when he met echo, echo was already different, already more similar to the batch then to the other clones, so it made sense for crosshair to be able to attach to him and view him as a brother (even though i fully believe it took a little while for them to really have that connection)

but even with his connection to echo (and to cody) crosshair never truly thought of the other clones as his brothers, until he met mayday.

and there's someone just like him, someone who makes him think that maybe, before the citadel, this was what echo was like. maybe, when he's carrying mayday back to the base, crosshair's thinking about tech carrying echo on his back out of tambor's facility.

crosshair's break from the empire's control being because of his brother, the regs, finally seeing first hand what's happening, and experiencing it when he thought that he and his brothers would be immune to the changes happening around them.