Diclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

Rex stormed out of the medbay, jamming his helmet on forcefully. He couldn't believe that he'd just lost four troopers—shinies straight off of Kamino, dead on their first mission. Two had been lost in the field, one in the shuttle on the way back to the Resolute, and the last while the useless medical droid fiddled around with a syringe of anticoagulants.

Rex strode swiftly through the corridors of the ship, pressure building in his chest, as he looked for a place to be alone with his anger. Finally, he found a small hallway where no one but a mouse droid would see or hear him break down. Letting go of his officer's composure, Rex let loose at the durasteel plating of the wall.

He punched the wall over and over, cursing eloquently and imagining that it was the faceplate of a battle droid. When he stepped back and kicked it hard, he was rewarded with seeing a small dent appear in the metal shell. He pounded the wall with his fists again until he was out of breath. Finally, Rex ripped off his helmet and threw it down the passage with a furious shout.

His angry energy spent, Rex fell back against the wall and slid to the ground, putting his face in his hands. One dry sob escaped him before he could stop it. He sat there for several moments, taking deep breaths as tried to collect himself.

"Rex?" The soldier looked up to see Ahsoka holding his abused bucket under one arm. He took one look at the young Jedi's face and knew that she'd witnessed his entire episode. Trying to retain some pride, Rex started to stand up. Ahsoka gestured for him to stay put and sat down cross-legged next to him, placing his helmet on the floor next to her, out of his reach.

They sat in silence for a while, both staring at the scuffed wall. Ahsoka glanced up at the dent made by Rex's boot and turned her head to grin at him. "What'd that poor wall ever do to you?"

Rex couldn't help but give her a small smile in return. "Gave me a dirty look and made a rude comment involving Gamorreans."

"Ah. It was asking for it, then," Ahsoka said seriously, giving a slow nod. She waited another moment before nudging him with her elbow. "You all right?"

"I'm fine…just tired." He knew that wasn't what she was asking, but he didn't want to talk about the fact that she saw him lose control of his emotions. Rex sighed and ran a gloved hand over the short bleached blond fuzz of his scalp. He winced and brought his hand back in front of him, stretching his fingers. "Ow."

Ahsoka gave a quiet laugh and reached for his hand. "Yeah, picking a fight with a durasteel wall will do that to you. Let me see." Rex allowed Ahsoka to remove his glove and watched as she turned his hand over in her small, cool ones. She frowned at the redness of his knuckles and ran a small finger over the sore area. Rex nearly jerked his hand from her grasp, but let her continue to examine his injuries.

She gently placed that hand on his thigh and reached for the other. "Is your left one like that, too?" Ahsoka pulled off the other glove and sighed. She shifted her position so that she was facing him and held both of his hands in hers. Rex watched her face as she inspected his hands.

"Rex, you can't hurt yourself like this…it's stupid." She looked up at her friend, her blue eyes wide with concern. He held her gaze for a second before glancing away.

"Yeah, well, I do a lot of stupid stuff, kid." He cleared his throat quietly and looked back at her; her eyes hadn't wavered, but she looked sadder now. "How'd you find me anyway? Other than the fact that the entire ship probably heard me…"

Ahsoka smiled at him again, her eyes brightening. "I followed you. And don't worry; you were pretty loud, but you weren't that loud."

"You followed me?"

"Yup. I mean, you were so upset, I would have felt it on Kashyyyk. I was worried about you," she said. She squeezed his hands gently, giving unconscious emphasis to her words. Rex noticed that the blue stripes of her head-tails became more vividly colored and glanced down, looking at her small orange hands laying over his large tanned ones.

Rex squeezed her hands back and smiled at her. "Why worry about me? You're the important one." Her white eyebrow-like facial markings rose and her lekku stripes got even darker, so he quickly amended his statement. "Jedi, I mean. You shouldn't waste your time losing sleep over us clones. We're expendable, you're not."

"Don't say that, Rex. You're not 'expendable,' and I'll lose sleep over whomever I like." She glared at him while he stared back, startled at the forcefulness of her statement. She looked away, self-conscious, and folded her arms. Rex laughed, earning himself a furious blue glare. "No laughing at commanders, Captain Rex."

"Don't try to pull rank on me, kid. You came to cheer me up and you succeeded. You should be happy, not embarrassed."

"I'm not embarrassed," she argued weakly, leaning forward so that her forehead rested against his plastoid-covered arm. Rex bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at the girl's montrals, fighting the urge to put his arm around Ahsoka and draw her closer to him. After an uncomfortable moment had passed, he sighed, giving up, and wrapped his arm around her slim waist, pulling her against his side.

She stiffened slightly, and he quickly loosened his grip. Instead of moving away from him, however, she laid her head against his shoulder and stroked the fingers of the warm hand resting on her stomach. Rex rested his chin on the top of her head and took a deep breath. Her skin was hotter than his, and had a warm, agreeable scent.

Despite the hard plastoid pressing against her body, Ahsoka felt comfortable sitting like that with Rex…like it was perfectly natural for a Jedi Padawan and a clone captain to be sitting on the floor so close together. For a while the war and the rest of the galaxy didn't exist. And then…

"Hey, Ahsoka, have you seen Rex?" The two jumped apart quickly and awkwardly. Ahsoka sat bewildered for a second before she looked down at the comlink from which her master's voice was still coming. "He's not answering his comm."

Lifting her arm closer to her face, Ahsoka answered, glancing quickly at Rex. "Um, yes, Master. I'm with him right now."

"Here, sir."

"Good. Rex, I need you to come up to the wardroom…" Anakin's voice faded from the notice of them both as they looked at each other shyly. Ahsoka broke the sudden awkwardness by grinning widely at Rex and standing up. Rex returned the smile, grabbing his gloves and helmet before rising to join Ahsoka.

As they started to walk toward the repulsorlift that would take them to the upper decks, Ahsoka reached out to give Rex's bare hand one last squeeze before he replaced his glove and they rejoined the rest of the world.

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