"This is the good restaurant that you heard recommended by all the smugglers back on Tatooine, General?" Rex took off his helmet and raised an eyebrow.
Anakin cleared his throat, "Well, maybe the quality's gone down in the last fifteen years. I dunno. It was close, and we're all starving."
"Well, they're going to be pretty hard-pressed to find food worse than the ration bars. I'm not complaining." Rex said, claiming a table for them.
"Let's see the menu to look at this grub." Ahsoka took out the torn piece of flimsi. "Ooh, this looks like a good option! I've never had anything along the lines of Rodian cuisine before."
Anakin nudged Ahsoka gently, "I think it's a stretch to call anything in here 'cuisine.'"
After the three had decided their orders, they finally managed to flag over a waiter.
"What do you three want?" He asked in a deep, gruff voice.
"I'll take the Rodian platter, please." Ahsoka said, smiling.
"It's not that great. Nothing to look forward to, that's for sure." The waiter told Ahsoka.
"It might just not be the taste for you." Ahsoka tried to reason with him. Anakin saw the waiter's eyes narrow, and he put a hand on Ahsoka's shoulder.
"Fits with the budget." Anakin hastily said. "Anyway, I'll have the Smuggler's Dump."
"You look like too much of a namby-pamby rich boy to handle that slop." The waiter replied as he wrote down Anakin's order. Anakin opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it; that guy would be serving him his food."
"I'll be having the Dark-as-Sith soup, sir." Rex plainly told him.
"You don't look like the type to be dealing with Sith." The waiter told him as he collected the menus.
"You don't know everything about everyone in the galaxy." Anakin grinned. The smile caught around the table, and the waiter scooted away quickly.
"He probably thinks you're a Sith lord now, Skyguy." Ahsoka held her sides.
"Good. Imagine, me as a Sith lord."
"I am Darth Anakin, ruler of the Republic." Ahsoka replied, and Rex, though he didn't know as much about how the Sith worked, laughed along with them.
"No, I need some nice name. Like…Darth Acetus." Anakin put his hood over his head. "Come young one. Come to the dark side, Padawan Tano. Feel the power surging through you. Together, we shall take over the galaxy, and rule it as two." Anakin made his voice raspy, and wiggled his fingers comically."
Ahsoka played along. "I am tired of the Jedi order! I shall walk down those cursed steps, no longer a slave to the light! I, Darth Inani, will fight at your side. We'll march up those temple stairs, and eliminate the weak."
Rex grinned as he found a way to play as well. "You cannot take on all of those Jedi by yourself, even with your formidable powers. The elite 501st legion will assist you in forming the new galactic dictatorship!"
At that point, none of them could keep a straight face any longer. Their laughter filled the greasy spoon, causing confusion in the customers around them.
"General, I could never imagine you as a Sith lord." Rex said, wiping his eyes.
"Yeah, Anakin, where'd you get that idea from?" Ahsoka asked.
"I don't know…when the waiter said that, it just came to me."
After the group sat in silence awkwardly for about a minute, Ahsoka felt the need to fill it: "So, did we do that mission well, or did we do that mission well?" Ahsoka asked, looking proudly at Rex and Anakin.
"I'd say we did well, kid." Rex told her. They filled the air with idle conversation for half an hour, when they all started to get extraordinarily hungry.
"Hey," Ahsoka asked in a quiet voice, "does food normally take this long to get here?"
Anakin shook his head.
"Ah well, still better than what we've normally got, right?" Rex asked. Anakin shrugged.
"Let's look at some of the shady types around here and try to guess what they might be." Anakin suggested a short while afterward.
"Okay." Rex scanned the building, "That guy over there. See the Troidarian? I'll bet he's an arms dealer, and that Twi'lek he's talking to right now is buying those weapons for Separatist use."
"Good eye, Captain." Anakin said. "Let's go take them out. I'll bet that we'll have saved the Republic."
"Again." Ahsoka added.
"Right," Anakin smiled, "again."
"Hopefully we'll get to save it many more times before the war is over." Rex said, lifting his glass. "To bravery!"
The others lifted their glasses too; never mind that they were filled with water, and toasted. After that, they were giggling helplessly, laughing to laugh because the situation called for it, because there was nothing worse that needed their attention.
The waiter interrupted their laughter. "Did I give you something stronger to drink by mistake? Anyway, here's your grub." He pushed it onto the table and left. Ahsoka nervously scooted her platter toward her, and tried it. The presentation was sloppy, and the portions were only okay, but her eyes lit up.
"Guys, mine's really good; there's actual flavor in it!"
Rex stirred his soup around, before closing his eyes and putting the spoon in his mouth. "It's hot, but it's really rich, and it makes you feel warm after you're done."
Finally, Anakin tried his. "Hearty. It makes me feel like I'm actually regaining the lost calories from the mission." He laughed.
The trio ate their food in happiness, complimenting it periodically. The waiter looked at them, confused, and the other patrons couldn't fathom why those three individuals thought that the food from the place everybody went to in order to fill themselves up cheaply and go was good.
After the three were done, the waiter approached them to collect some currency. Anakin dropped some (not credits, of course) into the waiter's palm.
"Courtesy of the bounty hunter whose ship we 'borrowed.'" Anakin whispered to Ahsoka and Rex.
Before the group could walk away, however, the waiter looked at them seriously.
"The food at this place is shit. Are you three out of your minds?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. It tasted fine to me." Rex said.
"You three must be recently released prisoners or something to think this slop tastes good." The waiter muttered and walked away.
As the three walked back to the ship, Ahsoka made note of the name, and asked Anakin and Rex to remind her to never stop there again.
"The food was good, but the service was terrible."