Disclaimer: Star wars franchise belongs to many people and companies from George Lucas to Disney, however I'm not among them.
(un)necessary luxury
By your-biohazardous-friend
They won the battle. Ahsoka was glad, truly glad, that the causalities were so scarce: Fallen comrades could be counted with fingers of one hand. The pick up should arrive any minute now, or so her master claimed solemnly time and time again for the past few hours. The delay was understandable - The place was so remote and out-dated that, at first, they had a problems connecting to the mainframe due lack of proper plugs but also decipher archaic Basic in which everything was written with.
Clone soldiers filled every square inch of that small waiting room of some tiny facility at some micro-planet in the end of the universe. Despite clinging to the farthest corner of the room Ahsoka had hard time avoiding the overlapping smell of overheated blasters, burned flesh, bacta-based medical supplies and sweaty bodies freed from weeks of confinement in tight fitting, hermetically sealed armours. The sour stench of human bodies was something she never got over. It was, easily, the most foul body odor of all sentient species. It made her hard to focus, causing the headaches or even nausea.
"Ugh!"
Rex glanced at her, he smiled tiredly as he stood up.
"Oh no! Don't you dare, you stinky-" she murmured to herself, subconsciously taking a bigger breath.
"brothers!" Echo shouted from the viscous of the building.
Rex stopped in his tracks, the solider-mode immediately kicking in. Echo was sent to investigate the strange facility not so long time ago. The place looked deserted as it was but be safe than sorry…
The building was small, with simple layout. It was easy to follow Echo's voice and impossible to get lost. The long corridor stretched from the main entrance to the back door with rooms on the left and right side. It must have been an inn or motel back in the day. The building had a kitchen, spacious dining room, some guest rooms and bedrooms. Despite age and lack of proper maintenance, it could be of some use if the ship wouldn't arrive soon.
The first thing that stuck them, right after getting outside, was warmness and humidity in the air.
"check this" Echo gestured at something behind his back. It turned out to be a small lake… no, a large pool imitating a lake. "I think it's constantly heated… somehow"
The whole perimeter was surrounded by fragile-looking high fence, which looked as if it wasn't built for protection but rather to maintain privacy.
"that… makes no sense"
"what the heck is that place?"
"that's…" Anakin had a hard time concealing his grin "that's a bathhouse!"
"sir, you don't think-" Rex tried to reason with his commander as he dropped his cloak to the floor.
"we all need a bath" Anakin retorted "I can smell clothes I'm wearing. What do you think, Kix?"
All eyes turned to the medic. He, as he always stated himself, outranked everyone in terms of healthcare. The man knelt in front of the pool, dipped his hand in the water, stirred the surface hmm-ing and grunting to himself as he examined it, then just shrugged his shoulders as a test result.
"come on! we will be fine!" Anakin, way to eagerly, unfasten his obi and started to peel off layers of Jedi robes.
Clones followed their general's lead but less vigorously, it was their common trait – they all despised to be in vulnerable positions and nakedness was surely in the top of the list.
"what about commander Ahsoka, sir?" Rex glanced worriedly at the Tortuga.
She was currently working on her own clothes, smiling just as gleefully as her master. That was a Jedi thing, right there. As the monks constantly had to reject any form of luxury, the times, were they essentially had to engulf themselves with some forms of it, was greeted with sloppily hidden joy.
Ahsoka had already unfastened her belt, slipping her lightsabers into her boots as it was the Jedi way of safekeeping those deadly weapons.
"what about her?" Anakin echoed, oblivious to the overall distress of his right hand man.
"well… she is…"
"Tortuga?" Skywalker faked a mentoring tone "tsk… tsk… didn't know you were racist, Rex"
"I didn't-" Rex stammered "Sir, the kid's a-?"
"First and foremost Ahsoka's a Jedi." Anakin replied sternly "we are trained to handle stuff like that, Rex"
Ahsoka, indeed, had no problem with anything, really. She run so swiftly she was just an orange smudge in the corner of captain's eye. Her jump was also flawless. Only quiet splash and ripples on the water surface marked where she landed.
"the water's great!" She exclaimed as she surfaced "Hop on, guys!"
The captain, however, still looked distressed. The Jedi might have been taught not to mind such stuff like… like that, but clones… well, they had different upbringing.