Hey guys! Sorry again for the long-ish update. Forgive me? No? Whatever. Just so you know, there are a lot of time skips in this particular chapter. For those of you who were wondering, I took down the Lizard War because I have to do some MAJOR re-editing on the beginning chapters. It should be up before the middle of the month. So now, without further delay (I hope) is the next chapter of What They Do in Their Spare Time!
Jax's head broke through the surface of the water. He gasped for air as he power swam to the side of the pool, pulling himself over and plopping down on the sun-heated deck.
"Good job, Jax!" Kiki praised from within the water.
Jax coughed and smiled. Kiki smiled back and continued coaching Marik on not drowning. Jax couldn't help but feel his chest swell with…something. That happened anytime Kiki smiled at him, or looked at him, or even sat near him in the mess. Jax shook his head to clear it. Whatever it was, it didn't matter. It'll pass, he thought unconvincingly.
Marik sprung up out of the water, gasping for air and actually treading the water instead of sinking in it. "G'job Marik! You finally managed to tread water without having to hold on to something!" Kiki praised, clapping her hands in.
Marik coughed, doggy paddling to the side of the pool. "Ya, I guess that's great," he managed to cough out before collapsing on the deck.
"Now we can finally move on with the lesson!" Kiki exclaimed excitedly. To Bliz, she seemed a little too perky.
Almost as if she were putting up fake cheeriness to keep her men's spirits up…
Nooo…
A few hours later…
After a few hours of rigorous training and multiple CPR sessions, Bliz and the rest of Crusade Squad along with Rex swam laps around the pool with ease. As long as they stayed away from clumsy Marik, they wouldn't have a chance of drowning.
"Now you can go play Gundark with the ladies you've been eying all afternoon," Kiki acquiesced to Bliz. Bliz resisted the urge to squee with joy as he swam toward the edge of the pool.
"Hey there," Bliz said, resting his arms on the wall. One of the women raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Bliz continued, not letting their silence deter him. "My buddies and I were wondering if you'd like to play a game of Gundark with us, considering how you look like you should be enjoying yourselves right now." Bliz gave them what he considered a winning smile.
"Gundark is normally a game crazy teenagers would play when they're bored, right?" a brunette human asked, crossing her arms. Bliz flinched, partially because of her tone, and partly because she was right.
"Yeah, we'll play with you," she said. "By the way, my name's Mara, she's Teru and she's Liye," she said, gesturing to a Twi'lek and a Zeltron in turn. Bliz eyed them with interest. They began climbing into the pool and swam to the center.
"Jax, come on, you're playing to," Kiki said, pulling to the center with her.
"Sir, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with—" Jax tried to protest, but Kiki cut him off.
"You're playing, Jax. No point in trying to fight it."
Jax didn't even know how to play the game, yet he could feel his face begin to heat up anyway…
"I assume you all know how to play?" asked Mara. They all nodded. Bliz had specifically looked up popular pool games to play on the ride to the water park, and had informed all of the men- except for Jax (he didn't want to hear anything past "the woman sits on your shoulders").
"Alrighty then," Mara said, moving towards Jax. Kiki put a hand on his arm. Mara raised an eyebrow.
"I'll play with him," Kiki said.
"Why can't I?" Mara asked, eyebrow still raised.
"Well…" Kiki tilted her head back and forth, trying to find a way of saying what she wanted to.
"He's…" Mara started.
"Yeah…"
"Oh, I see!"
Kiki smiled and nodded her head. Mara swam closer to Kiki. "You are one very lucky woman, you know that?" she whispered not so quietly.
Jax's face began to heat up again, but he didn't know why. Mara smirked and winked at Jax, making him turn even redder.
"There was an entire conversation between them and they didn't even say anything!" Bliz hissed to Edger. Edger only shrugged his shoulders.
"It must be a thing women can do," he reasoned.
"Enough chatter!" Liye said. She waded over to Bliz. "Let's start the game!" She pushed down on Bliz's shoulders. The rest of the clones' heads disappeared under the water.
Jax was the first to break the surface. "Sir, I don't think this is—"
"Relax, Jax!" Kiki said from atop his shoulders. Jax's face reached a new shade of red as he tried to stay steady in the water. Kiki gave Mara a look that seemed to say see? Mara nodded and gave Jax a sympathetic smile.
"Again with the wordless conversation," Bliz muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Liye asked, looking down on Bliz.
"Oh, nothing," Bliz said absently.
"Then let's let the games begin!" Mara said, striking a fist in the air. The teams gathered into a circle. They were: Jax and Kiki (much to Jax's embarrassment and guilty pleasure), Bliz and Liye (he was hoping he would get the Zeltron, and he did) Edger and Teru, (he only played because he was bored) and Ratchet and Mara. Anakin was referee, Ahsoka had disappeared somewhere, Rex didn't want to play, Cord was acting as emergency medic and Marik didn't want to accidentally kill someone.
Ratchet and Mara were the first to go down. "I think they cheated!" Ratchet immediately protested after going down.
"Yeah!" Mara agreed even though she hadn't heard a thing Ratchet had said.
"Ganging up on people is not cool, Edger and Bliz!" Ratchet pouted.
"All's fair in love and war!" Bliz countered, moving out of the way of Edger and Teru's attack.
"Since when was this a war?!" Ratchet and Mara cried in tandem. They lunged out of the way as Bliz and Liye crashed into the water.
Eventually, Jax and Kiki were the winners if round one. After much grumbling from the losers, Bliz made a proposal.
"I have an idea to make round two more interesting!" Bliz said excitedly. "If your team is the first to go down, you have to treat the girl to some food and a drink, kinda like a date. If you don't lose, then you don't have to buy food for them."
"Hmmm," said Mara, rubbing a hand against her chin. "Sounds interesting. I'll play those odds." The others murmured their agreement.
"Alright then, it's decided. You lose, you treat the lady to food and she doesn't have to pay for anything." Bliz nodded, very much liking the sound of that.
Believe it or not, the games ended relatively quickly, with Bliz getting out first, then Edger, then Jax.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you guys were losing on purpose," Liye said, folding her arms over her chest.
"Why would we do that?" Ratchet asked, giving her an innocent look. Liye raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Hold on," Cord said, wading over to the group in the pool. "I saw Ratchet pull an illegal move, he loses by default."
"Aw man!" Mara said in dismay.
"So," Bliz said. "I guess we all lost."
A few minutes later…
"Well, this is just dandy," Jax said, feigning anger. "Now I spent all of my money on food that I didn't even want!"
"But…" Bliz began.
"It was a nice date, though," Ratchet finished. All four women's eyes widened as realization dawned on them.
"Wait a second…"Liye said.
"You all lost on purpose!" Mara, Teru and Kiki accused at once.
"I wouldn't say on purpose…" Bliz said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I would," Edger said.
"It was more of a…planned accident," Jax agreed.
"You did this on purpose just so you could treat us to some food," Mara said, not letting the clones have their way. Rex, Marik, Cord, Anakin, and Ahsoka looked on in mild amusement as the argument escalated.
"Technically speaking, that's cheating!" Liye said heatedly.
"And technically speaking, it doesn't matter since you all already ate the food!" Edger shot back.
"You know what, it doesn't matter anymore because you ate the food and you ended up enjoying yourselves, so let's just forget about this," Anakin said, breaking up the fight.
"Fine."
"Whatever."
"Alright."
"I still think they cheated."
That started the argument all over again…
Anakin only groaned and rolled his eyes. Rex sighed and walked ahead to the transport.
A few more hours later…
Jax lay awake on his bunk, re-running the memories of earlier in the afternoon in his head.
"That was a lot of fun," Ratchet was saying. He put his arms under his pillow, drifting off to sleep. Jax thought he was the only one awake until he heard Edger ask him a question.
"I enjoyed myself, did you buddy?"
"Yeah," Jax agreed. "That was the most fun I've had in a long time." Again, Jax thought Edger was sleeping until he heard him snickering, then giggling.
"What?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing…" Edger answered.
It was obviously not nothing…
"Tell me! What is it?" Jax pleaded. He got a harsh shush from Marik and lowered his voice.
"Well…" Edger began, but let his voice trail off.
"Well what?" Jax was beginning to get aggravated.
"You do realize you took the General out on a date, right?"
Jax remained in stunned silence as he stared up at the ceiling, turning bright red…
Edger's snickering was quiet until it turned into a fit of giggles, and then full out laughter.
"Shut up, the both of you!" Ratchet hissed. Edger's laughter eventually abated.
I took the General out on a date, Jax thought in disbelief, his face still flaming. A date, he thought again, still not entirely believing what had happened. But even still, he felt something well up inside his chest, something like…
Pride…
And there you have it! This isn't one of my best chapters, sorry. And sorry for the sudden lack of Ahsoka, but after the season finale it felt weird writing about her. And then I totally forgot that Anakin and Rex were in this. I can feel a hiatus coming on the horizon, so if there is a lack of updating, blame it on the lack of ideas. About You Can't Protect Her From Everything: IT feels weird writing about Ahsoka now that she's technically dead in TCW, so updating might be a little slow on that part. Questions, comments, (especially on Jax's behavior around Kiki) or anything about future ideas, leave a review or PM me about it. I've been re-editing The Lizard War, so it's much better than the first version I posted. It's also a lot more mysterious. Until next time!
~AAx
P.S. –also, don't forget about that poll I've had up for a while now *hint hint*
