I'm not gonna lie, I've been putting this off until now. This takes place in Verocia, in the exact same universe as my other fic War of Monsters—and basically the same times. But, enough of stalling, on to the fic. Oh, and there'll be a lot of drama in this arc. And, as usual, I have exaggerated reactions/feelings in this.

Get ready for a slightly fluffy Rex.

Ahsoka stepped onto the landing platform of the secondary palace, shouldering her pack. So far, she wasn't seeing anything wrong with it. Verocia was a beautiful planet, with lots of colors. The sun warmed Ahsoka's face as she looked to the large palace before her.

But that wasn't what she had her eye on.

Nope, she was too busy looking at the two servant boys helping to unload the gunships.

And they were very cute servant boys.

One of the servant boys made eye contact with her, giving her a bright smile before he turned back to one of the crates.

"Come on Ahsoka," Rex said, stepping off of the gunship. On the entire ride to Verocia, Rex had gotten stiffer and stiffer, and now it was as if he didn't want to speak at all.

I guess that's partly my fault, Ahsoka thought a little guiltily. Right then Ahsoka decided that she would try to make it up to Rex, starting with speaking with him after her four day silence.

"Rex?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yeah?" Rex looked down at Ahsoka. He seemed a little stunned that she was speaking to him after four days of cold silence. He was sure she hated him. Teenagers, Rex thought wryly.

"Do you…want to talk about what happened last time?" Ahsoka asked, but then immediately regretted it.

Rex's back stiffened. Probably not the best question, she thought guiltily. "Nothing you need to worry about, Ahsoka," he said, keeping his head forward.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the two cute servant boys waving to her. And, true to his over protective form, a growl was beginning to form in the back of Rex's throat.

Ahsoka looked to Rex, wondering what it was that had happened two years before that had him so upset.

Several Hours Later

Rex hated civilian clothing. Either it was too tight, or it was too loose—and it always itched in the most uncomfortable places possible.

He could tell Ahsoka was slightly amused by his uncomfortable stage.

Why exactly were we sent out for fruit again? Rex thought in slight annoyance. Oh yeah, to get a view of the area.

But of all things, did it have to be fruit? Rex had never even heard of half the things they were buying.

"You okay, Rex?" Ahsoka asked, giving him a side-long glance.

Rex almost jumped; he still wasn't used to hearing Ahsoka's voice. The entire time he'd assumed it was one of Ahsoka's mood swings—that kind of thing seemed to happen regularly.

Luckily, he knew what to watch out for so she didn't ultimately bite his head off.

"Yeah, kid. I'm fine. Why?" Rex asked, warily watching the people go by. He wanted to make sure they weren't being followed by those two servant boys.

Ahsoka accepted the bag of fruit from the male seller. He winked at Ahsoka, and while she accepted it gracefully, Rex made a face that said he would rip the seller's throat out and feed it to rabid nexus.

The seller sputtered, muttering something about "checking things in the back". He disappeared behind a curtain.

Rex had a satisfied smirk on his face, whistling a happy tune in his head. He saw the look of fear on the seller's face, and he enjoyed it.

What he didn't see was the woman who was standing behind him until they had slammed into each other.

Her basket of fruit fell onto the ground, sending the food rolling across the paths of carts.

"I'm sorry! I didn't see you—" Dik'ut! His brain screamed. She doesn't understand. So Rex, ever prepared for the unlikely, apologized in the native Verinese.

"It's okay. It was my fault," she said in Basic.

Dik'ut!

Rex could feel a blush creep up his neck. He scrambled for the fruit before the woman could notice. Rex's hand reached for the same fruit that the woman's did, their finger tips brushing together. He looked into her bright green eyes with specks of dark green and gold in them.

She was beautiful.

"Are you two just gonna keep staring at each other, or are you gonna help us pick up these fruit?" Ahsoka asked, crossing her arms.

Rex looked to shoot her a dirty look, but something beside her caught his eye first.

Servant boy.

Rex was close to growling again before he realized that the beautiful woman was still watching.

"I'm sorry about that," he said quickly, reaching for another fruit on the ground.

A cart instantly rolled over the over-ripe fruit, spilling red juice everywhere.

Rex yelped, falling back on his hands and butt.

Behind him, he heard the woman giggle.

Dik'ut dik'ut dik'ut! he mentally screamed.

Rex shot up to his feet, dusting off his pants and helping the beautiful woman up. After he released her hand, his entire body felt almost…tingly. More blood rose to Rex's cheeks.

"Oh, by the way, my name's Kanari," the woman said, picking up her basket.

Rex almost didn't hear her. "O-oh…um…" for the scariest of seconds, Rex forgot his name. "My name's…Rex." That was his name…right?

Kanari giggled and walked away, servant boy in tow.

Rex sighed, his heart beat finally returning to a safer pace. He turned to see Ahsoka giving him a strange smile. "What?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

She didn't say anything, just continued smiling. He could hear her chuckling under her breath.

Rex made a mental note to not get on her bad side that day. "Come on, let's start heading back," he said, walking toward the palace.

Ahsoka could see that his cheeks had started flaming again. Who would have thought that Rex would be one to fall in love?

"If you keep smiling like that, I'm going to have to speak with General Skywalker about you," Rex said, keeping his face forward. He didn't have time to deal with crazy teenaged girls—he had other problems.

First: Servant Boy was obviously trying to find an opening to get to Ahsoka, and Rex would rather have to deal with over-exuberant Zeltron women than have that happen to her.

Second: He was pretty sure that Kanari had poisoned him when their hands brushed together. His face was burning, his heart racing, and her face wouldn't stop appearing in his mind.

I know, I'm late, and for that I'm sorry. I also know that this chapter is uncharacteristically short, but if I wrote for too long I would end up making it as dark as War of Monsters. This is more of an introduction than anything else. I need ideas and names for children/clones—I know how I'm going to end this, but I don't know what to do until then. Until next time!

~AAx