There is an art to crawling through the air ducts of the Senate building in full armor. Move too quickly, and your armor bangs against the duct walls. Put too much weight in just the wrong area, and the metal will crumple and pop. Don't lift your arms or legs high enough, and the scrape of armor against metal will echo throughout the entire building.

One also had to know the air ducts pretty well, as some paths led to dead ends or tight turns. Many sections of the duct were too narrow to turn around, so you had to know where you were going.

With this knowledge in mind, one could navigate the air ducts quite swiftly with no problems and no one being the wiser to your secret method of travel.

Unless, of course, someone else shows up.

Commander Fox bristled in annoyance -well, as much as he could with a centimeter of air between his armor and the duct wall- then shuffled closer, playing the light of his visor over the air duct invader.

The blue paint on the clone's armor -a wrench painted on one arm and a set of stripes on the other wrist with a single stripe leading to his elbow- marked him as part of the 501st, which did not surprise Fox in the slightest. He was probably trying to prank someone in the building, or one of his brothers had dared him into the ducts for one reason or another.

Fox army-crawled until he was within arm's reach of the clone. When his approach got no response, he cleared his throat. Still nothing.

"What are you doing?" Fox asked. They were behind thicker walls with no vents nearby, so Fox knew nobody would hear them.

The clone didn't answer. He had his faceplate against the duct floor, half-hidden by his loosely coiled arms. Probably embarrassed by the whole deal.

"You're lost, aren't you?" Fox went on.

The clone didn't respond. Fox considered reaching out to shove the other trooper's shoulder, but knew getting his arm out from under his body would make moving tricky. Especially if the clone invader didn't know how to crawl backwards.

Fox sighed hard. Anyone who knew anything knew better than to annoy him, and the sigh was always enough to prompt anyone into responding.

...anyone except this clone, apparently.

Fox grunted, then crawled until they were helmet to helmet. Fox lifted his head as high as he could, then dropped his helmet against the other clones, creating a crack of plastoid, but even this didn't get a response.

A jolt of alarm ran through Fox. Every now and then, pirates or bounty hunters entered the building through the ducts -this was why Fox patrolled the ducts, obviously. Had this trooper been chasing someone, and been hurt?

Fox angled his head as best he could. His tense shoulders relaxed when he saw the other clone was breathing evenly. He was completely relaxed, from what Fox could see, almost as if…

"Are you joking me? You're asleep?" Fox demanded of the peacefully snoozing clone. "How… why… tell me this isn't a common thing for you!"

The clone, obviously, remained silent. Fox had to admit that the ducts were pleasantly quiet and cool -not that he would enter the ducts for any reason that wasn't official- but how had this clone fallen asleep?!

Fox huffed, staring at the clone. He obviously wasn't hurt or in danger… there hadn't been any alerts of a missing clone... maybe he had crawled into the ducts for a nap. Though it was the first time Fox had seen a 501st clone lay still for longer than five seconds without an injury.

Whatever the reason, the security of the Senate building was Fox's responsibility. And an intruder in the air ducts couldn't be left alone, not in good conscience.

Fox shifted, about to knock helmets again until the clone woke up, then hesitated. The other clone had to be pretty tired to fall asleep in the ducts. Fox could relate to that.

Fox mentally went through his to-do list for the day. Nothing urgently needed his attention; the others could handle it. He had a little extra time.

Carefully shifting his arms in front of him, Fox rested his chin on them. He settled his body down and stretched out his cramped legs. The tiredness he'd refused to acknowledge caught up as soon as he let himself relax, urging him to take advantage of a rest, however brief it might be.

Almost on their own, Fox's eyes closed and he dozed off.

Something was pushing Fox's shoulder. Fox grunted in tired annoyance, lifting a hand to swipe the other's hand away. His hand struck metal with a dull clang.

"Uh… hello?"

Fox's eyes snapped open, taking in the narrow walls and another clone's helmet in his. Memories of finding the intruder in the ducts, then dozing off, rushed back.

Fox sighed. He'd intended to wake up before the other clone. He wondered how long the other clone had been awake. Maybe he could pretend he'd just been waiting.

"Are you awake now?"

Or not. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh… fell asleep," the other clone said sheepishly.

"Uh-huh, and what were you doing inside the air ducts?" Fox asked.

The other's helmet turned toward the side. He said quietly, "I was curious."

"And you got lost," Fox guessed.

"I've never been in a building so big," the clone said.

Fox opened his mouth to respond, then the implied statement caught up. "...you normally explore the air ducts of buildings?"

"Ships, usually."

"Word of advice: find a better hobby," Fox grunted. "What's your name, trooper?"

"Crawl."

Fox couldn't hold back a snort of laughter. "It fits you. Hey, aren't you Rex's mechanic?"

"Yeah. What about you?"

Fox tilted his head, shocked that Crawl didn't recognize him. Then again… Fox didn't think they'd ever been in the same room together. Fox remembered that Crawl rarely left the ship, and talked to anyone outside of the 501st even less often. He was pretty sure Rex had mentioned how skittish his mechanic could be around the officers.

"I'm Fox," Fox said, leaving his title off on impulse.

"You come here often?" Crawl asked.

"Try to not to," Fox said, too amused by now to be annoyed. "But someone has to make sure nobody's sneaking around where they shouldn't."

Crawl shifted. "Sorry."

Fox waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it. Can you back up? There's a vent nearby."

Crawl responded by shuffling backwards. He moved impressively fast, though Fox wasn't sure if easily moving around air ducts was really a bragging point or not.

Crawl reached the intersection, and angled himself to the left under Fox's direction. Fox crawled past him and led the way several dozen meters down a straight duct. The ducts widened a bit, allowing Fox to rise onto his knees and move quicker.

In a brief time, Fox and Crawl reached a vent that opened into a rarely used hallway. Fox waited long enough to ensure nobody was nearby -he had enough ribbing from the Guard, he didn't need the other squads in on his duct crawling- then popped open the vent and pulled himself out, rolling to land on his feet.

Fox pulled off his helmet as Crawl tumbled down beside him. Crawl took off his helmet as well to gaze curiously around the hall.

Fox reached up to close the vent, then did a double take at Crawl. He was short, for a clone. That explained some of his ease in moving through the ducts.

Hearing a door open at the end of the hall, Fox quickly sealed the vent, then turned his attention away from Crawl.

Rex had just entered, and stopped short at seeing the commander and his mechanic standing in the otherwise empty hallway. Crawl noticed Rex a second later, evidenced by his abruptly straightening.

"Sorry, Captain," Crawl said with a quick salute. "I got a bit turned around. Fox was helping me get back."

"Fox, eh?" Rex said, raising an eyebrow at Fox.

Fox quirked the corner of his mouth up. He patted Crawl's shoulder, then gave him a gentle nudge toward Rex.

"Yeah, go on. Maybe you can join me on another patrol later," Fox offered.

Crawl beamed, delight over their inside joke dancing in his eyes. He replaced his helmet and ducked his head before scurrying past Rex like the captain would snap at him

Rex stared at Crawl until he was out of the hall, then turned his head back toward Fox. His expression could only be described as betrayed.

"How the kriff did you…"

Fox tilted his head with feigned innocence. "How did I what?"

Rex shoved his helmet on his head, turned on his heel, and stalked out of the hall.

"You should really watch your men better," Fox called after him.

The door slammed shut in response.

A/N: You can thank carrinth's comics on Tumblr for the idea that Fox knows the layout of the air ducts of the Senate building -for security reasons! (Seriously, look up their Caf Crawling comic, it's so cute!) And since I have an OC who likes to crawl in the ducts...