"Have you ever…"
"No, have you?"
She shook her head, "It can't be that hard can it?"
"How would I even know? I haven't ever done this before."
"Good luck Captain."
Rex rolled his eyes and pushed up his sleeves. As she said, how hard could washing dishes be?
Everything went well. A soapy sponge, rinsing stew out of the bowls and down the drain. He took careful care with the spoons after holding one under the sink and spraying water everywhere. He had silenced Dagger's giggle with a half hearted glare. She just continued to dry the bowl in her hand before storing it with the others in the cabinet.
As it turned out, things would not continue to go so smoothly. He had been filling the giant pot with water to give it a final rinse. With soapy hands, his grip slipped and the pot fell from his grasp before he could catch it.
The pot caught the edge of the sink and spiraled down to the floor. The impact was deafening and caused a spray of water to erupt from the pot. Somehow, in defiance of the laws of physics, the majority of the water splashed straight up and onto Rex and Dagger.
They just stared at the pot and then slowly looked up at each other. How could it all have gone so wrong? Both soldiers were soaked through at this point.
It was at that moment that Jask poked his head around the corner, "Hey are you guys alright? I heard a loud…"
The Devaronian trailed off as he took in the appearance of both of them dripping and standing over the pot that was still on the ground. Dagger felt her cheeks heat up as he started to laugh at them. Her shoulders tensed in embarrassment, they were soldiers, they should be able to do a simple task such as wash dishes.
The man walked over and picked up the pot, "So I'm guessing that they don't have you guys doing chores in the GAR or on Mandalore?"
Both of them shook their heads. He gave another laugh, "Y'all can go get cleaned up, I'll finish from here. The 'fresher is round the front of the ship if you need it. Don't worry about using too much water,we are still hooked up to the supply lines for the night."
They ducked their heads and made their way out of the kitchen and then down to their shared quarters. They made it into their room and Rex closed the door. He unzipped his vest and started to strip out of his soaked clothes.
Dagger had a slight smirk on her face as she leaned back along the wall, "How did you even do that?"
He glared at her, "I don't want to talk about it."
"And you say I'm trouble," she laughed, it wasn't often that she got to tease him.
"There is a big difference between getting water everywhere and starting a fight with an officer," he shot back.
"Hey," she exclaimed pointing a finger at him, "That was one time! I didn't know Wolffe was a Commander until I had already pissed him off. Besides, he started it by trying to take my helmet"
"I think you are forgetting the time we fought when you had just been assigned to Torrent."
She stuttered, not having any excuse for that one. Her lack of words also had nothing to do with Rex peeling his soaked shirt off of his body. Nothing at all. She averted her eyes when he turned to her, there was no need for him to know that she had been staring at him.
He smirked, she wasn't quite as subtle as she thought. He was nice enough to not mention it, instead he just grabbed a change of clothes and left for the refresher. The door slid closed and Dagger let out another snicker, it wasn't every day that they had to do tasks that normal people did. Really though, no one had ever taught clones to wash dishes, when would they ever need that skill?
It was only a few minutes later when the door slid open again. Dagger didn't even bother to look up from her datapad when she spoke, "That was a quick shower."
"I didn't shower, sweetheart, but if you are offering the company I won't say no," Jask said.
Dagger's head jerked up and saw the Devaronian standing in the doorway, leaned up against the frame and looking relaxed as ever.
"Jask," she said, "What's up?"
"Not much, I just came to check in. Do you like the room?"
She nodded, it was just a room, not much to see or like but it wasn't awful either. That seemed to satisfy his curiosity and he moved on to what he really came for, "So I notice you and the clone are awful close."
Dagger bristled slightly at that, "His name is Rex."
He held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture as he entered the room and sat on Rex's bunk, "Yeah, Rex. I notice you two are close."
"We work together, of course we're close," she responded. Where was he going with this?
"Does that mean that you two are together?"
She squinted at him, "What are you asking?"
A shadow fell over the empty doorway, "What do you want, Jask?"
Rex stood in the door, arms crossed, doing a damned good job of filling the entire opening. Dagger couldn't help but be relieved that he was back, she had no idea what Jask was trying to accomplish and was starting to worry that the man was suspicious.
The man in question just shrugged easily and stood, "Just trying to get to know my new teammates."
He strode up to Rex and for the first time they were able to size each other up on even ground. Jask was small for a Devaronian, but he still stood a half a foot taller than Rex. Dagger guessed that if she was standing he would absolutely dwarf her in size.
Jask had to tilt his head down to look Rex in the eyes and he could see the stubborn set in his jaw. He didn't back up and just kept looking at him. Dagger just looked between the two of them. She really hoped Rex wouldn't follow her example and start a fight.
In the end it seemed like Jask made the decision. An easy smile crossed his face and he angled his body to slip by Rex, "Sleep well you two, we will see you in the morning. We will travel through the night and arrive at Nal Hutta by morning."
They nodded and he slipped away. Rex and Dagger just looked at each other. What now? Rex gestured over his shoulder, "They have warm water in the shower."
Dagger had to hold in a laugh, unbelievable. After all that he decided that the warm water was the most important thing to tell her. She just smiled, "Ok, I'll be back in a minute. Don't get into trouble without me."
Rex just grumbled as he sat down on his bunk. He pulled his duffel onto his bed and was searching through it for something as she left. Dagger slipped out of the door and found the refresher easily. Sliding the door closed she engaged the lock and surveyed the small room. As far as bathrooms go it was pretty bare bones with just the essentials, but it was clean so she really couldn't complain.
She stripped out of her armor and under clothes. Turning on the shower she was pleasantly surprised at the water that was indeed warm. She didn't waste time and got to work washing her hair and body.
After stepping out she took a moment to survey herself. The scar on her abdomen was healing nicely, most days she didn't even notice the residual pain from the injury that had almost killed her. The scar was still jagged and bright pink. She knew from experience that it would be a while until it turned white like the others.
She pulled on clean clothes and debated putting back on her armor. In the end she decided against it and just carried the beskar back to the room. Rex greeted her with a nod as she entered. It looked like he had just finished putting his clothes away in the drawers.
That was probably a good idea. Dagger followed his example and started to put all of her gear in the dresser on her side of the room. Afterall it did seem like they would be here for a while. She put her clothes in the top drawer and then all of her weapons in the second, the final drawer remained empty.
She sat on her bed and looked to Rex, "What do we do now, Captain?"
He stared back with slight confusion, he was no more used to this kind of mission that she was. He had never been good with undercover work. He didn't feel like a Captain at that moment, "I- I don't know. We can't push too hard too fast or they will get suspicious. Maybe we can figure out who their employer is on Nal Hutta, but we have to figure out if this is the only group that is targeting senators."
"If they even let us go with them on Nal Hutta," Dagger pointed out, "They seemed pretty secretive about whoever hires them so they might not even trust us to go to the meeting tomorrow."
He hummed in agreement, "In that case, we would just stay put and go through with whatever they come back with."
"What if we are supposed to help take out a senator?"
"We can try to get a call out beforehand, but that would be risky. We will have to cross that bridge when we get to it."
Dagger thought for a moment, "I think that we have to put everything into the first mission they come back with. It might be a test to see if we are going to be loyal to their group, we can't give them any reason to doubt us."
"I agree. For now let's just get some sleep," Rex said as he laid back on the bed. Dagger turned out the lights in the cabin and made her way back to her bunk. As usual she laid face down on the bed. She laid there for a long time, her mind was whirling with possibilities and scenarios of the mission.
Her body tensed every time she heard footsteps in the hall. She didn't know how long she spent listening to the dark that surrounded them. Rex would shift every once in a while. It was a pleasant reminder that he was still there. She hoped that he was getting more rest than she was.
She realized that was not the case when he whispered into the quiet space between them, "Are you still awake?"
"I was hoping you were asleep," she said.
"Can't sleep."
"Because of where we are or because you are thinking too much?"
He waited a moment before responding, "Just thinking."
"What about?"
Another beat of silence, this time it seemed like he was considering whether or not to tell her, "I was thinking about something you said. I didn't notice it at the time, but I remember it now."
"When?"
"On the Coronet, right before you took off your helmet. You said 'I hope you don't hate me as much as I hate what I am'. Why did you say that?"
"Oh," she said quietly, she had never expected him to bring that up again, "I guess I did say that."
"Do you actually not like who you are?"
"I am a defective clone. I was made to be one thing and even that was messed up. I don't really see all that much to like. But I think that you and the others have helped with that alot, I don't necessarily only think like that anymore. Not with the way that you and the others have accepted me."
The silence stretched and Dagger held her breath. Was he going to get mad at her for thinking like that? She knew it was unreasonable and she was working towards accepting who she was but it was a slow process.
"You are a good soldier. I know that and I want you to know that too. One of the best, no one else fights like you do," he didn't know how to convince Dagger to see herself as he saw her.
"That's all I ever wanted to be. A good soldier," she responded.
They lapsed back into the silence, neither was sure of what to say next. It took Rex a few minutes to formulate a response. He opened his mouth to speak, but the soft breathing from Dagger made him close it again. She had already fallen asleep.