Mating Agreement:

Ahsoka knew she driving poor Rex absolutely batty, but she couldn't help herself.

The absolute craving for his real feelings drove her to keep him revved up over and over again. When she gave him time to think, he'd regain control of himself and disappear behind his shields like he'd been doing for who knew how long – she could tell well enough that his love for her hadn't just popped out of the blue when she walked back into his life an hour ago.

So she leaned a little closer to him than absolutely necessary. Brushed her shoulder against his arm whenever possible. Smiled at him with her new awareness of him as a desirable male in her eyes.

In short, she was being a terrible tease.

But, oh, the rewards were so worth it. His shields would drop again and she'd wallow in his feelings for her - the love, the want, the adoration, even the protectiveness that she didn't really need but made her realize just how much she loved him back for it – each of them made her feel again in a way that made it blatantly clear that she'd only been half alive since she left the army and the Order. Or more specifically, left her only family behind in the form of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, and a multitude of his brothers.

Maybe it was a bit of an extreme reaction, but she'd been so starved for affection for the better part of the last year that she needed Rex to keep his shields down, just for a little while longer.

That's what she told herself to justify her actions, anyway.

And now she was leading a completely tormented Rex to a guest cabin on the Hopeful for what she had a feeling was going to be a years long overdue talk. But… she may have implied that more than talking would occur when she mentioned the bed in said cabin because she was still having way too much fun with 'do whatever the kriff I want' mode mixed with 'let's tease Rex to death' mode.

And biting.

Can't forget the biting, she laughed silently.

Force, I thought his mind was going to short-circuit when I said that.

It would be nice to try kissing him, though. I bet he'll be good at it, even if he's never done it before. He's a smart man, and so deliberate in every action he takes.

She glanced over at him as he caught up to her while she waited for the lift door to open and giggled under her breath.

He'd parked his white and blue, jaig eyed helmet on his head, hiding his expression from her and any passing brothers. (She'd encouraged him to wear his own modified bucket rather than an orange painted Phase II helmet that he'd never liked the feel of, not only because he was more comfortable in it, but because she wanted to see him as himself, not a copy of all of his brothers with the same helmet on.) But despite the mask, she could still feel his emotions in turmoil; desire and indecision taking precedence.

My poor Rexi. He's trying so hard to be a gentleman about this. I really should put him out of his misery.

Soon.

They stepped into the turbolift. She pushed a button for the correct level and then stepped a fraction closer to her intended mate. Rex sidled as far off to the side as he could get, his body practically rigid with tension. Ahsoka shook her head at him fondly.

All right. I'll do it now.

"Rex."

"Ahsoka."

They said each other's names at the same time and then laughed together, a fraction of the tension easing from him, thankfully.

He pulled his helmet off and tucked it under his arm, his eyes serious again and his emotions carefully hidden behind his shields.

Force, he's good at that.

"Ahsoka, I don't think this is…"

She stepped closer to him, shaking her head to interrupt, but was careful not to touch or crowd him, sensing that he was only five seconds away from exploding in one way or another, no matter what his outward appearance dictated. "Rex, it's okay. I'm sorry I've been teasing you so badly for the last hour, but when I felt your emotions and realized that I returned them, I went a little bit crazy with what is known as Mating Instinct. I'll control myself better from now on, I promise."

He blinked, processing, and then chuckled. "No. It's not that. I honestly don't mind your looks and the leaning on me and such. I really like it, in fact, ignoring how hilarious my brothers think this is."

She grinned, relieved. "They were being real nerfherders about it weren't they?"

He grinned back. "They were. I have half a mind to demote the lot of them to babysitting shinies."

Wouldn't Jesse just love that. "But we'll need them."

"Exactly."

They shared a look of complete understanding before she brought their conversation back to business. "So if my teasing didn't bother you, then what is it?"

He snorted. "Oh, it 'bothered' me, trust me, but I didn't mind."

She smirked, absurdly proud of herself when she really shouldn't be. "I'm glad."

He returned her smirk, but that quickly fell. "What I'm not sure…"

The lift stopped and the doors opened. He stopped talking, because there were brothers walking past, dressed in plain white armour, who shot them curious looks.

"Hold that thought," she said, and turned down the hallway in the opposite direction the two shinies had gone, leading the way to the guest quarters at the end of the hallway that she'd claimed for herself but had yet to actually see. Her small bag of clothes and personal possessions had supposedly already been delivered to the cabin, via helpful clone.

It had.

And it was sitting on a bed decorated in blue covers only slightly smaller than the massive one in Padmè's room in her Coruscant apartment. (She'd seen it a few times when her friend had her tag along during bodyguard duty or political lessons and the senator needed to change from one elaborate outfit to another.)

"Oooooo, look at this thing, Rexi! It's big enough for half of Torrent Company, I swear!" She ran and jumped on it, landing on her knees. It bounced. Actually bounced! Unlike the thin mattresses or cots that the soldiers were allotted (including herself and Anakin). She turned and flopped down on her back, boots hanging over the edge, and moaned at the sheer decadence. "Oh, Force. This is soft. I don't even know if I'll be able to sleep on it."

When no comment was forthcoming from her companion, Ahsoka pushed up onto her elbows and raised a brow marking at him. "Rex?"

He was standing in the still open doorway, mouth slightly agape.

"Are you coming in?"

He swallowed hard. "About that…"

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and popped off the bed. She marched over to him and grabbed his free hand, pulling him into the room so the door could close before someone saw them and the whole ship knew they were having a 'meeting' in the guest quarters.

She took his helmet out from under his arm and plopped it down on a desk by a large transparisteel window that showed a lovely view of the blue and white lightshow known as hyperspace.

"Ahsoka…"

"Hush," she gently admonished, grabbing him by the gloved hand again and leading him over to the bed. Then she turned and pushed him onto it. "Just sit on that for a minute, all right?"

Rex blinked as he landed shebs first on the pillow-soft mattress and a slow grin spread across his face as he bounced a couple of times like a little kid. "All right, I give. This is the best bed I've ever been on."

She crossed her arms, standing in front of him, which made her taller than him for once. But not by much, since the decadent sleeping platform was almost waist height on her. "I told you."

"Yeah, you did," he admitted. "But as I was saying, I don't think it's a good idea for us to just jump into the sack together like this, no matter how much my body says otherwise. There's things we need to talk about. Things that make our getting together a really stupid idea."

Ahsoka scowled, not liking the sound of that at all. "Like?"

He looked up at her, sorrow and apology in his golden brown eyes. "Like the fact that I'm not sure what kind of future I can offer you when I don't know if they'll let me see you again after this Mandalore thing. Like the fact that I'm a clone which means I can't legally marry you. And I'll grow old twice as fast as you and I'm already almost ten yours older than you are, biologically speaking."

Even though she had to admit that he had good points, she honestly didn't care. Her mating instinct most definitely didn't care.

Ahsoka stepped forward, pressing her knees to his, and cupped his face with both hands. His eyes widened at the contact. "You listen to me. None of that matters right now. Yes, a future with you would be ideal, but we live in a time of depressing realism. You or I or even both of us could die tomorrow and I'm not willing to waste what few guaranteed hours I do have with you over semantics that make no difference in the here and now of the life we actually exist in."

His hands came up and grasped hers gently, their eyes locked together. "Soka," he whispered, almost pleading. "I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to leave you without a mate. I know your kind only mate once. You should pick someone a lot less likely to die."

She leaned forward, pressing her forehead to his and closed her eyes for a moment, savouring the way he held her hands so carefully against his face. Despite his words, he was as reluctant to part from her as she was from him. She opened them again and pulled back a smidge, studying his beautiful amber orbs, trying to read his thoughts without actually pushing into his mind. "It doesn't work that way, Rexi," she whispered. "Once the Instinct has kicked in, it can't be turned off. You're mine now, forevermore. And you can't tell me you don't want me back, because I can feel it. The mating instinct would never have been awakened in the first place if you didn't want me."

"Soka," her name a groan of misery and relief from deep in his chest. "If that's how it is then."

"That's how it is."

"All right." Rex slid his hands down her arms and all the way up to her face, gloved fingers tracing over the winged markings on her cheeks. "So shabla beautiful," he murmured, sounding a bit awestruck.

She smiled a little. "If you say so."

"I do. Always thought so."

She smiled a little wider. "Good to know. I've always thought you were the best looking of your handsome brothers, too; your facial structure a bit more refined and your eyes more gold than the rest, matching that cute blond fuzz you work so hard to keep."

"Is that so?" he said, chuckling lightly, showing off his perfect teeth.

"It is." She leaned forward again and whispered her lips over his, erasing his grin in an instant.