Captain's Exploration (part 2):

Ahsoka was fairly sure that she'd purred more in the last two hours than she had in the entirety of the last two years.

She knew for a fact that she hadn't purred even once since she'd left the Order, being without her heart family around to inspire them; Bo-Katan and her extensive network of Mandalorian family members were nice, but weren't exactly the touchy-feely types, even if the red-head had unofficially adopted her into the Kryze clan. (The offer for official had been on the table, but Ahsoka hadn't wanted to cause any trouble by being known as the Mandalorian Jedi, even though she wasn't a Jedi anymore.) And the last year of the war that she had fought in had been so packed full of drama and worry that moments caught between all that to just relax and express her contentment with life as someone – Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, or one of the other friendlier brothers like Fives – let her cuddle against them had become more and more rare.

And with the way Rex was currently working her back and shoulder muscles into a completely liquid state with his clever, strong hands, she was positive her purring time wasn't anywhere near over.

"Force, Rexi," she all but moaned into her folded arms. "I haven't had a massage like this in, like, ever."

Her mate, who was currently straddling her thighs with a knee on either side, chuckled huskily and leaned forward to kiss the blaster scar below her left shoulder, affection and love flowing freely down their bond and into the Force from both of them. "I should hope not, Kid. I'd have to go shoot someone if they'd had the privilege of practically sitting on you whilst wearing not a stitch of clothing and touching your beautiful bare skin like this before me."

Despite the joking tone, there was an underlying hint of durasteel to his voice that told her he was quite serious.

Her mating instincts thrilled at the possessiveness that went against the more practical good sense that said she shouldn't want to 'belong' to anyone.

The mating instincts won.

She purred some more. "Good thing you're the first, then."

Rex made a humming sound that was very near a proper purr as well as his hands swept down the length of her spine and back up on either side of her lek. "Good thing."

Her eyes popped open as the sentence that had sent such a thrill through her replayed in her mind. She turned her head as far over her shoulder as she could manage and gave the very satisfied looking man a bit of a glare. "Hey. Why am I still 'Kid'? You can't tell me I haven't grown up enough to no longer deserve that one."

Rex blinked at her a couple times as his hands stilled in the vicinity of her waist. Then he flushed a very interesting shade of pink across his cheekbones. "Truth?"

"Of course."

He smiled a little ruefully, his thumbs starting to rub absent circles into her skin. "In my head, every time I called you Kid, it was the same as if I'd called you sweetheart, since I couldn't actually call you that. If I were to call you Kid ten years from now, it'll still mean sweetheart."

Ahsoka melted as love for this very special man filled her like enchanted moonlight. "Stars, Rex'ika, that's so sweet. But… you've been calling me Kid since pretty much the day we met!"

He looked at her with love-drenched amber eyes. "And I've adored you since pretty much the day we met. I admit I was kind of skeptical when I first saw you, what with you looking so young and beautiful and innocent while wearing nothing at all warrior-like in that practically nonexistent outfit that caused some serious commotion with the boys, until I basically had to threaten them with daily beatings masked as sparring sessions and KP duty for life if they didn't keep their eyes above your collarbones."

She laughed outright at that, not surprised at all since she'd felt the clones' fascinated attention on her back then until she wasn't a novelty anymore and just their beloved little sister instead. Everyone but Rex's, that is, she thought bemusedly.

As if he was the one reading minds this time, he continued with, "But it didn't take me long to fall like a rock for you. Back then, you were all big eyes that either broke my heart or made me want to worship at your little feet, and a snippy mouth that I wanted to do things to that would get me sent back to Kamino in a body bag."

Ahsoka's eye markings rose at that. "What kind of things?" She was finding this confession of their past utterly fascinating. And not for the first time that day, she wondered how she could have missed how much Rex had loved her all this time.

He leaned forward again and kissed her mouth, sideways to him as it was, before nibbling on her bottom lip for a moment. And then he pulled back and smirked at her. "That, for one."

She blinked once. "I honestly don't think I would have protested much if you had. That was really nice. Certainly would have been a better first kiss than the one I actually got."

He flushed with flustered pride as he turned his focus to her back again. "While I'll always cherish the idea that we could have been something sooner than now, it's not you who would have killed me for taking liberties."

It only took her a moment to figure out who he meant, since there weren't all that many options of people who'd be interested in defending her honour or person. Not counting the clones, themselves, that is, who were literally trained to do just that from day one. "Anakin."

"Anakin," he confirmed. "He, along with pretty much everyone else, figured out I was a goner for you within a couple of months. Some warnings regarding you being too young were issued that I took very seriously." His gaze and fingers of one hand were fixed on a scar that ran along her ribcage on the right side from another old blaster wound. One that she'd gotten while defending Rex from a legion of battle droids and hadn't given any indication of until the threat to their lives was taken care of. And then Rex had cursed her out for being careless with her life for his sake all while pulling medical supplies out of his belt with strangely shaking hands. I think I understand why now. It was so obvious if I'd just pulled my head out of the sand.

She snorted at both his words and her thoughts. "I bet. Anakin can be pretty intense when he wants to be."

"That's an understatement," Rex muttered, mostly to himself.

"So they all knew? Everyone but me? Even Obi-Wan and Cody?" Was I so kriffing full of my Jedi snobbishness that I was that blind?

"Unfortunately," he grumbled. "You have no idea how much teasing I've endured from the Generals and my brothers over it for the last three years."

She felt for him, she really did. I don't know how Anakin managed to keep from doing the same to me, actually. "If earlier was any indication, I can imagine."

"Yeah, that was similar," he sighed. "I love my brothers, but they can be a real pain in the shebs sometimes."

"Agreed."

Comfortable silence ensued for a minute or two as Rex resumed his massage of the muscles of her back. But then his hands stopped moving and he suddenly exploded with, "Wait just a tinny-blasting minute! Did someone else get to kiss you first?!"

Ahsoka giggled at the sheer outrage in his tone and countenance. I wondered if he'd pick up on that. "I'm sixteen years old. Almost seventeen. Of course I've been kissed before." Only twice, but that's irrelevant. The second one wasn't much better than the first even though I actually asked Lux for it that time.

Her mate growled, eyes narrowing into unhappy slits. His fingers drummed on her skin. "Who?" he bit out.

She smirked up at him. "I don't think I'll tell you. He's still my friend, despite our lack of chemistry, and I don't want you to hurt him."

His fingers drummed faster and she could actually see a flashboard of faces flicker through his mind as he tried to come up with the answer on his own. Many of them were his brothers. A few were people she wouldn't touch with a 2 metre pole no matter how nice they were, and nearly made her laugh (King Lee-Char for example). One was actually correct. After about twenty seconds, he huffed and dug his thumbs into her back a little harder than necessary as he resumed his massage. "You have too many friends," he grumbled.

"One can never have too many friends," she countered, a faint purr emerging from her throat after as his touch turned caressing again.

"I suppose that's true," he conceded. "And maybe it is better that I don't know because I'm finding myself suddenly very jealous of whoever it is."

"Hmmmm. That would be the hormones that come with a mating bond," she explained, eyes closing again in contentment from his sweeping touches. "I'd most likely scratch the eyes out of anyone who looked at you with lust right now too, if it makes you feel any better."

"It does," he said as he moved one of his hands to her back lek and started tracing the lines of her stripes with a finger.

Ahsoka's body instantly went from liquid contentment to electric alertness. Her eyes popped open again. "I thought you said you weren't going to pay much attention to my lekku while you explored the rest of me."

Rex grinned at her. "I was talking about your front ones. This one, I haven't explored yet at all." Then he kissed her between the montrals and started working his way down her blue and white stripes. With his tongue.

She shuddered and it was her core's turn to liquefy. "Oh Force," she mumbled into the pillow as her casual pose turned into a hands-clenched-in-the-bedding one.

Her back lek wasn't as sensitive as the front ones, which is why people could pet it for her and all it would do was calm her or put her to sleep. But for Rex, just like with the front ones, everything was magnified ten times over. Every swipe of his tongue felt like it was connected directly to the pleasure center between her legs, and she was probably drenching the bedding as a result.

Force knew, she'd already soaked her panties earlier when he'd made her orgasm from petting her front lekku.

Somewhere between licks, when he was about halfway down, he actually asked, "You like that?"

My whole-body shivers aren't a good enough indication for you? What came out was another muffled moan and a, "Kriff, yes!"

"Good," he rumbled and then continued licking her with long sweeps of his tongue. When he reached the tip, he even gently folded the flat part of her lek upwards as far as it would comfortably go and started back up the underside where the skin was even more sensitive.

"Love that you have my colours on you all the time," he mumbled against her skin between ablutions. "And you taste shabla amazing by the way."

"Would," she gasped. "Hormone gland at the base of that lek. Activated during mating bonds. Your instincts are as exemplary as ever."

"Go me," he whispered, starting back down again to lick up more of the faint secretions her skin was emitting.

Ahsoka was wound so tightly now, it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge again.

And then he found that edge.

By sucking the tip of her lek into his mouth as he licked it and officially turning her into a brainless, quivering mess.

A wordless cry was muffled by the pillow she was impaling with her fingers and she came with a burst of fluid from her core and an explosion that radiated from her center outwards, leaving her a puddle of boneless Togruta when the waves of pleasure subsided.

She felt Rex practically cover her with his hard body without putting any of his actual weight on her as he pressed a kiss to a montral. "You okay?" His deep voice rumbled through her like a drug she couldn't get enough of.

She turned her head and looked up at him with heavy lidded eyes, fingers finally relaxing their grip, and smiled. "Better than okay."

His beautiful amber eyes crinkled at the corners as he grinned back. "Good. Because I'm not even close to being done exploring you."

She shifted enough to hook an arm behind his neck and draw him down for a proper kiss involving lots of tongue and sharp teeth to show her appreciation.

When she let him go a minute or two later, he looked almost as wrecked as she felt and that made her very pleased indeed. She smirked and nipped his bottom lip one more time. "Bring it on, Captain."