AN: Hello my Dear Readers! Sadly this is probably going to be the last update for while since I go back to school this weekend. Thank you all for the support and wonderful story ideas! I surprised myself in how many chapters I was able to post this break and that's all because I had story ideas and support from you Dear Readers! The chapter requests are all so helpful and I have plans for future chapters already so keep a look out for those requests when I start updating again!
"This is nice." Ahsoka leaned in closer against her boyfriend
"What?" Rex tightened his arm around her shoulders
"This." Ahsoka waved her hand around in front of them
Rex chuckled lightly "Our favorite cafe?"
His girlfriend sighed in exasperation "Not being at war, being able to sit here and relax in our favorite cafe." She reached up and interlaced her fingers with his. "Being able to be boyfriend and girlfriend."
He kissed the tip of her montral. "I agree; this is nice."
They were about to settle back into silence with their caf and tea when the captain's com went off.
With an eye roll Rex answered "Captain Rex speaking."
"Rex, brother, it's Cody. I'm calling to give you a heads up that there's something going down in the barracks and it's about to get out of control."
Both officers groaned knowing that the bored antics of their troops had effectively cut their quiet date short.
"Thanks for the heads up, Cody. We're on our way back now." Rex sighed
"Sorry to cut your date short, brother." Cody sounded chagrin to cut a brother's leave short
Fives crossed his arms on the table and leaned on them "On a scale from one to ten how bad would it be if I pranked…"
Echo didn't even look up from the manual he was reading "At least a twenty, probably fifty if it's a superior officer."
Fives slouched a little in a pout "Ah come on Echo, you always try and ruin my fun."
"No, I try and keep you from being court marshalled." Echo replied deadpan
Others from Torrent company walked in and joined the two ARC's at the table.
"Whatcha up to?" Hardcase asks as he flopped down on the bench next to Fives
"Nothing interesting. Echo is reading his manual and shooting down every good idea I've had for the past half hour." Fives replied
"Only because his ideas would end in us being court martialed." Echo sighed in exasperation
"But we're bored being cooped up in the barracks all day." Pidge complained
Jesse sat on the table "Hey! We weren't the only ones to blame for getting kicked out of 79's."
"That may be true but we're still banned for another month and there's not much else we can do that we haven't already done." Tup pointed out
"So what's the harm in a few harmless pranks?" Fives asked the group
"Whatever we do I'm game. I say let's do it!" Hardcase voted
The others readily agreed, too bored to do anything else, and Echo only sighed knowing he might as well go along to make sure they didn't all end up in the brig.
When Rex and Ahsoka reached the barracks they knew something was up because the doors wouldn't open for either one of them until Rex hot wired the door controls. The hallways were eerily silent until they came across the trooper hiding in the doorway and peering down the hallways.
"Pidge!" Rex called out in his commanding voice
The trooper jumped an easy two feet and stumbled to attention in front of his superior officers.
"Sir! Commander!"
"Trooper. Care to explain what's going on here?" Rex crossed his arms and even without his armor authority radiated off of him.
Pidge shifted uncomfortably "I was hiding, Sir."
Rex pinned the trooper with a steady gaze "I can see that Pidge. I want to know why the doors are locked and you're hiding in the doorway."
Pidge looked behind him then back to the two "There's some sort of prank war going on and right now it's dangerous to be in the halls unless you want to be jumped or attacked by paint. Coric was the one to seal the doors so we couldn't get out."
"I thought we were very clear about prank wars." This time Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at the trooper
"This isn't like other prank wars. Nobody who didn't want to be in isn't being pranked, including superior officers." Pidge promised
"Then how come Commander Cody commed me and told me things were getting out of hand?" Rex questioned the trooper
Pidge shook his head "There was a few times pranks got pulled as people were leaving or going but Coric looked the doors so its stays in house."
There was shouting down the hall and Pidge jumped back into the doorway shadows.
"Let's get out of here before we end up in the middle of the prank." Ahsoka muttered
It took the two superior officers over an hour to round up all the pranksters and order them to keep the pranks harmless and not to leave the 501st barracks or bleed over to any other battalions. Then the couple wisely retreated back to the captain's chambers to watch funny holos while the pranks war raged outside their door.
"I feel like we're stuck here play referee instead of enjoying our R&R back in the cafe." Ahsoka complained
"Babysitting. You feel like we're babysitting the 501st?" Rex gave his girlfriend a sideline glance.
Ahsoka shrugged "Pretty much, yeah."
"Yeah me too." He agreed.
They watch their holos in silence for a while, occasionally stopping to make sure the noises outside weren't actually troopers in distress.
"I saw we get a little payback for all the trouble they caused us by making us cut our day short and then staying here to make sure it doesn't get out of control." Ahsoka suggest
Rex stared at her. "You want to join the prank war?"
"No, not really. Just play one massive prank that will effectively shut this all up."
Rex was intrigued "How do you suppose we do this?"
Ahsoka scooted closer "listen up."
Well into the night cycle, after things had calmed down and most of the men had fallen asleep in their bunks, were in for a rude awakening. All of a sudden alarms started blaring and all the lights flicked onto the brightest setting, startling all the troopers. They tumbled from their beds in a disorganized mess, fumbling around for their armor or fatigues and stumbling out into the halls half dressed and disoriented. Almost automatically they made their way to the most logical meeting place, the mess hall and found the rest of the 501st waiting in various states of undress. Even the captain was there, looking a bit more put together but just as tired and confused as the rest of them.
"What's going on?" Someone mumbled
"Are we being shipped out?" Another asked, looking for the general or a superior officer
"Is this another prank? I thought the war ended at the start of the night cycle." An angry trooper yelled
After another few minutes of troopers straggling in and more mumbling, the captain finally stood on top of the table and commanded attention.
"I don't know what's going on here, we aren't shipping out that much I know. I also know that if this is a prank, I will personally hunt down the person who did this and make them scrub the entire barracks…. with a toothbrush!" He sounded frustrated at the loss of his precious sleep. "Now all of you are dismissed; I'll see you all in the morning for early workout."
Many of the troopers groaned and complained at the thought of waking up for early workout after being rudely awakened in the middle of the night. Some went straight back to sleep without taking off their armor or fatigues, some couldn't sleep for fear of another prank, and others slept lightly, waking for another wake up. The next morning, Captain Rex put the troopers through their paces in morning workout, admonished the group again for the horrendous prank the night before and warned against any other prank wars.
"Things are quiet here today; unlike yesterday." Commander Cody mentioned as he sat with Rex at the breakfast table.
"Someone pulled a nasty prank last night and everyone lost sleep and then we had early morning workout." Rex sipped his second cup of caf
"I heard there was something going on last night." Ahsoka commented as she slid onto the bench with the two men.
"All I know is that the prank wars have stopped." Rex pointed out "And I couldn't be happier. Load off my back."
"I wonder how that happened." Cody mused and Ahsoka stifled a laugh.
AN: I hope you guys liked this chapter! This is my last chapter for a while, school starts again next week. Thank you all my Dear Readers for all the support and reviews and chapter ideas! Don't worry if I haven't been able to post anyone's request yet, I promise I am working on them and they will be the first one's posted when I start updating again, so please watch for them! And even though I am not able to post for a while, please continue to review and send story ideas; it makes me excited when I get to write again knowing that people are anticipating their chapters and I love writing them! So until the next update my Dear Readers!