Author's Note: The entire Dion-arc wouldn't exist without a prompt from the wonderful laloga. If any of you gentlebeings ever have a prompt for me, please don't be shy about sharing. I'm all ears. Also, this chapter includes hints of male romance. If you can't deal, I really could care less.

Excited

Companion piece to Disheartened.

"So that's the bloke."

From their place in the mess, the small cluster of troopers had an unhindered view of the visiting 121st captain, already in earnest discussion with Commander Gaff while the two officers waited in line, trays in hand.

With his usual lack of subtlety, Wag leaned back on his bench, giving the captain a long once-over.

Next to him, Jakk shifted uncomfortably, trying to hunch lower into his seat without making his discomfort too obvious to his lover. Wag didn't have a whole lot of patience with what he considered to be Jakk's "lily-livered goody-goody" attitude. Jakk wasn't entirely certain what part of his character this "attitude" referred to, but despite his best efforts, some of Wag's actions just left him ill-at-ease. Eyeing an officer as if he were an exotic piece of ordnance about to blow and making no qualms about doing so, was one of those times. That was probably also the reason why Jakk's squad stoutly refused to sit with him whenever he sought Wag's company in the mess.

He cleared his throat, nudging Wag with his elbow. "Maybe you shouldn't do that."

Predictably, Wag only rolled his eyes and shot Jakk a disgusted look. "Man's allowed to look where he wants, right? And this guy…." He jerked his chin at Captain Dion, who was getting a cup of steaming caf with Jakk's commander. "He actually looks….normal. You sure he's from the Stump's batch?"

Jakk frowned, looking down at his own tray. "Stump" was Wag's nickname for Captain Kase. A lot of troopers from Flash and some of the other companies thought it was hilarious, but Jakk didn't like it in the least. Yes, Captain Kase was a stickler for the rules and a hard officer to work under, but Jakk also considered the captain fair and, more importantly, steady under heat. He'd yet to witness a single emergency Captain Kase hadn't been able to handle with a steady hand and Jakk respected the man for it, even if he wasn't half as popular with the men as Commander Gaff was. But Wag had had this thing about Captain Kase from the start and the two had clashed several times over the past few months during shifts. Captain Kase didn't let Wag get away with even a fraction of what the trooper was allowed under Captain Vice's supervision and Wag made no secret about resenting the tight reign Kase kept on his shift. Perhaps if the two had been closer in rank, they would have already settled this one-on-one, but as much as Wag disliked the captain, he wasn't about to challenge an officer to a match. And even if he did, there was no telling if Kase would accept the challenge. He'd stood as second during the bout between Commander Gaff and Whynge, and Jakk knew from training that Kase was a formidable opponent on the mats. But the captain did not consider brawls an adequate means of solving conflict. It was one of the few things he and Commander Gaff were in total agreement over, though Jakk suspected it wasn't wholly for the same reasons.

A sharp elbow in his ribs brought the trooper out of his thoughts.

"Quit your daydreaming, shiny," Wag said, jabbing Jakk in the ribs again. "I asked you a question."

Jakk turned to his lover, startled. "What?"

Wag muttered under his breath, shooting Jakk one of those long-suffering looks - the kind Jakk's own squad sometimes gave him when he'd drifted off during a debrief. "I swear, shiny, if it wasn't so sweet, I'd dump your ass…." He didn't finish the sentence, just shook his head and turned back to studying Captain Dion. "This captain. He doesn't walk as if he has a ten-foot pole up his arse." There were a few scattered snickers. "Are he and the Stump really batch-mates?"

Cheeks flaming, Jakk could only nod.

Cruisers ran on gossip like fuel and it hadn't take long at all for the Intel about Captain Dion and Captain Kase being batch-mates to make the rounds. Kase had become almost as much of an object of speculation to the Stalwart's crew as he was to his own company. Jakk himself wouldn't have minded listening to Captain Dion sharing stories about his former batch-mate - if the captain were so inclined. Somehow, though, Jakk didn't think they'd reveal all too much about Elix Company's captain. When the Kaminoans had first put them together as a company, CC-9770 had already been stern, controlled, self-contained and seemingly far older than his three standard years. Jakk still remembered standing in the ranks at parade rest, watching his future officers line up ahead of them, while the Kaminoans declared them a company from hence on. They'd all been nervous and excited, all rolled into one queasy ball in their stomachs, because from now on, they were done with basic drills. As a company, they'd be facing the live-fire exercises, sharing each others failures and wins in the scores. Only Kase, already with a name of his own, had seemed totally unfazed by the occasion, staring straight ahead and listening with an attentiveness that Jakk had felt all the way to his place in the furthest ranks.

He'd tried to put some of this into words, to explain to Wag that he was getting excited over nothing. But as usual the words hadn't come and Wag hadn't wanted to listen anyway.

"Bet the Stump got himself knocked over one too many times during drills." Wag was relishing his speculations, lounging on the bench with his back against the table, arms spread over the top and making no attempt whatsoever to hide his scrutiny of the officers. Already Commander Gaff had looked over to their table twice, his lips thinning a bit more every time.

Wag didn't seem to care that Commander Gaff had noticed him. Wag never cared about what officers outside of Flash Company thought of him. He knew Commander Whynge would have his back, no matter the situation.

"Or maybe the long-necks screwed the cap on too tight during the first flash-training sessions." That comment came from Huddy, another trooper from Flash and also not a big fan of Captain Kase. Huddy, at least, knew first-hand that it wasn't a good idea to cross Captain Kase and kept his commentary low enough that only those at the table could hear.

While Jakk cringed, torn between loyalty to his captain and his desire not to annoy Wag, a hard hand slammed down onto the table between them. The troopers jumped.

"That's enough." Lain leaned over from where he'd been silently picking at his food, staring Huddy and Wag down. The sergeant was a true veteran of the Wars, had fought during the First Battle of Geonosis and had both rank and experience over all of them. Bald and clean-shaven, his face was marred by a long burn scar that reached from his chin to his right temple. When he'd slammed his hand onto the table, there'd been a dull thunk - the first three fingers of his left hand had been replaced by prosthetics in the early days of the war.

Wag, never one to be easily impressed, turned on the sergeant. "Stay out of it, Lain. We're talking."

Lain snorted, his eyes sweeping the table, briefly lingering on Jakk. Jakk hastily looked away.

"Wagging your tongues, more like it," Lain shot back. "Haven't you two clowns had enough of polishing deckplates by now?"

"Who's going to make us?" Huddy demanded. "You?" The word had been meant as a challenge, but Huddy hadn't quite managed to suppress a note of worry in his voice.

Lain just stared back at them, impassive. "I should. But why waste my breath, when you'll get the same reprimand from an officer five minutes later?" He snorted again, before leaning forward, weight braced on his knuckles. "You're all talk," he said, fixing his hard gaze first on Huddy, then Wag. "And where's the honor in talking behind a man's back? The only reason you two are sitting here, clucking like nuna, is because you don't have the guts to face Captain Kase head-on."

Color shot into Wag's face and he half-rose from his seat, baring his teeth at Lain.

"You calling me yellow?"

Lain didn't back down, but met his gaze evenly. "Obviously. But you're not going to challenge me either, Wag. Because you know I'll knock you down just like Captain Kase would." A brief flicker of humor lit the sergeant's scarred face. "I hear he has quite a kick. Right, Huddy?"

Huddy blanched, pressing his lips together and finally looked away from Lain.

"I had no idea you were such a fan, Lain," Wag drawled, in that tone Jakk had come to realize was meant to infuriate and mock. "Got a bit of a crush on the good captain?"

Jakk had no idea what a 'crush' was - the only kind of crush he knew of was pulverizing your target with heavy artillery and he didn't think that was what Wag meant - but he filed the word away for later.

Lain didn't react to Wag's taunt. If anything, the older trooper seemed to grow calmer the more Wag tried to bait him. Jakk felt a small shaft of envy. He wished he had that kind of calm; whenever Wag turned that tone of voice on him, Jakk was left fumbling and stuttering for a proper answer.

"I respect a man who can hold his own in a fight," Lain said quietly. "On and off the battlefield. And you forget, my squad was with Captain Kase's division on Drongar, when we took Hill 403. The man can fight. And you'd do well to remember that, Wag, the next time you run your mouth."

Abruptly, Lain pushed away from the table. Standing, he had a moment to look down his nose at Wag, who was still off-balance. "You should try showing a little more respect, Private." His dark eyes briefly flicked towards Jakk. "To everyone. Before someone decides to knock it into you."

He took his tray and left, discarding what was left of his dinner at the recycler before leaving the mess. Jakk followed the older trooper's progress, before studying his own dinner again. What had just happened? Had the sergeant...stood up for Captain Kase? And...and himself? Against men from his own company?

Wag plopped down back onto the bench, snorting in disgust. "Can you believe him? Slap some sergeant stripes on a bloke and he starts spouting lectures like a defunct clanker."

"Forget him, Wag." Huddy waved the words off. "You know Lain. He hasn't been right in the head since he threw himself on that thermal det."

Jakk blinked. "He threw himself on a thermal det? That's..." He struggled to find the right word. Brave? Courageous? Heroic? None of it seemed to fit the sergeant's quiet, firm voice and demeanor.

Unaware of his struggle, Wag knocked back the rest of his caf and drew his gloved hand over his mouth. "That's what we said, shiny. And for hauling his ass back from the beyond, Lain got his promotion."

'The beyond.' Jakk liked that term. It sounded so...vast. Endless.

"But enough about him." Wag got up from his seat, hauling Jakk up on his feet by the elbow. "Fall in line, shiny."

Jakk abandoned his tray with a slightly guilty conscience, knowing the cleaning crew would have to pick up after him. Thinking Wag wanted to go someplace private and let off some steam, Jakk started for the doorway Lain had just left through, but was hauled back roughly by his lover.

"Where do you think you're trotting off to, shiny?"

"I thought..."

Wag snorted and shot him an indulgent look. "You think too much. In and out of bed," he said, mimicking Lain's earlier tone perfectly.

Instead of leaving the mess, Wag led Jakk closer to the food line, where Commander Gaff and Captain Dion had just settled at a table occupied with men from Elix Company. The two officers nodded to the troopers at the table, but were still deep in some animated discussion of their own.

Realizing Wag's intended goal, Jakk tried to dig in his heels.

"Wag, no," he hissed, but the other trooper paid him no heed. Frantically, Jakk looked around for help, but Huddy was already back to eating his dinner and the other troopers close by were either purposefully ignoring the pair or watching with unabashed interest.

Commander Gaff caught their approach from the corner of his eye and looked up, a slight frown on his face. Wag purposefully marched up to the two officers and saluted, a resigned Jakk following suit.

"Commander Gaff, Captain Dion. Permission to join you, sirs?"

The commander's gaze shifted to Jakk, who didn't quite dare to avert his eyes. Perhaps if they were lucky, the commander would send Wag on his way; he was always good with a diplomatic answer...

"Permission granted," Captain Dion said jovially, gesturing to an empty spot on the bench opposite the officers. "The more the merrier."

Grinning, Wag settled himself onto the bench. "That's very kind of you, Captain. I hope you don't mind, but I have some questions, concerning a certain other captain you might know."