Author's Note: This ficlet is the unfortunate result of me trying to write Star Wars fic while having a chocolate craving. Blame the need for sugar. Beware fangirliness.
Smile
Covered.
Ahsoka pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed in deeply. "Okay," she began, "would someone like to explain to me exactly how this happened?"
There were roughly a dozen clones standing in front of her. Aside from Rex and Cody, who were the two standing stiff-necked and slightly mortified before the rest, they were all indistinguishable from each other due to the fact they were covered, bucket to boots, in chocolate. There were even little puddles of sugary brown goo around their feet, still expanding from the dripping drops coming from various bits of armor and equipment they carried. At least two of them appeared to have some sort of pink frosting splattered on them, giving the chocolate a bit of color.
Her question earned dead silence, and she glanced over at Barriss, who was managing not to gape at the chocolate-covered clones, but just barely. Her lips were constantly trying not to twitch up into a grin, and she was making the occasional tiny hiccup, as though she was about one funny word away from breaking into giggles.
Ahsoka had to admit, she wasn't too far behind that point.
"Rex?" she prompted, trying to restrain a laugh when he somehow managed to stiffen even more. A few drops of cooling chocolate dribbled from the tip of his pauldron onto the street. He rubbed at his eyepieces, managing only to smear what appeared to be whipped cream further across his visor.
"We were in pursuit of the target, Commander…" he started, then hesitated, as though unsure of how to explain what happened next.
Cody stepped in. "The fugitive went into one of the factories, Commander Tano. It was…well…."
"A candy factory." Rex continued, then added, awkwardly, "Sirs."
"The target detonated an explosive. Inside the factory." Cody finished, shifting awkwardly as a particularly gooey strand of what appeared to be caramel slowly trailed down off the muzzle of his blaster towards the concrete.
"I take it there was a great deal of chocolate inside the candy factory?" Barriss asked, her tone polite but with a current of carefully restrained amusement underneath.
"Yes, ma'am," Cody agreed, then seemed to deflate slightly. "A lot of chocolate. Liquid chocolate."
Rex nodded. "A fountain of chocolate."
"Geyser," Cody grunted. "Floor to ceiling."
There was a wave of affirmative murmurs from the other chocolate-coated men behind them.
Ahsoka pressed her lips together and breathed in sharply. She couldn't laugh. She couldn't laugh. Not in front of them, anyway. She had to get them out of here before she –or Barriss – couldn't take it anymore.
"Well, you did a great job," Ahsoka told them, trying to sound enthusiastic. "We've got him in custody. Why don't you all get cleaned up? See if you can find a…fire hose, or something?"
"Yes, ma'am," Cody acknowledged, just as the long string of goo dripping from his blaster finally hit the ground. To the men, he said, in a more authoritative voice, "Let's see what we can find."
The crowd of chocolate-covered clones turned around and began to shuffle back towards the nearest warehouse. Their chase had led them to a factory district a few kilometers out from the nearest spaceport, and they were surrounded by transports, factory buildings, and storage facilities. Most of the local workers were on lockdown or had been evacuated while they chased their chocolate-exploding terrorist friend through the district, corralling him successfully closer to the space docks. Aside from the terrible waste of chocolate, there were no casualties – they'd caught their target quite unprepared.
Barriss finally began to giggle, bringing a hand up over her mouth and turning aside as her shoulders shook with laughter. Ahsoka began to snicker, then turned her head aside as her own giggles turned into a full throated laugh. Rex, Cody, and the rest of the group were, fortunately, now at the end of the street and mostly out of earshot. They were all looking around as they walked, clearly looking for some sort of water source to use to rinse themselves off.
Slowly, the laughter began to subside, and Barriss looked sideways at Ahsoka, her hand still lingering over her mouth, but not hiding the somewhat mischievous smile there. "Do you think they will be in need of assistance?"
Ahsoka's white brows lifted as she considered Barriss' question, then looked at the rather lost looking group of men at the end of the street, a few stragglers straggling after the rest, who'd rounded a corner. There was a trail of smudged chocolate footprints trailing after them.
Wet, chocolate covered men.
The proper Jedi in her warred for a moment with the curious teenager. The curious teenager won.
"Even if they don't, it'll still be pretty fun to watch," she grinned, then laughed in response to Barriss' flushing cheeks.
The two girls, still giggling, hurried up the street to the sound of water erupting from a hydrant.
There's a candy factory/store near where I live that has a floor to ceiling chocolate fountain. I can only imagine the mess if something like that got 'sploded all over. XD
~Queen