Twenty Four
Each stood at parade rest.
Waiting to take whatever punishment the Captain had coming.
Dressed in their gym gear they stood firm; together.
"What's this?" Rex walked in, throwing his gear on the ground in front of him, surveying each of the esteemed four.
Jesse, Hardcase, Kix and the ARC.
A smirk fleetingly crossed his mouth.
They all snapped to attention. "Sir!"
One voice; magnified four fold.
"Captain." The ARC stood forward.
"We all played a part in the other evening Sir. We collectively are responsible."
They had decided not to let Jesse take the full blame for the evening with the young Representative.
They were brothers after all.
"Good," Rex eyed each one of them, "twenty five, in the tunnel now."
He smiled as he watched the four identical backs disappear towards the running track.
They were his team.
He expected no less.
"Aren't you forgetting something troopers?"
His voice held a certain menace, they had heard it before. Usually on the battlefield and directed towards a tinnie, never towards them.
"Armour, and full packs gentlemen."
#
They stood at the end of the pool.
Drown proofing.
They had heard that it was part of the Commando's training on Kamino. Unlike the Commando's though, there was a clone subtrooper resting on the bottom in case any of them got into trouble.
Their feet and hands were bound together with velcro.
"I don't like this at all," Hardcase had a worried look on his face as he inspected his bound wrists and ankles.
"You will jump into the pool, whereby you will go straight to the bottom and push yourselves hard off the floor. Coming up to the surface I suggest you quickly take a breath and expel all oxygen from your lungs until you reach the bottom again."
"It teaches you to remain calm under pressure." Fives noticed how satisfied the Captain looked as he spoke. "Do it four times."
He swallowed hard, "you've done this before Cap?" Jesse asked nervously.
"Yes, a long time ago. Part of my officer training programme."
They didn't doubt him. The Captain stood erect, hands neatly tucked into the small of his back.
"When you're ready ladies."
"Fek," Kix whispered under his breath.
The green light given, it was the medic who jumped in first.
#
At the end of each day they would collapse into their quarters.
Hardcase even fell asleep in the Mess, left until the morning slumped in his chair, his face flat on the laminated surface of the table.
Hands on hips, Rex would watch and bark orders, their skin glistening and their muscles screaming with the lactic acid build up.
Push ups, sit ups, beep tests. Relentless, over and over again, but none of them faltered.
The Captain never said anything other than "stop, go, push harder, move it" and one day,"that's enough."
They collasped onto the floor of the gym. Too exhausted physically to move, let alone stand.
Hardcase, on all fours dry wretched. "Just working the abdominals Sir," he spluttered out.
They had swore never to repeat the antics of that evening and Rex knew that she was more than responsible for the behaviour of his team on that night. But he had somewhat foolishly, entrusted the young trooper over the ARC that evening to see her home safely. Not to a tattoo salon in a seedy part of town, and definitely not in the barracks for medical assistance after the event.
###
Jesse sighed as he watched the rest of his squad move out.
"Take it easy Hardcase," he said as he watched him pick up his kit.
"Yeah, you to ner vod," he leaned forward and slapped his brother on the shoulder.
Jesse was assigned to a standard month of guard duty.
Boring, safe and at complete odds with his training.
It was the worst torture for a soldier, watching his squad move out without him.
Jesse took it on the chin.
He tossed his helmet over in his hands a few times before lowering it over his face and headed sullenly out to report in to Commander Fox.
###
Jesse wasn't always the joker.
There were nights when he would disappear from the barracks and head down into the depths of Coruscant. The levels were rank didn't matter, where being the funniest guy or the one with the quickest wit didn't mean anything.
Hardcase would hear him leave, sigh and roll over in his bunk and not sleep until his brother returned safe in the wee hours of the morning.
He was more than his brother, he was his best friend.
On those nights, Jesse knew he wasn't the man in control. He knew he was being used but it didn't matter. Wealthy men or the Grand Army – either way, it was just geography. During those times he would close his eyes and not see his brothers lying in their own blood, his eyes the last thing they would lock on to before they stared lifelessly back at him.
He could cry out, as loud as he wanted. The men would think it was from pleasure, so intense and laboured. In reality it was to drown out his own grief.
To drown out the continual moaning of men in pain, to drown out his own thoughts.
#
He had caught the eye of another. One who also didn't fit the mould. He too would sneak away from his cot late at night and come listen to the music and the men sweet talking others as they would drink the expensive liqueur and smoke the hallucinogen inducing tobacco.
He often saw the tattooed man at the bar, laughing and kissing the rich Coruscanti businessmen.
##
One night their eyes met.
Jesse was both surprised and dismayed to find another brother at the bar. He liked being anonymous and the thought he had been discovered filled him with panic. He also noticed the red on his armour.
'Fek, Coruscant Guard.'
He quickly jumped off his stool and made his way to the door. It struck the other soldier immediately what had sent his brother flying to the exit and made his way over as quickly as he could.
Standing just beside him he said quietly. "Relax ner vod, we are both here for the same thing."
Jesse looked into his own eyes and relaxed.
Another brother had finally found him.
Someone finally had come to rescue him.
###
They would often meet and just talk. Leaving the bar on the banned level alone, walking through the artificial parks for hours on end.
He would ask Jesse about the front, being a Guard meant that he had never been in battle. Often he was frustrated that the only action he saw was subduing a drunken Florian or separating two conniving Neimoidians each with conflicting political adjendas.
Jesse would laugh at him, wishing that was the only fighting he had ever seen.
One afternoon led well into early evening. Their talking distracting them from the time.
Jesse got up from the bench and smiled.
"I like seeing your smile," his new friend remarked.
"It's the same one as yours," Jesse joked.
"Why do you always do that?"
Jesse looked confused, his head tilting in question.
"Make fun of everything?"
Jesse stopped, he had been caught out.
Why hadn't any other brother noticed before?
"You don't have to do that with me," he said gently, pulling himself up from the same bench.
They were face to face, exactly the same height, the same man's face mirror imaged.
Jesse blushed at his nearness.
Slowly, he lifted his hand up to his brother's shoulder and laid it carefully on the cold white armour.
It was an act of intimacy for Jesse, one he had never experienced before.
It felt good, and he liked it.
Their time together had never been more than brotherly. A quick glance or a touch being as physical as it had got, but both secretly wanted, needed more. Finding a place to be alone in the army was near on impossible, however one afternoon during his last week in the Guard, Jesse finally got his wish.
Walking together along the corridor in the Senate Building he quickly grabbed his vambrance and pulled him into a doorway. A utility room. Before Jesse could react he reached forward and cupped the back of his neck and pulled him into him.
His lips ground down hard on his. Possessive, powerful, passionate.
The kiss meant everything.
Pulling back he looked into Jesse's surprised eyes.
Neither spoke.
Moving slightly forward Jesse put his mouth close to his and slowly, gently began to caress his lips. A low moan escaped him, his heart beating like it was going to explode through the armour at his chest. Jesse moved his mouth and began at his ear, slowly kissing as he angled his neck to allow better access. He could hear Jesse's breathing as he struggled to keep a check on his own.
"Tell me - " Jesse whispered.
"Tell you what?" he breathed back, lost to all cognitive thought.
"What you want."
##
Their breathing was evenly matched, the rasping had subsided as the pleasure waned.
Jesse leaned into the wall for support. He moved in from behind and circled his waist, gently kissing the back of his neck.
"Thank you," was all Jesse could mutter out.
He laughed low, moving back and looking for pieces of his armour.
###
She saw them leave the tiny room as she came back from the gym.
Gem was happily walking back to her apartment when she turned the corner and ran head on into Jesse.
Vail walked out immediately behind him, his head down as he clipped a piece of armour back into place.
They all stood, riveted to the spot.
It was the woman who spoke first.
"The Captain is about two minutes behind me Jesse."
"Thank you Ma'am," he nodded as he turned and walked in the other direction. Vail stood to attention in front of the politician.
"Don't make me say it." He looked at her blankly, petrified he would have to explain his behaviour to Commander Fox. "OK, I'll say it," she said slapping his chest plate, "dismissed trooper."
###