Please be aware that some content of this chapter may be deemed M rated
Twenty Six
"You sure about this Jess?" Hardcase looked around nervously.
He had agreed to go along with Jesse after lights out. Looking around at his sleeping brothers, Hardcase thought initially that the plan to disappear to a lower level bar was a good idea, but now, he was having second thoughts.
"I should have just stayed and cleaned my deece again," he mumbled to himself.
"What's that ner vod?" Jesse turned and smiled to his brother.
"Nothing, just I didn't think we'd have to leave the base."
"What? You want me to deliver a woman to you in your bunk at the barracks? I'm good Hardcase, but not that good," he laughed. "Come on, nearly there. Oh and remember, we need an escape word."
"What?" Hardcase froze for a moment.
"Come on, keep moving," he said absently. "An escape word is one we say when we need to get out of there, if you don't feel comfortable OK. Like, like, say Columbus."
"Columbus, got it." Hardcase said it over in his mind a few times just to make sure.
They had left in the middle of the night, crept past the soldier on duty and hailed a taxi to level eighteen of Coruscant City. Hardcase knew Jesse had the credits, he had heard him tossing them often enough into his trunk on those nights Jesse would disappear alone in his depths of despair. Now, his brother was using them for another purpose, to get him laid.
With that thought, he roused a little and jumped out of the speeder cab behind Jesse and followed him into a bar, the likes of which he had never seen before.
It was a den of inequity.
Rich fabrics covered the small tables and the floor, unlike the Barracks cold linoleum was covered in a soft, luxurious crimson coloured pile. Gold lanterns hung low and cast a warm glow across the room. Small, dark cubicles adorned with mountains of lush pillows were draped with heavy curtains, some pulled in a generous sweep to one side, enticing men into the private rooms where woman would sit and entertain them.
Jesse stopped and turned to Hardcase.
"Close your mouth brother," he laughed, "first rounds on me."
"All rounds are on you Jesse," he smiled and followed him to the bar.
###
Rex moved forward and kissed her shoulder gently. There was something off about her this trip back to Coruscant. Maybe he was tired, the smell of Malastare still hung heavy on his armour.
"Hey," she said rolling over and looking into his eyes. "How long have you been awake?"
"Not long," he pulled her close into him. "Gem?"
"Hmm?"
"Is there anything you want to talk about?"
She froze in his arms.
These weren't the types of conversations she was used to having with him. Their relationship was progressing, but they still knew very little about each other. She avoided the answer with another question, infuriating him a little further.
"How long have you got this leave?"
"We are just awaiting new orders. Why?"
"I was wondering if we could go to Oriis."
Rex scoffed and Gem smarted. Moving back from his hold she turned in the other direction, angry that he had laughed at her suggestion.
"Gem, look at me, please. What's going on?"
"I just want to go home that's all."
"For good?" Rex sat up in bed. If she went back to Oriis, they would barely see one another.
"No! I just want to go home and settle things there. I haven't been back since Father - ," she broke off.
"I know," he said slowly," I know Gem."
He looked around the room.
He had made it his home away from the barracks these days. His armour always sat on the chair next to the refresher door and his helmet and pistols on the floor next to the bedside table which held his data pad and comm link. He sighed and looked over to the woman lying naked next to him.
"How long do you want to go for, I could ask for some furlough," wincing at the thought of approaching his General and leaving his men behind. She could hear the insincerity in his voice.
"It's OK, it was just a fleeting thought. I can go alone, I don't need an escort."
"Gem, come on," he was exasperated. Everything he said was being misconstrued.
"It's OK," she said pulling herself out of the bed and wrapping a gown around her. "I'll make some caf, you want some?"
"I guess so," he muttered under his breath as he too, got up and grumpily pulled on the black shorts he wasn't planning on wearing until the morning.
It was only twenty two hundred after all.
###
Hardcase and Jesse sat on a stool at the bar. They had already polished off a Noonian Fixer and were on to their second when Hardcase saw him lift his head slightly at a Xanthinoan heading their way.
"Mind if I join you boys?" She said, her voice as warm as the liquor they were drinking
She was beautiful. Her skin glowed a beautiful citrine colour under the subdued lighting of the club. Her black hair flowed over her shoulder like a waterfall, streaked with electric blue. Her outfit, or what would normally be deemed clothing was minimum and left nothing to the imagination.
"Not at all Ma'am" they both stood from the stools and waited for her to seductively sit on one.
"Can we buy you a drink Ma'am?" Jesse, at home in playing the host as Hardcase watched the evening unfold before him.
'Could this be the one?'
'She's way to beautiful for me.'
The nagging voice of self doubt nipped incessantly at his confidence.
She smelled like musk; soft, sweet and together with her beauty, Hardcase could barely breathe let alone think. He had never been so close to something so alluring before.
They talked and laughed, the sticky sweet drinks playing the part they were designed for when she stood and held her hand out to Hardcase.
"Come with me," he was entranced and allowed her to pull him towards the coveted soft couches, where they would be hidden by the voluminous curtains from prying eyes.
Jesse sat back and watched as he walked away, smiling to himself when a rose coloured woman sat down next to him.
"Sorry Ma'am, you're not my type," he smiled, "but please, allow me to buy you a drink."
She smiled and knew exactly what he had meant, she was aware of his feelings, she was a Zeltron after all.
###
She had made them some supper and ate it quickly, hungrily.
Rex watched as she devoured everything on the plate, not leaving a crumb. He laughed.
"Someone has their appetite back again?"
"Sorry about before, I just haven't been myself recently."
'You're telling me', he thought to himself. "Come here."
She plodded over to where Rex sat at the table and he pushed the plate further in as she sat astride him.
"That's more like it," he said as she wrapped her arms behind his neck. He looked into her large brown eyes and moved forward slightly, still unsure of her mood when she too moved and allowed him to kiss her passionately. He snaked one arm around the small of her back whilst the other clenched her neck and pulled her mouth more into his.
She felt him growing beneath her and reached down with one hand and gently began massaging the area in need of immediate attention. Rex pulled back, his eyes wild with passion and moved subtly to allow her better access. He then moved his hands around the front and quickly untied the silk cord of her gown revealing her naked body on top of him, slipping the soft material off her shoulders provocatively.
He smiled wickedly at the site, at her touch and she moved forward, lifting her buttocks up and with little help positioned him inside her. Rex closed his eyes and exhaled. The coil in his abdomen began to turn tight.
They sat together for a moment, Gem stroking his head and massaging his shoulders. He held her firm, deep and when he felt the time was right, he lifted his hips, she smiled and continued rocking against him, stopping every so often to allow him access to her breasts.
His breath was hot against her chest as she clutched his head hard in his arms, the tempo had moved to a frenetic pace, each concentrating on their individual climax until that moment, when they knew it was inevitable. She grunted hard as he blew out a laboured breath and slumped against one another, still attached, still in the chair, at the table, in front of the window, and a thousand racing speeders.
###
Hardcase was positioned on the seat amongst the pillows behind the curtains. He was feeling the effects of the alcohol and felt slightly uncomfortable at not being completely lucid.
On the other hand, she was beautiful and he knew that tonight was about to unfold like no other.
In more ways than one.
Jesse was sitting at the bar when he heard the scream.
It was blood curdling and he knew it meant extreme pain, he had heard it so often on the battle field before.
Shocked at the sound, he spurted his drink out as he turned to where he had seen his friend disappear.
"By the Core - ," he heard Hardcase bellow and jumped off the stool when his best friend came hurtling out from behind the curtain.
"Calliope, Coruscant, Christophisis, oh Fek! Columbus. Fekking Columbus!" He yelled as he got up from the floor, running towards his friend, his face bloodied and one eye swollen. The noise had alerted the bouncers at the intimate club who looked menacing as they approached Hardcase. They were up for a fight, and lucky for them, they had picked two of the best in the five hundred and first.
With their backs to each other and arms raised in defence, Jesse quickly asked, "what the fek happened in there?"
"Not now, Jess. I'll take the one on the right."
"I have your back ner vod," Jesse said, a smile wiped across his entire mouth.
They came at them.
Hardcase deflected the first blow and threw one up against the Klatooinians jaw line. The alien smarted and fell back slightly, obviously surprised at the force at which the blow was delivered.
Jesse caught one in the midriff, his breath initially punched out of him when he lunged and grabbed the other bouncer around the neck in a head lock. With all the momentum he could muster he flung the creature to the left, sending him crashing to the floor, a table of patrons scattering as he landed hard on its wooden surface.
The fight lasted for five minutes, punches being thrown , both sides equal in their efforts to inflict injury to each other, until the club brought out the big guns.
The clones stopped and looked as two Trandoshans, brandishing clubs walked into the room.
"This is going to get real ugly," Hardcase said as Jesse raised both hands in defeat.
#
They awoke outside the GAR barracks.
They had been stripped of their red uniforms and thrown in front of them was one black body suit. Jesse, still with some cognitive thought immediately grabbed the lower half and under extreme pain, pulled his legs into the article of clothing. He looked over at Hardcase and attempted to laugh.
"You right ner vod?"
"I swear Jesse, if I could move I would thump you right now brother," he tried to laugh but the effort caught him hard in the ribs. He looked at the upper body suit in front of him and asked, "What the fek am I going to do with that?"
"I don't know, but I'd do it fast," Jesse replied as the flashing lights of a Coruscant Guard patrol illuminated the night sky.
###
Rex awoke to the frenetic beeping of his wrist comm.
The incessant noise unrelenting.
He knew by the code that he was required urgently and quietly moved up into a sitting position and quickly flicked it on.
"Rex, this is Commander Fox." His voice boomed down the comm, obviously angry.
"Sir, I - ."
"Don't Sir me!"
He was really angry.
"Get your shebs out of which ever bunk you're currently occupying and drag your fancy kama down here. I have two of your men in lock up and I am not in any mood to start the messy and lengthy process of booking them this early in the morning. I have more than enough paper work on my desk for tomorrow without adding these clowns to my list."
The comm went dead.
It was oh two hundred.
Rex jumped out of the bed and dressed as if he was about to face the entire Separatist army.
'Kriff,' he muttered to himself.
"What's going on? Rex?" Gem sleepily lifted herself up against the bed head.
"Nothing. Fox has two of my men in lock up."
"Which two?"
"I can only guess," he said as he lent forward and kissed her quickly before leaving the apartment.
###
"Well, are you going to elaborate?"Jesse, even though he knew he was in deep osik had to know the reason for their current predicament.
Hardcase just shook his head in disbelief.
"That is the last time I let you take me out, ever," he stressed the last word as he looked him square in the eyes.
"If I just knew?" Jesse pleaded. Hardcase was his best friend and was devastated that their evening had ended in such a way.
"She was a dude OK." Hardcase said quietly.
"You sure?" Jesse tried hard not to smile back.
"Let's just say I know a deece and two flash bangs when I'm holding them." It then dawned on Jesse. Xanthinoan were hermaphrodites. They had both the male and female anatomy depending on what part of their cycle they were in.
"Ooohhh," he nodded knowlingly. "Xanthinoans."
"Yup."
Hardcase looked at his oldest and most sincere friend. Jesse would never do anything to undermine him, Hardcase knew that. A smile crept across his face and he couldn't hold the laughter in any longer. He held his chest, "argh," he laughed out as he took a breath through his mouth, his nose twisted and broken. Jesse too, held himself as the laughter cracked open a cut in his lip, causing it to bleed for the third time that night.
"Hey Hardcase," he stammered.
"Yeah?"
"What did the deece say to the two flash bangs?"
"I dunno," he laughed.
"You guys hang out here while I go inside."
"Ah, ah, stop," Hardcase couldn't help the involuntary laughter.
"Jesse, what do you have when you hold two flash bangs in your hands?"
"A Xanthinoans undivided attention?"
With that they rocked forward, tears pouring down their cheeks as they saw the funny side of the evening. They were still laughing when the door silently swished open, and their commanding officer's figure stood silhouetted in the doorway.
"Atten-shun!" Hardcase shouted out and they jumped to standing, swaying with the pain.
"Gentlemen." His voice was calm and menacing. He quickly scanned the two men standing before him.
Jesse was bare chested, bruised and bloodied and wearing the bottom half of a black body suit.
Hardcase had been more unfortunate.
He had the top half which he had somehow managed to pull through and wore the neck around his waist, the rest looking like a long skirt, the arms flapping aimlessly at his sides. Rex was glad he was wearing his bucket as he let out a quick chortle at their collective appearance.
He cleared his throat and began.
"Commander Fox has been kind enough to oversee this unfortunate event, however, I am not so forgiving. You will both head to the med bay whereby you will get yourselves attended to, after which you will report to me at precisely oh seven hundred. Are we clear?"
"Sir, yes Sir," they both answered in unison.
###