Thirty Nine

"Look what the Strill dragged in?" Fives was sitting with another ARC and Jesse playing cards in the barracks common area when Rex stormed in.

"Trouble in paradise?" Jesse said under his breath.

Rex grabbed a mug and poured himself a cup of caf before sitting at another table and began typing on his 'pad. His jaw set hard, the men knew better than to interrupt him.

A slight hiss and the electronic doors welcomed Commander Tano to the rec room.

She had been on the Zygerrian mission also, and knew of the trouble Obi-Wan and Rex had encountered in the slave camps on Kadavo. Her people were happy to now be under Republic protection, putting the messy business on Zygerria far behind them, only at a high price.

"This is going to end in tears," Fives muttered under his breath as he placed another card down in front of him.

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"Hey," she said as she pulled up a chair next to Rex, nudging him with her shoulders.

She knew the look, he was annoyed at something or someone and the fact that he was in the barracks and not in the Senatorial Building meant only the obvious.

She decided to visit it anyway.

"Thought you'd be at Gem's" she said carefully.

"Not now Ahsoka, OK?" Rex said in a low voice.

"I'm just saying, it's nice to see you here, you never seem to be around these days." Her voice light and friendly.

He didn't pass comment and continued to flick through data scrolling in front of him before logging off and finishing his drink. He quickly glanced sideways at her in acknowledgment as he alighted from the table.

He looked good, strong and had an air of masculinity about him this evening. She had seen it before on the battlefield. The brooding self-confidence was attractive. She watched him leave, heading in the direction of his quarters.

Ahsoka looked across to the table on her left. Fives was watching her warily and she met his gaze as she too, got up and decided to follow the Captain down the hall.

"That looks like trouble," Jesse said, not lifting his eyes from the cards.

"Yeah, you've got that one right ner vod."

Fives struggled to concentrate on the game. After losing at another hand, he decided to call it quits and head towards his designated area. He stopped when he heard the familiar voice of his Captain raised behind the door in his private quarters.

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Ahsoka, please." Rex said firmly.

She sat down on his bed and she smelt the familiar scent of her only lover. She ran her petite hand across pillow and smiled to herself remembering the last time she had been sleeping on it.

With him.

"You should really go, I am not in any mood to talk this evening." He was uncomfortable, tired and felt foolish allowing her into his room alone.

"Rex, I'm sorry about everything, you know? Like you, it's all new to me to. I'm not sure that the Jedi have it right," she stopped and shook her head. He could see that she was struggling with something internally. "I keep questioning my faith." At that comment, Rex lifted his head quickly, furrowing his brow at his young superior.

She really was beautiful.

He had thought about her every day until he met Gemma on that little insignificant moon all those months ago. He admired Ahsoka's strength and courage in the battlefield, her fresh approach to life and more recently her tenderness at being his lover. They had shared so much, lost so much, but always together.

He thought he would never feel that way again, until now, and he was going to blow it all to the universe by a misunderstanding with the young Diplomat.

She jumped up Jedi fast from the bed and placed her arms around him.

"I've missed you Rex," she purred in his ear.

He felt the room sway and the familiar feeling in his core began to rouse, making any cognitive thought impossible. She moved her head around his chin, motioning further and further towards his mouth. She smelt familiar and he closed his eyes and let himself be taken away by the memory of her touch.

She boldly kissed him and surprising her, he responded.

Frantic, fearless and passionate.

It was familiar, easy, but not without its complications.

"No, Ahsoka, I can't!" He regained some strength and pulled her away from him and looked into her large crystal blue eyes.

Fives, risking an argument and possibly ruining a friendship, decided to ring the buzzer on the Captain's door, waiting for a response.

Ahsoka Force opened the door, and she stood next to the Captain. Rex was taken aback at the presence of the ARC and looked both shocked and guilty.

Fives looked frantically to see if anyone else was around when he quickly stepped inside the tiny room.

"You've got to be out of your kriffing minds," he hissed at them both.

Ahsoka merely walked out past Fives into the corridor, the door silently closing behind her.

She wasn't worried about Rex, she knew one day that he would be hers.

She had foreseen it, after all.

"Please tell me you're not going down that path again Captain?" He was being over familiar with his commanding officer, and hoped it wasn't something he would live to regret.

"None of your business Fives." Rex growled, pacing around his room like a caged animal.

"You're a di'kut," and quickly added "sir," before he felt the blow to his left cheek.

"One on one, now! In the gym," Rex roared and headed out of his room.

With that the two friends headed towards the gymnasium to settle their score Mandalorian style.

Rex was walking, removing his top revealing his bare chest already glistening in sweat as he threw it onto the mat in front of him.

Fives was busy unclipping his kama and relieving his body of his top armour when he quickly dodged to miss the first throw.

He smiled and put his fists up to black another punch from the Captain.

"Nice ink, Sir," he commented on the new tattoo on his Captains chest.

He rammed Rex into the mat and sat on top of him throwing as many punches of sense he could muster into his Captains face when he was abruptly flipped to one side and caught in a head lock.

"You should learn to keep your pretty mouth shut," Rex grunted in his ear.

"Just trying to save you from making the biggest mistake of your sorry life Sir," Fives said in response.

As the two men continued to block and tackle one another, a small group of soldiers had congregated as word had quickly got out that the Captain and Fives were at it in the gym.

Continually dodging and weaving, they were evenly matched until the Captain took a blow to the mouth, cutting his upper lip open and revealing a fine red spray of blood. He retaliated with a cross body blow to the kidneys that took Fives to his knees.

The two men were breathing heavily when Commander Cody marched in and put proceedings finally to a halt.

"Get up, the two of you," he bellowed. "What in the Force is going on here?"

Both men were standing rather shakily in front of their commanding officer.

"Will you tell him Captain or shall I?" Fives said inclining his head in question.

"Fives," Rex warned, taking a step towards him.

"That will be all gentlemen," Cody said, dismissing the group that had been watching and turning to look at his friend.

Fives had moved aside in typical ARC fashion and had begun to collect his armour.

"I didn't dismiss you ARC." Cody ordered.

Fives turned around and stood at parade rest.

"Well, I'm waiting?" Cody said.

"Sir, the Captain and I were having a little disagreement about something personal. We thought this would be the best way to come to a rightful conclusion."

"Captain, would you like to elaborate?" Cody was giving his friend the chance to tell his side of the story.

"No Sir, we're all good, just a simple misunderstanding." Rex bent down and picked up his shirt and placed it over his head.

"I'll give you both the respect your ranks deserve and assume that this is finished. Whatever this was about is now over isn't it?" He waited before adding, "I said isn't it?" he reiterated.

"Sir, yes sir," they both repeated.

"Now get to the infirmary and get that lip cleaned up, and if I hear anything more from the two of you, you'll both be on report. Is that clear?"

Both men straightened and Fives grabbed his armour, looking back at the Captain before leaving the gymnasium.

"Anything you want to talk about?" Cody asked his friend. He knew that there was more to this story, and wanted Rex to know that he would listen if he wanted to talk.

Rex just shook his head, silent.

"Why are you here anyway, Rex?" He was aware of the living arrangements that Rex had taken to in between missions back on Coruscant.

"Don't you start as well," was all he could mutter out as he walked out of the gym and back to his quarters.

To hell with the cut lip, it would be a reminder of how close to stupidity he had come that evening.

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