The kid snored in his sleep.

It was a quiet, barely perceptible sound, especially muffled as it was due to his face being pressed against the bed sheets and cot mattress.

Not many brothers snored; it wasn't a behavior that should have been allowed in the GAR, seeing how it could quickly put a whole bunch of them into danger if someone snored in the middle of a mission. A few did, because that's just the way some were, but Sinker wasn't really accustomed to hearing that sound, seeing how he shared quarters with Comet and Boost, rather than sleeping in the general barracks.

Even if this could be a dangerous habit in the battlefield, Sinker couldn't help but think that it was a sweet sound to be hearing amidst the monotonous noise of a medbay filled with injured but ultimately safe brothers. It was a nice difference, so odd that it was refreshing.

The kid's hair was soft to the touch, but Sinker could feel a sandy texture every now and again that made him think the kid would need to wash his hair sooner rather than later. Even though Kiba was asleep and seemed thoroughly knocked out, he didn't feel a need to retract his hand and reclaim his space.

Even though the kid had never said as much, he knew that the kid enjoyed getting his hair played with, even in soft, languid motions like Sinker preferred. And Sinker himself enjoyed the novelty of running his hands over hair far smoother than what was generally found among the troops.

With a soft sigh, Sinker took a moment to look over the darkened medbay, where the rest of his fellow brothers that had been injured during the fighting against Separatist forces were resting up. Most were asleep, just like the kid, but there were a handful that were nose-deep into work on their datapads.

Sinker didn't know what they were doing. After having allowed these men to find out what Kiba was up to, he wouldn't be surprised to find out that some of them were trying to find ways to help the kid out on his plan to get the galaxy to learn about the reality of what it meant to be a clone trooper.

If anyone found out any of them were the ones supplying the kid with this kind of footage... Sinker wasn't delusional; he knew the kind of hell that awaited them should they be uncovered.

But... it sounded like it'd be worthwhile.

Most troops didn't care about how the galaxy viewed them. They were weapons, at the simplest. They had been born and bred for one purpose, and that purpose wasn't to worry over what natborns may think of them. What others thought of them wasn't of any true importance to them. All that was supposed to matter was how well they were able to fulfill their true purpose; how well they could serve the Republic.

Sinker didn't agree with most troops.

He'd witnessed the way civilians would put themselves in harm's way just because they didn't trust a clone trooper farther than they would a droid; had seen the distrust and disgust with which he and his brothers could be regarded. He knew the way's in which this harmed more than it hurt.

Kiba believed in what he wanted to accomplish. Sinker wanted to believe in it too.

He heard the kid shift against the sheets and looked down at him. It couldn't be comfortable to be sleeping in the awkward position he was in- with a portion of his body laid against the side of Sinker's cot even when the rest was still sat at the chair that had Sinker had asked to be pulled up for him.

Kid hadn't even accepted Sinker's offer to use one of his pillows and was instead using his arms for cushioning instead.

Sinker found it difficult to understand how unbelievably relaxed the kid seemed in sleep; found it hard because he had believed the façade the kid had been playing up ever since he had arrived at their venator. He had thought himself a good judge of behavior and character. He now knew that there truly was more to natborns and how they expressed themselves.

Kiba was only just now truly beginning to become comfortable around them.

Suddenly, the medbay's relative darkness was shattered by the bright flashing blue that broke out from the kid's comm-unit. Sinker was startled by it, but moved quickly to steal the unit away from the kid's wrist-gauntlet before it could wake him up.

The kid huffed and shifted with distaste, but eventually settled down once the light was no longer right at his face.

Sinker pressed at the unit and watched Wolffe's tired glower come to life before his eyes, "Sinker." he greeted with no joy, "Get the kid out of the medbay. The General's heading over."

Immediately, Sinker shook his head. "Tell the General we're all sleeping and to come visit us later." then he pointed down towards the kid by his side and watched the way Wolffe moved to look. His frown only deepened at the sight. "It'd be unfair to wake the kid up now."

He made sure to keep his words whispered, but Kiba still shifted in his sleep, undoubtedly subconsciously aware of what was happening around him.

Word went that the kid wasn't a jedi. And, fact of the matter was that he didn't really act like most jedi. To Sinker, he had mostly acted like what he'd come to learn was pretty customary of teenagers that were born outside of test-tubes, even though it was obvious that he had been raised to be a menace in battle.

Seeing him seemingly aware of what was happening around him, even as he slept, would be the first time Sinker had witnessed the kid doing anything even mildly jedi-like.

Wolffe's eyes glared something fierce before he was huffing out a sharp, "As soon as he wakes up, get him out of there."

The call was cut before Sinker could respond.

Wolffe hadn't spoken about the situation, but Sinker knew that the Commander wasn't particularly happy with the kid's presence on the ship. Partially, he got it. They were putting all of their necks on the line for the Commander's younger brother, Captain Rex, and they didn't even know exactly why. If any of the natborn officers caught sight of the kid, the threat of being reprimanded severely wasn't just real, it was assured.

But they didn't really need to be told directly why they were hiding the kid to know how important it was for the 501st's captain to have asked for their help. It was all over the GAR, after all. They all knew what had gone down on Umbara and what the higher-ups of the Republic wanted to capitalize off of. Rex didn't need to tell them this was his worry because it was obvious.

Granted, Sinker had learned most of this from being heavily involved with the gossip-mill that was the underbelly of the GAR, and that had only been strengthened by hacking his way into reading the way the holonews covered anything and everything to do with General Tsume Inuzuka getting arrested and being put on trial for having murdered a Jedi; or having fought back in lethal self-defense when a traitor of the Jedi Order went rogue.

The version of events really did depend on the publishing house that had decided to publish the particular article he read.

Political analysis went that now that Kiba Inuzuka was the highest ranking member of his clan within the GAR, he was the one that would be in charge of how much more involvement his clan took part in. With his mother jailed and waiting a trial unlike anything the galaxy had witnessed in recent history, Kiba had the power to pull more of his clan members into the front-line to help support the Republic.

Rex hadn't said as much, but he was keeping the kid hidden so that he couldn't be used like the pawn he was supposed to be.

Sinker didn't know why it was important for the Inuzuka clan to be brought into the war or kept to the side, hadn't managed to learn more about them and their homeworld than the standard fare of being warriors of mandalorian proportions and a great aid in any battle. But, just like a few other brothers, he'd managed to see just a fraction of the power one Inuzuka could bring into a battlefield- and the kid had been holding back on them.

It'd be like having a whole new batch of Jedi generals at their disposal, just much more willing to throw themselves into the fray, with proper combat inclinations. Jedi, no matter how good at leading, were still supposed to be peace keepers, after all. Inuzuka, though, weren't that. And that's why the Republic needed them.

Supposedly.

Allegedly.

In the end, it didn't really matter why Kiba needed to be kept hidden from their General. Wolffe had agreed to help his little brother out and the rest of them had agreed to follow the Commander into the depths of very hell if necessary.

Sinker watched the kid settle back into his deep sleep after a few more shifts one way and another. He moved the hand still in his hair from side to side in soft, long movements, until Kiba was letting out a contented sigh and fully sinking into himself once more.

This was a kid that had been trained from day one to be a warrior- or, at least, that's what the only article in basic he could find had said about the Inuzuka. It was an older article, ancient by Sinker's standards, but he wagered it was still accurate. The hunt for the kid hadn't been easy and he'd been taking it easy on them, after all.

If he was so deep into sleep that he hadn't been awoken by Wolffe's interruption, Sinker wagered it could mean one of two things: either he was so incredibly tired that he had finally crashed or he felt comfortable enough with them that he didn't see a need to be on alert even if he was, by all intents and purposes, alone.

He hadn't seen the kid sleep at any point until now. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't really seen the kid around the ship if they weren't together. So he wasn't sure just how well the kid had managed to sleep- especially because there had been no mention from any of the other brothers onboard about the kid and his habits further than his known continued interactions with Sinker.

He wouldn't be surprised if it was a mixture of Kiba finally crashing and feeling comfortable enough in the medbay to allow himself to crash, though.

With a sigh, Sinker tried to make himself as comfortable as he could on the rigid cot he had been ordered to not leave for at least two more rotations.

There was no way the General didn't know that there was something happening in the cruiser, right under his nose... Breathing apparatus, really.

"So, you see, the kid seems like he's always keeping a distance. And I'm curious as to why."

General Plo Koon lifted his hand to slide his fingers over the metal prongs of the apparatus over the lower half of his face in the way he always did whenever he was truly thinking about what was being spoken about; Sinker still felt his eyes focused on him.

"You say the character reminds you of the way you and your brothers interact?" the general hummed, only for Sinker to quickly nod.

The General was the kind of commanding officer that tried his best to get to know each trooper under his command as best as he could, even with how little time he had. Sinker knew that their general knew the name of every soldier under his command and worked to learn the name of every single man that came into the Wolfpack. He was also the kind of general that made time for conversation for those that wished to take part in it, hence why he was at Sinker's side.

This was an old game, really, which had started after a mission where the general and had been injured and he, Wolffe, Comet, and Boost had refused to leave his side until they were all sure he was healing well. It had only become a kind of tradition for the General to visit them all at least once if they ever ended up needing medical care.

"Then it is probable this is a character that is accustomed to being among close family ties on a regular basis. If he is new to the story, therefore new to the crew, he may not know how to best begin interacting with people he considers to be strangers to him." the general spoke slowly, clearly contemplating his every word before he spoke it. "It may take him some time to warm up to the crew, but if he truly is the kind of character you speak of, he will bond well with the crew. It will just take some time."

Sinker could envision the way a lethargic, still affected, Kiba had smiled at every brother that came up to speak with him after he had been hit by the stun-round that had officially ended the hunt they had taken part in. Even if he hadn't been fully in the moment, the kid had been smiling something fierce; giving a broad beaming that was all sharp teeth that Sinker had not yet learned he was capable of giving.

He had known the kid was on the more joyous side of a personality than he had gotten to really see... he just hadn't known just how much had been hidden away from them for most of the time the kid had been with them.

"That's good to hear." he sighed softly before he smiled at his general with appreciation, "I was really enjoying the overall story, but I didn't think my heart could take much uncertainty around if the kid would warm up or not. His character's too interesting to not do anything with it."

It wasn't a big secret around the GAR that the amount of free time the clone troopers could enjoy was incredibly limited. Because of this, it wasn't surprising to find that a brother chose to be selective over how they enjoyed their down time, therefore being a lot more demanding of good quality of whatever fiction it was that they were consuming, no matter the media it may have been in.

This meant that asking Plo Koon about the kind of person that Kiba might be under the guise of him being a character in a holo-novel he was thinking of possibly dropping was one of the least suspicious ways Sinker could go about to get some insight from the wise kel-dor.

He was very sure that the general knew that there was something deeper than him just asking about a story going on. But it wasn't like he said as much. Instead, he just continued to speak about the kind of calm acceptance the kid's character may require from the rest of the character's in the story- the kind he may hopefully receive- for the rest of his visit to Sinker before he moved on to speak with some of the other brothers that were stuck in the medbay.

"Hey, kid."

This was the third time the kid visited the medbay for an extended stay. Just like the other two times this had happened, he had entered with greetings for every brother in the bay but hadn't really struck up a conversation with any of them; had just ran straight to his cot to shack up in the chair to his side before pulling out the datapad he'd never given back- and Sinker would never ask to get back either.

"Hmm?" the kid glanced away from the screen he'd been staring at for the past few minutes, only to look at Sinker for half a second before going back to his work.

This whole time, the kid had been working on going through the footage Sinker had gotten for him and splicing it together for what he'd called his 'master plan' on a handful of occasions. If he wasn't working on that, the kid was catching up on what Sinker now knew to be lost sleep.

The main bit of advice Sinker had gleaned from his conversation with the general had been that the kid- a character to the general in a holo-novel but a real person to Sinker- needed to understand that he wasn't different from any of the rest of the fictional crew Sinker had come up as a cover story. And that meant that, if he was understanding the advice correctly, he just needed to handle Kiba with the same gloves he handled any other skittish shiny that was struggling to mesh with the rest of the Wolfpack.

"I was thinking of bunking up in the barracks. Wanna come?" as soon as the words had left him, Kiba was looking at him with widened, surprised eyes that told Sinker everything he needed to know about the kid and what this offer meant. "We've been working hard enough. Don't you think we both deserve a good rest?"

Unlike with most of the Jedi Sinker had come to interact with, the kid wore his heart on his sleeve. The general may have been an open book to him, but that was only after years of working under the regularly stoic, albeit accessible, kel-dor. Other jedi, though, tended to keep their feelings and reactions as much to themselves as they could, attempting to seem as disconnected from petty grievances and the mundane going-ons of life as their belief system dictated.

Even Commander Tano was starting to brush off some of her teenage impulsivity and was doing a good job of controlling her reactions more and more, from what little Sinker had managed to see of her.

This kid, though, was looking at him as if he had just offered him a full hour at the training range with whatever weapon he favored, no questions asked, no limits to be had.

He pulled off the sheet covering his body and moved his body to sit up on the edge opposite where the kid was seated. He made sure to keep his movements slow, listening to every whine and complaint emitted by his body to make sure that he didn't jar anything so terribly that he'd need to beg the medics to give him another round of medicine- because he knew they wouldn't because he knew that what he was doing wouldn't be approved.

The whole time it took him to move and settle himself on the edge, he could feel the kid's eyes on him.

"Now, c'mon. I haven't been medically cleared yet so we'll have to at least seem like I'm trying to not disappoint my medic."

There was a pause and then he heard ruffling behind him.

Soon enough, Kiba was offering him a shoulder to lean on so they could begin their slow, hobbled trip towards the main barracks.

After he had woken up, Sinker had eventually found out that the kid had been kidnapped by a group of brothers.

Boost had been waiting for him to wake up, sat at the bottom of the bed as he worked on something on the datapad in his hands. Sinker had looked at him, confusion biting at him, before Boost wordlessly pointed towards the far end of the room as he continued to look over the screen of his datapad.

And that had been when Sinker had seen Kiba sat at a loose circle, surrounded by brothers, all in varying degrees of dress, hidden away from easy sight from the doorway into the barracks from the way the men had rearranged the beds and themselves.

Due to the distance between him and the group, he hadn't been able to hear what they had been talking about. But he had managed to witness the way in which Kiba smiled broadly as he picked up what seemed to be a piece from a standard blaster and began to shake it, as if making a point. When Sinker looked at the floor in front of the kid, beside the back of the brother beside him, he was able to see what looked like the deconstructed parts of a DC-15A blaster.

"Wolffe doesn't seem very happy, ori'vod." Boost's voice was tinged with far too much enjoyment for Sinker to take his words as a simple warning, "And my bet's that his terrible mood's been caused by a certain sergeant breaking out of his mandatory stay in the medbay to bring in an aruetii into the barracks."

With a sigh, Sinker sat up on the bed. His limbs pulled and complained at being moved, but they weren't screaming at him to stop anymore, which was a sign of his healing process going just fine.

Aruetii.

His mando'a was better than most brothers, so he knew of the intrinsic multiple-meanings of almost every single word created by the Mandalorian culture. Because of this, he knew that Boost wasn't using the word to insult the kid. It was used as a simple, yet heavy, indicator of the kid's status among clone troopers. No matter what, Kiba wasn't one of them. He was an outsider, a foreigner... a danger.

The shadow of the Malevolence still hung over him, Boost, and Wolffe, no matter how long had passed since they had watched all their brothers die right before their eyes. They all handled their grief in their own way, mitigated it as best they could.

For Boost, that had meant keeping at arms length any that he hadn't known before the Malevolence had shattered all he had ever known. For Sinker, that meant making sure that he knew the name of every brother that came in and ensuring they had a place in the Wolf Pack. And, for Wolffe, that meant an uncomfortable in between of only allowing a select few newcomers to come to mean more to him than just another man under his command.

"I'm fine." he lifted one arm to begin to stretch, feeling a comfortable burn after having spent too long on bed rest for his liking. "And Wolffe will be too. You just leave him to me."

Boost took one second to look at him, his face harsh and filled with concern, before he was sighing and closing his eyes. Then he was standing up from the bed, leaving his datapad discarded where he had been sat, before he offered one hand over at Sinker.

"Hurry up. I know you want to find out what those troublemakers have been up to for the past hour."

Beside himself, Sinker smiled at his brother.

Their personalities may clash and they may never actually agree on most things, but if there was one truth to Boost, it was that he was one of the best brothers Sinker had ever had.

The last-minute rescue hadn't been easy, but it had definitely been one of the more exciting kind Sinker had taken part in in a notable amount of time.

Only the 501st...

"Sinker, is it really necessary to take this route?"

Part of him was more than aware of the fact that this was necessary because of what the captain had asked of them. Another, much more self-aware, part of him was a lot more focused on how funny it was to hear the uncoordinated clanging of the captain's heavier kit smacking into the sides of the vents to be completely serious about what they were doing.

"Yes, sir." he kept his voice level as he spoke because he was no fool, "Don't worry, just a bit more and we'll reach the room."

He didn't hear Rex make any noise with his mouth, but he definitely heard the way the blonde brother stumbled through making his way through the vents- and he really wished he could have recorded this because it was golden.

That kind of footage would have helped him get back in Wolffe's good graces, probably. He was a sucker for just about anything that had to do with his ad'ika acting more like that bumbling cadet Sinker still didn't quite believe the stalwart and admirably capable Captain Rex had been when Wolffe's Commander squad had just about adopted him.

Their journey through the vents continued until Sinker reached the opening that led straight to one of the roomier storage units he frequented. With a quick assurance that the captain had survived and wouldn't have to worry about traveling like this again until he left, he pulled the grate to the side and dropped into the room.

At first, he was met with a completely empty room, no brother or Kiba in sight. This wasn't surprising, seeing how the situation with the togruta colonists required all hands to be working- which was part of the reason why neither Rex nor him could get spotted shirking their duties by traveling like normal troopers. But within a few seconds, Kiba was popping out from his hiding space inside of a tall storage closet, a bright smile on his face.

"Sinker, that rescue was amazing!" his eyes glanced towards the entrance of the room, reasonably worried, and Sinker made his way towards the control panel. "That wasn't just amazing, it was so cool!"

Kiba began to fawn over the footage he had witnessed coming live through Sinker's bucket cam, all the while Sinker began to tinker with the control panel into the room. It only took a handful of motions, but he had soon hacked his way into making it a one-way entrance only- which meant that Kiba wouldn't have to worry about anyone walking in on them.

When Sinker heard a grunt behind him, accompanied by the clatter of items getting shaken and jarred by impact, he knew that Rex had finally found the courage to drop down into the space. And as soon as Kiba noticed it was him, all attention was diverted from Sinker and the Wolfpack's astonishing rescue efforts.

"Rexster!" he cheered, and then a moment of silence.

Sinker felt something like envy nestle into his chest at how purely happy Kiba had sounded by just saying the other clone's name. He understood why he would feel such a way, but he also understood that such feelings weren't just immature, they were dangerous.

Kiba's time with the 104th had always had an end-date, after all.

"You're injured."

The tone didn't just sound off coming from Kiba, it sounded wrong. Sinker turned around as soon as he heard the severe, almost distraught, edge in Kiba's voice. He found that the boy was looking at Rex with an intensity he hadn't yet witnessed from the kid; he found that the captain was stone-walling the kid with a face as harsh as Wolffe's most apathetic gaze.

"I'm fine." Rex's tone was uncharacteristically blank- and Sinker could see Wolffe's influence as clear as day now.

He had never really gotten to interact much with Wolffe's favorite younger brother before. It was fascinating how little he really needed to witness to be sure of how important they had been to each other during their cadet days- to understand why Wolffe had stick his neck out for Rex now even when he didn't agree with what the captain was doing.

Because Kiba was standing only a bit away from him, Sinker was able to see the way in which his eyes unfocused from Rex. The kid was still looking in the captain's direction, but no longer at him; instead, they seemed to be watching something around Rex.

Sinker remained quiet, more than aware that this particular topic had nothing to do with him- he couldn't even tell Rex that injuries needed to be taken seriously because he'd have no leg to stand on and he hated hypocrisy and avoided it whenever possible. Instead, he just watched the way in which Kiba's eyes seemed to follow something moving around Rex; watched how Rex just stood there, patiently waiting for the kid's response. The kid even tilted his head to the side at one point, as if trying to hear something- all Sinker could hear were the standard sounds of a cruiser in hyperspace.

In truth, this would be the second time the kid ever did anything that seemed even moderately jedi-like while in Sinker's presence. But this was the first time where Sinker could actually see the kinds of oddity he'd learn quickly to write off as jetii-osiik with his general.

Eventually, Kiba was breathing out softly before offering a small, gentle smile. "If you'd like, you can bunk up with me at the barracks when you finally decide to crash." there was a forced bite to his words, just enough to keep his tone from being so disgustingly sympathetic it could register as pity. "If I'm stuck dragging you, though, you'll wake up with less kit than you had before the crash."

And that was a substance-less threat to further wash away the sting of pity, replacing it with a comfortable, soothing snark that most troopers preferred.

To them, comradeship wasn't just offering a helping hand. Kindness wasn't just words or promises. Brotherhood was comfort; was being comfortable enough to not have to say the right words to be understood; comfort in knowing that there was a time and a place for everything and they could get to it if it was necessary, but they didn't need to do that if it wasn't wanted.

Sinker had been right: The kid really was incredibly similar to them and all he had needed was the proper reassurance to know that he had a spot among them to really let his true personality shine through.

Rex's face struggled to not crack into surprise- the same way that Wolffe would, now that Sinker could see the way the blonde's face seemed to become harsher than necessary. If he hadn't known that this was the exact way in which Wolffe avoided showing off emotion, he would even be fooled enough to believe that Rex was annoyed by the kid's words.

Soon enough, the captain was offering a stiff nod down at the kid, "Noted."

It wasn't a direct promise.

Sinker would wager that Kiba knew exactly how much of a promise it really was.