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"Oh, what's this?!"
"No, put that down! We're not supposed to touch things."
"But what is it?"
"Put it down, Fives!"
"What do you think would happen if I drank it?"
Rex rounds the corner to where Echo and Fives are squabbling – that's nothing new for them, even if they work very well together. They're close in a way he hasn't quite seen in many other clones, but they're still new to the action.
"What are you boys doing?" Rex asks as Fives sets down a bottle of something back on the table in front of him.
"Uh, nothing sir," Fives blurts out.
Rex is about to give him a word for blatantly lying to superiors when Ahsoka's voice sounds from behind him. "Rex!"
He pauses, giving them a look before turning back. "Yes, Commander?"
"It's snowing!"
What even is snow? They talked about it on Kamino, taught a little about it, but he's never seen it before. None of them have, except probably the General. That isn't something Rex would know, though.
Rex follows Ahsoka to where she is, pressed up against the window overlooking the now snow-glazed field outside. "It never snows on Coruscant," she says, "I only saw this when I went to Ilum to get my kyber crystal."
"What's it like?" Rex asks her.
"Cold," Ahsoka says, watching wide-eyed. "Very cold. And soft."
He's never seen it before. It's... beautiful. Kamino made snow sound dangerous. They never said it was beautiful. The sky is cloudy right now, but the ground is white, and it's going to be bright once the sun comes out again.
"First time seeing it?" the General asks, appearing beside him, smiling wistfully.
"Yes," Rex replies, "We learned about it on Kamino, but never seen it."
Ahsoka nearly has her face pressed to the window's glass, and Rex tries not to stare at her too hard.
Her skin is somehow more orange than Cody's armor, and her lekku still look... He's never seen Togrutas until Christophsis. There are many species in the galaxy, and Rex can't help staring at all of them for a while.
"I'd say we set up camp," Rex says, trying to focus. The falling snowflakes are distracting. Rain on Kamino always fell at an angle, but it never just blew and swirled. They catch on the window, melting at the warmth. "The temperatures are dropping."
The insulation in this place is a nightmare. They came dressed for snow, but it's still chilly in here.
"We'll go to the center of the building," Anakin says, "Try to minimize heat loss."
That sounds like a good idea. It's freezing. Not literally, but it is cold – Rex has worked in cold before, though. All the clones have. They were trained for it.
"They have a fireplace!" Fives yells, poking his head into the room.
Stars. What kind of place is this? Those were outdated years ago.
"They have those on Naboo," Anakin says, as if reading his thoughts.
Oh, never mind that. Apparently, some odd places still have them.
"What's the point?" Ahsoka asks, wrinkling her nose.
"Creativity," the General supplies.
Add that to the massive list of things Rex has learned he understands nothing about. He was trained to be a soldier. He never thought about being anything more, and frankly, most people's lives seem so pointless. They just exist. Rex might be fighting for them, but that doesn't mean he can make sense of how anyone can just... exist. The boys paint their armor creatively to tell each other apart. It has nothing to do with... looking at?
"Isn't setting a fire in the middle of a building a security hazard?" Echo fusses.
"That's why they have a place for it," Fives insists.
"Yes, it is," Anakin agrees, "Come on."
Rex sets the fire himself (he doesn't exactly trust anyone else to do it without starting a fire) and the four of them settle down around it.
The General shows up a few minutes later. "I raided their supplies," he announces, a bit too cheerfully, "They don't have much, but they have a couple things which are probably safe."
"What's the likelihood of probably?" Rex asks dryly.
"They don't feel dangerous."
"How would you know?" Fives asks curiously, leaning forwards. He's eight. That's young to be on the field. Rex was nine, nearly ten, when he went to Geonosis. Echo and Fives are much younger than all the shinies he knows. The Republic is tight on its number, and many of the clones aren't old enough.
"Jedi," Echo reminds, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Right," Fives mutters, sitting back.
The fire is warm. It's different than the heat in spaceships, even whatever system they used on Kamino. It feels more... natural. Maybe just more alive. It's certainly far more comfortable.
"Here," Anakin says, smiling – he's pretty much always smiling, and Rex can't even understand that cheer – setting a tray of steaming glasses down on the table in the middle of the room. "I only half know what this is, but it's supposed to taste good."
Ahsoka grabs one of the glasses, sniffing it and wrinkling her nose. "Are you sure this is editable for me?"
Rex takes a glass himself, ignoring the beginning bickering session between his General and Commander. It tastes... strangely bittersweet, and slightly earthy. It's a bit different, but he likes it.
Everything about this is a little different, a little odd, but it's a break from war, and he certainly doesn't mind. It's so hard to deal with his brothers constantly dying. It's hard to constantly see new faces, to live with the knowledge that there are many he will never see again.
***
Rex wakes at night, not entirely sure what awoke him. A sound, maybe, and he instantly reaches for his blaster, but everything seems normal. It takes a few minutes to realize that one of his brothers is awake.
Echo.
He and Fives had laid down next to each other. They haven't moved, though it's hard to tell now that the fireplace has burned out. There are no other lights inside the base that are on right now, though he thought there was earlier. The storm must have knocked it out.
The faintest shimmering embers give enough of a glow for him to see the white of Ahsoka's lekku – she's sprawled mostly on the General, and he's not going to put too much thought into that.
Rex scoots a little closer to Echo and Fives as Echo pushes himself upright.
"You okay?" Rex asks him. It's more sympathetic than anything else, because he's gone through this countless times, and so have all his brothers on the fronts.
"Just dreams," Echo murmurs back, studying Fives' sleeping form.
"Yeah, that's one thing we were never trained for." One of many, Rex is starting to realize. The Kaminoans might've said their training was complete before going to the field, but that doesn't mean they understand the first things about the galaxy. Doesn't mean they really understand the exact meaning of war.
He can't even count how many of his brothers he's seen die. It hurts every time. Hurts even more in the aftermath when it becomes real.
"I barely even knew them," Echo murmurs, "But I still dream of them."
"Hevy gave his life for all our brothers on Kamino," Rex says, and it feels like cold comfort, but there's really no such thing as comfort in war. "As long as we fight for what he believed in, their memories will live in us."
Won't mean much when they die, too, but if the Republic wins, that's what they were made for. It's – it's fine. It will be fine. They'll win. Rex believes that. The Separatist might have numbers, but the clones have the minds, and they have the Jedi. They have Anakin. Rex believes in him.
***
The snow stopped by the next morning. It's still cold and cloudy, but it seems better than last night. Still no signs of the Republic's return, though they're no doubt coming.
Ahsoka is the first to run outside, jumping into a snowdrift hard enough that she falls in a good foot or two. She flails around, shrieking, and Rex genuinely has no idea if he should laugh or try to help her. He grabs her arm to help pull her out and steady her, anyway. She shakes the snow off her, and Rex steps back to look at his brothers.
Fives being Fives, of course, follows Ahsoka's example and jumps in, too, ignoring Echo's startled yelp.
"Was your tube cracked?" Echo asks irritated, dragging Fives out, "That's dangerous."
"Snow's not dangerous!" Fives whines, "Not in these amounts."
"He's right," the General intervenes, stepping out of the compound. "As long as no one walks into a snow drift, we'll be fine."
Fives seems decidedly gleeful at the reassurance and jumps right back into the snow drift.
Rex... can actually entirely believe he's seeing this, even if Fives is being just slightly more rambunctious than normal. Which is saying something.
The General and Commander disappear to the far end of the snow drift and start packing snow together into an enormous ball.
"Hey, Rex! Wanna join us?" calls the Commander, hopefully.
"... What are you doing?" Because he has absolutely no idea. Seeing the General just fooling around almost makes him want to join, but he still doesn't really... This isn't something they ever did on Kamino. They never did things just... because. Everything in their lives always had a reason, some sort of purpose. They didn't do things just because they could.
"Making snow-people," the General replies cheerfully, as though there's nothing weird about that at all.
He can't quite imagine joining in that, even if it is just to keep Ahsoka entertained.
And maybe keep Fives out of trouble, though that's a failing endeavor. He's already climbed out of the snowbank and is now pulling icicles off the roof of the building.
Echo looks completely scandalized, especially when Fives pushes his helmet up enough to start eating them.
"Fives, what are you doing? Stop that!" Echo hisses.
"You should try it," Fives advises through a mouthful.
Rex is just grateful that his helmet easily hides the smile he's trying to smother, even if this is downright ridiculous. He does not need to let them know how amusing he finds this or encourage their antics even farther.
"No," Echo replies, flatly, "Did you drink that thing you were supposed to be staying away from?"
Fives' only response is to bite down on another icicle.
Rex is half a mind to think Echo's right, because Fives is actually just a little crazier than usual.
"My montrals aren't so pointy!" The Commander's yelp draws Rex's attention away from them, to see Anakin reshaping the third huge ball – now on top of two below it – to have two vaguely horn shaped objects on its "head".
"Would you like to try?" the General asks, sounding like he's about to laugh.
Ahsoka huffs, though she reaches up and starts squishing at the snow.
"I can give it a nose," Fives suggests gleefully, pulling another icicle down from the roof and approaching them.
Echo just groans.
Rex settles for just watching the chaos unfolding, until Fives makes a snowball and throws it at Echo. He ducks and the snow smacks Rex right in his helmet instead. He has to admit he yelped a little ungracefully. It's mildly embarrassing, but it was so unexpected.
"Fives!" Rex yells, standing.
"It wasn't my fault. It was Echo's," he whines, retreating a few steps away. Rex can picture the big 'oops' look on his face even if he has a helmet on.
"How is that my fault?!" Echo demands.
The General dissolves into laughter and the Commander starts giggling seconds later.
Rex huffs out a breath, his annoyance fading to something close to amusement, too. Maybe it was a little funny, but still.
"We should have time for a snowball fight," Anakin says, clearly still amused.
... Is he serious?
Of course, he's serious, though. The General has always taken care of them and given Rex something... other than the next mission to think about sometimes. Even if nothing else should really matter because the mission is what he was made for.
"Really?" Fives asks, hopefully.
The Commander is already scooping up a ball of snow and throws it at the General's head.
He dodges it, laughing.
Fives scrambles to join, collecting a much too big snowball that he tries to throw at Echo – this time pointedly aiming it away from Rex – except it's too heavy and it splats into the snow before it can even reach him.
Echo snickers, and promptly returns the favor, but his snowball actually manages to hit Fives' armor.
The other four start throwing snowballs at each other, entirely uncaring of rank differences.
At least on Fives' part, who has zero concern with repeatedly aiming all the snowballs at the General's head when he isn't looking. He's missed almost every single time and Rex is slightly impressed that he hasn't decided to give up yet. Hitting the Commander when she's not looking is a lot easier.
It makes Rex want to join, to just... feel as carefree as the others are acting. Makes him want to matter for something other than the mission, at least for a few minutes. Even if it's not something he should be thinking about it because it's not even important.
A snowball smacks his arm when he's not looking and he turns to see Ahsoka dropping her hands, hiding a grin.
Rex is still learning how to deal with having a kid around to take care of. She's never what he expected to deal with on the field because she's... not like them. She's a natborn. She's – important.
He finally gives in, reaching down to run his fingers through the snow. It feels cold even through his gloves, but he forms a ball anyway and throws it back.
Even if it feels a little like breaking protocol to be throwing things at his superiors. Shooting stun bolts at Ahsoka when the boys are helping the General train her doesn't count. That's training. Not... just fooling around?
None of the others seem to care, though.
Losing himself in the chaos isn't so hard once Rex actually joins in, even if the entire game is so pointless. He's never let loose before. He's never let himself... stop worrying, stop caring, but now, for maybe the first time, he does.
***
It's late afternoon when they finally flop out in the snow together. Rex is mildly exhausted, and he didn't know it was possible to get hot in these temperatures.
The icicles are much longer now, having grown back after Fives – thankfully – got distracted. Rex still has his suspicions that he drank the – whatever that stuff was. Hopefully, it wasn't poisonous.
"This was fun," Ahsoka says, eyes half closed, "Can we do it again?"
"Yes," the General replies, sounding amused, "If there is time."
"If there's an opportunity is a more appropriate question," Rex points out dryly.
"We can have another round in a few hours," Fives advises, gleefully.
"We should be resting in a few hours," Rex replies, flatly. They should at least be rested for whenever the Republic shows up to pick them up. Even if the... excursion has been more enjoyable than it probably should've been.
He hears the gunship's approach a minute before he spots them moving across the sky towards them.
Playtime over.
It's almost ridiculous how disappointed he feels by that.
Until next time, then.