*skidding into your ask box in clown shoes*
ship: Rex/Cody
prompt: b a b y
okay okay prompt: yearning, responsibility, spoil
i do keep poking the next bit of that, promise, it’s just not quite. ready yet. pokepokecomeON
you have tagged me thrice for a last line, so have a pair of lines from the baby-fic and a freestanding other from an entirely unrelated work, then on to the main event:
“Cody kebbu bajur te’orikih sirbur buir,” Fox reports smugly, and Rex looks at Cody sharply.
“Kih’ika ven’gaii gar buir,” Cody hastens to add, “nu ash’ad, naas’mhi.”
—
The Admissions people had said the cadets who scored high enough for rank would be allowed their names back, and RF-7448 would very much like to be himself again.
Rex/Cody
Yearning Responsibility Spoil
(and bc i know what u like ive written u P A I N 😭)
“It only remains to decide the staffing of your new command, Anakin,” General Kenobi said to his newly knighted Padawan. “I have some suggestions, unless you have any requests for specific personnel?”
Around the meeting table, officers shifted. During this impromptu meeting called to inform the 7th Sky Command of Padawan Commander Skywalker’s unexpected promotion to General, Commander Cody had quickly drafted up his own set of suggestions, but unless General Kenobi was reading them from his mind with the Force, it was almost certainly not the same roster.
General Kenobi had not informed him in advance about this, let alone consulted him. Once again, a natborn was given precedence over Cody, no matter the absolute lack of experience, time in grade, or non-military promotion above more deserving leaders.
He suppressed his objections, and there were many, with utmost professionalism for as long as it took Skywalker to answer—not more than half a second.
“I want Rex,” the young Knight declared. “He’ll be my Captain and he can pick whoever else he wants to come along.”
Cody wasn’t that good at suppressing past his face, it seemed, because Kenobi and Skywalker both jerked around to look at him, Kenobi confused and Skywalker glaring. “Is something the matter?” they both asked, with very different intonations.
“He’s the best,” Skywalker said. “That’s what I need.”
“Did you have someone better in mind, Commander Cody?” Kenobi asked politely.
Cody steeled himself. “There is no one better,” he answered, and that was the Force-damned truth. “Captain Rex will submit his staffing recommendations within the hour, if there’s nothing else for us to cover here, Sirs?”
He couldn’t look at Rex as he sealed their separation. It was out of his hands.
“No, I think not,” Kenobi said genially. “You may go say your goodbyes.”
Cody swallowed his feelings about that into a black hole, and said, “Thank you, General Kenobi. Skywalker.” He stood and saluted properly and left the room after the rest of the clone staff.
They kept it proper all through the passageways, but as soon as the door of his quarters latched closed, Rex barreled into him and Cody caught him with all the strength he could muster.
A sob shook through Rex’s chest, and Cody squeezed him roughly. “None of that, now,” he reprimanded his brother.
“Fuck,” Rex cursed into his shoulder.
“Yeah,” Cody said wearily, “yeah, I know.”
“That nattie, jetii, civvie prick! Doesn’t think about anything except what he wants, and the rest of us have to put up and shut up; kark him,” Rex snarled.
Cody sighed heavily; he did not disagree.
“And you’re just letting him—you have Kenobi’s ear, you could—”
“I could what, Rex? It’s already done and dusted. Outmaneuvered. If he’d asked me first I could have guided it, maybe, but he didn’t, so my hands were tied. You were there!”
“Yeah,” Rex said bitterly, pulling away, “I was. The best. Not even a token protest, Cody? I’d rather you have called me half-rate and subpar, and gotten him to take …Checkmate, or Bliss instead.”
Cody said nothing, letting those words echo between them. Rex drooped.
“Sorry,” he muttered and sank onto Cody’s bunk, elbows on knees and face in his hands.
Cody knelt in front of him and pulled his hands away. All the reluctance and heartbreak he’d hidden in the meeting was clear on his face now and Rex could hardly meet his eyes.
“I don’t want to go,” he said futilely, voice small.
Cody closed his eyes to keep from tearing up, and bowed his head, leaning into Rex’s hold. He had to master himself for a long minute before he could speak.
His voice only shook a little when he said, “I love you, Rex.” Another steadying breath. “We still have a little time. Do you want to go over who I recommend, or—”
“Or,” Rex said, pulling him up from his knees. “Definitely, or.”
Responsibility Weighs Heavy 🔒 https://archiveofourown.org/works/51600688