Young General
Summary: Reader is a teenage padawan of Obi Wan. They are exhausted after a long mission, and finally get to rest.
Warnings: Nightmares, death
Notes: fluff and angst
Gn!reader, Rex, Cody, Obi Wan (all platonic)
Word count: 972
This week has been… something. But it was over. Finally. Not that you didn’t enjoy getting to work with the 501st in addition to the 212th. The battalions were not the problem, fighting is just hard work. And fighting means losing something. In this case, many, many brothers. The mission had an appalling casualty rate.
Trudging up the hill to the troop transport, all you could manage was to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It was hard for your eyes to adjust to the light. Somehow, the men around you still laughed and joked with each other, despite the losses. One of them handed you a bottle of water, which you took without hesitation. You curled into a seat in the corner, and Rex sat beside you, still engaged in conversing with his brothers. You pulled your legs up onto the seat near you, and started to address a fairly deep cut on your calf.
First step was to clean it. A damp cloth for the mud and some alcohol for disinfectant did the trick. Then you had to make sure that the bacta patch was actually on the right way. At first you applied it healing-side-up.
“Got it?” Rex asked, having been watching you.
“Yeah,” you nodded, flipping the patch over. “Just tired.”
The little blue dots finally lit up, indicating the bandage was secure and functional.
“See?” you yawned. “All good…”
As the transport shuddered to life and prepared to lift off, your eyes drifted closed. Your head rested on your knees, which were held up by your arms wrapped around them. Slowly, as the transport moved, and rocked back and forth, you leaned to the side. Your head came to rest on Rex’s shoulder.
He didn’t notice at first. He was very used to one of his brothers, or Ahsoka, or heck sometimes even Anakin taking a quick nap on his arm. The odd thing is that you hadn’t known him for a long time. Through the grapevine of clone gossip, Cody had told Rex that you had trouble with sleep.
He’d seen it firsthand on this mission. On the first night you didn’t sleep, instead opting to stand watch. In the morning, the droids had launched a large attack, forcing you all to split up and retreat into the tunnels haphazardly. That night, no one got to sleep. You had to keep moving, or else the CIS would catch you.
A day later, your group finally met up with another group, meaning you had enough people to stand watch and let others sleep. It helped that the tunnel narrowed, meaning it was easier to fortify. A small circle of sleeping bags was set up. About a third of the group could rest at once. It was decided through “random” selection. Rex, having noticed that you hadn’t slept in days, made sure that you were in that third.
You tried to sleep, only to toss and turn, never truly getting an hour of uninterrupted rest. You ended up giving your spot to a trooper having trouble keeping his eyes open.
The rest of the mission, there was simply no time to sleep, for anyone. Mud and exhaustion and violence were not good substitutes for rest.
Really, it was surprising that more people on this transport weren’t passed out.
Some 212th boys noticed you were asleep, they hushed the whole rest of the group. It was pristinely quiet and peaceful.
The soldiers from the 212th didn’t let Rex move an inch, even when the transport landed in the larger ship and others began to disembark. Finally, Cody got there to replace him. The process was so well-rehearsed on Cody’s part that you didn’t as much as stir. He carried you to your room, managing to press the ‘open’ button with his elbow without bonking your head against the doorframe.
He set you down on your little alcove bed, took your saber from your belt– to avoid any accidental midnight amputations– and set it in its drawer. Third from the left. There was no avoiding mud on your sheets, but he could at least remove your boots, which were covered with it. He set them next to your door, right where you liked them. He’d done this before. Job done, he turned to leave.
“Stay,” he heard as the door slid open.
“General?” He questioned.
“Please, I can’t be alone,” you half pushed yourself up on one arm, rubbing your eyes with the other. “The… this mission was too much; I saw too many of our friends die. I don’t think I could handle it without someone else. Without a brother.”
Cody closed the door once more. Sure, there were a lot of post-action documents that needed reviewing, but no vod should have to suffer alone. He took your hand and lowered himself to the ground next to the head of your bed, leaning his back against it. He was prepared to sit there the rest of the night.
When you woke from bad dreams, he squeezed your hand to remind you he was there. Soon you’d drift off again. He sat, thinking. How young were you when this war began? A young teen at best. War was not something you should have been through. Not now. Not ever. Cody’s resolve strengthened. You would not get hurt on his watch.
Hours later perhaps, the door opened once again.
“There you a-,” Obi Wan says to Cody, only to be shushed. The general settled himself next to Cody as the door shut behind him, plunging the room back into darkness.
“You know,” the Jedi whispered. “You need sleep, too.”
Cody simply nodded in the darkness.
In the morning you found the two of them leaning on each other. Both sacrificing a comfortable night to ensure you felt safe.
Edit: taglist (b/c I forgor 💀)
@arctrooper69