Oh What a Beautiful Morning
Cloneship Week Day 1 - No Order 66 - @cloneshipweek
Very vague references to past canonical violence
It wasn’t often that all three of them managed to still be in bed by the time the sun rose. Nightmares frequently plagued all of them, horrors from the war and from Kamino. But it was nice when they were able to wake up in the morning and see that the other two were peacefully asleep.
Rex watched as the light danced over the faces of his two husbands, catching on their lashes and making their skin glow. Bacara had returned from a camping trip with some of his Marines late the night before, surprising both Neyo and Rex. They’d thoroughly welcomed him home and fallen into a peaceful sleep all piled together on the bed.
“Why the kark is the sun in my face?” Neyo grumbled before he turned and shoved his face in Bacara’s chest to help block out the light.
“Someone forgot to close the curtains last night,” Rex snipped. He draped himself against Bacara’s back and ran his fingers through Neyo’s delightfully messy bedhead. Nighttime was the only time that they were able to see Neyo’s hair not slicked back, and it never ceased to thrill Rex that he got to see Neyo like that. It was a sign of vulnerability for his husband that he refused to take lightly. The second he took his husbands for granted was the second he no longer deserved them.
“Incompetent,” Bacara rumbled pleasantly. “Why are you waking me up so early?”
“Because the karking sun is shining in my face.”
Rex bit back a snicker as he nuzzled the back of Bacara’s neck.
“Why don’t you just close the curtains?”
“That requires me getting out of bed and that’s not a sacrifice I’m willing to make,” Neyo snarked. “Why don’t you make the CT get up?”
“The CT can hear you and would like to say ‘kark you kindly’.”
Neyo peeled his face away from Bacara’s pecs to gasp theatrically. “Gasp! CTs aren’t allowed to say the big boy words!”
“Did you just say gasp?” Bacara snorted. “You’ve been spending too much time with Ponds.”
“Correction, I’ve been spending too much time with Fox. Ponds is an unfortunate tag-along.”
Rex leaned over Bacara and pressed a kiss to Neyo’s cheek. “I’ll be sure to tell him you said that,” he said with a grin.
Neyo shuddered. “Actually, I take that back. I do not want to be his next target.”
“Too late,” Rex sang as he pressed a kiss to the nape of Bacara’s neck and slid from the bed. “I’m going to go tell him.”
With a lunge over Bacara that resulted in an elbow to the kidney, Neyo grabbed Rex’s hand. Whatever he was going to say, though, seemed to die on his lips as he realized exactly what he had done. It was still difficult for Neyo to show vulnerability, even with Rex and Bacara, and more difficult still to ask for things. Even something like asking Rex to stay in bed with them for a little longer.
If there was one thing Rex had learned over the years, however, it was how to see what his people needed. He always knew what Neyo wasn’t saying and gladly complied. For the most part.
“I’ll be right back. I’m just going to go feed your tooka and let her outside,” Rex assured.
“She’s not my tooka!” Neyo grumbled before reluctantly letting Rex go and cuddling up against Bacara once again.
“Of course, dear,” Bacara placated patronizingly.
Rex couldn’t help but snort at the murderous glare Neyo gave Bacara. He dug a pair of pants out of the pile they’d made on the floor last night and stretched languidly. He might have put on a bit more of a show than he usually would, simply because he knew both Bacara and Neyo were watching him closely.
“While you’re up, do you want to close the curtains?” Neyo smirked as he leaned over Bacara to blatantly stare at Rex. Bacara rolled his eyes and poked Neyo, even as he adjusted the both to better watch the rest of the room. The corners of his eyes crinkled in that specific way that always made it seem like he was laughing at some hidden joke.
With a cock of his hip, Rex let a sharp smile take over his face. “No. I don’t think I will.” And with that, he left the room to Neyo’s loud curses and Bacara’s rumbling laugh.
All three of them had been through so much during the war, and even long before the war ever started. Kamino had not been easy for any of them, and Rex was so glad that he had Cody, Alpha-17, Wolffe, Fox, Ponds, Bly, and his squadmates to take care of him. Neyo and Bacara only had each other on the rare occasion they were allowed near each other and went through hell when they were isolated. During the war, they were even more isolated, with Bacara deployed constantly behind the Separatist blockade and Neyo running intelligence from the Core to Bacara and his Marines.
To hear them comfortable enough to laugh and tease and lay in bed was a greater gift than any Rex had ever received in his life. Since the end of the war, he had made it his goal to do everything he could to keep them happy and feeling safe. If that meant teasing Neyo about his tooka or burying Bacara in soft blankets and cuddles, then Rex would gladly spend his days doing that. Neyo and Bacara meant everything to Rex.
Once Neyo’s tooka was fed and let out of the house, and the package left on their doorstep collected and brought inside, Rex meandered his way back into the bedroom with a tray full of goodies. It didn’t surprise him in the slightest to see his husbands playfully wrestling on the bed, though they both stopped as soon as they smelled the caf.
“You are my favorite,” Neyo moaned and eagerly reached for the cup of caf that would knock even Cody out with how black it was. Bacara sat back against the headboard and pulled Neyo into his side, while Rex settled the tray on their side table.
“Here’s your sugary monstrosity,” Rex said and handed the caf topped with whipped cream and filled with cocoa syrup and all other kinds of goodies. He took his simple, slightly sweetened caf and sat on Bacara’s other side. “The twins left us a gift on the doorstep,” he said once he had gotten comfortable.
Neyo perked up. He could claim to be a cold-hearted bastard all he liked, but that didn’t change the fact that he loved all Littles with his whole heart. Of the three of them, Neyo was the one most likely to get into trouble with other parents because he had helped their children with their shenanigans. It had happened before, and Rex was sure Neyo would have to be marching on before he stopped.
Rex grabbed the stack of flimsi and set them on Bacara’s lap so they could all look through them. Luke and Leia had drawn pictures for each of them, and they were remarkably well-done for a pair of three-year-olds.
The one on top was done by Leia, showing Neyo laying down with his tooka on his chest and Bacara and Leia aiming water pistols at him. Neyo attempted to scowl at the reminder of what had happened to him the week before, but the corners of his lips kept twitching up into a smile.
The second was of Luke and Bacara knitting in Bacara’s enormous and ridiculously comfortable armchair. Luke had taken to watching whenever his uncle pulled out his yarn and knitting needles and had recently asked if he could learn how to knit, too, despite being a little too young for the fine motor skills.
Below that one came a picture of Rex with paint smeared over his face. He’d taken the twins to the Wolfpack’s art event the other night, and the Littles present had all gleefully smeared paint all over Rex’s clothes and face. Wolffe took holos and shared them with the rest of his batchmates, and was immediately tackled by Rex and covered with paint, too. Rex wasn’t sure who had gotten holos of the two of them laughing and wrestling, but he knew it was one of his Torrents that had managed. Luke and Leia had asked that Rex take them to the next event.
The last picture was of Bacara, Neyo, and Rex holding Luke and Leia between them, swinging them high in the air. There wasn’t a specific day or memory that this picture represented, simply because it happened so often. Every time Anakin dropped his children off at Rex’s house, he and his husbands took them on a walk and every time, Luke and Leia managed to convince them to swing them high in the air between them. It was their favorite game, and Rex despaired over the thought of the two of them growing too big to do it in the future.
“There’s a note,” Bacara rumbled and tugged a flimsi from between the first two pictures. He had a small and gentle smile softening the edges of his face, and Rex couldn’t help but fall a little bit more in love with his husband.
“Do you want to read it?” Neyo asked.
Bacara cleared his throat and shifted so he could drink his caf unimpeded. “Dear Ba’vode. Me and Luke want to tell you how very much we love you! Mommy helped us write the note, and she said that you’d like the pictures me and Luke drawed for you. Member when Ba’Rex took us to that paint thing? We can’t wait to go again. And see Ba’Neyo’s Tooka! Luke’s more excited for that. Daddy says we’re gonna come eat at your house soon, and I wanna give you all a big hug. Ba’Cara’s hugs are the best. He’s all warm and cuddly. Like Ba’Neyo’s Tooka. I love you the mostest. From your favorite, Leia.”
Rex couldn’t help but laugh at the note. It was so heart-warmingly endearing. He’d known that Leia would be a strong-willed woman from the moment she was born, and nothing she had done over the last three years of her life had changed that.
“You’re all warm and cuddly,” Neyo snickered and poked Bacara’s side.
“Yeah, but I have the best hugs while she likes you for your tooka,” Bacara snarked right back.
“Tell that to the twins. They think she’s your tooka,” Rex said. He couldn’t help but poke fun at his husband, just to rile him up.
Neyo shot him a filthy look. “You’re lucky I have caf right now, otherwise you’d be down on the ground with my knee in your solar plexus.”
“Ladies, if you’re done, Luke sent us a note, too,” Bacara cut in before their bantering could break out into an actual fight.
“Well, read that one, too,” Neyo snorted and took a large gulp of his caf.
“Hi Ba’vode! Mama said that this letter is gonna be dropped at your house. Do you wanna come over and play today? Oh wait, Daddy says we’re gonna come later, so never mind. I can’t wait to show you all the pictures I drewed for you and I knitted some yarn for you Ba’Cara. Ba’Neyo, do you think you could show me how to make those cookies Ba’Wolffe brought to the fire last week? Leia says that you don’t know how to make the cookies, but I believe in you. Oh, Daddy also says to tell Ba’Rex that we are gonna take him on a surprise camping trip but it’s supposed to be a surprise. Shh, you can’t tell anyone. So, I’ll see you later tonight! Love you Ba’vode! Love, Luke.”
“Well, kark,” Neyo sighed. “Who’s going to tell Luke that I can’t actually bake?”
“I’m leaving that up to you, cyare,” Rex snorted. He bet that Neyo would be over at Wolffe’s house by the end of the day tomorrow to ask for baking lessons. “You get to deal with the sad eyes, not me. I just need to act suitably surprised when Anakin tells me that he’s taking me on a camping trip. He definitely spoiled the surprise on that one.”
“When exactly are they coming over tonight?” Bacara asked as he reached around Rex and sat the pictures and notes on the tray next to the bed.
“They’ll be here for latemeal, so around 1800 tonight,” Rex answered. “Anakin and Padme talked to me about it last week.”
“So, what you’re saying is that we have plenty of time to laze around in bed?” Neyo smirked before he drained his caf and set the mug on the ground. He trailed a hand down Bacara’s chest and leaned in to steal a kiss from his husband.
“Yup. Plenty of time,” Rex agreed eagerly, before he grabbed the other two mugs to set to the side. He pressed against both of his husbands and reveled in their warmth. With the war over, they had all the time in the world. And a lazy morning was the perfect way to start their week.
