#based very heavily on me for every single time I've had a supervisor angrily tell me

[nny11writes]

You’re recent fic killed me!- could we have rex comforting ahsoka after a mission goes wrong? Maybe obi-wan and anakin are injured bc of a miscommunication by her

Alright, have some additional Declarations! 

This should still make sense without having read the full fic, but it certainly provides more background to this moment. And, also, Anakin is referring to that chapter I’ve been wishy washy about posting where the two of them FINALLY talk a bit and start figuring out how to communicate better. He is a good man doing his damn best, but Anakin is all about extremes.

“Alright kid, time to stop sulking.” Rex sighed heavily as he leaned against the bulkhead. It wasn’t like he knew where Ahsoka was hiding specifically but he’d narrowed it down to this room in particular. Stars, he hoped she wasn’t in the vents, they’d have to find the lankiest of them and force the poor sod up in after her.

His comm blinked on silently and looking down he could see Ahsoka sent him a message.

Not.

His whole body felt too heavy for a moment before he spoke aloud for her benefit. “No. No, I know you aren’t.”

He didn’t get another message and she didn’t climb down though.

Rex had to remember to thank Cody some time for the heads up on togruta. Obi-Wan had apparently gone half insane researching before that all blew up in his face, but the knowledge that she would be very quiet and make herself very small and might even hide away was the only thing that had stopped him from panicking when she was still missing. They were technically on shore leave and could do whatever they wished, sure, and Anakin had apparently told her to just take some time to stabilize.

“She’ll come back when she’s ready, and she’ll be ready sooner than you think.” Anakin had said with the strangest cross between a determined frown and a watery smile.

“Huh, who are you and what did you do with my General?” Rex had chuckled half confused before Anakin laughed.

“Yeah, well, we talked a bit after the whole…” Anakin waved his hands vaguely, but somehow Rex was sure he meant Grievous and Goldie. “Boundaries.”

Unsure what else he could do, Rex cracked another terrible joke. “Well, look at you. Rather big of you sir, I think you might be maturing.”

Anakin stuck his tongue out at him and really that said all he needed to about that.

But that conversation had been nearly three rotations ago, and Rex had a sinking feeling that Skywalker was doing his best without knowing what Ahsoka actually needed. Not that he thought he really knew either, honestly no one could know except for Ahsoka what she really needed. The first set of casualties under orders were always the hardest.

He stared at his comm until the backlight powered down before trying again, “Come on then little un, you know no one’s upset with you, so why are you hiding? Give me a good reason and I swear I’ll leave you and the K rations I snuck here alone.”

It took another long minute before his comm lit up again.

Fine.

He winced but did his best to put his new mental shielding in place. He didn’t want her assuming his upset was with her after all. There was some soft rustling that bounced around the storage bay and then Ahsoka dropped from the ceiling scaring him half to death. At any other time she would’ve been laughing at him, and the fact that she instead just walked over to him with her head down before curling up on the floor was…

Rex slowly slid down next to her and held out the ration and hydration cylinder for her. It took a small prompting with his free hand before she took them and mostly picked at them. He rather she have the fuel and option to consume it than not. 

“Would it be better if I wrote with you?” Rex asked, lifting his wrist with the comm.

There was a pause before she shook her head, and finally, blessedly, finally took a bite of food. Far as he knew the first food she’d had in over a full rotation.

“Alright.” He slowly, carefully put his arm around her shoulders, waiting for anything to cue him into stopping. “Is it okay if I stay here with you for a bit?”

A shrug, but at least she pulled out her comm again.

Okay.

“Then I think I’ll take a sit for a bit, yeah?” He squeezed her as gently as possible, and almost pulled away when she shuddered only for her hand to desperately catch his wrist and pull him against her more firmly. Message received Commander. “You know, General Kenobi called today and was asking after you. You want the updates sir?”

She started shaking in lieu of writing so he squeezed her tightly again. There were a few painful sounding gasps before she weakly asked, “Is he okay?”

Her raspy, absolutely wrecked voice was the best thing he’d ever heard.

“Kenobi reported that he was fighting fit, and Cody reported that he was released with light exercise restrictions for a week before actually being ready to slash some clankers.” He paused as she gave a small half huff, half sniffle. He’d take it. “But yeah, he’s perfectly fine.”

Ahsoka nodded before taking another, smaller bite of the ration bar. He could feel her lek twitch under his arm and quickly scanned her to make sure she wasn’t about to vomit all over herself. Probably the only thing that could make her feel even worse at the moment. But instead she simply put the ration away in a belt pouch and typed into her comm.

Men?

“Will be right in no time. Sinker is out of bacta as well and already back on the front.” He’d hoped she’d perk up at that, but instead she almost melted down. “Hey, that’s a good thing!”

There was another series of pitiful sounding gasps, but this time she didn’t speak instead she leaned further into him and reached for his wrist again.

“You don’t have to speak if you’re not up for it.” Rex whispered, knowing she’d hear him just fine and more concerned that she was going to force herself into something that would make her feel worse.

He’d had a batchmate like that, CT-8532, didn’t make it far enough to get his own name, but Three Two had always been more sensitive than them. A lot of the time it had benefited them as a squad, after all, Three Two could hear electricity so he could often tell if there was a pack of droids around the corner or not. But sometimes when he got too angry he’d go from screaming and crying to dead silent. And each time the trainers forced him to speak, it only made it worse. 

He’d made it off Kamino only to die with the rest of his squad on Geonosis.

What he’d give to listen to Three Two humming absentmindedly again…

“I know it’s already been said, but it wasn’t your fault. Orders were unclear and you did your best.”

Ahsoka went still and air hissed from between her teeth, and it broke his damn heart to hear.

“They were. They completely skipped vital info that-”

Ahsoka shook her head violently before ripping her hand away to type on her comm.

Obvious. 

Should’ve known.

Rex held in another sigh and made sure his shields were hiding his frustration before speaking. “No, it was incomplete orders sir. They sent you incomplete orders and incomplete information. Just because you can see the connections now, doesn’t mean it was obvious.”

Ahsoka curled up, hands going to cover her montrals as she went quiet again. 

He took the hint and shut his mouth, and instead sat with her quietly until he realized she’d fallen asleep at some point. Probably hadn’t been sleeping much, he’d wager money on it if he was allowed to have any. As carefully as he could, he scooped up his Commander and carried her quickly to her quarters. Doing his best to avoid and dodge anyone else to save her a little face. But once he’d gotten her into bed and gotten her a glass of water, he still sat down on the floor by her bunk.

She only woke a few times, but each time he reached up and squeezed her hand tightly, and each time she went back to sleep.

And that was a start. That was a good start.

#obvious #egotistical #not a team player #Captain Rex #CT-7567 #Rex #Ahsoka Tano #Star Wars #Star Wars the Clone Wars #Declarations AU #cw: shutdown #Ahsoka is not having a good day #based very heavily on me for every single time I've had a supervisor angrily tell me #if you had questions you should have asked! #well that's nice but I didn't have questions I was very fucking confident I understood #and YOU are the one who literally didn't tell me about whole ass steps you wanted me to do #but apparently it was and I was being and #did not help when that shifted under my abusive boss who literally would gaslight me about it #hate that I had to have coworkers verify everything she told me about my performance but fucking oh well now I guess #anyhow #figured I'd keep in the habit of making Declarations a dumping fic for my self projection #At least she has a bunch of good people looking out for her! #Rex & Ahsoka are the ultimate brotp and I am not taking criticism at this time #Anonymous