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superlarva · 10 months

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Happy Sunday! I had a little more time than usual this week, so I tried my hand at a more realistic rendering (there's a slightly different version under the cut with Fives's injuries).

Anyways, here's chapter 1 of my fic (I promise I'll come up with a name soon) about Rex parenting baby domino twins!

Summary: Rex and Cody go to Kamino and pick up Fives.

Prologue here!

Next Chapter: 02

CW: Implied/referenced child abuse, implied/referenced sexual assult (not of Fives)

^Please stay safe, friends, there's a decent amount of talk about trauma in this chapter.

Chapter 1 - Fives

Cody had insisted on driving. He knew Rex well enough to know his brother, normally unbreakable under any stressors, was just barely holding himself together.

Cody was barely holding himself together.

Rex had never explicitly told him what had happened when they had been separated, but there had been hints. Hints that made guilt and protectiveness and anger surge through Cody’s veins.

Rex came back quieter, more cautious, less trusting. He would get night terrors that left him pale and trembling, only soothed back to sleep by the sound of Cody’s voice reading stories or whispering affirmations.

Back then, Cody had not wanted to assume, and Rex had not wanted to share.

Now Cody knew. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt what she had done to him. He knew why his little brother had come back from her care nervous and shaken. Why he hadn’t let anyone so much as tap him on the shoulder for years afterwards.

It made his blood boil.

If only he had been a few years older, he could have gotten Rex out before they were split from the group home. If only he had realized the lack of letters he received wasn’t because Rex was making new friends and didn’t have time for his older brother, but because he needed help.

He had needed help and Cody had not been there for him.

He had not, but he would be damned if he was not going to be there for Rex now.

Cody stopped at a red light and looked over to his brother. Rex was hunched over in the passenger seat, slumped against the window, lost in thought.

“You alright, Rex?”

Rex slowly turned his head towards Cody, his eyes still anchored on a spot of air in front of him. After a moment he tore his gaze away to focus in on Cody, fingers pulling at the hem of his sleeves, “Fine.”

Cody’s brow raised; Rex was a horrible liar. The light turned green, and Cody eased onto the gas, shooting his brother the occasional glance to let him know he was still listening if he wanted to say more.

“Nala Se,” Rex mumbled the name so quietly, Cody would not have caught it if he had not known to look for it. Then Rex’s eyes filled with grief and his voice turned desperate, “They were with her, Cody! Her! I didn’t know! All this time, they were with her! I- I could have- I should- I didn’t know!”

Cody grimaced and gripped the steering wheel tightly but tried to relax and remain calm for his brother, “I know. It’ll be okay. They aren’t with her now. We can make sure they never will be again.”

Rex sank back into his seat and closed his eyes. Cody was happy to see some of the tension in his brother’s shoulder lessen.

They drove in silence until they crossed into Kamino. It began to pour, buckets of water thudding against the windshield. Cody grinned and nudged Rex playfully, “Twins, huh?”

Rex opened his eyes and Cody thought he saw the ghost of a smile play across his lips, “Echo and Fives.” Rex dropped his gaze to his lap and sighed, “I don’t even know how old they are.”

Cody shot his brother a soft smile. He knew, he had already done the math, “They’d be at least seven. Maybe eight.”

By the time they arrived at the KCPS office, Rex had had plenty of time to steel himself for meeting the twins. Even if he did not really feel it, he wanted to appear calm and collected for the boys after the day they must have had.

Walking back into the familiar white, sterile building of his childhood almost broke down everything he had built up over the drive, but a gentle squeeze on his shoulder from Cody grounded him.

The waiting room was empty save for a tall, gangly woman sitting behind a sleek white desk. As Rex and Cody approached her, she looked up from her computer and smiled, “What can I help you with this evening, sirs?”

Rex took out his wallet and slid his ID over the counter, “My name is Rex Fett. I’m here to pick up Echo and Fives.”

“Of course.” The woman checked his ID, typed a few things into her computer, then slid it back to him, “If you’ll just follow me, Mr. Fett.”

The woman stood, grabbing two folders from the desk and then briskly made her way towards one of the hallways branching out from the waiting room. Rex followed hot on her heels with Cody not far behind him.

When they reached a room at the end of the hall, the woman turned to face the brothers, one hand on the door handle, “I apologize. I didn’t make it clear on the phone. Fives is the only one we are currently holding. Echo is in the ICU. There was an… accident.”

Rex and Cody exchanged worried glances.

“What happened?” Cody asked.

The woman shrugged, “We believe there was an explosion. The police are currently investigating the matter. Nala Se was arrested on site. Echo was taken to Kamino General due to extensive injuries. Fives was unharmed and sent here.”

Rex opened his mouth to ask if Echo was okay but stopped himself. From the way the woman had worded her response it was clear she did not have much information on his condition. Besides, she had said Echo was in the ICU. He clearly wasn’t okay.

Cody rested a hand on Rex’s shoulder and said in a reassuring tone, “I can check on Echo tonight, alright?”

Rex nodded numbly, staring at the closed door in front of them.

“Good, focus on Fives. I’ll iron out the details with, uh,” Cody squinted at the woman’s nametag, “Taun We out here.”

“Yeah,” Rex said, shaking the anxiety from his mind and squaring his shoulders, preparing himself for whatever awaited him on the other side of the door.

Taun We nodded to the brothers before slowly opening the door. She stepped to the side, letting Rex take a few steps into the room.

The room was much like the waiting room: white floors and white walls. There was a small table in the center of the room with a few chairs pulled up to it and a shelf with a few meager toys lined up on it against the back wall. The space didn’t look lived in one bit. The toys hadn’t been touched and the chairs were angled slightly towards the door as they might be if they were in a picture for a magazine. Rex would have felt like he was breaking a rule if he moved anything from its place. In the back of his mind he wondered what kind of interior designer would okay this design for a CPS office.

In one of the far corners there was a single small white cot with grey sheets tucked tightly around it. In the other sat a small boy, legs pulled up to his chest, head tucked down and hidden from view. He was wearing what looked to be pajamas: a white wifebeater and a pair of striped boxers.

Cody and the woman began talking in hushed tones and Rex pulled the door closed a little more without shutting it completely to muffle their voices. The boy didn’t acknowledge his presence, so Rex cleared his throat and gave a small wave despite knowing the boy could not see him.

“Hello. My name is Rex.”

The boy made no response.

Rex took a tentative step forward before retreating back to where he had been standing only seconds before. He wasn’t sure if getting closer to the boy would spook him or not and he didn’t want to make his first impression a bad one.

“Is it alright if I sit next to you?” Rex asked, watching the small form carefully.

The boy’s head shifted up a bit, peaking up over his arms and a curious eye regarded Rex. After a moment the boy’s eyes narrowed in on Rex’s jacket. “I already talked to the police,” he said with an accusatory hoarse voice that sounded like he had been crying or screaming recently.

Rex looked down at his jacket, realizing that his 501st patch was stitched proudly over his left breast. “I’m not-” Rex stopped, he had been about to refute the boy’s claim on the principle of his tone. He tried to smile instead, “Well, I am a police officer, but I’m off duty right now. I came to pick you up. To bring you to stay at my house.”

Rex cringed internally at how lame he sounded, but the boy raised his head a bit more out of his arms and squinted at him. Taking the boy’s curiosity as an invitation to move closer, Rex slowly made his way over to the far wall and slid down against it until he was sitting cross legged about a meter away from the huddle form in the corner.

Rex evaluated the boy once he was closer. Fives was small, too small for him to be at least seven, and his bones jutted out of his skin at sharp angles. He looked like he was the same height as the little kindergarteners that waited for the bus on Rex’s streetcorner, and to Rex’s dismay, he was much thinner.

Rex ran his eyes over the boy, scanning him for any injuries and spotted multiple cuts and dark bruises, old and new, covering his arms and legs. “Uninjured” my ass. He covered his automatic grimace as best he could and met the boy’s puffy red eyes, “It’s nicer than this place at least.”

Fives cocked his head to the side, his eyebrows drawn together, and his mouth set in a small frown.

“I live in Coruscant,” Rex supplied.

The young boy’s confusion only intensified, “Not Kamino?”

“No, not Kamino. The next city over. Have you ever been there?” Rex asked, wanting to keep the boy talking.

“No.... What about—” Fives cut off abruptly, suddenly breaking eye contact and tightening his arms around his knees.

Rex waited for a minute, trying to give Fives time to formulate his question, but after a while it became clear that he wasn’t going to try and finish his thought.

Rex thought he knew what the boy wanted to know. He shifted a little closer to Fives and lowered his voice, trying to soften it, “Are you worried about Echo?”

Fives’s wide eyes snapped to his and he slowly nodded.

“Can I let you in on a little secret?” Rex asked, smiling mischievously, hoping to God that little kids liked being in on secrets.

Fives nodded, wide eyes still scared, but now also betraying some seriousness, as if he was trying to let Rex know he was trustworthy.

“Once Echo is all better, he’s going to come live with me and you too.”

“R-really?” Fives sounded like he didn’t believe him.

“I promise,” Rex said seriously, glad that some of the disbelief fell from the boy’s face. “As soon as the doctor’s say we can bring him home, we will.”

“Why?” The question was barely audible, and the boy’s eyes began to fill with tears.

“Why?” Rex questioned back, confused. He had thought that being able to stay with his twin would make Fives happy.

“Why are you l-letting Echo come?” Fives’s tears were falling freely now. “I-I thought you w-w-would t-take him away b-because w-we were— b-because we were b-bad.”

Rex watched as the boy’s small frame was racked with sobs, unable to comprehend what could have possibly happened to make him think that they were going to take Echo away for being “bad.” Deciding it didn’t matter, he scooted closer to Fives.

“Hey, listen to me,” Rex said softly, only continuing when Fives met his eyes. “You and Echo weren’t bad. You were good and brave.”

A sob racked Five’s body and Rex moved instinctively to wrap the boy in a hug, stopping with a rush of guilt when Fives flinched back. “Sorry,” Rex said, retreating. “Do you want a hug?”

The boy studied him for a second before slowly nodding. Rex shifted so he was sitting shoulder to shoulder with Fives, then reached his arm back and wrapped it around the boy in a side hug. Fives rested his head against Rex’s side and sniffled, tears still running down his cheeks.

“No one is going to take Echo away,” Rex soothed as he tried to wipe some of the tears and snot from Fives’s face with his sleeve. “He’s just at the hospital right now because he’s a little hurt. They need to fix him up, but they aren’t going to take him away.”

“Really?” Fives looked up at him with big, desperate brown eyes.

“Really,” Rex said firmly. “And I’ll tell you what: we’ll go see if we can visit Echo tomorrow morning after we go home and get some sleep. Sound good?”

Fives took a deep shuddering breath, and Rex was glad to see the tears had finally stopped falling, “We c-can’t see him now?”

Rex shook his head, he had no clue what Echo’s condition was or if they would even be allowed to see him in the morning, “Not right now. I think Echo needs his rest. But I can ask my brother if he would check up on him tonight and he can let us know how he’s doing.”

“You have a b-brother?”

“Yup, his name is Cody. He’s just on the other side of the door if you want to say hi.”

Fives glanced between Rex and the door suspiciously.

“He’s a police officer, like me,” Rex added, hoping that that knowledge might make the boy feel safer.

“O-okay,” Fives said, a little uncertainly as he uncurled himself and began to stand.

Rex stood as well and moved to the door. Fives followed close behind. When they reached the door Rex popped his head out before opening it all the way. Taun We was handing over the two files she had been carrying to Cody and they both looked up at the movement. Cody spoke first, “How’s it going?”

“Good,” Rex said quietly, “I think we’re ready to go.”

Cody and the woman both nodded and Rex opened the door the rest of the way, revealing Fives, standing half hidden behind his leg.

Cody immediately crouched down to the boy’s height and smiled kindly, “Hey, I’m Cody. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice t’ meet you. ‘m F-Fives,” the boy mumbled as his eyes scanned over Cody and the woman. Then he looked up at Rex, eyes searching for something. Approval? Rex wasn’t sure, so he offered the boy an encouraging smile.

Taun We stepped forward and Fives shifted back a little, positioning himself more behind Rex’s leg. The woman didn’t seem to notice and addressed Rex, “We just have some papers to sign back at my desk and then you can go. I’ve filled in your brother on all the details we were given access to.”

Rex nodded and Cody straightened up. The woman turned and began walking back down the hallway towards the waiting room. Cody gave Rex a face he knew meant he needed to tell him something later before trailing after the woman.

Rex turned to Fives, “Ready to go?”

Fives nodded, then frowned, “I’m really allowed to go with you?”

“Yes,” Rex said, smiling.

Fives looked from the room he had been waiting in, to Rex, to the receding figures of Cody and the CPS worker down the hall, “Okay.”

The boy cautiously reached out and took Rex’s hand, holding it tight as if he were afraid if he let go, Rex would disappear.

Rex squeezed back.

He wasn’t going anywhere.

@marierg @stressed-cherry

#you can't tell me Fives didn't immediately imprint on Rex like a baby duckling #also #I'm so so so sorry Nala Se #I know she's not that evil #I just needed a name and hers was the one that popped into my head #the clone wars #arc trooper echo #arc trooper fives #captain rex #clone trooper echo #commander cody #tcw #clone trooper fives #clone wars #superlarva #domino twins #baby dominos

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chirpsythismorning · 1 year

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Something that confuses me, is redditors logic of Mike's behavior? Specifically when it comes to the painting it just doesn't make sense to be fully convinced Mike can't possibly return Will's feelings?

For starters, they insist that Mike was uncomfortable with Will at the airport because he could sense Will's feelings for him and so that's why he couldn't hug him (as to not lead him on), and also panicked when he saw the painting bc he realized that he was probably the girl Will liked (according to El's letter). By their logic, Mike was obviously just uncomfortable with Will's feelings for him and the fact that he made a painting for him (with romantic implications) and that's because he does not return those romantic feelings whatsoever...

If we then apply that same logic to the van scene?... What the actual fuck is going on there then?

We got almost 5 seconds of Mike just staring at Will while he isn't looking as he's grabbing the painting, followed by Will handing it to Mike who looks confused like, For me? Are you sure? very visibly nervous, only to finally open it and look more relieved and happy than we've ever seen him, arguably in the entire show...?

Mind you, this is at a point when Mike fully assumed the painting is for a girl someone Will likes, right?

I repeat! According to their logic, Mike is under the assumption that this painting is for someone Will likes, and Mike is now currently finding out that it's for him and he is relieved???

WHY WOULD MIKE BE RELIEVED THAT WILL'S PAINTING IS FOR HIM, IF WERE BEING GIVEN A SCENARIO THEY ALREADY BELIEVE HAPPENED AT THE START OF THE SEASON, WITH MIKE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE WITH IT??

AND WHY DID MIKE LOOK HAPPIEST BEFORE WILL SAID EL'S NAME? WHY DID HIS SMILE LITERALLY FALL AFTER WILL SAID EVEN EL, ESPECIALLY EL?

AND WHY DID MIKE LOOK MOST EMOTIONAL WHEN WILL WAS DESCRIBING THEIR RELATIONSHIP OVER THE LAST YEAR PERFECTLY, USING WORDS MIKE ALREADY USED WHEN HE MADE UP WITH WILL EARLIER IN THE SEASON???

#byler #stranger things #like... it just doesn't add up #either mike wanted will's painting to be for him or he didn't #and by their logic #mike doesn't like will and already knows about wills feelings for him and is trying to let him down easy #they assume the van scene is mike letting will down...#but...? where in that scene does mike look uncomfortable with the prospects that this is for mike specifically and from will specifically?#bc i would argue that he looks most uncomfortable at the points when will says el's name...#basically they need to understand previous scenes properly to even come close to understanding the van scene #you need to understand that mike didn't hug will at the airport bc he's scared of making his feelings obvious #then when he sees the painting he's experiencing a moment of hope that will brought it to give it to him #but then suddenly will is implying it isn't for mike #and now mike is being dubbed a knock off for the rest of the day and proceeds to be a self pittying idiot when his dominos fall (his words)#and so that is why when he gets the painting and thinks its from will at first and isn't for a girl but for mike... he looks relieved #bc that's what he was hoping for in the fucking first place #wake up ppl

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