#codytup

Wolffe and Bly manage to get in on the secret and these four batchmates just laugh their asses off whenever Rex suspects which brother kriffs with his troopers.

(Adhsfhs lmaooo)

“I’m still surprised Rex hasn’t found out…” Cody states, before downing his second - or is it third? He’s lost count already - shot of corellian whiskey, something that Fox seems to own a lot of in his office.

His vod hums, taking a shot as well.

“One would think he would’ve got it by now,” he replies, turning then to jokingly elbow at Cody’s side. “It’s your fault: you didn’t raise him well.”

“Like you would’ve done better!” Cody immediately retorts, though he’s laughing while he does it. Yeah, Rex is quite… oblivious, when it comes to certain matters, like the fact that he and Fox are shagging two of his men.

At this point they’re not even trying to hide it anymore, and yet Rex is still left wondering. Who knows, he might be thinking that Tup and Dogma sneak out to have some alone time between them-- oh wait, he’s definitely thinking that.

 “Cody? Are you there?”

“Huh? Yeah… Yeah.”

Fox cocks his head to the side, staring at him intently.

“You sure? You looked like you were thinking, for once. Not gonna lie, I got scared a bit.”

“Ah-ah,” Cody replies, completely serious. “You’re a laugh riot, vod.”

 Fox is about to reply, when he hears someone at the door. Ah, his other guests have arrived.

He and Cody exchange a smile as Fox gets up.

“A moment,” he tells him, before walking to the doors, punching in the code to open them. On the other side, there are Wolffe and Bly, looking at Fox expectantly.

“Is the party here?” Wolffe asks, before they all laugh.

“Make yourselves at home,” Fox says then, stepping aside in order to allow them to enter, which they do immediately.

It’s rare for their batch to get a chance to be all together, so of course as soon as they found out that Cody, Bly and Wolffe were all on leave on Coruscant at the same time, they’ve all agreed that they couldn’t afford to waste this chance to reunite and spend some time together. Things have been quite hard as of late, so this is a nice distraction.

 They all join Cody on the couch, drinking and happily chatting about what they’ve been up to.

“So, are you and those shinies from the 501st still a thing?” Bly can’t help but to ask. Force forbid he minds his own business for once, though to be fair all the clones have a certain shine for gossip.

“I wouldn’t call them shinies anymore, but yeah, we sure are,” Cody admits, and proudly so.

“Is Rex still in the dark?” Wolffe asks, then, since this is what actually entertains him. The fact that Rex still hasn’t understood anything never fails to crack him up. It’s all Cody’s fault: he should’ve raised him better.

At those words, Cody and Fox exchange a gaze, then Fox steps in the conversation.

“We were just talking about that, actually…” he begins. “And our Kote was about to say something, before you so rudely interrupted with your arrival.”

Wolffe rolls his eyes, but then he turns towards Cody. “So? What were you about to say?”

“Well…” Cody begins. “This is just a random thought, but I was thinking that maybe Rex thinks Tup and Dogma are fucking each other, that’s why they usually disappear at the same time.”

 A beat.

Silence.

They’re all staring at Cody.

 Then in a moment, they’re all laughing their asses off. It certainly is not a view you get all days.

“Holy shit, Cody! He totally does!” Bly exclaims, trying, and failing, to stop laughing. If he keeps going like this he’s going to begin crying.

Fox doesn’t say anything; he bites his lips in order to stop himself, but it’s obvious by the shaking of his shoulders that this endeavor isn’t successful at all.

Wolffe is the loudest of them all, cackling in a way that he hasn’t done in quite some time. He begins slapping his knees as he keeps going and going, until neither of them has enough breath to go on.

Once they’ve calmed down, Fox can’t help but to wonder: “You think he really does?”

“I mean, maybe,” Cody shrugs. “Just a thought.”

It would make sense, considering certain comments Rex has made in Cody’s presence, but it’s still not enough to warrant a certain response.

“Next time you see him, please, please, please ask him,” Bly says. “I need to know.”

That sentence seems to get the general consensus of the other as well, so Cody has no other choice but to agree. Besides, he’s curious as well.

“Alright, I’ll ask him.”

 It actually takes some time before Cody is able to ask Rex that, since they don’t have the chance to speak to each other for the entire time Cody’s on leave, except for a few messages exchanged here and there in which Rex reassured his ori’vod that he’s still alive.

If he wanted, Cody would’ve asked him already, but it didn’t feel right, not when Rex was busy fighting on the other side of the Galaxy. No, he didn’t want to distract him.

Now, however, they’re both on the Resolute, waiting for General Kenobi and General Skywalker to be done with their meeting; it’s always nice when they get to do joint missions together.

 The greatest thing of them all is that it’s Rex himself the one who gives him the perfect opening, and all he has to do for that is letting out the hugest sigh Cody has ever seen him do.

“Woah there, Rex ol’ boy. Something’s wrong?” he asks to his brother.

“Eh, it’s nothing, jus’ thinking about things…” the other replies, prompting Cody to lightly shove him with a shoulder, smirk on his face.

“That’s dangerous, you know?” he jokes, and the smirks turns into a smile at the sound of Rex’s chuckle. “So, what is it?”

“I think some troopers are keeping secrets from me…” Rex replies. It’s vague enough to make Cody believe that his supposition might not be that far-fetched after all.

“Who is it? Hardcase? Is he planning some shit again?”

“No, it’s not him.” Rex shakes his head. “It’s Dogma. I think… I think he’s seeing Tup in secret.”

 Oh.

Oh.

Cody can’t believe it…

 He doesn’t know how he manages not to laugh in Rex’s face. Whatever it is that is stopping him, he’s grateful for its existence.

“Ah…” he says, trying to keep his tone neutral. “And what makes you think that?”

“Well, I’ve noticed that when we’re on leave they tend to disappear and reappear together. I tried asking them once and they got really awkward about it,” Rex replies. Oh, he got it so wrong. Still, it’s not like Cody is going to correct him, oh no.

“And so you think they’re together,” he concludes for him in fact.

“Exactly,” Rex nods. “Though why wouldn’t they tell me? Do they think I’d judge them?”

“They’re probably just figuring out things themselves, give them time,” Cody shrugs. He still can’t believe this is happening.

“Mmh, yeah, I think you’re right…”

“Of course. I’m always right.”

 That earns him a chuckle and a light push from Rex, though it doesn’t take long before they have to go their separate ways.

After saying goodbye to one another, and after making sure that he’s completely alone, Cody finally bursts into laughter. He still can’t believe that truly happened, he still can’t believe that he was right. Holy shit.

And to think that it was supposed to be just a dumb supposition.

(Ops I replied to the wrong ask before sdjhhfdh. Here’s the actual thing)

Cody likes doing joint missions with the 501st, because it means that he gets to spend some time with his vod’ika…

“Hey, did I tell you about that time Cody walked into a wall?”

… Except now.

“You, come with me!” Cody immediately hisses, taking Rex by the scruff of his neck and taking him as far away as possible from those shinies Rex was trying to corrupt. Still, he knows that this isn’t over, since he can hear them already whispering to themselves wondering about what Rex was about to tell them.

When this is over he’ll have words with them too. The least he can do is to try and salvage the situation, but not before giving Rex a harsh lesson.

 Once they’re far enough, Cody slams Rex against the wall, and still the other laughs, has been throughout the whole ordeal.

“Can you stop it?!” Cody exclaims then, narrowing his eyes in anger at his vod.

“Stop what?” Rex asks, feigning innocence. As if Cody hasn’t caught him in the act.

“You’re impossible…” Cody sighs, sending then another dirty look to Rex. “Why can’t you let it go already?”

“Because it’s funny,” Rex replies, but he barely finishes that sentence that he begins laughing again, much to Cody’s dismay.

It happened once, just once, and now Rex is making a huge deal out of it just because he knows it embarrasses him and he’s a little shit.

 What happened, exactly, that would reduce Rex to laughing so hard he begins to cry?

You see, it’s a pretty short story: Tup has been fighting with the 501st for a while now, but he still hadn’t had the chance to work with the 212th. Well, technically he did on Umbara, but that mess is another story entirely.

Now he had, finally, and things went even all according to plan for once. It was a lucky day.

Just as they were having a bit of a downtime before the official debrief, he took the decision to take off his bucket so that he could breathe, and for another reason as well: the elastic band that was holding his hair in place had snapped during the fight - something that was beginning to happen quite often - and Tup was tired to get hair in his face all the time, thus with a quick motion he removed his bucket, shaking his head a bit in order to let his hair fall down on his shoulders, and then…Bam!

He - and all his companions - turned around immediately, only to watch a quite hurt Cody massaging his head… Wait, what happened?

The explanation they got later is that the Commander was so tired he hadn’t seen the wall, walking right to it, which immediately brought a bit of hilarity but also some worry as well: it wasn’t good that the Commander wasn’t getting enough rest.

This is only partially the truth, and Rex knows it well: Cody has been enamored with Tup from the moment in which he removed his bucket, that’s why he walked into the wall, because he was too busy staring at Tup to see where he was going.

 For now Rex is the only one who knows this humiliating truth, though he never wastes the occasion to try and tell it to someone else, though he does it only when he knows Cody is near and can hear him because where would the fun be otherwise? For once he’s the one at an advantage, and he intends to have a good time with it, which brings us to where we left off, with Rex still laughing at Cody’s anger.

“C’mon, vod! It’s not so bad…”

“The why can’t you drop it?” Cody asks then. Well, he got him there.

“You’re just afraid your men will laugh at you,” Rex points out then. He rarely gets the chance to be this smug with Cody; it feels great.

He’s not wrong, though. If more people knew, he’d be the laughingstock of the entire GAR. Maker, what if Tup hears it? Cody would die from the embarrassment. He still hasn’t gathered enough courage to speak to him in an informal setting, if someone tells him, Cody will never speak to him; he just wouldn’t be able to do it.

 It’s during this moment of despair that Cody remembers something. Maybe it’s his survival instinct, but he remembers a scene that he’s sure would embarrass Rex to no end if he told anyone.

Things might not be so bad after all.

“You know what?” Cody begins, trying to hide a smirk. “Fine, tell them…”

“What are you getting at?” Rex asks, suddenly suspicious. He knows Cody too well not to know that it’s very unlikely that he’d let him go this easily. He must have something in mind.

“Oh, nothing.” Cody replies, feigning innocence. “Just, if word goes around of this accident, someone might begin telling people about another one involving a pillow…”

At those words, Rex goes pale. “Y-You still remember?”

“Of course I do.” And now it’s Cody’s turn to smirk victorious. He doesn’t care that this is a thing many of his vode do - at least that’s what Rex told him as a justification - and that Rex was fresh from Kamino when he did it - he was so young - but it’s still damn hilarious that he caught him practicing kissing with a pillow. “And I’m sure your boys will be delighted to know all about it…”

Damn Cody. He really turned the situation around, huh?

“Fine, I won’t tell anyone,” he promises, because that’s the only thing he can do now. He’s not done, however. “But you better go talk to Tup. He’s been eyeing you too.”

O-Oh… Cody didn’t know that.

“Well, I’ll see what I can do,” he says, only to turn back to the main topic - he won’t let himself get sidetracked this easily. “So, do we have a deal?”

Rex can only sigh.

“Fine, we have a deal.”

(Ahahaha I love this prompt!)

“Aren’t you a little bit curious?” Jesse asks, surprised that he seems to be the only one who actually cares about this. He nudges Dogma with an elbow, making the other hiss at him.

“No, I don’t care!” he replies, even though it’s obvious that he’s lying.

“Oh, so that’s why you were drilling Tup this morning?” Fives asks him, taking none of his shit. At those words, Dogma lowers his gaze.

“Well…” he begins but doesn’t continue. His silence speaks volumes.

“So, do we have some theories?” Hardcase asks, which begins a torrent of voices to begin talking at the same time, creating a mess.

 How did this began?

It happened in the showers. They had just come back from a joint mission with the 212th and they could finally enjoy a nice shower. Fives was the first one to notice it.

“Hey vod,” he told Tup, walking towards him, and pointing at a darkened spot between the back of his neck and his shoulder, “What’s this?”

From that, chaos erupted, because that was unmistakably a hickey. Someone gave Tup a hickey.

“You should’ve seen the other guy,” Tup said then, words already flowing before he could stop himself, which made everyone go wild for a moment.

After that, Tup didn’t share any other information about who this mysterious partner was, but it wasn’t that big of a deal: it must’ve been a one night stand for sure!

 With the passing of time, however, it was clear to everybody that it was more than that: Tup would mysteriously disappear whenever the 212th was around, sporting bite marks and hickey - the trooper really has no shame - and engaging into an activity that can be called “longingly staring in the void thinking romantic thoughts about your supposed partner”. Kriff, it was serious.

 “So, nobody has any idea?” Fives asks.

“I don’t know… maybe Waxer?” Dogma suggests, making the others laugh.

“Yeah, if Waxer didn’t have his hands full with Boil already,” Jesse comments, still chuckling. “Maybe Wooley?”

A moment of silence. They’re all deep in thought.

“Naaaah.”

That just doesn’t seem likely.

 “Did you ask Kix?” Hardcase asks Jesse.

“Why should I ask him?”

“He usually knows this stuff,” Hardcase shrugs. Well, Kix’s case in interesting: being a doctor, sometimes he gets to know some things about the rest of the troopers that the others normally wouldn’t, but now who knows if this applies to their situation as well.

“Even if he does, he won’t tell us,” Jesse concludes however. It’s true: Kix has always made a point never to break the trust between medic and patient, not matter how much Jesse can try asking him. It’s just not going to work.

“At this point we might as well follow Tup directly,” Fives jokes, realizing only too late his mistake, because Jesse and Hardcase are already looking at each other in a way that says that they’re really thinking about it.

“No you can’t,” Dogma immediately says, and for once Fives finds himself agreeing with him, even though he doubts it will actually take this little to convince the other two troublemakers to desist.

This is going to be a loooong day.

 Meanwhile, on a completely different ship, Tup is enjoying some quality time with Cody.

For now they aren’t doing anything more, just laying on Cody’s bunk. A thing that Tup loves about Cody is that he’s fine with this, with not doing anything. Even just staying like this is good enough, which Tup is grateful for because the Commander is a great hugger and if he could he’d spend all eternity in his arms.

From the comfortable spot on Cody’s shoulder, Tup turns his head to look at him.

“They’re still speculating, you know?” he says, knowing that Cody will understand who he’s talking about. They have shared quite a few laughs at the way Tup’s vode are still trying to discover who this mysterious partner of his is.

“Are they now?” Cody replies, quite amused by all this. They didn’t even have in mind to keep the relationship between them a secret, but after seeing how people reacted to the mystery, they’ve decided to do it because it was too funny not to. Ah, Cody can’t wait for them to discover it; he bets they’re all going to make the most interesting faces.

Tup nods, then grimaces.

“I’m afraid they’re going to do something… extreme,” he admits.

Cody, for his part, isn’t worried at all.

“Let them,” he says in fact. “I’m still Marshall Commander. If they do something I’ll make sure they get humiliated for life.”

“I almost feel sorry for them,” Tup can’t help but to chuckle. He loves those di’kute, but sometimes they’re all a bit too much.

He gets distracted when he feels a slight touch on his hips that begins to travel lower towards his leg, which makes him smirk.

“Eager for more, aren’t we?” he chuckles, but his laugh is interrupted when Cody’s lips meet his in a passionate kiss.

 Cody’s had his fun talking shit about Tup’s fellow Torrent troopers, but now he wants to have fun with something else. Besides, Tup deserves a nice distraction.

(Probably came out a bit more angsty than anticipated, but it still ends well, you I hope you enjoy it!)

It seemed like such a good idea at the time, to get a pet. Now that they’re not bound to regulations anymore and are living on their own, they’ve been talking more and more about it.

Cody at first wasn’t entirely on board with it, but only because he’s had plenty of bad experiences with animals thanks to General Kenobi - or should Tup say Master Kenobi now, since he isn’t a General anymore? - and his interest in them, but he quickly warms up to the idea, if anything because Tup clearly had no intentions to stop asking for one.

“Fine, we’ll get one,” he says. “But you better take care of it, alright?”

“Yes, dad.” Tup rolls his eyes. He’s not a kriffing kid, c’mon.

Oh well, at least they’re finally getting a pet.

 In the end, they choose a tooka. The one they’ve picked is truly adorable: he’s a small baby boy, with his fur of a similar orange of the one Cody used to paint on his armor, but presents lighter spots all over his body. In particular some on his muzzle really look like mustaches, so they’ve decided to call it Boil jr. in honor of his horrible facial hair; said trooper is not amused.

As much as Cody was reluctant to have a pet, as soon as his eyes lay upon the tooka, he immediately melts and warms up towards him; you wouldn’t be able to tell that Tup had to insist in order for them to get him.

Ironically, the one who is more afraid of their new pet - well, not truly afraid, but still anxious - is Tup, which is something that Cody doesn’t miss, but addresses it only a couple of days after welcoming Boil jr. home.

In this time, he’s noticed something: every time he takes Boil jr. in his arms, Tup always looks like he wants to join, but he never does. Uh, this is weird.

 Eventually, Cody asks for some clarifications once he has the occasion, which presents itself on a lazy afternoon, while he’s sitting on the couch, scratching Boil jr.’s ears as he naps on his lap; it’s such a cute view that, as soon as Tup walks in them, he almost melts on the spot. He manages to resist, though, and he decides to join them on the couch; he almost stretches a hand towards Boil jr., but eventually he decides against it.

It’s now that Cody finally asks: “Why won’t you touch him?”

Tup stays silent for a couple of seconds, then he replies. “The vendor said that we should handle him with care.”

“So?”

“I don’t know if I’m capable of it…”

 Ah, so that’s the problem.

Tup isn’t the first person Cody hears saying something like this: they are soldiers, bred for war. Nobody ever thought about how their life was going to be once they achieved peace, nobody has prepared them for it.

Cody considers himself lucky for the fact that he had already some ideas in his mind about what to do after the war, but that’s not the case for all his brothers; some didn’t even expect to make it out alive, so why should they have busied themselves with thoughts about a future that they weren’t going to get?

It’s a learning curve for all of them, so it’s fair that one might be afraid of inadvertently damaging - literally and metaphorically - something or someone they love. It’s a sad reality, but it’s theirs.

 Still, Cody refuses to remain stuck in this limbo, and he intends to take as many as he can with him, especially Tup, that’s why he gently picks Boil jr. up and, without saying anything to Tup, puts him on his lap. “Here.”

Tup goes rigid immediately, expecting the tooka to leave, or at least to protest this change of location, but that doesn’t seem to be what Boil jr. wants, who actually curls up in a ball and closes his eyes. He looks relaxed, which is weird for Tup. Shouldn’t he be more wary?

He turns towards Cody for help, but Cody just smiles at him and does nothing to remove the tooka from his napping spot.

“C’mon,” he even encourages him. “Try to scratch behind his ears, he loves it.”

Tup lowers his gaze towards Boil jr., chewing his lip. Should he do it? He wants to, but what if he accidentally hurts him? Maybe this was a mistake after all…

“Tup.” It’s Cody’s voice again.

“Yes?”

“Don’t think about it, just do it.”

 This time, Tup moves, although hesitantly, but he gets closer and closer with his hand until he’s able to do what Cody just told him to do and…

Boil jr. purrs, leaning against the touch, allowing Tup to keep petting him - he really seems to enjoy the attention.

It’s… it’s easier than Tup imagined. He can’t help but to smile a relieved smile as he keeps scratching Boil jr.’s ears with tenderness.

He’s not hurting him, unbelievable.

 He looks towards Cody, who has a proud smile on his face. “Cody… I’m doing it…”

“You are,” Cody replies, snuggling closer to Tup and resting an arm around his shoulders. “You are…”

Now that he’s doing it, Tup feels so dumb for worrying. It looks so easy now, not at all like how he imagined it.

He’s here, he’s alive, he’s with Cody, he has a house, he even has a pet now!

It will take him a while to get used to it, get used to this softness, but he’s more than willing to wait for it. It will surely be worth it.

(Ohohohoh, nice!)

“Wait, you guys had a betting poll on me too?!” Tup can’t help to exclaim, so loud that all 79’s must’ve heard him despite the ongoing ear-blasting music.

“I don’t know why you sound so surprised: we’ve made one for Dogma, what exactly made you think we hadn’t made one for you too?” Jesse teases him.

“And if you say that you thought you were slicker than that, well, you obviously weren’t,” Fives interjects before Tup can say anything, successfully shutting him up.

Dogma almost pats his back sympathetic, but then he remembers that he took part to the betting poll about him, so he doesn’t. Wait! This means…

“So you had him participate to the poll about me even though you didn’t tell him about the poll on him, but you didn’t tell me about it either?”

“I mean…” Hardcase says, leaving it like that, like it explains everything.

Noticing that no, it’s not the case, Jesse intervenes: “Look, not to be a dick, but you would’ve snitched on us immediately. Besides, we told you in the end, didn’t we?”

“Telling me on our way here doesn’t count,” Dogma retorts, crossing his arms to his chest despite knowing that Jesse is absolutely right: if he knew about something like this was going on, he would’ve told Tup immediately. At least they’ve allowed him to take part in the poll, though they’ve all laughed at his response, deeming it too unlikely.

We’ll see who is going to laugh in a moment.

 “You promise you’re gonna tell the truth?” Jesse asks, turning towards Tup first, then towards Dogma.

Dogma rolls his eyes, but he agrees, just like Tup does - though Tup looks way more amused by this whole thing that him.

In a way, though, it almost feels liberating to be able to admit that he’s in a relationship; keeping it hidden was beginning to become too tiresome. Besides, it’s supposed to be good that he feels safe enough to reveal to his fellow troopers such a vulnerable part of himself, right?

He kind of wishes the Captain were here, since he’s the one Dogma usually turns to in these kinds of situations, but he said he wanted nothing to do with this - something about having an image to keep. Dogma understands: since he’s in a higher position in the chain of command, he’s not supposed to invade his subordinates’ space too much. Some might even say that the way he acts is too casual for a Captain, so there’s no need to act even less formally.

 “So, tell us, guys: who are you dating?”

Tup and Dogma share a gaze; Tup can’t hold back a smirk, something that Dogma isn’t able to do as well.

Time to shock these fools.

 As expected, as soon as the mysterious partners’ identities are revealed, chaos ensues, and Dogma gets to enjoy every second of it as the others try to make sense of what they’ve just heard.

“No way!”

“That can’t be true!”

“No you must be lying!”

And so on and so on and so on…

 Deep down Dogma feels like an asshole for being this smug, but he can’t help it, not when it’s so amusing!

A gaze with Tup is enough for him to know that it’s the same for the other as well.

 Unfortunately, however, the fun doesn’t last as long as Dogma thought it would.

Damn Fives and his observation skills.

“Wait a second though!” he exclaims in fact, pointing an accusatory finger at Dogma. “How come you are the only ones who got it right?!” Uh-oh.

At that, it’s like the stupor the others were feeling suddenly vanishes, in favor of another kind of emotion.

“Shit! They totally cheated!” Jesse realized, looking at Tup and Dogma like they spat on his favorite ration bar. Oh no, this is turning bad.

“N-No, guys! I swear we didn’t!” And then Tup had to open his mouth and make things worse. Dogma can’t help but to smack his own forehead in an act of frustration. He loves Tup, he really does, but the chakaar can’t lie for shit.

“No, you obviously did!”

“Did not!”

“Yeas you did!”

“I swear we haven’t!”

 They would’ve kept fighting over this for the entire evening, if only Fives hadn’t successfully calmed them all down.

“Guys, guys!” he exclaims, raising his hands to gather their attention. They all shut their mouths, eyes on him. “Fine, we might’ve been played this round, but I say let’s create another poll, and let’s do it together this time.”

He can see how they all perk up at his words, suddenly interested. Even Dogma, who’s trying really hard to appear indifferent, is hanging from his lips.

“And who should we bet on?” Jesse asks. Fives smirks.

“Well, I’ve heard some rumors about our dear Captain…”

 At that, chaos ensues again as everyone either expresses how shocked they are at the notion that their Captain is seeing someone or is already beginning to make theories.

It makes Fives almost wants to laugh, but he stops himself before he can, because here’s the thing: his companions might not know it yet, but he already knows the truth about his Rex ol’ boy... But that’s a secret, alright?

He can’t wait to see where things will go on from then. Whatever happens, it’s going to be fun.

(So yesterday I replied to this ask but with the wrong prompt, since I was supposed to reply to another asks. Anyway here’s the right prompt this time. Enjoy!)

“Do you really have to go?”

Those words almost make Cody reconsider everything, but he knows he has to leave before the rest of the 501st wakes up, or else their cover will be blown.

They didn’t mean for things to get like this, but after discovering how fun it is to watch them try to figure out whom Tup is sleeping with, it became imperative that nobody sees him and Cody interact. Sometimes it gets hard, especially when they haven’t seen each other in a while, but seeing their brothers despair makes everything worth it, so no, Cody can’t stay.

“You know I have to,” he whispers, but not without kissing Tup’s lips one last time before having to abandon the warmth of the bunk.

A shiver runs down his spine at the cold air surrounding him; getting back under the covers with Tup sure sounds so tempting now… No, they have a plan and they have to stick with it.

He turns towards Tup then, caressing his face.

“Go back to sleep,” he tells him, keeping his voice low. “See you on the battlefield.”

In response, Tup goes to grab Cody’s hand, turning his head so that he can lay a kiss on its palm. It makes Cody smile… But now he has to go.

 By now, he’s memorized the routine with which he leaves the 501st barracks. First things first, he’s not even wearing his armor, which makes his movements less audible. That’s also one of the reasons why he has to leave this early, because it’s less likely that he’ll find someone as he goes to his own quarters; if troopers found him armorless, they would begin asking questions, something that Cody would rather avoid.

Still, this doesn’t mean that he should lower his guard: he’s still trying to sneak out of a room full of soldiers who are trained to be on high alert even during sleep. A wrong move and he’ll be found out immediately.

This is also why Cody has memorized a route that he can follow, passing close to the ones he knows for a fact sleep the deepest, and won’t wake up for just a small noise.

Is it too much? Maybe, but what can you do? Cody likes to be prepared after all. Besides, it’s thrilling, not as thrilling as a battle can be of course, but it’s the kind of harmless thrill than none of them has really experienced, which makes it even more special.

In the end, where’s the harm in it?

 Tup hasn’t started as a master of stealth, but he’s made a lot of progress since he and Cody got together, since they’re still playing their little game in which they still haven’t told the others whom they are sleeping with, which involves a lot of sneaking around in order not to get caught.

He has to be honest: it’s exciting. It’s something small, so very small, in the grand scheme of things, but it still fills him with glee.

 The only problem is that the 212th vode are slightly more attentive than the 501st, which means that Tup needs to be more careful. Thankfully he’s very good at blending in, so usually even when there’s someone out there, they pay him no mind, and he’s able to go about his business without people getting suspicious.

He doesn’t think that, if they found out what Tup is actually doing here, they would freak out that much, but they would still talk, so one way or another the news would spread to everyone else too.

Eventually they will have to drop the façade and tell them, Tup knows it, but they want to see how long they can get away with it. Can you imagine if they manage it until the end of the war?

 Tup should really be paying attention to his surroundings, however, because he’s so lost in his head that he hasn’t noticed that another trooper is walking towards him until slam!

He recoils back, massaging his hurting forehead. Great, just what he needed; he hopes there won’t be any visible bruises from this, or else he’s done for.

“Watch where you’re going!” is what the trooper he’s bumped into tells him, or at least it’s what Tup thinks he told him, since he words are so slurred that he can barely understand them. He looks a mix of drunk and tired that, even if just a bit, serves to relieve Tup: he’s so wasted that he certainly won’t try to ask him anything, right? If he’s lucky, he won’t even remember him.

As if on cue, in fact, the trooper pushes past him, muttering something under his breath, leaving Tup alone.

“Karkin’ shinies…”

 For a moment, Tup stays there, petrified. He has no idea if he should run after the trooper - Boil, the one with the ugly mustache is Boil - or keep going. What even are the chances that he remembers this encounter?

In the end he shrugs, figuring that, if this is the time everyone finds out, so be it. He’d rather the 212th know it before the 501st, they’re going to make less of a big deal about it.

With those thoughts in mind, he keeps sneaking towards the 501st barracks, making however a mental note never to get distracted like this again.

Lmaooooo