#skyout

“Hey, Blackout!” Commander Tano says, just moments after he sends Spark to go get some sleep, just when he’s almost out the door. She’s as friendly as ever, and Blackout does not groan, does not grimace, just turns around and greets her politely.

It’s nothing against Commander Tano, nothing personal. It’s just that the sounds of shouts and blasterfire from their recent deployment still ring in his ears, and he’d rather get as far away from that as possible, right now. He’d rather get as far away from that as possible, and he’d rather sit down sometime soon, but now he has to speak to her, unless he wants to play the injury card, but that would just end up with him in the medbay, which is what he’s been avoiding all along. 

She’s telling him about something, something he’d usually try harder to focus on, but saying that he’s exhausted would be an incredible understatement. He tries to straighten up more, pay closer attention, but that just pulls painfully at his remaining stitches, and he winces reflexively. He swallows it down, but--

“Wait, are you hurt?” Commander Tano demands suddenly, jarring him back into the present. He opens his mouth to deny it but she’s speaking again-- “Where do you think you’re going? The medbay is over there!”

Great. Just great.

“Commander--” he starts to say, but he’s quickly cut off by a new voice.

“Ahsoka. Commander. Is something wrong?”

Blackout stiffens, resolves to teach Spark how to have a short conversation so this never happens again, and turns around slowly to face General Skywalker. He’d managed to evade Lieutenant Kix the entire trip back to Coruscant, managed to brush off Spark’s concerns when the kid saw him stumble, sidestepped Captain Rex’s offer to go out and get shitfaced-- he’d been so close. Just a few more steps and he would’ve been in Corrie territory, and the Corries were no snitches. If he’d made it just a few steps further Commander Tano wouldn’t have seen him, and he’d essentially be home free. Then the worst case scenario would be waking up in a drunk tank tomorrow, and getting chewed out by Thorn for being a di’kut, but even that wouldn’t be so bad as he’d then get to watch Thorn chew out whatever poor shinies found his unconscious body and brought it to jail instead of a medic would’ve been worth it. Now, though…

“General Skywalker,” he greets, and he doesn’t think about the way his ribs throb as he salutes. The General waves him off, and he relaxes into parade rest, says: “I was going to meet Commander Thorn at 79’s, sir. Is there a problem?”

General Skywalker comes to a stop in front of him, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. He looks at Commander Tano, then at Blackout, then back at Commander Tano, and finally at Blackout again. “You’re injured,” General Skywalker accuses, pitching his voice loud enough that the surrounding vode definitely hear him. Blackout sighs, closes his eyes for a brief moment, and very respectfully curses him out.

From the sudden sputtering noises General Skywalker makes, and the squeak from Commander Tano, he assumes that they caught wind of his thoughts. Good.

“Just a few scrapes and bruises, sir,” Blackout says blandly, and General Skywalker sends him a look. Commander Tano copies him. It would be more endearing if they weren’t aiming those identical expressions at him. 

Still, Blackout keeps his own face neutral, and resolutely pretends not to notice. 

They stare at each other for a few seconds, and General Skywalker must realize that he’s not about to back down, because after a moment he turns to the Commander. “Ahsoka, go back to the Temple,” General Skywalker orders, and she instantly makes a noise of protest, crosses her arms and glares like she’s gearing herself up to argue, but General Skywalker silences her with a stronger, sterner look. “Now.”

Commander Tano rolls her eyes, throws her arms up in the air, but relents. “Bye, Blackout,” she says, pointedly not acknowledging her Master, and stomps off.

Then General Skywalker turns his attention back to Blackout, his gaze laser sharp, his expression similar to the one on his face whenever he’s arguing something with a High General.

Ah. So this is why he sent her off. Well, Blackout might as well start saying his remembrances now, and .

“Commander, I can tell that you’re bleeding,” General Skywalker says, voice hard, and Blackout does not wince, does not bring a hand up to the wound that his armor currently conceals. Kark. If Lieutenant Kix, or one of his cronies-- sorry, junior medics-- heard that…

“I just pulled a few stitches, sir, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“It’s not a big deal?” General Skywalker demands incredulously. “Commander--”

“Sir, I promise I’ll take a quick detour to the barracks and deal with it before I go to 79’s,” he says, interrupting, and he probably should not have done that, but his ribs ache, so if there’s any way he can make this conversation end quicker, he’s going to try it. 

General Skywalker frowns. “I’d really feel a lot better about it if you had Kix look over it.”

Damnit. “Sir--”

“But... I’ll compromise.” Thank the Force. “Come to my room. I’ll help you stitch it up. I admit, I’m no medic, but Obi-Wan made sure that I had some first aid knowledge.”

What. 

Blackout replays that sentence in his mind, tries to decipher it. Fails. What.

“Sir?” Blackout hears himself ask, and his voice sounds strangled to his own ears. 

“Do you want to deal with Kix?” General Skywalker asks, and his horror at that prospect must show on his face, because the General laughs. “Come on. I’ll have you ready to roar in no time at all. I promise I don’t bite. You’ll make it out in one piece”

“Yes sir,” Blackout somehow manages to make himself say. The faint feeling in his head is from blood loss. It’s definitely from blood loss. The fact that he actually really would not mind the General biting is a fact that is not impacting this situation at all. “Lead the way.”

Now he just needs to… not think about General Skywalker biting. While he goes to the General’s room, and gets undressed so that the General can tend to his wounds.