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wanderinginksplot · 2 years

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Gar Cyare Chapter Three

Alpha-17/fem!reader fic

Word Count: 6,200

Warnings: Threats, extended flashback sequences, minor insecurities on the reader's part, Kaminoans being creepy, flirtation.

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Tome'tayle (Memories)

Tracking the passage of time on Kamino was difficult.

You were sure that the planet had seasons of some kind - most did, after all - but you had never really seen evidence of it. You rarely needed to step outside and, when you did, you found the weather extremely unhelpful in estimating the season. When there was a storm coming in, the winds whipped past Tipoca City, bringing a brisk chill to the window panes. When it was raining, the air seemed close and thick between the drops. There was never a scent of petrichor on Kamino; after all, there was very little greenery to be found. If there were no active or incoming storms, the platforms tended to be breezy and cool. On the rare occasion that sunlight reached Tipoca City, it built up humidity so intense that it was hard to breathe.

All of that was to say that your time with Alpha passed in a pleasant blur. Days turned to weeks and longer. You had thoroughly settled into your altered role with the Senate, Alpha had regained favor with his ARC trainees, and the repairs to Tipoca City were nearly finished. Life on Kamino was settling back into normalcy, insofar as it could ever be considered normal.

It was odd to think about how natural everything felt. You could almost imagine that the Separatists had never attacked Kamino.

Almost.

As you sat in your office, darkened holopad screens reflecting the gray Kaminoan skies visible through the window behind you, your attention was caught on a small holoprojector sitting on the corner of your desk. It had been given to you by the ARCs-in-training, set to display a series of images in rotation. The images had mostly been captured by Bacara, who proved to have quite a talent for recording people and scenes at the perfect time.

The current one was a candid image of the group sitting at the table you had claimed in the cafeteria. Despite the normalcy of the setting and people, you remembered that day vividly.

You had been sitting with Alpha, the ARCs, and Limit, enjoying your meal. Being in the cafeteria hadn’t stopped being uncomfortable since the attack. The cadets weren’t hostile to you anymore, not the way they had been just after the invasion, but they weren’t going out of their way to be friendly. There were no flirtations. Anywhere you went around Tipoca City, wary glares and suspicious whispers followed, but you did your best to ignore them.

The cafeteria was tricky, since you were sharing an enclosed space with the cadets. Your ability to ignore them waned in the close quarters and your heart sank every time one of them made a derisive face at you.

Still, the troopers didn’t make it easy to pay attention to those cadets. They were loud. It was something you had noticed the first time you had ever eaten in the cafeteria. You had been terrified back then, nervous that you would offend someone or be in their way. Between your fears, the underwhelming food, and the sheer level of noise in the room, you had never managed to relax in the cafeteria.

Things were still loud now, maybe even more so. Alpha and Limit were quiet, but the ARCs tended to be bold, especially when they were arguing about something ridiculous. And that was often.

Surprisingly, you didn’t find the noise as jarring when you were in the middle of it instead of on the outskirts. And you had very much been in the middle of it. Alpha was sitting beside you, occasionally contributing to the conversation but mostly just listening in alternating waves of irritation, amusement, and fond exasperation.

Somewhere between dumping his tray and returning to the table, Bacara had managed to capture the holoimage, which showed everyone enjoying a meal together, talking and laughing exuberantly.

Then everything had gone wrong.

A cadet had been moving past your group, clearly heading for a table, when someone shouted something. You didn’t hear what it was, but the tone wasn’t entirely friendly. You turned to see what was going on - worried that it was directed at you and unsure what you would do if it was.

Unfortunately, the cadet had been startled and lurched to the side with his heavily laden tray. His full glass of water had toppled, spilling cold liquid onto your shoulder, splashing it across your chest and trailing down your arm.

The cafeteria had gone silent a moment later, but you couldn’t be sure whether that had happened when they saw your drenched sleeve or when Alpha had seized the cadet by the arms.

“You have ten seconds to explain what just happened,” Alpha ordered tersely.

The cadet stammered for a moment - he was a young trooper, too young to look like anything other than a child. “I- I was walking to a table and got startled, sir. Sorry, sir. Sorry, ma’am.”

Alpha stared at him as if he could read the cadet’s mind if he looked deep enough, a hard light in his eyes. Your mind was screaming for you to say something, but all you managed to do was watch. Alpha’s grip didn’t tighten, but he didn’t let the cadet go, either. He just held on and stared grimly.

Bacara had approached the table with a smooth, easy stride that didn't quite manage to hide his worry. “Alpha, I saw the whole thing happen. It was an accident.”

That spurred you into speaking as well. “It’s just water, Alpha,” you soothed quietly. “It’ll dry and he didn’t do it on purpose.”

Alpha let the cadet go. Without breaking his gaze on the cadet’s face, he scooped up the empty glass and handed it back. “Best go get more, trooper. Take a different way back to your table.”

The cadet backed away quickly, nodding too many times. “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

The rest of the meal had been quiet and tense, ending shortly afterward.

Originally, that image hadn’t been included in the rotation on the holoprojector the ARCs had given you. You had to ask Bacara for it. You understood his reasoning for keeping it out, but even the mild reminder of unpleasant moments made the rest of the rotation much more pleasant. It kept you grateful for the better times.

As that image faded, it was replaced with one of you standing with the kids. Tech was next to you with Hunter beside him. Wrecker was on your other side, already towering over you and everyone else. One of his arms was propped on your shoulder - because Alpha had scowled at him for propping it on your head - and the other was wrapped around Crosshair. All of you were smiling, even Crosshair. For that alone, you had demanded a copy of the image.

It had been a surprise for you to find that you and Alpha had apparently adopted four genetically altered troopers. Granted, you had already planned something along those lines after they had helped Alpha and the ARCs so much during the Separatist attack, but it was a bit of a surprise to learn that the adoption had essentially happened without you knowing.

In any case, the troopers had been a bright spot during the recovery, just as fiercely protective of you as Alpha and the ARCs were. You thought their efforts were more cute than intimidating, but you could see them growing, learning, and becoming more competent even as you watched with fascination and a bit of sadness.

The day Bacara had captured that holoimage, you had gone to the ARC training area to support the men in one of their late-afternoon trainings. You had finished with your work earlier than expected and thought you would drop in. Alpha never said anything directly about it, but you hadn’t missed the way he preened and showed off just a bit when you were watching a training session. And it wasn’t exactly a punishment for you, either.

When you had settled at your usual spot inside the training area - safely tucked off to one side so you wouldn’t accidentally get in the way - you were taken aback by the training. Instead of the planned training about infiltration tactics, Alpha and the ARCs were standing in a loose circle around the cadets. Alpha would announce a move or series of moves and the cadets would perform them. The ARCs called advice, encouragement, or stepped in to provide an opponent if necessary.

You couldn’t hide that you were worried at first. A lot of the moves the cadets were doing were intense, seeming far too advanced for them… but they completed every one perfectly. In that moment, you were struck by the difference you were already seeing in the four young men.

You had only known them for a handful of weeks, maybe a few months at most, and they already looked so grown-up. Their faces and bodies were leaner, they had gotten taller, and they were already starting to put on the muscle mass common to the troopers. Wrecker was taller and more muscular than his brothers while Tech and Crosshair were far more slender than typical, but the changes were clear.

While you were coming to terms with the ache in your heart, already mourning the lost childhoods of these cadets you had barely gotten to know, Alpha called an end to the exercise.

As the cadets took a moment to catch their breath, Alpha nodded approvingly at them. “That was much better. You’re improving quickly.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Tech said, eyes shining behind his goggles.

“We’re just tryin’ to keep up with all of you guys!” Wrecker tossed out, dodging and returning the punches Drift playfully threw in his direction.

“Yeah, but we’re ARCs,” Neyo countered. “If you’re keeping up with us, you’re better than most of the cadets on Kamino.”

“Not bad for a bad batch,” Crosshair said, a wry smile on his face.

You had frowned, sitting up and opening your mouth to say something when the ARCs burst out laughing. Before you could say anything at all, the ARCs had congratulated Crosshair on that piece of humor and the name had been repeated more times than you could count.

“You okay, neverd’ika?” Alpha had asked, coming to sit beside you.

You gestured at the cadets. “The bad batch? Don’t you think that’s… I don’t know… insulting? I don’t remember a lot of the Separatist attack, but I remember enough to know that they were a huge help. Why would they call themselves that?”

“I don’t know; they didn’t talk it over with me,” Alpha replied with a shrug. “Ask ‘em.”

“I will,” you decided, firming your jaw.

Alpha’s fingers on your wrist stilled you before you could move too far, and the warning look on his face stopped you from saying something immediately. “But remember, it might be more insulting to tell them that they don’t have the right to choose what they call themselves.”

You paused, deflating slightly. Alpha had made a fair point, and you had no idea how to convince the cadets not to call themselves that without taking away their agency. In the end, you settled for calling, “Why ‘bad batch’?”

The cadets paused at the sound of your question as the room’s occupants turned toward you. They exchanged glances, but when Hunter spoke, his answer was confident and firm. “That’s all the Kaminoans see when they look at us. It’s what they call us. If we call ourselves that, they’ll know we don’t see it as an insult. It’s just who we are. We’re a Bad Batch.”

You wanted to argue, to convince them that they were more than that, but when Hunter said their self-chosen title with relish, enough emphasis to capitalize it in your mind, you couldn’t say anything about their choice. If they wanted to be the Bad Batch, that was who they would be.

Somehow, though, these four headstrong young troopers were watching you with nervous anticipation, like they needed your approval. Your heart melted just a bit more for the cadets you and Alpha had unofficially adopted. You nodded gravely. “If you’re going to have a group name, you’ll need a group symbol. That way, there’s no mistake about who you are and what you’re going to do. Every place you go and every bit of good you do, the Kaminoans will be reminded that they tried to shrug off some of the best troopers this place has ever produced.”

Warmth at your back warned you that Alpha had stepped up behind you. With a heavy hand on your shoulder, he rumbled, “I’ll never forget that you stepped up to help me and these men during the attack. You put yourselves at risk for no gain. If you want to call yourselves the Bad Batch, you should. I’m proud to say that I was there for the Bad Batch’s first mission.”

There was a beat of silence before the newly-christened Bad Batch saluted the captain.

No - that wasn’t quite right. The angle of their bodies was wrong.

You had to choke back a wave of emotion when you realized that their salutes were aimed at both Alpha and you.

The image switched, breaking you from your reverie. Only then were you aware of the fond smile stretched across your face. It didn't leave as the next images in the sequence appeared.

It was an image of this very office, one major difference being that the holoprojector currently displaying these images was missing. If you remembered correctly, this image had been captured shortly before Bacara had given you the gift.

You were laughing in the image. You were half-sitting behind your desk, but you were clearly being pulled up and out of your chair by Monnk and Drift. They were laughing, too, and you distinctly remembered Bacara doing the same behind the holocamera.

You had called to warn Alpha that you would be working late that night. Since you had accepted the new contract with the Republic, your workload had lightened considerably. You still had to reach certain goals with your report, regularly submitting sections to Jaiss for review, but those goals were far more attainable than they had ever been. You couldn't remember the last time you had to work through a meal.

Even staying late wouldn't have put you at risk of missing dinner with Alpha, but you definitely intended to work past the end of the work day. Alpha hadn't been thrilled by that when you called him, but he didn't try to argue with you… which was suspicious, since he argued about everything.

At roughly three minutes after you typically left your office, you heard running footsteps in the hall followed by frantic pounding on your door. When it had opened, Drift and Monnk had invited themselves in, followed by Bacara.

"C'mon, work day is over," Monnk announced, starting for your desk.

“What?” you had asked reflexively, having heard the question but been too confused to process it immediately. “No, I just have to finish this part of the project. I’m almost done. It won’t take more than an hour.”

“Then that will be an easy start to your day tomorrow,” Drift told you. “Let’s go.”

“I can’t just leave,” you protested.

“You can,” Bacara told you. “And you need to.”

“We all saw how hard you worked before the contract was changed,” Monnk agreed. “None of us are gonna let you start working like that again.”

You were touched by their concern, honestly… but you really did need to finish this section or you would forget the point you had been trying to make. You didn’t trust that you would remember the particular phrasing that you had come up with by the time you started your next work day.

“I’ll just finish this section and then I’ll be done for the day,” you bargained.

“Nope, not good enough,” Monnk decreed. “Come on.”

He had reached out - carefully giving you ample time to pull away if that’s what you chose to do - and gently took one of your wrists in his hands. You used your free hand to save your progress on the report but shook your head at the same time.

“Monnk, it’ll be five more minutes,” you protested, the loud laughter spilling from you detracting slightly from the overall impression. “Maybe ten.”

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Drift said sternly, holding up a hand in your direction. “Are you refusing to comply with orders? Attempting to incite a riot? Resisting arrest?”

Despite yourself, you only laughed harder. “Am- am I being arrested?”

“If you don’t leave here, sure,” Bacara told you, lifting the holocamera in your direction as Drift grabbed your other wrist.

“Alpha will bail me out,” you insisted.

“Nah, Captain’s on our side,” Monnk said, utterly unconcerned.

That sounded about right, which only made you laugh harder.

“Shift it, civvie,” Drift ordered, though his grip on your arm was more insistent and irritating than forceful. He and Monnk ended up waving your hands around as they pulled you back and forth in an extremely silly manner.

“Don’t tell me she’s overpowering you two,” Bacara teased from behind the holocamera. “What kind of ARCs are you?”

“She’s a tough one,” Drift grunted, pretending to struggle. “The captain must have taught her all his best tricks.”

“Don’t worry, Bacara, we’ll get her,” Monnk promised, pulling your wrist in a way that let him strain against his own hold while you were hardly jostled. “She may be tough, but we’re tougher!”

Bacara gave a skeptical grunt. “Dunno, I might put credits on her instead.”

Monnk and Drift had looked offended for half a second before they had started laughing as hard as you were. Bacara had snapped the picture and here it was.

The image slowly faded into another one. As lovely as the other memories were, they couldn’t begin to compete with this one. It was a relatively simple one - just you and Alpha walking down one of the many bland hallways of Tipoca City. The edges of things in the background were blurred slightly from Bacara’s speed as he had taken it. For that reason, he had been reluctant to give you a copy of it, but you had managed to plead one from him.

The background may have been blurry, but you and Alpha were in perfect focus. You weren’t walking hand-in-hand or anything equally overt, but you were in the middle of a conversation. Neither of you had noticed Bacara or his holocamera yet, so neither of you had your guard up.

You were staring up at Alpha with admiration written clearly across your expression. Even in the middle of whatever you had been saying to him, you were watching him more closely than your surroundings. There was a smile curving your lips and your face was bright with happiness.

You would have been embarrassed by how openly stunned you were by Alpha… if he hadn’t looked equally adoring. His expression was a little more subtle by nature, but his eyes were warm and satisfied.

As the two of you had agreed months before, you weren’t open about your relationship. You weren’t touching, but something in your body language spoke of closeness and a familiarity formed over long exposure to each other. It was impossible for you to know for sure, but you liked to think that a stranger seeing the two of you for the first time would know that you were friends or more, just based on the way you walked in harmony even with the slight distance between you.

“Hey, you ready for-? What? Why are you smiling like that?”

You glanced up quickly, meeting Alpha’s eyes from where he was standing at the doorway of your office. Despite the judgment of his words, his tone was soft - more curious than anything. Your heart performed a series of gymnastics as you noted that he was wearing the same warm expression he had in the treasured holoimage.

“Just watching the projector,” you explained, glancing at the chrono past Alpha’s shoulder. It was time to go to dinner. “I didn’t realize it was so late. Give me a moment and I’ll be ready to leave.”

Alpha hummed, settling comfortably into a chair as he watched you. “Busy day?”

You laughed. “Something like that.”

As soon as you had finished saving your documents and storing the datapads, you shut off the lights and left your office with Alpha walking beside you.

In your more introspective moments before you had confessed your feelings, you had done your best to envision what it would be like to date the stern and imposing Captain Alpha-17. The results had often been overly romanticized - especially since you were well aware that no relationship was perfect - but you had typically reminded yourself that Alpha was, above all else, a soldier. You had thoroughly expected him to struggle in this new role, something unlike anything he had known before.

You had been wrong.

Was Alpha the perfect boyfriend? Absolutely not. But you weren't perfect either and your relationship seemed to be going just fine. What Alpha lacked in relationship experience, he made up for with focus.

Alpha had approached dating you with the intense scrutiny he used to study battle plans or landing conditions for an upcoming mission. (Or so you assumed from the stories he had told you.) If he didn't understand something, he asked questions until he did. And after he had woken from his alcohol-assisted sleep, he dissected his communication breakdown with the precision of a man defusing a bomb.

It was intense but flattering. Alpha had made it clear through his every action that this relationship was a priority for him. Maybe not the most important thing in his life, but certainly not far off. He was focused on you, studying your relationship together until he knew he understood every part of it.

The only thing you could do was put your full focus on him in return. There were ups and downs, even with your prior experiences with romance. You weren’t totally lost, but between the need for secrecy, the intensity of Tipoca City so soon after an infiltration, and Alpha’s own propensity for showing his feelings rather than speaking about them… Actually, when you stopped to think about it, your prior romantic experience didn’t help all that much.

Even then, walking down the hallway in comfortable quiet, was something you hadn’t experienced before. You had always felt the need to fill silences in the past. Why didn’t you now? Was it because you didn’t need to speak or because you didn’t know what to say? And did Alpha feel the same? He didn’t spend much time talking, but was he wondering why you weren’t? The last thing you wanted to do was hurt him yet again…

“Neverd’ika,” Alpha said suddenly, making you tense. Your gaze scanned the hallway ahead of you, automatically searching for some kind of threat, but found nothing. Alpha murmured your name, drawing your attention. “You’re frowning. Everything good?”

“Are you happy with me?” you asked, the words bursting from you before you could think them through.

Alpha halted immediately, his fingers on your forearm pulling you to a stop as well. His brows were furrowed low over his eyes as they scanned your face. “What’s going on? Am I happy with you? Of course I’m happy with you. Are you happy with me?”

“Of course!” you replied earnestly.

Alpha huffed, making an exasperated gesture that showed his frustration with you without using a single word. “Then why are you asking questions like that?”

“I just-” you cut yourself off with a sigh. “I just wanted to make sure.”

Narrowing his eyes at you, Alpha took a step closer. His height meant you were left staring up at him, but you couldn’t deny that his nearness had your heart beating faster. His hand, tucked close by his side, found yours. With his hand running gently over the back of your palm, you were caught in a firestorm of anticipation and comfort.

“Neverd’ika, I promise you this,” Alpha started, voice low and serious. “If I ever think things need to end between us, I’ll tell you. I’m enough of a man to do that. You know that, don’t you?”

You nodded and Alpha nodded with you. “And you’ll do the same with me. Promise me that you’ll tell me if you want to end this.”

You nodded again, but Alpha looked skeptical. “And you won’t be nice to me just to spare my feelings like you do with the cadets?” You shook your head, a grin fighting to form at his over-exaggerated suspicion. “Because I’m the perfect person to practice your meanness on. In fact, that might be a good idea…”

“Alpha, don’t,” you argued, half-laughing. “You know how you couldn’t help me spar because you could never try to hurt me? I feel the same way about you. I couldn’t be cruel to you. Please don’t ask me to.”

“I don’t think you would ever be cruel, cyare,” Alpha admitted. “But I think you could hurt me. Kriff, I know you could. You’re the only one who could.”

Your heart melted a bit at that and you lifted slightly onto your toes. Alpha’s gaze bounced from your eyes to your lips and back - an unbelievably quick flick of his attention, but it was enough to make your lips part with your suddenly quickened breath.

Just as Alpha started to lean down, a group of cadets passed. Alpha straightened, throwing a dirty look at the cadets. Whether it was because of their interruption or because he was preparing for them to throw an insult in your direction, you couldn’t be sure.

In either case, the cadets took no notice of you or Alpha. They passed in laughing conversation. When the noise of them had faded, you and Alpha reluctantly pulled apart and continued in the direction of the mess hall.

You and Alpha had been remarkably tame as a couple.

Sure, you had kissed. You dreamed about that kiss. You had shared a few touches here and there. You had woken up in his bed - and his arms - the morning after his encounter with Zackra Trem and her alcohol. But those scattered incidents were as far as things had ever gone between you.

There was chemistry between you. The urge to get closer physically was there, but the obstacles seemed to appear out of nowhere. If you weren’t busy doing your jobs, there were Kaminoans around. If the Kaminoans weren’t nearby, cadets were. And even when the stars aligned perfectly, there was an odd sense of hesitancy. You had initially wondered if it was coming from you, but you had noticed it from Alpha as well.

Your only guess was that months of denying yourselves the slightest physical touch had given both of you a natural reluctance toward moving forward in your relationship. At least, that was what you hoped it was. If there were deeper issues between you and Alpha, you needed to find out as soon as you could.

Those thoughts disappeared as you finally reached the mess hall, but the underlying sense of urgency still remained. Still, you tried to push it from your mind as you stood in line to retrieve a tray with Alpha. The ARCs-in-training, the self-proclaimed Bad Batch, and Limit were all waiting at your usual table.

You and Alpha were greeted as cheerfully as ever. Out of long-formed habit, you took seats facing the door, the edges of your trays aligned so that you had an excuse to sit a little closer than one would typically see in the Kaminoan cafeteria.

As you shared a meal with your boyfriend and the odd group of friends you had collected, you began to relax into things. Your tumultuous thoughts of earlier faded into nothingness as you chatted with everyone. You even got Alpha to smile.

You didn’t know exactly when you had started to lean into Alpha’s side, or when he relaxed the muscles of his thigh so that your legs were pressed together from hip to knee. All you knew was that when Limit hissed for you to watch out, you yanked away from him and the time it took to unlace your fingers felt like a heart-pounding eternity.

“What is it?” Alpha demanded lowly, pretending to pay incredibly close attention to his meal.

“Kaminoans,” Limit told you, voice the darkest you had heard from the friendly medic.

“They’re circling today,” Neyo muttered. “Upper levels. They’ve been staring down at everyone for almost an hour.”

“Why?” you asked, glancing around the table. Having people stare at you while you were trying to eat seemed like an invasion somehow, and bad manners if nothing else. But though everyone else seemed irritated by it, apparently none of them were surprised.

“They do this every so often,” Faie told you. “No one is sure why.”

“Looking for excess,” Alpha said, spearing a piece of food so hard that you were sure his utensils would go through the table itself.

“Excess,” you repeated blankly. “What excess?”

“Any excess,” Alpha said, glowering up at the raised bank of windows that looked out onto the cafeteria. “You forget, neverd’ika, the Kamiini are running a business. They watch us to search for overages in food provision or consumption, deficiencies with any of the men and the way they eat, or too much conversation between them. They don’t like their products forming bonds. There is no money to be made through brotherhood.”

The bitterness was so thick in Alpha’s voice that you felt you could choke on it. To hear Alpha sounding so angry was far from unusual… but the underlying pain made you settle a comforting hand on his forearm.

Alpha had a half-moment to glance over at you and smile before Bacara rapped his knuckles against the underside of the table with a sharp crack. “What did we just say? Watch yourselves or the entirety of Tipoca City is going to know about the two of you.”

“I’m confused,” Hunter said, speaking for the first time instead of continuing his quiet observation. “Everybody already knows about the two of you. What does it matter if the Kaminoans see it? They probably already know, too.”

Alpha stared at him, frowning heavily. “Kid-”

“You know what?” Drift interrupted. “The rest of us are pretty much done here. Why don’t we take the Bad Batchlets and teach them about the concept of plausible deniability?”

“Batchlets?” Crosshair repeated, sounding irritated.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Monnk told them, urging everyone up and out of their seats. When everyone was on their way to the garbage cans or the cafeteria doors, Monnk leaned down to speak. Glancing between you and Alpha, he said, “If I were you, I would take this time to talk about everything, especially what comes next.”

“And that means?” Alpha asked, arching a brow.

Monnk shrugged, sending you a kind smile. “Whatever comes next for you according to how you want your relationship to go. Surely you’ve got some kind of plan? And if you don’t… that might be the first thing you need to talk about.”

And then he straightened, throwing a nod over his shoulder and leaving the cafeteria before either of you could give any kind of response.

You and Alpha finished your meal in silence - you hadn’t spoken about it, hadn’t planned it, but you were clearly on the same wavelength. Unlike the earlier lack of conversation on your way to the cafeteria and most silences you and the captain had shared, this one was distinctly uncomfortable. If you had been able to see past your own sense of nervousness, you would have figured that both of you were trying to plan what you wanted to say.

Alpha’s fingertips brushed your elbow and you knew what he meant. You stood, following him to dump your tray and leave it in the appropriate place before you left the cafeteria.

You knew, of course, what Monnk had meant by ‘what comes next’. He wanted you and Alpha to talk about where your relationship was going, what you would do when your contract on Kamino ended, and any excuses you would give if you were caught and your relationship was exposed. There was a lot of conversation to be had.

So why did your mind immediately jump toward the question of moving things forward in your physical relationship with Alpha?

Your nerves were on fire as Alpha steered you wordlessly in the direction of your personal quarters. No matter which way your conversation ended up going, you were going to need privacy for it.

The snarled thoughts in your head cut short so abruptly that they seemed to echo in your mind as a cadet started walking toward you with a purposeful air. Beside you, Alpha straightened, a lethal-looking scowl already forming on his face. You pressed your palm against the warm span of his back and Alpha closed his mouth. His glare didn’t fade.

The cadet stopped a short distance in front of you, his air of professionalism contrasting sharply with his youthful appearance. He nodded at Alpha. “Captain.”

Alpha didn’t nod back, but the cadet had already shifted his attention to you. “How involved are you in the production of clones, ma’am?”

The question wasn’t outright offensive, so you did your best to answer it honestly and without clear suspicion. “Not at all, trooper. I’m just the one writing the report requested by the Republic Senate about the production process.”

“And do you have anything to do with the testing of the final products?” he asked.

You frowned at him. “Testing? No. That’s all done by the Kaminoans and their staff.”

“Do you want to be part of the testing group?” One corner of his mouth curved upward and he waggled his eyebrows as he added, “I’d be fine with it if you wanted to make sure all of my pieces work. In fact-”

“That’s enough of that,” Alpha cut off, stepping forward between you and the cadet. “Run along before I test how firmly your arms are attached.”

The cadet smirked, but you noticed his speed as he fled the area. You glanced up at Alpha, a smile growing on your face. He shook his head, voice grumpy as he asked, “What?”

“That’s the first time one of the cadets has flirted with me since the attack!” you exclaimed, trying not to tear up about such a minor thing.

“That isn’t true,” Alpha argued. “I watched you- uh, saw you in the mess. There was some di’kutla cadet flirting with you at every meal.”

Any glee you may have felt knowing that Alpha had been watching you during your separation dissipated in the face of your embarrassment. Ducking your head slightly, you mumbled, “Uh, not- not quite. But it’s okay. Let’s keep going.”

The effort it took not to run down the hallway toward your quarters was ridiculous, but you managed. Of course, it took less than the length of one hall for Alpha to catch up with you. “What does that mean, neverd’ika? I saw it. I was proud of you for standing your ground, even when I thought you would never speak to me again. You shut the cadets down without a problem and you did it every day.”

“Those cadets…” You trailed off to take a deep, slow breath. It wasn’t something you necessarily wanted to admit, but you refused to lie to Alpha. “They weren’t flirting with me.”

“You said they were,” Alpha told you.

“Technically, you said that.”

Something in Alpha’s eyes told you he was thinking back over your conversation in his quarters after your cast had been removed. “I did,” he agreed eventually. “But you didn’t correct me. What were they really saying to you?”

“A lot of it was questions,” you answered honestly. The fact that there had been a few threats and insults wasn’t worth mentioning, especially since the ARCs-in-training had dealt with those situations immediately and decisively. “As long as they were polite, I answered their questions and invited them to stay. Some of them took me up on it, some didn’t.”

Alpha frowned, but reached out to brush the side of your hand with his fingers. “I can’t believe you misled me.”

“We were arguing,” you reminded him, smiling to take the sting out of your defensive tone. “And I can’t believe you were watching me in the cafeteria.”

“Every day,” Alpha said unashamedly. “How else was I supposed to survive eleven days without you?”

Your heart lurched at that. When you could speak, your voice came out so low and rich that you almost didn’t recognize it. “Alpha, you’re lucky we’re still in public or I would show you exactly how that makes me feel.”

Alpha’s head whipped in your direction. “Your leg is bothering you.”

The sudden change of subject - especially with a statement that was patently untrue - made your head spin… or maybe that was just the shift of Tipoca City as Alpha scooped you into his arms and rushed off toward your quarters at top speed.

---

Author's Note - sorry for posting later than expected! I think I'm going to start planning Thursday posts in the future to make things a little easier. On the bright side, only about a week and a half left until the next chapter!

Thanks for reading, and extra thanks for those who commented on or reblogged the last chapter! My motivation for writing this story is starting to fade a bit and those really keep me going!

(I have no plans to abandon this story, but the reblogs and comments just make writing a little easier.)

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