#resoka monthly

[guardianangel12]

Flames {Rexsoka}

Prompt: They’ll hear us/you

@rexsoka-monthly

Mandalore was in flames. 

The city burned at the same time, so did Rex's heart. 

All his Mandalorian roots seemed to scream as he watched the destruction, an orange hue cast over his shielded face and making eerie shadows dance across his visor and armor, like the ghosts of the past katarn armor-wearers giving their final breath. 

He knew somewhere deep inside that this place would fall to ruin, something about the thick smoke that rose into the dark blue night and disappeared into the stars. 

Maul may have been captured, but he knew that wasn't the end. 

He breathed a small Mandalorian blessing out over the edge of the balcony he stood on and turned around, blinking back the angry tears that rose into his eyes, but not with much effort when he felt his entire being soften. 

She was waiting there. He felt that tingle inside his chest the moment he turned around. 

"I'm sorry, Rex." Ahsoka said softly, her face not in view yet for the shadows, but he made out her frame, lithe and disciplined and beautiful... her colors contrasting with the horrors of fire and smoke and battle. 

"You completed the mission. That's all that matters." he replied, voice filtered of his sadness through his helmet, but she sensed it. 

"We should get back to the others, we're leaving soon." she said, eyes flickering around his face and going down until they stayed on the ground. 

He only nodded, following behind his commander with a slow and steady stride. 

Whatever citizen she claimed to be now, whatever nomad, she would always be his commander, always be the one who earned his respect more and more every day and every time he saw her.

The Tribunal was filled with people, soldiers, officers, and droids alike, ready to leave the planet as Maul was escorted by a few Mandalorians inside a special Jedi holding chamber. 

Rex felt... odd about it, although he knew Ahsoka had handled the Sith apprentice herself, and that she was more than capable, something about still having the monster near her bothered him. 

I should've been there. 

It was all he kept thinking, again and again he felt like he should have been there. 

Ahsoka was led off by a few higher-ups in need of her assistance, and Rex was left alone, pondering. 

Jesse met to speak with him but he knew he wasn't being himself, something about all of this was bothering him, but he knew the main reason was not the fact that his heritage planet was in shambles. No. It was something else, and he felt like perhaps he knew what it was but still the confusion swirling in his head was overwhelming. 

Before he even registered what he was doing or where he even was he met her in the briefing room, an empty hologram table before her as she stood there staring at it, looking lost in a past time and memory. 

Ahsoka felt him before he'd even been close enough for the doors to open for him, sensing his soft hum in the Force that told her he was alive, but sometimes it told her things she didn't want to know, let her feel his pain and his confusion and his sadness. 

She wanted to take it away. She wanted him to have a normal life, a life without war and heartache and loss. Wanted him to have a choice. Whatever he truly wanted in this life, in this vast galaxy that had become so grim. 

"A—are you okay?" Rex asked quietly, watching her from behind. 

"I will be." she turned around, and found that his eyes were distant, lost. "And you?"

His chest tightened, and it was getting hard to breathe, but he just needed to get it out and try to fix himself, try to let himself focus again and just do his duty without feeling like only half his mind was there. "I can't answer that."

"What do you mean?"

The way instant concern flooded her big, starry blue eyes made him feel both worse and better. But she took a step forward, almost like she was worried he had been hurt and decided not to tell her. 

"I just... Some things happened today, and with that and everything else, I don't feel right."

"What things? Mandalore?" Truthfully, she just wanted to run to him, throw her arms around his neck and tell him it was going to be alright, that it would get better from here. 

Tell him what she had been battling with besides the Sith and the Death Watch, and that thing was him. Him, invading her heart and her letting him. 

At war with something she welcomed.

"That's... part of it. But you—when you fought Maul, I should've been there, and if something had happened—something had gone wrong, I—''

Ahsoka shook her head slowly. "Rex—"

"No, please... I, I need to say it. When you left, everything changed, all this," he gestured around the room like he was gesturing to the entire galaxy, his grip on his helmet under his arm getting tighter and then he squeezed his free hand into a tight fist. "it changed, it hasn't felt the same since. And then you came back, General Skywalker told me you were and—and I didn't know how to take it, but I wanted you to, but as soon as I saw you something else changed, and now I... I can't help but think about what you'll do when all this is over, when you leave."

Ahsoka wore a sad expression, but inside she was burning up, she knew he was strong, knew he tried to put his duties first and ignore his personal feelings and emotions but she also knew he was starving, knew he was pining and so was she, but seeing him like this...so unsure of himself and almost like he was guilty, it broke her heart even as she searched for the right words and the right actions. 

A thousand things came to mind that she wanted to say or do, but let him stand there in silence, searching for what he needed to say, what else he needed to get out. 

"I just..." Rex seemed like he was choking. "I won't lose you again. I can't."

That broke her stillness, and she walked straight to him, searching his face and finding all the pain. "Rex..." she said his name like it was the most precious thing, something she cherished with all her heart, and his eyes lifted to meet hers even as they looked down to her shorter form, staring deep into her beautiful face and trying to remember each and every detail. Every line, every pore. He didn't want to go without it. Without her. 

Ahsoka lifted her hands up and gently placed them on the sides of his chest plate, brushing her fingers down and stroking the tiny pock marks of battle and tracing the lines war had left. "You know I never wanted to leave you."

He swallowed hard. "I know." 

"I am sorry. Leaving... it was one of the hardest things ive ever done, mostly for one reason..."

His eyes were questioning, but he asked anyways, voice so quiet it sounded raw. "What?"

Ahsoka breathed in through her nose deeply, eyes flickering down then up again. "This one." 

Then she snatched the sides of his face and slammed her mouth up against his, making him drop his helmet in surprise, stumbling only a little backwards and his hand lifted up, freezing near her head.

He kissed back eagerly, a million sparks seeming like they reignited in his dying fire of a soldiers heart. He put his hand on her cheek, his other on her back like he was trying to keep her there, like she was his and the only thing that mattered. 

She finally pulled back, but stayed so close he could feel her warm breath stirring against his mouth. "I thought of you every day." she murmured. 

He ran his thumb across the white streak on her jaw, not having anything left to say but finally feeling that yearning being met, that wildfire finally being fueled not with sadness and longing but with passion and love that he knew was most likely forbidden to both him and her.

He wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, but the instincts inside of him took over as he cupped her face again, kissing her with every bit of the loneliness he'd felt since he last saw her. With every word he had wanted to say to her since they had last spoke. Her small frame was pushed back from his careless affection, until she was clasping her hand against the rim of the table and finally took his shoulders and turned him around, pushing him down onto it where his armor clanked hard against the surface, but she just kept pursuing with her lips even as he let out a breathy laugh.

"They'll hear you, cyar'ika." he whispered into her mouth. 

"So what?" she purred back, gripping his shoulders with a wicked little grin that made his entire body heat with that fire, knowing completely and entirely that she was that one thing he wanted most in the galaxy.