Life Of War

Chapter 66

"What's wrong with you?" I looked to Anakin as he stomped around the temple in frustration late at night.

"The 501st have an early mission tomorrow, but went out to 79s tonight and now they refuse to sleep" he complained with a huff. "Where were you this late at night?" Anakin raised an eyebrow as he clued in that I was up later than normal.

"Well we got back from a mission and I had to return my library book so I checked out some new ones as well" I shrugged, showing him the stack of book in my hands.

"Hey, I have an idea" Anakin started a lightbulb going off in his head. "You are on your way to read those books right?" I nodded back. "How about you read to the 501st? That'll put them to sleep"

"I'll do it, but you owe me one" I pointed at him while turning to head towards the barracks.

"Technically you should have been the one owing me one as I haven't told Rex about your crush on him"

"I do not have a crush on Rex" I groaned, walking away from further embarrassment.

Walking towards the 501st barracks I heard shouting and laughing coming from inside. I opened the doors to see Fives and Jesse throwing pillows at each other. Tup hanging upside down off his bunk. Kix shouting at Tup about how he is going to hurt himself and Rex holding his head in his hands with tired frustration.

"Troopers, sit down!" I shouted out in a loud stern voice, catching them off guard. They all looked up to see me when they were expecting it to be Rex or Anakin. Sudden fear shot through them as they knew I was rarely stern and loud. Rushing to their beds everyone of them sat down calmly and waited for me to continue.

"General Jayko" Rex stood up to salut.

"Relax, I'm just here to put you to bed because Anakin wouldn't stop grumbling about it" I told them all gently, calming down which allowed them to let out a collective sigh of relief. "So, I want everyone ready and laying down in their bunks within the next 5 minutes before I start reading."

"Your going to read to us?" Rex asked, still wearing his armour.

"Yes, so go get ready" I nudged him off with a smile. With slight confusion he followed his brothers lead and took off his armour, leaving him in his blacks before laying in his bunk and looking over at me as I sat down on an empty bunk and picked out a book from my pile. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yes" Fives replied.

"Yeah" Kix called out.

"Ready" Tup answered.

"Go ahead" Jesse told me.

"I think we are all good for our bedtime story" Rex smiled at how odd it was that a republic General was reading a bedtime story to a battalion of soldiers.

I opened the book and started reading it out loud to the men. Most of them drifted off after the first few pages as they didn't realize how tired they really were. I continued on without realizing that most of them had already started sleeping until I looked up at the sound of snoring.

"Oh" I laughed slightly in embarrassment as I was so excited to read and nobody was listening anymore until I noticed the clone Captain watching me with a content smile on his face.

"Well, I think they are down for the count" Rex spoke up quietly.

"Yeah, I should probably go to bed too, Master Yoda wants me to join in on training the younglings tomorrow" I stood up and gathered my books together once again. "Do you need anything else?" I looked up at Rex as he stood to walk me out.

"No, I'm alright. Good luck with your youngling training tomorrow" he waved before I smiled and walked out, leaving him with his sleeping brothers.

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