Life Of War

Chapter 71

"Hey, Lyra, care to join me at 79's" Cody offered after a hard battle where I had lost half of the men.

"I'm not really feeling up to it tonight" I sighed back to him, trying to go back to my meditating in my quarters on the negotiator. "What are you doing?" I peaked an eye open to find him relaxed and leaning in my doorway.

"I'm not leaving until you agree to relax at 79's tonight" he stated calmly.

"What are you planning?"

"That mission was hard on all of us, but especially you and I know that you tend to bury yourself in a book or meditation, but you need to let loose for once" the trooper who acted like an older brother explained his reasoning.

"Fine, I'll come with you" I agreed reluctantly, closing my eyes once more to meditate on our way back to Coruscant.

~~~

"Ready to go?" Cody walked alongside me as we exited the shuttle that delivered us to the surface of the planet.

"Right now?" I looked to him in shock, momentarily pausing my walking.

"Yeah, better to get there early" Cody shrugged back. I shook my head and followed after him towards the famous clone bar. "After you" he dramatically held the door open for me with a bow.

"Thanks, Cody" I smiled as I walked past him into the bar to come to a stand still at the sight before me.

"Looks like fun, huh?" Cody stepped up beside me as I scanned the area. "You're doing that thing again" he noted, my eyes moving across the bar rapidly.

"What thing?" I asked back, crossing my arms.

"That thing you do whenever you are in a new place. You always scan your surroundings, finding the exits and profiling the people inside"

"I was not" I protested weakly, looking back over the crowd of already drunk clones and women of all species.

"Then you didn't notice Rex sitting with the 501st over there" Cody pointed towards the table of men. I looked to him with confusion before following where he pointed to find Rex and the others. "Come on, let's go get a drink" Cody waved me over to the bar as he started walking towards it.

I followed him stiffly and took the seat next to him as he nodded his head towards it after noticing me looking around awkwardly and standing beside him.

"Relax, Lyra" Cody prompted, sliding a drink towards me as I gave it a skeptical look. "It's  a mocktail" he explained further, knowing I didn't like drinking alcoholic beverages. "See? Much better"

"I still don't get what's so appealing about this place" I leaned back on the stool and scanned my eyes across the room again until I locked eyes with Jesse who waved back happily upon seeing me.

"Hey Rex, look who's here" Jesse nudged his captain and pointed in my direction while Cody smirked and waved back to his brother.

"What's wrong, General?" Cody teased as I averted my eyes back to the glass in my hand, tapping my fingers on it to distract myself.

"Nothing" I mumbled. We continued to make small talk for the next few hours until the bar became more crowded. Cody was telling me a story of Master Kenobi from when he was first assigned to the General.

"And then he— you aren't even listening to me" Cody stopped mid sentence as he noticed the strong grip I held on my glass and the glare I was sending over his shoulder in the direction of the 501st table.

"What? Sorry" I shook my head to regain my thought as I loosened my grip on the glass before I could shatter it. Cody looked over his shoulder to see a human woman flirting with his brother, the Captain.

"Oh, I see" the Commander faced me once more with a knowing smirk. "You don't like seeing some other woman flirting with your Captain"  he teased before his eyes shot wide as the glass in my hand shattered. "Ly, are you okay?" Cody immediately began to worry, reaching out for my hand before I pulled it away from him.

I used the force to gently nudge the woman away from Rex, tripping her backwards. Cody sent me a warning glare, but moved to help the woman after handing me a cloth from the bartender for my bleeding hand that had been cut on the glass I shattered.

"Hey, that was a hard fall you took there" Cody helped the woman to her feet. "Let's get you out of here" he guided her towards the door as she sent Rex a playful wave to which he simply downed the rest of his drink before setting the glass onto the table again.

"That was odd" I claimed, joining Rex as I had followed Cody over to the table that was empty other than Rex as the other troopers had gone dancing across the floor of left with a random woman.

"Nice job" Rex commented with a knowing look. I looked down bashfully at being caught until I felt a panic through the force all of a sudden. "What happened to your hand?" He worried, reaching out gently to take it into his own hand.

"Oh, I Uh cut it on a piece of glass" I looked back towards the bar where the glass had been shattered by my grip. The Captain nodded along before taking some small medical supplies from Kixs side of the table.

"Sit down" Rex ordered gently, but sternly, eyes not leaving my hurt hand. I sat down and watched as he carefully cleaned the wound, wincing every once in a while when it would sting. "Better?" He looked into my eyes intently waiting for my answer after bandaging up my hand and setting it back onto the table.

"Yeah, thank you"

"So what we're you doing here?" He tried starting up a conversation while avoiding eye contact as he searched the crowd for his team, keeping an eye on the rowdy men.

"Cody convinced me to 'come out and relax' after our last mission" I quoted the Commander. "We lost a lot of men and he thought it would be better for me to come to the clone bar with him than stay at the temple reading and meditating like I would normally do"

"I'm sorry, I know how hard it is to loose brothers"

"It's different for you, they are your brothers, to me they are just friends and troopers I have fought beside"

"How about I walk you back to the temple" Rex suggested, already standing and offering me his hand.

"Thank you" I took his hand and stood up before following him through the crowd of clones and women.

"Excuse me" he cut past a woman. Stepping out into the cool night air of Coruscant I took in a deep breath to calm any nerves before we started off towards the temple at a slow pace. The two of us made small talk until we reached the large Jedi temple that sat in the heart of the republic.

"Thanks again" I told him, coming to a stop in front of the entrance.

"Of course, though next time just come talk to me" he smirked back.

"Of course" I nodded again. With a final wave I had walked back into the temple, finding my way to my room when I had gotten a transmission.

"Lyra, where are you? And where did Rex go? Wait, are you two together right now?" Cody cornered me with questions.

"Rex cleaned up my hand before walking me back to the temple"

"I would be mad that you left me alone here, but I'm glad you both got some time together away from the raging war" Cody genuinely told me.

"Thanks, Cody"

"Now get some rest and I'll see you in the next battle" with that he ended the transmission.

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Question of the day: do you like Cody and Lyra's brother-sister relationship?