Unexpected

chapter one: company

"I don't suppose you'd relax for once?" Jesse nudges his brother as they slide into a booth in the corner of the room.

The troops often find sanctuary in their 'clone bar'—as locals would call it—on Coruscant. It's one of the few places they can truly let go and live life, for the time being.

Echo sits with his arms crossed as he glares at his brothers, who have already downed a few shots.

"Ah c'mon Echo. We've earned some time off to relax, stop being such a Dogma." Hardcase snickers at his own insult.

"I hardly consider this relaxing." Echo huffs.

The brothers shrug the trooper's attitude off, not wanting it to dampen their fun. They make quick work of drinking too much and hitting on the locals, leaving Echo in an empty booth for the majority of the night—until she happened.

"This seat taken?" A voice asks and Echo's groans.

One of his brothers had no doubt sent a girl over here in an attempt to corrupt him. Without receiving an answer, the girl slides into the booth across from him, causing Echo to furrow his eyebrows as he finally looks up.

His eyes scan the girl's face, her lightly tanned skin and her long brown hair cascading over her shoulders cause him to lose his train of thought. He meets her eyes, finding that they're a deep shade of blue—a shade that drastically reminds him of his home on Kamino—and takes a shaky breath as he opens his mouth.

"Don't bother to protest, you've been sitting here alone for hours so I know this seat isn't taken." The girl points before Echo can object to her company. "So what's your story? Got stood up? Hiding from someone?" She asks, relaxing in the seat across from the soldier.

Echo swallows his nerves before responding. "Just.. Nothing better to do, I guess." He admits. "What about you?" He asks hesitantly, not wanting to seem too forward.

Echo doesn't have the smoothest record of flirting, or even just having a normal conversation with a girl. That's probably why his brothers try so hard to set him up with someone every time they drag him to 79's with them.

"Me?" The girl stifles a laugh. "I'm hiding. Definitely hiding."

Echo raises an eyebrow at this, and she seems to notice because she continues.

"I don't know what hole they crawl out of, but every night there seems to be a new creep in here." She glances out at the crowd and her eyebrows lift slightly. "Seems like tonight's creep has clocked out. That's my cue." She excuses herself from the booth. "Thanks for keeping me company." She winks at Echo before disappearing as quickly as she appeared.

Echo sits there, his heart racing and his mind spinning as he tries to process whatever just happened. A firm pat on the shoulder causes him to jump but his brothers don't seem to notice.

"Alright Ec, we'll head home." Fives slurs. He's clearly had more than enough to drink.

Jesse and Hardcase giggle as Fives stumbles and almost collapses. He would've collapsed, actually, if Echo hadn't jumped up to catch him. Thankfully the other two seem capable of at least walking, meaning Echo only has to worry about Fives tonight.

The four brothers hail a cab and head back to the barracks, arriving to meet a furious Kix. Echo spots Dogma behind him with an I-told-you-so expression on his face.

"Where have you troopers been? Do you know what time it is?" Kix asks. "Look at you! You're all a mess!" He exclaims as Fives begins to heave, surely from the unusual amount of alcohol he's had tonight.

Kix continues to scold the three men as he examines their individual states. Echo sighs and sinks into his bed with his armor still on.

"Hey brother, you alright?" Tup asks, popping his head down from the top bunk behind his.

"Yeah, fine." Echo mutters. He lazily peels his armor off, leaving him in just his blacks, before falling back into bed.

As Echo lays in bed, his mind wanders back to the girl he'd met earlier that night. Where had she come from? What creep was she hiding from? Where did she go?

Just as Echo is about to fall asleep, he realizes that he'd never gotten her name. In fact, he knows nothing about her. So why do her piercing blue eyes appear every time he closes his?

He's not sure of what's gotten into him, but he knows one thing for sure: he's going back to 79's.