Unexpected

chapter two: regulars

"Alright men, good work today." Captain Rex speaks, causing all practice drills to cease. "Take the rest of the day to yourselves. But remember, just because we're not on the battlefield doesn't mean we can slack off. We must always be prepared for anything."

"Sir, yes sir." The platoon says in unison. Rex dismisses them and each squadron heads for their own barrack to do as they please.

Echo is the first to enter their barrack, heading straight for the refresher. Fives enters behind him and grabs his arm before he can make it to the showers.

"Hey, Echo." Fives says, earning his brother's attention. "I just wanted to apologize about last night." He sighs. "The boys and I promise not to drag you along anymore, even though we all agree you should get out more."

"It's fine." Echo says, turning away from the trooper.

"You're not..Upset with me, are you?" Fives asks, the sadness in his voice is evident.

If Echo's mind hadn't been preoccupied, he would've noticed it with ease. "I'm fine, Fives." He assures him. "We're fine."

Fives nods and Echo rushes into the refresher. Kix, Dogma, and Tup head to the mess hall for dinner while Hardcase and Jesse decide to catch up on some z's. Fives follows in the latter two's footsteps and begins to pull off his armor when Echo walks through the room with his full gear back on.

"Where ya headed?" Fives asks, pausing his removal of armor.

"Oh, uh.." Echo checks his comlink to make sure it's active. "I thought we were going to 79's."

"The other two are already passed out." Fives points. "Besides, I'm still not fully recovered from the fun we had last night."

Echo stiffens but does his best not to show his anxiety. "Oh, well.." He clears his throat and Fives raises an eyebrow. "Well maybe I'll just go for a little bit."

Fives's eyes widen. "Sorry, am I hearing you correctly?" He chuckles. "You're going to 79's? Voluntarily?" He stands to feel his brother's forehead. "Are you sick? Kix will be back soon, I could have him-"

"I'm fine!" Echo pushes Fives's hand away. "I'm fine." He lowers his voice as he sighs. "I just need some.. Time."

"Time?" Fives asks. "Echo, is everything okay?"

Echo looks his brother in the eyes. "I'm fine, Fives." He places a hand on his shoulder.

Fives studies his brother carefully before responding. "I guess some time alone would do you good. I know you get sick of us after a while."

Echo stifles a laugh. "Of you, brother? Never."

Fives smiles and pulls Echo into a hug. After pulling away, the two nod at one another and Echo heads out as Fives resumes taking off his armor before plopping into bed.

*

"How'd a pretty girl like you end up on the lower levels?" A zabrak man asks as he leans against the bar.

"Looks can be deceiving." Elara replies simply before downing the rest of her drink.

The man smirks at her response and signals for the bartender to bring her another of whatever she was drinking, on him of course. "Y'know. I bet you're right." His hot breath stings her skin as he moves closer. "Under these rags I'm sure there's the body of a twi'lek."

At this comment, she figures it's about time to get out of here before something happens. She's not sure why it always happens to her, it never starts out creepy but it more than often leads there. "Maybe you could find out." She pulls away from the man, grabbing the drink with her. "Let me just use the refresher, I'll meet you outside."

The man's eyes glisten as he grins lustfully. He nods and turns away to wait outside as Elara scans the bar for somewhere to lay low until he leaves.

Her eyes land on a lonely figure in a familiar booth and she raises an eyebrow as she makes her way towards the man. Without asking, she slides far enough into the booth to not be spotted.

"Hello again." She smiles as she greets the man from the previous night.

Echo quickly perks up at her presence and a smile graces his face as well. "Hello."

Elara stirs her drink as she looks at the man. "Nothing better to do?"

"Hiding from a creep?" Echo counters and she laughs. His heart skips a beat at the sound and his smile widens.

"You got me there, trooper." She points, taking a sip of her drink.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elara spots the zabrak man searching through the crowd and she scoots further into the round booth until she's almost pressed against Echo. Echo quickly catches on as the man walks by and leans forward with his elbows on the table to hide the girl more. The zabrak man huffs and heads back towards the exit, earning a sigh of relief from Elara.

"Thank you." She moves away from the trooper once she's clear.

Echo furrows his eyebrows. "For what?"

"For helping me hide, twice now." She chuckles. "Y'know, I never got your name."

"Echo." He replies almost too quickly.

"Elara." The girl smiles as she introduces herself.

The pair of strangers spend the next hour or so talking about nonsense. Eventually topic of work comes up and the girl becomes tense.

"Speaking of work, I should probably get going." She stands from the booth. "Maybe we could do this again sometime?" She winks and Echo blushes.

"Yeah!" He jumps, quickly scolding himself for his desperate actions.

Elara just smiles at him before disappearing once again.

Echo waits a few moments before leaving as well, not wanting to seem like just another creep. Eventually he ends up at the barracks and enters his squad's quarters to find Fives twiddling his thumbs as he stares blankly into space.

"Fives?" Echo whispers, seeing that the others are asleep.

Fives quickly snaps out of his trance and jumps up. "Echo!" He sighs in relief as he hugs his brother. "Where on Kamino have you been? I thought you weren't going to be long?"

"I wasn't." He furrows his eyebrows.

"You've been gone for 4 hours, Ec." Fives informs him and his eyes widen. Had four hours really gone by? It certainly hadn't felt like that long.

"Oi, shut up down there." Hardcase groans as he shifts in his bunk.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize." Echo admits.

Fives sighs as he looks down at him. "No more rogue trips." He says.

Echo clenches his jaw. How is he supposed to meet Elara again if Fives won't let him out alone?

"Am I clear?" Fives asks. Echo sighs softly and nods. "Good, now get some rest. I hear we're training with the 212th tomorrow."

Echo furrows his eyebrows in confusion but shelves the conversation for the next morning. If he doesn't get a proper amount of sleep, Cody will have his head.