ᴄʟᴏɴᴇ ᴏɴᴇ ꜱʜᴏᴛꜱ

Counting with the Boys (501st)

Fives and friends are chatting.

Just a slice of life dialogue prompted by a tiktok sound.

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"Alright," Fives chuckled with eyebrows upward. He carried forward with a slight glance at Dogma. "Let's switch up the topic,"

Dogma mumbled, "What then?"

"Why don't we see if our baby sis can count?"

"Ha!" Jayes cut in, "we all know if anyone can't count, it's definitely you, Fiver."

"Why's that?"

"I mean, you sure like to tell those shinies that you take fifteen shots of your usual easy,"

A flash of shock hit Fives's expression and he stuttered a retort. He huffed, shrugging, "whatever. Let's see about Rex then."

They all looked at their captain whose nose was buried deep in a datapad. He yawned. The circles under his eyes had Jayes wondering if he'd slept at all in the last rotation.

Fives and Jayes shared a glance. The ARC trooper pointed at her. She returned a disgusted face followed by a shaking head. After a short facial-expression-argument, she groaned and turned to the sleepy commander.

"Rex, dearest," she paused and glanced at Fives, mouthing the words, 'what next?'

A scratchy mutter broke their communication and they both stared at Rex.

"Uhm, er—" she coughed, eyes wide, staring at the back of his head. "just a hypothetical. Imagine you have five shinies,"

"Hmm?" He shifted to see her out of one eye, datapad in his lap. "Why five?"

"It's uh... it doesn't matter. Just roll with it."

He grunted in reply.

"Okay. You have five shinies and pirates take two of them. How many do you have now?"

He shrugged, "five."

In the corner of her eye, Jayes caught the ARC trooper stifling a laugh. She held her composure. One deep breath. "Sir, I uh. I said you just lost two of them. How many are left?"

"Five,"

"Five? Wouldn't it be—"

"And a few dead bodies,"

Her face fell. A movement caught her gaze and it flickered to Fives. He shook with violent and quiet laughter, holding onto a pale Dogma whose mouth seemed locked into a perpetual half-grin.

After some breaths, she hatched the courage to look at the captain again. Her shock was lulled into silent disdain as she saw the smirk on Rex's face as he measured each of them in turn.

"I'm a little disappointed that none of you would say the same,"

"Well, sir—"

"I—" Fives cut in, a hand on Jayes's arm, "I would have just answered the question, really. Especially if it was you asking, sir."

Dogma suddenly stood and saluted, causing the rest of their party to turn and do the same. Ahsoka approached with a casual gait, telling them to return to what they were doing. She plopped down next to Jayes and began a run of small talk. Fives and Dogma seemed to forget their previous conversation. The sniper eyed her captain's hands as they idly flipped the datapad over. His eyes were watching, waiting for an opportune moment. When the conversation came to a lull Jayes almost inquired his intentions, but he spoke up before she.

"Commander Tano," he hummed, "how well do you suppose you can count?"

She weighed his question, "Pretty well. What are you asking?"

"Suppose you have five shinies,"

"Only five?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"'Kay,"

"And several pirates kidnap three of them," he paused, glancing at Jayes. "How many do you have left?"

Some silence followed where Jayes took the effort to frown at Fives. He returned a careless shrug.

"Five,"

The three of them released an exasperated sigh. Ahsoka looked at each of them, "what was that about?"

Rex replied, "Why do you have five shinies?"

"No grimy pirates are allowed to touch my men!" She frowned, "isn't it obvious?"

"Not to us," Dogma chuffed. "I suppose we're not as smart as our commanders, ma'am."

Rex rejoined with a chuckle, glancing back down at his datapad, "could say that again,"

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Thanks for the read even though this is a little short.  I promise I'll get some longer pieces out soon!  I'm currently working on my mental health so I haven't been writing lately, but I have a Bad Batch with a Child Reader one shot in the works!  I'm actually super hyped for it

Q.  If you could ask Rex a dumb question, what would it be?  

A. For me, I'd ask him about his hair.  Im a basic bean—I need answers.