00 PM
Fives had a problem. A huge one.
It had taken them what was left the hour to make it this far... getting over to the club, trying to convince the owner to let them look at security footage, a man who wanted nothing to do with clones after the chaos they'd inflicted at his "respectable business," finally watching the footage only to learn that Fives had, in fact, stolen an armful of helmets from Rex, Jesse, and a few others, having snuck back seemingly around the time he should've been with Tup getting tatted, and then promptly leaving the bar again with no further clues as to his direction or drunken objective... and now they were at the end.
The end of his career.
The end of his life, probably.
"And the clock strikes twelve," Faith muttered beside him with a smirk. When he only looked back at her with a blank expression, she frowned. "You know, the story of the servant at the ball? Clock strikes twelve and the magic disappears?"
Fives only lowered his shoulders further and turned away. He looked up at the towering skyscrapers, the buzzing traffic, the millions upon millions of people who were all probably having a wonderful first day of the new year, or at the very least a normal one.
"You know, I always thought if I couldn't have a heroic death, then I'd at least want a quick one. Blaster to the head. Step on a mine. Boom. No fear. Just gone."
"You're quite the downer, aren't you," Faith commented.
"You really think I should be happy right now?" he whirled back around. He wasn't angry, but there was a tightening frustration, a gnawing sort of hopelessness that he didn't like. He'd been carrying it around all day, but he'd also naively believed it would go away. That he'd get out of this situation like he had with any other - with skill, determination, and a bit of luck. Now those key parts of himself had failed and he had nothing else left to lean on.
"No," Faith's voice softened. "But..."
"But what? There's a bright side? A silver lining? No. No, it's noon. I'd have to haul ass to the ship, sweet talk my way out of tardy discipline, hope the others found Dogma and made it back, and even then, I still wouldn't have their helmets. It's all kriffing pointless."
"Well..." Faith's eyes cast about, trying to find that magic solution. This wasn't a bedtime story, time didn't have to take away their magic. "Your captain can get another helmet, right? I mean, aren't there replacements for this sort of thing?"
Fives swallowed a bitter lump in his throat. "Yeah. Of course. Helmets are replaceable. Just like us."
He stormed off down the street, waving for a cab. A part of him wanted to start running and never stop, but he was trained better than to be a coward. If he was going to be decommissioned, then he would show up and be decommissioned. It was the only thing left to do.
"No, no, no, Fives!" He could hear Faith following him. "Fives, I didn't mean it like that!"
He stopped abruptly just as a cab flew up. He held up a finger to the droid and turned back to Faith. "Do you know why I'm so upset that I can't remember last night?"
Her eyes were wide and pleading. She shook her head.
"Because I don't have very many nights to begin with. My life is just a blip. People like you? You'll live on and on and on. And maybe decades from now you'll remember that one night you went to a crazy New Year's Eve party. But you won't remember our names. You won't remember who got the tattoo and who puked next to you in the cab. You'll have so many more new years to keep track of. I wanted last night to be special. That's the cruel irony of it. I tried so hard to have a good time... so hard to make it memorable, and now...."
Fives trailed off and ran a hand through his hair with a dark laugh.
"Whatever. Thanks for your help. And your company. I'll remember you. The coolest girl I've ever known." He met her eyes and gave a sad smile. "Bye, Faith."
Faith watched, speechless, as he clambered into the speeder cab and flew off.
She had never met anyone like Fives. His confidence came easily, his charms were unabashed. And yet, the whole night she had seen him, even through inebriation, put in real, genuine effort. He'd cared for his friends. He really had tried to make the night special. She supposed that was why she'd let him lead her out into the hallway at midnight for a kiss. He'd been annoyingly insistent, but also sweetly earnest, and after she'd caved and let his whiskey-flavored lips peck hers, he'd looked so insanely happy.
Her heart clenched at the thought. She had no clue about how the clone army worked, clearly. She felt awful that her question about replacing helmets had been taken that way. But further, she felt bad that she hadn't taken the stakes as seriously as she should have. She'd thought they were being overdramatic, not that actual decommissioning, or death, or whatever Fives was sighing about, was possible.
She looked up and down the street, unsure where to go or what to do next. Was this really it? A whole night and a whole morning filled with adventure now over? Ending with a few obnoxious but innocent clones getting in trouble?
She kept turning around, eventually looking down the side-alley toward the back patio area of the bar. She cocked her head curiously, and before she realized, her feet were leading her back there. It was a large enough area for several full-grown trees. A mini-oasis hidden within the concrete and steel towers of Coruscant. A protocol droid was working on the opposite side from her, slowly collecting trash still littered all about.
One of these trees had been one Fives had left that other clone in. She didn't recall Fives talking about him last night. He hadn't said anything while they were in the club dancing and drinking. He had snuck away from Tup's traumatic tattoo experience to come back here and steal helmets, but had shown up at her place without them. He hadn't said anything then, either.
She walked toward the first tree and looked up, trying to get in Fives's head. She knew there was no making sense of a drunk mind, but these clones had a fast metabolism, right? That tree clone had mentioned something about sobering up and jumping down in a fairly quick timeframe. What if Fives had had some wits about him when he'd come back to the bar?
What if Fives had remembered his friend was still in a tree and came to get him? What if it hadn't been about his captain's helmet, but about his friend's? And if parts of his brain were still a little fuzzy, maybe he'd grabbed a bunch of helmets just to make sure he got the right one?
Faith looked out across the patio, scanning the trees. One, in the far corner, had bushes surrounding it. Part of a bush looked damaged, like someone had fallen on it. She rushed over and almost melted with relief.
There, resting between the bushes and the tree trunk, were four perfectly fine GAR helmets.
"Hey droid!" she called out. "You got a commlink I can borrow?"
Fives's feet felt like lead as he walked across the platform. Rex stood with the entire company lined up behind him, in front of the ship. Tup, Dogma, and Hardcase, he noted sourly, were part of the lineup. They looked disapproving, pissed, and tickled pink, respectively.
Though he knew humor would absolutely not help the situation, he couldn't help but make a halfhearted comment. "I uh, see you found my helmet, sir."
Rex held Fives's helmet in front of him. His hands subtly tensed around the plastoid.
"And you don't have mine, trooper," Rex replied in the exact tone Fives knew he would. Curt and disappointed.
Fives shook his head.
"Or Jesse's. Or Vaughn's. Or Hawk's."
Fives gulped. He forced himself not to look over at the brothers in question, even though it meant continuing to hold Rex's cutting stare.
"No, sir."
He held his head high, ready to take the punishment he rightly deserved. Rex seemed to square up as well and Fives briefly wondered if the Captain was maybe getting a kick out of this. Rex was a caring guy, but the amount of grief the unit gave him with their shenanigans, surely he'd be relieved, if not a little pleased, that one of them finally got his comeuppance.
And then Rex's shoulders relaxed and the corners of his mouth twitched in amusement. He jerked his head to the side just as Fives started to frown in bewilderment.
"You're lucky you've got friends looking out for you. Your day could've turned out much worse."
Fives, clueless, looked in the direction Rex had indicated. There, at the end of the platform, almost blending into the stacks of ammunitions crates, was Faith and her redheaded friend. And, perhaps only slightly more importantly, were the four missing helmets lined up neatly on a nearby crate. Fives was torn between jumping for joy, collapsing in a pile of tears, tackling the girl in a hug, tackling Rex in a hug, and about a dozen other emotional actions. Though apparently, all he could actually get his body to do was stare completely slack-jawed.
"Close your mouth, soldier, you'll catch a fly," Rex's now playful voice snapped him out of his reverie.
The Captain held out Fives's helmet to him, but then stepped close and brought his tone back into the low and serious range.
"And don't you ever pull a stunt like that again. One more toe out of line and I will not hesitate to assign you fresher duty. Understood?"
"No. No, I mean, yes. Yes, sir! Understood, sir. Not a single toe. Thank you. Thank you, sir!"
It was like life had been breathed back into him. He could feel a bubbling sort of energy clawing its way out from what was a twisting pit in his stomach just moments ago. He could barely hold onto his helmet as Rex left it in his hands and signaled to the company.
"Takeoff in five! We've kept the General waiting long enough!"
As soldiers broke formation and scattered to their positions, Fives rushed over to Faith. He had every intention of swooping her up and spinning her around, holo-romance style, but he pulled up just shy of reaching her, suddenly feeling shy. She calmly walked the rest of the way to meet him. Behind her, her friend leapt into Hardcase's arms. Tup met his eyes and shook his head at him while Dogma glared daggers through bloodshot eyes. Fives gave them a pathetic wave. He'd have to deal with them later. He turned back toward Faith.
"Hooow..." he started to formulate the question and then realized that was it. That was the question. "How?"
She shrugged. "You don't call me the coolest girl you've ever known for nothing."
Fives must have looked as dumb as he felt because she laughed and quickly dropped the act.
"I found them by the tree you left your friend in. I think you went back for him but he'd already left by then."
He shook his head, incredulous. He didn't remember, but her words felt right. He knew he wouldn't have abandoned Jesse. It just maybe took him a bit longer to come back around. He had been drunk, after all.
"And how..." he gestured at her vaguely and thankfully she seemed to understand the thoughts he still couldn't quite get into words.
"Every cabbie takes the C-12 thoroughfare to the city center," she explained. "Only we locals know it's faster to take the C-16."
"I... don't know what to say..."
There was a whistle. Fives continued shaking his head as he glanced over and saw Hardcase was tapping his wrist to indicate it was time to move. As if he didn't have so many other emotions to sort through right now... relief, joy, amusement... now he had to say goodbye. He tightened his grip on his helmet. He'd never had to say goodbye to a friend before.
Faith took a few steps closer.
"You should probably say thank you."
Fives relaxed his grip. "Thank you."
"And you should also say you're sorry for trashing my place and eating my food and making me watch you puke."
Fives nodded his head. "I'm sorry."
"And... you should say please."
Fives quirked his eyebrow. "Huh?"
Faith took another step in and raised up on her toes, planting a soft kiss on his surprised lips.
"Whaaa... what was that for?" Fives couldn't help but giggle at the unexpected gesture. His emotions were all over the place.
"You don't remember our first kiss, so you get a re-do. Midnight, noon, same thing." She blushed as his brain short circuited. He really couldn't take any more surprises.
The launch sirens started sounding off, jarring just enough sense back into him to not totally fumble the moment. He grabbed Faith's arm before she could run off and leaned in close so she could hear.
"I'm not sure if Rex will let this go by next year but... maybe, if I can swing it... maybe I could see you next New Year's Eve?"
He could almost picture it, just like a holo-film. Faith, waiting in the designated spot, nervously looking at her watch and wondering if he'd forgotten after all those months. But then, just when she fears it wasn't meant to be, he rounds the corner. He'll look more mature, and be way more ripped, of course. And that pretty face of hers will light up at seeing him, the happiest she's ever been...
"Or maybe sooner?"
Fives blinked out of his daydream. Her pretty face was smiling at him now. There was a calm assuredness to her that had sucked him in right from the beginning - the real beginning. The last moment he could remember before pounding back that first beer. Her friends surrounded the place with energy and noise, while her happiness seemed to be grounded in something much more real. He'd locked eyes with her through the crowd and had suddenly felt like everything was okay. No, he hadn't felt it, he'd believed it.
"I don't want to forget you, Fives," she said, taking his hand from her arm and giving it a squeeze.
He squeezed back. "You won't. I have faith."
(5 seconds later)
Faith rolled her eyes and let go of his hand.
"Okay, dork, get out of here already. All that sweet talking I did to save your ass. Don't fuck it up."