Small Talk (Manipulative)

Small Talk (Manipulative)

Clone x OC Week - Day 1, Introduction || Rex x OC

SUMMARY: Undercover on the gleaming streets of Separatist planet Dio Ambra, Rex finds himself with the unusual problem of having a woman jump into his passenger seat and scream at him to drive like she owned the vehicle. Liya, gutter rat extraordinaire, pries her way through Rex’s standoffish behavior (and under his skin).

Word count: 3.5k

Warnings: cursing, canon typical violence, brief allusions to slavery

“DRIVE, FUCKING DRIVE!”

That was all Rex had processed as the woman waved her hand clutching a pair of strappy heels launched herself into their speeder. Her sparkly white dress shimmered in the sun. Rex could only blanch as she whipped her head over, glaring as if to say well, what are you waiting for? Were he a weaker man, he would’ve flinched.

He opened his mouth to reply, not sure whether to be baffled, indignant, or both, but the blaring sirens cut him off. The tinny voices of droids buzzed.

“Go, we’ve got to go,” she barked. Left with few other options, Rex revved up the landspeeder and swiftly peeled away from the sidewalk.

“Left here,” she ordered.

He obeyed. Swerving past a flock of chittering birds, he caught a glimpse of flashing red and blue. Blaster bolts rang out. Behind them, police droids on speeders gave chase.

“Turn right!” She yelled, hair flying as she ducked. Reeling her arm back, she launched a gleaming heel which slammed square into a droid’s dome, knocking it off its speeder onto the street.

“Where are we- kriff!” He swerved to avoid a crowd of pedestrians. More blaster shots zipped around his head. The woman hurled her other shoe with deadly accuracy.

“Where are your blasters for shit’s sake?”

“On my belt.” He yelled back, thrusters squealing as he tried avoiding flattening someone’s grandmother. “Who are you?”

“Waves crash- ugh, into a cliff,” she screeched. She grabbed one of his pistols from his belt holster and began shooting.

“You’re the informant?” He yelled incredulously. She fired, making some nearby civilians shriek and run towards the buildings to hide. He blared the speeder horn and wove around the others on the road. “Kriff, don’t just shoot wildly. The pedestrians-”

Three shots rang out, nailing two police droids straight in the head. Their metal bodies and speeders screeched into the road as they crashed.

“Tell your general to get a new code phrase that isn’t cringy as shit,” she spat back, still firing shots from behind the cover of the seat headrest. One more droid crackled and hit the cobbled road. Rex cussed as they neared the end of a road. “Left!”

Metal screeched against a building wall. They hurtled down a small road between tall white buildings. Rex tried not to think about the unfortunate porg who couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. They crashed through clotheslines and dumpsters until the road opened up.

“You drove us to a karking cul-de-sac?”

“Just keep driving.”

“It’s on a cliff!”

“JUST. GO.” She snarled and grabbed the steering wheel. Shoving the blaster in his hands, she took over.

“Cover me,” she barked. Gritting his teeth, Rex obeyed. Firing shots that went purposely wide to avoid hitting any of the cowering bystanders, he felt his body lurch. Tearing through someone’s unlucky flowerbeds, she drove them straight towards the open air between two small houses. Metal shrieked and suddenly, he felt the weightlessness of being airborne before gravity reasserted itself with a scream. Huh, oh he was screaming. He was also falling, which seemed like an unfortunate commonality in his life as of late.

They landed with a harsh thud that reverberated into his teeth. He slammed his palms against the dash as they hit the ground and bounced harshly. His body jerked up before slamming down, tailbone against hard plastoid. His spine trembled. Rex looked down. They’d landed on what upon a bit of squinting turned out to be apartment complexes knitted so tightly together that the speeder had no issues running along them. Sirens blared above, bringing Rex back to his senses. He grabbed the steering wheel. The woman beside him collapsed into her seat.

“That was close,” she remarked, awfully upbeat.

“It’s not over yet.” His reply was a touch sour. He couldn’t deny the small well of annoyance when she just smiled sunnily. “They can still catch us.”

“Yeah, but they won’t follow us over. They can't legally go onto the rich people property that we just tore through, so they’ll have to go around. Droids.” She mused. “No independent thought.”

Well, that he could agree with.

Liya pretended to shift her dress as she glanced over. There’s generally not much information on clone troopers outside the usual propaganda, much less anything that would indicate any sort of personality in the people that corporate oligarchs in the Senate are using as meat shields. The closest she’s heard was rumors amid the slums of Dio Ambra following a flood of refugees coming from Christophsis—and even then, there wasn't much. Whispers of helmeted troopers moving so synchronously they seemed like shifting white sand dunes from afar. Regardless, it figured she’d get stuck with who was probably the most poster-boy perfect soldier those elitist Kaminoans could come up with.

Shit, even his breathing looked metronomically timed.

Go figure.

Studying his side profile with an intensity that led her to think he was purposefully avoiding her gaze, Liya wondered what made this man tick. A clone soldier. There were conflicting stories on Dio Ambra from where and how they came about, but everyone agreed it was…odd. A perfect army that appeared the moment war broke out. This man, who was conveniently trapped in a vehicle with her nosy ass, was ostensibly the first outside news source she’s had since taking this mission on this insular “no war in Ba Sing Se” hellhole planet. Liya embraced this revelation, since it meant she could bug him.

“So,” she began coyly.

“So?” His tone was unamused. She smiled to herself.

“So,” her lips curled around the syllable and dragged it out playfully. “Scared of heights?”

He choked, but tried to disguise it as a cough.

“What gave you the impression?” His attempt at stoicism was cute, but he’d already given himself away much earlier.

“The screaming. Hope you aren’t too hoarse from that. I’d hate to tell Skywalker that I broke his favorite soldier.” She mused.

“General Skywalker doesn’t have… favorites.”

“Oh? Then why’d he send you on this trip, Sergeant?” Liya tossed her long hair back with a flippant smile.

“Captain.” He corrected. She watched him reel in his irritation with a smirk. “It’s Captain Rex.”

“Your name?”

He nodded.

“You chose that yourself?” She tried not to sound too derisive, she really did, but something in her tone made the man twitch. Maybe it was in the way she said “chose” or her intonation of “yourself.” Or maybe it was just the fact that she was nosing into his business when clearly he did not want conversation. Yes, she could indeed be self aware. Either way, she watched his hands tighten on the steering wheel. Oops, she needed to say something to lessen that. She wanted to get under his skin—play the vapid little princess—not genuinely piss him off.

“Rex,” she said, testing out the sounds. Liya continued blabbing. “It has quite a nice ring to it. Rolls off the tongue nicely. Captain Rex.”

“I’m not too familiar with natties but I’m pretty sure normally people introduce themselves after learning someone’s name.”

Well. Judging by the steely undertone to his words, she hadn’t been very successful in not offending him. She pulled on a winning smile that went largely ignored.

“You may call me Liya. I chose it myself too,” she said, tossing her hair.

“Whatever you say.”

Liya laughed, tossing her head back and arching her spine. Throwing her hands in the air, she basked in the perfect weather. The heat of the sun was offset by the salty ocean breeze. It was perfect weather for her slinky white midi that probably cost more than her. She felt his gaze trail her pale neck and down her peeking décolletage as the sun illuminated her perfect skin. Beneath sooty lashes, still giggling, she watched his ears redden.

Perfect soldier or no, he was still a man.

He cleared his throat.

“That wasn’t that funny.” His hands gripped the steering wheel as he kept his eyes fixed on the road.

She leaned forward onto the dashboard. Crossing her arms on the warm plastoid, she laid her head down and looked at Rex from under fluttering lashes. She watched his jaw tick. His hazel eyes stayed stuck on the road ahead.

Damn, she’d have to try harder.

“Awfully nice weather,” she commented when the silence drew too long. Her new friend seemed intent on ignoring her existence, but she was well versed in the art of talking a lot about nothing. Really, she’d make bank as a politician. “It’ll be the only thing I miss about this planet.”

He said nothing.

“I mean, the architecture is beautiful.” She continued. “They have some stunningly rich culture here. Nice pastries. Oh but, their tyrannical rulers are a bit of an issue. Money rules, right? And, terribly authoritarian over here. Couldn’t even get a proper Holonet connection to the outside; I had to send an email by printing it out on flimsi and mailing it.” Liya threw her hands up and looked at him aghast. Partly because she enjoyed being dramatic, and partly to watch his lips tighten disapprovingly at her purported diva behavior.

“That sounds awfully difficult.”

She snorted at his dry wit. He didn’t even try to mask his disdain. “Sarcasm? I expected better from you, captain.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Yes, but that’s what conversation is for,” she slouched, watching his jaw tighten. Pushing further, she added a snotty, “do keep up.”

She could feel his temper slipping.

She clicked her tongue loudly. His jaw ticked.

“You won’t even answer me?” Liya let out an exaggeratedly burdened sigh. “I’m hurt.”

“Just keep quiet until we get to the ship.” He snapped.

Bingo.

Liya huffed, injecting as much hurt into the puff of breath as she could. She crossed her arms and turned away to look at the passing landscape. Stretches of shitty quality apartments knitted together. They were riding right above the slums of Dio Ambra, where the unfortunate and impoverished lay out of sight and out of mind of their rich overlords. She waited a moment, and then another. And right as she thought she’d actually pushed him too far, she heard a small sigh.

“What brought you here?” His tone was about as excited as someone walking towards a noose, but she could sense he was feeling apologetic. Ha, can’t stand seeing a lady in distress, was it? What a noble soul. Content to let him suffer in his own guilt, she let silence reign for a moment.

“It was supposed to be a quick job.” She began slowly, trying to sound reluctant. Liya kept her head tilted away, propped up on one hand and facing the scenery. “Hired by some rich princess to play house for a little bit. Fill in as a bridesmaid, since she didn’t have enough friends, while doubling as protection. But then the princess grew a bit…attached. Never had any real friends before so naturally my charm and wit were enrapturing,” Liya drawled playfully, deigning to look his way again and catching his exasperated eye-roll.

“She wanted to keep me there because she said I was the only one she could trust and that I would never betray her and whatnot, someone probably should’ve socialized her when she was younger. Beyond those bratty high-society debutantes.” She picked at her delicately manicured hands. “Let her see what us poors and impoverished live like.” Liya tacked on sarcastically, “good character building experience, no?”

“Anyhow, threw a fit anytime I tried to leave. Kept hiring me for this and that. Even shut down the shuttle ports. Would’ve escaped earlier—I can’t stand people like her—but ol’ Obi called in a favor for me to stay and gather some intel on the low.” She finished dramatically, flippant but…pensive. “And that’s me.”

“Huh.”

She resisted an eye-roll. Men.

“You’re not a very good conversationalist, are you captain?”

“No, ma’am-”

“Don’t call me that,” she cut him off sharply. He blinked, but she turned away trying to reign herself in. Oops, accidentally had a mood swing like a trebuchet at a glass castle! She’d apologize but, oh well she wasn’t built like that.

“No,” he said, quieter and then he gathered the courage to offer an olive branch. Grinning cheekily, “I’m not great with conversation, but I bet I have you beat?”

Liya almost fell out of her seat with the strength of her scoff. “Bullshit. In what world-”

Rex huffed in amusement.

“In this one, since I know how to introduce myself-”

“Oh yes, ‘It’s Captain,’” she mocked his low tone. “Captain Rex.”

“Least I didn’t just jump into a stranger’s speeder.”

Liya snorted, letting loose a sharp grin.

“It clearly wasn’t like that, there were extenuating circumstances-”

“And that required screaming in my face?”

Rex almost felt like a cadet back in Basic, as her piercing eyes lasered into him like his old trainers. He kept his hands firmly on the steering wheel and refused to wipe his palms.

“The planetary police force was tipped off and had been searching for me, as we just witnessed, so I’m sure you can understand the hurry.” She sniffed, though he could tell she was fighting a smile.

“You sure didn’t look it.” The words escaped him before he thought any better.

Her head whipped towards him.

“What are you insinuating?”

“Nothing.” He reeled in the instinctive sir. “You just looked very relaxed.”

Her glare intensified. Admittedly, Rex had thought the woman quite pretty when he first saw her. Wandering down cobblestone streets barefoot in a fancy dress and looking lost as she swung her pair of heels in time with her leisurely stroll. Dark wavy hair reaching her back juxtaposing perfect porcelain skin. She looked like the floating ads on Coruscant, standing amidst villas and green grass with some shimmering slogan above her head. Something so foreign. He’d felt oddly voyeuristic, noticing reddening shoulders as she lifted a pale arm to block the sun from her eyes.

Maybe her dark eyes met his.

Maybe he glanced away, rubbing the back of his neck.

Not that he would remember, since the moment she spotted him—pretending to be just another civilian—she jumped into the speeder and began screaming at him to drive.

“Running tends to attract more attention and suspicion. Better to look like an inconspicuous wandering tourist who got lost than someone running away from something.”

“And then you jumped into a speeder and began screaming to drive.” Rex didn’t know what was driving him to speak this way. He tacked on, “inconspicuously.”

The resulting glare was withering. In his periphery, he watched her red lips pull into a wicked smile and tried not to think of his jumping heart rate. He was losing his mind probably. The heat was getting to him.

“Maybe I like the sun.”

His palms sweated.

“I like the feel of it.”

Left? Left turn here, right?

“It’s hot. I like it.”

For a moment, Rex’s mind goes off without him. Without his permission, a million scenarios run through his mind. This woman smiling at him. A white dress hugging her figure, so bright under the sunlight it hurt to look at her. And even if he did tear his eyes away, an imprint on his vision would stay. A salty ocean breeze. Perfect red lips. And he wondered, would they smear?

“Right,” he manages to remark, as casually as he could manage. His mind frantically searched for something to change the subject. “You said you chose your name?”

They were nearing the ship. He could almost regret the end of this liminal moment. Driving on this vast, endless plane under a millennium blue sky. Bantering with this woman about introductions and weather, both incongruously easy to do yet feeling constantly on his toes with her moods.

“Yes.” She replied after a moment. In his periphery, he watched her stretch in the sun and sigh shortly, like his very question irked her.

“Not going to deign this clone more of an answer?”

“No,” Liya snapped. “You don’t know me.”

“Isn’t that what conversation’s for?” Rex echoed her earlier words. A frigid silence greeted him. He felt the need to say something, to make up for it. He considered her for a moment.

“You know, I almost named myself The Thunderer when I was four. Well, eight in nat-years.”

“No.”

“Yes,” he cackled. “I tried insisting on only answering to that, even stole the datapad my trainer had to splice into the attendance records and change my name. He made me do a month of being a training dummy for the older classes and scrubbing freshers for it.”

Rex watched her giggle.

“Such a powerful name didn’t stick?” She wiped her tears, still stifling her laughs. He felt oddly proud to be the cause of that.

“Nope. None of my brothers would call me that. Flat out refused.”

Liya laughed, seeming softer under the setting sun. “They really saved you, then.” She breathed out and whispered, “I named myself after I killed the man who enslaved me.”

Oh.

Rex pulled the speeder to a stop a distance away from the ship.

He’d landed the ship in a patch of scattered overgrowth, just the right color that his ship blended in well enough against the grays and browns. Thorny vines dotted the ground precariously, crunching under his boots. Rex came around to open her door like a proper gentleman in those old timey holofilms as he thought about a proper answer for her. He was still contemplating how to tactfully answer when he looked down and realized.

“Carry me?” Liya grinned cattishly, kicking her bare feet. Right. She’d used her shoes as goddamn projectiles. Heaving an exaggerated sigh, Rex leaned forward and scooped her up, feigning a struggle to pick her up, which earned him a jab in the sternum. He lifted her easily. She tucked herself into him, looping an arm behind his neck, her breath ghosting along his neck.

The walk was both longer and shorter than he wished.

But before he set her down, Rex realized he hadn’t ever replied.

“It’s a good name.” She looked up, a dark eyebrow cocked in amusement. He smirked. “Liya. Rolls off the tongue nicely.”

“Hah.” Liya grinned up at him, eyes gleaming. Rex felt his heart stumble. “Yours too, Thunderer.”

“The Thunderer,” Rex corrected.

A/N: Now I think Rex is such a good dude and WOULD canonically try and keep up small talk with civs and generally be a decent guy, but I also do think he’d get annoyed at someone who’s clearly never lived a rough life and is acting like a total prima donna like Liya was. Then she hits him with her "eat the rich-ness" and he thinks he's in love but he's is NOT comfortable in that fact. She’s like the bad boy rule breaker that a clone would absolutely love and live vicariously through. Like she’s cursing out senators? Damn, that's a repressed desire of mine. I love you. 

hehe how'd I do :D @orangez3st. Also event tag! @clonexocweek