sekkritaus | Familiar Faces: Any time post-prequels AU

Familiar Faces: Any time post-prequels AU

An AU where the clones actually get a few happy endings godammit.

None of them remembered the Republic anymore, but all of them had heard the stories from those who'd escaped its fall. Not all of them had agreed about it, whether it had been good or bad, but they all were certain: better than the Empire, and better than the cloners.

That generation had joined them in pieces, filtering in from outside. They'd all been out and seen the galaxy, and told the youngest stories that made them want to go see it, no matter how much it had taken from their elders.

They were gone now, and so were the ones that had come after them, those made too young to see the war, but had been trained to fight against their own when the cloners soured on the Empire. Only a few of them had remained on Kamino, hidden away in windowless domes so far beneath the waves that the only sound on the outer walls was the occasional tapping of some large abyssal creature walking with slow deliberation across its surface.

That generation was the one that rebelled. The shift in indoctrination didn't take, they suspected. The cloners had pushed their luck too hard.

They'd used their training. Reached out to the clones in other domes. Planned out everything they'd need. Then one day, all at once, they rebelled. Took over the security systems, captured every Kaminoan they could find. Kept them penned up, uncomfortable, but alive. They were hostages to keep the rest of them quiet, and a vital part of what they did next.

No clones were made on Kamino that next five years. More were produced on other worlds, trained for the Empire. So many of them that some eventually found their way out, despite what had been done to them. Their training had been harder on them, made them slow to trust anyone, including themselves.

But on Kamino, they were waiting for results. The youngest cohorts aged up old enough to prove to their elders they'd be able to make this new life work. They were learning what they needed to, how to do the jobs that some had thought impossible for them.

Then, finally, the first new batch. They were healthy, they were so very young, and they stayed young longer than any of them had before.

For the next ten years, that's where they all stayed. The older generations made an uneasy armistice with the Kaminoans after several more skirmishes and careful prisoner exchanges. The clones sent topside reported back there was a new war on. But with only a few thousand of them, they had to be careful. Keep their work quiet. Lead escaped Imperial clones and old Republic-loyal men back to them, make contact with the few who'd hidden among the Mandalorians. They all took a good hard swipe at the Empire whenever they got the chance, but they had to be careful and quiet, or they'd be destroyed like the Jedi were.

The Emperor eventually died, within the lifetimes of most clones who'd seen him rise. It hadn't seemed possible until one day it just suddenly was. An era was ending, and they were ready to go meet it.

[Prompt 1]

He'd been in one of the first batches to get made after that. He'd grown up hearing stories about the clones that helped make it possible, like Rex and Wolffe and the long-dead but still remembered Fives who'd warned them what was coming. Everyone knew their names, and those who'd given all so that one day they could become a new people, with everything that made them unique.

They'd left Kamino then, when he was still young enough that he didn't remember. They'd gone to H'ratth, a forgotten Inner Rim planet that had held secret Republic strongholds. It was habitable, it was abandoned, and it was now theirs. They dug in, installed the cloning chambers in the deep vaults, and from there started to make the planet home.

By the time he was old enough to remember things, the walls were starting to be lost under waves of color. Each sector had its own shade, matching the armor of the eldest regiments. He knew what each of them meant, who the knotwork and abstract lines depicted, memorials for soldiers most of the artists had never met. He'd grown up under the pale blue-grey of 99, one of the defenders of their first home on Kamino who'd died defending cadets against invaders, and who'd proved clones could do anything they set their mind to, regardless of how they were formed.

He grew up at little more, and said very confidently one day to his teachers that he was going to join the infantry and be a sergeant. He liked the word, and some of the best stories on the walls were about sergeants. That was what he thought, anyway. They still had need of soldiers, to defend against the people who saw them as escaped slaves, weapons out of control, lost and feral pets. They youngest bristled at the assumptions that the eldest had been forced to bear. No one had to anymore, and they refused to let it hurt them all again. They'd protect their own.

Their armor was shaped differently from what the eldest remembered, shaped to clone specification on H'ratth to fit them better than the old mass-produced models, but still evoking their lines. And everybody painted up, just like the eldest had. Either you did it yourself or made a deal with an artist. A lot were getting something avant garde, soft gradients or realism were popular and daring now. Every regiment was a riot of individuality.

He'd gone with something in between the traditional and the new. The black plate of his special ops group, layered on with blue-grey paint depicting things he'd done. Spiraling cable patterns down the right arm, left side broken and cracked by geometric flashes of lightning.

And he'd earned a sergeant's pauldron. His name was Taiko, and life was the way it should be.

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"Right. See you tomorrow." Where were his gloves? He'd left them on the table, hadn't he? He had, but they weren't there--

There was squishy lump in one of his pockets. Zero needed to stop doing stuff like that. But okay. Gloves found, and put back on. Phew.

Dirty and Bubbles stood, and they parted ways with the other two near the bar, looking for more drinks and friendly faces. Well, friendly parts of some nature or another.

Outside the sun had set behind the mountain, but it still lit up the clouds in dusky pink and gold. There was more traffic headed to and from the base now, those leaving work or headed in towards their quarters. Most nights while still on duty, the Aiwhas would head there too. But they had an apartment in the foothills beneath the mountain, a conveniently short walk from both the base and the center of town.

Now that he was out here, leaving alone with Poe, there was a little electric feeling of tension dancing through him. Mostly just excited nerves. "The apartment's less than ten minutes from here." Which was good, because otherwise he'd probably have to think of more stuff to say.

Poe fell into an easy step beside him, sliding his hands into his pockets with a casual ease. It was slightly a show - he had the same nervous energy, too, but now that they were out of sight of everyone else, that nagging thought in the back of his head was getting louder, wading through the haze.

"... You know, you can tell them whatever you want," He said, his voice companionable. "Regardless of whatever happens. Whatever you want to tell them, I'll run with it."

For a moment, he thought he misheard. But no, running it by again, ears and brain were in agreement. "I--No, This is f--" His pace slowed.

Was it fine? "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about that." He offered a reassuring smile.

"But I uh - I kind of got the impression that they were goading you, a bit. And that there was somewhere else you'd rather be, if you could. So if I'm more helpful as a story to keep them off your back--"

"No, I--maybe a little," he admitted, "But not entirely. Usually it takes me weeks to get to here, even if I've wanted it the whole time. And they know that."

Usually it was okay, because he was mostly interested in other clones. No matter where everyone went, they'd always come back to H'ratth. But who knew how long Poe was going to be here? He could be leaving tomorrow, for all they knew.

"They were just giving me a bit of a push in the direction I was already going, that's all."

He jogged up a couple steps, turning around so he was walking backward and facing Taiko, the amused smile back on his face.

"Mm, alright. Long as I'm not getting in the way of anything else," he said, getting in the way of where the clone was trying to walk. Woops. "Or anyone else. I mean, unless that's half the plan. I can be a very good wingman."

"No, nothing else." He returned the smile, but faltered slightly when he slowed to a stop. This was about the commander, wasn't it.

"Like I said, things usually take a while with me. It's fine."

He tilted his head, still smiling, trying to gauge for himself, and coming up a little short. He was hard to read. But...

"Alright." Then he grinned. "Hey, I'm not going to complain, if you kiss me again. But you don't have to rush anything, either, okay?"

"We can start from there and see how things go." Because that kiss had certainly started going places, a lot faster than he'd expected. And it might have made his head spin, but he was still feeling pretty alright with that.

More than alright. Outsiders usually looked weird, but whatever was off about Poe didn't get in the way of being far too attractive.

Poe wet his lips, thoughtfully, a little too suggestively, and considered just kissing him right then and there, but instead he grinned and fell back into step along side him.

"Alright then, Sergeant. Lead on."

Case in point. Look at that.

"It's just up there," he pointed down a side street towards a low building done up in red and orange. There were a few brightly-colored flags hanging above the door, including one in black and blue. That was theirs.

And good thing it was close, because he was feeling so tempted to kiss Poe right now.

Poe's lip bites should, in fact, be illegal.

He felt far more satisfied, about the whole thing, and made sure to keep a pretty decent pace, even if he resisted jumping to the end right here in the street. The closer they got, though, the more that resolve disintegrated, and by the time they were coming up to the apartment, his patience has disappeared. Before they reached the door, Poe reached out, grasping Taiko's arm, and gentle tugging him around so that Poe could step in up against him and take a hungry, delving kiss.

For a brief moment he thought this was going to be another question or doubt, something he was hoping not to hear. He might be stepping outside of his usual behavior here, but he didn't want Poe to feel uncomfortable either.

But no, this was a different kind of uncomfortable they'd both been dealing with. It caught him by surprise, some nearly-formed thought he'd been about to voice coming out as a quiet groan instead. Starting with a kiss, check. This was definitely going places.

He was tempted to stay right here like this, but if he could keep himself in check for just a minute or two longer, then this would get even better. Kark, he was the one who was supposed to have self-control out of the squad, wasn't he?

He broke off the kiss a moment or two after he started telling himself he should. "It's just down on level 3," he murmured. The lift was fast, and no one should be in the apartment suite right now. They'd have the whole place, however they wanted it.

That quiet groan ran straight down to his groin, his hands curling into the fabric uniform and pulling Taiko up closer against him.

When Taiko finally pulled away, Poe was already having a little harder time breathing. It took him a few seconds to compute what was being told to him, and he wet his lips again, his eyelids a little heavy.

"Uh- yeah. Right. Level 3."

He didn't exactly seem to want to move, though. He might need a push.

They needed to be inside right now.

He pushed Poe back towards the door with another quick, fierce kiss. It opened for them, and he slid an arm around Poe's waist, guiding him across the building's lobby to the lift. He fumbled his wallet out of his pocket, waving the keycard at the control panel.

"Level three, going down."

Edited 2018-07-09 20:24 (UTC)

As soon as the lift appeared, Poe took the chance to pull Taiko back into it, then push him up against the wall as the door closed again. He barely took a breath before he found Taiko's mouth again, delving deep as he pressed his body firmly up against the man, slipping a thigh between Taiko's legs.

The elevator was close enough, right?

He hit the wall with a quiet gasp, gloved hands sliding under Poe's jacket to settle on his hips, grinding them together. He knew the lift wouldn't take long, but stars, he couldn't help it. Couldn't go the five seconds it took for the lift to come to a stop, the door opening onto the entryway to their apartment. By the time he pulled away from the kiss, the lift was chiming pointedly at them to exit.

Past the inner door, the suite was completely dark. "Lights, fifty percent," he called breathlessly, and the subterranean space lit up enough to see.

The Aiwhas had the floor to themselves, and they'd made good use of it in the time they were there. The common area had their kitchen, table and lounge with what Dirty swore was the most comfortable couch on the planet. Right now, the space was clean. They'd been gone for weeks, shipping out from one of the orbital platforms for jobs across the sector. When they'd gotten back this afternoon, he'd thought he would have been home hours ago. Probably would have just taken a nap and then gone out to get dinner with the squad.

Plans had changed for the better. Another push and the doors closed behind them. Now they had real privacy. "I've got some supplies in my room, if we ever get there," he laughed. At the rate they were going, making it four more meters wasn't a sure thing.

Poe grinned, face flushed and hair a little mussed, reaching for Taiko again as soon as they were through the doors.

"I'll keep it in mind," he promised, even as his hands were already going for the hem of Taiko's shirt, tugging it up to to bare skin. "Though that sounds like I need more patience than I've got."

He tugged him roughly up against him, again, a hard kiss first, but the ducked his head to press an open mouthed kiss to his throat.

He pulled open his uniform jacket, shrugging it off onto the floor, just in time to get grabbed again. The kiss was good, he'd gotten back into it, remembering more about how to make this feel good. "Have you got enough for--"

Something about tipping his head back, exposing the sensitive, vulnerable skin there to a hard kiss just made him moan aloud, abandoning any attempt to get Poe's clothes off for a moment to just press up against him, fingers digging into Poe's back.

Kriff, but that moan made his blood pulse hot and fast right through his body. Teeth grazed skin as he mouth his mouth a little lower on Taiko's neck, tongue darting out to taste salt in the hollow of the man's throat. His hands were already sliding up under his shirt, and he pulled back from his assault only so that he could pull Taiko's shirt up and over his head.

Whatever Taiko had been about to ask if he had the patience for, evidently the answer was no.

He tried to speak again, but all that came out was a hot, shuddering breath when he felt teeth, ending with the faintest little whimper as the tongue smoothed things over, heat surging through him. He couldn't think of the last time he got this hard, this fast. He needed more of his clothes off right now. Poe's too.

The pause was just enough to catch his breath, get coordinated enough to start pulling Poe's jacket off.

"Lube, in my room." There. Got the words out. Whether they did anything with that information, he wasn't sure he cared anymore. Making it to the bed didn't matter, any damn piece of furniture in the house would do right now.

He rolled his shoulders as Taiko pulled at his jacket, letting it slip easily to the floor as he surged forward to take another kiss, dragging at Taiko's bottom lip with his teeth as he tossed the man's shirt off to the side.

It was good information to have, and it was also a good way to tell exactly how far Taiko was willing to let this go - which made a hot pulse of arousal go straight to his cock. Kriff, but he needed this. He needed this a lot more badly than he realised. His hands, now free, immediately went for Taiko's trousers, pulling them open with a practiced efficiency and an honest urgency, even as he groaned into his mouth.

He took a half-step back at the sudden movement, but the kiss locked him in place, his hands reaching up under Poe's shirt, his heart thumping in his chest as his fingers find an impressive set of scars there. Wasn't he a pilot? How'd he survive enough stuff to get marks like that?

The wondering was cut short as Poe kept working on his clothes, letting out a sigh of relief as the pressure on him abated. It had felt like the seam was going to burst by itself if Poe hadn't freed him first.

He found the fastenings on Poe's trousers and pulled them open, one hand reaching in to draw out his cock with a long, slow stroke up the length, his other hand sliding around and beneath the waistline to Poe's ass, gripping him and pulling his hips forward.

Poe cursed, dark and low and rough, his eyes fluttering closed as a pulse of arousal made his stiff cock jump in Taiko's grasp. It took him a second to get his brain to restart, before he was sliding his fingers around Taiko's cock in turn, stepping in closer against him as Taiko pulled him in.

His lips found the man's throat, again, and this time he let his teeth drag with quite a bit more intention as he started to stroke - not anywhere near as fast as his heart rate would like to stipulate - but purposely enough to make him shiver as he caught at Taiko's trousers with his foot, to kick them right off and away.

"Lube, huh?" He asked, his voice husky against Taiko's throat as he nipped at the skin.

That slow, deliberate pace was utterly hypnotizing, eyes falling closed and head tilted back, a groan resonating in his throat under that gentle, dangerous contact. He matched the pace, using the arm around Poe to encourage him to move his hips in time with the hand on his cock.

"Yeah," he breathed, "Second left door--" he broke off sharply as those teeth got him at just the right time to send a jolt all the way through him. "Bottom drawer by the bed." He kept a couple toys in there too. Just for himself, mostly, when he had the time to prepare. Normally he'd be a little unaccountably embarrassed to know someone might find them there, but not tonight.

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