Omg- I actually drew something like this and developed a whole ass story.
But, that's for another time. Instead of fighting criminals, he's handling protest marchers who were getting violent. (Cause we need angst)
Usually Commander Fox didn't work directly with civies, but he and his men when assigned to make sure a peace march remained peaceful. But usually the people that wanted to end the war wanted to rid the galaxy of clones too. Blocking out this knowledge, Fox had taken his shinies. "Just stand there and make sure no one's hurting each other"
He'd meant for his shinies to adapt to Coruscant culture, but not in this way. He had to yell at his men for the outbreak of a civilian. Telling them not to attack, not to fight. Their instincts screamed at them for not doing anything. When the crowd exploded in violence, the shinies watched how their Commamder simply took the abuse.
They watched as he broke up fights, which ended with him being attacked by both sides. They watched as he didn't flinch as they ripped of his helmet and begun attacking him. The young clones were in confusion as to how their Commander was able to still peacefully break them up.
The young men were crumbling, Fox had turned to see them fall and he realized, "They weren't ready." They weren't ready for this corruption. Hearing people that didn't even know them calling them a waste of space, war-mongers, and everything in between. So he called in Stone.
When Stone and his men arrived, the Commander's only goal: get his men out. He was holding civilians away from his brothers, taking their blows. "Hurry " he whispered to them, grabbing his helmet before getting on the ship too.
As they stood in broken silence, Fox looked at his brothers, taking off his helmet . "You're allowed to cry" he spoke, causing them to look at him in confusion. They all wanted to cry and scream, but.. "You can cry," he said again as he wiped his bloody cheek, "I didn't think it'd get that bad." The Commander moved and gestured them to come to him, and he felt a tear escape his eye as they all collapsed in his arms.
After Fox had dropped his men off at the med bay, he limped back to his office. As he walked his head begun to pound. The hall was spinning. He knew to keep walking. When the Commander was safely back to his office he went to clean off his face. "Great" he mumbled, leaning closer to the mirror to look at his bruising face. "Why do they always go for the face? Never the chest"
Fox let out a groan as he stumbled to his desk, collapsing in his chair, lingering for a moment before grabbing his holopad to work on his report. He filled it out so mindlessly, knowing not to mention the trauma he and his men were put through, because no one cares about the feelings of a clone.
As he struggled to work, he found himself jumping to the alarm he'd grown to ignore. It was going off every five minutes. Fox couldn't focus, cursing the vast amount of people living on this planet. He stood up, almost falling over. "I can't stay here" he told himself as his grip tightened on the holopad.
So there he went, leaving to find anywhere quieter than this. He could go to the med bay and check on his shinies. But then he'd have to be strong. No, he couldn't. He wanted to collapse in someone's arms, or sleep in a comfy bed for three days.
Instead, the Commander found himself heading to Thorn's quarters, hoping he'd be there but not surprised when he wasn't. He stood weakly in his brother's empty room and felt an unsettling feeling sink in. He felt sick, not realizing until he sat down. He wanted to throw up. "Just for a moment" he told himself as he closed his eyes.
He jumped awake, throwing a weak punch that was caught by Thorn. "Sneekin' around? Is that your hobby?" He asked, not yet realizing the condition his brother was in. "You smell like a dead bantha, go take a shower or something" Thorn told Fox as he took off his helmet.
Fox let out a groan, his throat terribly dry. "C-can you help me up?" He coughed out, causing Thorn to turn to him, taking a closer look at his brother.
"W-" Thorn felt his stomach drop when he saw his brother take off his helmet; he realized Fox's face was beaten to seventy shades of blue. "How are you not dead?" He asked, turning on the light and brought even more horror by his brother's busted face.
Fox couldn't bring himself to speak, giving his brother a look of helplessness. Thorn instinctively grabbed the aid kit and an ice pack. He wet a cloth before bringing it over to Fox, kneeling down as he started to clean up his brother's face, "Why haven't you gotten a bacta patch yet?" Thorn commented.
Fox shook his head, he couldn't come up with a lie, and he surely couldn't tell him the truth. So he just shook his head and mumbled, "Work." Thorn rolled his eyes as he started to put on several bacta patches on Fox's face.
"That's stupid," Thorn commented, causing Fox to roll his eyes, "It takes like 15 minutes to walk your ass down to the med bay and get some bacta. Your work will literally always be there." Thorn continued as he worked. "Peace rally?" Thorn asked, he'd recalled hearing about the rally turned violent on the coms.
Fox nodded, "Can we not talk about it?" He asked in an exhausted whisper. Thorn looked up and let out a soft sigh.
"Yeah," he replied as he got up to wash his hands, "I'm on com till midnight.... Wanna watch movies?" He asked, turning to Fox.
He'd been wanting to hurry and get back to work, but he looked to his brother and realized this moment wouldn't always be here. Work would. Fox cracked a smile and eased to his feet, then tumbling to Thorn's bed.
"Better make some popcorn, my brother"
