Work Text:
The camera focuses on an unhelmeted trooper with 212th orange kneeling in a padded room, surrounded by at least four cadets. He holds a helmet patterned with blue in his hands, obviously not his. One of the cadets moves to lean against his side and he shifts to a cross-legged position on the ground.
“What is this one called, vodike? [little brothers]”
“Helmet!”
The answer comes from a cadet who has somehow wormed themself into the trooper’s lap. The trooper reaches down and ruffles their hair, smiling.
“Jate [good]. And what do we vode [brothers] call this?”
This time, the answer comes from all of the cadets, each of them leaning against the trooper.
“BUCYE! [helmet]”
The trooper makes a few complicated hand signs. “Elek, jate! [Yes, good]”
The camera moves down and zooms in to focus on the helmet, where a small hand is tracing the blue eye-like markings. The camera zooms out a little to reveal that the hand belongs to the cadet in the trooper’s lap.
“Do we know what colour this bucye [helmet] is?”
A chorus of small voices rises, the cadets chanting eagerly. “KEBIIN! [Blue]”
“Orijate! Orijate, vodike. [Excellent! Excellent, little brothers]”
The trooper leans over the cadet and picks up the helmet, turning it around so that it is visible to the rest of the cadets.
“Say 'Jai'galaar'la sur'haii'se'. [shriek-hawk eyes]”
The trooper enunciates clearly, giving the cadets time to mouth the words before he continues.
“These are Jaig eyes, for the best soldiers.”
The camera zooms out more to show the group as a whole, the helmet resting in the middle of the circle. There is a sound of a door sliding open and the camera swings around abruptly to show a trooper with blonde hair and armour in 501st blue walking in.
“Cody, did you take my- Cody!”
The camera swings back to the clones on the ground, the trooper smiling at the newcomer smugly.
“Cadets! Why don’t you ask Captain Rex here how he got these Jaig eyes?”
The cadets scramble up and surround the Captain, voices raised in excitement. Captain Rex looks over at Cody, eyes pleading.
“Orivod, getedye- [Big brother, please]”
Cody responds by wrapping his arms around the cadet left in his lap and placing his helmet over the child’s too-small head, lifting him off the ground as he stands.
“Katini, Rex’ika. Kyoyaci! [Suck it up, Rex. Goodbye]”
The camera moves with him to show him leaving the room with the cadet in his arms, one hand on the orange visor of the unwieldy helmet, the other waving goodbye at their brothers. It then turns to focus on Captain Rex, who is staring after the door in alarm, a cadet holding his helmet out to him and looking at him pleadingly.