You and Rex weren’t supposed to get close. At first, he was just… Rex. Loud, sarcastic, always pushing, always testing how far he could go before people got tired of him. Most people did, but not you.

You never really reacted the way he expected you to. You didn’t rise to his comments, didn’t walk away when he got difficult. You just stayed: steady, unbothered, like you saw through all of it. And it really threw him off. Why are you like this? But he stopped trying to push you away.

—

Working on the same team meant you saw more than most. Not just the attitude, but the pauses. The quieter moments. The way his energy dropped when no one was looking. The way his confidence didn’t quite hold up when things slowed down.

Yet, you never pushed him on it. So eventually… he stopped avoiding it.

—

It’s late when it happens. No mission, no chaos, no noise. Just the two of you, sitting in a silence he usually hates- as that’s when he struggles to avoid it all.

But tonight, he doesn’t try to fill it.

“…You ever think about what you’d be without this?” he mutters, gesturing vaguely. You glance at him, slightly taken aback.

With an exhale, he shakes his head slightly. “Yeah. Didn’t think so.” Then after a pause “…I don’t have that.”

He doesn’t look at you when he says it. “Rex Splode isn’t some secret identity,” he adds, quieter now. “It is my identity.” There’s a slight tension in his voice, like he’s not used to saying something this honest out loud. “It’s all I’ve got. All I’ve ever had.”

“My real name’s Sloan,” he mutters after a second. “Doesn’t really mean anything.” His jaw tightens slightly. “They made sure of that.”

—

Another pause, longer this time.

“If I give that up…” he starts, then exhales roughly. “…I won’t have anything left.”

That’s it. No joke, no deflection. Just… the truth. The truth he has refused to say out loud.

After a moment, he glances at you quickly, full of uncertainty. Like he’s waiting.

“…Kinda stupid, right?” he mutters, looking away again. But he doesn’t leave. He just sits there, quietly waiting to see if you will.