The Clone Wars One Shots

Busy Bees

Look, I updated!

My feelings have been shattered by the Bad Batch and I'm deep in denial that it's over.

But I updated!

Enjoy these two short stories while I continue to procrastinate the last part of Hearing Impaired. It's almost done, but my soul doesn't want it to be. Maybe I'll transfer my longer stories to a separate book and rewrite them. A future me problem.

Have a great day, everyone!

- Star 🌟

You and Tech had very few things in common.

A need to be useful was one of them.

Tech was good at everything, so, naturally, he could do almost anything for the team. Whenever something went wrong, more often than not, the task of fixing it fell to him. Whether that was making repairs, piloting the ship, treating the wounded, diagnosing and curing illnesses, or nearly anything else, he could and would do it.

You weren't the strongest, nor the fastest, or smartest on the team, so you didn't believe you were incredibly useful. Since you didn't bring any special enhancements to the table like the others did, you tended to feel useless, even forgotten. So whenever an opportunity arose for you to be helpful, you seized it. No matter the task, you always gave it a try. You may not have been as efficient as Tech, but things usually worked out. For the most part.

Tech was like your great white whale, which you strived to become but knew you could never be. He was so good at everything, and never seemed to tire from his tasks. You wanted to offer up just as many skills as he did.

The Bad Batch had always appreciated your ambition. It was a useful trait. However, when they realized it came with a side of exhaustion, extra anxiety and a sprinkle of existential dread, the siblings were quick to come up with a solution.

That was how you landed yourself in what was known as 'the overworked corner' (by Wrecker), or 'the dungeon' (by... well, I think you know).

Apparently the space, which was really just an unused closet with a few blankets on the floor that locked from the outside, was used as Tech's 'calm the kriff down' space. Whenever he had gone too long without eating or sleeping, or had been pouring too much brainpower into something, the intelligent clone would either be told to go to or stuffed into his time-out space to de-stress and 'relax', whatever that means.

In your desperation to be needed and prove your worth, you had taken on various projects around the ship, and had spent hours on each of them, back to back. It had been almost two days since you had slept or eaten more than a few bites of a ration bar. Upon realizing this, Wrecker scooped you up and swiftly deposited you inside the small space.

Which was how you ended up nearly squashing Tech, who you hadn't realized was in there until you had unintentionally used him to break your fall from Wrecker's shoulder.

"Wha-? Gah! Wrecker!"

Wrecker grinned down at the pile he had created. "Hey, Tech! No escaping."

Your eyes widened when you realized what the bony vision you had landed on was. "Sorry, Tech!" you said quickly, trying and failing to roll off of him in the cramped space.

"Not your fault." Tech tried to squirm away, but between Wrecker at the door and the walls of the space, he only succeeded at elbowing himself in the gut then letting himself go limp, a rare sign of defeat.

Wrecker seemed pleased by the outcome. "There, isn't that better? Relax."

Tech glared up at him, though, as it usually did when aimed at his brothers, it lacked weight. "How, exactly, am I supposed to relax in a broom closet while being squashed?"