Another Batcher (Hunter)

Nineteen

A/N: this chapter contains mature scenes. As described in my introduction chapter, these scenes can be skipped, since I have placed them at the end of the chapter. If this type of writing is not your thing, feel free to skip to the next chapter. Anything important that may have happened will be announced in a note at the beginning of the next chapter. For the rest of you, hope you enjoy ;)

*Talia's POV*

The past few weeks have been pretty typical for us. We've done a few assignments, ranging from stealing intel, supporting battalions, and even taking out a droid base by ourselves.

Besides the missions we've been sent on, nothing much has happened. I enjoy the down time, however, because it gives me more chances to get a moment alone with Hunter, which is becoming frequent. The excitement of stealing a kiss, then returning to the others as if nothing is going on is consuming me.

Not to mention the increase of subtle touches coming from him. A hand on my shoulder, a pat on the back, playful nudges in the side when making jokes. Despite trying to be discrete, the others are slowly catching on.

I blame that on Hunter, since he's turned slightly more protective during missions, and we are constantly disappearing, then reappearing a moment later. They mostly believe he is just being a protective leader, but there have been a few sly jokes thrown around about one of us having a 'silly crush'.

Echo has been the hardest to hide it from, since he tends to question me as he tinkering away on the ship, and I have grown quite fond of telling him everything on my mind.

"We definitely took a beating this past mission," he mumbles from under the ship. I scoff, reliving how we were almost completely shot down. "That's an understatement." He turns and grins at me, then returns to his work. "You know, I should teach you how to do this, then I could sit there and watch like you do."

I laugh, shaking my head, "I'd probably break something." He huffs, motions for a nearby tool, I hand it to him, getting a thanks in return.

"So, ready to spill your secret yet?" I roll my eyes, "I've already told you, I have no secrets. You know everything about me." He groans in fake annoyance, "you'll break one of these days."

I smile, poking the ground with a stick as silence falls over us. I glance up at approaching steps, spotting Tech with his face in his datapad. "You almost done down there?" He asks, smiling as Echo clearly gets annoyed.

"There," he finally says, dragging him self out from under the ship. "Hm, I guess that will do," Tech replies, earning a soft shove from Echo. "Cut reached back out, I came to get you two to see what he needs."

I push myself up and follow the others inside, spotting Cut on the hologram. "Hello, boys. And Talia," he greets kindly, earning a jumbled greeting back from us.

"My town is hosting its annual festival in a few rotations, I figured this would be a good way to thank you guys, and give you a vacation. We'd love to have you," he says with a smile. Glances are passed around the cockpit as he continues.

"It's a lot of fun, the whole town participates. We start early afternoon. There is food stands, live music, dancing. It goes late into the night."

"What are we celebrating?" Echo asks. "Urm, I'm not entirely sure why we do it, but hey, it's fun," Cut replies, scratching the back of his neck. I smile at his response, the others showing similar reactions.

"Well, we have nothing else going on," Crosshair states, looking towards Hunter. He shrugs, "I don't see why not, we'll be there in a couple hours."

Cut's eyes light up, "great! We'll be waiting. The kids will be excited." We say our goodbyes, Tech putting in the coordinates and starting the hyperdrive. I take my typical seat behind Echo, leaning back as I scroll my holopad.