Author's Note: So. Uh. I had this thing where I was talking to one of my OCs (what? Doesn't everybody?) and she starts going on about how her brothers used to put her to sleep, and it was so hard when she was away from them for a while. She's terrifyingly Crosshair-like and my brain just went ohhhhhh <3<3<3<3 because of course baby Crosshair would demand his brothers tuck him in bed and give him bedtime stories. Of course he would. :')
~ Rivana Rita
Crosshair used to sleep by his brothers every night. On hindsight, he doesn't know why he thought everything would go back to normal the minute he came back. Trust is hard, especially when they've forgotten how to talk to each other. These are his brothers, but everything is changed now.
Crosshair always used to sleep by one of his brothers. Whether it be their bunk or bench or table – Tech slept on the table an unreasonable amount – it was always right beside them, soaked in their warmth and hearing the quiet murmur of their voices until he finally drifted off to sleep.
And that – it worked, until they left, and he was alone. Until all he had was strangers he didn't know or trust and outright hated.
Killing them is not one of the many things Crosshair regrets.
On Tantiss, Omega would stay by him. She'd come there every night before he slept, and her words would ring through his mind every day long after she left. She was all he had. Now that he's here, back home in their tiny little three-room spaceship, it feels like falling into the past. A life that wasn't his. Crosshair doesn't know who he is anymore.
"It's okay," Omega had said, touching Hunter's arm, though his brother looked no less certain someone was about to try slitting his throat again. "He helped me." Hunter had let him on at that, but the tension hasn't faded. Same for Wrecker.
Echo's not here. That still hurts. He left them.
They go to the island planet Omega calls home – Pabu – where she promised they'd go whenever she talked and dreamed. That one little light in the dark grayness of Tantiss's prison. Or lab. Whichever. Hunter takes them to the mayor's place to eat – they're friends with him and his daughter, apparently. Crosshair feels so out of place here.
This is the place he used to call home. He's been gone for months. It's been so well over a year. He doesn't know them anymore.
Hunter calls bedtime after the sun sets and the lights turn on, and Crosshair's mind blanks out. He has no idea how to do this or what he's doing. Which rack is supposed to be his? They had their own arrangement, but everything's changed, and it's been so long. Is that still his? They wouldn't have kept all his things for him, did they?
Doesn't seem very Hunter-y to get rid of 'em, though.
He misses Tech.
His eyes catch Tech's broken goggles up by the computer stand in the back, and his heart just skips a beat and stops.
Tech.
That's all that's left of the brother he knew.
The only one who accepted him, no matter what he did.
Tech.
The left lens is basically missing and the other is badly cracked. He wonders how much it would've hurt when they broke.
He wants to touch them. Hold them.
It feels too personal. Too intruding.
He doesn't belong here.
YOU ARE READING
The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection
FanfictionA collection of Bad Batch one-shots. See the individual chapters for plots.
