The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Vamp Kitty - Part 1: Cavalry and Lack Thereof

Warning: Look, I don't know. Vampires + cat boys just seemed like a good idea one day. :')

Warning: Fairly Canon-typical violence. Plus blood.

This is for Twin Week Day 2. :)

~ Rivana Rita

In which Hemlock clearly had a pet cat who died somewhere and decided to turn the CX's into cat boys to make up for it.

Consciousness fades in painfully slow. Hunter's body aches everywhere, and there's something highly electric right by his head. Doesn't like it. The mechanism he's on is doing well at keeping him strapped flat on his back. Very little wiggle room. His body aches from where the debris fell on him.

He hears crying. It's quiet, but that's Crosshair's voice mixed with a series of quiet, brokenly terrified meowing. He sounds adorable and it breaks Hunter's heart even more. He twists, trying to look around. Wrecker's on the table at his left, and – Crosshair is across from him.

Hunter tries to twist himself upright.

The CX they fought on Teth and earlier in the hangar is standing beside him, and Hunter's chest tightens with a surge of icy, raw panic. He's very close to Crosshair, and – is he stroking his hair? Crosshair cannot possibly be comfortable with that. He certainly doesn't look comfortable. He looks terrified, and his tail is doing something weird between his legs. Hunter's never seen him quite this scared before.

Only Hunter touches him like that. Rather, Hunter's the only person Crosshair lets touch him like that. He got really grumpy when Omega tried, and Wrecker just didn't.

The CX is up against the table edge, and he won't stop touching him. Crosshair is terrified of them. He panics whenever they're brought up.

Crosshair whimpers, and Hunter's heart shatters a little farther, burning with an unabated fury. Crosshair's panicking. Hunter feels the racing of his heart.

The CX reaches for him with his other hand, and Crosshair's body freezes up entirely, his tail twisting away. It's the only limb unrestrained. He just wants to get away, and stars you just don't tie someone down and touch them, and he knows Crosshair's transformation into a cat person has made him far more affectionate than he used to be – uncomfortably so – but that's not an excuse to – to –

"Stop," Hunter hisses, his restraints digging painfully into his wrists and arms.

Crosshair gasps faintly. The CX hisses, head turning from Crosshair to Hunter. His tail lifts – it's black – enough Hunter can see it. He's about to pounce.

Cats don't like their snuggle-sessions interrupted, apparently. And Hunter's strapped down, too.

It's better than Crosshair being hurt.

"Don't," Crosshair protests, voice wild and panicked. "Don't hurt him."

The CX growls lowly but sits half on the table-edge, tail lowering, other hand-paw-thing moving back to Crosshair. He seems obsessed with touching him. Well, at least he's not hurting him? Not that it's much better – Hunter can feel every twitching movement of their bodies, the way energy shifts and whirls around them, and he's trying to find a joint in Crosshair's armor to touch him.

Hunter's gonna hope – desperately – this isn't what Crosshair had to deal with daily.

The bed at Hunter's right is empty. There's four, one clear, and it feels like a blatant mockery of who's missing.