The Bad Batch: One Shot Collection

Over My Head

Gotta say, of all the Bad Batch things I've ever written, this is somehow the one I'm proud of. xD

~ Rivana Rita

Hunter knew he had to take the kid the moment he saw her. He never thought about how hard it would be to raise her. Basically, in which Omega spent her whole life in Nala Se's lab and didn't know beds were a thing.

"So," Omega chirps, "What corner's yours?"

Hunter blinks. "Uh – I – what?"

"Where do you sleep?"

His heart flutters, missing a beat and he feels lightheaded. Maybe that's still adrenaline fading out. What does she mean by corner? "Well, when we're on the ship, we sleep on our racks, though our bunks back on Kamino are way more comfortable."

"Oh," Omega says, her eyes getting really big, "What's a bunk?"

Wrecker's eyes are wide behind her. How can she not know what a bunk is? "It's – it's where we sleep. Didn't Nala Se give you one?" Omega was her assistant. She would've taken good care of her, right? Hunter's not a fan of the Kaminoans, but Nala Se isn't bad.

"Yeah! I sleep in the corner of her lab. Most of the time. Unless I fall asleep on her workbench."

Omega's what, four? Five? Six, max. And she has never slept on anything other than the floor?

She doesn't even know what a bunk is.

Hunter's in over his head. Definitely – all that mattered was getting their sister someplace safe. Getting her off Kamino and raising her the way that he always wished someone would've raised him and his brothers, but the kid's so – different.

Hunter has taken care of people before. He knows Tech's excitement and how he has to tame it, reign it in so it doesn't hurt him. How he has to push him to sleep so he doesn't wear himself out. It's pretty fruitless, but Hunter never stops trying. He never stopped picking him up when the regs fought with him for being so smart, when they hit him for saying his mind was made to be better, that he was different. For knowing things. He'd always been there to pick up Tech and tell him it was fine. That he was the best there ever was.

He's always trying to hold in Wrecker's chaos and try keeping his childish inexperience from blowing up in their faces. From getting someone hurt, not that his little brother would intentionally hurt an ant. He's the softest, gentlest fluffball Hunter has ever known, and Omega is a mini mirror.

Wrecker, but tiny. Small.

He'd sat with his little brother through his growing pains, held him while he cried.

They weren't all sure he'd make it. Hunter couldn't think about that at all, but he did. He pulled through, because Wrecker is the strongest of them in every way.

And Crosshair – Hunter has watched over him, too, steadied him while he struggled to learn with his rifle. He'd run his fingers through his little brother's silver hair so many times and he wants to know if Omega's would feel the same – thin and silky, curled just enough they stretch under touch. He wonders if he'll have to hold her the same way they did Crosshair when they train her and she fails. When she's hurt, when...

He shies away from thoughts of Crosshair – their little brother who shot at him just an hour ago. Who shot his twin his best friend his everything through his shoulder and just left him there on the ground. Who was once their heart. (His youngest brother and Hunter wonders if he can really say Omega is the first kid he raised.)