"Harmless" Adventures with the Bad Batch

Nightmares

A/N: What's up my peeps!?  I am back with a pretty long chapter for you guys (5808 words) :)  This chapter is just a bunch of  hurt/comfort.  So get ready for fluffy feels!  There is one thing I need to explain though.  In Hunter's you will notice that I will drop in and out of using italics.  That is because what is in italics is him dreaming, anything in normal font is him talking out loud.  But that's it! Leave a comment at the end telling me which one was your favorite!  I did one for everyone because they are soft bois (and girl)  Enjoy, everyone!

P.S. I have found that I prefer doing these single chapters over the story arcs, so that is probably what most of the book will consist of.  However I do have a couple more story arcs planned for the near future.

 C r o s s h a i r 

It was the middle of the night. Hunter sat in the galley of the Havoc Marauder, finishing up the latest mission's report.  He wanted to finish it before going to bed, even though it was past two in the morning. He was almost done and wasn't all that tired anyways, so he was holding out.

Everyone else had gone to bed a while ago, but that made it the ideal time for the Sergeant to get his work done.  The only noise that was interrupting his thought process was Wrecker's loud snoring, but he was so used to the sound that he could tune that out fairly easily.  For the most part, all was peaceful and quiet until he heard the door to the galley open. Hunter looked up from his report to see Crosshair standing in the doorway, clearly just having come from his bed. His silver hair was a mess and his eyes looked tired but wide awake, almost in a panicked or startled way.

"Hey, Cross. Something up?" Hunter asked him. 

 He set down his holopad on the table and gave the sniper his full attention. It was unlike Crosshair to stay up late or have trouble sleeping and Hunter knew this.  Though, he knew he couldn't really judge since he was up at the same ridiculous hour.   But knowing that this kind of behavior was unusual coming from Crosshair, Hunter remembered that his brother was known to lie awake until ridiculous hours if something serious or bothersome was on his mind.

"Nothing," Crosshair grumbled dismissively, actively avoiding Hunter's gaze.

"It's not nothing, vod.  I know you better than that.  Come here," Hunter ordered, gesturing to the spot next to him.

The sniper scowled in annoyance but obeyed.  He plopped down beside his brother at the table but stared straight ahead as a cold and dark look swept through his eyes like a dreary thunderstorm.

"What's on your mind, Cross," Hunter asked him quietly, not wanting to wake the others. 

 The reticent sharp-shooter was known to hate talking about his emotions. Hunter knew that if anyone else was around, he would downright refuse.  The last thing Hunter wanted to do was leave the issue alone and unresolved; that would only let it grow into a lasting problem.

"I already told you: nothing is bothering me," Crosshair snapped, already sounding impatient.

"But we both know that it's not true," Hunter pointed out.

Giving his brother a moment of silence, Hunter began to rack his brain to think of something that might be bothering him. At first nothing came to mind. The mission had gone well, no one had been injured, and he had seemed fine earlier, before he had gone to bed.  What could've happened in that short of time?  That made the realization dawn on him.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Hunter questioned him. 

 Crosshair didn't answer, but turned his gaze even further away.  Nightmares were something that everyone in the Bad Batch had dealt with on occasion.  They each had a particular fear that liked jumping out at them during the rarer moments that they could get a full night's rest.  Even from their earliest cadet days, the Kamioans had drilled the notion that those night terrors were something to be ashamed of; that they meant you were weak.  Good soldiers would brush them off and keep on fighting because being immune to anxiety and stress, nightmares weren't something that should scare them.