Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Apparently baking a cake was the most difficult thing they’d ever done. 

“Who keeps pots and pans in the oven?!”

Hunter hissed as he held his hands underneath the cold water, doing his best to ignore the sting caused by the mild, red burns on his fingertips and palms.

“Who the kark grabs hot pans out of an oven without an oven mitt?!” Wrecker retorted, pulling said pots and pans out of the pre-heated oven with oven mitts on before placing them up on the counter.

“I wasn’t thinking!”

“Obviously!” 

Crosshair snorted, rolling his eyes in fond amusement as he watched the exchange between his two older brothers. Apparently Hunter has started to pre-heat the hypersonic oven before checking if anything was actually in there and apparently the oven was storage space in the Nultez household, but by the time they smelled burning it was too late.

Hunter had yanked open the pre-heated oven to find a pile of pots and pans stuffed into the oven, with a few plastic containers (some with leftovers in them), and in the mix of panic and confusion, he reached in to grab and pull the items out– barehanded .

“Kriffin’ hell-” Hunter muttered through gritted teeth as he looked down at his hands. It wasn’t anything too bad, definitely something that just needed a bit of ointment of some kind and a bandage, but their resident medic was out trying to get ingredients for the cake. 

Nothing Hunter couldn’t deal with, though his pride was hurt more than anything. 

“Something wrong? We heard screaming-”

Khea poked her head into the kitchen with a small frown, looking between the three clones with mild concern. She then made a face after sniffing the air; “Did you guys burn something already?”

“No!” - “Yes.”

Khea raised an eyebrow and looked to Crosshair who shrugged.

“What can I say, they’re miracle workers,” he chuckled, shaking his head as he tossed his toothpick into the trash bin.

“Everything’s fine,” Wrecker assured, giving his girlfriend a less-than convincing smile as he glanced at the dripping melted plastic in the oven.

"Just, uh, technical difficulties," he laughed nervously as he quickly shut the oven with his hip. 

"Right…" Khea nodded slowly, clearly not convinced, "Do I need to get Tech or-"

"It's fine!" Hunter reassured, shaking his head as he shut off the water and quickly wrapped his hands up in a hand towel, “We’ve got it covered on this end, don’t worry about us-”

“It’s a little late for that, ruus'alor,” Khea chuckled, shaking her head, “but alright…just…save the whole ‘burning a cake before actually making a cake’ for the island talent show.”

“Hilarious,” Hunter grumbled, rolling his eyes as Khea snickered as she grabbed some wipes before heading back out the door again.

“There’s an island talent show?” Wrecker asked, his eyes widening in surprise and interest. 

“She was joking,” Hunter sighed, shaking his head. 

“Too bad,” Crosshair frowned with a shrug, “you two would take the cake .” 

Crosshair smirked as he watched Hunter put his head in his hands before hissing out as he touched the still slightly raw skin while Wrecker burst out laughing at Crosshair’s little joke, quickly recovering from his initial disappointment about there not actually being an island talent show.

“Good one Cross!” Wrecker exclaimed, beaming as he slapped Crosshair on the back, causing him to stumble slightly. 

“Can we just focus on making the cake?” Hunter groaned, furrowing his brow slightly at his two younger brothers.

“Sure, let’s start on that-” Crosshair nodded, his tone playfully sarcastic as he rolled up his sleeve with his one hand, “-since we have all the ingredients ready to go to actually make the cake.”

Hunter rolled his eyes; “Not helping.”

Crosshair just grinned, his smile reading, ‘Not trying to help.’

“Ah, well, even if we had the ingredients we now have to clean out the oven,” Wrecker pointed out with a small frown, rubbing the back of his neck as he opened up the oven and took a peek inside at the melting plastic on the metal grates.

“Wonderful,” Hunter huffed.

Wrecker shut the oven door and shuffled around his kitchen, rummaging around a few drawers before he pulled out a first aid kit and opened it up to grab Hunter some medicine and bandages.

“Eh, ‘bout time we’ve cleaned it,” Wrecker chuckled, trying to make light of the conversation as he held out his hand to Hunter, motioning for him to show him the burns.

Hunter stared down at Wrecker’s hands for a second before sighing softly and placing his hands on top of Wreckers, muttering a small ‘thanks’ as he let Wrecker take care of the burns for him.

“Alright, we’ll clean it, but at least we should get started on some of the dinner items, right?” Hunter suggested as he looked between his brothers. 

“Oh right, dinner,” Crosshair nodded slowly, running his one hand through his hair.

Hunter snorted and smiled a bit; “What? You think we were going to just eat cake for dinner?”

“At this rate, I’ll be surprised if we even have batter made by dinner time,” Crosshair joked, rolling his eyes, as a faint grin tugged at his lips. 

With a kiss to the top of Hunter’s bandages and a quick murmur of “ jahaala , jahaala ”, Wrecker wrapped up his medical aid and saved the kit while Hunter once again thanked him and flexed his fingers. Already the ointment Wrecker had used seemed to be working its magic and Hunter’s hands felt cool and tingly from the minty feeling the medicine gave him.

“Any updates from Phee or Echo?” Hunter asked, looking up from his bandages over to Crosshair who was scrolling through the datapad now.

Crosshair shook his head, “Not yet. We still planning on making those cold noodles?” 

“Yeah, we have all the ingredients for that , I know that much,” Wrecker confirmed, opening up the cooling chamber to pull out the ingredients for them to at least start on dinner.

With no update from Phee or Echo, Hunter frowned a little, the nerves creeping back in, but as soon as it showed on his face, Crosshair patted Hunter’s shoulder reassingingly.

“Relax, Echo’s on it,” he reminded, “besides, it’ll be worth it in the end. Omega’s going to love it.”

“You think so?” Hunter asked, his voice strained as he glanced up and over at Crosshair.

Crosshair hummed and gave a curt nod, “Yeah. She’ll be surprised for sure. I don’t think she suspects anything, anyways.” 

Omega suspected that something was up. 

How could she not? 

Hunter was acting weirder than usual, Wrecker had slipped up almost mentioning something a few times because Crosshair had tackled him occasionally to stop him from saying something, and Echo and Tech both had been staying around Pabu longer than their usual short stay visits between their own things of traveling around the galaxy. 

Not that Omega was complaining, no, she was happy to have Tech and Echo around again (and by extension Phee and Viram as well) and it was amusing to see Crosshair quiet Wrecker or Hunter fluster over whatever was bothering him, but she couldn’t ignore that gut feeling that something was up and her brothers were all hiding something from her.

Though, of course, Omega at first ignored it as much as she could. After all, she knew that she didn’t need to be in their business all the time, knowing what they were up to or what was happening between them or their partners could very well be something that didn’t involve her. They didn’t have to tell her everything or keep her in the loop about everything and that was something she was beginning to understand. 

However, over the course of the last week and a half, she couldn’t help but have a feeling that whatever they were keeping from her somehow involved her in one way or another. With the subtle glances they have whenever she was around or how they seemed extra careful about the things they said around her, Omega knew better than to believe that it had nothing to do with her. 

At first she tried not to worry about it, but Hunter had seemed so nervous and on edge for the past two days that she started to get worried herself. 

“Emerie,” Omega started, glancing up at her sister who was walking alongside her, as they trekked through the hidden underground caverns of Pabu with Phee leading the way while the rest of them followed like ducklings. 

Phee held the front with a lantern, chatting with Deke and Stak about her latest adventure with Tech while AZI hovered above them, repeatedly asking Phee if she knew where she was going. Behind them was Mox and Jax while Batcher pranced around them as they talked about how their training sessions were going with Hunter and Jung. Bringing up the back was Jung who was holding Sami’s hand and was carrying Bayrn in a sling, listening and nodding as Sami talked to him about her latest addition to her shell collection while Lyana occasionally jumped in to let Sami know of future spots to visit to find more shells. 

In between all of that was Omega, Emerie, and Eva. The latter two were holding hands, with Emerie watching Eva carefully as she climbed over some rocks, making sure that the young Iktochi didn’t slip. 

 “Do you think our brothers have been acting…strange lately?” Omega asked, tilting her head slightly as she tried not to sound too suspicious or upset.

Emerie raised an eyebrow as she looked down at Omega with a small frown.

“Strange?” She questioned, “What do you mean?”

“Well…stranger than normal,” Omega clarified with an awkward chuckle, “I can’t help but feel like they’re hiding something from me.” 

A flicker of… something crossed Emerie’s expression, something that Omega had seen before on Tech’s and Viram’s faces a few times when she asked if there was something going on. It made her all the more suspicious and she squinted her eyes slightly, now playing closer attention to her sister and her reactions to try and figure out if Emerie was in on whatever it was too.

“Hiding something from you?” Emerie repeated, raising her eyebrow higher as she made sure Eva landed safely after jumping off the rocks and back onto the cavern floors. 

“What makes you think that?” 

Omega sighed and gave her a small shrug, her lips turning down into a small frown. “Lots of things,” she answered. 

“Hunter’s suddenly all nervous again–like he’s acting how he used to be after we left Kamino–Wrecker’s been avoiding me, Echo and Tech don’t answer my questions about it properly, and Crosshair-” she paused, taking a moment to think about it before she shook her head, “-well, Crosshair’s just Crosshair. But I can tell something’s up. He’s more amused than he usually is.” 

Emerie couldn’t stop the small exhale of amusement at Omega’s little list, but she quickly recovered and cleared her throat as she turned her attention back to Eva to make sure Omega couldn’t properly read her expressions or reactions. 

“You’re very observant,” Emerie commented, unsure how to answer her sister as she was also in on the whole ‘throw a surprise party for Omega and make sure she doesn’t find out beforehand’ crew that her brothers and their partners were all a part of. 

“So, I’m right then?” Omega queired, tilting her head, “I haven’t just been…overthinking or imagining things?” 

“I didn’t…particularly say that,” Emerie corrected, glancing over her shoulder at Omega. 

“But…surely you’ve noticed it too,” Omega replied with a small, curious frown. 

Emerie didn’t respond right away, but Eva joined in on the conversation.

“I haven’t noticed anything,” she spoke up, shaking her head. “But it does seem like Hunter has been…distracted.” 

Omega raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Eva, “Distracted?”

Eva nodded, “Yeah, during training sessions he seems…different.” She shrugged, frowning a bit as she continued on; “It seems something is on his mind. I keep asking about when we’ll be able to get back home to our families, but he always says the same thing.”

Omega and Emerie glanced at each other with a frown. 

“He says he, Echo, and the ‘Rex’ guy are working on it,” She stated, just a hint of hurt in her voice, “And I’ve asked Dr. Viram about it too and she says the same thing.” 

“They are working on it,” Emerie assured, putting a comforting hand on Eva’s shoulder and giving her a reassuring, yet gentle squeeze. She knew that the kids were eager to get home, as nice as it was on Pabu, but locating their families was taking longer than expected and recently Hunter had switched over his priorities to focusing on organizing Omega’s party. 

“It’s taking some time, but once Rex gets in touch with an old contact we’ll have a better chance at locating your families,” Emerie explained.

“I know,” Eva nodded, her faith in all of them unwavering as ever.

“Though, I don’t think we’re all that desperate to go home,” Eva claimed, shaking her head as she gave Omega and Emerie a reassuring smile, not wanting them to feel guilty over it.

“It’s nice here…” she stated, her voice just above a whisper as she remembered how things were in the Vault before their escape and rescue. 

She quickly shook those thoughts away, not wanting to dwell on them for the moment. Instead, she smiled and glanced back at Sami and Jung. “Besides,” she started with a knowing look on her face, “I think that some of us like it here better than where we were before.”

Omega and Emerie both followed her gaze to the pair, soft smiles crossing their features as they watched Jung laugh softly at something Sami said, only for her to grin sheepishly, a small look of pride on her blue features as Lyana giggled alongside with her. 

The young Pantoran had gotten quite close with both Jung and Hunter over time, especially the former, throughout her training. She’d proven to be quite strong in the Force, something that Jung had been guiding her through, and everyone could see just how much the two cared for each other. 

Omega and Hunter, both knowing everything Jung had gone through during Order 66 knew that Sami was healing those old scars and it had been nothing short of touching and wonderful to see. Omega was sure if and when the opportunity came, Jung and Hunter would adopt Sami in a heartbeat and she honestly couldn’t be more excited at the idea of having yet another sister. 

“Yeah…” Omega nodded slowly in agreement, smiling as she slowly turned her attention back to Eva, “Pabu just seems to bring out the best in people.”

Emerie smiled softly at this, nodding in agreement as she looked down at the two girls, a warmth filling her chest. It was a feeling she was getting a lot since the escape and rescue from Tantiss and it was something Emerie wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to, but was grateful for it all the same.

“But Hunter has been acting…weird,” Eva reiterated with a soft giggle, looking over at Omega, “but I’m sure it’s nothing.” 

Omega felt inclined to relax a little at Eva’s words, sighing as she gave a small shrug, wondering–and hoping–that she was right. Whatever it was was probably no big deal but she couldn’t help but feel a little bitter about being left out of the hypothetical loop. 

“I hope you're right,” Omega sighed, blowing her bangs out of her face, not sounding completely convinced. 

So when Jung and the other kids caught up, Omega decided to try her luck again.

“Jung, do you think Hunter’s been acting weird?” She asked, looking up at them with her head tilted. 

At the sudden question, Jung blinked, looking genuinely confused for a moment before they shook their head. 

“I…I don’t think so,” they answered in their soft voice before they signed, ‘ At least no weirder than he already is .’ 

This got a chuckle out of the young girls as they nodded their heads in agreement. Omega had been around Jung long enough to have learned Basic Sign Language while the others were slowly picking up on it enough to grasp what Jung was saying when they used it. 

‘ Guess so ,’ Omega signed back with a shrug, knowing out of anyone else, Jung was sure to know Hunter the best. On the other hand, out of everyone, Jung was the best at hiding their feelings and thoughts, so Omega had no real way if Jung was just leading her on or not. 

“He’s just…a little stressed,” Jung added, their tone calm and reassuring, “You know how he gets at times.” 

Omega stayed silent for a moment, taking in Jung’s words. She wanted to chalk it up to Hunter just being stressed out with finding the kids’ families, but that didn’t explain everyone else's' weird behavior lately. 

However, she couldn’t dwell on it, knowing it would make her all the more frustrated and confused, but also because she nearly bumped into Mox when the group in front of them suddenly stopped.

“Ah, sorry-” Omega quickly apologized, catching herself before she ran into Mox. 

“It’s fine,” Mox assured, shaking his head as he chuckled, watching as Batcher barked in greeting and immediately ran up to Omega. 

Omega laughed softly, patting the hound’s head as Batcher licked her face before she moved on to greet Eva and Lyana as well while Sami hid herself behind Jung’s leg. As Batcher made her rounds, Omega took a look around at the large chamber they were standing in as Phee moved her lantern about. 

It was much like the cave Tech and her were in on Ipsidon; with his high walls, columns, stalagmites, and stalactites, but it had a large, stagnant underground lake that they were all standing around with something glowing and shimmering just below the surface. 

“Woah…” the kids whispered in collective awe as they took in the caveran. Some of them went up to the bank and squatted down, warily reaching out to put their hand in the water before either pulling them away from the cold or splashing the other kid next to them. Others went to the walls, running their hands across the layers and lines of browns and grays while the rest poked at the stalagmites with wide eyes. 

“Pretty cool, huh?” Phee asked with a grin as she watched the kids take a look around, her voice echoing off the walls a little. 

“Yeah!” Stak exclaimed, grinning before suddenly shouting in surprise as Deke splashed water in his direction. 

“Echo!” Omega called out, grinning as her voice echoed off the walls, a hand to her ear as she listened. 

“Echo!” Lyana copied, beaming as she cupped her hands over her mouth. 

“Echo’s not here,” Eva frowned, tilting her head in confusion as she looked over to the two older girls. 

“Echo’s named after that,” Emerie cleared up, chuckling softly at Eva’s confusion. “The repetition,” she added, motioning around as more kids joined in on making their voices echo against the chamber walls. 

“Ooh…” Eva whispered, her eyes going wide as she nodded in understanding before she joined in the others with a wide smile. 

“Echo!” 

Phee chuckled softly as she watched the kids continue with their shenanigans, while AZ nervously hovered around her, his little headlights glancing around as the echoes seemed to make the chamber shake slightly. 

“Shouldn’t we be heading back now?” AZ asked, doing his best to keep his voice down.

“Relax, AZZY, we’re doin’ just fine,” Phee assured, shaking her head as she turned to the droid. Her claims weren’t reassuring enough for him, as the droid fiddled with his hands. 

“Really? We’re already pretty deep and it’s getting late-” 

“ Relax ,” Phee repeated, reaching out to pat the droid’s back, “it’s all under control. Don’t rush us. You can’t rush an adventure.” 

Still apprehensive about the whole thing (as nobody informed AZ about their plans because they knew he’d accidentally let it slip to Omega) AZ turned to Jung and Emerie, hoping for some help on his side from the more…reasonable people when it came to their little “adventures.” 

“Jung-” AZ started before Jung shook their head and signed, ‘ Listen to Phee .’ 

“Thanks, J.M,” Phee smirked, getting a small smile and a curt nod in response, “Don’t twist your wires, AZZY, just enjoy yourself!” 

AZ let out a noise that sounded like a sigh, giving up as he tried to do what Phee suggested by first shouting at Jax and Stak, who were play fighting a little too close to the lake’s bank.

As soon as he was gone though and the kids were distracted, the three adults huddled up to have a conversation while occasionally glancing around to make sure the kids were still safe. 

“Any word from Tech or the others?” Emerie asked, keeping her voice down as she took Bayrn out of the sling and held him close. 

Phee shook her head with a small sigh. “Nothing yet,” she answered, setting the lantern down to pull out her comlink. 

‘ Not surprised ,’ Jung signed with a sigh. 

“And I’m not sure if we’ll get much of a connection all the way down here,” Phee added, trying to see if she could get into contact with Tech or one of the others. 

At this, Jung and Emerie glanced at each other, worried, before looking back at Phee.

Without looking up, Phee chuckled softly; “Relax…it’s a maybe. Might just need to get some higher ground.” 

“That’s a lot of ‘maybes’ and ‘mights,’ Phee,” Emerie pointed out with a small frown as she patted Bayrn’s back. 

“I’ve got this under control,” Phee reassured, “besides, knowing the rest of them, I”m sure they could use all the time they can get to get ready.” 

At this, Emerie and Jung had to reluctantly nod their heads in agreement. It was more likely than not that the other groups weren’t done getting everything together, so they were stuck still having to distract Omega and the other kids until they knew they could head back. 

“Still, try to get into touch with one of them,” Emerie suggested, “It is getting late after all…” 

“I will, I will,” Phee replied as she started off to get a better signal to get into contact with someone. 

Jung and Emerie both watched her go as she disappeared behind some columns, seemingly knowing her way around the place. Once she was gone, Emerie turned to Jung and sighed, 

“How much do you want to bet they aren’t done yet?”

Jung chuckled softly, shaking their head; ‘ Easy bet . That’s a guarantee.’

Emerie let out an exhale of amusement as she nodded her head in agreement, “You’re right…” 

“Emerie! Jung!” Eva suddenly shouted, catching their attention and making them snap their heads towards the noise. 

“There’s a weird crab attacking Jax!”

“Get it off! Get it off!” Jax shrieked. 

“Stop moving! You’ll make it even more angry!” Lyana urged as Stak and Mox both laughed at the sight of Jax desperately trying to get the crab off of him. 

“Stop laughing!” Jax shouted just above the sound of Batcher barking. 

“Jax! Stop moving!” Sami repeated while Omega attempted to try and pry the crab off of him. 

“It’s pinching me!” He replied before flinging the crab off in the direction of the clone cadets. 

At the flying crab, the three screamed and scattered, but not before the crab attached itself to Stak’s ear. 

“AH WHAT THE KRIFF ?!” Stak screamed as he tried to tug the crab off. 

“No cursing!” AZ exclaimed, hovering over the group in exasperation.

At the cacophony, Bayrn laughed and clapped his hands eagerly as Jung and Emerie stood in stunned silence before Jung quickly rushed over to take care of the situation as the kids continued to scream and yell as the crab was flung from person to person. 

As Emerie watched she could only hope that her brothers were doing somewhat better than them. 

Her brothers were in fact not doing all that much better than them. 

Well, at least, her brothers weren’t dealing with crabs that were alive. 

“Gross,” Crosshair muttered under his breath, making a face of disgust as he peeked over Wrecker’s shoulder at the crabs he was currently pulling apart to get crab meat for the sushi.  

“How can you do that?” Crosshair asked, shuddering as he looked away. 

“Shut up, I’m trying not to think about it too much-” Wrecker responded through gritted teeth, looking like he was seconds away from bursting out into tears, making it seem like he was cutting up an onion instead of pulling apart crabs. 

While Hunter finished cleaning out the oven, Wrecker and Crosshair had moved on to get the dinner ready while they waited for Echo and Viram to return with the ingredients they needed for the cake. The party was supposed to be something of a potluck, with several families bringing their own dishes to ensure that they had enough food to feed everyone who was invited (which was essentially the entire island). Even still, they had a few more side dishes they needed to make, alongside with a few rolls that were Wrecker’s personal favorites. 

“You’re supposed to be making the buttercream,” Wrecker reminded, glancing over at Crosshair with a huff.

“I am making the buttercream,” Crosshair defended, showing Wrecker the large bowl in his arms as he stirred at the cream with a whisk attached to his prosthetic. 

Wrecker raised an eyebrow before he suddenly reached forward, scooping up a bit with his finger as he gave it a taste.

“Hey-!” Crosshair exclaimed, yanking the bowl away.

“Eh, not bad,” Wrecker shrugged, licking his lips, “Tastes fishy though-”

“Because you have crab fingers!” Crosshair replied with a grumble, shaking his head as he glared at Wrecker, scooping out the section that his fingers had touched before tossing it in the trash bin. 

“Okay, let me wash my hands then and have another taste-” Wrecker urged with a small pout, already reaching out for the bowl. 

Crosshair glared and shook his head profusely as he quickly dodged his brother and scrambled to get behind Hunter. 

Hunter, having just gotten up from cleaning the oven, blinked in confusion, nearly tripping as Crosshair suddenly rushed behind him. He glanced between Crosshair and Wrecker with a frown before he sighed and rubbed his face. 

“C’mon, just another taste!” Wrecker pleaded, trying to reach over Hunter’s shoulder to the bowl. 

“No!” Crosshair restated. 

Wrecker pouted, but his puppy-eyes did little to affect Crosshair in the slightest, but it did distract him enough for Hunter to stick his finger into the bowl and take a taste.

“Mmh…tart,” he replied, licking his lips. 

Crosshair’s jaw went slack as his eyes widened slightly in shock and offense as he stared blankly at his brothers in disbelief. Hunter blinked back in confusion, not understanding he did something wrong while Wrecker stifled a laugh and managed to snag another taste. 

“Tart and fishy,” Wrecker determined with a nod.

Crosshair sputtered before muttering a string of curses under his breath as he set the bowl aside on the counter.

“That’s it . I’m starting over,” he declared, shaking his head as he rummaged through the cabinets for another bowl. 

“What?” Hunter exclaimed, his eyebrows shooting up as he frowned, “What do you mean? You can’t just start over-”

“I can, that was disgusting !” Crosshair argued, shooting a glare over his shoulder at Hunter as he pulled out another bowl from the cabinets, struggling slightly to do so with his one hand as the whisk on his prosthetic flung buttercream around, “You both didn’t wash your hands before tasting it!” 

Hunter and Wrecker glanced at each other, unable to deny Crosshair’s very true claim. 

“Okay, fair point,” Hunter grumbled, giving in before he shook his head, “But you can’t because we have only so many ingredients-” 

At Hunter’s reminder, Crosshair groaned, realizing Hunter was right and he’d already used up most of what they needed in order to make the buttercream in the first place with the current batch. He faced palmed, getting a whisk full of buttercream, which only caused him to curse again.

Hunter and Wrecker both did their best to stifle their laughter as the cream dripped down the front of Crosshair’s face and he begrudgingly cleaned off what he could with a few licks. The rest he wiped off with his apron, letting the taste linger on his tongue for a bit before he looked back at his brothers. 

“...tart.” he replied. 

Hunter nodded as if to say, ‘Told you so.’ 

Crosshair rolled his eyes and reached for the sugar, pouring a bunch more into it before stirring it into the cream.

Hunter and Wrecker both watched before slowly returning to their own duties, with Wrecker getting ready to prep the rice for the sushi while Hunter went through their ingredients again to make sure they didn’t need Echo to get anything else. 

Finally, it seemed like things were slowly falling into place and they were getting what needed to be done in order to pull off the party that was supposed to happen in a couple of hours. Even if their initial cake wasn’t ready in the slightest, they had at least something done. 

“Uh oh-” 

“What now?” Crosshair grumbled, looking up from his bowl and over to Wrecker who was pouring rice into the bowl Crosshair had previously pulled out. 

“Uh…we might need more rice,” Wrecker sheepishly replied, showing Hunter and Crosshair both the few cups of rice that was sitting in the bowl. 

“Great,” Crosshair sighed, shaking his head.

“I’ll tell Echo,” Hunter assured, quickly going to grab his comlink. 

As Wrecker frowned at the bowl and Hunter got in touch with Echo, Tay walked through the backdoor and into the kitchen, taking a sniff of the air as he entered. 

“Smells like at least something’s cooking,” he quipped with a chuckle as he made his way over.

Crosshair glared, huffing as he continued to whisk the cream. “What are you doing in here? You’re supposed to be helping outside,” he reminded. 

“I am,” Tay replied with a grin as he approached Crosshair, “Khea told me to get the tablecloths.” 

His eyes glanced down at the bowl of buttercream in Crosshair’s arms and he tilted his head before pointing at it. 

“Can I have a taste?” He asked. 

“No,” Crosshair responded curtly, pulling the bowl away before shooting Tay a look. “Besides, doesn’t your species not eat because of your lack of tastebuds?” 

“Not a lack…we just lose that sense as we get older-” Tay corrected, shaking his head as he continued to inch his hand towards the cream. 

“ Still -” Crosshair grumbled, pulling the bowl away once more. 

Tay huffed and pouted, “C’mon, just a taste-”

“ Tay’kaa Marr .” 

“Okay, okay-” Tay groaned, holding up his hands in surrender as he backed off and instead turned his attention to Wrecker. 

“Hey, Khea said you knew where the tablecloths were,” Tay mentioned, turning away from Crosshair who relaxed now that his boyfriend wasn’t trying to also get a taste of the buttercream. 

“Yeah, they’re in the cabinets down that hall,” Wrecker answered, pointing Tay in the direction, “They’re the blue ones, I think we have enough. There should be five or six of ‘em.”

“Nice, thanks,” Tay nodded, giving Wrecker a grateful smile before he turned on his heel, looking like he was about to head in the direction he was directed to. 

At the last second though, he spun around and with two fingers, scooped out some buttercream from Crosshair’s bowl to have a taste. His black, forked tongue flickered out as he licked his fingers clean, getting a strangled, surprised exclamation and gasp from Crosshair who barely had time to process what had just happened. 

“Hmm..tastes like nothing..” Tay grumbled with a small huff, smacking his lips. 

“Tay’kaa Marr!” Crosshair shouted, causing Tay to bolt out of the kitchen and down the hallway as Crosshair chased after him with the whisk. 

Hunter and Wrecker watched in stunned silence before they burst out into laughter as they listened to Tay plea with Crosshair in the other room. 

Sure, they didn’t have the ingredients they needed and therefore weren’t too sure that they would get everything done in time, but at the very least they were having fun.

And that was enough to at least ease Hunter just a bit. 

While Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair struggled to put together the dinner and dessert plan for the night without burning down the Nultez house and Phee, Jung, and Emerie entertained the group of rambunctious children while making sure they weren’t eaten alive by cave crabs; Echo and Viram were having a lovely time strolling through Pabu’s marketplace. 

It was peaceful as always, with the sun slowly starting to set and steadily lighting everything in a golden light as people went around their business and vendors called out and promoted their goods and wears. 

It was a far cry from the life that they were used to–hectic, busy, dangerous, amongst other things–but even still they treated the grocery run as a mission. At least, handling it with the same amount of importance as they only had so much time before the party and they still needed to get the supplies for the cake back to the others so they could actually start on baking it. 

“Who starts baking a cake without all the ingredients?” Echo wondered aloud for perhaps the tenth time since having left the Nultez’s house. 

At this point, Viram just rolled her eyes in fond amusement, finding it entertaining that Echo was so worked up about something, though she knew he was probably as stressed about the party going well as Hunter was (though he was better at hiding it). 

“You’ve said that already, love,” she informed as she looked through a stand of fruit for the freshest picks to get for the cake, “multiple times.” 

“I know,” Echo sighed as he handed the vendor some credits, “but it’s a genuine question.” 

“It’s done with good intentions,” Viram replied, defending their choices with a shrug. 

“I suppose,” Echo grumbled in reluctant agreement, “but I don’t know why I’m surprised.” He shook his head and chuckled softly, “They never really plan things out to begin with.”

Viram looked over at Echo and smiled softly, knowing that as much as Echo liked to gripe about his brothers, they meant the world to him and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for them. Though she knew they could be exasperating and a handful to deal with, making Echo feel less like an older brother and more like a mother to them at times. 

“But seriously -” the fond look on his face was quickly replaced with exasperation, “why would you plan to make a cake without making sure you have all of the ingredients?” 

Viram couldn’t help but laugh at this, a sweet melody that made Echo’s stomach do a flip and his chest fill with warmth as he glanced over and watched as she covered her mouth and just barely hid her dimples as her eyes turned into crescent moons of delight. 

“Only they would,” she replied between giggles. 

“And believe me, this isn’t the first time,” Echo responded, smiling slightly despite his annoyance as he took Viram’s arm into his own as they continued down the marketplace street in a brisk walk. 

“A year after I first initially joined them, they tried doing something like this,” he disclosed, a fond expression crossing his features at the old memory. “Apparently they raided the kitchen on Kamino for ingredients and food before smuggling it into our barracks and made an impromptu cake out of them.” 

“Oh, that’s sweet,” Viram smiled, able to picture what Echo was talking about. 

“Mmh…it was,” Echo agreed, nodding and humming in agreement, “until they used a deathstick for a candle and triggered the smoke detectors and set off an alarm.” He sighed, rubbing at his temple with his other arm. 

Viram blinked, the sweet little picture of all of them throwing a little anniversary party for Echo suddenly turning into a chaotic mess with alarms and a sprinkler system going off. She couldn’t stifle the small snort at the image as they made their way to another stand to pick out some eggs.

“Well, isn’t that a story,” Viram chuckled, shaking her head in fond amusement. 

“It wasn’t funny at the time, but it’s a nice memory to look back on,” Echo mused as he picked out some eggs. 

Viram smiled softly, always one to enjoy whenever Echo brought up stories from his past; whether they were about his ARC Trooper days with Fives in the 501st or his times with the Bad Batch, it was always lovely to see him reminisce on old times and remember the good that happened during those times of war and uncertainty. 

“So no deathstick candles on Omega’s cake then?” Viram jokingly asked, raising an eyebrow as she handed some credits to the vendor once Echo had gotten the eggs that they needed. 

Echo laughed and shook his head, “No…no deathstick candles. We should get some actual candles. Knowing that the party is at Wrecker and Khea’s, I’m sure either of them is going to try and use some kind of detonator as a candle instead.” 

“I did overhear that Wrecker was planning to set up some fireworks to go off later tonight,” Viram hummed with a grin as she and Echo made their way back through the marketplace. 

“Let’s see how that goes,” Echo scoffed, rolling his eyes fondly, “considering that everything is going so well so far.” 

Viram snorted and shook her head, leaning up to kiss Echo’s cheek as she reassured him in Mikkian and took his hand into her own. 

“They’ll pull it off, somehow.” 

Echo hummed, nodding as his heart skipped a beat at the chaste kiss. “I know,” he nodded, bringing her hand up to kiss the back of it in a gesture of gratitude and affection. 

“I just worry for them.” 

Viram smiled and chuckled, shaking her head. “When do you not?”

“Good point,” Echo laughed, “At this point, only Omega doesn’t worry me.” 

“For good reason,” Viram replied, nodding in agreement, “She’s a very strong, capable young lady. She’s proven herself time and time again…” 

At Viram’s kind words about his sister, Echo smiled softly, slowly nodding as he thought about everything that Omega had gone through from Kamino up until now on Pabu. She’d been through a lot more than most and she never failed to impress him with everything that she did. Now he could only hope that he, Rex, Chuchi, and the others would be able to rebuild the galaxy into something better that she could be a part of and thrive in. 

Emerie's words about their lack of a childhood as clones came back to him in moments like this, and Echo prayed to the Force that Omega might get the chance of having that childhood and future that he, and like all the clones before him, were robbed of. 

“Hunter’s calling-” 

Viram’s voice pulled Echo out of his thoughts and he turned to her as she fished the comliink out of her bag. 

“Hello?”

Echo raised an eyebrow, biting back a groan as he knew that if Hunter was calling, it didn’t mean anything good. For once, he wished that ‘Hunter’s calling’ meant ‘good news is on the way!’ But that was never the case.

“Oh okay, yes, we can get some of that too,” Viram replied, nodding her head before saying goodbye and turning off the comlink.

“What now?” Echo asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“They need more rice,” Viram informed with a sigh. 

“Wasn’t that-”

“Five vendors down? Yup,” Viram nodded as she turned on her heel and headed back down the way they came. 

“Wonderful,” Echo replied sarcastically, shaking his head as he followed after her. 

The two got the final things they needed (including the rice) plus a couple of other things (some of which they needed to get after Hunter called them again multiple times) within an hour or so. Once they made sure that they had everything they needed (and called Hunter to make sure that they didn’t need anything else), they headed back to the Nultez’s place in a light jog as the sky slowly began to turn more purple and pink than orange. 

“I’m surprised the house is still standing,” Viram commented in jest as they came across the house.  

Echo laughed softly, shaking his head as they made their way up onto the porch.

“For now.”