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“You are about ten tons of rage in a very small, deceivingly cute body vod’ika,” the clone — the vod — under him drawls in observation, sharp and amused. Like Boba isn’t holding a knife to his neck.
Boba’s cheeks go warm against his will and he glares, huffs, retreats and regroups.
The vod moves and it’s smooth, easy, dangerous, as he gets his feet under him. Boba doesn’t know who this is, and the tattooed designation does nothing to help him but—
Boba’s good, he knows this because his father has taught him and helped train him. There was never any question that Boba would be good. But this vod might be better and Boba can’t, for the life of him, figure out why he didn’t stop Boba before he managed to get the knife under his throat.
8826 grins, a slash of teeth, “Nice to meet you too.”
“Haven’t actually met you,” Boba feels the need to point out and 8826 sighs, calls out to the house.
“Thought you said the kid was smart.”
There’s a beat and Fox appears, narrow-eyed annoyed and equipped with whatever concoction Ponds or whoever has foisted off on him today.
“Not my fucking fault the idiocy is contagious,” he grumbles, pauses, looks the scene over with a raised eye, and Boba hopes he hasn’t clocked the ruffled clothes, the knife Boba is trying to slip back into it’s holster, the stuff Boba knocked over with the scare.
It’s futile of course, but Boba is hopeful.
“You wound me,” 8826 deadpans, and collapses onto the couch with lazy limbs and a tilt of his head, “Not a word about me to the kid? And here I thought I was the favourite.”
Fox rolls his eyes, “The only favourite I’ve ever fucking had for anything and everything is Blockade, and with the rate you all are going that’s never going to change.’
8826 pouts, “Really kih’vod, my heart, how will I go on?”
“Same as you always do,” Fox answers, dead-eyed and dry, rolls his eyes, “Did you even tell him your name or did the introduction get lost with the fucking mess you both made of my living room.”
Boba flushes again, and 8826 rolls his eyes, “Apparently I chose a bad time to swing by and see my dearest, darling, baby brother and walked in while the kid was practicing.”
Fox sighs, looks up at the ceiling for patience, “Kid, what have we said about practicing in the living room?”
Boba winces, stops himself from shuffling his feet and tries to look as repentant as possible, “Don’t?”
Fox raises an eyebrow, takes a sip of his concoction, winces and nods, “Good.”
He turns a glare on the vod that Boba still hasn’t been given a name for, “Just by virtue of being the only fucking one in the whole sithsdamn squad with both a functioning brain and common fucking sense, I’m still the fucking oldest, asshole.”
8826 turns a pitying look to Boba and shakes his head slowly even as he says, “Of course you are.”
Fox narrows his eyes, “I fucking hope it takes you weeks to get all the fucking glitter out,” he hisses and turns to Boba.
“Kid, Neyo. Neyo, Kid. If I come back and my house is destroyed I will retaliate appropriately.”
Oh, Boba thinks, gulps and feels, suddenly, more nervous, so this is Neyo.
8826 — Neyo — huffs as Fox leaves, “Knew it was him.”
Boba stands, awkward in the middle of the room and Neyo raises an eyebrow.
“You gonna stand there all day vod’ika?”
Boba winces, shrugs, “Sorry about the knife,” he mutters.
Neyo huffs, “I’ve had worse, besides you weigh as much as a third-cycle, you barely did any damage.”
Boba squawks, “I passed my verd'goten! I’m an adult!”
Neyo hums, “A very tiny, stabby one,” he agrees and Boba wrinkles his nose.
Neyo has been on Concord Dawn the entire time Boba has been here, this is the first time he’s seen him. He tries not to let that hurt him.
“You didn’t stop me,” Boba finally says, question and defense all rolled into one.
Neyo stretches, sighs, shugs as he sprawls even more than before, “You would’ve ended up getting hurt.”
“Okay,” Boba allows as, gives that to him and narrows his eyes, crosses his arms “But why’ve I never seen you before?”
Neyo waves a hand, “Had to let the happy family settle in.”
Boba doesn’t know Neyo well, can’t decipher any hidden meaning behind it or read the tone of it, but his shoulders hitch up in self defense anyways.
“Why are you visiting now then?” he asks, and he doesn’t mean to sound so bitter.
“Extenuating circumstances.” Neyo says, waves his hand, “Nothing against you kid.”
“Oh.” he’d thought it was his fault Neyo hadn’t been coming. Thought he was being blamed for some unknown slight. It had made him a little angry to think about, a little upset.
It’s more of a relief than he thought it would be to know that wasn’t the case.
He tries to think of something to say, can’t and swallows thickly. Remembers something.
“What was Fox talking about? With the glitter.”
Neyo’s eyes narrow and he huffs, makes a face Boba can only describe as a pout, “Absolutely nothing. Completely unrelated, I have to get my dearest little brother back for certain wake up calls, wanna hear about the time he ate trash out of the recycler?”
Boba raises an eyebrow, relaxes a little bit, “Fox?”
Neyo grins manic glee, “Oh yes.”
Boba considers, debates, looks at the nonchalant sprawl and the mess on the floor and shrugs.
“Sure.”