Chapter Text
“Omega! Time to eat,” Echo poked his head inside the ship trying to find his sister.
“Coming!” She put her sketch pad down next to her paints. In a rush, she knocked over some bottles of paint, but left them once she saw they weren’t leaking. She jumped down and headed outside where everyone was sitting around a fire.
Tech handed her a plate. “Practicing your art again?”
She nodded. “I’m working on getting more details right.”
“My favorite painting is the one you did of Lula and me,” Wrecker said with a grin.
She smiled. Her art covered the walls of the ship. Even the pieces she knew were not her best work were treasured by her brothers. They always encouraged her. “If you love something, you should keep at it as long as it makes you happy.” Echo had told her that one day when she cried over a piece she tried so hard on, but just couldn’t get right in her own eyes.
As they finished their meals and thanked Echo for being chef again, Hunter went over the plan for the next day. “Tomorrow is our last day here. Tech will work on the ship and finish his modifications. Echo, Wrecker, and I will go into town for the rest of the supplies. It’s a bit of a trek, but we need these in case we get stuck somewhere. Omega and Crosshair will organize the rest of the cargo we retrieved earlier today.” Everyone nodded and Omega had the biggest grin on her face. Crosshair had returned to them only a year ago and she liked spending time with him. He was cold at first and didn’t know how to interact with her, but he had gotten more comfortable over time. Crosshair noticed her smile and glared at Hunter who looked back at him with a gleam in his eyes. He knew exactly what he was doing. Crosshair rolled his eyes.
Hunter believed Omega was a good influence on Crosshair. When his brother first came back he was haunted by his time in the Empire. He put up icy walls to keep everyone out, often lashing out when he didn’t want to open up. Omega’s sweet persistence and his brothers’ support had helped him through it.
That night as Omega closed the curtain to her room, the paint bottles she had knocked over were staring at her. When she picked them up to put them back into place, she looked closely at one of the labels. ‘Colors from plants originating on Felucia. Safe for use on paper, fabric, wood, canvas, skin, fur, and hair.’
Hair? Could she use these in her hair? She looked at all the bottles and colors she had. She had never paid much attention to the labels as Tech was the one who helped her pick art supplies. He insisted on approving the supplies so that she didn’t use anything that could be toxic, but he let her pick all the colors she wanted.
Omega reached up with a clean brush and pretended to paint her hair. How might she use these in her hair? Or maybe on her clothes? She read the rest of the labels and immediately had an idea. Instead of using her own hair and having a hard time seeing the back, maybe she could convince one of her brothers to let her paint their hair.
The next morning after ration bars, Wrecker, Echo, and Hunter headed into town. Tech was already at work toward the back of the ship, having been the first up. Crosshair stared at the pile of cargo they had to arrange and put on the ship. Why wasn’t Wrecker the one to move cargo around? He sighed. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Omega. He loved her. She embraced him when he rejoined the Batch and forgave him much faster than he forgave himself. He just had a hard time when her enthusiasm clashed with his need to keep his steely front. She put her feelings out there easily, but he was incredibly cautious when it came to any level of vulnerability. Still, he was definitely getting better at showing affection compared to where he started.
“Morning Crosshair!” she skipped up to him.
“Morning.”
“Crosshair? Can I use my paints to dye your hair?”
He looked at her like she grew a third arm. “No.”
“Please?”
He looked back at the containers. “No. We have to move this cargo.”
“What about after that?”
“No.”
“So instead of dying your hair, can I sit with you while you clean your rifle and read the reports Tech gave me to study?”
Now she was just giving him a hard time. He stared at her and sighed. She knew him well. He liked to have some quiet. He crossed his arms, but shifted his weight in consideration. It would keep her busy without worrying about her running off and if he didn’t like how it looked he could just shave his head again. Maybe he would look good with darker hair like Hunter’s or shades of brown like Tech. He never had that. Might as well agree. It would make her happy and he knew that she wouldn’t stop bothering him about it. He learned early on that just because you say “no” today does not mean she will give up tomorrow, especially when she knew her request didn’t involve any danger.
“Alrigh-” she squealed with joy. “But first! We organize all of this and get it on the ship.” She quickly nodded and grabbed a small container.
He had never seen her work so fast. He helped her with the heavier containers and they found a spot to place everything near Wrecker’s explosives. All told it didn’t take long and they were done by lunch. They split a ration bar and Omega gobbled it down so fast that Crosshair couldn’t help but inwardly smile at how excited she was over the idea of dying his hair.
“I will sit out here and clean my rifle and you can do whatever it is you’re planning on doing,” he said.
“Okay but no peeking. I want it to be a surprise.”
He eyed her suspiciously, but he had come this far. “What do you mean?”
“After I put the paint in your hair and it sets, we have to go to the refresher and wash it off and then let your hair dry. I don’t want you looking in the mirror until we’re done.”
“Fine.” He didn’t know what difference it made. He sat down and got to work on his rifle.
Omega rushed back onto the Havoc Marauder and grabbed four colors, her brushes, a hair clip, and a towel. “Okay, look forward,” she said behind him.
“I am,” he replied, almost annoyed.
She placed the towel over his shoulders so that his clothes wouldn’t get anything on them. She looked at his hair and tried to envision how it would look. She really had no clue what the final product would look like, but gave it her best shot. She took the hair clip Hunter had given her and clipped up the top portion of his hair before she touched his hair near his neck. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to do horizontal streaks of color, or some kind of alternating colors that would look like feathering. She decided to go with the former since it would probably be easier. It was fun to experiment. She smothered her paintbrush in green and started painting streaks of color on the hair from either side of his ears toward the middle of the back of his head. She picked blue next, working her way side to side and then layering each color on top of the one below it.
Just as she picked up a brush covered in purple, Tech appeared from around the back of the ship. He stopped before they saw him, blinked once, went to ask a question, and then closed his mouth before any sound came out. To ask if Crosshair knew what she was doing seemed stupid. He was right there with paint in his hair. Of course he knew. To ask Omega what she was doing was also stupid. It was obvious. Tech stared for a minute at his brother cleaning his rifle like it was any other afternoon while his sister painted his hair into some kind of botanical rainbow. He snapped a picture on his datapad and smiled. That was one thing he never imagined he’d see in his lifetime.
Omega continued until she reached the hair in the clip. She dotted the very ends of those hairs with pink.
“Okay I’m done that part. Now we just have to let it sit for fifteen minutes and then we can wash it out.”
“That’s fine.” Crosshair finished what he was doing and put his rifle away while Omega sat quietly next to him.
“You’ve calmed down,” he said.
“The paint is in and there’s not much to do now but wait, but I’ll set up some things in the refresher.”
He cracked a small smile in her direction. It wasn’t long until she popped her head outside.
“Okay it’s time. Close your eyes! I’ll lead you in. Don’t peek!”
“I know my way around the ship. Even in the dark,” he said, still complying.
She led him inside and into the refresher. “Okay sit down here on the step stool and lean your head over the sink so I can wash all this off you.” Her brother complied, eyes still closed.
She was able to rinse off the remaining paint. Her face lit up when she saw the color had held. She washed it as best she could and rinsed again before wrapping a small towel over his head and drying it.
“Okay you can sit up again.”
Crosshair silently did as he was asked.
“Keep your eyes closed!”
“I am, Omega. I’m not even facing the mirror right now.”
“I just want it to be a surprise.”
She dried his hair as well as she could before grabbing her hairbrush to style it, but it didn’t look quite right.
“Crosshair? Do you just run your hand through your hair to style it?”
“Whatever else would I do?”
“Of course.” She put the brush down and ran her hands through his hair. It looked better. He had streaks of his own gray, along with pink, purple, blue, and green. She thought he looked cool.
Omega beamed. “You can look now.”
Crosshair opened his eyes, stood, and turned to the mirror.
“Oh,” he said.
Omega couldn’t read him at that moment, but he definitely was not as excited as she was. “You hate it.” Her heart dropped a little. Maybe experimenting wasn’t her thing.
Crosshair looked at himself closely. This was not what he was expecting, but he had to admit it was unique. As a sniper he never wanted to stand out. Always lurking behind something so as not to give himself away. He chuckled to himself at the thought of looking like this under his helmet. He didn’t know why he found it funny.
“No, Omega.” He ran his hands through his hair a few times. “I don’t hate it. I thought you were going to dye my hair a more natural color, well, natural for a human.” He continued to look at himself and slowly, a smile crept on his face. “But I like it,” he said as he leaned down to her eye level. “You did a good job.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and he embraced her.
They walked outside and sat back down. Omega leaned on her brother’s side. Over the past year Crosshair had learned a lot about family. Even though he had his brothers during the Clone Wars, bringing a little sister into the mix totally changed things. Before, he never would have thought the ideas of a child would matter so much to him, but Omega did matter. He had always been, as Tech would say, unyielding, but Omega taught him the importance of having just an ounce of flexibility.
Tech appeared again from the other side of the ship, took off his helmet, and walked over to join them. “I see Omega has expanded her definition of ‘canvas,’” he said as he sat down next to her. Crosshair simply stared at him before Tech added, “The lightness of your hair really allows the color to come through.”
“That reminds me,” Omega piped up. “To keep the color from fading too fast, you should wash your hair in cold water, not hot. That’s what the bottle says.”
“I only take cold showers anyway,” Crosshair replied.
“That checks out,” answered Tech. Omega giggled.
Before long their three brothers appeared with the rest of the supplies. Wrecker nearly dropped everything before bursting out laughing. Echo managed to bring his bags to the camp without losing it, but the more he looked at his brother’s new appearance the harder it was to suppress the chuckles rising in his belly.
“What happened to you,” Hunter asked Crosshair through the widest grin.
“Omega wanted to dye my hair with her paints and I let her,” Crosshair stated matter-of-factly.
Hunter was happy to see his brother have some more bonding time with their sister. He knew it didn’t come easy to any of them, especially Crosshair. Seeing his brother open up to an experience like this, to make Omega happy, made his heart swell.
Wrecker calmed himself enough to let out, “Omega, you did a great job. I’ve never seen Crosshair look so good.”
Echo gave himself another moment of amusement before adding, “You look very pretty, Crosshair.”
Crosshair looked at his sister with a smile in his eyes. “I know.”