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Tech knew that there are a lot of weird things that could happen on missions. Strange animal attacks. Propositions for all sorts of things from locals. Explosions that were not meant to happen. But not once had the thought of any of the team drinking a truth potion ever crossed his mind. Let alone that he himself would be the one that did something so colossally stupid.
He refused to blame himself, though. It isn’t his fault that their hosts told him to only drink out of the red pitcher when he requested a beverage. They were both red pitchers! Couldn’t they have been more specific? Perhaps tell him not to drink from the dark red nearly maroon one? Surely it still counted as red?
At first, he hadn’t really noticed that he had drunk something he shouldn’t have. It hadn’t tasted weird. Just slightly sweet, but for all he knew that was what this planet’s water tasted like. He hadn’t noticed anything off about it at all. At least, not until he was completely unable to stop himself from bluntly informing Hunter his plan was shit.
“Hunter, I do not believe I have ever heard you say something so stupid in my life.”
The second the words left his mouth, he let out a strangled gasp while the other four, and their three local hosts, turned to stare at him wide eyed.
“I did not intend to actually say that out loud.”
Crosshair burst into laughter, his normally stoic disposition vanishing entirely as he fell against Wrecker’s arm, his whole body shaking with the force of his amusement. Tech glared at him without hesitation.
“It is rude to laugh at people, Crosshair.”
The team’s youngest just waved at him as he shook his head. Which had him crossing his arms and speaking bluntly once more.
“You are an unrepentant asshole.”
For some reason, that just had him laughing even more. Wrecker seemed to barely be able to hold his own laughter in while Hunter and Echo looked concerned. Not a surprise. They were the only two with any sense of respect or decorum.
A fact he was also unable to keep to himself, and the straw that broke Wrecker’s metaphorical eeopie’s back, as he too started to laugh.
“Tech, are you okay?” Hunter asked cautiously. “You are being, uhm, very blunt.”
“Did you only drink out of the red pitcher?” The village elder asked, his deep red brows furrowed tightly.
“Well of course I did, both of the pitchers are red!”
“One of them is purple.”
“No it is not!”
The older being chuckled and shook his head. “I can assure you, Tech. One of them is very much purple.”
“Tech, what color are our hosts?” Echo asked suddenly. Which had him frowning.
“A dark red.” he replied firmly. “That is an odd and slightly insulting question to ask, Echo, and not very like you.”
The ARC bit back a laugh and shook his head. “No, Tech. I asked because they are very, very much purple as well. Did you not know you were color blind?”
“No!” he, and his batch mates, gasped. He immediately added, “Surely I would have noticed!”
Echo shrugged. “Well, we grew up in all white Kamino. Everything around you is shades of white, black and gray with a little bit of red. Which you can clearly see. It isn’t all that surprising to me that you missed it.”
Crosshair, who had only just barely gotten himself to stop laughing, drawled, “And here I thought your eyes couldn’t get any worse.”
“I will fucking end you.” Tech told Crosshair harshly, which had him once more laughing. He turned away from his ridiculous brother to face the village elder.
“How serious is this?”
“You are in no danger. You will just have zero inhibitions and will continue to speak whatever comes to mind.”
“For how long?” Hunter asked.
“Indeterminable.”
“Well.” Tech exhaled harshly. “Fuck me.”
Having zero filter was far more exhausting than Tech thought it had a right to be. Crosshair and Wrecker would not stop laughing at him. He was very tempted to shoot both of them. Hunter had his stupid and frustrating ‘I’m a concerned parent’ eyebrows furrowed constantly and was also continuously growing on Tech’s nerves. And Echo, well, Echo wasn’t doing anything wrong at all but Tech was avoiding him like the plague.
It wasn’t the ARC’s fault. There were just. There were many things he has had to stop himself from telling him these past few months. And he wasn’t about to let himself do so now. So until this damned potion has worn off, he was going to do everything he could to avoid him.
Echo noticed immediately, of course he did. Echo was observant and brilliant and it wasn’t as if it was hard to notice your best friend doing his utmost not to speak to you. Tech knew it was hurting him. He felt awful for it, too. But he would rather hurt his feelings for however long this thing lasted than admit all he has kept secret and lose him as a friend forever.
Except, the blasted potion had to ruin that. It was easy enough to avoid him when they were carrying out the mission that had brought them to that damned planet in the first place. It was a whole other thing to attempt to do so while in the confined space of the Marauder. And, he, of course, ended up putting his foot in his mouth. And in a far worse way than he had feared that he would.
As they boarded the ship, Tech snagged Hunter by the elbow and pulled him forward. “Copilot with me.”
The whole team stopped moving, the atmosphere immediately tense. Echo, who was already halfway to the front of the ship, shifted awkwardly.
“Tech, I can help you pilot the ship.”
“No offense, Echo, but you’re the last person I want to spend time with in an enclosed space at this moment.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he wanted to pull them back in. He would have sooner bit his own tongue off than cause the absolutely devastated look that was momentarily splashed across Echo’s handsome face. The fact that Echo was a highly trained soldier and able to quickly school his features did not make him feel any better. In fact, it made him feel far worse.
As did his very tight voice as he nodded. “Right. Well, I will be in my bunk if I’m needed.”
He pushed past the four of them, the door to his and Tech’s shared quarters closing behind his back with a painfully audible click. The other three all rounded on Tech, disapproving looks on their faces.
“I know you can’t help what you are saying, Tech, but that was…” Hunter began, voice trailing off as he was unsure what to actually say.
“It was pretty mean.” Wrecker continued with ease. “And confusing. I thought you liked Echo?”
“I do. Very much.” he replied shortly.
“His problem is that he likes Echo too much.” Crosshair drawled. “And he is too pansy ass to do anything about it.”
“Every time you open your mouth, my urge to end you increases.”
Crosshair grinned. “Well, am I wrong?”
Tech grit his teeth and bit out painfully, “No. You are not.”
Hunter huffed and crossed his arms. “Seriously? You have been avoiding him this entire time because you don’t want to tell him you have feelings for him?”
“Correct.”
He huffed again and stabbed his finger in the bunks’ direction. “Go. Tell him. Now.”
“Hunter!”
“It is not an option, Tech. Tell him this instance before he gets it in his head that he isn’t wanted here period.”
“Hunter, it could end very badly.”
“Or it could begin very wonderfully. Now go.”
“There are days in which I hate you.”
“I know.” He gave a satisfied grin and pointed again. “I’m serious. Crosshair and I will take off. You go make sure Echo knows he is loved.”
“Do not crash my ship.”
“We won't.”
He glared at them, and then turned to stare at the bunk rooms. Wrecker clasped him on the shoulder suddenly, which had him turning to glare at him instead.
“It will be okay, Tech. I know it.”
“You are far more optimistic than I am.” he grumbled as he walked towards what he was horrified was the end of the best friendship he had ever had. Then again, his harsh statement may have already done that for him.
He lifted his hand to slide the door open. When it did, the pain in his chest increased tenfold at the sight of Echo seated on the bottom bunk, elbows resting against metal knees with his head bowed. When he looked up, his golden eyes were wet and dark skin flushed. At the sight of Tech, he was standing in an instant.
“I’ll give you space.”
“My body produces far too much oxytocin for you!” he blurted out, having no other idea how to stop the other from leaving other than admitting the truth.
Echo froze and stared at him. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I know that you know what that means, but I will phrase it differently.” He rolled his shoulders before saying, “I carry very far from platonic feelings for you, Echo. I have been avoiding you because I have been fearful to accidentally tell you how I feel. Hurting you, however, is the last thing that I could ever want to do. So I had to tell you the truth to avoid a painful, and life altering, misunderstanding. Also, Hunter ordered me to do so.”
The last part came out unbidden and he cursed. “The order does not change the validity of the rest of my statement.”
“No, no. I know.” he replied softly. “Normally, I would doubt that you actually felt this way, but I know you can’t lie right now. So, I’ll just ask; why me?”
“Whyever not you!” he exclaimed. “You are one of, if not the, most brilliant beings I have ever met. You think logically, yet still feel things deeply. You have ideas that no one else could ever think of. You listen to me, even if you do not find what I am saying fascinating. More importantly, you ask me to continue! There are so many things about you that I find wonderful, Echo. It is only logical that I have developed romantic feelings.”
“Oh, thank the ka’ra .”
Tech frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
Echo walked closer and reached out to grab his hand. An act which had Tech’s heartbeat racing. “I was, well, I was a little worried it was because I am mostly droid and it fascinated you.”
“No!” He exclaimed, the hand that wasn’t in Echo’s reaching out to grab the front of his chestplate, jerking lightly so that the ARC’s eyes were forced to raise the small distance to meet his. “Echo, do not for a moment believe that. While your body may be physically more metal than flesh, that does not make you mostly a droid. You are just as human as everyone else on this team. More so, in a way, because you feel so much more deeply then we are used to. Your heart and your brain are the most human parts of you, and they are what I first fell for.”
“And the physical attributes aren’t too much of a deterrent?”
“Deterrent?” He scoffed, lifting his hand to cup his cheek. “I would say that your very beautiful physical attributes are just as alluring as your brilliant brain.”
“You think I’m beautiful?”
“Right now I think you are being painfully obtuse. But yes, I think you are very beautiful.”
His expression turned sheepish, but he continued to hold Tech’s gaze as he said, “I think you are too.”
Those five words had Tech feeling as if he was soaring. It wasn’t a true admittance of feelings, however, so he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Does that mean that you return my feelings?”
“Yes, Tech.” Echo grinned. “You give me an exorbitant amount of oxytocin as well.”
He grinned, and instead of asking what he wanted to, blurted out, “I knew you knew what I had meant!”
“Of course I did.” his grin grew. “The question wasn’t because I didn’t understand. It was more out of disbelief.”
“You are a little shit.”
“Yet, I give you too much oxytocin.”
“Clearly, against my better judgment.”
“See, I would be offended by that if I didn’t know you meant it with care.”
“With love.”
“What?”
Tech stepped close enough that they were pressed chest to chest. So close that if he had wanted to, he could have counted each and every one of the incredibly long lashes framing Echo’s golden eyes. He didn’t want to, though. What he wanted to do was make sure that the other man knew the true depth of what he felt for him.
“It isn’t said with just care, Echo. It is said with love. Because I love you.”
The softest, most wonderful smile he had ever seen came over Echo’s face. “I love you too.”
“Truly?”
“Mhmm. All the oxytocin.”
Tech rolled his eyes even as he gave him a wide grin. “Good. Because I am going to kiss you.”
“Sounds like a plan worthy of an ARC trooper.”
“As long as you think that I am worthy of an ARC trooper, I could care less about my plans.”
He laughed and placed his hand on the back of Tech’s neck. Right before their lips touched he whispered, “Don’t worry. You are.”