Work Text:
“Crosshair! We’ve been looking for you,” Omega announces, unabashedly intruding on Crosshair’s peace and quiet.
Crosshair cracks open one eye to glare at his sister looming over him. He had found a lush patch of grass under a tree about a five minute walk from their Pabu abode, hidden from the prying eyes of curious neighbors and meddling siblings. Well, evidently not hidden enough.
“We?” Crosshair drawls, closing his eye again and shifting to get more comfortable.
“Yeah, me and Tech!”
Crosshair sighs. “Why?”
“We found an uninhabited island on one of Phee’s maps. We wanna go explore.”
“That doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with me.”
When Omega doesn’t immediately respond, Crosshair opens his eyes to see her looking away, a despondent expression on her face. “Well, Hunter and Wrecker are working today…and Hunter said we could only go if you went with us because,” she pauses miserably, “you know, Tech’s still recovering, and if anything happened…”
Omega outright stomping on Crosshair’s stomach would have been a softer blow for all the dread and regret that boil up at the hesitant explanation. Tech, his adventurous, capable brother, still recovering from a botched rescue attempt…an attempt to save Crosshair. Tech almost died. Had died in the minds of their siblings until he got a distress message out weeks later.
And now he’s reduced to hoping Omega can convince their wayward brother into joining them for something as mundane as a nature walk on another island.
Crosshair pushes himself up to a sitting position, not missing the way Omega’s face lights up, dispelling any shadows that had lingered there. “Thank you, Crosshair! Tech didn’t think you’d say yes, but I told him you would,” Omega tells him, her hands immediately latching around his wrist to haul him to his feet, as though he needs any help.
“It’s not like I have anything better to do,” Crosshair grumbles, if only to put off the undeserved gratitude.
Omega is unfettered. “I already packed a picnic and everything. Wrecker helped me make sandwiches this morning, and Hunter said we could bring that sweet drink Lyana taught me how to make.”
It seems Omega is not the only sibling who believed Crosshair would go, which simply aches more.
Only Tech had doubted, and another dull ache throbs in Crosshair’s chest as he allows Omega to drag him up the trail. Too soon, they are entering the house, Omega’s voice ringing through the small space, “Tech! I found him! He said he’d come!”
Tech appears from the common room, a spanner in one hand and a small part in the other. He looks surprised. “I am just finishing up on the proximity alarm I am repairing, but it should not take more than a minute or two.”
“That’s fine,” Omega tells him, “I still need to put another container of juice in my pack for our picnic.” She skips into the kitchen happily humming a local tune.
Tech doesn’t immediately return to his work, regarding Crosshair with that calculating look that makes the ex-sniper want to squirm. “I hope Omega didn’t pressure you into agreeing to come,” he says after a moment.
Crosshair scoffs. “Unlike Wrecker and Hunter, I know how to say no to Omega’s tooka eyes.”
This gets a smirk out of Tech before he walks back into the common room. Crosshair hesitates a moment, and then follows. Tech’s work table looks as Tech’s work tables have always looked: cluttered chaos. However, Tech is able to see through the mess, plucking up parts and tools as though they are exactly where he means for them to be. A method to his madness , Crosshair thinks fondly, before squashing down the sentimental emotion.
“I told Hunter that I am recovered enough to handle such a small expedition on my own,” Tech says, not turning to face Crosshair, “but the local healer does not agree…and apparently my own medical experience and knowledge is of little weight in the matter.”
Crosshair leans against the back of the couch. “I don’t mind coming, Tech.”
“It’s not…” Tech starts, his voice taking a sharp tone. He takes an audible breath. “I am not helpless.”
“None of us said that you are.”
Tech huffs a deprecating noise, but does not offer a verbal retort. The room becomes occupied by stiff silence and the soft clattering of Tech finishing his work. Until Omega bursts in, a large pack strapped to her back. “We’re ready whenever you are, Tech,” she chirps.
Tech sets aside his tools and turns, giving Omega a small smile. “I am ready,” he says, going for his own pack that is propped against the table. Crosshair almost offers to take it; however, he doesn’t want to confirm any of Tech’s ill founded ideations. But the allowance doesn’t negate the feeling of guilt when he sees his brother stagger slightly under the weight.
Even in civilian clothes, Tech has incorporated a utility belt, which he clips his well worn data pad to. He looks at Crosshair and Omega in turn. “Shall we?”
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>
The island in question is small. Small enough to walk around at a leisurely pace in an hour. Small enough that Tech is barely able to land the Marauder on the widest part of the narrow beach. Small enough that Crosshair wonders why it was marked on a map at all.
“In her notes,” Tech says, data pad in hand, “Phee states that there is a rare variety of flora native only to this hemisphere, and then only to a few select islands. This being the closest to Pabu. Phee says she has come a few times to look for it, but has been unable to locate it.”
Crosshair and Omega exchange glances, and the tilt of mirth on Omega’s lips nearly sets Crosshair laughing outright. All this to find a flower for Phee. Crosshair is not remotely surprised. But who knew Tech, of all his brothers, would be the hopeless romantic among them.
“Do you have a holopic of it?” Omega asks sweetly at Tech’s elbow.
Tech tips his data pad in Omega’s direction. “Merely a crude sketch; however, it is sufficient.”
They begin their trek into the forested center of the island. Omega, having relinquished her pack to Crosshair when he wordlessly put out his hand for it, is unburdened, darting off ahead to “scout”, as she calls it. Crosshair begins to protest, but Tech shakes his head. “I assure you, this island is perfectly safe. She will be fine.”
They walk shoulder to shoulder, eyes wandering their surroundings in search of the elusive species of flower.
“It should be evident now,” Tech says after a long period of silence, “that Omega and I would have been fine on our own. Your coming was entirely unnecessary.”
Crosshair bristles, disguising his hurt as a bitter retort, “If you didn’t want me to come, you could have just said so. I’m sure the kriffing flower could’ve waited until Hunter or Wrecker were available.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
Tech is quiet a moment before he bites out, “You felt obligated to accompany Omega and I out of a position of guilt. I do not desire your pity.”
“That’s not–”
“Do not deny it, Crosshair. You forget that I know you.”
With a step and a sharp turn, Crosshair cuts off Tech’s path, forcing the splicer to come to an abrupt stop. He shoves a finger into Tech’s chest. “And you forget that I almost lost you!”
Tech glares up at him. “I was not aware that you could lose something that you gave up.”
The words crush like a fist around Crosshair’s heart. “I protected you, all of you, after Kamino fell,” Crosshair hisses, the words feeling like fire in his throat.
“We didn’t want your protection, we wanted our brother.” Tech keeps eye contact, doesn’t flinch away. “And when the opportunity arose that we might save you, I readily gave up protection in favor of you. And I would willingly die again and again, for any one of our family.”
Before Crosshair can respond, Omega’s voice breaks through trees. “Tech! I think I found them! Come see!”
Tech pushes past him, trudging through the undergrowth towards their sister’s voice. Crosshair takes a steadying breath before trailing after.
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>
Crosshair lays on his back, staring up at the cloud strewn sky, listening to the tumbling of waves and the animated voices of his siblings down by the shoreline. They’d found Phee’s flower, and carefully transplanted it in a container Tech had brought especially for the occasion. It sits next to Crosshair now, its petalled head bobbing in the salty breeze.
“Crosshair!” Omega’s voice calls out, sounding far away over the roar of the tide.
He lifts his head to look at the girl, up to her knees in the lapping water. Omega waves her arm wildly, motioning for him to come. Tech isn’t in the water, but he stands just short of its reach, inspecting a shell in the sunlight.
“I’m good up here,” Crosshair calls back lazily, dropping his head back on his arms.
“Aww, you’re no fun!” Omega taunts.
Crosshair chuckles and closes his eyes. “I can live with that!”
A few minutes pass, and someone sits down on the blanket next to him. Crosshair doesn’t have to open his eyes to know it is Tech.
“You’re wrong, you know,” he says, softly.
”Pardon?” Tech asks.
“About why I came,” Crosshair says, “It wasn’t guilt.”
“Why then?”
“Omega told me stories about…while I was gone.” Crosshair pauses, swallowing back the emotion that creeps up. “I’m not gone anymore, Tech. And when Omega tells this story…It’ll be my story too.”
END