Chapter Text
You would think that an elite squad such as Clone Force 99 with their years of experience on the battlefield would be good at planning ahead and being ready for the unknown, but that is far from the case.
Despite their skillsets, they’ve come to find that being a civilian is harder than it looks and the adjustment to that life hasn't been easy. But they’re the Bad Batch - they live for the unpredictable and for the improv. They live for a challenge . Even if change is difficult and something that’s hard to handle, over time they’ve managed to slowly adjust to their lives on Pabu. Some days were easier than others, a lot of their nights were rougher than most, but at the end of the day, their new lives were all they could ever hope for and more.
They could try their hand at ‘normal’ things. They could be a ‘normal’ family (thought they were far from it) and with that came the concept of birthdays.
Birthdays were always a particular thing–they never really talked about it or bothered with them while in the GAR or even after–but once settling into Pabu and attending a few of them, Omega expressed a desire to have something special like a birthday.
And if Omega wanted something, her brothers were going to make sure she got it.
It was Wrecker’s idea, he brought it up one day on the beach to Hunter while Omega was out of earshot, playing in the waves with Batcher and Lyana. After having seen and heard Omega’s subtle desires to have a birthday, Wrecker thought it would be nice to have something like that for her and Hunter immediately agreed to the idea.
From there they told Tech, who immediately went into looking through as many databanks he could to see if he could find any information about when Omega was “birthed” from her tube. Echo helped look too, but the pair found nothing–no record of anything that might give them an idea of what day it specifically was, much to their disappointment.
It was Crosshair who suggested to have the day be the day they met Omega. The day everything went to shit but paved the way to change their lives like none of them would have ever expected.
The day they formally met Omega was a day none of them would ever forget, despite everything that went wrong on that day, so they agreed to have the birthday on that date to celebrate her and the light she brought to their lives and to the galaxy itself.
Lucky for them, it was in a few rotations, so they planned for a big surprise party, making sure to keep it as much as a secret as possible (Wrecker almost let it slip a few times) from Omega to make it all the more special. They got their partners in on it as well and soon, they had a plan set for the day to make sure that things went as smoothly as possible.
Well, as smoothly as things could go for the Bad Batch.
“What do you mean we need eggs?”
Hunter raised an eyebrow as he looked over at Wrecker, the pair in the kitchen with plans to bake a cake for Omega from scratch. He was busy tying his apron on as he stood on his tippy toes slightly, trying to look over Wrecker’s shoulder as he scrolled through a datapad with the cake recipe, reading off the ingredients that they’d need to make the cake.
“We need eggs and sugar and flour-” Wrecker listed off, “-and chocolate. Lots of chocolate.”
“I know you have chocolate,” Hunter muttered with a small frown before crossing over to the cooling chamber to look for eggs, to which he found none. Instead he found Wrecker’s cooling chamber to be filled with various seafoods, meats, trays of sushi, and jars of spicy, pickled something that made the unit smell.
With a sigh, Hunter closed the door and ran a hand through his hair, “You don’t have any eggs.”
Wrecker glanced over at Hunter, raising an eyebrow as he moved to check in the fridge as well. “What do you mean? I thought-” he frowned, glancing over the contents of his cooling chamber before closing it, “Oh.”
“I can ask Jung to check if we’ve got some at our place,” Hunter offered, already pulling out his comm, “and maybe ask for anything else we might need-”
“Wait!” Wrecker exclaimed, his eyes widening as he shook his head and hands in protest, causing Hunter to freeze and blink in confusion.
“Jung’s with Omega!” Wrecker reminded, “Him, Emerie, and Phee are distracting Omega right now!”
“Kriff, that’s right,” Hunter groaned, nodding his head in realization as he ran a hand over his face, forgetting that Jung, Emerie and Phee were in charge of keeping Omega company and distracted for the day while the rest of them got ready for the party.
He frowned, thinking for a bit before getting a different idea. “Okay, so I’ll ask Echo to go and check,” he decided, switching to Echo’s frequency, “I can tell him to go and check before he arrives here.”
“Good idea,” Wrecker nodded as he started to pull out a mixing bowl and several other items from the cupboards before placing them up on the counter.
“Do we need anything else?” Hunter asked, picking up the datapad and scrolling through the ingredients.
“Let me go check,” Wrecker replied, heading over to the pantry while Hunter contacted Echo.
“Echo? Are you and Viram headed over here yet?” Hunter asked into the comm while the sound of Wrecker rummaging around his pantry could be heard just around the corner.
It took a few seconds, but eventually Echo answered with a; “We are. You need something?”
“Yeah, mind stopping by my place to see if there are any eggs in the cooling chamber?” Hunter asked, taking one last look in Wrecker’s fridge to double check to see if the eggs hadn’t magically appeared during the time that the cooling chamber was closed.
“Eggs?” Echo questioned.
“Yeah, eggs.”
“And flour!” Wrecker shouted from the pantry.
“And…and flour,” Hunter added with a sigh.
The other end went silent and for a second all Hunter could hear was the muffled sound of Echo’s girlfriend, Viram’s, laughter. He could only imagine the look on Echo’s face right now.
“You mean to tell me-” Echo started in a voice that made Hunter cringe and inhale sharply through his teeth with a hiss.
“-that you planned to make a cake–from scratch– without seeing if you had all the ingredients you needed before starting ?”
“....yes?” Hunter answered nervously, looking up and over to see Wrecker poking his head around the corner with an equally sheepish look.
Echo sighed–loudly–into the comm, “Alright fine. I’ll check. Anything else?”
“...butter?” Hunter added with a nervous chuckle.
“Why were we making this cake at Wrecker’s place again?” Echo asked, grumbling slightly.
“Uh, cuz I thought we had all the ingredients at my place and because Crosshair wouldn’t let us do it at his and Tay’s,” Wrecker spoke up, loud enough for the comm to pick it up, as he scratched the back of his neck with a small pout.
“Well, ask Crosshair to check his place too,” Echo instructed, “just in case.”
“Good call,” Hunter nodded, “See you in a bit then. Sorry about that.”
“Yeah, yeah, that better be it,” Echo grumbled in fond frustration on the other end before cutting the frequency.
“That’s it, right?” Hunter asked, looking up at Wrecker as he got ready to call Crosshair, “We just need those things?”
“Uhhh…” Wrecker started, heading over to the datapad again.
Hunter raised an eyebrow and gave Wrecker a small scoff and a small grin. “Really? I thought you were a baker,” he teased, giving his brother a nudge.
“Hey,” Wrecker huffed, shooting Hunter a playful glare, “I’m new to it. I’m just startin’ it out.”
Hunter chuckled and shook his head, “Excuses.”
“Stow it,” Wrecker laughed, shaking his head as he lightly punched Hunter in the shoulder before reading through the list of ingredients again.
Hunter laughed, rubbing at his shoulder as he tuned into Crosshair’s frequency, hoping that he hadn’t left his place yet in case they needed him to bring some ingredients over.
Unfortunately, Crosshair didn’t pick up, making Hunter frown and look to his comm before the sound of Wrecker’s front door followed by the beeping of a comm that told Hunter he was a little more than late in contacting his brother.
Sure enough, Crosshair entered the kitchen area, holding his comm with a small smirk with his boyfriend, Tay, trailing after him, carrying bags of what Hunter assumed were decorations. With them was Tech, datapad in hand, no doubt asking Phee for updates on how things were going with Omega.
So much for the eggs.
“Something wrong?” Crosshair asked all too knowingly as he motioned down to his comm before putting it back onto his belt.
“Uh, no, nothing’s wrong,” Hunter assured, clearing his throat as he shook his head and pocketed his comm, “Just was going to tell you to hurry up.”
Tech scoffed and shook his head, putting his datapad aside, “I find that hard to believe. We’re right on time.”
Crosshair rolled his eyes in agreement with Tech, knowing better. He turned his attention to Wrecker and folded his arms across his chest; “You guys are missing ingredients, aren’t you?”
Wrecker’s mouth fell slightly open in shock as he blinked and Hunter groaned.
“How’d you know?” Wrecker asked incredulously, tilting his head as Crosshair.
“It’s obvious,” Tech stated, answering for Crosshair, “You haven’t started on the cake yet.” He motioned to the counter that only had a mixing bowl and a few measuring cups. “Clearly you don’t have the ingredients you need to get started,” he pointed out, pushing up his goggles.
“Damn,” Tay chuckled, shaking his head with a grin, “You started on baking a cake without the ingredients?”
“We’ve got most- We’ve got…some of them,” Wrecker corrected, shaking his head as he moved back to the cupboards to pull more things out, regardless if they were needed for the cake or not.
Hunter sighed and shook his head, watching Wrecker before turning back to the others.
“We’re working on that,” Hunter informed with a grumble, “Echo’s on it anyways, he’s going to bring the things we don’t have..”
“Ah, right,
‘working on it
,” Crosshair nodded. “I can see that much,” he teased sarcastically with a shit eating grin as he made an effort to look over the counter in an exaggerated fashion before his eyes landed on Hunter’s apron.
“Nice apron,” he teased with a soft chuckle, taking note of Hunter’s apron which read, “Mr. Good Lookin’ is Cookin’” in Aurebesh.
“Thanks,” Hunter retorted, flushing slightly in embarrassment, deciding not to take the bait for once and let Crosshair know it was actually Wrecker’s.
Before Crosshair could make any more comments, the back door slid open and in stepped Wrecker’s girlfriend, Khea, and her Foundling, Itri, trailing behind her.
“Wow, looks like the party’s already started,” she grinned as she took in the sight of the five of them standing around the kitchen. She stopped, noticing they were all just standing around, her eyes lingering over the mixing bowls and lack of anything else.
“Ah, never mind, it’s
just
getting started then,” she chuckled, shaking her head in amusement as she made her way over to greet Wrecker with a kiss to the cheek.
Wrecker grinned, returning it with a kiss to her forehead before going to scoop Itri up and place a kiss on her cheek as well, causing the young zabrak to laugh as she clung to him with a happy exclamation of, “Buir!”
Wrecker chuckled at this before turning towards the others, beaming brightly, “Damn right it’s just getting started!”
At the sight of Itri, Crosshair smiled softly and wandered over, giving her a playful pinch on the shoulder, “Hey, sunspot, look at you getting bigger.”
“Ba’vodu Crosshair!” Itri grinned, giggling as she nodded at his observation. “I’m two inches taller now!” she proudly announced, holding up two fingers, making Wrecker laugh and Crosshair chuckle softly.
“Impressive. Keep growing, kid, you gotta be taller than your mom,” Crosshair smirked, giving Khea a teasing look to which she rolled her eyes fondly at.
“So what’s the hold up anyways?” Khea questioned, moving the conversation along as she looked to the others, folding her arms across her chest, “Thought we were supposed to make sure everything was ready to go in a few standard hours.”
“Somebody forgot to get all the ingredients for a cake,” Crosshair answered with a smirk as he motioned to Hunter.
“Seriously?” Khea laughed, raising an eyebrow as she looked at Hunter.
“Well, it’s your kitchen,” Hunter pointed out with a small huff, also greeting the young zabarak with a smile and a wave while Crosshair pulled out a toothpick for her and himself.
“Besides, Echo’s on it,” he reiterated, shaking his head, “he’s checking my place and bringing whatever over.”
“And if you don’t have the ingredients?” Tech asked, tilting his head before giving Itri a wave.
“Then we go into Plan B,” Hunter responded with a shrug.
“Which is?” Tay asked, giving Itri an awkward smile before clearing his throat and looking at the others.
“A supply run,” Hunter answered.
“You mean grocery shopping?” Khea corrected, raising an eyebrow with a small grin.
“Same thing,” Hunter shrugged, shooting her a playful glare that made her laugh and roll her eyes fondly.
“Alright, alright, a ‘supply run’ then,” she snorted, keeping a close eye on Itri as she chewed on the toothpick Crosshair gave her. “I hope you’re going to tie your hair back or something,” Khea teased, giving Hunter a nudge, “I don’t think your gray hairs are a part of the recipe.”
At this, the others snickered, all giving Hunter teasing smiles as well, to which he rolled his eyes and started to tie back his hair up into a bun to keep it out of the way.
“I don’t have gray hairs-” he started.
“Yet,” Tech interjected with a smirk.
“If I do get them, they’re going to be because of all of you,” Hunter joked, a small smile tugging at his lips as he finished tying his hair and dropped his hands to his sides.
He knew that they were messing around, but the idea of growing old and having gray hairs…it was a thought that Hunter couldn’t help but smile at. Growing old was a privilege he never thought he’d get the chance at and yet…Yet here he was, standing in a kitchen surrounded by people who loved and cared for him, same as he did for them, as they got ready to celebrate the one who made it all possible for all of them to have a second chance at a life they wanted.
Speaking of…
“How’s it going with Omega?” Hunter asked, turning to Tech as he changed the subject, “I’m sure things are going better for them on that end than over here.”
“Naturally,” Tech responded with a nod as he pulled out his datapad again, moving over to let Huner look over his conversation with Phee.
Meanwhile Wrecker walked over with Itri to look through the decorations Tay and Crosshair had brought, nodding in approval while Itri kept reaching out to try and grab Tay’s lethorn. A sight that Khea couldn’t help but chuckle at before she walked over to take Itri from Wrecker’s hands and set her back down onto the ground, listening in on Tech and Hunter’s conversation.
“Phee said she was going to take Omega into the underground caverns and passageways,” Tech informed, “That might take awhile, especially since they went with the rest of the kids, but she has plans to take them to the Archium afterward in case we’re not ready yet.”
“Ah…good call,” Hunter muttered with a nod, “We’re going to need that…”
He sighed, trying not to get so worked up and nervous as something so simple as planning a surprise party, but he found it difficult to do so. Why was it so hard? It was such a simple little thing, but Hunter couldn’t help but feel like his life was on the line here or something. He wanted it all to be perfect for Omega and already it wasn’t going well.
At least on Phee, Emerie and Jung’s end, it seemed to be going well. He knew that Phee was great at distracting Omega, Lyana, the vault kids (who he and Rex had still yet to figure out how to return them back to their parents), and the cadets during the time that the rest of them got everything set up. While Emerie was good at keeping those kids in check, being a natural parental figure as most clones tended to be. He also knew that Jung would be there to make sure Phee didn’t get too carried away and that things went as smoothly as possible, so he knew he shouldn’t be too worried about them. If anything, they were probably doing much better than the rest of them, but Hunter couldn’t help but worry.
“You think Omega suspects something?” Hunter asked Tech, trying not to let his nerves show.
“Of course,” Tech responded with a nod as he adjusted his goggles “She’s smart and observant. I wouldn’t be surprised if she already figured something out.”
Hunter let out a small, strangled noise in response.
“Oh, relax,” Crosshair snorted, butting into the conversation with a roll of his eyes and a small smirk. “Whether she knows or not, it’s for her,” Crosshair reminded, trying to reassure Hunter and make him feel a little more at ease. “If she knows, it doesn’t make it any less special.”
Hunter took Crosshair’s words to heart, nodding his head with a sigh before he smiled softly, grateful for Crosshair’s reassurance. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he knew Crosshair was right and he appreciated his younger brother’s attempt to calm him.
Though, he was still on edge and it didn’t get any better when the front door opened again and Echo and Viram stepped into the kitchen with half a sack of flour.
“Unless you store your eggs in some secret compartment or other, this was all we found,” Echo informed as he sat the beat up sack onto the counter.
An unceremonious and comedic silence followed the little “bwap” of the paper sack hitting the counter top as the group all stared at the pathetic, crumpled thing that slowly leaked out flour onto Khea and Wrecker’s kitchen countertops.
Crosshair was the first to break the silence.
“This is going to be a disaster.”
“Agreed,” Tech nodded, sighing as he pulled out his datapad to inform Phee to take the kids to the Archium after the hidden taverns.
“We’ll just get some more,” Viram suggested, laughing nervously as Wrecker opened up the bag to take a peek inside. “No worries, you just have something to start with,” she encouraged with a small smile, always one to try and see on the brighter side of things.
Hunter sighed and nodded, “Right…well-”
“Viram and I can head to the marketplace,” Echo offered, smiling as he knelt down to greet Itri with a fond ruffle to her hair, mindful of her horns, “-send us a list of everything else you might need.”
Itri giggled and immediately latched onto Echo’s leg as soon as he stood back up before she waved at Viram and motioned her close so she could latch onto her leg as well. The mikkian laughed softly at this, putting a hand on the young zabrak’s shoulder before she looked back up at the others.
“We’ll make it quick,” she assured, “in the meantime, you can get other things ready.”
“Like we previously talked about: You-” Echo motioned to Hunter, “-Cross and Wrecker work on doing what you can with the ingredients you have. I’m sure you could start on some of the other foods too.”
“Then Khea, Tech, and Tay, you guys are setting up outside, right?” Echo confirmed, turning to look over at the three.
“I’m stuck with those two?” Tay asked jokingly, pointing at Tech and Khea with a fake pout, to which Tech rolled his eyes at and Khea threw a wooden spoon at his blue head.
“Ow-! Hey!” Tay exclaimed, rubbing his head while Itri laughed in amusement and quickly swooped in to grab the spoon just to throw it again at Tay’s head, making the others chuckle.
“They’re going to make you useful for once,” Crosshair teased, giving Itri a nod of approval before looking up at his boyfriend with a grin.
“I’m very useful,” Tay huffed, rolling his eyes as he folded his arms across his chest, cheeks flushed dark blue in embarrassment.
“We’ll be the judges of that,” Tech countered with a small grin as he adjusted his goggles before he looked at the chrono on the wall.
“We have only about three standard hours until the sunset,” he announced, “If we want that cake done in time and done right, I suggest we all start on what we need to do.”
Hunter glanced at the chrono as well and felt a small pang of nerves make his chest tighten as he frowned.
“How long does it normally take for a cake to bake?” he asked, glancing over at Viram and Wrecker, the resident bakers.
“Depends on the pan size,” Viram answered, “Bigger the cake, the longer it’ll be in there.”
“And it’s going to be a big cake!” Wrecker grinned, making a motion with his hands to show just how big they planned to make the cake.
“So an hour or so,” Viram confirmed with a nod, “Probably more.”
Hunter groaned and rubbed his face.
“Relax,” Crosshair assured, rummaging through the cabinets to look for an apron before he found them. “We’ve had worse time crunches.”
He pulled out an apron that read ‘Smokin’ hot and so is my grill’ in aurebesh and made a face while he clicked his tongue. Reluctantly, he slipped the apron on before looking at Khea like, ‘Really?’
She shrugged, smirking, “It’s funny.”
Crosshair rolled his eyes and groaned when Wrecker slapped his back in approval with a laugh and a nod of, “Lookin’ good!”
Meanwhile, Hunter was not relaxing.
“Three hours until sunset? What if we need four hours?” Hunter asked, the worry present in his voice as he looked to Tech.
“If we need four hours to bake a cake and prepare for a party, I worry for us,” Tech responded, sounding genuine as he frowned at Hunter.
“Clearly, we’re losing our touch,” Crosshair joked sarcastically, which didn’t help the situation because Hunter just glared and Echo rubbed at his temple.
“We’ll take as much time as we need,” Echo interjected, “but there is only so much the others can do to keep Omega and the other kids distracted.”
“You underestimate Phee,” Tech countered, “she could spend that extra hour talking about some adventure and all the kids would sit and listen.”
“You sure that applies to the kids? Or is that just you?” Crosshair teased with a smirk, getting a small glare from Tech in response, but Crosshair didn’t miss that faint blush on his brother’s cheeks.
“Stow it, Crosshair,” Echo tsked, shaking his head. “Regardless if she can or not, it’s still asking a lot to have them all babysit the kids for an extra hour.”
“Well, it’s only going to take longer if we keep standing around in the kitchen doing nothing,” Khea pointed out as she motioned Itri to come over to her.
“Khea’s right,” Viram agreed, nodding her head as she looked up from the datapad Wrecker had handed her to show her the recipe for the cake they planned to make. She handed it back to him, having a good idea of what they needed now as she walked over to Echo and gently began to tug him along by the shoulder.
“We’ll be back!” She assured over her shoulder with a grin.
“Send us the list!” Echo called out as he followed after his girlfriend, the two heading out the front and leaving the rest to carry on with their duties.
As soon as the door closed, Tech turned to the others, speaking in his usual deadpan voice that made them unsure if he was joking or not; “This is going to go well.”
Khea seemed to take it as it was and nodded with a grin, “It’s going to go very well.”
She past by Tay with Itri and tapped his arm, “C’mon Ori’kebiin, let’s put you to work.” With a nod of her head, she motioned him to follow out to the back where they planned to set up for the party.
“Don’t burn down my kitchen!” Khea warned from outside as Tech followed and joined her in the backyard.
“No promises, mesh’la!” Wrecker shouted back with a grin.
Tay sighed and shook his head, turning to look at the three remaining clones in the kitchen.
“I couldn’t be on ‘distraction’ duty?” He asked with a small pout, reluctantly heading towards the back door.
Crosshair scoffed and rolled his eyes, “You handling all those kids? Yeah right.”
“I’d actually pay to see that,” Wrecker chuckled with a teasing smirk.
“No, that’s a terrible idea,” Hunter interjected with his eyes slightly narrowed before he cleared his throat and shot Tay an apologetic look before quickly adding, “Uh, no offense…”
Tay chuckled and shook his head, knowing they meant no ill words and he was just initially joking around about his role in the whole ‘throwing a surprise party’ mission they were tackling right now.
“Ah, none taken,” he assured, giving Crosshair a quick kiss to the side of his head as he passed by.
Knowing how Crosshair got whenever Tay was physically affectionate with him in public, especially in front of his brothers, Tay quickly shuffled out of the room with a grin before Crosshair could fuss or potentially throw a wooden spoon at him too.
Luckily for him, Crosshair was caught off guard, and all Tay got was a flustered: “Tay’kaa Marr!”
“Aww,” Wrecker cooed while Crosshair’s face went a little red from the quick kiss, a smirk on his face as he teased his younger brother with a poke. “That’s cute.”
“Shut up,” Crosshair huffed, rolling his eyes with fond irritation before grabbing the datapad with the recipe on it.
Hunter chuckled softly, smiling at the sight of Crosshair blushing faintly. While his nerves about making sure everything went right for Omega, he couldn't deny that deep down he knew they would be able to pull this off. It wouldn’t be smooth at all, but it was the thought that counted, right?
Regardless of how it went and how much it was unreasonably stressing him out, baking cakes alongside his brothers for Omega on a paradise island while their other brothers and their partners all worked together to make the important day in all of their lives all the more special was just his life now.
And what a damn good life it was.
“Nice apron,” Hunter teased, giving Crosshair a playful nudge.
Crosshair huffed, a faint smile tugging at his lips, “Shut up.”
Hunter chuckled softly and looked over the recipe again before turning to preheat the hypersonic oven while Wrecker set aside the ingredients they did have to at least start on mixing some of the dry ingredients together.
“Right…how hard can this be?”