Work Text:
"Are you finally getting rid of all of your pillows?" Crosshais watched Omega precariously balance a stack of pillows on her arms. She had a sizable collection by now, and was almost as bad as Wrecker when it came to pillows and blankets.
Her horrified expression was enough to make him snicker.
"No! We are building a pillowfort and we need them," she explained, almost tripping over Batcher, only saved by Wrecker who had been magically summoned by the word "pillowfort".
"You are?" His eyes were sparkling with excitement.
"Yeah! Me and Lyana and Mox and the others!" Omega listed off all the things they had planned for the evening, which seemed to be too much for that timeframe, but who was he to judge? Wrecker just got more and more excited while listening to her.
"Oooh, can I come?"
Omega hesitated. "Uhm. We didn't really plan for you?" Trying to let him down, gently, then.
"Oh, that's alright." The cheerfulness in his voice sounded strained, but if Omega noticed, she didn't comment on it. "Do you need help with that?"
"I think I'm good! See you tomorrow!"
And with that, she was out of the door.
"They're teenagers. They're gonna want their privacy." Crosshair shrugged.
"I know…"
Crosshair chewed on his toothpick, watching Wrecker go back to whatever he had been doing, mulling over his reaction. Sure, Wrecker got excited and loved to do things with the kids, but he also knew they needed time on their own. This seemed a little different.
The why came back to Crosshair while he carried a holo camera - and a big one at that - through half of Pabu. Tech had repaired it for someone, but they had been on holiday when he finished it, and now Tech was not here and had asked Crosshair to deliver it. Naturally, Crosshair had said no, then still did it.
Now, back to Wrecker. Or, back to what he suspected was the problem. Back when they were cadets, Tech had gotten his hands on a movie, or half a movie, and the kids in that movie had built a pillowfort. Wrecker had immediately wanted to do that too, which had turned out impossible with the few blankets and pillows they had. Hunter had promised him to build one as soon as they got access to more - and well, it had never happened.
Lost in thought, Crosshair almost missed the right house, and then missed his chance to get away from a chat with the old lady that opened the door. She accepted the holo camera for her daughter and began to tell the whole story behind that. That Crosshair had already heard from Tech. But he had learned that people really didn't like when he just vanished, and Tech had scolded him about him several times. At least he found a quick exit when Batcher began to get restless, wanting to hunt the tooka she had spotted in the house.
With this excuse, Crosshair managed to get away, making his way home while formulating a plan.
He got lucky. The house was empty, which would make it infinitely easier to do what he needed to do. He didn't have to sneak around compiling everything they would need - or at least he thought they'd needed.
He piled up all the snacks he found, threw their small holo projector in the living room, collected all the pillows and blankets he could find - they really should downsize in that regard, he thought to himself while scowling at the absolute massive pile of pillows - decorative pillows, in theory. Wrecker happily used them to sleep on, anyway - and blankets (no, Crosshair's blanket collection didn't count. No matter the tropical climate, it still got cold at night, okay?)
Well, at least they wouldn't run out of those things.
Next step was dragging a few chairs in the living room, trying to place them right, but no matter what he did, the fort looked too small. Maybe he and Wrecker could fit, but then he looked at Batcher who had strategically placed herself at the living room door, demanding pets every time Crosshair wanted to pass. And he knew her. Batcher would obviously join them. And if Hunter didn't get caught up in something again, he might join too. So the chairs weren't cutting it. He needed a better idea.
Crosshair cursed a bit. Tech would have known how to do this. For what did he have a genius brother if he was not here? He really needed to have a word with Phee about stealing Tech all the time.
He sighed and searched for the next best datapad to look for a solution.
“Do I want to know what you are doing?” Hunter asked. Crosshair was currently standing on a chair, drilling holes into their living room walls. He had a couple of screws in his mouth, so he just made a vague negative sound.
“Good, I didn’t think so,” Hunter mumbled and left as fast as possible, scared to be dragged into whatever this was. With a shrug, Crosshair continued, swapping out the drill for a bit to put in the screw. He just hoped it would hold without a dowel but he spent half an hour searching for some to no avail and then had given up. It had to do.
He finished up by fastening some ropes to the screws so they spanned the living room and they could throw the blankets over them.
Crosshair was actually not sure if Wrecker would like to build the pillow fort or just use it, so he didn’t continue. The bíg guy could help a little.
But there was one more thing he needed to do. It was not hard to find but … well. Whoever had thrown all the fairy lights in one single box would be dead.
That’s how Wrecker found him, still trying to untangle them.
“Uhm.” Wrecker sounded uncertain, looking around the room. “What happened here?”
“Renovations,” Crosshair deadpanned, still trying to separate the pink from the white fairy lights.
“Ooookay.”
With a huff, Crosshair put his work down. The blue ones had to do.
“Di’kut.” He was still happy that Echo had taught them some mando’a, especially the curse words. “It’s a pillow fort.”
“Did the kids move it here?”
Crosshair grinned at Wrecker’s confusion “Oh no. It’s ours.” He watched the other’s face light up.
“Really?”
“Really. Now make yourself useful, I spent the whole afternoon on this.”
He didn’t miss Wrecker’s quiet, happy whoop, and it almost made him smile. Almost. The fairy lights were stronger.
He threw the rest back in the box - that was a problem for future Crosshair - and hung the blue fairy light, trying to not get shoved around by Wrecker. He was excited like a puppy, throwing blankets over the ropes, and at one point almost getting tangled in them. So Crosshair took over the task, letting Wrecker pile up all the pillows on the floor.
In the end, it didn’t look so bad. A little wonky maybe, and they definitely shouldn’t pull on the ropes too hard, but hey, it worked.
Batcher beat them to it, and was the first inside, digging through the pillows and blankets, then flopping down right in the middle.
“Batcher,” Crosshair complained, trying to shove her out of the way, to no avail. It didn’t help that Wrecker crawled in too, his arms full of snacks and that Crosshair ended up squished between him and Batcher.
“This is not how I imagined it,” Crosshair muttered, managing to free himself and climb to Batchers other side and get comfortable there. Wrecker only grinned at him brightly. "It's perfect! Thanks, Cross!"
Crosshair covered up his smile by stealing a bag of marshmallows from Wrecker. “Okay, you got to pick a movie. Or audio book. Or, whatever.”
“Movie!” Wrecker happily said, putting up the holo projector while Crosshair switched on the fairy lights. It turned out really nice, even Crosshair had to admit that. Cozy, warm, safe. They really had to repeat that with everyone here. He’d just leave the screws in the wall - not that he had planned on removing them anyway. Not until someone complained. And -
“What. Is this?” Hunter’s voice came from outside. He sounded appalled.
“It’s called a pillow fort,” Crosshair huffed.
“Yeah!” Wrecker cheered. “We got our own!”
Hunter’s head appeared in the entrance. There was a scowl on his face. “Is that why you haphazardly put screws all around?”
“No,” Crosshair lied, sticking out his tongue.
Whatever Hunter wanted to say was interrupted by the squeak he made when Wrecker grabbed him and dragged him in. “Come on, Hunter! It’s great in here and we’re gonna watch Die Hard!”
“Not again,” Hunter and Crosshair groaned at the same time, but there was nothing they could do. Crosshair had given Wrecker free reign after all. And the movie already started.
Hunter glared at him. “That’s your fault,” he whispered.
“Shut up,” Crosshair whispered back.
“I’m home!” Omega announced, since she hadn’t seen anyone yet. That was strange. Usually Hunter was already up, or at least Batcher greeted her.
Instead, she heard muffled noises from the living room.
When she poked her head in, she didn’t know what it was … but it didn’t look good.
“What are you doing there?” she asked, blinking down at the three of them tangled up in ropes and blankets. She had to suppress a giggle
“That’s all Tech’s fault for hiding the dowels,” Crosshair hissed.
“No, it’s your fault for throwing treats to Batcher,” Hunter gave back.
“Whatever, just help us!”
Omega giggled and took a picture which she promptly sent to Tech. That got her a lot of indignant protests.
“Tech says you should have used dowels,” she said.
“He hid them!” Crosshair cried, making her snicker even more before finally moving to help her brothers untangle themselves.