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While the tension, and their fights died down after some time, it didn't vanish completely. He and Hunter were still exchanging glares and easily getting into fights, and if Crosshair would be honest he didn't feel like trying to change that anyway.
He liked riling Hunter up, and Hunter was easily riled up on a normal day. Now? Crosshair didn't even have to try.
Flick a toothpick at him, or leave his firepuncher out, or, Crosshair's favorite, putting things on high shelves.
Not that Hunter wasn't going on his nerves too.
He knew he was intentionally making him do the worst jobs, interrupting nap time, and there was hair. Everywhere.
Between the two of them, the rest wasn't faring much better. The tense atmosphere and their constant fight grated on all of their nerves, if Tech being snappy, Echo getting increasingly impatient and Wrecker trying his best to shield Omega from all of it was any indication.
And it had been going on for days. Not even the credits and the prospect of a more steady income made anyone calm down.
Echo was the first to finally snap.
"That's enough! I'm calling a game night!"
He didn't miss the way Tech and Wrecker flinched.
"You are not," Tech protested.
"It will be the perfect opportunity for Hunter and Crosshair to reconcile and stop all of this. We can play some games, have fun and make them team up. It'll work."
Tech didn't look convinced at all.
"This will never work."
"Of course it will.” Echo didn’t understand why Tech was so against this. What was the worst that could happen? "We did that back at the 501st. It always worked!"
Echo looked from Tech to Wrecker, taking in their uncertainty. "Don't tell me you never did that?"
"Of course we had game night." Wrecker shifted in his seat. "But-"
"See. I don't understand what's the problem."
Tech exchanged a look with Wrecker and then shrugged. "Okay."
"Good." A grin spread on Echo's face. "Wrecker, can you take care of the snacks? I will pick out some games."
While Wrecker nodded, Echo's attention was drawn to Omega, who was sitting in one of the cockpit chairs, a smile on her face, and had politely raised her hand. "Yes, Omega?"
"What's a game night?"
Echo gasped in shock.
"Okay, guys, this needs to be perfect," Echo stressed for the hundredth time.
"Yeah. We get it," Crosshair grumbled. He was currently sitting on top of the table, sorting playing cards that had gotten mixed up. From what, Echo didn't know, but the guys were not the most orderly ones.
"Stop grumbling and start putting your blood and sweat in this! It needs to be perfect!"
“So you’ve said. Repeatedly.”
"Echo, I think you need to calm down," Hunter tried. He was tasked with writing the cards for charades. According to Echo's list, of course.
"I am calm!"
Hunter and Crosshair exchanged a look. The vein on Echo's forehead told them something else. But Hunter dropped the topic, for the sake of Echo's health.
"Everything needs to be finished before Wrecker and Omega are back with snacks!"
"We know," Hunter and Crosshair said at the same time. And they did. Echo had told them a hundred times, too.
Echo rolled his eyes and shouted: "Tech?"
"I know!" Tech replied. No one was really sure what he was doing, but Echo seemed to be happy with it, so ...
Wrecker and Omega showed up precisely at the time Echo had told them to be back. Crosshair suspected that Hunter had something to do with that, so that Echo wouldn’t yell at them for being late, or stars forbid, early.
Echo was even more stressed about this stupid game night than he had been for the last few days with their fights. Somehow, he wanted this to be perfect for Omega when all of them knew it would go to shit soon enough. Game night never ended well, but for now Echo hadn't asked why their Ludo had a knife mark in it.
And Echo's schedule was also ... tight. An hour for monopoly? 20 minutes for Uno? Never.
But, Crosshair hadn't said a word. He and Hunter had realized at the same time that Echo didn't do this for Omega - or, at least originally hadn't done this for Omega. And, Tech didn't even have to be asked twice to tell them that Echo totally dismissed their concerns. And since he hadn't told Hunter and him to behave, Tech knew what would happen, and was letting it play out. Crosshair just hoped Omega wouldn't get caught in the fallout, though he had the feeling that she wouldn't.
For now, Echo glared at them because they weren't done with setting up the first game, as if that was an issue. Omega was helping unpacking the snacks anyway before climbing in her seat.
"What is that?" she asked, looking at the board.
"It's called Ludo" Echo said. “And our first game.”
"But there are only four colours."
"Yes it's a typical game for four players, that's why you and I will team up," Tech explained.
“And Crosshair and Hunter," Echo added, glaring at them. Crosshair glared right back.
"How, Hunter is sitting across from me." And it was true, they were in their usual seats and no one was ready to move.
“Figure it out,” was the only thing Echo said to them and handed them their pegs.
And figure it out they did, but not like Echo wanted them too. While Omega got the hang on the game quickly, she and Tech took ages to discuss their move. Wrecker went with the flow, happily and Echo was concentrated. Crosshair and Hunter … sabotaged each other. Crosshair didn’t care if they lost. This was not about winning. This was about making Echo and Hunter miserable and Hunter had caught on quickly and played along.
Echo didn’t seem to notice, or at least not that it was on purpose. He also didn’t glare too much at them, because right now, his impatience focused on Tech and Omega taking their sweet time for their next move. His timer ringing made him glare even more.
“Guys. We have more than one game to play!”
They all scowled at the board briefly, only two pegs standing in finish, the rest still sprawled over the board.
“In my estimate we will need at least another hour to finish.” Tech didn’t sound too concerned.
Echo pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s going to throw off the whole schedule. We are supposed to start Uno now.”
“Is that normal?” Omega asked.
“Yes,” all of them said at the same time. Crosshair didn’t know what exactly she was referring to, but he supposed the answer was always yes.
“Oh. Okay.”
“You know what, I don’t care. We’re sticking to the schedule.” With that, Echo pulled the board towards himself, putting it in its box before anyone could protest.
“Was that necessary?” Hunter still complained, and Echo scowled at him while sliding Crosshair the box with the uno cards.
“Crosshair, shuffle. And yes. We have more games on our list. I’m not going to let you deviate from the schedule. It needs to be perfect.”
They exchanged some looks, no one being too pleased with the situation. Game nights could get … messy to put it lightly, and there had been one or two (or more) incidents involving knives and blasters (Crosshair hoped Echo would never want to play twister) but this was a whole new level of messy.
Still, Crosshair was feeling bold enough to keep pushing Echo’s boundaries, maybe also a little as revenge for this blatant attempt to make him and Hunter reconcile. So he took the Uno cards from the box and started to show Omega how to shuffle them.
She caught on quickly, too quickly and Crosshair feared that they would end up a little gambler (did he really mind too much though?) but it still tested Echo’s patience. And everyone else's, too, for good measure. Except Omega, who was just happy to be included and taught and who distributed the cards with so much care that Echo couldn’t say anything about it.
And then the game started and it was war. Whoever thought Uno was a quick fun game was wrong, so, so wrong. Maybe it was, if you stuck to the rules but they had their own rules and the look on Hunter’s face was priceless when he had to draw 36 cards at once.
“How are there so many plus fours,” Echo asked, incredulous.
“That’s because we mixed several Uno games together, and Tech made an extra pack of special cards.” Wrecker grinned from ear to ear while explaining. “Or it wouldn’t be fun!”
“Right, fun,” Echo gritted out. There was nothing he could do.
At one point, all of them were holding too many cards, and Omega especially struggled with it.
“I don’t like this game.”
“No, no, you will like it in a second.” Crosshair had taken a peek at her cards. “Look, you can place all the green nines on the pile.”
“All of them?”
“All of them.”
“Hey, wait, you can only play two cards of the same color and number at the same time,” Echo protested, while watching Omega placed 7 cards on the pile, reshuffling her cards.
“And now?” she asked, still not convinced. Crosshair smirked and put a green change direction on the pile. “Now you do the same with the green threes.”
“Ooooh.” She lit up a little, putting down another five cards. “I get it.”
“That’s cheating.” Echo complained.
“No, we are simply teaching Omega how to play.” Crosshair gave him a grin that said ‘I know what I’m doing.’ Echo only glared harder.
With a bit of help from Wrecker, it took no more than three more rounds for Omega to win, managing to make Hunter draw another 12 cards in the process.
“I’m starting to like that,” she grinned.
Whatever Echo wanted to say was interrupted by his timer going off.
“Oh look, it’s time for the next game,” Wrecker said, quickly snatching up the cards before anyone could start anything.
Echo grumbled but pulled out the cards they had prepared for charades.
“This is really easy,” he said. “We’re divided into pairs and have to guess what the other one has on their card. You can’t talk, you have to try and act the word. You got one minute for as many words as you manage. Got it?”
Omega nodded along. “Can I be in a team with Cross?”
“Nope, it’ll be you and Wrecker, me and Tech and Hunter and Cross.”
“Now that’s cheating,” Hunter complained. “You’re supposed to draw your partners so you don’t end up with someone you talked to before.”
“Yeah, or have Cross and Tech in a team together. Then you don’t even have to play,” Wrecker muttered.
“Those are our teams and I’m not taking any complaints.” Echo’s decision was final, and with some glares, they rearranged so they could watch whoever was acting.
Tech decided to go first.
Whatever it was that he had drawn, Echo had a hard time figuring out. Crosshair could barely hold back his snickers, knowing exactly what Tech was acting. It was fun to see Echo be stumped by such an easy thing.
The timer beeped, marking the end of their unsuccessful attempt.
“I am disappointed. That was not hard.” Tech adjusted his goggles and held the card out to Echo. Before he could read it, frustrated about the whole situation, Crosshair said: “It was ‘crisis unit’.”
“No way, that was never that!” Echo looked at the card and then at Crosshair. “How?”
“It was obvious,” he and Tech said at the same time, making Echo roll his eyes.
“Fine. Wrecker, Omega, you two are up.”
Omega jumped up, drawing a card from the pile and started. It took Wrecker like three seconds to guess.
“Oh, uhm, lightsaber?”
“Yes!”
She took another card. Same game.
“Rancor.”
“Yes!”
“Jar Jar Binks.”
“Yes!”
“Sith.
“Yes.”
“Nail tech.”
“Yes.”
“Wallalian whiskey."
“Yes.”
“Granpa.”
“Yes.”
The timer beeped and Omega smiled brightly at them. Crosshair was the first to pick his jaw off the floor.
“How?!”
“Well, it was easy,” Wrecker said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Hunter, you were supposed to write down things and jobs according to my list!” Echo cried.
“I did.”
“Grandpa is not a job! How did that get on there?!”
“Yes it is! And maybe I took a few liberties, you’re suggestions were boring.”
“No it’s not!”
Hunter and Echo kept going back and forth until Crosshair got up and snatched a card. “Our turn,” he sighed, lazily acting it out. He wasn’t even trying and by the scowl Hunter gave him he knew that.
“Cross, pick up the slack, we’ll never win like that!” Hunter complained, then gasped when Crosshair flipped him off.
Echo rolled his eyes. “You know this is supposed to make you two reconcile, right?!” he snapped.
Crosshair shrugged. He wasn’t allowed to talk after all.
“Oh, I knew you had an ulterior motive, but I didn’t think you’d go so low!” Hunter snapped back.
“What? It’s a simple game night!”
“Well, our last game night ended with Hunter almost stabbing Cross, so, uuuh,” Wrecker interjected, carefully stepping between Hunter and Echo.
“And you’re telling me that now?!”
“We tried to tell ya but you were hell-bent on doing this.”
“Sometimes you need to learn your own lessons,” Crosshair grinned, then quickly ducked under the box of Uno cards that came flying in his direction.
“Hey!” he complained. “You were the one trying to ‘fix’ us!” “Because you are annoying! I can’t take this anymore!”
Hunter and Crosshair gasped at the same time. “It’s bad enough that you tried to meddle with our fight but you don’t get to call us annoying!”
“But you are!” Echo protested. “You’re making everyone on this ship antsy over an accident!”
“Maybe don’t let our mood affect you?” Hunter asked, backing up Crosshair. They would solve their issues in their own way and time, they didn’t need Echo trying to fix it for them.
“I’m trying, but you are making this very difficult, and now you ruined game night!”
“We didn’t ruin anything, you wanted to stick to your stupid schedule!”
“It’s not stupid!”
“Yes it is! We have finished one of three games, don’t you think Omega would have rather played Ludo all evening than see this?”
"Where is Omega anyway?" Echo suddenly asked. They all stopped and looked around, but couldn't see her.
"Good job, Echo," Crosshair growled.
"What did I do?" Echo snapped.
"You wanted it to be the perfect game night but you couldn't accept that some things run different here than you are used to!"
"That's not true!" Echo gasped. Wrecker tried to insert himself.
"Maybe we should calm down a bit, Omega hates when you yell so much."
"We know!" Echo and Crosshair yelled at the same time.
Wrecker rolled his eyes. “At least we haven’t started Monopoly yet. I don't think Omega should see you murder each other,” he mumbled, watching them continue to scream at each other.
Eventually, they started looking for Omega and found her sitting in Tech's lap, playing a video game. It was a kind of space shooter and she was really good at it, if the score on top of the screen was anything to go by. Tech occasionally pointed something out that she missed. Omega was smiling, tongue occasionally sticking out in concentration.
"Yeah, we better not disturb them," Crosshair muttered. At least she was fine?
"Good, then we can finally play Monopoly," Echo said and grabbed his arm to pull him back. "Because with Omega out of the way I'm going to obliterate you."
"Not a chance!"