Work Text:
Since they had been living on Pabu, after the end of the war, the Bad Batch were living their best life.
They were all traumatized soldiers, but at least they lived on a peaceful island, with inhabitants who had all experienced the war more or less closely.
This kind of life was anything Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair, Echo and Omega had never known before, and it had taken them some time to adjust but they were now well integrated into life on Pabu.
The six of them lived together and everything was going pretty well. They sometimes carried out missions for Rex, but it was rare, and generally they stayed on Pabu.
Each person had discovered new passions or hobbies, and all were discovering what life in peace was like.
They had fortunately managed to find a house large enough to accommodate five adult men and a girl of about ten years old quite easily. So, obviously, they didn’t each have their own room, but they were used to sleeping together, and sleeping alone was actually more anxiety-inducing for soldiers, so their arrangement suited them perfectly. Omega, of course, had her own room, even if she regularly slipped into one of her brothers’ beds. As for the others, Echo and Tech shared the ground-floor room, while Crosshair, Hunter, and Wrecker occupied the one upstairs.
As for household chores, to ensure everyone participated equally, a schedule was established, with each person doing a different task each day so that everyone contributed equally. Of course, some people grumbled sometimes, but just like anyone forced to do chores they didn’t want to do.
But overall, everything was going well.
This day had also started well. There was no school today, so Omega had gone fishing this morning with Hunter and they had both returned with a fish that was half the girl.
“Look what we caught!” Omega exclaimed as she entered the house, with Hunter behind her.
“Wow, that fish is huge!” Wrecker exclaimed, all smiles.
“Great work, both of you.” Echo warmly congratulated.
“He almost ate you alive, kid.” Crosshair said with his usual smirk.
“I’m stronger than I look, he would have had a hard time!” Omega asserted. “Will you show me how to cut him up, Hunter?”
“I fully intended to. But we’ll do it outside, otherwise our resident cook will explode and blow us up.”
Crosshair, the one who cooked most often, responded to this with a threatening look, and Hunter and Omega went back outside to take care of their fish.
Hunter showed Omega all the steps and they prepared the animal together, then grilled the best pieces on the barbecue outside the house, in their small garden.
“Lunch’s ready!” Omega shouted when the fish was cooked. “Come and eat!”
“And don’t forget to go get Tech.” Hunter added.
Crosshair rolled his eyes at this remark but complied nonetheless, heading towards his twin’s workshop while Echo and Wrecker joined Omega and Hunter outside.
Of course, Crosshair knocked on the door before just entering, but as he expected, Tech didn’t answer, so he opened the door.
And Tech was there, hunched over his worktable. He had his back to the door, so Crosshair couldn’t see his face, but he knew his twin was deeply focused. He really didn’t want to disturb him, but he wanted even less of a scolding from Hunter for coming back without Tech.
“Tech.” He then called.
“Crosshair, if you’re going to ask me again when I’ll be finished with your hand, you’re wasting your time.” Tech replied without moving an inch. “I already told you that the modifications I-”
“Lunch's ready." Crosshair interrupted, not letting him finish his sentence.
These words at least had the merit of making Tech stop, and the engineer half turned to look at his brother.
"Lunch?" He repeated.
“Yes, lunch's ready. It's almost 1 p.m., you know?”
“Oh. I'm afraid I didn't notice the time passing.”
Crosshair shrugged. “Hunter took Omega fishing this morning and they came back with a nice fish. They prepared it together and it's ready to eat. I don't even want to imagine Omega's face if you don't come and eat this fish.”
“I never said I didn't wish to join you.” Tech opposed, putting down his tools.
“That's good. Because we have approximately 2 minutes before Wrecker shows up here and drags us both outside.”
Tech rolled his eyes but then abandoned his work surface for good and stood up.
Or at least he tried, because he hadn't even finished standing up completely before he was already falling, his legs buckling.
Fortunately, Crosshair's lightning-fast reflexes prevented him from crashing to the ground, but Tech now had before him a twin brother who was frowning, his eyes filled with worry. Crosshair then helped his brother back onto the bench he had tried to leave, kneeling down in front of him to be at Tech's level.
"I'm fine." Tech assured, rubbing his right leg. "I just got up too fast. My legs aren't as responsive as they used to be."
And honestly, nobody could blame them. Because even though Tech had survived his fall on Eriadu, he'd gain some serious damage. His left leg had been torn off at the knee, and Tech had a prosthesis to replace it. His right leg had thankfully remained attached to his body, but his tibia, knee, and femur had also been broken. His right knee had been fitted with a total prosthesis, as had his hips, that had also been damaged in the fall.
And even though Tech had received the best treatment and was equipped with the best equipment, all of that inevitably left its mark.
All this to say that standing up and walking was sometimes difficult and painful.
"Can you walk?" Crosshair asked simply, his eyebrows still furrowed.
“Yes.” Tech assured. “I just need a little time.”
Crosshair nodded but still scanned the room, spotting Tech's cane nearby, easily accessible. The silver-haired man didn't immediately grab the mobility aid because he wanted to leave the choice of using it to Tech, but he remained ready to take it if necessary.
“Ready for test number 2.” Tech then announced.
Crosshair nodded and straightened up, holding his hands out in front of him for Tech to lean on. Well, he extended his arms and one hand in front of him, given that Crosshair's cybernetic right hand was still on Tech's workbench, not far from Echo's.
Tech accepted the offered help and grabbed his brother by the forearms, using this grip to pull himself up.
Once back on his feet, Tech didn't move right away, remaining leaned on Crosshair to reassess the condition of his legs now that they were bearing his weight.
After about ten seconds during which the pain and stiffness changed very little, Tech sighed.
"Can you get me my cane, Crosshair?" He asked, without moving.
Crosshair simply nodded and, without letting go of his twin, grabbed the requested object.
Tech grasped his cane with his left hand, his own bionic hand, and transferred some of his weight onto it. Gradually, he detached himself from Crosshair and, to his great satisfaction, with a little time, a little help, and his cane, he was able to stand upright.
"Come on, let's go eat before Wrecker comes to get us." Crosshair said, having reached the same conclusion.
Tech nodded and they both set off.
But it was too late.
Wrecker was already there, hands on his hips. "Can we know what you're doing? Some people are hungry!" The giant exclaimed.
Crosshair simply rolled his eyes, but Tech responded more sincerely. “Our apologies Wrecker, we're on our way.”
Wrecker stared at Tech for a moment, noticed the pained features of his face and the way he leaned on his cane, and made his decision.
In less time than it takes to say it, Tech was no longer standing on the ground but being balanced on Wrecker's shoulder. The engineer, used to this treatment from his older brother, could only sigh.
Crosshair tried to escape Wrecker, but it was hopeless and he soon suffered the same fate as his brother, the two twins each finding themselves on one of their giant brother's shoulders.
"Now we can go eat!" Wrecker beamed, striding towards the terrace.
Crosshair and Tech exchanged a look, but they both knew that protesting was pointless.
It took Wrecker very little time to reach the terrace. There, he simply let go of Crosshair, who fell heavily to the ground, before carefully placing Tech on one of the chairs.
“We can see the preferential treatment.” Crosshair muttered, straightening up and dusting himself off.
“Honor to the elders.” Was Tech's mocking reply.
"You’re barely 2 minutes older than me." Crosshair sneered.
“Which still makes me your big brother.” Tech concluded.
Crosshair muttered a little more for show, but the little argument, which wasn't even really one, didn't go any further.
In any case, each of the members of the Bad Batch quickly had something else to focus on since Omega had just given them all grilled fish skewers.
“And there you have it, enjoy your meal everyone!”
The meal then took place in the most cheerful atmosphere; the fish was delicious and the conversations pleasant.
“Ah, we had a great time!” Wrecker rejoiced when he was finished.
"He's right, it was excellent, Omega." Echo added, smiling at her sister.
"Oh, I didn't do much." Omega said, turning away. "Hunter did a lot."
“I only showed you and explained how to do it.” Hunter argued. “You did most of the work, Omega.”
“But I-”
"Just accept the compliment, kid, you'll never win against him." Crosshair advised, switching his toothpick to the other side.
Omega did not seem entirely convinced but stopped protesting. "I'm happy you liked it." She said simply.
Wrecker nodded vigorously and then picked up the dirty cutlery and plates to take them to the sink.
“Crosshair! Echo! It's your turn to do the dishes at lunchtime!” The tallest one then called.
Crosshair sighed but got up and headed towards the kitchen sink, Echo following him with essentially the same attitude.
And it was only when they arrived in front of the sink that they both stopped, looked at each other, looked at their hands, before looking at each other again.
“We’re karked.” Crosshair muttered.
Indeed, Echo and Crosshair's bionic hands were both still with Tech, who had taken them in the morning to do… they didn't really know what for, but when Tech asks you to give him your prosthesis, you give him your prosthesis without asking any questions.
"I'll see if we can get them back quickly." The cyborg said as he left. "Tech, can we get our hands back?"
“As I've repeated countless times to Crosshair, no. Your hands should be ready in the afternoon. You'll get them back then.”
“And we can't take them for 30 minutes and give them back to you afterwards?”
"No." Tech refused categorically. "I'll keep your hands and return them to you when they're finished."
“But it's our turn to do the dishes. How do you expect us to manage without doing them?”
“You still have two hands. That is more than enough for the task you have to accomplish.”
"We've got two left hands!" Echo protested.
"You are both resourceful. I'm positive you will find a solution." Tech simply brushed aside the question before refocusing on his datapad.
Where did he get a datapad from, anyway?
Never mind, that wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that Echo now had the answer to his question, and it was negative. So, with a disgruntled pout, he went back into the kitchen.
"What did he say?" Crosshair asked, even though he could guess the answer from his older brother's face.
“No.”
“Tss, I knew it.”
"I'm afraid we'll have to make do like this." Echo sighed.
Crosshair did not respond verbally but looked again at the hands they had left, trying to think of how they were going to do it.
"Come on, get closer." He then asked Echo. "We won't know until we try. I'll hold the things at the bottom of the sink, and you'll wipe them with the sponge."
"It's going to be a bloodbath." Echo sighed, stepping forward nonetheless.
Normally, doing the dishes didn't bother him much, especially since Tech had created a brush he could attach to his robotic arm to help him. Except today, Tech had also taken the attachment that made that possible, so Echo couldn't do things as usual.
But they didn't have much of a choice and had to make do. Fortunately, it wasn't the first time Crosshair and Echo had to work together in less-than-ideal conditions, so they eventually found something that worked reasonably well.
In the end, they switched roles, with Echo holding what needed cleaning and Crosshair holding the sponge and washing it. Echo was to Crosshair's left, almost perpendicular to the sink so as not to get in his brother's way too much. Crosshair held the sponge in his left hand and used his right stump to turn the tap on and off as needed.
With this arrangement, the two brothers finally managed to wash the dishes together. There were water and foam everywhere, including on Echo and Crosshair, but at least the dishes were done.
"Hey, there's something that's been bugging me for a while now." Echo said while he was cleaning around the sink.
“Hm?”
“I find it strange that Tech took both our hands at the same time. I mean, he can't work on both at the same time, can he? And besides, our hands function completely differently, so it's not even because he wanted to make a comparison or anything.”
"Maybe he didn't want to look for us one after the other, so he took advantage of a moment when we were together this morning to take both hands at the same time." Crosshair suggested, shrugging.
“Don't you find that strange?”
“It's Tech, of course I find it strange. But I stopped looking for a reason for everything he does a long time ago.”
“Okay, let's ignore the fact that he took our hands at the same time. What I find even stranger is that he waited until today to do it.”
“How so?”
“He waited until we were both doing the dishes before taking our hands at the same time. And since he was taking our hands for improvements, not repairs, there was absolutely no urgency or time pressure.”
“Do you think he would have done it on purpose? Just to make our lives difficult?”
“Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me coming from him.”
“The little shit.” Crosshair muttered as he headed towards his brother's workshop.
Echo agreed and followed him. He too wanted to say a few words to the engineer.
“Tech!” Crosshair called, knocking on the door.
No response. Crosshair tried to open the door but to no avail, it was locked.
“Tech, I know you're there.” Echo said.
Still no response.
"You little shit, I know you deliberately took our hands at the same time the day we were doing the dishes with Echo." Crosshair accused.
"You have absolutely no proof of what you're saying." Tech finally replied.
And even without seeing him, Echo could perfectly imagine his small, deceptively innocent smile.
Echo sighed and shook his head. Honestly, Tech had played it well. A harmless prank with no major consequences. Between brothers, it was all good fun, and he accepted the prank and didn't hold it against his younger brother.
Crosshair, on the other hand, did not seem ready to give up so easily. "Listen to me carefully, you little shit, you'd better not get out of here anytime soon because as soon as I get my hands on you again, you'll regret what you just did. No, you know what? Stay locked up here and be a good guy, that way I can hide dirty socks all over your room without you noticing a thing. I promise you won't stop finding them. And what if I went to the beach to collect some little seashells and put them all over your things? You won't stop finding those either."
Echo smiled at Crosshair's threats and grabbed the silver-haired man by the shoulders, leading him back into the main part of the house. Crosshair didn't struggle and let himself be guided while continuing to plot his revenge. “I’m going to collect some seashells and number them from 1 to 100, but I’ll only hide 99. He’ll go crazy looking for the hundredth. And when he finally gives up on finding the last one—that is, in at least three years—I’ll start again with pieces of wood that I’ll engrave from 1 to 1000, but I’ll only hide 358. That’ll drive him crazy. We’ll see after that if he still wants to do this kind of thing.”
After muttering all this, Crosshair left the house to go down to the beach, apparently wanting to carry out his threats.
Echo could only smile. Everything was fine. The prank war between Tech and Crosshair was officially on. And while this kind of thing between brothers was usually pretty funny, between twins it was even funnier. Echo knew that all too well. They'd played some nasty tricks on each other with Fives.
Echo gave a slightly bitter smile when he thought of his twin, but he quickly chased away those dark thoughts; it wasn't the time to think about that.
It was more of a time to relax and watch Tech and Crosshair drive each other crazy. Such was the brothers' fate, after all.