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"Omega, come on, you have to take it if you want to feel any better."
Hunter's voice was full of exasperation, the dark, worry-borne circles under his eyes nearly as bad as those on the feverish girl curled up on the bed in front of him.
"I'd rather stay sick than drink that stuff again!" Omega snapped, doing her best to merge with the covers until only a tuft of blonde hair was visible over her mountain of blankets.
"Omega, I understand the flavor may be unpleasant, but it is in the best interest of your well-being to take the medication," Tech attempted to placate her.
Echo pinched the bridge of his nose, mechanical fingers flexing. Omega had been sick for the better part of a week, and whatever bug she'd picked up didn't seem like it would go away without help— help she had been steadfastly refusing after the first dose left her gagging.
"Alright, that's enough," he sighed, pushing off from the doorframe and heading out into the kitchen, ignoring the confused sputtering from Hunter behind him.
Reaching into the conservator, he pulled out a bottle of bright magenta meiloorun juice and snagged a glass from the drying rack by the sink.
"What are you doing? She has to take that medicine or she's only going to get worse," Hunter hissed at him as he neared the counter.
"Yeah, well, you're not going to convince her like that." Echo uncapped the bottle, tapping into long-neglected muscle memory to pour an ounce and a half of juice into the glass before moving back towards the bedroom.
"Here's what's going to happen, kid," Echo said as he plucked the plastic medicine cup out of Tech's hand and approached the side of the bed. "Come on, sit up."
Omega squinted at him suspiciously, but slowly pushed the blankets down and shuffled up onto the pillow behind her.
"You're going to take this," he held up the medicine cup, "as fast as you can, and then right after, I'm going to give you the juice. Got it?"
"Okay…" Omega furrowed her eyebrows, glaring at the medicine.
Echo crouched by the bed, handing the cup to Omega and positioning the glass a few inches away from her lips. "Ready?"
She clenched her jaw, then nodded firmly. Throwing back her head, she downed the liquid, grimacing in disgust. Echo grabbed the cup out of her hand, quickly replacing it against her mouth with the glass.
"Go, go, go, you got it!" he encouraged as she polished off the juice. "See? That wasn't so bad." Echo smiled at her, setting the cups down on the bedside table.
"What the hell was that?"
Echo turned to see Hunter staring at him incredulously, Tech quirking a brow in curiosity.
"What? You think I served in the 501st and never learned how to do a chaser?"
"A chaser? Seriously? You gave our kid a chaser?"
The exhaustion of caring for a sick kid must have been doing something to Hunter's brain.
"It's not like I'm teaching her how to do keg stands," Echo laughed.
"You will not," Hunter insisted.
Omega perked up, looking at him with bright eyes. Rookie mistake.
"What's a keg stand?"
Echo was never going to hear the end of this.