Chapter Text
Stone loved the stuff, couldn’t get enough of it - the lava, the volcanoes, the plates - it was just so fascinating, and it only made him love it more when it grated on his brothers’ nerves. Thorn knew it, and it was the perfect piece to add to his plan of revenge.
After weeks of being made to endure hell, he was finally going to do something about it, even if that meant going behind Fox’s back - no, especially so! He was sick and tired of referring to the asshole as sir and he knew Thire was too. Thorn had tried just calling him Fox, but the bastard just blatantly ignored him until he referred to him “correctly”. There was no easy way out. He wasn’t so sure about Stone, solely because he genuinely didn’t seem all that bothered by it.
Either way, he was getting him involved, using the most surefire method possible.
Strutting through the corridors as Thorn usually did (because he was an insanely suave man that intimidated all the ladies away), he was headed in the direction of his, Stone and Thire’s shared office where he knew Stone would be. He already had everything planned out to the T, from what he would say, to how he would say it. Where he would stand, and how much eye contact he’d make (well, he wasn’t sure if Stone would have his helmet on or not, so that one was still up in the air).
Thorn was more prepared to face Stone than any other tosser that he met in Coruscant’s underworld and he was proud of it!
He heard muffled shuffling from the other side of the door and Thorn grinned, Stone had no idea what was about to hit him. Sliding open, Stone’s head snapped up when Thorn stepped into the room. He was surrounded by datapads to his left, but what caught his attention was the box in front of him making odd meowing noises. All too soon, his smile dropped and Stone shot up from his chair. “It's not what it looks like!” he exclaimed, hands shooting out in front of him, “I promise.”
Leaning against the wall just inside the door, Thorn crossed his arms. “So it doesn't look like you have a box of tookas on your desk that you shouldn't have?” he asked with a raised brow.
“No?” Stone’s voice was hesitant, knowing how the situation looked and hoping Thorn would just overlook it.
“Great!” Thorn said, a grin returning to his face, “Because we really need your expertise. And by ‘we’ I mean Thire and I.” As he spoke he wandered further into their shared office, coming to a stop at Stone’s desk. “So, are you in?”
“Well I don't know, until you tell me,” Stone said and watched as Thorn carefully removed the lid to the box and stared down adoringly at the three baby tookas. “I'm not going to just go into this blind, Thorn. I'm not your same level of crazy, you know that.”
“‘Not my level of crazy’?” Thorn scoffed, scratching the kitten under his chin prompting purrs forth. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“Oh you know,” he said, throwing his hands out to the side, “Getting on Fox’s bad side, setting up that glitter bomb prank, writing letters to Senator Chuchi on Fox’s behalf. The list goes on.”
“I don't like this side of you.”
“Not my problem,” Stone taunted, gently taking the tooka from his hands and placing him back in the deep box. He left the lid off, and once he had, a frown was directed at Thorn. “Are you gonna tell me? Or am I going to go to Fox?” His frown flipped into a cheeky grin at his last few words.
“Fine,” he relented, hands raised in a peace offering. “We just want to get under Fox’s skin for forcing us to refer to him as ‘Sir’.”
“And you want my help?” Stone asked, slightly addled by Thorn’s admission, Stone wasn't really among the affected, the least likely to piss Fox off. Even if it had happened on occasion, Fox still didn't hold Stone to the punishment as diligently as he did Thorn or Thire.
“Why wouldn't we? Have you forgotten all about your interest in geography, or whatever it's called, that you use against us? Not to mention all those annoyingly long words that you love to weaponise because you know we don’t have a clue what you’re going on about.”
“Oh,” Stone nodded, “I get it now.” He retook his seat at his desk, cracking his knees as he sat back down. “You want my awesome presentation skills complemented with my lack of fear regarding Fox. Plus I have ammunition. Something I'm assuming you and Thire lack?”
Rolling his eyes, Thorn stood unimpressed. “Are you going to help us or not?” he insisted, choosing to ignore Stone’s dig at him.
“Ah, right. I suppose I could be,” he held his hand out in Thorn’s direction, grabby motions hinting at something more, “persuaded to join your noble cause…”
Thorn really hated Stone sometimes.
If there was ever a time Thire walked these corridors with a content smile on his face, someone needed to shoot him.
Except this one time.
All of his reports were finished, in great detail, and Thire had eaten latemeal already, scarfed it down like a madman half starved. Now he had the rest of his evening free, which was code for pestering Thorn. He'd said he was going to see Stone but whether he actually had or not was still unclear. Not for much longer, though.
Then, from around the corner came Stone, a box in hand that he was clearly trying not to shake around too much, acting oddly nervous. Was skittish a fitting word?
Thire stopped, listening to the noises that were emanating from from the square box, and struggled to discern the origin of the squeaks and quiet shrieks. What kind of creature made that sort of noise? Resuming his walk, he passed by Stone, who barely acknowledged him beyond a tilt of his helmet, before he scurried off down the rest of the corridor and disappeared.
As much as his behaviour confused him, Thire smiled - a good enough reason to be shot as he vowed all those years ago. He knew exactly what creature was inside that box. Thorn confirmed as much when he stepped inside the office - he assumed Stone had just come from there - and Thorn interrupted him before the first word had even left his mouth. He was good at that, Thire knew. “Tookas.”
“I didn't say anything,” he said, taking his rightful seat. Thorn looked up at him, an incredulous and somehow amused expression adorning his face.
“You were going to though.” Thire hummed thoughtfully underneath his helmet. He had him there.
“I've had latemeal, and I'm just heading to my bunk. Thought I should at least ask how your talk with Stone went.” It was worth the slight detour, despite the reluctance to wait another second to crash into his bunk. This was important information that couldn't wait.
“He’s in,” Thorn confirmed, and Thire picked up on the unenthusiasm in his voice, which was completely uncharacteristic of him.
Oh. Stone had one over on him. It almost made him laugh, but Thire knew better than to provoke Thorn’s wrath. He may have been seen as the comedic relief but when he was pissed, everyone knew to stay out of his way. Which was exactly what Thire was going to do now. “Well, I'm glad it went well. Good on you, Thorn,” he congratulated and then he was gone, leaving Thorn to cool down alone.
As he sped away, he finally understood Stone’s skittishness.
Fox thought it was a reasonable punishment, given how despicable his brothers could be, and stood by his choice, even when Thorn got down on his knees and pleaded to him. He could still remember his wide eyes as he begged, watching him through his helmet. Of course, he was only wearing his helmet to keep Thorn from picking up on any facial expression changes and exploiting them (because Thorn was very good at that). Fox definitely wouldn’t be wearing his helmet for any other reason. No, he wouldn’t.
He smiled a cheeky grin to himself as he played the recording for what must’ve been the 30th time.
Okay, so maybe Fox would.
Saving the video in an encrypted folder, only accessible by him, Fox took his helmet off and placed it on his desk. As he stood from the rickety old chair that he probably wouldn’t ever replace, his knees cracked. Something he wished he wasn’t used to. It wasn’t exactly painful but it reminded him that while he was young now, he wouldn’t be in the next five-six-seven years. It used to sour his mood almost instantly, but now he’d accepted it. Resigned himself to a future he would never be able to properly enjoy with the one other person that he loved the most.
He knew she would outlive him and he knew that she knew that. Yet, she still chose to stick around, still chose to tell him how much she loved him every single day, and most of all, still chose to stand up for all of them. If that didn’t make him love her even more, he didn’t know what would. Stumbling toward his bunk in the corner of the tiny office, Fox yawned and flopped onto it, armour and all. He was tired, there was no way he was wasting what precious time he had to sleep on de-kitting.
Within seconds, Fox was out.
Huddled closely around Stone’s desk, Thire and Thorn crowded their brother as he showed them what he'd accomplished so far. The only light on was the one sat precariously on a shelf above their heads. It was pretty terrible but it ensured anyone passing by wouldn't suspect anyone to be inside. Fox was dead asleep after Thire had assured him he had everything under control (not Thorn because they all knew that would only make him panic more) and know they had free (ish) reign of the place.
Stone walked them through his presentation, animations and all, a proud smile on his face. “So this here is where you will come in, Thorn,” he said, watching as the grin transitioned into a smirk.
“Oh I’m liking this,” he said, shoving Stone in the shoulder lightly, “I knew I liked you.”
Thire butted in then, previously having said nothing. “Are we gonna have any say in this, or no?”
Stone hmmed. “Why? So you can screw this artwork up? Would you ask an artist if you have any say in their masterpiece?”
“Uh-”
“Oh come on, Stone. For Fox’s sake, we’re not going to mess it up!” Thorn defended. “We're going to help you improve it. You'll still have the final say, we're not that stupid.”
Relenting under both brother’s gaze, Stone sighed, “Fine. You'll compile all your ideas together. Separately. And then we’ll see where we go from there. Clear?”
Turning to each other, Thire and Thorn both shared a look before Thire nodded. “Crystal.”
Morning came, and Stone awoke to pain greeting him. His neck ached along with his back and his right hand was so numb he couldn’t feel any of his fingers. Pushing himself upright, it hit him that he was still sitting at his desk, and from the corner of his eye he could see a foot. Which turned out to belong to Thorn. Leaning on Thorn of course was Thire, both still fast asleep after last night's intense brain storming between Thorn and Thire.
He’d urged them both to leave, but neither of them listened, so Stone gave up in the end and turned back to work on his reports some more. He had originally intended to retire to his bunk at some point but obviously that never happened, and now they were all due on shift within the hour.
Standing from his desk, Stone nudged them both with the toe of his boot and gave a clap, hoping to startle the pair awake. Which it did. They snapped upright, standing as a blur of red and white, side by side, before realising who it was. Almost immediately they relaxed, and Thorn growled.
“Stone! You bastard!” Thorn lunged for him and Stone dodged, opening up his seat for Thire to take, just because he really wasn’t in the mood to chase them both around.
When the chaos finally calmed, Thire cleared his throat, eyes turned to the screen ahead of him. “If you two are done…” Thorn and Stone glanced at one another briefly before the former gave up on his revenge and made his way over to the desk. Stone followed and soon they were once again huddled around the screen, staring at the presentation slowly coming together.
“So, we've got the first few slides together. Have either of you got any other ideas, or are you only able to shout profanities at each other this morning?” Stone smacked Thire for that comment and Thorn groaned.
“Please shut up. You're acting like you're any better than us but we all know you aren't,” he argued. “Just drop the kriffing act, you idiot.”
Thire scoffed, dropping the screen to the desk to remove any distraction as he turned to face Thorn. “No wonder you're called Thorn.”
And so, rather than their morning being spent on working the presentation into something… presentable, they instead spent it bickering and at each other's throats. Until a muffled sound of scuttling stopped them dead in their tracks, or at least Thorn, who turned to his brothers and grabbed an arm each, tugging them apart and toward the noise. “What the kriff is that?” he asked, eyes jumping from place to place around the room when the source of the sound changed.
Thire shifted, the noise dampening the scuttling enough that they couldn't pinpoint it. So, Thorn smacked him. “Shut up,” he hissed. Thire just raised his hands in mock surrender. Stone, meanwhile, was steadily growing more uncomfortable the longer they sat in silence because, the minute he heard the sound, he knew exactly what it was. And he knew he really didn't want them to find out. If they did, Stone would probably have died on the spot. He knew exactly how they would react to knowing those tookas he'd had the other day had obviously escaped from the box in his room into the vents.
Well, he wasn't actually sure how they'd react and, to be perfectly honest, that wasn't even the worst part. With the tookas loose in the vents, there were two more pressing issues to worry about.
The first was Fox finding out and the second? Well, Stone didn't even want to think about that yet. Looking over at his brothers, Stone concluded he'd just play dumb. That was after all the safe option.