Star Wars Oneshots

Shenanigans (TBB)

The sun beamed down hot on Saleucami, drying the dusty earth and cracking it in spots. Ash-beetles scuttled across willowy limbs of crops growing at the edge of a forest. Distantly, water trickled through a streambed thick with fallen branches. An eye blinked from within the concealed darkness of a mossy, rotting log, squishy chunks of wood dropping to the ground as a bushy tail thumped against the hollow entrance. 

Another ash-beetle took flight, flying through the forest and darting between branches, weaving a path to the plains. It alighted on a tall, yellowed crass patch, which swayed precariously in the light breeze, swishing as the dry grass brushed together. From a distance, all the grass rippled like a great ocean over the plains, moving as one mass. The sun, still shining brightly in the cloudless and vibrant blue sky, finally leeched the last of the moisture from the silty dirt, carrying with it the smell of life, nutrients and soil.

Cut Lawquane inhaled the scent deeply. Even in the shade of his porch, the morning air was hot and acrid. It had been unseasonably hot on Saleucami the past week, even for late spring. Although the jogan crop was not at full fruition, he knew it would die and be ruined if it was left on the vine any longer. Cut put his hat on his head, picked up the recently repaired thresher, and set off across the plains. The crops weren't far, just over by the forest. But Cut still winced as something popped under his foot, assuredly a dead snake or something of that sort. The drought had been hard on everyone. Now, as the sun burned the back of his neck, Cut wondered if the land would ever fully recover.

The visit from the Bad Batch was giving him and his family something to do. "Uncle Wrecker" put a smile on everyone's faces, and it was good for the kids to meet Omega and have some outside socialization. Jek and Shaeeah were teaching Omega how to ride the eopies back at the barn, and Cut smiled to himself, thinking of all the shenanigans they could get up to together. Omega was clearly very intelligent and could wreck some real havoc when combined with Jek and Shaeeah's mischievousness.

It didn't take long for Cut to reach the cluster of jogan trees. He set down his basket and stretched, getting ready to harvest the small striped fruits. He powered up the handheld thresher and swiftly cut the stems of the fruits, capturing them in the woven grass basket as they fell. When all the fruits had been cut off the vine, Cut set off for the house again.

When he reached the house, Omega was atop an eopie and laughing as it ran around the garden. Cut smiled at the sight of his own kids tossing treats for the eopie and running after it.

He climbed the steps to their house, showing Suu the harvest has he passed her. She nodded approvingly, giving Cut the go-ahead to prepare some for lunch. The rest would be dried on the roof to be eaten later.

Cut stepped into the small kitchen nook and took out several jogan fruits, washing and drying them before slicing them and setting them on plates. Add strips of nuna jerky, and it was a perfectly nutritious meal in the Lawquane household.

Cut put the food on the table and went to the door, opening his mouth to call the kids inside. He closed it again when he saw what they were doing -- Omega was writing things in the dirt, and Jek and Shaeeah would yell out whatever they thought she was writing.

Well, the food didn't need to be kept warm or cool, so Cut decided to let them have a few more minutes with their game.

Cut chuckled a little when he noticed Wrecker acting as a chair for Tech, who was typing away on a datapad, curled into Wrecker's huge chest. Hunter sat nearby, laughing easily with whatever Wrecker was talking about.

Echo was sitting apart from the others -- Cut assumed that whatever someone had done to him that gave him his implants made him jumpy. He also seemed to want to hide whatever he was feeling from the Batch, though, judging by the flicker of emotion that was smoothed over almost immediately.

Cut frowned. But, no time to dwell on that now. He returned to the doorway. "Time for lunch!" he called to where the kids were sitting on the ground. (Omega was making a dirt angel.) They all hopped up and ran towards the house, where they sat down in the assorted chairs Suu had managed to pull together for their extra members.

Tech clambered off of Wrecker as Cut passed out the jogan and jerky to everyone seated. Omega's first bite of the juicy purple fruit had her eyes widening in surprise and delight. "What is this?" she asked, voice filled with wonder.

Jek and Shaeeah laughed. "That's jogan fruit. We grew it ourselves," Jek announced proudly.

"Really?" Omega asked. "How do you grow it?"

Jek launched into an explanation of planting, watering, sunlight, dirt, and everything that was important to growing jogan trees. Shaeeah chimed in with details Jek forgot, and Cut quickly realized that they had been listening far more attentively than he thought they had been when he explained the process to them.

Cut tore into his jerky, savoring the flavor and noticing only a little too late that there was no chatter coming from the kids. When he looked over, their chairs were empty. 

He frantically twisted back and forth, looking for them, but before he could find them, he felt little hands on his ankle. "Gotcha, Daddy!" Shaeeah giggled as she tickled him.

Cut sighed, but shared a smile with Hunter, who was being ambushed by Omega at the other end of the table. Kids.