The Bad Batch: Oneshots

Long Day

     The trip back from the market took longer than expected. The city of Lothal was packed with natives and travelers. Hunter thought that the quick side mission for materials would have been faster, but he truly underestimated their time. Not only were they stuck on the whole other side of town, but night had already fallen. He wished he had listened to Tech and Echo before he left the ship. They had warned him about the population and how crowded the streets normally were, but he assumed they were looking at the worst case scenarios. He sighed, annoyed with his mistake of not taking the information given to him. He checked behind him as Omega didn't seem bothered by the constant walking. Crosshair on the other hand, seemed to be extremely irritated.

Hunter rubbed the back of his head. He heard a barely existent rumble in the distance. The Sergeant glanced up at the sky as a single droplet of water hit his nose.

"Great," he muttered, shifting the backpack strap more comfortably on his shoulder.

"I felt it too." Hunter turned his head to the side as Crosshair walked over.

Hunter shook his head. "We're still too far out and it's already 2300 and we don't have enough credits to stay anywhere," he said with frustration in his voice.

"Good planning," Crosshair commented sarcastically without even looking at the Sergeant.

Hunter shot him a glare. "Save it, Cross."

"Just saying, if you planned better we wouldn't be in this situation." The sniper shrugged, knowing how to press his brother's buttons at the right moments.

Hunter opened his mouth to snap back, but stopped as a blonde head of hair appeared at his side. "Are we almost back at the Marauder?" Omega asked, wondering why they had suddenly stopped.

She enjoyed the adventure for the day. She had tried new foods, talked to new people and overall got to see how people lived. There were a lot more kids her age and while on a short break, Hunter allowed her to play with some of them. She played a game similar to the one Shaeeah and Jek showed her, but here they used their feet.

With all the activities, Omega could feel her energy start to dwindle. She began to feel it the most when she saw that it was past her bedtime a whole hour and a half ago. She didn't want to say anything to Hunter or Crosshair though. She didn't want to be a burden with her tiredness, so she continued walking, pushing the drowsiness away.

"About an hour left. Think you can hold on?" Hunter dropped his gaze down to the young girl. He hated how he could see the bags starting to form under her eyes.

Omega didn't argue or complain though. Not that he expected her to. She never did. She simply nodded and wiped at her eyes again which pained Hunter the most.

"Come on." He gently patted her back with his hand that was free of supplies as they started their trip once more.

It didn't take long before the rain picked up. The lights from warm buildings reflected off the puddles on the ground as more raindrops splashed softly on the street.

"How much longer? The stupid rain is gonna start soaking into my blacks sooner or later," Crosshair bit. He regretted coming on the mission. The only reason he came was to get away from Tech and Wrecker who had for the past few days been getting on his nerves. But he didn't expect something so simple to go wrong. He would much rather be back on the ship than walking through the streets in the rain.

"Thirty minutes," Hunter snapped back, not looking to deal with Crosshair's attitude.

Crosshair rolled his eyes, but figured it wasn't worth fighting back even if it was fun making Hunter angry. He carried on, but slowed when he realized that something was missing. The whole trip, if she wasn't glued to Hunter's side, Omega would be next to him. The sniper quickly scanned the area only to find that the child's pace had reduced to being several feet behind him.

Omega stumbled on. Her whole body felt heavy as her aching feet stepped forward. Every so often she would lose sight of her brothers, causing her to shake herself alert and run after them, only to have the same thing happen minutes later. The rain wasn't making it any easier.

"Keep up, or else we'll leave you behind." She heard Crosshair hiss, sending fear through her. The girl forced herself to stay awake, despite her whole body telling her otherwise. She wouldn't be left alone again.

Crosshair could see that Omega's eyes widened at the last part of his sentence. He bit his lip. Maybe that part was too much, but at least it made her walk faster, however, that didn't even last for five minutes. Soon she was behind again.

Crosshair turned around, walking back towards the kid who immediately perked up upon seeing him.

"'m sorry. I n't..mean to..fall behind," she slurred, tossing a wet curl off her forehead.

"Its fine." Crosshair wondered how Hunter didn't seem to notice anything. He assumed he was just focused on getting back as soon as possible and in doing so, forgetting about his child.

"I'll keep up," Omega said, looking up at him with tired eyes.

The marksman knew she couldn't. She would end up either passing out or getting lost which would then cause them to arrive back even later. Crosshair let out a sigh. Of course it came down to this.

"I'll carry you," he offered, bending down to her height.

Omega didn't have it in her to argue. She practically fell into Crosshair's arms, feeling relief as she no longer had to hold herself up. She felt a soft material being wrapped around her as the rain no longer hit her. She didn't bother trying to keep her eyes open any longer. The calm, steady steps of her brother along with the pattering of the rain lulled her into a deep sleep.

Crosshair placed his jacket over the girl, now having no protection from the rain, but it at least stopped the small shivers coming from the child. He could tell that she was out cold in less than a minute as her breaths slowed.

The Marauder finally came into sight after what seemed like an eternity. Hunter ran his hand over his face. "Alright, Omega I want you to go straight to-"

"Shut up, Hunter. You'll wake the kid." Crosshair's voice snapped at him in a hushed whisper.

"What?" Hunter slowly turned around to see Omega fast asleep in the sniper's arms. He felt guilty for not noticing enough. His brows scrunched up as he cursed at himself for his carelessness.

"Quit feeling sorry for yourself," Crosshair said quietly, "She's fine. Just past her bedtime," he assured.

"Still, I should have checked on her more. It's my fault that-"

Omega began to stir slightly in Crosshair's arms. For a brief second they thought she would wake, but let out a breath of relief when she didn't.

"Sorry, Cross. I'll do better next time," Hunter apologized. "I'll put her to bed." He held his arms out as Crosshair passed the sleeping child over.

"Thank you, for taking care of her," Hunter whispered over his shoulder to the sniper.

Crosshair brushed off the gratitude. "Just don't mention it to anyone, especially Wrecker," he said firmly as he climbed up the ramp to the Marauder.

Hey y'all. Sorry I didn't update last week! I had a lot of stuff on my plate. I'm coming to the last month and a half of school so got a lot of last lessons, tests, projects and just school stuff, ya know. 

Also I ran out of ideas haha. If you have any requests feel free to comment them! 😄

Happy Friday and softy Crossy for ya❤