Tw: Violence, blood, language.
Wolffe hated teaching the cadets, but sometimes it worked out well.
Times like this, for example.
Wolffe woke all the cadets up in the middle of the night and told them about how there was an intruder on Kamino. They were barely awake, but as soon as he mentioned that he would give them three rotations off from training, they were getting their gear.
So that's how Wolffe ended up stalking down the hallways, a bunch of shinies trailing behind him.
"Be careful," Wolffe whispered. "They should be considered dangerous."
"We know." Sparks rolled his eyes. "We're not idiots."
"Hey, remember when we dislocated Karina's arm?" Fizzle quietly reminded him.
"And broke her leg," Bones added.
"Shut up!" Wolffe took out his pistols. "Don't give away our position!"
"Says the man talking," Mistake sassily remarked.
Wolffe pointed with one of his weapons. "Hear that?"
The all strained their ears to hear what he was referring to, finally noticing a shuffling noise ahead. They all exchanged glances from under their helmets before slipping into the hanger.
Karina's body was being dragged onto a ship, her head lolling to the side.
"What's the plan?" Sparks asked in a hushed tone. He switched his blaster's safety off. "Just start shooting?"
"What if we hit Karina?" Fizzle argued, shaking his head.
"That's why we shoot on stun," Scruffs told him.
"No one's shooting anyone," Wolffe ordered. "Wait for my signal."
"And what's the signal?" Mistake gripped his blaster tight.
"I'll tell you to shoot," Wolffe said with a roll of his eyes. "Just pay attention and stay out of sight."
They all nodded and ducked behind the wall again. Wolffe walked out to where the Twi'lek could clearly see him, holding his blaster up with his fingers spread out; a sign of surrender.
"Step away from her!" Wolffe shouted, grabbing their attention.
They whipped around, holding a knife to Karina's throat. "Ah, Commander Wolffe."
"You know who I am. Repay the favour and give me your name." Wolffe slowly lowered his blasters, kicking them away.
"Vornia." Their eyes flicked over him and they pursed their lips. "I'm surprised you found out about me. I covered my tracks well."
Wolffe didn't care. "Get away from her."
"What are you going to do about it?" They sneered, pressing the knife further against Karina.
"If you hurt her, I will hunt you down, rip your intestines out, and use them to hang your body from the ceiling," Wolffe threatened.
Vornia traced the knife along Karina's neck. "But her parents want her back. What about them?"
"What about them?" Wolffe could see the cadets sneaking around a stack of crates from the corner of his eyes.
"They want their daughter back," Vornia crooned. "Are you going to keep loving parents away from their daughter?"
"Sure." Wolffe stepped back, and Vornia followed his lead, moving away from Karina.
"Wow, I never thought you'd be so cruel," Vornia teased.
"Don't pretend like you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart. You just want the credits!" Wolffe wanted to punch them so badly, but he was patient. He took another step back, and they went closer to him.
Vornia paused before their lips peeled, flashing all of their sharp teeth. "What's wrong with wanting a couple credits? They won't miss them."
"And you know what her parents will say to her?" Wolffe glanced to the cadets. "Shoot, you're back.."
Vornia shrugged. "Not my problem."
Wolffe inwardly cursed.
He gave the cadets one job.
One fucking job.
"Then they might shoot her!" Wolffe loudly said, hoping the cadets might pick up on what he was saying.
"Okay? I really don't care." Vornia examined their nails.
"And after they shoot Karina, they'll shoot you. You really think they'll give you your credits?" Wolffe glowered at the cadets.
A shot fired out, hitting their target.
Karina.
They shot Karina.
"What the kark is wrong with you?" Wolffe lunged, grabbing his blasters from the floor.
Vornia threw her knife, hitting one of the cadets in the shoulder. He fell with a grunt, and his brothers started attacking Vornia.
"You said 'shoot Karina'!" Bones defensively said. "So we did!"
"'Shoot' was the signal to shoot Vornia!" Wolffe shouted, ducking to avoid a blaster bolt. "We went over this!"
"This is our first mission! Sorry if it's not as smooth as you hoped for!" Sparks snapped before getting hit in the chest. He collapsed and Mistake pulled him behind a crate for safety.
"Why wasn't it set to stun?" Wolffe demanded.
Mistake popped up from behind the crate. "You didn't tell us to!"
"It's common sense!" Wolffe yelled, pushing Bones aside so he didn't get hit.
"Who else is down?" Wolffe asked. He narrowed his eyes at Vornia, who was hiding just behind the doorway of the ship, peeking out occasionally to shoot at them.
"Fizzle," Mistake reported before tripping. He hit his head on the ground and went limp.
Wolffe resisted the urge to facepalm. "Someone protect him."
Scruffs dragged Mistake away and knelt beside him, checking his pulse. "He's fine."
"Good. And whoever shot Karina will have to explain this to Stunner!" Wolffe finally landed a shot on Vornia, and they crumpled. "Bones, go wake Stunner. We have several injured people for him to attend to."
Bones nodded and jogged away.
Wolffe picked Karina up, holding her gently on his arms. "Scruffs, carry the most injured down."
"Probably Sparks." Scruffs threw Sparks over his shoulder.
"Let's go down to the medical bay. We'll come back for the others." Wolffe led the way down.
Stunner was blearily wiping his eyes, yawning. "It's the middle of the night. Why'd you wake me?"
Wolffe delicately placed Karina on one of the beds. Scruffs was not so gentle, roughly dropping Sparks on one as well.
"What happened to them?" Stunner took out a kit of medical supplies, grabbing the bacta and the gauze.
"They were shot." Wolffe nudged Scruffs. "Let's go get the others."
"There's more? Who shot them?" Stunner unbuckled Sparks' chest plate and wiped down the wound.
"I'll explain later," was all Wolffe said before he and Scruffs hurried away.
They returned with Mistake and Fizzle just as Stunner was wrapping Sparks and moving on to Karina.
"Will someone please tell me what happened," Stunner snapped as he applied pressure to the bubbling hole in Karina's abdomen.
"Turns out there was a bounty hunter or something after Karina," Wolffe simply said as he watching the blood stain Karina's shirt.
Sparks groaned in pain. "Do I get more than three rotations off since I was shot?"
Wolffe's lips twitched. "Sure. You all did good. Good for your first fight. Horrible by my standards, though."
"Thanks, Commander." Scruffs elbowed Wolffe. "But I think we did great!"
"You and Bones are the only ones who didn't get injured," Wolffe retorted, gesturing to Bones. "That is not a success."
"But no one died," Bones argued.
"Yet," Stunner muttered as he slathered bacta on Karina.
"Someone's gonna die?" Scruffs nervously asked.
"We're all gonna die eventually." Bones stretched out his arms and accidentally hit Scruffs with his arms.
"Not helpful!" Scruffs smacked Bones.
"Go make yourselves useful by getting Vornia!" Wolffe ordered. "They need to be put in a cell."
"On it." Bones saluted.
Stunner began treating Mistake. He glanced up at Wolffe. "I can't see anything. Why's he here?"
"Head injury." Wolffe rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "He tripped."
"Of course he did." Stunner sighed and removed Mistake's helmet. "When he wakes up I'll deal with him."
Wolffe nodded and placed a pillow under Mistake's head. "They're gonna be okay?"
"They'll all be fine." Stunner began treating Fizzle. He avoided eye contact with Wolffe. "Are you mad about what happened with the kiss...?"
"Why would I?" Wolffe stacked all the cadets' armour in the corner to keep himself busy.
"Because you like Karina?" Stunner whispered.
"She kissed you because you tricked us. It's not like you asked her out. She's not my girlfriend so it's not like it matters what I think anyway." Wolffe carefully put Mistake's helmet on the top of the pile.
Stunner dumped a heap of bloodied gauze and bandages into the disposal bin. "Done. Why don't you get some rest? You'll need it for all the paperwork this caused."
Wolffe groaned and threw his head back. "I forgot about that."
"I'll let you know when you can visit," Stunner said, motioning to his newest patients. He removed his gloves and tossed them away.
"Thanks." Wolffe lingered in the doorway for a couple of seconds. "Can you do me a favour?"
Stunner seemed surprised, but nodded nonetheless. "Of course."
"Can you tell Warthog about Vornia for me? He seemed to really like them," Wolffe said before slipping away.
And so a month passed with everyone recovering nicely. Stunner nearly had a heart attack every time one of them would try and sneak out, but would always wrangle them back. Karina was cleared to return to work, the cadets' training resumed, and life went back to normal.
Things were good.
Except Wolffe was having a very hard time with his feelings for Karina.
He thought they would go away, but they hadn't.
Not that he'd know it, but Karina was struggling with how she felt about him at the same time.
The pair was too worried about potentially ruining away their friendship to take the leap forward. Neither of them did a good job hiding it either.
Everyone knew.
Everyone except Wolffe and Karina knew about it.
Which was very frustrating for everyone around them. How could Wolffe and Karina not realize how badly the other liked them?
They wanted to intervene, but they also wanted to see how it would play out. It really was hilarious seeing Wolffe's entire face light up when he saw her before he'd tamp it down. It was hysterical watching Karina blush every time someone said his name.
But it was oh so frustrating.
Comet and Boost eventually had enough and sat Wolffe and Karina down (separately) to have a little chat. They explained how easy it would be to just confess how they felt since the other liked them already.
"Don't be silly," Karina had said, busy with her work.
"What are you talking about?" Wolffe had said, glaring at them.
So Comet and Boost sighed and gave up with that attempt.
"They're both too oblivious!" Sinker exclaimed one night in the barracks. "They're kriffing in love with each other and don't even know it!"
"We have to do something," Warthog agreed, pulling the blankets up to his chest.
"If they don't do something soon," Boost tugged at his hair, "I'll lose my mind!"
"It's time we do something." Comet sat up and swung his legs back and forth off his bunk.
Warthog swatted Comet's legs away from his face, hating how he had the bottom bunk. "No more messing around. We get serious."
"We could always just threaten them." Sinker hung over the side of his bunk. "We know Karina hasn't had training to withstand torture."
"We're not torturing anyone!" Boost firmly said before considering it. "Okay, maybe as a last resort."
"We sneak into their rooms and hypnotize them in their sleep to confess!" Sinker snapped his fingers.
"That's stupid." Warthog threw his pillow at Sinker.
"You're stupid!" Sinker retaliated, hurling the pillow back.
"Focus!" Comet interrupted before the situation spiraled.
"I am focusing!" Boost smacked Comet with his own pillow.
"I wasn't talking to you!" Comet swung his pillow at Boost.
A pillow fight broke out, and no more planning was done. Instead, they fell asleep in a pile in the centre of the room.
Karina knocked on Wolffe's door.
He opened it and stared down at her with confusion, wiping the sleep from his eyes. "It's the middle of the night. What do you want?"
"I'm sorry for waking you," Karina softly apologized, holding out a cup for him. "Can I come in?"
Wolffe suspiciously took the drink and sipped it before perking up. "Hot chocolate? How'd you get this?"
Karina shrugged causally. "It wasn't a big deal. I just paid for a delivery."
Wolffe sat on his bed. "Why come in the middle of the night then?"
Karina took a deep breath before she blurted out, "I couldn't spend another moment without telling you something."
"Tell me what?" Wolffe's brow furrowed and he patted the bed next to him. She crossed her legs beneath her as she settled next to him.
"I don't know how to tell you," Karina nervously said, drumming her fingers on her thigh.
Wolffe rubbed at his cybernetic eye, something he did when he was worried. "I'm listening."
"I- I like hot chocolate too," Karina said, slumping her shoulders.
Why was this so hard?
"I assumed as much." Wolffe gazed into his cup. Karina saw something flicker in his eyes before he returned his attention back to her. "Is that it?"
"Yeah." Karina silently cursed herself for being such a coward.
Wolffe blew a chunk of hair away from his eyes. "Can you help me cut this mess tomorrow?"
"Sure." Karina's stood and began to walk to the door. "See you tomorrow."
She sighed as she dragged her feet down the hallway to her room. She was such wimp. This was exactly why they wouldn't be a good match. He fought in a war and was a commander. She was too scared to even tell him she liked the way the corner of his mouth lifted when he was being sarcastic.
"Karina."
She flinched and stumbled.
"You okay?" Wolffe helped her up, eyeing her with concern.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Karina's dusted herself off and glanced up at him. "What's wrong? I just saw you and it's the middle of the night."
"I-" Wolffe cut himself off and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, Karina. There's something I should've told you a while ago."
Karina hummed. "Yeah?"
"I like you. A lot. And I don't know if you feel the same way, but knowing you got hot chocolate just because I like it made me realize I needed to tell you before it was too late." Wolffe despised how vulnerable he felt right now, waiting for her to respond.
"Really?" Karina's eyebrows went up, causing fear to shoot through him. But her next sentence made him wrap his arms around her. "Because I like you too."
Karina was being hugged tightly enough for her to wheeze. But she didn't care.
"Do you want to go on a date with me?" Wolffe questioned after pulling away. "Tomorrow? It's Kamino so it's not going to be fancy, but we could still have a fun night."
"Yes, I'd love to!" Karina enthusiastically said, shyly smiling.
Wolffe ducked his head, letting his curls fall into his eyes. "Great."
"Great." Karina bit the inside of her cheek so she didn't burst out into giggles. "So... See you tomorrow?"
"See you tomorrow for breakfast," Wolffe said before grinning like an idiot and jogging away.
IT HAPPENED.