#echo5

It took a lot of convincing to talk Kix into not catheterizing him but Echo just couldn’t stomach the thought of one more tube being stuck in his body and the idea of being able to piss on his own again felt strangely liberating after losing even that to the Techno Union.

It’s possible he didn’t think that all the way through.

In his defense, he’s had more surgeries than he can count since Rex and the 99s pulled him out of that freezer, with more still to go. He didn’t give it much thought when they scheduled a minor procedure on his left arm, didn’t even bother to commit the reason for it to memory. They told him his arm would need to be in a sling and immobile for a day following it and that was as far as Echo bothered to care.

What he forgot to consider is that he no longer has a right arm to use instead.

Fives – who has barely left Echo’s side since Rex brought him home – didn’t miss a beat. He’s been Echo’s hands since the surgery, taking care of everything Echo can’t do for himself all day, up to and including spoon-feeding him at dinner. If it were anyone else, it would be humiliating but it’s Fives and even though Echo had no concept of time when he was in that freezer, his heart ached all the same with how much he missed his partner and how it felt to be loved like this.

But now the other arc is asleep in his chair beside Echo’s medbed and Echo has to pee. The last thing he wants to do is wake Fives, particularly to ask for help with this.

At least his legs – or their replacements, more accurately – still work. They carry him to the ‘fresher attached to his room in the medbay and he’s able to jab the button on the door controls with his scomp. So far so good.

He’s going to have to sit or else risk making a mess trying to hold his dick steady with only his scomp. The seat is already down, a small mercy.

That’s where is luck runs out. He can’t manage the seal of his pants without at least one hand of fingers. He pokes uselessly at the waistband with his scomp, trying to push the fabric down or at least hook the pants on the end of his scomp to pull them off, and having no idea how he’s going to get them back up if he manages either.

It doesn’t matter anyway because he can’t get the fabric to budge. The scomp was not designed for this – not designed for any of the needs of an organic being. Echo swears.

He’s trying to figure out how to shrug off the sling instead – medic’s orders be damned – when he hears movement on the other side of the door.

“Echo?”

Shit.

He didn’t mean to wake Fives. And maybe Fives woke on his own but if he’s on his feet looking for Echo, chances are slim he’s going to be able to get back to sleep for a while. He probably won’t even try until he’s satisfied that Echo is asleep too.

“Yeah?” Echo calls back through the door.

“You okay in there?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I come in?”

There’s a part of Echo that wants to say no. He hates being seen like this, weak and dependent. He’s an arc. He worked hard to be among the best and now that’s gone. Even if Kix and the other medics say he’ll be able to go back into the field, it won’t be the same – he won’t be the same. Not being able to piss on his own might be temporary but nothing else about this is.

But Fives was always the one Echo trusted when he was at his lowest before and he didn’t even hesitate when he saw what Echo’s become, he just gathered him up in his arms like nothing changed and wept with relief to have him back. These days, the only times Echo feels normal is when it’s just him and Fives.

“Yeah,” Echo says finally and not even a full second later, the door slides open.

“Okay that’s three ‘yeahs’ in a row. What’s wrong?” Fives asks.

“Need to take a leak.” Fuck, Echo sounds unreasonably miserable about that even to his own ears.

It takes a second for Fives to figure out what the problem is with that but he doesn’t ask Echo to explain and Echo loves him for that and even more for the way there’s not a hint of pity in his tone or expression when he says, “Let me help?”

He says it like it’ll be Echo doing him a favor instead of the other way around.

Echo nods and Fives crosses the tiny space. One hand settles on Echo’s hip, the other closes around the scomp, handling it just as he would flesh and bone as he pulls it out of the way. He undoes the seal of Echo’s pants effortlessly with two hands and frees his cock like he’s done it a thousand times because of course he has, though never quite like this.

“You got it from here or you want me to stay?” Fives asks.

“Stay?”

“Always.”

Fives lifts the toilet seat and comes around behind Echo, bracketing his thin body against Fives’s healthy bulk. His hand finds Echo’s uncovered cock and aims him toward the toilet bowl, steady and sure.

Of all the times Fives has touched him, none have ever been like this. Fives holds him as gently as ever but for once, his fingers don’t wander.

“Relax,” Fives breathes, clear and warm against Echo’s ear. “I’ve got you.”

It’s not strange to pee in front of someone else – Echo’s spent his whole life in communal ‘freshers – but it does feel weird to relax his body and let go while Fives holds his dick.

The sound of his piss hitting the toilet bowl is too loud in the silence of the room. Echo grimaces at the noise. Fives brings his other hand up to rest over Echo’s hip, his thumb rubbing soothing circles against his skin. It helps. Echo leans against Fives’s frame and closes his eyes, trusting his partner to keep him on target.

And why shouldn’t he? He trusts Fives with everything else and even though he knows the other man has gotten it into his head that Skako was his fault, the truth is that Fives has never let him down. He’s safe with Fives – always has been.

He starts to relax, letting himself sink into the comfort of his partner, warm and solid around him. Echo turns his face into Fives’s, his nose scraping against a stubble-covered cheek, and breathes deeply, letting Fives’s familiar scent drown out the antiseptic smell of the medbay.

“Hey,” Fives says softly. “Wanna know a secret?”

Despite everything, Echo almost manages a smile at that. He cracks his eyes open again.

“What?” he asks.

In answer, Fives shifts his hips and something firm brushes against Echo’s ass.

Echo almost laughs.

It’s transparent, as distractions go, but Fives’s arousal is solid enough.

“Seriously?” Echo deadpans. “This is doing it for you?”

He feels Fives shrug against him, shameless. “You’re doing it for me,” Fives says, the same way he’d suggest finding somewhere private after a night at 79’s. Echo does laugh at that and feels Fives’s cheek pull into that crooked grin that Echo loves so much.

It’s just so Fives and fuck, Echo missed him more than he thought it was possible to miss someone you didn’t know was gone from you.

And it works. It’s hard to be embarrassed about his present state with Fives’s cock poking him. Vulnerable, yes, but that’s okay. With Fives, vulnerability has always tasted of intimacy rather than danger.

The stream of Echo’s piss slows to a trickle. Fives holds him steady till the end. Despite his hard-on, when the last drops hit the bowl, Fives tucks Echo carefully back into his pants and fastens the seal.

His arms settle around Echo’s waist, loosely enough for Echo to turn around to face him.

“Don’t you wanna -”

“Another time,” Fives interrupts smoothly, punctuating his words with a quick kiss. “Maybe you can return the favor then.”

Echo considers the idea – his own hand wrapped around Fives’s soft cock, whispering encouragement in his ear, coaxing him to let go while Echo holds him still, peeling back another layer of their relationship until there’s nothing left unshared between them.

Oh.

He nods and Fives kisses him again. Echo smiles into it.

“Go back to bed,” Fives says when they part. “Just gonna wash up and then I’ll join you.”

Echo does as he’s told, leaving room in the narrow bed for Fives to crawl into and not taking no for an answer when Fives emerges from the ‘fresher and tries to insist on taking the chair again out of concern for Echo’s recovery. They’ll both sleep better curled together.

---

It snowed again during the night, and the landing pad is covered in a thick, fluffy layer of snow. Echo lets the barrack door slip closed at his back and makes his way to the edge of the ‘pad. Everything is very quiet, very still—it’s so early it’s not quite morning, and he’s the only one outside. Echo blows on his hands, his heavy coat feeling weird on his unarmoured shoulders, and starts making his way to the end of the landing pad, his boots puncturing the snow easily with a satisfying crunch.

Red and green dance over his head, and when he closes his eyes Echo thinks he can hear them, crackling light streaking across the deep night sky.

It’s too cold to be outside for long, but Echo leans his hip on a crate and stays there for long minutes, looking at the sky. He’s freezing and tired to the bone, but he can’t sleep. He doesn’t know the brothers he’s sharing the barracks with that well, and Rex and the others are across the galaxy, fighting on Felucia, and—and Fives should have been back two days ago.

ARCs work in pairs, except when they don’t.

The rumbling of a speeder engine renders the night in two. Echo jumps, not quite slips in the snow, leans over the edge of the platform—there. A single vehicle. Making its way up the path and through the checkpoint and into the base.

Fives is very predictable. After checking in with the base’s captain and debrief, he makes his way to the barracks, still covered in dripping snow. Echo waits for him there, failing and trying to not feel self-conscious.

He looks exhausted. There’s a scrape high up on his cheekbone, and a hollow look in his eyes, but Fives smiles when he sees Echo, dark eyes warm.

“Missed me?”

Always.