#gremlin writes

“Hey, good lookin’, what’s cookin’?” You asked, finally moving forward from the door to crouch down to his level on the floor. Tech glanced up, the brief eye contact making your heart flutter before his gaze fell back to the floor.

“Trying to fix a device.” He offered simply, curtly. It was clear from his tone of voice that he wanted to be left alone, so you just gave a little sigh and stood back up.

“I’m going to wash laundry, is yours-.”

“In the usual bag on my bunk.” Tech cut in, not even bothering to look up again. Your heart cried a little pang of rejection, something that stung your fingertips and the corners of your eyes and you nodded, turning back towards the end of the ship.

Crosshair was sitting on his bunk with what you assumed was half of the squad’s firearms before him, meticulously checking through them from the looks of the scattered parts spread around his figure. From the look he gave you, you could tell that he heard the poor excuse of a conversation.

“Hey, kid.” He greeted. His eyes expressed the most minute amount of concern that you had trained yourself to pick up on.

“Older than you, Cross.” You muttered back, plopping Tech’s laundry bag into your basket before standing on the edge of the bunk to peer into Wrecker’s empty one.

“Doesn’t matter. You know, I think he’s too caught in his own head to notice half of what goes on.” He offered as you scooped up a rather foul smelling pair of blacks and dropped them into the basket.

“He seems to know what goes on around him in the field.” You muttered out sourly. Crosshair chuckled, quiet and barely there.

“That’s the other half, kiddo. Besides, you don’t want someone who won’t even notice when you’re feeling down or irritated.” He said. You glanced down again to see him staring up at you with a hauntingly intuitive look. Your response was just a sad little smile.

“Doesn’t matter. Can’t help my feelings, Cross, you know that. It just hurts that he won’t even look at me for more than a half second.” You said. He glowered for a second, mulling over a response as he slipped a clip into one of the DC-17’s, giving a little noise of affirmation on the click that resounded.

“Just promise me that you won’t quit our squad because of my brother’s idiocy. Don’t want to find another officer that I can tolerate.” Crosshair finally answered, holding out his own laundry bag for you to take.

You gave an appreciative little smile. “I’ll try, but I don’t really know how much more of this I can take. I might move on better if I transfer out.” Your heart gave a little whine of protest at the very thought of leaving your boys and it was a struggle to keep your voice even. It was true, though. You didn’t know how much longer you could take Tech blatantly ignoring you.

As you turned around, you missed Crosshair’s frown deepen and the way he jammed one of the blasters he had been working on back together with an aggressive snap. You stopped briefly on your way out to observe Tech for a couple seconds. His head snapped up after a few too many beats.

“Can I help you?” He asked.

You gave him a little smile. “No. Just keep looking pretty while you tinker.” You answered, turning on your heel to leave before you could receive an answer.

As soon as you were gone, Crosshair took your place, coming up behind Tech in a near silent stalk. Tech gave a little annoyed eye roll and looked up, eyebrows raised expectantly at his brother. Crosshair just gave the back of his head a good wack.

“Hey!” Tech jolted forward, quickly getting on his feet to stare down Cross.

“You kriffing idiot. She’s into you and you keep ignoring her. At least tell her you’re not interested so she can move on without leaving the kriffing team.” Crosshair snapped, nearly spitting out his toothpick. He took it out of his mouth and cocked a hip to level a glare Tech’s way.

Tech’s face absolutely lit up for a split second, before his fantastic mind caught up with itself and made it fall again. “There’s… statistically speaking, the chance of her possessing feelings for me that are romantic in nature is so impossibly minute that I really do not see a benefit in chasing her.”

Crosshair gave him the look. The look of an exasperated older brother attempting to explain something so painfully simple that it made them want to bash their head in when their little brother shook their head with a small “I don’t get it”.

“What did she say to you when she walked in?” Cross asked, words measured and slow so he didn’t completely rip Tech a new one.

“What’s… cooking good looking?” Tech’s eyebrows furrowed as he recalled what occurred. “And she told me to keep looking pretty when she left, but isn’t that just how she interacts with…” he trailed off meaningfully, shooting Crosshair a slightly bewildered, slightly amazed look.

“I’d go talk to her, vod.” Crosshair sighed and turned around to go back to the mini armory on his bunk. “If you keep this up, you’re gonna lose her faster than you can think.”

While Tech was frantically tripping over his wires in a rush out of the ship, you were wallowing in your woes at the laundry. Clones and nat-born officers mulled about in the room around where you had managed to snag a washer.

“Cross is right. We do deserve someone who would pay attention to us. We can’t go on with someone who barely registers anything outside of the current mission at hand and his own tinkerings.” You thought to yourself as you tossed Hunter’s laundry in with the rest of it. Measuring out the laundry detergent, you poured it in with a little sigh, feeling dejected.

No matter, it was time to move on, you decided as you grabbed the now empty laundry basket. Tonight, you were going to treat yourself to a nice pasta meal with a bottle of wine on your bunk while you binged a series you had just picked up.

You quite nearly crashed into someone as you lost yourself in your reverie, bouncing off of plastoid armor as an arm looped around your waist to balance you out. Snapping out of it, you looked up to see the very object of your affections, looking flustered as all hell and verging on breathless.

“Tech? What’s wrong?” You asked, concern flashing white hot through you. Tech simply didn’t get flustered. Even in the most stressful of situations where you and the squad had been facing what seemed to be imminent doom, the most he got was a little clipped.

“I’m sorry for running into you, no, nothing’s wrong, and Crosshair has brought my attention towards something.” Tech rambled out, wringing his hands together. Tightness squeezed through your stomach at this.

“He said… well, he said, simply put, that you have been making romantic advancements towards me. Exclusively to me.” He added at the end with a little wag of a finger. His eyes intently bore into yours and your heart gave a little, small flutter.

“I have. Have for a while now, pretty boy.” You shifted the laundry basket on your hip, frown still etched into your features.

“I apologize, I was engineered towards academic intellectual excellence, not emotional intelligence, so I… I-I.” Tech took a deep breath to steady himself and righted his googles. “I would really appreciate it if you would consider an engagement with me that would be romantic in nature.”

Your body filled with red hot heat at his admission. Maker you liked him so much. You liked his stupid face, his stupid kriffing tendencies to ramble, his dumb hair, kriffing everything from the way his eyes shone to the way he wagged his finger.

But you knew that you could not be with someone who hadn’t even bothered to pay enough attention to you to see that you had been flirting.

Simply put, you froze, gears turning as your mulled this over.

“I apologize if Crosshair was wrong and I’d like to request that you forget about this if it was. I do not wish to drive you away from the team, you fit in marvelously and I don-.” You cut him off by waving your hand and gave him a small, contained smile.

“Tech, I would love to. But, I don’t know if I should engage in something with you. I understand a lack of emotional intelligence, but I don’t want to be with someone who hasn’t even looked at me twice.” You explained. Tech’s face fell so much that your heart nearly gave out right then and there.

“But I have. I just thought…” he trailed off. Then Tech bounced back, grabbing your free hand with determination blazing in his eyes.

“Let me prove it. Don’t give up on me yet.” He requested, gently squeezing your fingers. Your smile broadened, for he had requested what you were planning on offering the entire time.

Pulling him closer by that hand, you leaned up on your tip toes to press a very gentle kiss on his cheek.

“You have a week to make me realize that you have been paying attention and will treat me as I deserve to. And if you do manage to sweep me off my feet, I promise to treat you as you deserve as well.” You promised with a whisper.

Tech nodded rapidly, an adorable blush continuing to bless his cheeks. Without preamble, he took the basket from you and held out his arm expectantly. Confusion filled your chest as you watched him wag it expectantly.

“I assume we’re starting immediately? Come on, darling. I’ll walk you back.” He said, grinning like a child in a candy store. Or more accurately for him, a nerd in a bookstore.