#huntech

Hunter’s cheeks flushed with shame, and the tense muscles of his jaw twitched under Tech’s fingertips.

“Sorry,” he muttered again, his hands closing over Tech’s and lifting them away from his face. His touch lingered, just a moment, fingertips barely threading together before he pulled his arms back too and folded them tightly across his chest. Shoulders hunched miserably towards his ears, and Tech gave another expansive sigh.

“You are the only one who feels like this, Hunter. No-one else blames you for what happened.”

“I should have come back for you,” Hunter countered quickly, a well-rehearsed argument. “I should have checked.”

Tech knew this conversation cycle off by heart. He had yet to find the right thing to say that would snap Hunter out of his morose spiral of self-flagellation.

“It wasn’t like Daro,” he said firmly, before Hunter could use that comparison again, “where you somehow miraculously survived a fall down the mountainside unscathed, and ordered me to get the others to safety.” He caught hold of Hunter’s waist, tugging him close despite a protesting noise. “Unlike that circumstance, I gave you no indication that I was safe and well awaiting future retrieval.”

His lips quirked in a smile at the memory; Hunter hadn’t exactly been safe and well either, surrounded by Imperial troopers and quickly captured – but his point stood.

“On Eriadu, you did not have any evidence that I survived the fall.”

He paused, a slight frown furrowing his brow between the bridge of his goggles.

“I’m not sure that I did,” he admitted, and now a note of uncertainty crept into his voice.

“Tech.”

Hunter’s voice was rough and low, and bore that same weight of authority he had carried all their lives, as the Sergeant of Clone Force 99.

“You with me?” he asked, and now he met Tech’s gaze directly, peering up through his amber-lensed goggles with deep concern.

Tech blinked owlishly, riveted for a moment on Hunter’s wide, worried eyes, before he shook back to himself with a soft snort.

“Not every moment of introspection is –”

He cut off without completing the sentence, though they both knew what he was going to say.

A memory lapse.

Well, at least it had the effect of snapping Hunter out of his own thoughts and back into worry-mode.

“We can stop and rest –”

“Hunter, I do not need –”

“– just for a little bit. Please?”

The please, and Hunter’s desperate expression, were enough to make Tech capitulate. In the past he had fought Hunter’s overly protective ministrations, but in the past Hunter had been able to take Tech’s defiance as a challenge, not a criticism.

“I shall sit and rest,” he declared loftily, casting about until he spotted a nearby bench, “once you admit that my incarceration in Mount Tantiss was not your fault.”

If he was feeling truthful, he was tired. Stubbornness, however, was second nature; all of the Batch were hard-headed, and that much at least he was confident had not been affected by the torture and reconditioning over the long months he had spent in the hidden Imperial base.

“I should have –”

“–done exactly as you did,” Tech interrupted him with finality. “Got the others out of there. You had Imperial pursuit. I was aware of all the variables, Hunter.”

“I let you down.”

“You did not.” Slowly Tech moved to the bench, sinking down carefully and pulling Hunter with him. It took him a moment to get comfortable, the metal brace around his leg restricting his movement, and Hunter fussed with the hinge until it loosened.

“I let Omega get captured,” Hunter continued in a gritty voice, wrestling to bite back his own emotions. “I didn’t rescue Crosshair like you wanted. I put Wrecker in danger so many times trying to find that place. Echo left.” He was crouched beside where Tech sat, hands idly cupping the knee joint of the brace now he had adjusted it. “You were supposed to be able to rely on me, and I let you all down.”

“Do you honestly think that any of us feel that way about you?”

Hunter gave the barest shrug, his intense frown half-hidden by the shadow of his hair.

Tech sighed. It didn’t matter what the truth of things was, that they had been in an untenable position with no way out. Hunter blamed himself, and projected those feelings of guilt onto those around him until he was convinced they must harbour the same loathing for him as he did for himself.

“Hunter. Would you kindly cease with this behaviour and accept the logical fact that, were our positions reversed, you and I would have followed the exact same course of action?”

At Hunter’s huff of disbelieving laughter Tech smiled, just a little. He hoped he was finally getting through to him.

“There may be gaps in my memory,” he said bluntly, and couldn’t help the way he winced at the admission. The scars of Tantiss went far beyond those he wore on his skin. “But I do remember one thing most clearly, and that is that our successes are because we trust each other.” He paused, waiting to be sure that Hunter was listening. Only when the other clone reluctantly glanced up did he finish, “I trust you, Hunter. Can you learn to trust yourself again?”

The long silence that followed was weighted with tension, as Hunter slid onto the bench beside Tech with one hand still on his knee. This thumb brushed idly over the top of his thigh, skimming a path between the supporting bars of the leg brace.

“I don’t know if I can do what you’re asking,” he admitted at length, keeping his gaze downcast and following the track of his own small movement. “Forgive myself. For leaving you. For not rescuing you sooner.”

“You didn’t know.”

Now Hunter looked up at him desperately.

“If I had, I wouldn’t have stopped looking. We stopped searching for Tantiss after Cross and Omega escaped. If I’d known you were there, I wouldn’t have given up.”

“I know,” said Tech softly, full of reassurance.

Tentatively, he dropped his hand to Hunter’s, stilling the anxious movement of his touch. When it seemed like Hunter wasn’t going to immediately buck him off and retreat, he laced their fingers together, squeezing hard.

When he leaned in to kiss Hunter, it was a feather-light brush of their mouths; it sent a tingly, pleasant feeling vibrating through him, and the soft noise Hunter made, the faintest sigh of satisfaction – oh, but he would like to hear that again.

“Whilst there are many things I do not remember –” he began matter of factly, pulling back to fix Hunter with a soft smile.

“–We weren’t in a relationship, Tech,” corrected Hunter with a weary grin, but a spark of his usual humour showed in his eyes and that was so much better than the ache of guilt that had been there before.

“Nonsense. I clearly recall kissing you.”

“It was one time. We were cadets.”

“Well. It was remiss of me not to pursue the experience repeatedly.”

Hearing Hunter’s gruff chuckle, seeing the way that a little of the sorrow lifted from his frame, was all Tech wanted.

Hunter reached out and brushed a brief, fond touch along Tech’s jaw, and at last his smile seemed genuine.

“Come on. We’ve been out a long time, and I don’t want you to tire out.”

“I am not fragile, Hunter,” Tech grumbled, but allowed Hunter to pull him to his feet. Partly because it once again gave him a height advantage, meaning he could lean down to steal another kiss in a way that he knew would make his former sergeant melt.

This time as they kissed Hunter’s hands came up to cup his cheeks gently, holding him close even after the kiss ended, tilting their foreheads together.

“I’ll try,” he said at length, breathing a sigh into their shared space. “Is that good enough?”

Tech hummed a thoughtful noise as a small smile curled across his lips, curving them upwards.

“You have always been good enough for me, Hunter.”

Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: CT-9901 | Hunter/CT-9902 | Tech, CT-9904 | Crosshair/CT-9901 | Hunter, CT-9904 | Crosshair/CT-9901 | Hunter/CT-9902 | Tech Characters: CT-9901 | Hunter, CT-9902 | Tech, CT-9904 | Crosshair, CT-9903 | Wrecker, CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo (minor), Omega (Star Wars: The Bad Batch) (minor) Additional Tags: POV CT-9901 | Hunter, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega CT-9901 | Hunter, Omega CT-9902 | Tech, Alpha CT-9904 | Crosshair, Alpha/Omega, Omega/Omega, Background polybatch, Grief/Mourning, Jealous CT-9904 | Crosshair, Possessive CT-9904 | Crosshair, CT-9902 | Tech Lives, CT-9902 | Tech is CX-2 | Sniper CloneX2, Love Triangles, but they work it out, Temporary Amnesia, Magical Healing Ass, sorry idk how that ended up being a tag in here lol, Protective CT-9901 | Hunter, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Getting Back Together, Explicit Sexual Content, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bottom CT-9901 | Hunter, Top CT-9904 | Crosshair, Switch CT-9902 | Tech, Hopeful Ending, Ambiguous/Open Ending