#odekiisu

Because the accident made me smile, I'm answering them both!

Hardcase

Crosshair

(ajhsdsjhk yes please I love this)

Echo is many things, but despite what people might believe, oblivious isn’t one of them. He’s an ARC, trained to notice even the smallest details - and in missions, those usually are the difference between life and death. What he wants to say with this is that he has noticed that the bond that unifies the Bad Batch isn’t just a platonic one; it checks out, he thinks: the only people they can lean onto are each other, so it makes sense that they would seek each other out for that too.

What he wasn’t expecting was for them to try and bring him along for the ride, which he appreciates and all but… Well, maybe it’s still too soon, he thinks; he needs time.

Of course, this doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy their awkward attempts at flirting, and what attempts…

 Since Echo’s healthier now he can go back to physical training, which makes Wrecker the happiest.

“I’m gonna show you all my favorite moves!” he exclaims, eager to get started. Although Echo’s eager as well - he really needs to get back on track - he also knows that if he allows him, Wrecker would wreck his shit - he really can see how he got his name.

“Make sure you don’t break anything important, please? I don’t want to be stuck with physical therapy again…” he warns in fact.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle…” Wrecker immediately says, smirking, although it doesn’t last for long as he realizes the implications of what he just said, which makes him cringe and stutter. “Um… I mean…”

Echo can’t hold back a chuckle, shaking his head. This doesn’t last long either, because in a moment he immediately goes on the offensive, taking advantage of Wrecker’s distraction to land a kick on his knee, making him lose his balance.

What? Last time Echo checked, there’s no rule against fighting dirty.

 Tech’s way of flirting is more ramble-y than Wrecker’s, but Echo still finds it adorable. He’s so earnest in the way he begins to explain some complicated mechanical process that even though Echo doesn’t understand everything he’s saying, it’s still a delight to listen to him.

Right now he’s listing all the features he installed on his new mechanical arm; some have already gotten lost, but Echo’s gotten most of them.

“I figured you’d want to be still able to connect to machinery and such so if you close your pink like this…” he begins, gently moving Echo’s finger in the way he’s supposed to imitate next time he wants to do it, and soon a valve opens at the center of his palm, making space for a plug that begins to come out, just like a droid’s one. “There!”

“I’m sure it’ll come handy,” Echo says, “Thank you.”

“I’ve also adapted the shape to the rest of your body,” Tech continues, barely registering Echo’s reply. “You’re so well proportioned that I couldn’t not do it…”

“Well proportioned, huh?” Echo repeats, fighting back a smirk. He’s definitely heard worse - he really has - but still that’s not what comes to his mind when he thinks about complimenting someone.

After a solid minute of Tech stuttering, Echo thinks that he must’ve broken him. It’s cute but also he feels kind of bad now, so he decides to do something about it.

“Thank you,” he says then. “Took me a while to get back in shape, so it means a lot that you’d think that.”

Those words seem to calm Tech down, who sheepishly smiles at him.

Echo, of course, smiles back.

 Crosshair’s idea of flirting is, apparently, not insulting him, which Echo appreciates he guesses, but it’s still peculiar.

“You shoot well for a reg.”

“Thanks?” Echo says. He’s never sure about how to reply to Crosshair when he tells him this stuff; he supposes it could be worse - he’s heard Crosshair says way worse - but it seems that the sniper has some sort of soft spot for him, not that he admitted it of course.

They’re firing guns at the improvised shooting range they’ve created for Echo. Now that he can move better he needs to improve his aim to get back to his previous levels; thankfully muscle memory is still a thing, so it’s going faster than anticipated. Still, it’s hard to keep up with an expert marksman such as Crosshair, though Echo likes the challenge.

“Really, you’re recovering much faster that I thought.”

Oh, this is new: usually Crosshair is a man of few words, but today he’s trying to strike a conversation - at least this is how Echo is interpreting it.

“I am, and it’s also thanks to you,” he replies, smiling at him, because it’s true: they’re helping him in many ways that he would’ve never expected, and he’s truly grateful that they’ve taken him in with so little hesitation.

Crosshair reels back like he’s just been hit on his stomach.

“Yeah, right…” he mutters. “Let’s get back to target practice. We’ve lost enough time already…”

A chuckle leaves Echo’s lips.

“Yessir.”

 The way Hunter flirts is different from the others’: it’s less wordy or more physical.

Echo doesn’t mind that at all - it reminds him of Fives actually - but there’s always some hesitation in the way Hunter touches him, though he doesn’t know if it’s because he’s afraid he’d hurt him or because he thinks he might be overstepping some sort of unsaid boundary, which is beginning to unnerve Echo, especially if he’s doing it for the first reason.

Eventually, in fact, he snaps: they’re walking back to the Havoc Marauder, and Hunter’s hand is hovering over Echo’s shoulder, barely touching it. That’s the final straw.

Echo takes Hunter’s hand and draws it closer so that it’s actually resting on his shoulder. There.

“E-Echo?”

“I’m not going to break just because of a touch, Hunter,” he explains.

“O-Of course,” the other stutters, making a pause and then squeezing Echo’s shoulder with his hand. “… Is this okay, then?”

Echo nods, his hand still over Hunter’s.

At least they’re going somewhere…

 “Wait! So you knew?”

Echo laughs at those words. Many things have changed since those awkward flirting attempts, and now Echo can say that he’s officially part of the group, officially as in he now cuddles with them and kisses them and… other stuff too.

“You weren’t exactly subtle,” he says then. He feels Wrecker shift from behind, but he doesn’t move away. He’s not going to lie: he missed cuddle piles, especially with these many people.

“Why didn’t you say anything then?” Tech, settled between his legs, asks.

That surely is a question. Well, there are many reasons why he didn’t say anything at first, but Echo decides to just shrug. “Was funnier.”

He hears chuckling on his left and he turns towards Crosshair.

“I knew there was a reason why I like you.”

Echo doesn’t have the time to say anything because Cross’ lips are on his. He smiles into the kiss, especially when he feels Hunter hugging his waist.

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

Yes, it did indeed.

Would it help if you told your brain that 20k is somewhere between 40 and 80 A4 pages depending on font and spacing? Because that’s A Lot of pages.

write a book with - Thanisson, our book is called 69 Habits of Highly Devious People and if you back it on Kickstarter we’ll tell you how to make oodles of cash (disclaimer- book may not actually exist, no refunds on pre-orders)

read a book to - Mitaka, he seems like he could use a rest, I’ll happily read him a bedtime story and get him a heat pack for that sore neck.

hit with a book - Matt, I have a theory that hitting Matt with even an Encyclopaedia Britannica would be like those martial arts shows where people punch through bricks. If we filmed it we could become Youtube famous :p  

42. The Big Damn Kiss & 100. Accidentally Saving the Day

Matt liked Thanisson better than the other officers.

Not like liked of course.

Skinny twinky guys with delicate wrists and soft lips and exactly his sense of humour weren’t... his... type... SHIT. Alright, maybe he did like like Thanisson a bit, but that wasn’t the point.

The point was that, unlike the other officers- and stormtroopers, and pilots, and ... and... fine, unlike everyone else he encountered on a day-to-day basis, Thanisson wasn’t mean to him.

Okay, so he had trapped Matt under his work station that time, used his back as a footrest for thirty minutes while he was rewiring, and then hadn’t let Matt out again without paying a ‘kiss tax’ but that was... different. It had felt a bit like flirting in a strange kind of way. Other people kicked his tools away or shouted at him or made him feel stupid.

Thanisson was a gossip, and a tattletale, and the second bitchiest person in the whole First Order after General Hux himself, but he’d never actively been mean to Matt.

In fact since the incident under the desk Thanisson seemed to be keeping an eye on Matt whenever he was in the docking bays.

Only last week a TIE fighter had mysteriously started it’s diagnostic sequence just when the stormtrooper standing next to it had decided to hassle Matt. Two weeks worth of space garbage ejected from the engines all over that white plastic prick. Captain Phasma hates dirty uniforms. Served him right.

Which was why Matt was eavesdropping now.

He wasn’t usually allowed in any of the control towers - Leslie didn’t trust his skills that far - but after the success of his last visit meant he’d been sent up for a second job. 

Thanisson’s station was on the other side of the room entirely, but Matt could hear his voice engaged in some kind of barely-respectful argument with a superior. One of the instruments seemed to show an indication of contraband. Thanisson thought it was wrong, the superior wanted to test it further. 

Something in Thanisson’s voice wasn’t right. A hint of stress that made Matt’s nerves twitch. 

Or maybe that was the wrench he was leaning across a dozen wires and the live power cable, shit shit shit shit SHIT

“Oh.” The superior suddenly said. “On closer inspection everything looks normal. Lets not waste any time on it.”

Matt barely registered Thanisson agreeing- he was far too busy trying to minimise the damage that was triggering a cascade of system resets. And some melting. And a none-zero amount of fire. 

Thirty minutes later with singed uniform, burnt fingers, and hair that was still randomly discharging static Matt finally made it out of the control tower only to be dragged into an alcove by the front of his uniform.

Matt’s first thought on being enthusiastically kissed by Thanisson was that static hurt when it discharged from the end of his nose.

His second thought was that he was being enthusiastically kissed by Thanisson!

His brain mostly turned into an echo chamber of surprise and pleasure after than revelation but he did manage to surface long enough to hear Thanisson’s surprisingly earnest- if very brief- thanks. And the offer to share the contraband Matt had accidentally saved by causing Thanisson’s terminal to reset at precisely the right moment.

Oh my gosh thank you! I literally blushed and covered my face when I read that ask. You’re so sweet!

ahaha! OMG that’s brilliant, I’m sure it was a proper watch but I’m totally picturing some poor blokes trying to shoot a plastic Swatch Watch... aaaand I just fell down a rabbit hole of 90s watches and there’s a Karma Sutra Swatch Watch. Well that was not a direction I expected to go in!!!