It felt like there was something missing from Rogue Squadron. It was functional, as always, but some of the spark was gone. Tycho had been with the Rogues for a very long time. He had gone from distrusted defector to trusted friend, then mistrusted escapee, back to valued pilot and friend again. Now he was acting as Rogue leader, while Wedge was leading the Wraiths, and there was just something missing. He couldn't remember the squad ever being so quiet.
The quiet wasn't really a bad thing because it meant that he didn't get called in the middle of the night to go bail someone out after a brawl, but it made him wonder. Part of it was probably the relationships. At least half of the Rogues were dating each other or were in long-term committed relationships with others. Gavin and Asyr, and Nawara and Rhysati were couples and so they spent their down-time with each other more than the others. Corran was married and was with Mirax as often as she was around, which was a lot since their marriage was still relatively new. Winter hadn't visited him recently, but that relationship still gave him pause when considering how he wanted to spend his free time.
The surprising thing, for him, was that the rest of the Rogues were also fairly quiet when pursuing their off-duty activities. Wedge had made things a little easier on both of them by splitting up Wes and Hobbie. Hobbie was always one of the quiet ones, but without Wes to drag him into a silly scheme or prank he was even more so. It worried Tycho a little, not being able to read his friend very well anymore, and he wasn't entirely sure what Hobbie was doing in his off hours as they hadn't talked about anything other than missions for weeks. He was starting to feel that he wasn't being a good friend, and that their relationship had been reduced to their military roles.
Inyri was also staying out of trouble, though she was keeping up with her interests in obscure games and gambling with the officers on the Mon Remonda. She seemed a bit apathetic toward some of the other Rogues, but she was engaged during missions, so Tycho was trying not to think about it too much. Ooryl was still as steady and reliable as he always had been, so there was no cause for concern there. In fact, he had become one of the examples that the newer Rogues seemed to follow, which was much appreciated.
There was camaraderie between the newer four pilots, and the more experienced Rogues, but they weren't going to cantinas or getting into fights, or even playing many games (other than Inyri), so things were very, very quiet. As much as he enjoyed leading the squadron, he was actually getting bored. Tycho was even starting to miss Wes and the chance for getting pranked, and he was looking forward to a time when they would work with the Wraiths just to have something more lively happen.
He missed Wedge the most; that had been a friendship he had counted on through all of the troubles of the past years and Wedge had been someone he could confide in even when the others were distant. Tycho wished he had that connection to Hobbie, but it needed to be redeveloped after serving apart for so long, and when they were alone together they tended to talk missions or fall into an easy silence instead of chatting.
It was different and he wanted to make an effort just to change the way things were settling in with the squad, or the quiet boredom of his free time was going to drive him to start pranking people just to see what would happen. Rogue Squadron had to be more than just functional, it had to be a kind of family for them to be their best, and he was going to make sure it felt that way again.
