"What are you doing here?" Crosshair snapped.
Omega blinked in confusion. "This is my room."
Crosshair froze, caught halfway between two responses. Omega sat up and he slipped around her and headed for the gun controls.
"Where are you going?"
"Out." Why was he responding to her? It was none of her business what he did.
Omega hopped into a crouch. "Can I come with you?"
Crosshair ignored her and opened the gun hatch.
"Crosshair!"
"What?"he snarled, glancing back just long enough to glimpse her pale face and wide eyes upturned towards him.
"Is that...Trooper?"
Crosshair shrugged, suddenly realizing he was still holding the kid's doll. He tossed the toy to the padded floor and slipped through the open hatch. He had to squirm a bit to make it past the gun, but he was able to fit. Unfortunately, so was Omega.
Crosshair lurched to the left side of the ship and started up, just as Omega's boots hit the cobbled pavement with a damp thud.
Well, he could still climb. She, most likely, could not.
Crosshair heaved himself onto the nose of the ship, then up the viewport to the side wing. The cool morning mist made the ship's exterior slippery, but that never posed a problem, and it felt good on his flushed cheeks. His forehead was clammy, and he pressed a hand to his ribs and sank back against the dorsal stabilizer at the top of the Marauder.
There was a soft squeak of metal followed by another like to a wamp-rat's. So now she was trying to follow him? Wonderful.
Her efforts were futile and each attempt unrewarded despite her determination. But after the third pair of squeaks, Crosshair sighed and looked down.
Omega was looking around the ship's frame, the pathway Crosshair had taken too difficult for her to traverse on her own. She was too short.
Of course. She was a kid. And a noisy one at that. Those constant squeaks would wake the others, and it had been hard enough getting out of the ship to risk that now.
Crosshair shook his head - it wasn't defeat, it was tact - and slipped down to the ground, caught Omega by the elbows, and hoisted her up onto the front of the ship. He clambered back up himself, then reached out, allowing his hand to be used like a grappling hook and his arm like a tow cable.
His side was burning by the time he settled down again with the kid next to him. He shouldn't have to add shifting cargo to his list of activities, and the kid's persistance was irksome.
She was either an intentional gnat or stupid. Probably both.
He turned to say so and started.
The girl was looking at his side, her disapproval as clear as a sunny day on Naboo. Without the sunshine.
"You're still hurt," she said.
Crosshair snorted.
"You shouldn't have climbed up here like that."
Oh, she was a persistant little fly.
"A little late to start worrying about that, don't you think?" Crosshair growled.
She frowned and sat back, mimicking his position exactly.
Crosshair shifted and she did, too. Seemly unconscious of either change, she did it again when Crosshair's altered a third time.
How Hunter not given her the airlock to sleep in was a mystery.
"Thank you."
Crosshair grunted again, not really wanting her to expound that statement.
"Thank you for helping me up."
Crosshair ignored her - and quickly found that was a mistake.
Omega took his silence as an open invitation to continue, and started talking.
Omega wished Crosshair would speak; but he didn't. He sat stiffly, shoulders slumped and back rigid against the wing, his eyes as cold as the morning mist that brushed against their faces.
Omega patted her bangs, wiggling her eyebrows a bit as some of the moisture squeezed from her hair and tickled down her forehead.
Crosshair still hadn't spoken, so she did.
"Do you like it up here?"
A snort.
Omega giggled. She was nervous. "I don't really understand what that means."
Crosshair fished a toothpick from one sleeve and stuck it between his teeth. "Guess".
"Yes?"
Omega frowned as Crosshair turned away with a sneer. She tried again.
"Do you come up here a lot?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
"The noise of the general surroundings."
Omega froze, then clamped her lips together. She felt Crosshair glance at her, but eventually she forgot the strain of being quiet and started to take in the view surrounding them.
Ord Mantell looked different from higher up. More of the pavement could be seen at once, and the street stones glimmered dully on their edges. There was a heavy fog on level with the rooftops, and a thinner mist hovered about the first floor windows and the nose of the Havoc Marauder.
Omega waved her hand up and down in front of her face, trying to catch the droplets on her fingers. They slipped through and disappeared, but she could see them! They should be staying.
She tried following one misty particle with her eyes, but she soon lost it in the swirling mass of its fellows. The dancing cloud in front of her eyes confused her vision. It seemed a wall of muted static was rushing about her head, and try as she might, she couldn't catch it.
Crosshair huffed lightly. "Your eyes are crossing. Try focusing on something more distant."
Omega looked out across the buildings and blinked. Her vision split, then everything merged in a clash of blurred images and she squinted hard and blinked again.
Her vision adjusted, and she pushed back against the hard metal of the wing which felt cozy despite the unusual sensation of cold metal against her back. But a moment later, something pricked her memory and it didn't feel cozy anymore.
She shifted forward, crossed her legs and stuffed her clapsed hands into her lap.
A fuzzy line floated near her right eye, then slid in front of it.
Omega pulled back, eyes crossing as she tried to see what the object was.
"You might occasionally try reverting your gaze to something nearer home," said Crosshair and handed her the toothpick.
Omega took it and twisted her mouth in confusion. "Uh, thank you...?"
Crosshair glanced sidelong at her and shifted his own toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. "That will hopefully make you stop fidgeting," he said.
"Oh..." Omega studied the bit of wood pinched between her fingers and hesitantly placed it in her mouth.
She caught it between her teeth and chewed experimentally. That didn't feel so good. The wood was hard, and it irritated her. She pushed the toothpick further back and bit it with her molars instead. The wood split with a soft crack and slid, scraping her gums.
Omega bit the end of it hard. It hurt and made her whole middle feel hot. She yanked the wood from her mouth and glared at it. "Ugh, that hurts! Is this why you're so grumpy all the time?"
The soreness faded from her mouth and she sighed. She knew she shouldn't have said what she did. But when she brought her guilty gaze upwards, Crosshair was smirking.
"Try balancing it instead," he told her. "You'll get the hang of it."
Omega settled back again and tried rolling the toothpick like she'd seen Crosshair do it. But a minute later, it dropped from her mouth as she gaped and flapped her hand wordlessly towards the structure-studded horizon. She jumped to her feet for a better view
"A-ah-C-Crosshair! Look! What is it doing?"
Sunlight was glowing more brightly above the fog now; daylight had come so gradually, Omega hadn't noticed. And now the mist was rising, curling from the rooftops in bands of steaming white. It was magnificent and a sight Omega had never seen. She danced about in excitement waving towards the buildings.
"Look! Look!"
A hand grasped her belt and pulled her back.
"Quit squawking like a rooster, and sit down before you fall!" snapped Crosshair.
Omega sat, coerced into obedience by Crosshair's tugging. She wriggled where she sat, unable to pry her gaze away from the dancing mist.
"But what is it doing?"
"Evaporating."
Omega repeated the word. She knew that word, but it felt even more real and mysterious all at once now that she had this sight to compare it to. "It's amazing," she breathed.
"Yes, very pretty." Crosshair flicked his toothpick to the street below and pulled himself to his feet. "Time to get inside."
"But why?" Omega hopped up to stand alongside him as he rose. "Please, I want to see it finish!"
"Tech's warming up the ship," said Crosshair.
As if on cue, a steady thrumming rippled across the surface of their perch. The vibrations swarmed beneath Omega's boots, and she sighed and gazed longingly out to where the delicate tendrils of mist rose softly into the morning air.
Crosshair growled. "I knew I shouldn't have let you come up here."
Omega slumped. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I got excited."
Crosshair stepped lightly across the top of the Marauder and looked down towards the nose of the ship.
"Ordinarily, I take a different route. But since you're with me, we'll slide down," he said.
Omega wished he would stop talking. His words were making her feel more guilty, and then a thought occurred to her that made things even more serious.
"Oh... Crosshair? I didn't tell Hunter I was going outside..."
"Relax. He knows," said Crosshair. "Here."
He caught her arms and pulled her against him, and then walked her towards the top of the ship's front.
"Sit."
She sat. "Does Hunter really know?" she asked.
"If he doesn't, this squad is in worse shape than I thought," said Crosshair and lowered himself beside her.
He pushed off, and they started down. Omega couldn't help the laugh that burst from her throat. She caught a faceful of lingering mist and distinctly heard Echo's startled yelp as they shot down the viewport.
Then Crosshair twisted, caught Omega under the arms and dropped. He landed unsteadily and Omega's smile faded as he dropped her with a labored grunt.
"Are you okay?" she blurted.
Crosshair straightened and clapped a hand grimly to his side. "Lose some weight," he hissed.
Omega sighed and trotted after him as he headed for the hatch.
The ramp lowered and Wrecker grinned down at them. "Good morning!" he bellowed.
Crosshair shoved past him and stalked towards the rear of the ship, but Wrecker didn't seem to notice. He picked Omega up and swung her into the air.
"Off we go!" he cried.
"To Verdacca!" Omega cheered.
"How about Pantora first?"
Omega tried to smile at Hunter when Wrecker put her down, and she was able to after a moment of looking at his face. Apparently, Crosshair had been right. Hunter did know where she'd been.
"Have fun?" he asked.
Omega nodded.
"Well, get settled then. We're takin' off."
Omega hurried to strap herself in and waved cheerfully to Tech as he tripped past her on his way to the cockpit. He quirked a smile down at her and settled at the helm with Echo. She would tell them all about the mist later.
A soft pressure bounced into Omega's lap and she stared at the toothpick in confusion, then looked up at Crosshair.
He watched her for a minute, then lowered himself stiffly into the flight chair furthest from the cockpit to Omega's right.
She held up the toothpick and Crosshair disdainfully tipped his head in her direction.
"You lost yours when you got excited. Remember?"
Omega smiled and slipped the toothpick into her pocket.