Over My Head

Gotta say, of all the Bad Batch things I've ever written, this is somehow the one I'm proud of. xD

~ Rivana Rita

"So," Omega chirps, "What corner's yours?"

Hunter blinks. "Uh – I – what?"

"Where do you sleep?"

His heart flutters, missing a beat and he feels lightheaded. Maybe that's still adrenaline fading out. What does she mean by corner? "Well, when we're on the ship, we sleep on our racks, though our bunks back on Kamino are way more comfortable."

"Oh," Omega says, her eyes getting really big, "What's a bunk?"

Wrecker's eyes are wide behind her. How can she not know what a bunk is? "It's – it's where we sleep. Didn't Nala Se give you one?" Omega was her assistant. She would've taken good care of her, right? Hunter's not a fan of the Kaminoans, but Nala Se isn't bad.

"Yeah! I sleep in the corner of her lab. Most of the time. Unless I fall asleep on her workbench."

Omega's what, four? Five? Six, max. And she has never slept on anything other than the floor?

She doesn't even know what a bunk is.

Hunter's in over his head. Definitely – all that mattered was getting their sister someplace safe. Getting her off Kamino and raising her the way that he always wished someone would've raised him and his brothers, but the kid's so – different.

Hunter has taken care of people before. He knows Tech's excitement and how he has to tame it, reign it in so it doesn't hurt him. How he has to push him to sleep so he doesn't wear himself out. It's pretty fruitless, but Hunter never stops trying. He never stopped picking him up when the regs fought with him for being so smart, when they hit him for saying his mind was made to be better, that he was different. For knowing things. He'd always been there to pick up Tech and tell him it was fine. That he was the best there ever was.

He's always trying to hold in Wrecker's chaos and try keeping his childish inexperience from blowing up in their faces. From getting someone hurt, not that his little brother would intentionally hurt an ant. He's the softest, gentlest fluffball Hunter has ever known, and Omega is a mini mirror.

Wrecker, but tiny. Small.

He'd sat with his little brother through his growing pains, held him while he cried.

They weren't all sure he'd make it. Hunter couldn't think about that at all, but he did. He pulled through, because Wrecker is the strongest of them in every way.

And Crosshair – Hunter has watched over him, too, steadied him while he struggled to learn with his rifle. He'd run his fingers through his little brother's silver hair so many times and he wants to know if Omega's would feel the same – thin and silky, curled just enough they stretch under touch. He wonders if he'll have to hold her the same way they did Crosshair when they train her and she fails. When she's hurt, when...

He shies away from thoughts of Crosshair – their little brother who shot at him just an hour ago. Who shot his twin his best friend his everything through his shoulder and just left him there on the ground. Who was once their heart. (His youngest brother and Hunter wonders if he can really say Omega is the first kid he raised.)

He helped Echo, who struggled so much with his body and the mess Techno Union made from him. He could hardly shoot with his left hand at first, couldn't keep straight and steady and he was so exhausted for so long. But he has a passion to him, one that burns in their kid's eyes so strong.

And Hunter wonders if that's all that's familiar about Omega, but when he thinks of her, feels the fluttering of her heart and smells the flowery-ness of her, he thinks of something long ago. Distant and half-formed, a memory from a dream, when he was so little he can barely remember. Of a time he was little enough to be held in someone's arms, when he was cradled against someone's chest, feeling their warmth next to him – but his head is on fire and his body is throbbing, burning all over and he's crying.

Words are being spoken, indecipherable, a number repeated again and again, whispered into his hair and someone kissing him. The touch is nice and soft and warm, but it hurts and burns and he wriggles, trying to get away and make it stop and he's set somewhere, sees a face over him. Light-haired. The blankets are soft. Nice.

But that's a memory from a dream. They never had anyone who cared for them like that. Hunter never had someone care for him. Not the way it comes in his dreams. And even if there was, Omega is their little sister. It couldn't've been her.

Hunter has cared for people before, but he realizes with heart-stopping panic that he has no idea what to do with her. His brothers know how to care for and dress themselves and actually, Omega doesn't have a single pair of clothes aboard the Marauder. He has no idea what Omega can and can't do, and he definitely wasn't expecting a kid who doesn't...

He didn't expect her to be...

This.

"You don't sleep on the floor," Hunter tells her, lightheaded. "Even we got bunks when were kids."

"Why not?"

His head is spinning. That's just. A thing. People don't do it. "Drafts. It's dirty, and there's no reason to get more sore than needed."

"The floor wouldn't be dirty if you cleaned it," Echo mutters.

"You can sleep on one of our racks. Or – or somewhere else clean." They sleep on the ground, but that's on missions. Not... at home.

This kid deserves so much better than what she's gotten, and Hunter has every intent of giving her the life she deserves. No matter how hard it is.

**w**

"Out of... genuine curiosity," Hunter asks, "What was it like for us? When we were little?"

Omega stares at him, lips parted wordlessly. How can she answer that? Through whisps of memories? How does she tell him that she remembers bits and pieces, remembers how Hunter would get overstimulated so easily. She remembers being so excited, holding him the first time and he wouldn't stop crying. He was a baby and he needed warmth, but she was the first touch he'd ever had and the stimuli shift was so sharp and jarring for his little brain it hurt and he fought it as hard as he could, but there was nothing he could do and Omega just stood there and held him and panicked, wishing she could do something to make him stop crying but there was nothing.

She remembers Tech who stared at her with wild fascination that a baby shouldn't even have, focused too easily for a newborn. He had leaned into her, staring and quiet.

Wrecker was big and trying to pry him off Crosshair in their tube was so risky. She remembers pacing, holding Tech against her chest and trying to lull him to sleep as Nala Se and the droid worked on the twins. Wrecker had been yowling until Omega finally got him quiet, but she still had no idea how much he needed to eat. She didn't know he cried so much because he was hungry, because he needed more food. She hadn't realized until she accidentally gave him Tech's bottle, too, like the four-year-old she was.

Crosshair had been so small. Thin and tiny, their nutrients not split properly between him and his twin. He was so small he nearly died, and Omega was so scared. She had to hold him for a long, long time to keep him warm. His temperature kept dropping. He hadn't been all squirmy like Wrecker, but he sure screamed to make up for it.

Omega doesn't want to think about Crosshair. He left her. All of them.

"Um," Omega whispers, blinking and biting her lip. "I... don't really remember." That's a lie, but she made so many mistakes with them. "I remember a little bit. You were bad with touch sometimes. I never knew why." Tech was clingy when he was little. He's so distant now. He never touches her unless it's to pick her up.

"My senses can be a bit... tricky. We've never quite understood them." He's asking to distract himself. Omega gets that. She doesn't want to think about Kamino or the lab she blew up, either.

But the past is gone. From here on out, she'll only be with her brothers.

"I remember, uh – there were a lot of issues with the last tube. Two babies in the same tube usually kills one of them. You got lucky."

Hunter's face closes over. Haunted. He nods. "I've heard that."

"Tech was so smart even then." Omega smiles faintly, "He was so naughty. Wrecker, too." Her heart aches. She wants Crosshair back. All of her brothers to be together. Maybe she'll get her chance though. Someday.

Someday.

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