I adore how your writing! Especially when I came across your Cutup/Driodbait prompts!!
If you're willing could I suggest Pink Beige for those two?
Awww I don't get to write nearly enough Domino Squad. Have some Rishi angst!
Pink Beige: How protective are they? What would make them overprotective?
Droidbait helps Cutup sleep at night, but Cutup prefers a more direct approach when dealing with a problem.
AKA: Cutup has some anger management issues, don't worry about it.
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Droidbait should have been back by now.
The rumble of Liquid Tabana moving through the generators that kept this station operational was also the reason Cutup couldn’t sleep. The power room was located just next door to their barracks, and Cutup couldn’t understand how the rest of his squad managed to sleep through it. It grated on his nerves, and the one person that could take his mind off of it and help him fall asleep should have been back from latrine duty over an hour ago.
Cutup sighed, tossing onto his back to stare at the blank ceiling. The near silence was maddening to the point that Cutup’s head started to ache. At this rate he might as well head to the medbay and get a pain shot, or better yet, a sedative, but then he would risk oversleeping for duty in the morning. Right now, it was a risk he was willing to take, even if it mean dealing with a cranky Sergeant O’Niner.
Finally, the door to the barracks hissed open, and Droidbait stumbled in. It didn’t take Cutup long to realize that something wasn’t right. There was a gait to his walk and he was holding his arm close to him, cradling it to his side. Suddenly, sleep wasn’t important, and Cutup bolted upright out of his bunk and rushed him at the door.
“DB?” His breath caught as the light from the corridor illuminated the bruises and cuts on his face, and Droidbait shied away from him. “Hey, don’t be like that. What happened to you?”
“N-Nothing,” Droidbait lied, obviously. “G-Go to bed, Cutup.”
“Nah-uh. Tell me what happened,” Cutup demanded, getting increasingly louder in the almost silence of the room. Echo stirred next to them, and above him, Hevy was already waking up.
“What’s going on?” he asked and rubbed a hand over his eyes sleepily.
“Droidbait’s hurt,” Cutup said curtly. “Get up and help me.”
Hevy, never one to shy away from helping a brother in need, hopped down from his rack and looked Droidbait over, wincing at he took in the shiner on his eye. “That looks nasty, DB. What happened?”
“I said it’s nothing!” Droidbait wailed, which finally stirred Fives in the back corner of the barracks. Echo was now sitting up, concern etched on his face.
“That doesn’t look like nothing, Droidbait,” he stated obviously. “The reg manual says in situations like this you should—”
“I don’t care about your kriffing manuals, Echo!” Droidbait hissed, but it only served to agitate him, and he held his head in his other hand, swearing under his breath. “…S-Sorry…”
Cutup and Hevy shared a look, private conversation passing between them. Then, Cutup stepped closer, crowding Droidbait against the wall, and gingerly lifted his chin to examine him.
“Stop…” Droidbait whined, but Cutup only frowned deeper as he turned back to Hevy, nodding.
“I’m taking him to the medbay,” he said with finality. “Call the Sergeant and have him meet me there.”
“You’ve got it,” Hevy said, already punching in the numbers on his comm. Cutup didn’t question why he had a direct line to O’Niner, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the amount of time they’d been spending together recently. No matter. Droidbait was his priority.
Cutup didn’t give Droidbait a choice, easily picking him up and carrying him in his arms. He protested, Cutup knew he would, but he quieted once Cutup kissed his bruised cheek. “Hang in there. We’ll get you fixed up, buttercup.”
Droidbait huffed at the stupid nickname, but once again didn’t argue. They were silent as they walked, even when Fives ran up beside them and fell into step.
“Just in case you need another set of hands,” he’d explained. Cutup didn’t verbally reply, but he was grateful to Fives all the same.
The extra hands weren’t needed this time, but Fives still stuck around until O’Niner came in, eyes hard with annoyance until he saw his recent recruits huddled together around one of their own, injured and quietly weeping. They cleared out, save for Cutup, who held tightly onto Droidbait as O’Niner joined them.
“Droidbait, I need you to be honest. What happened to you?” He asked, and Cutup was shocked at how gentle the Sergeant was.
Droidbait explained that he was finishing up his shift when a few of the other rookies from a different squad had jumped him, called him a few names, then started to hit him when they weren’t getting what they wanted out of him. The whole while, Cutup’s blood boiled. How dare they lay hands on another vod? Sparring was one thing, and sometimes squads would just fight to blow off steam, but this?
Cutup couldn’t listen anymore. Droidbait’s injuries would heal, but he already suffered low self-worth that he kept hidden from everyone but their squad. He wouldn’t just bounce back from this. Careful not to jostle him much, Cutup removed himself from Droidbait’s side, motioning for Fives to take his place.
“Hey, don’t start anything,” Fives warned quietly as O’Niner continued talking with Droidbait. “I’m serious, Cutup.”
“I’m not starting a thing,” Cutup hissed and turned his shoulder to Fives, stalking away. “I’m finishing it.”
“Cutup!” Fives called after him, but he didn’t stop. He knew where to find those other troopers, and he was going to make them pay for what they did to Droidbait.
The night they arrive at the Rishi Moon Station is the first night that Droidbait is determined to stay in his own bed, regardless of how cold it is. He shivers, shifts, shivers some more, unable to get comfortable, and he hears the grumble of someone in the bed across from him.
“Get over here, di’kut.”
Droidbait is over there in seconds, taking his own blanket with him as he cuddles up to Cutup’s familiar chest with a content sigh. The comfortable weight of his arms hold him close, and like magic, he’s able to chase away the chill.
Cutup hears the jabs all the time, that Droidbait is too soft to be a trooper, to stand on the front lines with the rest of them. Droidbait though, if he notices, he says nothing.
“It doesn’t bother you?” Cutup asks one day as Droidbait straddles his lap and looks over him thoughtfully.
“I don’t take it to heart,” he replies, “because if I did, then I wouldn’t be very effective as a soldier. I might be soft-hearted, but I know how to pick my fights.”
The first time that Cutup heard Droidbait laugh, he decided that it was his favorite sound in the entire galaxy. One could argue that they all laugh the same, but not Droidbait. His nose scrunched when he tried to stifle it and his smile, stars his smile, was perfect and so full of mirth that Cutup was able to forget everything but how much he was head over heels in love with this shy, too soft to be a soldier of a man.
Now was no different as Droidbait tried to hide his laughter behind his hand at something Echo had said and leaned heavily into Cutup’s side. Cutup was thankful in that moment that Droidbait was easy to make laugh, because if it was the last thing he heard, he would be able to die a happy man.
Cutup screams because he’s shocked. It isn’t because it hurts, because it doesn’t; nothing hurts the way his chest does right now, and he’s thankful that the rest of his squad can’t see the tears that are streaming down his cheeks.
The Rishi Eel will end his body, but it doesn’t hurt the way his heart does now that Droidbait is gone.
His vision darkens. Maybe now that he’s going to see him again, he’ll be able to protect him in the afterlife.
They were a match made in hell, if you asked anyone else in Domino Squad. Droidbait was, well, his name said it all, didn’t it? As for Cutup, he was always the one defending his ass, jumping into the enemy line of fire without a second thought for his own or anyone else’s safety. As long as Droidbait was okay, that was all that mattered to him.
Needless to say, it didn’t bode well for Domino Squad’s training.
This is not coming as a surprise to the White House as Anthony Scaramucci told me earlier this week. #KavanaughConfirmation #cutbait cc: @realDonaldTrump (at Las Vegas, Nevada) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoFnW7kBG6-/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1t0nus498fs1x
