Silent Tears
Rating: General
Pairing: TBB & reader friendship (implied Hunter x reader relationship)
Wordcount: 1,3k
Warnings: None. Just a little sad feeling and fluff
A/N: OP 2022/06/27 This Was a request for @omegathebadbach
Summary: When you watch Omega, you see a child, without peers and without a mother. A conversation might change one of the two
Whenever you saw Omega occasionally during the time you've been stationed on Kamino, you couldn’t help but stop in your tracks and watch her.
She was cheerful and kind, her bright smile was contagious and her blond tousled head was shining. She was so different from anyone and anything else in those cold and sterile facilities, precious like a shining gem. And she was sheltered like one. Wherever she went, Nala Se was only two steps behind her. Whatever she did, she was supervised. Instead of having a care-free childhood, she was bound to an obligation as a medical assistant, as were you - but you were an adult. She never complained. And how could she, as this was the only life she ever knew.
When fate played its tricks on you, both you and Omega, found yourself on board the Havoc Marauder, carried away by a batch of the most unusual clones you've ever seen, traveling on the blue streak at the speed of light into an uncertain future.
Hours became days. Days became weeks. Weeks became… habit. And traveling companions became family.
So many things changed, and yet nothing at all.
You sit down on a crate in the shadow of the Marauder. Stranded on an out-of-the-way planet somewhere in the Outer Rim - Arvala 7. Tech and Echo are trying their best to patch up the ship temporarily, to keep it flying again at least until the next possible landing on Ord Mantell. Wrecker is on watch and Hunter - is nowhere to be seen.
You watch in silence, like you did so many times. The ocean traded to a sea of dust and stones, and the sterile labs to a pile of sand. And right in the middle - Omega. She’s playing. Drawing patterns into the red dust with her fingers. No matter how much the surroundings have changed, no matter where you are… She’s still not allowed to be a child most of the time. Always on the run and on the prowl for money she's still forced to live the life of an adult. The best times she has is when she’s practicing archery with Echo or learns something about the complex engineering of a spaceship with Tech.
But still - she is smiling, taking circumstances for granted - just as they are.
If only she could live the life of a child like you had. Surrounded by siblings and friends, explore the secureness of a home, make her way by trial and error. Come home and rest in the loving arms of a mother…
It’s been a long time since then you suddenly realize. So many years since you felt that way. Secureness is gone… The safety of this makeshift family, the only thing you can rely on. For now. None of you knows how long you’ll be traveling together, or if it will be over at sunrise.
You hear Omega’s silvery laugh as she whirl around and let herself fall backwards into the sand, talking to some invisible friend. "I've missed this," you think as silent tears wet your cheeks and drop down to seep into the ground. It’s been long for you, but she’ll never have…
Suddenly you hear footsteps coming down the ramp and then Hunter sits next to you on the crate. You turn away your face to wipe off the evidence of your grief.
“Why so sad?” he asks. His gaze is fixed on Omega just as yours.
“It’s… nothing,” you lie. Life's been hard for all of you during the last months and you don’t want to burden him any further with your silly sentiment. He doesn’t buy it.
“Then why are you crying?”
“I’m not.”
Hunter tears his gaze away from Omega, cups your chin and turns your head, forcing you to look at him. You don’t know what’s worse, his knowing gaze or the sad smile on his lips.
“Don’t,” he sighs. "You don’t have to hide your tears from me."
And at his words, tears well anew and blur your vision.
“She… she’s lonely,” you sob. “If you hadn’t taken her with you, she’d still be stuck with that cold-hearted individual called Nala Se in a bleak lab on Kamino. At least now she has her brothers. But still...”
“Yes. But still…,” he interrupts you and sighs. “We haven’t known anything else besides war and brotherly bonds during our life so far. That's all we can provide. We can’t be more.”
Hunter takes a deep breath before speaking further: “But you… you can.”
“What?” you ask him, your voice sounding a little higher than usual. Wondering what in Maker’s name he could have meant.
“You can be a mother to her.”
“No,” you blurt out. Your heart stops beating for a second and your chest tightens with a kind of unknown anxiousness. “I… I can’t. I’m just some… random woman. We.. I mean… she loves you. She wants to stay with you …,” you stutter.
It’s not that you search for an excuse. It’s just… you’re so frightened. Taking responsibility for a young person when you don’t even know how to manage your own life. Without a job, without a home. Where would you take her? And she made it very clear she wants to stay with the “Bad Batch”. She’d never leave them willingly.
Hunter turns his gaze back to Omega and points at her. You follow his gaze. When Omega sees you, she smiles and waves at the two of you.
“She loves you,” he says. Plainly.
Your heart leaps. You’ve always known that you care for her, but you didn’t allow yourself the thought of being loved back. The idea was locked up in the back of your mind till the end of time. Or the day when, miraculously, you’ll find someone and have children of your own. As your life was now, the day would never come. You just aren’t meant to…
“I’ve thought about… this,” his index finger draws an invisible circle into the air between the three of you.
He did? You wonder what he means with “this” and watch him, study his expression closely. And if you wouldn’t see it with your own eyes - you wouldn’t believe the flush obvious on the untattooed side of his face.
“She needs someone to take care of her. She needs a mother and a home. And you…”
“I have no home,” you interrupt him, but he silences you with a finger pressed to your lips.
“And you - you are the mother that she wants. And we…,” Hunter tilts his head and nods into the direction of the Marauder and his brothers within. “We are the home that the two of you’ll have. As long as one of us is still breathing.”
“Are… you…?” Maker! Words just won’t come. Your mind still tries to get around what he just proposed.
“I’m asking you to stay with us. As long as you want.”
Oh no! Not again. Tears. Tears run down your cheeks in a winding river. Warmer than ever. Washing away every fear you may have felt for a while…
Even before you find your voice and can answer him, Omega comes running across to the two of you, throwing herself into your arms.
“You won’t believe what I’ve just seen!” she blurts excitedly, but breaks off as soon as she sees your tears. “Don’t you cry please. I don’t want you to be sad.” She wipes away your tears with her sleeve and gives Hunter a stern look, obviously blaming him for making you sad. He just shrugs and smiles at her.
“I’m not sad, Omega my sweet. I’ve never been better.” You smile down on her, your eyes still glistening.
“Why don’t you show me what you’ve just seen?” you ask as you jump to your feet, filled with a new hope and a new purpose.
You’ll build a home. An unusual one, with no fixed place, yet with a batch of souls traveling on the blue streak at the speed of light - into a future you belong to.