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hugmekenobi · 2 days ago

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A Series of Firsts

A Bad Batch S1 Prequel Oneshot: 'First Fight'

Gif by @imalovernotahater

Hunter x femaleJedi!reader

Summary: A mission to Ryloth sees some underlying tensions getting expressed in the wrong way

Warnings: No use of (Y/N), canon-typical violence, awkward Hunter and reader, slightly angry Hunter/he doesn't quite act like himself, my limited battle strategy knowledge, minor lies/deceit, swearing, very light angst, scheming brothers

Genre: Friends (idiots) to Lovers

<Previous Prequel Oneshot

Series Masterlist

Word Count: 3.9K (I forgot how writing everything on one doc worked so ignore my previous idea of this being much longer... had a dumb moment lol)

Rating: 18+ (a catch all for all my works)

Author's Note: Yes, this is a reasonable length. No, I clearly don't know how word docs work anymore haha but I hope you all enjoy and it's still long enough!

Ryloth

You were a couple months into your membership with your newfound squad and things with the Batch had settled surprisingly well. Each of their personalities and ways had made it easy for you to feel comfortable and at ease with them. They were all likeable in their own way: Echo was a kind, solid voice of reason that kept you- and you guessed Hunter- sane, Tech had some funny quirks that kept things light and his intelligence made him both fascinating to watch and converse with, Crosshair’s natural sarcastic and cool disposition was something you had no trouble matching, and Wrecker, well there wasn’t much to not like about the gentle giant of the group who rarely had a negative thing to say about anything or anyone. Plus, you had no issue getting behind their atypical strategic plans and blatant disregard for regulation. So, to look at, everything should’ve been great so far, but it wasn’t.

Even with all this goodness, what had not settled for you were your complicated feelings for the certain clone sergeant who was determined to make your life a living nightmare– and that was saying something given your already tricky personal predicament that you still hadn’t worked up the courage to inform the squad of- but keeping that hidden was proving to be the easier task. You could keep up the pretence of being normal about that but for some reason, you had to channel all your focus into being normal around the clone with enhanced senses. You’d really hoped Devaron had been nothing more than you adjusting to the shock of seeing a clone as- well- as attractive as he was. You’d almost hoped it was only as shallow a thought as that.

But no, of course that wasn’t the case. Not only was Hunter a patient, understanding and caring person but he was also a highly skilled and capable squad leader which meant now you were just constantly feeling confused. You didn’t know what this feeling was, but you needed to get a handle on it because you couldn’t afford nor allow it to grow into that territory that you’d been warned of all your life, especially because he acted perfectly normal around you now. You knew you could do it; it was just proving to be something that was easier said than done.

“Hey, you with us?” Hunter asked as he rested a hand on your shoulder.

You remembered where you currently were and snapped back into the current moment as you gestured to the holomap and avoided the questioning looks of the others. “Wrecker and I enter through the back of the base as the rest of you create a distraction out front before joining us inside to provide back up as Wrecker brings the base down.” You confirmed hurriedly as you focused on not noticing the fact that his touch was setting off that warm tingling in your veins.

Hunter nodded and realised his hand was still on you, so he quickly removed it and cleared his throat as he spoke more professionally to the whole group, “Let’s move out.” He ordered before he put on his helmet and led the way out the ship.

You pulled your hood and mask up and did the same.

The others watched the two of you head out first and shared knowing glances. They had noticed the lingering looks, the brief but meaningful touches and building tension between the two of you but it seemed you both were determined to ignore it and act like complete morons about it. However, the opportunities for action were few and far between given the busy mission schedule but they knew something had to be done to speed this along.

“Where the hell are you guys?” You shouted into your comm as you and Wrecker mowed down line after line of droids. It was simple task but back up wouldn’t go amiss and they were late which you knew wasn’t a strategic change. Something had gone wrong.

“The intel we got before taking this mission was wrong! They had more numbers and sent more out front that we thought!” Echo’s voice informed you both over the sounds of blaster fire.

“I should point out that this has been a growing concern.” Tech’s voice inputted, “We have rarely had a mission where the intel we received beforehand was accurate.”

“Okay, well, can you make it, or should we just do it ourselves?” You asked as you worked on opening the control room door whilst Wrecker stood guard.

“Negative. You need to pull out! Leave and we’ll regroup!”

“Hunter, we’ve already made it to the control room! We can still-” You started to protest as the door opened.

“There’s a large wave of droids heading directly your way! You’ll be boxed in! The two of you need to get out of there right now!” Hunter interrupted sharply.

“Oh come on! I haven’t blown something up in weeks!” Wrecker complained into the comm channel, but he was readying himself to leave.

You placed a hand on his forearm to stop him. “Keep setting the charges.” You ordered as you scanned the room and caught sight of a familiar panel in the wall.

Wrecker propped his helmet up on his head and looked at you in confusion. “But Hunter said-”

“I know but we’ve come this far, we can finish the mission and get out of here, I promise.”

“How?” Wrecker asked before he fired off a round of shots down the corridor to down the approaching line of droids and took up position by the door to cover you as you searched for whatever it was you were seeking out.

You pulled on the handle and when you were sure he wasn’t looking, you summoned your gift and widened the manipulated the metal walls so it would accommodate both of you. “Garbage chute exit?” You offered with a mischievous lilt to your voice.

“Oh hell yeah!” Wrecker boomed as he turned away from the door got to work on setting the explosives.

Your comm chirped again and you heard Hunter’s insistent shouts of your name and Wrecker’s. Hunter spoke with a type of authority that on any other day might’ve convinced you to stand down your or it might’ve evoked a far more inappropriate bodily response, but you were determined to leave Ryloth with a win and you were already too far gone in the plan, you wouldn’t turn back down so you turned yours off before the order could finish.

“You sure about this, Wrecker?” You double checked. You knew you’d instructed him to keep going but if he wasn’t comfortable disobeying both his brother and squad leader, you wouldn’t make him.

“I’m all in.” Wrecker confirmed as he silenced his own comm and got to work on finishing up the layout of the charges.

You tossed your dagger into the control panel of the door to keep the oncoming wave of droids out and to keep you both in.

At the sound of static, Hunter ground out a deep and aggravated sigh as he stared up at the console room.

He knew you and Wrecker were still in there and coming up with a dangerous, ill-conceived plan and he was racking his brain for a way back in to stop it and get you both outta there. They’d finally taken care of the droids that had been sent out to meet them but the ones inside were the problem now.

“Let them figure it out.” Echo advised calmly.

“I believe the two of them are capable enough to find their escape route.” Tech agreed but he still began working on pulling up schematics of the building to see if there was a better way in for them to go should they need to.

Hunter clenched his jaw, “She’s trapped in there with no clear way out. We don’t know that she’ll be fine.”

“They’re going to be fine.” Crosshair corrected him bluntly.

Hunter swallowed thickly, “Right. That’s what I meant.” He said, shifting on his feet nervously as he could only wait and hope you made it out of there in one piece.

“All set?” You asked as you hovered by your exit.

Wrecker nodded firmly and activated the bombs just as the two of you entered the chute.

The four of them watched on from the safety of the ground and they heard the low booming and telltale sparks of explosions, but they saw two figures tumble out of a chute just as the base started to collapse.

“See? They had covered.” Crosshair said with an amused lilt to his voice.

But Hunter wasn’t amused in the slightest. He holstered his blaster and dagger and led the way towards the two of you.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Wrecker whooped as the two of you finished sliding down the landfill pill and pulled you to your feet. “We should have plans like that more often!”

You wiped some of the trash off your body and tugged your mask down to grin at the clone, “Nice work on the bombs.” You said with an impressed nod back to the wreckage.

Wrecker smiled proudly and went to say something else, but Hunter’s voice interrupted him.

“What the hell was that?” Hunter asked angrily as he removed his helmet.

You met Hunter’s stern stare but placed a hand on Wrecker’s chest to stop him from taking the heat as you sensed him getting ready to speak. “Totally my idea, Sarge. Wrecker had nothing to do with it.”

“Oh, I know, and I want to know why you felt it appropriate to go against my order?” Hunter interrogated tightly.

“We needed to complete the mission.” You disputed.

“And deliberately risking the life of a teammate was the only way to do that?” Hunter challenged.

You furrowed your brow. “I’d never deliberately endanger anyone or-”

“But by making that call you did! You can’t ignore a direct order like that!”

“Crosshair and Echo pulled something similar two weeks ago!” You argued as you gestured to the two clones watching on.

“She has a point, Hunter.” Echo said tentatively with Tech nodding in agreement and Crosshair giving an affirming but mostly unbothered shrug.

But Hunter ignored him and only spoke to you. “That’s different! They’ve been in this squad long enough. They’ve earned the right to behave that way, you haven’t!” Hunter said before he could really think the words through.

The words stunned you. “Haven’t earned the right.” You repeated under your breath but the hurt you felt was written across your face. You knew you’d only been with them for a relatively short period of time given the circumstances, but you’d thought you’d bonded with them in some way. Clearly, you’d thought wrong.

Hunter had never regretted a choice of words more. He’d let his fear drive him and now he wished he had the power to turn back time to do this all again. “Wait, I didn’t-” But he was too late. You turned your back on him and walked away in the direction of the ship before he could finish.

There was a brief moment of silence as they all watched you storm off before Wrecker broke it.

“Come on, Sarge, you have to admit that was a pretty great plan!”

“Wrecker-”

“She let me use all the bombs I wanted and even getting to that control room was easy!”

“Wrecker, that’s en-”

“You can’t have meant what you said cause she’s one of us for sure!”

“Wrecker, enough.” Hunter snapped bitterly but he immediately regretted his tone. He knew his reaction wasn’t fair. He wasn’t angry, not really, and if he was being honest, it wasn’t the fact that orders had been disobeyed, it was seeing how Wrecker had reacted to you and the fact that his brother sounded so fond of and completely captivated by you that was really bothering him right now. And none of that should have bothered him, but it did though he couldn’t fathom why it-

Oh.

Dammit.

This was jealously.

He was fucking jealous. He was jealous of his own brother, and he had no valid reason to be.

“Was waiting for you to figure that out.” Crosshair remarked knowingly as he saw the expression on Hunter’s face even though his brother masked it quickly.

Hunter gathered himself and got his emotions under control. You weren’t his in any way and that was fine. Plus, you clearly didn’t think of him or any of them like that, so he had to get himself together. Echo’s voice pulled him out his thoughts.

“You were a bit harsh, Hunter. We’ve all acted out one way or another.” Echo pointed out.

Hunter sighed as he said, “She disobeyed a direct order-”

“Uh yeah… that’s kinda what we do.” Wrecker countered in bewilderment, “And it was brilliant! I got to blow things up and we completed the mission.”

“She put you in unnecessary danger.” Hunter disputed.

“I wanted to, Hunter. She made sure I was okay with it.” Wrecker told him.

Of course you did. He should’ve known that you would’ve. You clearly cared for the safety of the team, and you had a sense of duty and responsibility that he admired… and it was one of the many reasons why it was so hard for him to simply shove every annoying flicker of unprofessional emotion away. You kept giving him reasons to fall for you. This was foreign territory that he was clearly terrible at navigating right now. He’d really fucked up here and he could only hope there was a way to fix this.

“I believe his reaction has more to do with the immediate danger she placed herself in over the disobeying of the order.” Tech hypothesised.

“No shit.” Crosshair said with a roll of his eyes.

Hunter glanced between his brothers who all had variations of the same expression that gave the impression that they knew something he didn’t. “What are you talking about?” He asked, his voice wary because, aside from today, he thought he’d been good about acting completely normal towards you since Devaron but the looks he was receiving suddenly made him think otherwise. The caution was also because he knew Tech was correct- the idea of you being caught in a collapsing building with no way out had made him more frightened than he cared for and that was what had been driving him when he’d spoken to you in that way.

“You feel a different kind of affection for her that surpasses the usual friend or familial kind.” Tech explained but with a lilt to his voice that suggested he didn’t understand why his brother had even asked the question.

“I- no, I don’t.” Hunter barely managed to sound convincing.

“Please,” Crosshair said with a dismissive snicker, “We all see it.”

“There’s nothing to see.” Hunter insisted, doing his best to keep the frantic edge to his voice at bay. This was the last conversation he wanted to be having.

“It’s okay if you do-”

“I don’t.” Hunter interrupted Echo through gritted teeth. He couldn’t allow their words to give him any sense of false hope. You didn’t think of him in any way other than a friend and right now, probably not even that. He couldn’t afford to get distracted by hypotheticals that he knew would go unanswered or give him the answers he didn’t want. There was a war going, that was the priority, whatever feelings he could feel growing for you could and should be ignored.

“But she also does. We’ve noticed-” Wrecker started to say.

“I’m not listening to this.” Hunter said defensively before he turned his back to head back to the ship and to signal the end of the conversation. He may have disagreed with the core substance of what they were saying but he knew they were right about how he’d unfairly reacted to you and that was something he needed to rectify.

“Can I come in?” Hunter asked cautiously from the doorway to the cockpit.

“It’s your ship, you’ve earned the right to go wherever you want. I’m just a visitor.” You said coldly without glancing up to look at him as you continued to sharpen your weapon.

Hunter winced at your tone, and he took a deep breath as he sat across from you. “I’m sorry. I really am. I shouldn’t have reacted like that.”

“I never would’ve carelessly risked Wrecker’s life, Hunter. You have to know me better than that by now.” You put your weapon into the strap on your back as you finally looked at him.

Hunter ran a hand down his face in complete shame over how poorly he’d acted. “I know that. I didn’t mean- I was just-”

“I know I’m not one of you so if you want me to leave-”

“No, no I definitely don’t.” Hunter admitted hastily because the thought of that was a bit too unbearable.

You tilted your head in exasperated confusion. “Then why did you say-”

“I was scared, okay.” Hunter interrupted through an abrupt breath.

Any argument or fight evaporated your body as you heard him say those words and while part of you wondered if the deeper fear you sensed from him was rooted in anything more than the concern he showed as a good leader, the other part of you knew those words wouldn’t have been easy to say. “Hunter…”

“You never told me what your plan was.” Hunter pointed out gently, “You just turned off your comm and left it at that. I had no idea what you were doing or how you were getting out of there. All I knew was that building was getting swarmed by droids and there were charges that could go off any minute and that you and my brother were trapped inside.”

You reached across and squeezed his hand before you could stop yourself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even think,” You apologised, utterly mortified by your carelessness, “I guess I’d been on my own for so long, I’d forgotten what being part of a squad means.”

Hunter nodded his acceptance of your apology before he said, “Well, you have one now and we have to tell each other things- especially when those things involve risk. So, when you didn’t, I was left thinking of all the worst-case scenarios.” Hunter felt himself growing more awkward as he said next, “And- I- I like having you around and out there it really did feel like for a moment that wasn’t going to happen anymore.” He took a moment to gather himself before he carried on more professionally, “But regardless, my reaction wasn’t fair. You’re a part of this squad, I shouldn’t have implied anything different.”

“Yeah, that stunt made it official! You won’t be rid of us that easily!”

You half turned to smile at Wrecker and that was when you noticed the faces of the others who all had a mix of proud and impressed expressions on their faces. “Glad to hear it.” You said with a smile but that was more to mask your rising guilt. The idea of being was one of them was something that you really did want but you were living a lie. Until they knew they true you, how could they fully accept you? You pushed that to the side for now. There would be an appropriate time to tell them, there had to be. “So, how about if I’m going to disobey an order, we agree that I tell you what I’m doing instead? That way we can avoid any and all worries?” You said light-heartedly instead.

“Sounds good.” Hunter agreed with a quiet chuckle as he looked at you.

Your gaze locked with his and for a moment, you found yourself getting lost in the warmth of his dark brown eyes.

A pointed cough from someone- probably Crosshair- reminded you both that they were all still here.

You both swiftly looked away from each other at the same time.

“Wrecker, you okay if I grab the shower first? As great as that was, I don’t know how much longer I can stand the smell.” Plus, internally you knew it had to be bothering Hunter in some way, and you didn’t want that at all.

Wrecker nodded.

“I was trying so hard not to say anything…” Hunter teased.

You scowled playfully and lightly punched his shoulder. “Don’t forget, this is the stench of success.” You said with a warm smile in his direction before you hopped up and left the cockpit.

Hunter watched you go and shook his head to remove the hopeful thoughts that entered his brain before he followed you down to tidy his stuff away.

“We’re all in agreement, right?” Echo said in a hushed tone from the cockpit as he watched the two of you dance around each other in the tight space.

“Definitely.” Wrecker concurred enthusiastically.

“Yes. I’m already tired of watching this,” Crosshair said grouchily, “For a while it was funny but now it’s just fucking annoying. He could certainly do a lot worse. And if she wants him, then that’s her problem.”

“Supportive.” Echo remarked sarcastically.

Crosshair shrugged, “I’m on board, aren’t I?”

Echo conceded the point with a dip of his head, and it was only because he knew Crosshair well that he could tell that he did have a vested interest in both you and Hunter’s wellbeing. “Tech?” He asked as he realised that he was the only one who hadn’t spoken yet.

“Hmm?” Tech asked distantly as he focused on uploading the latest recordings and report on his datapad.

Crosshair shoved his datapad down and simply pointed.

“Oh, yes. That. I thought it was so obvious we didn’t even need to comment on it.” Tech stated frankly as he looked ahead to you both.

“Well, how are we going to show them it’s obvious?” Wrecker asked.

“I have a long list of ideas.” Crosshair said with a scheming smirk.

“Any of them not based around the idea of deliberately putting either of them in immediate danger?”

Crosshair gave Echo a hard stare- he thought the danger route was obviously the most effective one, but he relented. He huffed out a short breath. “I’ve got a couple of ideas.” He corrected himself reluctantly.

Echo shook his head and ran a hand down his face, “I’m sure we can think of some together.”

“When do we start?” Wrecker asked excitedly.

“No time like the present.” Tech suggested as he nodded down the hallway.

The four of them shared in an exasperated group sigh as they stared at the scene ahead of them. You had come out of the refresher clearly having forgotten to grab something. You were still dressed, the only thing missing was your hooded layer, so you were simply in your tank top, but their brother’s reaction upon seeing you in minimally less clothing was anything but subtle.

You two may have been in denial about what was going on with your feelings, but it was clear as day to the rest of them and they weren’t going to stop until you and Hunter finally admitted it to yourself and to each other.

Next Prequel Oneshot (to be posted)>

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