Work Text:
“Wrench.”
“Wrench.”
“Solder blaster.”
“Solder blaster.”
“...Hexdriver.”
“Hexdriver.”
Echo let out a low sigh and turned slowly to look at Tech, who was sitting innocently on a crate next to the array of tools being used to fix the haul of the Marauder. The goggle wearing clone tipped his head to the side in question at the ex-ARC trooper’s glare.
Echo exhaled a slow breath to mentally prepare himself, then asked, “What are you doing?”
“What are you doing?” Tech said back, head tilting upright again to stare Echo dead-on.
Echo’s gaze only narrowed further. “Tech.”
“Tech.”
“Why are you copying me?”
“Why are you copying me?”
Echo pinched the skin between his eyes tiredly, he was running on too little sleep for this. The missions lately had been hectic and he was not getting enough rest to be diplomatically understanding of anyone’s bantha shit. “Tech, I’d rather not play games right now.”
“Tech, I’d rather not play games right now.”
Alright. It was going to be one of those days.
Tech, while typically quite independent and self-reliant, could have moments where he actively seeked out attention from his other squad members. Instead of just asking like a normal individual, Tech did things the complicated way. He would bait his brothers into light-hearted squabbles by acting like the
biggest
shithead in the cosmos, indulging his more impish and chaotic side accordingly. Tech knew how to press everyone’s buttons, pestering for long enough and saying the right things that would get a rise out of the other clones and score him the attention he wanted.
The Bad Batch all had their ways of dealing with these moments from Tech, but this was the first time Echo had to deal with it himself. Whenever Tech acted like this, the others were around to handle him, but they were all out in town, leaving Echo with the mission of managing the younger clone.
Trying to mimic a stern clone officer from his earlier years as a shiny, he pointed the hexdriver at Tech’s nose with an annoyed look. “Alright, smart ass,” he grumbled. “I’m warning you.”
Tech had a shit-eating grin on his face, not even waiting a second to consider the threat of Echo actually being serious. “Alright, smart ass,” he chirped smugly, “I’m warning-”
Echo grabbed Tech around the middle and wrestled him onto the ground without warning, fighting off a smile at the man’s strangled yelps, clearly trying to hold his tongue from protesting so he could keep the game going. Though, that didn’t keep him from fighting back.
“Do you really want to continue this, Tech? I used to be an ARC trooper, remember?” Echo, even with one hand missing, was easily keeping his brother down. He used to wrestle with his old batch all the time and he’d seen Crosshair take down Tech enough times to know how to do it himself. It almost felt unfair. However…
Tech grinned up at his brother through their tangled arms. “Want to continue this, Tech? I used to be an ARC trooper, remember? ” He shot back gleefully, putting on a voice to match Echo’s tone inflections.
“Son of a-” Without hesitation, Echo’s scomp link gently delved into Tech’s ribcage, mercilessly needling into the tender bones and earning peals of startled laughter. Tech wriggled into the dirt fruitlessly, trying to bat at Echo’s scomp, only to have a wrist snatched up and the mechanical limb prodding into his unshielded armpit, producing a sharp squeal instantly.
Tech never would’ve anticipated Echo to use such outlandish methods like this. He got this from Wrecker and occasionally Hunter, but the cybernetic clone was an outlier to be sure. And not only was he an outlier, but he was also really skilled at this. Tech was spluttering and giggling like a madman, and it hadn’t even been a minute yet. His lack of speech had caught Echo’s attention, and the smirk on his face was downright smug .
“What? You run out of steam, copycat?” Echo asked as Tech gasped and wheezed for breath. “No more little comments?”
“Y-Yohou ruhuhun ohout- hehehehe- ohohof steheheHEHEAM-!”
Tech’s attempt to continue the joke was interrupted by Echo’s finding a sweet spot on his upper ribs, causing an uncharacteristic screech to pull from the usually stoic clone. “St- Stohohop! ”
“Oh my word, did you say something original?” Echo feigned surprise, though his tone was flat and somehow made Tech laugh even more by the dryness of the comment. “Incredible, let’s see if I can get you to do it again.”
He probed and wormed his scomp into the spaces between Tech’s ribs in an unguessable pattern, keeping the enhanced clone in a flurry of giggles and never letting him get used to one sensation. The onslaught was breaking Tech’s will faster than he expected it to.
He yelped when a particularly sensitive rib was prodded and tickled by that damn scomp. He couldn’t stop the yelp from leaving his lips. “Ehehecho!”
“Look at that, you did do it again. Congratulations Tech.”
“DohoHOHON’T!”
“ Three times, a breakthrough indeed.
Tech used his free hand to grab the scomp link, shoving it away from his ribs so he could get a breather in. Echo let him, having heard the gasping in Tech’s voice increasing as he’d been laughing.
“You learned your lesson yet, gremlin?” Echo asked, reminded distinctly of his play fights with his twin and asking that very same question. Tech blew out a breath, slumping in the ground and nodding.
Echo wasn’t buying the silence.
He tore his captured scomp from Tech and poised it at his ribs again, smirking at the wild yelp that burst from Tech as he flinched away from the ‘danger’.
“I wanna hear it, Tech,” said the ex-ARC trooper. “I want you to say, in your own words, that you’ve learnt your lesson.”
Tech, eyeing the scomp link dangerously close to his sensitive ribs, gave a nervous giggle and gulped. He knew better than to poke the disgruntled Tonton with a stick, or however that saying went. “I- I’ve lehearn’t my lesson, Ehecho,” he grinned at the older clone through squinted eyes.
Echo huffed an amused laugh at how giggly Tech still was. “There we go, that wasn’t so hard was it?” He took his hand away from Tech’s wrist to mess with his short, cropped hair and stood up. “What on earth was that even about?”
He turned back to the ship and picked up another tool to continue his work, letting Tech sit up and gather himself after the ‘attack’. The enhanced clone gave a small chuckle and smiled mischievously up at Echo’s back. His need for attention wasn’t done yet.
“Well… You’re the one repeating things all the time, guess I wanted to try it out for myself.”
Echo’s movements froze and his eyelid twitched slightly. He threw the tool aside and was diving at Tech before the trooper had the sense to run for the hills, his bright laughter filling the air once again. This time riddled with shrieks as Echo ruthlessly targeted his upper ribs, both with his scomp and his hand.