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English
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Part 22 of Comfortember 2021
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Comfortember 2021
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Published:
2021-11-22
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1,042
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1/1
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13
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111
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I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost

Summary:

Omega should be asleep by the time she hears one of her brothers clearly having a nightmare. Little sister to the rescue, she knows exactly what to do to make Echo feel a little bit better.

Notes:

Prompt 22: Nightmares

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

It wasn’t often that they got to spend the night planetside, and Omega somehow missed the low humming of the ship lulling her to sleep as they were travelling through hyperspace. For that reason she was mostly awake when a faint cry reached her small room. Omega opened her eyes and paid careful attention to her surroundings, checking if the sound was actually there or if it was just a product of her imagination.

There , she thought when she heard another sound, this one closer to a sob. Was one of her brothers crying?

Carefully and trying to make as little noise as possible, Omega climbed down from her room and looked around the ship. It didn’t take long before she found Echo in the cockpit, covered with one blanket and shaking in his sleep. By the mumbled words escaping his lips and his furrowed brow, Omega assumed he was having a nightmare.

“Hey, Echo. It’s okay, you’re fine,” she murmured, approaching him with measured steps. Omega knew it wasn’t good to wake someone up suddenly from a nightmare. When she was close enough, she placed one gentle hand on Echo’s shoulder and started running it up and down the upper part of his arm. “Echo, it’s Omega. You’re with us and you’re fine. Don’t be scared,” she added, hoping her words would reach him.

Eventually, Echo stopped shaking and moving, and his eyes fluttered open. He looked at Omega with clear confusion on his face and then seemed to realize his surroundings.

“What are you doing awake so late, kid?” he asked as he sat straighter and ran his good hand over his face. Omega noticed he’d removed his socket arm, the prosthetic lying on the console in front of them. Echo saw her staring and chuckled. “Ah I usually sleep with it on and wake up pinching myself in the ribs with the socket. Better to take it off.”

“Right.” Omega doubted whether she should bring up the topic of his obvious nightmare, but Echo’s steady gaze on her didn’t leave her much of an option but to explain why she was awake. “I heard you from my room. You were having a nightmare, I think.”

Echo’s face fell for a moment but then he shook his head.

“I’m sorry I woke you, Omega.”

“Don’t apologize! I don’t mind, I wasn’t really asleep to begin with. It feels weird to be planetside,” she explained quickly, earning a raised eyebrow from Echo. “I got used to sleeping while in hyperspace,” she offered with a shrug. “In any case, do you want some tea?”

Both of Echo’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at that. For a moment, Omega feared she’d said something offensive somehow.

“Don’t you like it? Nala Se usually made me tea when I woke up from nightmares. I thought it would help you?”

“Well, I can’t say it wouldn’t be nice,” Echo said with a smile as he stretched his arms to the ceiling.

Before he could add anything else, Omega rushed to their little kitchenette area and prepared everything as quietly as possible, well aware that the rest of the squad was sleeping and that they needed to rest. When she returned to the cockpit, Echo was finishing to install back his prosthetic. The smell of the tea filled the small room and Echo smiled at her.

“That smells great.”

“I put two sugars in it. I hope that’s okay?”

“I actually prefer three,” Echo said but followed the statement with a dismissive hand. “Though who has the chance to be picky in a war.” Omega sat on the chair next to him and sipped her tea, momentarily lost in her thoughts. “So… you had many nightmares?”

Omega shook her head, “not many, I wouldn’t say so. But enough for Nala Se to notice. She ran scans to see if there was something wrong with me but,” she shrugged. “It looked like they were normal.”

“And what were they about?”

“Uh, I couldn't remember most of them. I always woke up feeling scared of being alone, as if I’d got lost somewhere. I never knew where they came from.” They sat in silence for a while until Omega gathered her courage to ask: “What was yours about?”

“It was…”

It took only a second for sadness to completely change Echo’s face and Omega felt the guilt climbing out her throat, impossible to control.

“Sorry, sorry Echo! I don’t know why I asked. You don’t have to share it if you don’t want to.”

“Hey, easy, kid. It wasn’t that bad just… Memories. About the Clone Wars and my vode .” There was emotion laced with Echo’s words, and Omega pretended she didn’t notice the way his eyes shone, probably with tears. He cleared his throat and continued. “I miss them terribly, even after all this time.”

“Do you want to talk about them?” Echo looked at her, rubbing his eyes with his hand. “Not about the nightmare just… About them. Any of them.”

For a moment, Omega was certain Echo would say he didn’t feel like it and ask her to go to sleep. But after a few seconds, he nodded, as if replying to someone, and then gave Omega a weak smile.

“Have I ever told you about Fives?”

He hadn’t, and both Echo and Omega knew, but it was also a difficult topic for him, and Omega just went with it, promptly shaking her head and leaning forward, eyes glued to Echo as he described Five’s with so much love she found herself missing him a little at the end of the tale. And then came Jesse, and Hevy, and Kix, and Tup, and so many more Omega lost track of the names but never of the feeling. Echo loved them all so much.

Eventually Omega moved to Echo’s lap and curled against his chest, both because sleep had finally caught up with her and because they needed the comfort. Echo didn’t stop talking through the tears and fits of laughter. Omega went silent in his arms, but he continued remembering like he’d rarely allowed himself to do before. And when Echo finally fell asleep cuddled to his youngest sister, nightmares weren’t able to find him again.

Notes:

I really needed to have someone giving Echo a hug at some point.

Title from "The Archer" by Taylor Swift.

Also I really need to recommend you to check this fanart which was not made based on this story at all, but which fits surprisingly well the final scene. I still can't believe how that happened, but I'm thankful.

Thank you so much for reading, remember that comments and kudos make authors happy! And I'm always on my tumblr if anyone wants to talk about fluffy Star Wars content. Love!

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