glass-oceans:

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“Quit b-babying me!”

“Baby- Techie, I’m just trying to help.”

“I can p-protect myself,” Techie said, fighting the urge to stomp his foot.

“It’s just-”

“I don’t need this, Matt” Techie all but screamed, standing up from his bunk and giving in to the urge to slam his foot into the solid durasteel floor, hiding his wince as the resulting pain echoed up his leg.

Matt’s face darkened where he still say looking up at Techie. He stood up slowly, crossed the room and punched the door control.

“Well, since you obviously don’t need me,” he said as the door opened.

“Matt…” Techie said, reaching out to him. But Matt shook his arm off and didn’t look back as he stepped through the door and away. Techie sighed, twisting his hands in the men of his shirt before he fell to the floor, reaching under his bed to pull out a fingerprint coded lock box. He fumbled it open, and stuffing the contents into his pocket, he left his bunk to find Matt.

Techie wandered the corridors for a while before mocking laughter from one of the less frequented areas drifted up to him. Techie moved towards the noise, which began to resolve into several taunting voices, and below those, pained groans from his beloved Matt. He slowed as he approached the final corner before the confrontation, listening to the voices.

“Jumped up prick,” he heard one voice say.

“You think your buddy Kylo Ren is going to save you?” a second voice asked, accompanied by a grunt from Matt.

“Idiot,” a third voice chimed in, “he doesn’t even know you exist.”

Techie heard laughter then, from more throats than had spoken thus far. He took a breath and stepped around the corner.

“L-leave him alone.”

The laughter quieted down, but only from the stormtroopers surprise at being confronted by the slip of a man who stood in front of him. Techie remembered the bundle in his pocket and fumbled to remove it, almost dropping it as it caught on the fabric of his pocket.

“Aww, you need a hand there princess?” one of the Stormtroopers called. “Don’t worry we’ll be with you in a moment.” He ended the statement by drawing back and landing another kick in Matt’s stomach. Matt convulsed around the blow, even as he tried to turn around to look at Techie. Techie met his eyes, his glasses askew as he finally pulled the hand blaster from it’s wrapped holster.

“Techie, no..” he whispered. “Just run.”

“Kriff, sake, I’m putting an end-” the stormtrooper got no further before Techie lifted the gun, firing it twice and blasting holes just below the kneecaps of his armour. He dropped to the floor, and silence fell before he drew breath enough to scream, clutching at his legs. Another stormtrooper made to move towards Techie and received the same treatment. The third has the sense to put his hands into the air and step away from Matt when Techie moved the gun towards him.

“There’s only t-two of you injured,” he commented, talking down the length of the gun at them. “The rest of you s-should be able to get them to medbay before t-they bleed out.”

The remaining troopers took the hint, moving slowly with hands raised until they reached down to start dragging their comrades away from the scene. Techie stepped forward as they moved away until he had gotten to Matt. He could feel Matt wrap a hand around his ankle, thumb brushing over the bone, but he waited for Techie’s signal, when Techie fell to his knees beside Matt.

“I’m so sorry-”

“Are you ok?”

They babbled over each other, Techie righting Matt’s glasses and smoothing back his hair, while Matt kept trying to grab his hands to press kisses to them. Techie coaxed Matt to sitting, then standing, leaning heavily on Techie as he did. With a quiet curse, Techie left Matt leaning against the bulkhead, and bent down to scoop up the blaster, fumbling again as he wrapped it back up. They limped together back to Techie’s quarters, where he opened his rarely used medkit to tend to Matt’s wounds. When he was finished, he climbed up on the bunk opposite Matt, letting him take his hands into his larger ones. Techie had chastised him into silence if all he could do was apologise, so he stroked his thumb over Techie’s fingers, trying to find something else he could say.

“Baby,” he said, his voice quiet, “you going to protect me now?”

Techie pressed a kiss to his forehead, and Matt all but melted.

“Always.”