Chapter Text
The excitement of the eel died down quickly, and the Rishi base went right back to its dull regularity. Though, now with a dead eel right below their base as a permanent reminder of their existence and the only interesting thing to ever happen to them. As the eel very much wasn’t edible, they decided to just leave its carcass where it was. Not really like they had much of a choice. It was way too large for even nine fully grown men, well four and five secret teenagers, to move.
Because of the small excitement the eel had caused, Echo found himself waiting to attempt his hair clips. Entirely because he wanted to make them in peace. And for some reason, all of the vod’e on base wanted to hear his and Droidbait’s tale of the eel multiple times. It really was that boring of a posting that the death of a huge eel was treated like an actual war story. Which was a little sad in Echo’s mind.
Now that all of that had died down, he felt like he could actually finally look at his shells. Which he hadn’t even been able to do yet. He had brought into the base a little over ten of them, but when he looked them over in better light ended up deciding on using only four.
Two were black, round and mostly flat. He figured they would hide in his hair really well and would be good to start with. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be noticed and he could try wearing them without the rest of the base commenting on their existence. Or worse, questioning why he was wearing them.
The other two he chose to work with were golden and swirly. They were beautiful and Echo adored them. He was just a little worried that they were actually too beautiful for him. They were elegant and classy and he was, well. He was neither of those things.
He was still determined to make all four of them into clips, self depreciation be damned. Which turned out to really not be all that hard of a process. Finding the metal and adhesives he needed was much easier than getting the shells had been, no giant eels involved. Making them just came down to carefully following the step by step process the video showed. So really, they were almost too easy to make.
When he had completed them all, he was nearly too nervous to actually even look at them. He pushed those nerves aside though and forced himself to pick up one of the golden ones to study it.
It came out wonderfully. With the armor polish covering the shell it was even brighter and more dazzling. The black ones were, too. Instead of looking like dull black circles, they were glossy and sleek. Elegantly simplistic, almost. Just holding them in his hand had Echo feeling giddy with anticipation.
Despite the joy the sight of them brought, he was still far too scared to actually wear them, even the black set. It took days for him to gather enough courage to actually put them into his hair, despite having thought about doing so every single morning since completing them.
The second he actually did, though, something within him settled and a weight he has always felt but never understood lifted off of his chest. They were subtle and barely seemed to be there, but the sight of the glossy black shells clasped within his hair at each temple had him beaming . They felt right. And more importantly, they made him feel right.
Despite that, when it came time to leave the ‘fresher and face the others, he almost put his bucket on in order to cover the new addition to his hair. On Kamino, he would have. Then again, on Kamino he never would have made the clips to begin with. He would have shied away from anything that separated him from the others. Anything that made him, well, Echo .
That alone was enough to have him not put his helmet on. He wasn’t that Echo any more. No, he wasn’t CT-21-0408 anymore. He was an actual person, with a personality and interests and by the ka’ra he was brave enough to show his family who that was. He was brave enough to exit the ‘fresher with his head held back and confidence in his step.
Though, the second he entered the barracks, a little ‘meeping’ sound left him when he ended up nearly nose to nose with Fives. A red flush crossed his face in an instant and he tried to step back, but Fives followed, eyes narrowed on him.
“What were you taking so long for in….”
Fives’s words were cut off when his eyes, which had been studying Echo’s burning face, caught on the clips in his hair. His eyes widened and Echo was immediately terrified that his confidence in them had been greatly misplaced. He couldn’t handle if anyone told him they were stupid, or looked stupid on him. Let alone Fives .
“Are they dumb!?” he gasped out, voice higher than it normally was as his hand shot up to touch them. Maybe even pull them out of his hair and toss them away for good. Fives reaching up to cover Echo’s hand with his stopped him from even being able to try to, though.
“No!” he exclaimed vehemently, his head shaking in a frantic manner to match his tone. His voice softened though when he continued with, “No, Ey’ika, they are far from dumb. They, they’re great. You look great.”
His face heated up even more and he rolled his shoulders and neck. Purely just to move his gaze away from Fives’s intense honey eyes that made his knees feel weak. He was already blushing, he didn’t need to embarrass himself more by staggering.
“You really think so?”
“Yeah! Did you make them?”
“I did.”
“Damn!” Fives’s expression turned bright as his eyes widened. “That is impressive, Echo!”
“Uh, no.” he corrected with a shake of his head. “They’re really easy. I just followed a video.”
“And it's still impressive!” Fives swung his arm over Echo’s shoulders and pulled their sides flush together. “C’mon! We have to show the others. They’ll be just as impressed as I am and then you’ll have no choice but to believe me.”
Echo’s token protest was ignored and he was paraded around the base like some sort of show animal. He would have been embarrassed if every single vod there wasn’t delighted, and as Fives said they would be, impressed by his clips.
Hevy complimented him on the ability to make them, still certain of the talent it took even when Echo explained it was just a step by step process. Droidbait and Buddy were extremely vocal about how good they looked, a fact which had Echo blushing more than he already was. Cutup, Nub and Escape were amazed that he had had the patience to do all that delicate work multiple times. Over all, they all seemed to really like them, and Echo felt silly for having been so anxious for them to see.
To his utter surprise, even O’Niner liked them. When Fives dragged him to the Sargeant to show him, he gave Echo a smile and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Looking good, kid.” he told him as he gave a little nod. “Personalization feels nice, doesn’t it?”
Echo gave a sheepish grin, eyes flickering to the side to where Fives was grinning widely at him. Truly, the support from him and the others felt even better than the clips themselves did, but he still gave a firm nod in response.
“Yes, sir. It really does.