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“Kanan, I have an important mission for us.” Hera says, calling him up to the cockpit with her. This is how every mission starts, Hera has a plan and Kanan executes, but today things were going to be a little different.
Kanan walks over and casually leans on her chair.
“Care to give any more details?” He asks casually.
Hera never knew what to think of this man. What exactly was running through her head when she invited him to fly around galaxies with her, she would never know. But, they’d become good friends ever since she helped him pick up his life. But, sometimes she could sense that maybe, maybe he liked her. Or that was just her imagination wishing that were true. The honest truth was he never expressed anything outright. It drove her mad.
She nods. “Do you have any formal clothes?” Hera asks casually.
“I’m fresh out of Jedi robes if that’s what you’re asking.”
“No. I mean like a suit, black tie? Regela armor, that sort of thing?” She asks.
Kanan chuckles. “No, I brought two pairs of pants and two shirts on the ship. I didn’t think to pack my three piece suit- that I totally owned.” He says sarcastically.
“Well it’s your lucky day. I stole you a suit.” Hera says holding up a garment bag and throwing it to him.
“How thoughtful-“ He says, examining the contents of the bag.
“It’s for the mission.” Hera quickly adds, so he wouldn’t get any ideas. This wasn’t just a thoughtful gift between friends!
“What kind of a mission requires a suit?” Kanan asks suspiciously.
“Stealing from a gala.” Hera says casually.
“Yeah that checks out.” Kanan says expecting something like that.
“They’re auctioning up some pretty fancy things according to my contact. I’ve got us two legit tickets to get through the door as well. We just have to look the part.” She adds.
“Alright. well, when do I get ready?” Kanan asks, seemingly unenthusiastic.
“Now. We will be landing shortly.” Hera says, switching to autopilot. “And don’t make me wait for you.” Hera adds. “I know how long it takes you to do your hair.”
“It does not-“ Kanan begins, but one look to Hera and he shut up.
“Down in ten, Jarrus.” She says before walking to her own room to get ready.
***
“Wow, Nine minutes and fifty eight seconds.” Hera says as she hears kanan bounding down the hall.
“Told you I could do it.” He says adjusting the cuff of his sleeve as he walked towards her.
Hera looked up, but wished she hadn’t. Her cheeks started to betray her, Why did he look so good?
His hair was slicked back and the black suit fit him surprisingly well for never being tailored to him.
This is for the mission, strictly for the mission. She thought to herself.
When kanan came next to her, he offered her his arm that she graciously took.
“That dress looks very good on you.” He tells her casually.
It was comments like this that made her wonder if he had feelings for her. Would your friend-roommate-coworker-thing say something like that to you?
“Thanks.” She said, recalling how she picked this one out specifically for the deep v neck in the front.
“Well, I suppose we better get in there, don’t want to be late.” He says as they walk out of the Ghost and into a sea of fancy people.
***
“Darling, this way.” Kanan says ushering Hera with a gentle hand placed on her back.
The touch was electric. She hated that he made her feel this way. This was a mission, a JOB.
“Thank you, dear.” Hera said back.
For their disguise they got into the party as a dignitary and his wife. There was a role that had to be played tonight. Hera had to remember that.
“You look beautiful tonight.” Kanan said to her and they walked into the party, deeper into the pit of vipers.
She couldn’t tell if this was Kanan talking or not. Was he still acting?
“Thank you, and I love what you did with your hair.” Hera says, and genuinely meant.
He was starting to grow out his hair from when Hera had first met him. She liked it, he was able to style it back so it curled perfectly behind his ears. She scolded herself for even noticing it so meticulously.
“Thanks, I'm trying something new.” He says with a smile.
They walked linked arm in arm to the dinner tables set around ready for the auction to begin. There was also a dance floor and bar, everything they could ever need.
Kanan led her to an empty table to sit at.
“So what’s the plan?” He leans in to ask, until another couple decides to sit down next to them. He clears his throat and leans away for Hera.
“Are these taken?” The lady asks. Hera could tell she was eyeing her. Did she suspect they didn’t belong here?
“No, please sit!” Hera says, leaning hard into her accent she’s been trying so hard to lose.
The human man and woman take the seats just across from them. But the woman kept staring daggers at them. The man seemed to be preoccupied with trying to find a droid with the plate of appetizers.
“I’m sorry I didn’t catch your names.” The lady asks. As her husband got up to go get something, probably to eat.
Kanan answered eloquently, “my name's Lucas. And this is my wife, Tera.” He smiles.
Real creative, Kanan, real creative. Hera thought to herself.
The lady nods. Not even giving an introduction of her own.
“I’ve never seen a human and a Twi’lek together before.” The old woman said.
So she wasn’t even suspicious of them, no she just found their fake relationship to be wrong.
Hera didn’t know how to respond to that. Did people really think like this?
“It’s more common than you think, ma’am.” Kanan says diplomatically but Hera could tell he was a little annoyed by the comment.
“Aren’t you afraid your children will be…” She leans over to Kanan “… green ?” She asks, making a face as if this was the worst thing in the world.
“No, I think our children will be beautiful and I’ll teach them to not judge people from across the table.” Kanan says, still politely.
The woman looks taken aback. She scoffs sounding like she was ready to tell them off but before she could speak, Kanan stood up and offered his hand to Hera.
She gladly took it, and stood up.
“Come on dear, I think it’s time for a dance.” He says, glaring at the woman.
But before they left, Kanan placed a kiss on her cheek in plain view of the woman. This just made her scoff even more.
They walked to the dance floor and took up an easy hand hold. One hand resting on Kanan's shoulder the other placed in his hand. His other hand wrapped around her waist. His touch once again sent her the wrong signals, she had to focus and not think about how he could pull her closer…
They swayed back and forth just moving slowly to the music.
“I’m so sorry about what that woman said.” He says. “I would’ve punched her out but I didn’t want to jeopardize the mission.” He says apologetically.
“Kanan, it’s fine. Really.” She says. But really she was taken aback by how much he cared about her and her feelings. She could almost imagine for a minute this was real.
But there was a part of Hera that wondered if what that lady said was true, was this too weird? Would they ever really be together?
“No. It’s not. I’m sick of these self righteous pricks thinking they can tell us what to do.” He says with a glare.
“I know, that’s why I lo-“ Hera stopped herself mid-sentence. She almost said Loved Him. She cleared her throat, hoping he wouldn’t have noticed. “That’s why I let you join me on the Ghost.” She said with a tight smile hoping he would buy it, and he did.
“That did sound pretty rebel of me.” Kanan says softly whispering in her ear, which sends shivers down her spine.
Why did he affect her this badly? And tonight of all nights? Maybe it was the closeness, the fancy suit, the fake relationship showing her what she could have, what could become true, if she just admitted to him that she liked him. But THAT was never going to happen.
The slow song faded and a new upbeat one came on in its place.
Kanan let go of her waist and was going to leave but she wasn’t done dancing just yet. Hera grabbed his hand again and twirled around underneath his outstretched arm.
“Shouldn’t we get back to the mission?” Kanan asks.
“Auctions haven’t happened yet, can’t steal it until after it’s been bought.” Hera said, jumping trying to get Kanan to join her. “Come on, let's have fun for once.”
She said, coaxing him.
Kanan makes a sour face. “I don’t know how to dance like that.” Watching her do a little step combo.
“It’s easy! Here follow me.” She says grabbing both his hands. She could see him being apprehensive but agreeing to go along with her.
Slowly Kanan starts to hop with her, and as the song progresses they stumble their way through, breaking out in laughter as Kanan attempts the harder moves, trips and falls into Hera’s arms.
When the song ends they both walk off the floor laughing and out of breath, neither realizing they were still holding each other.
“That was ridiculous.” Kanan says smiling.
“I know, I haven’t danced like that since I was a little girl.” She says with a smile.
“I definitely didn’t dance like that when I was little.” Kanan says.
“Sounds…regimented.” Hera says not wanting to allude to what Kanan was when he was a kid.
Kanan chuckles, “You don’t know the half of it.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, please proceed to the grand hall for the auction this evening.” A voice over the intercom says.
Hera and Kanan look at each other for a moment longer than needed. They both look away quickly, catching themselves.
Hera took a deep breath. She needed to refocus, Kanan was a distraction, clouding her judgment. All she could think of was ditching the auction and taking another dance or two in his arms…
“Hera?” Kanan asks.
Hera blushes, she was caught red handed daydreaming.
“What?” She asks quickly.
Kanan smiles. “You want to head into the grand hall?” He asks again.
“Yeah. That’s great.” She says still mortified.
Can Jedi read minds? Hera asks herself, feeling more mortified by the minute.
Shit, can he read my mind right now? She panics. If he can, and he hasn’t said anything, what the hell does that mean?!
Kanan, seemingly unaware of what was going on in her head, leads her to the Grand Hall to watch the auction.
On the way, Hera tried to think of anything else besides Kanan. ANYTHING at all. This was proving to be the worst idea of a mission she’d had yet.
Once they were in, Kanan took them to a new table and pulled a seat out and offered it to her. She told herself to stay calm and not look as giddy as she was on the inside.
When they were both seated, Kanan leaned in. “You still haven’t told me how we are going to do this.” He whispers.
“Well, it’s simple, really.” She says with a smile grabbing a numbered paddle off the table. “You raise this paddle in the air for things you want to bid on. If you are the last one raising, you win the prize.” She says with a smirk.
“I know how auctions work. I wasn’t raised under a rock.” He says.
“You kinda were.” She teases.
Kanan sighs. “How do we do this when we don’t have any money?” Kanan clarifies.
“What do you mean darling, I have loads of money.” She says, flaunting the counterfeit credits she had on hand solely for this mission.
“That doesn’t sound like a good plan.” Kanan interjects.
“It’ll be fine.” She says waving it off.
The auctioneer takes the stage and Kanan and Hera look up to watch in anticipation of what they could get that would help them out.
“First at the auction we have two fabulous new droids!” The man says unveiling some shiny new bots.
Kanan leans over to her, “You want me to raise the paddle?”
“No. Chopper would kill them somehow.” Hera said casually.
As the auction went on the prizes were getting more and more extravagant and in some cases, questionably legal.
“Next we have these lovely servant girls, they will do anything you want!” The auctioneer says.
“Oh I’m raising my paddle for this one.” Kanan says to Hera with a mischievous grin on his face.
Hera before she realizes what her face is doing, scoffs at him. She quickly turns away so he couldn’t see her fuming.
“It was a joke.” He says calmly behind her. “I don’t need any more girls to live with.” He says. Which only made her blush more.
“What does that mean exactly?” She asks, hiding her blush with a glare.
“You’re scary enough alone.” He says.
How was that supposed to make her feel? Was that a good thing?
She had to be quickly pulled out of her spiraling thoughts when the next item went up that would actually be useful to them.
“For all you ship owners and collectors out there, this is a great one!” He says “The latest and greatest ship enhancements! The longest lasting power cells! Updates with all the new star maps…” The auctioneer continues to list off items Hera only dreamed of getting her hands on. “And of course, extra comfortable heated seat covers!” Hera was sold; she needed everything he just prattled off.
“Let’s start the bidding off! Do I hear 1,000 Credits?” He asks.
Kanan leans in but Hera takes the paddle right out of his hand.
“1000 credits!” She said, quickly remembering to use her accent.
“2000!” A man from across the room shouts. Hera assumed he must have been a ship collector, otherwise why would he want all of this?
“3000!” Hera shouts back.
“Don’t go crazy now.” Kanan warns her. But she didn’t care, she never planned on paying for any of this.
“5000!” The man says with a smirk in Hera’s direction.
Hera swears under her breath. “7000!” She says.
Kanan grabs a drink from a droid carrying around flutes of alcohol and starts to drain back its contents.
The man pauses for a minute.
“Do we hear 7000?” The auctioneer asks. “Going once…Going twice-“
“10,000.” The man says.
Hera really hoped she brought enough counterfeit credits. Was this too risky? She could back out now…
“10,000 going once!” The auctioneer yells.
Kanan, who finished his first glass, quickly moved on to a second, and grabbed a third. “Don’t do it-“ He starts to say.
“15,000!” She says proudly. She had no idea if this stuff was even worth that many credits.
The other man sighs and sits back down.
“15,000 going once, going twice… SOLD! To number 412!” He says pounding his gavel.
Hera sits down feeling accomplished and also terrified at the same time. She could also feel Kanan judging her pretty harshly from behind.
“Those seat covers better be worth it.” He says.
“Oh they will be.” She says taking a glass away from Kanan, she needed a drink herself.
“Want to just hit the bar and run while we can?”He asks.
“No, if we get that package we won't have to make a supply run for like an entire year!” She said excitedly.
Kanan sighs “That would be nice.”
“We just need a distraction so I can slip the counterfeits…” Hera says thinking.
“Oh i'll give you a distraction.” He says. “I’ve got an idea.” He gives her a devilish grin.
“Well then let's go claim our prize.” Hera says standing up.
The two of them headed off to the back where they were able to obtain their winnings.
“Chopper, bring the Ghost around back, we are going to need a quick pick up.” Hera whispers into her com back up to her droid manning the ship.
Chop sends back a series of annoyed sounds.
“Thanks.” Hera says and quickly hides the com back under her sleeve.
The two of them find the line that had formed to pick up everyone’s newly won possessions.
“What’s this distraction that you have in mind?” Hera asks Kanan under her breath.
“Just play along and you’ll see.” He says.
“Why wont you just tell me-“ She argues.
“You’re probably not going to like it.” He says.
That made her even more nervous than before.
“Next.” The teller says motioning them over.
“Tell them it’s our honeymoon.” Kanan whispers.
Hera was about to object but as they approached, she spotted some heavily armed stormtroopers hanging out right behind the teller. Ready for anything suspicious.
She was really putting all her faith in Kanan when she introduced herself.
“Hi, bidder 412.” She said sweetly.
Suddenly Kanan came up close to her, wrapping his hands around her waist, pulling her close to him. Then his other hand wraps behind her neck and brings her head right to his, just to plant a kiss on her neck.
“Name-“ the teller says before he looks up to see the PDA that was ensuing.
“Tera and Lucas -“ Hera begins, but Kanan steals her lips and her words from her with a kiss.
For a moment Hera even forgot where she was and what she was doing. What was she doing that wasn’t kissing kanan?
She imagined this moment a lot in her mind, more than she cared to admit to. But this, was so much better than daydreams. The feel, the taste, everything about it was perfect. She kissed him right back, she didn’t care who saw or what they thought of them.
“Excuse me.” The teller yells at them.
“Sorry, it’s our honeymoon. And we’ve already stayed later than he wanted.” Hera apologizes to the teller for the disturbance. “He can’t control himself sometimes.”
The teller chuckles. He seemed to be enjoying this a little too much as well.
“I’d be the same way if I was with you.”
Hera would have smacked that man upside the head but that was a good indication that he wouldn’t question her counterfeits as she placed the credits on the table.
After she set them down, Kanan ramped it up a notch.
“Hurry up, Let’s get back to the ship.” He says before grabbing her and placing her on the table right in front of the teller man. Even the stormtroopers seemed to be watching them.
Hera’s whole body was shaking with Adrenaline. How had she gone this long living with this man who could do this to her? And if this is him in public… what could go on behind closed doors?
Nothing, because this isn’t real. This is the mission. These feelings he’s having are not real… are they? Focus- FOCUS. She fights within herself. Mission first, feelings later.
“If you grab our package fast enough, he usually likes having a threesome.” Hera tells the man who goes red and tries to object, but he ends up only running to the stormtroopers.
“Get 412’s package, quickly.” He demands.
“Can they load it on our ship?” Hera asks kindly as Kanan pulls her back into him.
Why can’t every mission be like this? She asks herself as she indulges for a moment as Kanan kisses down her neck then down the exposed skin of her chest.
“Load it into their ship!” The man demands.
He then looks at them expectantly. Hera did promise a threesome after all. She hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“Chopper, Landing pad, now.” Hera says feeling out of breath. They needed to get out of here, fast.
“It’s all taken care of.” The man says, giving a weird look to the two of them.
“Uh… Lucas, can you uh… include our friend?” Hera asks, not really sure what to do.
“Get on the ship.” Kanan tells the man.
“Let me get my things.” He says quickly rummaging for his stuff under the table. But Kanan takes the moment to grab Hera, Jump the table, and bolt for the loading dock carrying Hera in his arms. He leaps with such ease and bounds all the way to the ship Hera could barely hear the man yell in protest as he finds out all the credits Hera put down were all fake.
“Thieves!” She heard a voice shout, but Kanan didn’t stop. It was too late for them, the goods had been loaded, they just needed to escape.
“Capture them!” Storm troopers yell as they descend on them.
“Kanan-“ Hera says worriedly. She could run, maybe they’d be faster-
“Tell Chop to take off- I got this.” He says, sounding out of breath.
Hera pulls out the com, “Ready for take off Chop. On my signal.” She says.
Blasters were going off all around them but Kanan evaded like a pro.
“NOW!” Kanan yells
“Go Chop!” Hera yells.
Kanan takes a huge leap and lands the both of them on the already retracting ramp. Once they were safely on the ship Kanan set Hera down and took out his own blaster and started blasting back until they were far enough away.
Hera ran quickly to the front of the ship. She needed to get them out of there as fast as possible before they called in backups to find the auction thieves. At least she could keep her mind occupied on something else besides the thought of grabbing Kanan and starting where they just left off.
***
Once they were far enough away, The two of them were able to breathe again. But even though they both had caught their breath, no one was talking.
Hera didn’t know what to say, I mean what do you say to your friend-roommate-coworker-thing- that just made out with you for work?
Gee, That was fun, you want to go do that again but this time in my bedroom? She thought to herself.
But Hera kept herself busy by looking through the crates of all the new gear they just got. She couldn’t believe it was all here, even those heated seat covers.
She grabs the covers and decides to busy herself by putting them on the pilot and co-pilots seats.
“You know I think you were right, these were worth it.” Kanan says, approaching her.
That’s the first thing he’s said to her after what they just did. How was he so casual? Were they just supposed to go on as if that never happened?
“Yeah, they're furry.” Is all Hera says back, awkwardly.
They sit in silence. The air between them is so charged Hera could just feel the tension pulling between them. He was the force sensitive one, shouldn’t he be able to read the room?!
She turns away from him, pretending to be very invested in the pilot seat cushion. Stroking the white fur back and forth… back and forth…
“Hera?” Kanan asks. His voice is low and soft.
She took a deep breath, she didn’t want to turn around and face this. She didn’t want to hear the lecture about how that was all fake. Her emotions, her feelings, were not fake.
“Hera,”Kanan starts again. So she reluctantly turns around.
“Yes?” She asks. Accidentally, they locked eyes. And for a moment, time around them stood still. This couldn’t all be fake!
Kanan broke the gaze. “I want to apologize if I overstepped…”
“You’re fine. You didn’t-“ Hera begins.
“I threw you on a table.” He interjects.
Yeah but I liked it. “I’ve been through worse.” She shrugs.
“Hera, are you sure I don’t want to hurt you-“ He begs.
“You didn’t.” She assures him.
“I should’ve asked for permission-“ He reconciles.
If you asked to kiss me right now, I would say yes.
“If I didn’t like it I would’ve told you to stop.” She says quickly and not wanting to meet his gaze.
“Hera,” He says, getting closer to her. His tone had shifted, it was still soft but there was something else there. Was it her imagination or did he look nervous? He took her hand that was still resting on the seat cover and placed it in his own. Hera’s own heart was betraying her. It started to beat wildly in her chest. Where was this going?
“Can I kiss you?” He asks in a gentle voice, so unlike the man he was at the party. But it sent butterflies straight to her stomach.
Her cheeks blushed.
Shit. He can read minds.
Hera gives him his answer as she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him without a care in the world.
Yes