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“Finally some alone time.” Hera said, draping herself on her bed. It had been another really long day... week... month... Hera lost track of how long it had been since she was able to catch a break. With everything going on it was hard for her to even find time to just decompress.
Kanan had just come in and closed the door. He looked just as beat as Hera felt, the bags under his eyes were a dead give away that he too was feeling overworked.
“I thought Ezra would never go to sleep.” Kanan said walking over to meet Hera on the bed.
“It’s cute he lets you tuck him in.” Hera says with a smirk.
“There is no tucking, no bedtime stories, just me yelling at him to go to sleep.” Kanan says with a sigh.
“Well whichever way, he’s asleep now along with the rest of them.” Hera says tracing light circles on the comforter with her finger. She looks up to him, trying to read his expression.
“We are finally alone.” Kanan says with a smirk confirming he got her drift. The beat look on his face shifts and suddenly changes to excitement.
Without another word needing to be spoken they quickly got undressed and under the covers.
“I’ve missed you.” Hera says teasing between kisses.
“I’ve missed you too.” He says, then without another word he sits up, a concerned look in his face.
“Get dressed!” He yells getting up and helping Hera out of bed quickly.
“Kanan, what's wrong?” She asked, but before he could answer, alarms started blaring through the ship.
“Go! You need to fix the ship!” Kanan says throwing his shirt to her to put on.
"But my clothes-" Hera protests.
"No time!" Kanan yells.
“Karabast-shit.” Hera says, scrambling to put on Kanan's shirt and starts to make a mad dash for the cockpit.
“Make sure everyone gets up!” Hera yells as she turns the corner.
Kanan, not wanting to waste anymore time, just grabs his bathrobe and bolts for the door. He needs to make sure everyone gets to safety before it's too late.
***
It had been another exhausting day, and that’s why when Ezra slumped into bed that night he was passed out cold. Nothing could wake him from his wonderful dream of riding the purrgil into a magical sunset… nothing except for Kanan shaking him awake.
“Get up!!” Kanan yells in his face.
Still groggy and half awake Ezra still can’t figure out what’s going on.
“Wha?” He asks, not able to keep his eyes open very long. He wanted to go back to the Purrgil dream.
The distant sounds of alarms blaring started to register, but not enough to have a meaning just yet.
After a few moments Kanan resorted to grabbing Ezra and throwing him onto his back and carrying him out of the room.
As they were running Ezra started to wake up and form actual thoughts.
Why was there so many loud alarms? Where was Kanan taking him? Did it smell kinda funny in there?
But when he heard the voices of the other crew members he suddenly became very self conscious about being carried like a sack of potatoes by Kanan.
“Kanan! You can put me down!” Ezra protests as they enter the cockpit of the ship.
“You’re finally awake.” Kanan says sarcastically while unceremoniously dropping his arms so Ezra had to fumble to the ground.
Ezra played it off as if he meant to do that. But no one was watching him, everyone else was turned towards the ship controls frantically trying to fix something.
“Are you sure we’re safe in here?” Sabine asks Hera who was currently switching on and off a million different buttons.
“We should be…for now.” She says, wiping the sweat from her brow and turning around to see Kanan and Ezra. She smiled, she looked relieved.
“Good you’re all here.”
“Yes, someone here is a heavy sleeper.” Kanan says with a glare in Ezra's direction.
Nothing was making sense to Ezra yet, what were they all doing in the middle of the night?
“What’s going on?” Ezra asks out of his sheer confusion.
“Gas leak.” Hera says. “If we stayed asleep back there we would all be dead. Thankfully, Kanan was able to sense it even before my sensors.” Hera says.
Ezra was only half listening as he looked around at everyone and made the realization they were all wearing pajamas.
And instead of saying something sensible and pertaining to the subject, Ezra simply says, “You’re all wearing pajamas.”
“So are you!” Sabine yells from the controls.
Ezra looks down, as if to remember what he was wearing. Then he looked back up, embarrassed by his matching button down pajama set. He turns around to start to leave, but Kanan steps between him and the door.
“Gas leak, remember? You can’t leave.” Kanan says.
Ezra just stares at Kanan because he just took in what his Master was wearing.
“Kanan…your pajamas!” Ezra says between laughing fits.
Kanan’s hair was down and messy and he had a fluffy bathrobe tied tightly around his waist. it was the most un-Kanan like thing he’d ever seen him in.
Kanan just rolled his eyes , “Technically, this is a robe.” He says, motioning to his ensemble.
“Yeah but you’re wearing pajamas underneath it.” Ezra says.
“As a matter of fact, I am not.” He says quickly.
“You’re naked!?” Ezra asks, sounding concerned.
“I think there are more pressing matters at hand, Ezra.” Kanan says dryly.
“Are there?” Ezra asks, only to receive a death glare from Kanan.
“Just keep that robe tight, please.” Sabine interjects from the cockpit.
Ezra looked to Sabine next, she was wearing a big t-shirt covered in paint splotches and doodles. It was like she was wearing a practice canvas for her drawings. She paired that with mismatched patterned pajama pants.
Next to her, Zeb was in his typical underclothes, which Ezra had the unfortunate luck of seeing every night.
Then he looked to Hera, she was wearing a large long sleeved green tunic like a dress but it looked really familiar to Ezra but he couldn’t place it.
“Where did you get that shirt?” Ezra asks Hera.
“It’s not mine...” She says, quickly looking in Kanan's direction looking a little flustered.
“Explains why Kanan is naked.” Zeb interjects, and then proceeds to snicker with Sabine near the control panel.
“I get hot in my sleep!” Kanan protests.
“Sure you do. Suuuure you do.” Zeb says in a very condescending tone while making faces with Sabine.
“Can we please just get back to trying to fix this ship? Or I’m going to have to make an emergency landing!” Hera yells.
Sabine and Zeb turn back to the controls.
“Hera, I think we’re going to have to make that landing…” Sabine says “it’s starting to leak in here too!”
“Already on it.” Hera says, jumping into her seat.
“I think there’s a habitable planet down here.” She says grabbing the controls and punching in coordinates.
“Everyone try to limit your breathing until we land!” Hera says.
Sabine puts on her helmet and kicks back. “You all have fun with that.”
“Where are our helmets!?” Ezra asks frantically.
“In the bay, can’t reach them.” Kanan says. “Now stop wasting our air with your stupid questions and save some oxygen for the rest of us.”
Ezra folds his arms and pouts while he takes a breath and holds it in for as long as he could.
***
It turns out, the habitable planet wasn’t half bad.
After a quick landing and everyone disembarking, they were met with a beautifully forested planet that didn’t seem to have any life forms besides the occasional animal noises and night birds flying overhead and in the trees.
“Chopper, can you grab the emergency kits from the ship?” Hera asks. “Also perform some diagnostics while you're there.” She adds.
“Sure send the droid” Chopper complains as he starts whizzing back towards the ship.
“Thanks Chop.” Hera yells at the droid, pretending not to hear its complaints.
Hera turns back to the group, where Kanan and Zeb were already grabbing some logs for them to sit on.
“I’ll start a fire.” Kanan says motioning for everyone to sit down and gather round.
Soon after, the oddly dressed bunch gathered around the fire to keep warm from the chilly wind blowing through the trees.
“Does anyone have a scary story while we wait?” Ezra asks the crew once they were all seated.
Everyone looks at one another and shrugs.
“I’ve got one!” Hera says. “Kanan, give me your saber.” She asks, putting a hand out.
“For what?” Kanan asks, confused.
“For the mood lighting, obviously.” She says, motioning to him to hand it over to her.
Kanan sighs and mumbles something about it not being used properly but ends up igniting it and gingerly hanging it off to Hera.
“Careful-” He says as Hera swings it around a little.
“I’m fine I’ve handled your lightsaber before.” She said.
Sabine and Zeb burst into an uncontrollable laughter.
“Oh I’m sure she handles Kanan’s lightsaber all the time.” Zeb says, sending Sabine into another fit of laughter.
“Did I miss something?” Ezra asks, cluelessly.
Hera frowns. “Get your heads out of the trash compactor!” She yells to Sabine and Zeb who were still snickering. But they stopped when she pointed the saber in their direction.
“Go on Hera, tell us your story.” Kanan says, trying to change the subject to anything but his lightsaber.
“Alright.” Hera says taking a breath and refocusing.
“Don’t worry Sabine, if it gets too scary you have me to hold onto.” Ezra says, opening his arms wide for her.
“Oh really?” Sabine says smirking, and then kicks the log he’s seated on so it rolls and sends him falling over onto his back.
“Alright listen up.” Hera says getting into it. “It all happened long ago in a galaxy far away…”
“With an intro like that, this has to be good.” Ezra interjects from the forest floor.
“There I was, flying my typical supply run. And just when I thought I was safe I looked out to my left, and that's when I see it, I’m staring into the eye of a demon!" She pauses for dramatic effect. She held the saber under her chin so her face was lit in an ominous blue glow. “Then I look closer and realize it’s not alone! No, it brought an army of its demon creature friends! I go to start shooting at the devils until they start to hit my ship! I have to act fast before they kill me-“
“Is this whole story just about Purrgil?” Kanan asks.
“kanan don’t spoil!” Hera interjects.
“Hera!The Purrgil are our friends.” Ezra says. “They are not scary, nor a demon.” He corrects her.
“Fine! Then you don’t get to hear the rest of my story.” Hera says sitting down shoving Kanan’s lightsaber back to him.
“Hey, I wanted to hear the rest of your story.” Kanan says, putting an arm around Hera.
She scoffs but leans into him. “It’s a little too late for that.” She says, sighing.
“I’ve got a better story.” Zeb says standing up.
“This one is far more terrifying than Purrgil.” He says.
“Rude!” Hera interjects.
“Alright, are you ready for this?” He asks rhetorically.
“Did you want Kanan’s lightsaber for the ominous lighting effect?” Ezra asks.
“No, I don’t want to touch Kanan’s lightsaber. I'll leave that to Hera.” Zeb says with a smirk in Kanan’s direction.
“Garazeb Orrelios there are children present!” Hera yells.
Sabine has to hold in her laughter.
“And I don’t want you touching it either!” Kanan yells back, his cheeks looking like they were burning from embarrassment. “Can we just stop talking about my lightsaber!” He interjects.
“You know I have a lightsaber too.” Ezra adds innocently. He just wanted to feel included.
“Just drop it with the Lightsabers .” Kanan says giving Sabine and Zeb the death stare. “Zeb, just tell your story.” He says waving him off.
“Got it, boss.” Zeb says and then crouches down by the fire, “One day…I met Ezra.” Zeb pauses.
“What about me?” Ezra asks, looking offended.
“That’s it, that’s my terrifying story.” Zeb says, sitting back down.
“Yeah that is scary.” Sabine agrees.
“I guess I agree.” Kanan adds.
This all makes Ezra get a little angry and he charges at Zeb so the two of them are fighting and rolling on the ground.
Kanan and Hera watch as the two of them roll around in the dirt while Sabine starts to taunt them both.
“How did we end up with the weirdest crew in the galaxy?” Kanan asks, leaning over to Hera.
“Says the Jedi in a bathrobe.” Hera adds. “I would say the Meiloorun doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” She jabs.
Kanan chuckles. “You got a point.”
Just then there’s a loud thud from behind them.
Chopper was back with the supplies and a surplus of complaints of his own.
"while you were joking I was slaving away- dying in the fumes-"
"And you got the diagnostics?" Hera asks not listening to him.
Chopper throws the datapad on the ground.
"Thanks..." Hera says sarcastically, grabbing the pad and dusting it off.
Once Kanan broke up the kids' fight, they all gathered around the fire again for instructions.
“Alright everyone, so it looks like from Chopper’s diagnostics the ship is going to have to air out over night so we will be sleeping out here.” Hera says looking at her datapad. “Everything should be patched up and safe to board tomorrow morning so we can get back on track.”
Everyone looked at each other.
“Sounds fun.” Sabine shrugged.
“I like it out here.” Zeb says leaning back on his log.
“So where are we sleeping?” Ezra asks.
“We have tents.” Kanan says walking over to the bags and starts pulling the tents out, then Kanan starts to look around confused.
“What?” Hera asks.
“Where are the rest of them?” He asks. “There’s only three single person tents.” He says.
Hera swears under her breath and then gives a guilty face. “So, as we grew our crew I kinda forgot to expand the emergency kits… sorry.” She said sheepishly.
“No, it’s fine. Some of us can share.” Kanan says with a smile in Hera’s direction.
She smiles back, finally more alone time.
“Easy, Hera and Kanan and then Sabine and I can share! Done!” Ezra says happily.
“No, you get to share with Zeb.” Kanan corrects him.
“Why?” Ezra protests.
“Because I said so.” Kanan says.
“But why?” Ezra counters, getting in Kanan’s face.
“Because she’s a girl.” Kanan says, looking down to Ezra.
“You get to be with Hera,” Ezra points out.
“That's different.” Kanan says.
“How is that different?” Ezra asks.
“I’m 30 and you’re 12.” He says, folding his arms.
“I'm NOT 12 and you know that!” Ezra protests in his Master's face.
“And that doesn’t matter, Hera is still a girl! If that’s the rule then you have to follow it too.”
Kanan laughs. “No, I don’t. I’m the adult here!”
“I can’t share that tiny tent with Zeb! I’ll suffocate!” Ezra yells.
“Standing right here…” Zeb says, looking slightly offended.
Hera just shakes her head, and decides to be an adult. “Fine, Sabine and I will take a tent, Kanan and Ezra you share the other.” Hera says. “I just want to go to sleep.”
“Sweet I get my own tent! Goodnight everyone!” Zeb says, grabbing a tent and running away before anyone changes their mind.
“Zeb! Take Chopper!” Hera calls out.
“Karabast.” He yells as Chopper follows him to their tent along with complaints from Chopper about being suffocated.
Meanwhile, Kanan looks very upset and glares at Ezra who gives a smug look back.
“Now we have to share a tent, happy?” Ezra asks with a glare back to Kanan.
“No.” Kanan says, shoving the tent bag into Ezra’s arms.
“Put up our tent.” Kanan says.
“Why me?” He protests.
“Jedi training or something.” Kanan says waving a hand in the air while walking away towards Hera and Sabine.
Ezra fumes as he fails miserably at putting up the tent alone, meanwhile Kanan was off flirting with Hera. Laughing as they put up her tent together…
“Give it to me.” Sabine says from behind him. It startles him and he jumps almost into her arms.
“There there, if it’s too scary you can always come into my arms.” Sabine says mocking Ezra from earlier.
“Did you come to help me or ridicule me?” Ezra asks, brushing off his embarrassment.
“A little of both.” She says with a smile helping him put the tent poles up.
***
Once Kanan returned and Sabine left for her tent, Ezra knew he was in for a rough night.
“You’re sleeping outside.” Kanan tells him. “And yes, it's also for Jedi training.” Kanan adds so he wouldn’t protest.
“Can I at least have the blanket then?” Ezra asks sarcastically, as Kanan throws the blanket into his face.
Kanan lays down on the hard floor of the tent. It was surprisingly comfortable with all the room he had, he just wished he could be sharing this space with Hera. And he would’ve been if this little kid didn’t have a huge crush on Sabine…
Kanan stretched out and started to shut his eyes, but before he did, he felt Ezra peeking back in the tent.
“Kanan it’s starting to rain.” He says, blanket over his head and giving him a very sad face.
Kanan cursed whatever beings fault it was for making it rain.
“Fine, get in here.” He says, as he crawls to the entrance to look outside and sure enough, Ezra was right. It was definitely raining.
And through the misty ground and the rain, he saw the girls' tent. There was a faint light coming from it, they must still be up. Hera was still awake…
Kanan really wished he could trade places with Sabine right about now.
“Thinking about Hera?” Ezra asks from behind, still underneath his blanket making himself real comfy.
“None of your business.” Kanan says.
“You really like her don’t you.” He asks.
“Yeah…we’re dating…” Kanan says looking over to Ezra.
“Wait…what?” Ezra looks like his world was shattering before him.
“Literally how did you not know that.” Kanan asks.
“Well you never explicitly TOLD me or say she's your girlfriend. “ Ezra says in his defense. “I just thought you liked flirting with each other.”
“Well we don’t exactly have time to dive deep into our relationship.” Kanan says. “We both have around the clock jobs.”
“Well you should try to make time for just the two of you more often.” Ezra offers.
“Yes, the next time I have a free weekend, I’ll take her on a vacation to Coruscant! When we aren’t fleeing for our lives, escaping the empire or watching over our delinquent crew.” Kanan says sarcastically.
“No I don’t mean that, plus I don’t think Hera would even like that. Just try to find some time to talk with her when you’re not talking about work. I feel like she’d like that.” Ezra says.
Kanan laughs. “And when did you become a relationship expert?”
“Hey there’s lots you don’t know about me! That… and I heard Hera complain that she doesn’t get to spend much alone time with you.” Ezra says.
Kanan ruffled Ezra’s hair.
“Of course you were spying.” Kanan says.
“I didn’t mean to! It’s a small ship.” Ezra says.
“Alright love expert, it's time to go to bed.” Kanan says laying down. “And you see this imaginary line down the middle of the tent? If you cross it, you die.” Kanan states.
“Sure, goodnight Kanan,” Ezra says, rolling his eyes before he lays down.
“Goodnight, Ezra.” Kanan says rolling over and hitting the small tent light off.
Kanan shuts his eyes and falls quickly asleep, trying to make this miserable night end faster.
Kanan was asleep until he awoke with a start from a shriek from Ezra.
“ MOM! DAD!” Ezra says in his sleep while he thrashed about and smacked Kanan straight in the face.
“Hey, cut it out!” Kanan says, hitting Ezra with his pillow but unfortunately for Kanan, he was a heavy sleeper and it didn’t even phase him.
Kanan sighed and took his pillow and wrapped it around his head to tone out some of the screaming, but the pillow didn’t help with the kicking. So Kanan angrily curled up into the corner trying to keep himself out of Ezra’s rage to the best of his ability.
But even then, after one unnecessarily hard kick to the back, Kanan threw his pillow on Ezra’s face once again.
“Ezra cut it out!” Kanan says, sitting up.
Still no response. He was about to shake him awake but he felt bad. It really wasn’t the kid’s fault, and he was dreaming about his parents…
So Kanan decided he wasn’t going to sleep tonight.
When Ezra went silent for a moment, Kanan listened and it sounded like the storm had passed. So he grabbed his saber, stepped out of the tent, and headed back to the log by the long gone fire.
He sat in silence, and found this a perfect moment to meditate. He looked up at the many stars and galaxies littering the night sky through the lines of trees.
It was beautiful. It would make any man ponder his life and how he was just a mere speck of dust on one of the billions of planets. But also just how lucky he was to be this speck. The speck with these people he called his family, and Hera…
Suddenly the hair on his neck started to rise. He could hear something coming, quickly he drew his saber and turned to face his assailant.
Glowing blue in the light reflecting off his saber was a lovely familiar twi’lek face, not even phased by him holding his saber a mere inches from her face.
“Couldn’t sleep?” She asks with a kind smile.
“No.” Kanan says, letting out a sigh and disengaging his saber. “I don’t know how Zeb can stay in the same room as him.”
“Must be a Jedi thing.” Hera says shrugging and taking a seat on the log Kanan had been sitting on.
“What do you mean?” Kanan asks, sitting next to her.
“Let’s just say I have first had experience sleeping with one.” She says with a smirk.
“I don’t call out and thrash in my sleep!” Kanan protests.
Hera gave him a look. “Sometimes…” she says.
Kanan groans and puts his head in his hands. “That’s embarrassing, I didn’t even know I did that.”
“It’s fine-“
“I didn’t say anything weird did I?” He asked suddenly, feeling self conscious.
“No.” Hera says, shaking her head.
“Good.” Kanan says, wondering if she was telling him the truth or not.
Things fell silent between the two of them for a moment. All you could hear was the screeching of an owl, the leaves rustling in the breeze.
“I have an idea.” Kanan says, and then runs to his tent.
He finds Ezra taking up the whole space now sprawled about. The blanket kicked haphazardly half off of him, Kanan snatched it up without him even being phased.
Kanan comes back with the blanket bundled in his arms.
“Would you care to join me?” He asks.
“I’ll light the fire.” Hera says with a smile.
After the fire was lit, the two of them curled together under the blanket. Hera rested her head on the crook of his shoulder so she was able to look up at him and the stars.
“Did Sabine wake you up?” Kanan asks.
“No, she sleeps like a corpse.” Hera says.
“Then why were you up?” He asks casually.
“I just couldn’t sleep.” She says sheepishly.
“Why?” Kanan asked, looking concerned.
“Mind racing. So many things that need to be done and the ship breaking is really setting us back a day, I don’t know how we are going to make this time up-” Hera starts to ramble until Kanan planted a light kiss on her forehead to make her stop… it worked.
“Let’s forget about it all just for a minute.” Kanan says with a smile. “ No thinking, let's just be in the moment and look at the stars.” He says pointing up to the sky.
Hera chuckles and plays along. “Alright, I’ll stargaze with you.”
“Then it’s a date,” Kanan says with a chuckle.
“Finally, we haven’t been on one of those for a long time.” Hera sighs.
“I forgot how wonderful it is to just be with you, like old times…” Kanan says.
“Just like old times…” Hera repeats with a smile.
They sit in each other's presence in silence for a while, just admiring the stars and galaxies, listening to each other's heartbeats beat in unison.
“Don’t you ever think about how crazy it is to have met?” Kanan asks.
“All the time.” Hera says softly.
“I mean, just look at all those stars! How did I get so lucky that out of all the planets and the stars you and I could’ve been on, we both ended up on Gorse at the same time.” Kanan says.
“ I don’t know… some force drove us together I suppose...” Hera speculates. “but whatever way, I’m glad our paths crossed.”
“Me too.” He says leaning in for a kiss.
Hera leans in and they find themselves in the moment, finally able to finish what they had started. And finally able to spend some time alone.
***
They awoke the next morning to the lovely sound of a teenage boy and girl snickering at them.
“Look who overslept.” Ezra says with a smirk.
Hera shot up. Realizing she did in fact oversleep because she was so comfy curled into Kanan under the stars. She was going to go back to her tent with Sabine so she didn't raise any questions, but here she was.
“Kanan get up!” Hera says, quickly getting up and hiding her embarrassment.
“Well good morning to you too.” Kanan asks lazily while sitting up, and Hera realizes in horror that Kanan's robe was no longer on so she yanks the blanket up to his shoulders.
He looked at her confused then looked down and realized the issue.
Hera tried to hide her embarrassment and addressed the crew.
“We already wasted enough time, we need to pack up and get back on the Ghost!” She says.
“You heard her, lets go.” Kanan says attempting to stand up without moving the blanket around too much.
Sabine and Ezra look at each other and share a silent conversation and a smirk.
“We’re on it.” Ezra says with a wink in Kanan's direction.
***
Once Hera cleared the ship safe to fly, everyone piled back on and was finally able to get dressed in their actual clothes. And Kanan was finally able to wear a real pair of pants.
Hera was flying best she could, even with the good sleep she had with Kanan under the stars it wasn’t exactly a full night's rest. She was getting a little sleepy until Kanan showed up with a cup of caf for her in his hand.
“Thought you could use one of these.” He says handing it to her.
“You thought right.” She says.
“Come on Kanan, you made one for Hera but not for me?” Ezra asks.
“You don’t even like caf!” Sabine yells from the table.
“If you’re making more can you make me one?” Zeb asks.
Kanan and Hera share a smile as Kanan reaches out for Hera’s hand from the seat next to her.
“Just make your own.” Kanan says to the boys without taking his attention off of Hera.
She just laughs and takes his hand.
They may not have much time alone, but they would cherish every moment together.