Chapter Text
He slapped the underside of the Ghost and winked as he made for the ramp. “Let’s go somewhere.”
Hera turned around, her lekku swinging around with her.
“Just get in before I change my mind.” She suggested, as she made her way up the ramp without giving Kanan a second glance.
Kanan rolled his eyes and followed her. With swagger in his step, and a few witty pick up lines in his head, he stepped aboard this so-called ‘Ghost’ .
Kanan had been aboard many starships in his lifetime. Some very nice, like back in his Jedi days flying in Republic Military ships. And some not so nice ever since. But none have ever felt like this.
He couldn’t explain the feeling. Sure, it looked like any old ship from the interior but you could tell Hera cared for this ship like a home. Kanan felt this sense of warmth and hominess that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. It felt inviting… or maybe it was just his company.
Hera turned around and caught him looking around, and smirked.
“You like her?” Hera asked with a grin.
“Not as much as I like you.” Kanan says, playing it off with a winning grin.
Hera just turned around and went on as if she hadn't heard that comment.
“Let me give you a quick tour, then I’ll show you to your room.” Hera says.
“You mean our room?” He asks, stepping closer to her.
“I can still kick you out, you know.” She says, folding her arms.
So she heard that one.
“Alright.” Kanna held up his hands in surrender. “You can show me to my room.”
Hera takes that as an apology and motions for Kanan to follow her.
The Ghost was some starship, and its pilot thought of everything. Compared to Gorse, this ship was luxury living to Kanan. A caf machine, a cozy lounge and Hera’s company? Kanan was in heaven. He couldn’t believe he got to call this home.
“Alright so that’s everything.” Hera said as she made her way back to the lounge.
“What about the cockpit?” Kanan asked. He was beginning to wonder if she wouldn’t even allow him up there because she was so adamant on him never flying this ship.
Hera frowned and tapped her foot in thought for a moment until she must have thought of something.
“Be right back.” She said turning towards the cockpit door.
Kanan began to follow but she put a hand out to stop him.
“Before you go in there, I have to alert my other crew member that we have someone joining us.” Hera says, simply.
“Crew member? I thought you were alone.” Kanan says, trying to recall this so-called other crew member.
“Never said I was alone.” Hera corrects him.
“Well, is he handsome?” Kanan asks, leaning down to Hera’s level.
“He would say so.” Hera shoots back. “ And I do have to say I find him quite dashing.” Hera says as she opens the door and quickly shuts it behind her. Leaving Kanan to crane his neck to see if he could spot this so-called dashing man before the door swooshed in front of his face.
Kanan decided to lean in towards the door and eavesdrop. Who was this person? He could make out Hera’s muffled voice but he couldn’t hear another.
Frustrated, Kanan decided he would just slightly open the door so he could take a peak, see what he was working with.
He willed the door to open just enough for him to take a peak.
“Look, I need the extra hand around here!” Hera argued.
When Kanan peered in, all he could see was the back of Hera. Which wasn’t a bad view, but she was blocking whoever she was talking to.
Kanan was confused when he still didn’t hear anyone reply but Hera continued.
“He’s not replacing you! No one could replace you” Hera coos.
Hearing her speak like that to another person made Kanan filled with some jealous anger that his Master would’ve disapproved of.
“You know I love you.” Hera said, bending down and then it was silent.
Kanan knew he had really just met Hera and virtually knew nothing about her, but there was no way she was in a relationship. She would’ve told him or at least used that as an excuse to his constant flirting.
But that was the final straw in Kanan’s mind. Now fueled with anger and jealousy, he decided to barge in against Hera’s orders.
Hera spun on her heel when she heard the door slide open.
“Kanan, I told you to wait!” She yells as she tries to stop him from coming in. “He gets easily upset and can have some violent tendencies-” She warned, but Kanan pushed her aside, not listening to a word she just said.
But as he reached the pilot and co-pilots seats, he looked around, there was no one there. What was she playing at?
He was going to turn around and ask her until he got a surprising jolt of electricity into his kneecap.
Kanan looked down to see an orange astromech jabbing him with his electrified retractable arm. Kanan instinctively jumped onto the pilot's seat to get out of the droid's range of fire.
“What the -” Kanan started, but was cut off by the maniacal binary laughter coming from the droid.
“Kanan, meet Chopper, my crewmate.” Hera says smiling, patting the droid on the head.
“You called this rust bucket dashing ?” Kanan yells, still perched on the pilot's seat.
Chopper starts prattling off binary which causes Hera to bend down and give the droid affection he could only dream of getting.
“Yes, he is always this rude.” Hera says to Chopper.
“You understand that gibberish?” Kanan retorts.
Chopper starts to accelerate towards Kanan but Hera steps in front of the droid to keep him from attacking him.
“As a matter of fact, I do.” She says, crossing her arms.
“You should've warned me that you live with a sadistic droid!” Kanan says.
“And I warned you to stay outside. If you would’ve listened to me he wouldn’t have attacked you, so you paid the consequences.” Said Hera, sounding like some old Jedi master teaching the younglings a valuable lesson.
“Well maybe if you explained to me in the first place that he’s a droid I wouldn’t have barged in here!” He argued.
Hera started to chuckle, which caught him off guard. Hera Syndulla did not laugh… well not that he had witnessed.
“I knew it would get a rise out of you.” She said stifling her laugh and putting back on her normal serious business face that she wears 99% of the time. But now Kanan knew, there was a soft spot under all of it. He only had to pry it out of her.
“You know me too well, Captain.” He said with a mocking salute.
Hera shot him a glance, “get off my seat. You’re tracking your dirty shoes all over my nice leather.”
Kanan, like a reprimanded child, jumps off and wipes her seat with his hand trying to flick off the bits of dirt from his boots. “There, good as new.”
Hera rolled her eyes.
“Now can you please tell the droid not to kill me?” Kanan asks, not wanting to step any closer to Chopper.
Hera turns to Chopper. “Now Chopper, we don’t kill our crew members.” She says sweetly. “But, if you ever hear a cheesy pick up line, or maybe a sarcastic side comment go ahead and zap him. Is that fair?” She asks the droid.
“Fair?” Kanan argues. “That’s not fair.”
“I wasn’t asking you.” Hera argues without turning away from the droid.
Chopper seems to agree by the binary whirrs and whistles.
“Thank you.” Hera says as Chopper retreats.
“Well, I guess all that’s left now is taking you to your room.” Hera says motioning for him to follow her out of the cockpit.
As Kanan passed Chopper to follow Hera out the door, he could swear the droid was giving him a death glare… if droids could even do such a thing. He eerily tracked Kanan by slowly moving his head as he watched Kanan leave the room.
Kanan made a mental note he was going to have to sleep with one eye open for now on.
***
The swoosh of the door gave way to a standard starship room. Two bunks and a small living space. It might have been smaller than his last apartment but this was far better, even with the killer droid.
“Did you need help bringing anything else on board?” Hera asks, looking at Kanan.
He held up the small bag that housed all of his personal belongings, and shook it.
“This is it.” He said, setting the small bag on the bed.
He turned around to still see her standing in the doorway, she wouldn’t enter his room.
It seemed to Kanan like she wanted to say something. The way her usual calm demeanor was replaced with her glancing around and fidgeting with her belt strap. Small things people who didn’t know her wouldn’t catch on to. But Kanan, who spent a lot of time looking at her, could tell. But whatever was on her mind, she didn’t say.
There was a fleeting moment of silence between them. They both waited for the other to say something, but no one did. The moment passed as quickly as it came.
She simply played it off by straightening her goggles on her head.
“I’ll give you some time to settle in and unpack.” was all she said.
“That will take me all of two minutes.” He said.
“Good, then you can meet me in the lounge area for an orientation.” She said, turning to head back to the lounge.
“Orientation? For what?” He asked.
***
The datapad was practically shoved into his face by a very demanding green Twi'lek.
“I expect you to follow this handbook precisely.” Hera demanded. “Otherwise you will be terminated from your post and I will throw you out of my ship.” She says sternly, and then adds “even if we are in the middle of hyperspace.”
“You made a crewmate handbook?” Kanan said, looking up at her.
“Yes. I run a tight ship around here, and I expect everyone aboard to follow my rules.” She said, crossing her arms in defense.
“I don’t suppose you made the droid sign this.” Kanan counters. “He’s clearly in violation of article 3C “No violent threats of any kind”.
“Just read it, and sign.” She said annoyed.
Kanan started to read and then started to realize this handbook was a little bit biased… she clearly made this after meeting him.
“I can’t sign this.” Kanan protests.
“Then I’m afraid you’ll have to get off my ship.” Hera says simply.
“It states here that one cannot flirt or make moves on the Captain or Crew” Kanan says slyly.
“Is that a problem?” Hera asks.
“It’s not my fault my personality is flirtatious, I cannot help it! This is discrimination!” He counters.
“Well you better work on that then.” Hera says, clearly not amused.
“I will, but I can’t say I won’t slip up.” Kanan argues.
“Fine, you get the 3 strikes.” She counters. “Is that fair?”
“A minute?” Kanan asks.
“A standard year.” Hera corrects.
“An Hour.”
“A month.”
“A day.”
Hera rolled her eyes clearly and she was done.
“Fine, a day. But I will be counting.” She counters.
“Pleasure doing business with you, Captain.” He said as he signed the document and handed the datapad back to her.
“You didn’t have any questions on your daily duties or shifts or other rules?” Hera asked, surprised.
In reality, kanan had only skimmed the document and didn’t really care what she had him do, but he would never tell his overly uptight Captain that.
“Nope. That was it.” He said kicking back in the seat. “Actually,” he says, “I do have a question.”
“Alright,” Hera humors.
“How long ago did you start working on that handbook?” Kanan gave a smirk. He knew she must have been thinking about bringing him on for a little while now. There’s no way she made that in the past few minutes when he was unpacking. Which means… she secretly had been wanting him aboard longer than she was letting on.
He saw her face flush Jade for a moment. But she covered it with a scowl.
“I made it a long time ago, just in case.” Her Lekku flicked behind her. “ Also you don’t need to know that information!”
Kanan’s pathetic heart leaped watching her fluster. “Whatever you say, Captain.”
Hera adjusted her goggles. She clearly wanted to move on from the subject.
“Alright, welcome aboard.” She smiled curtly. It was all business, no play with this woman.
“The first order of business we need to attend to is a supply run.” She says scanning through the datapad. “I don’t have supplies for another living person aboard.” She said running through what must be her inventory and then shut off the datapad.
“But the debriefing can wait for tomorrow. I think it’s time to call it a day.” She said, setting the pad back on the table.
“Well, in that case…” Kanan said standing up so he could be face to face with Hera “Your bed or mine?” He offered with a smile.
“That’s strike one.” Hera said, walking straight passed him and his offer, heading for the hall.
Kanan followed behind her to the bedrooms, with a smug look on his face.
When they reached Kanan’s door Hera awkwardly stood there in the hallway again.
“Well… goodnight.” She said, watching him.
Kanan opened his door and it slid behind him. He was about to walk inside, but he still felt her eyes watching him. He turned around and sure enough, she was still there.
“Why are you standing there? You changed your mind?” He said, toying with her.
“Strike two, and No.” She says defensively. “This is my room.” She points directly behind her.
“You put me in the room closest to you?” Kanan asks, placing a hand over his heart in teasing affection.
“I was being nice, it's bigger than the other two. But I can shove you in the cargo bay if you want.” She glares.
“No, what I was going to say,” He puts an arm up on the door frame so he could lean into it, “across the hall isn’t close enough.” He purred.
“And that’s three strikes.” Hera says “So I’d suggest you shut up and go to bed before you get kicked off.” She said, looking like she meant it.
“Well then. Goodnight, Captain.” He said with a salute and a sly grin.
Hera scoffs and turns to open her own door, she was about to step inside when Kanan realized he had been too busy teasing her to thank her.
Behind his mask of flirtatious comments he was so incredibly grateful for this. It felt good to almost have a purpose in life, even if that purpose would be to just chase this girl through the stars.
“Hera, thank you. For everything.” He said his voice without its usual smirk and sassy tone. He sounded genuine and vulnerable, it even took himself off guard.
The change in his tone made Hera turn around, but before she could say anything he shut the door between them.
***
Hera laid in bed, her mind racing from today. Had she made the right choice of letting Kanan come aboard?
Clearly, he wasn’t taking anything seriously. He didn’t even care what she had him do! In terms of crewmates, he was proving himself to be terrible.
She rubbed her face with her hands in frustration, and then flopped them down to her side.
Kanan Jarrus was frustrating. She knew the whole flirtatious thing was a behavior tick to cope with probably all the horrors he’d had to have endured since… well… Hera had her hunch, but she couldn’t be certain.
He had saved her life with the force, like out of a tale she heard of the once powerful Jedi.
She wanted to ask him. In the hallway earlier that day, she wanted to know his story. Then perhaps that would give her reassurance that she made a good choice for bringing him on board. If he was a Jedi, all of his obnoxious traits would be worth enduring.
But, if it was true, that would mean he survived the unspeakable horror that was Order 66. How heartless would that make her if she demanded him to divulge what must have been a very traumatic time to him.
She remembered that time not fondly either. Of course, she wasn’t a Jedi, but everything changing was scary as a child. Not to mention, her parents were taken away from her at one point for insurgence, but at least for her, her parents were miraculously rescued. Kanan on the other hand, had his entire order being massacred.
No, she couldn’t just ask him. Kanan would have to be the one to tell her, and hopefully one day he would trust her enough to open up.
But for now…
She wondered if there was a way to get him to stop flirting with her every two seconds.
Because Hera knew, the beginnings of a rebellion was no place for romance or a relationship. Relationships and dating was the furthest thing from her mind. There was no time for it, not when the Empire was still killing and ruining innocent people’s lives.
If they both survived to see the end of this, then maybe he could contact her about a relationship. Hera had two working eyes, she could clearly see he wasn’t horrible to look at. And when he stopped being an idiot and dropped the flirty act he was, well, a hero.
In those moments back on Gorse when he was fighting, he was so strong and so sure of himself. Determination in his eyes, something she never saw before.
Secretly in those moments, was when she decided she wanted him on board with her. Just as an asset, of course. Having a supposed Jedi would be good for her and the cause.
Hera made a mental note to herself that she was going to have to tell her contact, Fulcrum, that she added a crewmate to the cause, and hopefully they see her reasoning. But she already decided she wasn’t going to tell her contact anything about his special abilities just yet.
With everything settled in her mind for now, Hera turned over and fell asleep instantly. Being the Captain of this ship with a pubescent man-child and a rampaging droid was proving to be exhausting.
***
Kanan couldn’t sleep. He kept staring at his bag, now unzipped. His spare clothes staring back at him. He kept debating with himself on whether he should unpack his clothing into the drawers, or just keep it in the bag where it conceals his saber.
It felt like he was bringing contraband into this ship, like he was smuggling something. Something that only brings trouble.
He could pull it out, surely his secret would be safe with Hera. But past trauma has its way of causing you to not even trust the most trustworthy.
He quickly zipped his bag back up and placed it in the far corner of the room, so maybe he could get some sleep tonight.
Lucky for him, dreams of Hera were far better than the usual nightmares that haunt him.