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followtheowls · 3 years

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Kids throw Kanera surprise date night

Thanks for the prompt :)

I actually really love this prompt because it reminded me of a Tik Tok I recently watched lol and that inspired the path I took this fic. Re-reading it through after writing it, Sabine and Ezra do kinda seem childish, but roll with it because the concept is super cute.

Also it’s kinda fitting a prompt with Valentine’s day coming up.

I imagine it’s set somewhere in the second half of season one.

Words: 2.5k

…….

Ezra sank heavily into the Dejarik booth in the gallery, his eyes tracking the game currently being played between Sabine and Chopper. Sabine was staring intently at the holo-pieces in front of her and didn’t even look up when he sat down. The sounds of Hera and Kanans argument rang down the hall. It didn’t sound like anything too serious, but it was definitely strange to see the couple arguing - it wasn’t something Ezra had witnessed before that day. Despite just having sat down, Ezra fidgeted nervously, the fact that his Captain and his Master were arguing made him feel on edge.

He’d only been on the Ghost for a few months, but Ezra had gotten used to the lifestyle of his new living situation. He never went to bed hungry, the Ghost had heating, and he had access to regular showers with hot water. The best part of it all was the place he had found for himself in their little family on the Ghost. Ezra jumped, startled out of his thoughts as a particularly loud “Kanan!” echoed down the hall and into the gallery. His frown deepened. He knew how these things went - the two leaders of a group fight and the group ends up splitting up because the rest are forced to take sides. Ezra had seen it before on the streets with gangs of other Loth rats. Another pang of unhappiness rang through him. He’d just gotten used to being onboard and he was finally happy - happier than he had remembered being in a long time - why did things have to go wrong now?

“You okay, kid?” Ezra looked over to Sabine, who had been distracted from her intense game of Dejarik, and was staring at Ezra in mild concern. “You kinda look like you’re freaking out about something.”

Ezra rolled his eyes in annoyance at her usage of the nickname kid (Sabine was barely two years older than him!), and forced a smile. “I’m not freaking out about anything! It’s just, well,” Ezra floundered, struggling to come up with the right way to phrase his concern without revealing too much. “Uh, have they ever fought like this before?” Ezra finished timidly.

“Who? Oh, wait, do you mean Kanan and Hera? Do they fight? Is that what you’re worried about?” She clarified, inquisitively. At Ezra’s nod she continued, “Don’t think too much about it; they argue every once in a while. They get over it eventually, I think some people call it a, uh, lovers quarrel?” She snickered and Chopper emitted a loud beep of laughter. “They just need some time together that's not about missions or supply runs or anything too serious.”

Ezra visibly relaxed at Sabine’s words. “Oh. I guess that makes sense.” His eyes clouded as a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

“Uh, oh,” Sabine chuckled. “What are you up to?”

Ezra’s face broke into a large grin. “I have an idea,” he started, “and you can help.”

--------------

“Come on, let’s get the supplies inside,” Hera ordered, while shifting her grip on the package in her hands. “I wonder what the kids have gotten up to while we were out.”

Kanan huffed. “Probably nothing good,” he muttered. “I don’t know how they get into the situations they do. Force only knows how they survived before we came along.”

Hera smirked and playfully retorted, while poking him in the shoulder. “Some might say they get their troublesome streak from you.”

Kanan chuckled dryly and rolled his eyes. “Well, I guess I’d have to disagree with you there, Captain Rebel. I’d say they take after you and your wild antics.”

Hera playfully turned her nose upwards feigning an air of innocence. “I have no idea what you’re referring to Mister I-like-to-jump-out-the-Phantom-midflight-and-have-my-apprentice-follow-my-lead.”

Kanan just snorted humorously in response while making his way up the ramp of the Ghost. They both set down their crates in the cargo bay and looked up to see the twin Cheshire grins aimed at them from the two youngest members of the crew. The older Jedi and the pilot exchanged wary glances with each other. “What have you two done?” Hera asked with a brow raised and a tone that indicated a fair amount of suspicion.

“Oh, nothing to worry about,” Sabine replied, sporting a cheeky smile, while Ezra beside her was seemingly vibrating with excitement. “Just a few decorations, why don’t you come see.” Ezra nodded enthusiastically, and giggled while racing up the ladder before the rest of them.

Kanan and Hera exchanged another glance, both sporting cautious smiles, before following the two teens up the ladder and Sabine ushered them into the gallery. What greeted them was a scene that they never would have predicted. The gallery was decorated in a romantic fashion - Hera assumed this was mostly Sabine’s doing. There were two sets of silverware and glasses on the Dejarik table and a bunch of lit candles in various parts of the room. There were also decorative hearts and flowers made of flimsi strewn throughout the room.

Once again, the couple stared at each other, this time bewildered instead of suspicious. Whatever they were expecting, this was not it. Ezra returned again with what looked like a thick piece of fabric or ribbon tied around his collar like a bow tie. He giggled again and started to lead Hera to her seat while Sabine pushed Kanan towards the opposite seat. “Kids - what? What is this?” Hera questioned.

Sabine replied with an everlasting grin. “Welcome to date night on the Ghost, we will be your hosts for the evening! Thank you for choosing us, please settle in and get comfortable. My colleague Ezra will take it from here!” And at that she disappeared out the door, heading in the direction of the kitchen. Ezra stepped forward with two pieces of flimsi that he placed in front of the seated couple.

“Here is the menu,” Ezra said playfully, putting on a posh accent. “Let me know if there's any questions! First off, what would the both of you like to drink?”

Kanan’s eyes crinkled with amusement and affection and a smile tugged at his lips. “We’ll take some water, and I don’t know… Hmm…” He said, playing along. “How about you surprise us? Sounds good, Hera?”

Hera hid her smile with her hand. “Of course, love. Surprise us with your best drink.” Ezra nodded vigorously, and made a big show of writing something down on a notepad. He then bounded off in the same direction Sabine disappeared to, but not before bowing in an exaggeratedly.

The couple turned back to face one another and there was silence for several moments until Hera exclaimed, “Oh. My. Goodness. This has to be the most adorable thing they’ve ever done!” She tried to make sure her laughter was not too loud or giving the kids the wrong idea. Kanan echoed her reaction, his shoulders shaking with his suppressed chuckles.

“Let’s see what menu they’ve worked up for us in the meantime,” Kanan proposed, still sporting an amused grin. “By the way,” Kanan leaned in to whisper to her, “did you see his little bow-tie?” Hera hummed and nodded, her attention diverted to the menu.

The menu itself was handwritten (presumably by Ezra if the handwriting and spelling were any kind of indicator) and was comically short, provoking another round of amusement from the two. There, apparently, was going to be three courses. The first course was, hilariously, a choice between the four different flavors of ration bars they had on ship. The second course was a selection between the two different types of canned soups they had one board far back in the pantry. The dessert section announced it would be a chefs special, but didn’t list the item.

After only moments of deliberation, the two had made their selections, just in time for the return of the ‘waitstaff’. Giggling, Ezra stepped forward holding two glasses of water, in his excitement a little sloshed over the side. He set them down in front of the pair, and stepped out of the way while Sabine brought over two champagne flutes filled with a sparkling pinkish-purple beverage.

“Ooh,” Hera commented, “What’s this pretty drink?”

The kids met each other's gaze, and Sabine replied, “It’s our signature drink, we call it ‘the Sparkling Spectre’.” Ezra giggled and clapped his hands. “It’s really just meiloorun and jogan juice mixed with Alderaanian champagne.”

Now that made Hera strike a serious face and she opened her mouth to inquire for further explanation. “And, how, may I ask, did you acquire the champagne?” She doubted they had gotten it themselves, no vendor would believe either of them to be over the legal age.

Breaking character for a moment, Ezra explained Zeb had generously offered up the bottle, which he had received as a gift a while ago, claiming it to be too bubbly for his liking. At that response, Hera relaxed.

“Well, I will leave you with my colleague, as I must be returning to my kitchen.”

Ezra stepped forward, again putting on a posh accent and asked if they were ready to place their order. They responded affirmatively, and relayed their orders to him. “Very well, I will inform the kitchen,” Ezra confirmed. “Before I go, are your beverages to your liking?” The both of them sipped their drink and responded affirmatively.

Kanan and Hera watched, not quite suppressing their amusement, as Ezra scurried out of the room towards the kitchen to tell Sabine what they had ordered. On his way out, he passed Chopper, giving him a swift kick and ordering him to play the music Sabine had found. Chopper replied he would do no such thing, but remained in the room. Hera covered her smile with her hand and giggled. “I wonder what brought this on?” She asked Kanan. He just smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“Eh, I can never tell with that kid. It sure is funny though - and nice to not have to have to organize dinner, even if the dinner’s going to be ration bars and canned soup.” Kanan replied, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

Chopper once again made his presence known with a loud string of beeps. “Baby Jedi’s scared that Mom’s gonna break up with you, so he and Spectre 5 are making a date to offset that outcome.” Kanan and Hera looked at each other in bewilderment, both of them clearly wondering where Ezra got that idea from.

“Well, obviously that’s not true. I wonder where he got that idea from?” Hera contemplated for a moment before realization dawned on her face.“He must’ve been spooked by how we were arguing earlier. We’ll clear it up - he’ll be fine. You hear that Chop? No one’s breaking up with anyone!”

Chopper responded with a curse, and fled the room whooping with laughter, but not before beeping “A droid can only dream!” at Kanan, who rolled his eyes.

Several minutes of pleasant conversation followed until their youngest crew member returned with a tray in his hand. “For you, Madame, and for you, Master Jedi.” He placed the ration bars in front of them, and backed away heading towards the kitchen.

----------

Around thirty minutes of warm and pleasant conversation and two courses later, the Twi’lek and Jedi had finished both their ration bars and soup. “Delicious, Ezra,” Hera praised, purposefully holding Kanan’s hand in a visible manner; she wanted to try to ease his worries about the couple. “We loved it!”

“You did good, kid,” Kanan smiled at him, picking up on Hera’s intentions. “It’s been an excellent date.” His body language was relaxed in a way Hera hadn’t seen in a while, he’d had a tenseness to him ever since he began to teach Ezra the ways of the Force; it was almost as if he struggled to relax lately and sometimes the evidence of the heaviness of his past weighed down on him. But, right now, Kanan was grinning happily while looking at his student, his eyes twinkling in a prideful expression that Hera noticed was often inching everyday towards paternal.

Ezra beamed in response. “That’s great, and there’s still the last course!” He took away their finished soup bowls, headed back towards the kitchen. From the gallery, they could hear Ezra relay their compliments of the meal to Sabine and, seconds later, the cheering and slapping sound which presumably was a high five. The couple now also heard the addition of a new voice echoing down the hall - Zeb. They were thankful to hear his voice, as neither teenager had any cooking skills.

Dessert finally arrived along with the rest of the crew, this time Zeb finally making an appearance. He presented them with their dessert - a stack of fresh waffles with slices of meiloorun and whipped cream - it was clearly made by Zeb as he was the only one with the necessary skills to make it.

Hera gasped with appreciation, clapping her hands together in praise. “Wow, this looks amazing everybody! I can’t wait to try it. While you're all here, we just want to say how much we appreciate this. We love it and we love our little family here on the Ghost.” Spectres 4, 5, and 6 smiled back at them, and Hera gracefully chose not to comment if Ezra’s eyes happened to glisen more than normal. “You all are so important to us, really!”

Zeb laughed and scratched the back of his neck. “Eh, that’s enough sappiness for me, I’m going to go clean the mess they left in the kitchen.” He backed, away leaving the kids with the parental figures of the ship.

“Hera’s right,” Kanan continued. “We couldn’t have asked for a better family, kids who care enough to organize a whole dinner for the two of us. We love it and wouldn’t change it for anything in the galaxy.” His words clearly resonated with the two teenagers, both coming from sensitive familial backgrounds. He opened his arms, inviting them both in for a hug, which Ezra practically melted into. To his left, Sabine was hugging Hera.

“Why don’t the both of you stay while we eat dinner, hmm?” Hera asked, reaching across the table to grasp Ezra’s hand. The two teens nodded and settled in beside the adults who began to dig into their dessert. They chatted joyfully with the young teens, enjoying the leisure time. Kanan wrapped an arm around Ezra’s shoulders, and the teen eventually leaned his head against Kanan’s arm. For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Kanan’s heart fluttered with affection and gratefulness for the family he and Hera had built, and the home they have been able to provide for the younger members of the crew, both of whom were products of difficult living situations. Kanan met Hera’s eyes for a brief moment and knew she was appreciating the same thing. Together, they basked in the intense sense of pride for the thoughtfulness and creativity of their younger counterparts, knowing that their family, in that moment, was untouchable by those of the Empire who wished to break them.

#swr #star wars rebels #ezra bridger #kanan jarrus #hera syndulla #sabine wren #zeb orrelios #kanera #anon #send me a prompt if you’d like :)

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nellied-reviews · 4 years

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Box 953 Re-listen

Well, I got a bit side-tracked by life (seriously, I had to take an impromptu trip to a consulate!) but I am back, and just in time for episode 8 of Wolf 359:

Box 953

In which Eiffel finds a mysterious box, Hilbert really wants to avoid the quarterly talent show and Minkowski is the very model of a modern major general.

Sometimes I'm surprised by these episodes when I get back round to them. This one? Not so much. I think I actually remembered pretty much everything relevant about this episode, going into it: Eiffel is avoiding Minkowski, finds a mysterious box, the mysterious box gets blown up before we see what’s inside it.

And in general, I do like the episode a lot. It's funny, after all, and it does that thing that I'm noticing a lot on the re-listen where the show throws out a big weird mystery, then ends up dropping it with a theatrical shrug of the shoulders. It's a smart thing to do, because all of the unanswered questions ("Do those transmissions really come from Earth?", "There's a plant monster on the loose!", "What's with that weird voice?", "What's in the box?") could be answered in the future, but could just as easily not be. Sure, some of them are super important and interesting in hindsight. But burying the plot-relevant questions under a heap of less relevant but equally intriguing questions disguises them, and means that we're surprised when something like, say, that weird ghost voice comes back later on. Plus it creates the impression that the Hephaestus itself is a setting full of mysteries and weird things. Which is fun.

As we begin, though, all we know is that Eiffel, for whatever reason, is hiding from Minkowski in a store room. Why? Turns out, Minkowski is worryingly invested in their quarterly talent show, while Eiffel is... less than enthusiastic.

And look, I am easily pleased. The idea of the four crew members being forced to participate in a mandatory talent show is very funny to me. The fact that this is quarterly - and so they have, presumably, already suffered through several of them - makes me smile a lot. Eiffel and Hilbert being united in their dread of it? Awesome. I love it. Honestly, it makes me want to consume and/or write fanfic about the Hephaestus' previous talent shows, and the shenanigans that I just know must have been involved.

An another level, though, can we also stop to appreciate how seriously Minkowski takes it all? It's played for laughs throughout, sure, but I do like the fact that Minkowski is the sort of person to go all out and just unselfconsciously embrace the talent show. Her love of musical theatre is so joyful and pure, and I really appreciate it. I think, on some level, it even makes her a more interesting character; instead of going down the well-trodden "I'm a badass with a secret love of something cheesy, which I'm horribly embarrassed of" route, she goes for "I'm a badass with totally non-secret love of something cheesy, which I am totally open and unashamed of." It's a sign of self-confidence, I think, plus a reassuring reminder that Commander Minkowski, badass extraordinaire, nerds out just as hard as the rest of us. (Plus, you really can't be a fan of G&S and take yourself all that seriously, because come on...)

Anyway, the conversation Minkowski and Eiffel then have, and Eiffel's ensuing log entry is just enough to give some tantalising hints of what past talent shows have involved (smoke rings? poetry readings?) before Hilbert calls Eiffel, desperate to avoid the talent show. And his solution? Knock Minkowski out. Because it's Hilbert, so of course that's the answer. *Sighs*.

While Hilbert gets going with that, then, all that remains is for Eiffel to explore the store room. And while this isn’t super relevant, it is a great excuse for a Night Vale-style list of Improbable Weird Things. And seriously, pretty much every single object here is worthy of mention. We have eyeless Russian dolls straight out of a horror movie. We have letters to Santa, a revelation whose implications are both hilarious and baffling. We have Chekhov's cannon, which totally won't be relevant later in the episode.

And in among all this, Eiffel mentions Goddard Futuristics by name for the very first time, which actually surprised me. I thought they'd already come up, since in hindsight, they really do have their fingers in everything going on up on the Hephaestus, even in the first few episodes. But I guess this is their first official mention? And to be fair, I do remember assuming, early on, that this was a military mission. So this is probably the point where we are aware, for the first time, of the corporate context of it all, and the fact that it's Goddard who are basically running a for-profit private army here. Which is... fun.

The dystopian side of that is brushed aside here, though, in favour of just revelling in the out-there weirdness of all the stuff that Goddard have stored up on the Hephaestus. L-shaped Lego pieces? 3 suits of armour? The partial skull of megafauna specimen 58 "to be handled with a vague feeling of existential dread"? It's Warehouse 13, in space!

It's also kind of heartening to see how excited Eiffel is by all this. Like, I know that he essentially got forced to go to space, but he really does have the sense of adventure for it. There's something very sweet about how not-jaded and enthusiastic Eiffel gets, as soon as he encounters something new. And then the plot thickens when he discovers the titular Box 953, which is reserved for Douglas Eiffel. What could possibly be in it? Eiffel, ever curious, is clearly desperate to know.

Before we find out, of course, we're interrupted by Hilbert, whose plan to knock Minkowski out has hone horribly wrong - he's just gotten her drunk. Even better, we get Minkowski's drunken rendition of "I am the very model of a modern major general" in the background during all of this, and kudos to Emma Sherr-Ziarko, because every single thing drunk!Minkowski says from here on out is amazing. From making pirate costumes, to nearly shooting Hilbert over ice cream, to the little hiccup she does, everything about Minkowski here is perfect and wonderful.

It doesn't distract Eiffel for long, though, and soon he's asking Hera what's in the box. She doesn't know, though, and actually can't access those files at all. Instead, she gets the message "Error, inappropriate security clearance", which is pretty creepy. It's the second time in as many episodes, after all, that we hear somebody who isn't Hera speaking through the Hephaestus, and it's a reminder of just how many secrets the station potentially holds. And so all we learn, in the end, is that Box 953 is weird. It's huge, and bolted in place, and it's cold to the touch. Plus it's making a heart beat kind of sound? It's at this point, I noticed, that the background music also cuts away, and we’re left with a weird crackling noise as Eiffel goes to open it. Spooky.

Every part of me was expecting this to be a Pandora's box-type scenario where Eiffel's opening the box would unleash something terrible and all hell would break loose. So when we hear something explode, it seems like confirmation of this... except when we cut back to Eiffel, several in-universe hours later, we learn that the problem wasn't Eiffel opening the box. In fact, Eiffel didn't manage to open the box; the explosion was from Minkowski setting off the cannon. It seems like a lot happened in the three hour gap in the recording (not least, Minkowski ended with burns and frostbite?) and as a result, Box 953 was lost to the vacuum of space. Bummer.

And then that's it. Episode over. Everyone is safe and well, and the station is fine. But we don't learn what was in the box, and I don't think it really come up again? I googled it, and I think I saw a suggestion that it's the simulation-y machine from Change of Mind? But I don't remember the connection really being commented on, and even then it doesn't explain why it's specifically Eiffel's name on the box now. Like... what situation would Command have been expecting him to use it in? Why? How? So many questions, all of them unanswered!

And I suppose that's fine, at the end of the day. I enjoyed this episode, I loved the talent show idea, and I didn't mind the weird storeroom bits. I can imagine that some people probably felt cheated by the lack of answers we got here - and Eiffel's own anger and frustration as the episode ends maybe feels like a concession to those people. But personally, I'm more than willing to leave it as a riddle for the ages. If this had developed into something more later on, that would have been fun. As it is, I didn't mind it one bit, though. As long as you don't overdo it, weirdness for weirdness' sake can be plenty entertaining.

Plus, drunk Minkowski is a gift to us all :)

Miscellaneous thoughts:

So I checked out the poem that got name-dropped in this episode, Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus, and holy smokes, disturbing much? In an interesting kind of way, sure, but still disturbing...

"You can't solve all your problems by knocking them out." "You know, people keep saying that, and yet my problems keep going away."

D'awww Hilbert is enjoying this, isn't he?

I bet your alcohol tolerance goes way down in space. Hmm...

"Eiffel, you do not understand, there is singing."

"Swashes and buckles, Hilbert, swashes and buckles."

Also, it sounds like Hera has absolutely no objections to the talent show, and is just busy practicing her lines? What a cutie ^-^

"I don't know if it was a warning shot or if she just missed." Scared Hilbert is 100% not what I'm used to.. Is this the most frightened we ever hear him?

Don't think I missed Eiffel finding Dr. Fourier's diary :'( (another thing linking this episode to Change of Mind?)

#wolf 359 #wolf359 #w359 #wolf 359 relisten #box 953 #nellied reviews #a solidly entertaining episode #and pleasantly low-stakes #I would 100% watch a version of Warehouse 13 set in space

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prepare4trouble · 7 years

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Star Wars Rebels fanfic - Background Noise

It feels odd to be posting this today, the time between writing and posting this one is much less than normal. I mean, I have stuff for this AU that I wrote months ago and am still chipping away at, making little changes and tweaks. This one, I wrote most of it the day before yesterday. Hopefully you’ll like it anyway! :-)

Part of the Little By Little AU

Kanan was seated in the middle of his bed, wearing sleepwear that consisted of a loose-fitting pair of pants, and a shirt that looked as though it had seen better days. He untwisted the band that held his hair in place. It fell loose around his shoulders, a kink near the nape of his neck where it had been held in place all day.

Ezra clambered up the ladder to the upper bunk and tested the bed. Unsurprisingly, it felt much the same as his own, perhaps a little firmer, but that could easily be his imagination. “Thanks for this,” he said.

Honestly, if Kanan hadn’t offered to let him borrow his spare bunk for the night, Ezra thought he might have spent the night camping out somewhere else in the base. Not in one of the various crew dorms or rooms though — that would have meant coming up with an answer to any number of difficult questions. Most likely, he would have found a comfortable hiding spot and bedded down for the night. Wherever he ended up, he could guarantee that it wouldn’t have been the worst place he had ever slept.

“Don’t mention it,” Kanan told him. There was a creaking sound below him, much quieter than when Zeb got into bed, but distinctive enough for Ezra to recognize it. “Just remember, you need to go back tomorrow.”

Ezra sighed quietly, but he knew that Kanan was right. The longer he left it, the more awkward it would become. Anyway, now he was here, he couldn’t help but feel a little bad; what would Zeb think when he never showed up for bed? He should have said something. Of course, the problem with that was that it would have involved saying something.

He lay down on his side, facing out into the room. “I will,” he promised.

Probably the best way to handle it would be to act as though nothing had happened. Zeb would realize he didn’t want to talk about it, and respond in kind. Or at least he hoped that he would. It probably wasn’t going to work that way.

It was too late to use that tactic with Sabine. He thought of the stack of work she had given him to read through; page after page of dots arranged into patterns, a key showing him which letter each combination of dots corresponded to. It had been interesting at first, and then not so interesting, and then he had put down the flimsi and loaded the datacard into his datapad and realized from the title of the file why she wanted him to learn that particular code, and…

He should have realized right away. He had made the connection between what she was giving him and the nameplate on Noisi’s door. He knew, in theory at least, that there were better ways for blind people to read than to listen to audio files. And Noisi was an eye specialist, after all. One serving as a general med droid for the whole base, it was true, but he had a specialty, and apparently a custom-built nameplate to match.

The information that Sabine had given him was all designed to be read visually. Still, he had run his finger across the screen, trying to imagine what it might be like to feel the letters beneath his fingertip. It seemed impossible. Part of him had wanted to go to Noisi’s door and try it out, just touch the embossed code there and try to feel any kind of a difference from one letter to the next. If he could do that, he might be able to convince himself that the project was a worthwhile use of his time.

Kanan didn’t use it. At least, not as far as he knew. He could ask him, but he didn’t want to. The fewer people were aware of it, the fewer people there would be expecting him to learn it. Because he wasn’t going to be able to do it.

Honestly, there was no point even trying.

“How was today?” Kanan asked him. “What did you do for the rest of the afternoon?”

Ezra squirmed a little uncomfortably. He didn’t like lying, not to Kanan. Not to any of them really. “Oh, you know,” he said. “Just wasted my time.” It wasn’t a lie. Or at least, he didn’t think it was going to be a lie.

He thought back to the code, trying to bring it back to mind; after hours of studying, he could only remember five of the letters. Maybe six. Either way, not enough. And that was reading with his eyes. When they decided to fail him, he was going to have to switch to his fingers, and that would be an entirely different skill. One he wasn’t sure that he possessed.

“I guess that’s fine for one day,” Kanan told him. “Tomorrow we need to do some training.”

He didn’t specify what kind of training. Ezra was okay with that for now.

��Well,” Kanan said. “Goodnight.”

“Night,” Ezra repeated. He closed his eyes and braced himself, but the light in the cabin didn’t switch off. It wasn’t until then that he realized, the old familiar argument over the light wasn’t going to happen here; it wouldn’t matter to Kanan whether it was on or off. Still, he figured he should probably ask, just to make sure.

“Hey, Kanan? Is it okay if we leave the light on overnight?”

There was a pause before Kanan answered. “…Yes, I think that’ll be fine.”

Okay, now he felt vaguely ridiculous for asking. He opened his mouth to apologize — pointless, as he knew that he hadn’t actually done anything wrong, when a noise started up unexpectedly; a dull buzzing that grated on his senses, seeming to fill the room with sound that was impossible to ignore. Ezra gritted his teeth and wrapped his pillow around his head to block out as much of the noise as he could. It still penetrated, seeming to settle, vibrating, inside his skull.

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to think about something — anything — else, but the noise intruded on his mind, he couldn't relax to sleep, because he couldn’t stop listening to it. It wasn’t a particularly unpleasant sound, but there was something about it that just bothered him.

Noisi.

The tone was completely different from the sound generated by the med droid’s wheels, but it was similar in that it was a single tone, steady and unchanging. He didn’t know what was making it, but he felt sure that it hadn’t been there the last time he had been in Kanan’s quarters.

How it wasn’t bothering Kanan, he had no idea.

“Kanan?” he asked.

Kanan didn’t answer right away. Ezra heard him shift in the bed below him and clear his throat before he did. “Yeah?”

“Um…” he didn’t want to sound like he was complaining, but if that was going to continue all night, he probably wasn’t going to get any sleep, and if he wasn’t going to get any sleep, he might as well have avoided Zeb by spending the night camped out in the lounge. At least he would have had access to snacks there. “What’s the noise?” he tried.

“Oh.” He heard Kanan sit up in bed, and leaned over the side to check what he was doing. He was reaching for some kind of dome-shaped object on the chair by the side of his bed. “Sorry,” Kanan said. “Habit.

The object was a light grey color, a rounded shape on the top, sitting on an oval base. He couldn’t make out any detail, but there appeared to be buttons on the base, as well as some kind of display on the front, slightly illuminated text that he definitely couldn’t see. He wasn’t sure whether that was down to his distance from the thing, or not. “What is that?” he asked.

“White noise generator,” Kanan told him. He pressed his hand onto the top and the music cut out instantly. “I’ll turn it off.”

Ezra leaned a little further over the edge of the bunk to get a better look at the thing. “What’s it for?”

“Well,” Kanan ran his fingers over the buttons on the front. “Generating sounds, mostly.” He paused, a little awkwardly, and sat back on the bed. “Hera gave me it. When I… after Malachor. Sometimes I’d wake up, and not know…” he stopped again. “It was supposed to be something to listen out for, to tell me instantly where I was when I woke up uncertain.” He paused. “Leaving the lights on wasn't an option for me,” he added.

Ezra understood then. Those rare times when he woke from some dream or nightmare to darkness in the middle of the night, when all he could do to chase away the dream and convince himself that he was safe and at home was switch on the light and look around him at the familiar surroundings; Kanan hadn’t been able to do that anymore. And at the time, he probably didn’t lack for bad dreams.

Somehow, he had never considered that Kanan might have gone through something like that, but that was because Kanan had never shared that with him; and why would he? It was private, and probably not an easy thing to share. Possibly not something he ever would have shared, if Ezra hadn’t intruded upon his space like this.

Unless, of course, Ezra had brought it up, because that was definitely going to be something he was going to have trouble with too, he knew that already. He didn’t dream often, but when he did, it was as though his mind decided to commit fully to it, and sometimes took a while to bring himself back to reality. If… when… he couldn't switch the light on, things were going to be so much worse.

“Did it help?” he asked quietly.

Kanan shrugged. “Not really. But switching it on has turned into a habit. One I can do without for tonight.”

The room suddenly seemed unnaturally quiet, Ezra could hear the sound of his own and Kanan’s breathing, the slight creak of the bunk underneath him as he adjusted his position, and nothing else. He was glad of the light, because if it were dark he didn’t know whether he would have been able to stand it. He licked his lips. “Does it make any other noises?” he asked. “Ones that sound less like…” it didn’t actually sound like Noisi, “like that?”

“I don’t need it on, Ezra,” Kanan told him. “Like I said, it’s just a habit.”

“Still,” Ezra said. “Something else might be nice, something that sounds a bit less like someone fell asleep with their head on a musical keyboard.”

Kanan laughed. “Okay. There’s quite a bit on there, music, nature sounds, there’s a display on the front with the titles, if you want to look through and choose…” he stopped abruptly, probably remembering Ezra’s struggle to read the datapad a few days earlier. “Or I could just flip through them until we land on one you like,” he suggested.

“Yeah.” Ezra lay back in his bunk. The display looked larger than the datapad, he probably would have been able to read it, but he didn’t want to try. “Let’s do that.”

Kanan reached for the noise generator again and pressed the top again. The buzzing noise kicked back in. He pressed a button on the front and the tone changed to something softer, but similar in nature. Kanan scrolled past it, either because he didn’t like it himself or because he correctly assumed that it wasn’t going to work for Ezra.

He pressed the button a few more times, and the sound of raindrops on a metal roof filled the room. They began slowly, then growing heavier as though a storm was beginning outside.

“Wait,” Ezra said. It reminded him of Lothal, when the rains started, sometimes they would continue for days at a time. He could hear them from his room in his parents home, it reminded him of feeling safe and warm, listening to the voices of his parents speaking in low tones in the next room while he snuggled beneath the covers and drifted off to sleep. “I think I’d be okay with that one,” he said. “If you are, I mean.”

By way of an answer, Kanan pulled his hand back from the noise generator, and lay back down on his bunk. “Yeah, I think I could live with that,” he said.

#little by little #star wars rebels #swr #ezra bridger #kanan jarrus #ezra needs a hug #feedback and comments are welcome #and very appreciated

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