Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or Star Wars Rebels. If I did, the show would be a little different.
Author's Note: So this one shot is dedicated to Tumblr user pandorem for their post saying "Imagine Kanan having to cut off his Padawan braid not because he was knighted, but to go into hiding." because, wow, did that ever hurt.
The Padawan Braid
Maybe it was because she didn't have any of her own, but hair fascinated Hera. For the first month Kanan spent on the Ghost, Hera kept silent about the hair she found all over her ship. Most often, she found it in the 'fresher: on the floor or the counter – usually just a strand or two. At first, she panicked. Was he sick? Was he dying? So she kept a watch on him, asked him how he was feeling. Everything seemed fine.
Then at the end of the week, the 'fresher shower drain needed work. Aside from the usual wear and tear of water, soap, and grime in the drain, she found a bunch of hair.
That was the last straw. She screamed and ran out to find him, clutching the hair between two fingers. Just as she ran out of the 'fresher, he ran in, worried. "Hera!" he grabbed her by her shoulders. "What's wrong?!"
"This!" she held up the long brown strands that could only have come from him.
Kanan looked at it, frowned, and asked, "Um…my hair?"
"Yes! Your hair! WHY IS IT FALLING OUT?!" and she let him know how many times and how many places she had found his hair. "Are you dying? Are you sick?"
He took a few moments to respond. "Uh…Hera…that's completely normal for species with hair."
She didn't believe him, so she looked it up and found that yes; it was (for the most part) completely normal.
After that, Kanan regularly cleaned the drain and the 'fresher so she wouldn't find so much hair. But it still interested her, so she looked up more about hair and its care. Turned out the little goatee on his chin also required upkeep.
Shyly, one morning, Hera asked Kanan if she could watch him shave. Kanan choked on his blue milk and she pounded him on the back. "I-I guess? Why?"
"I've never seen it before, I'm curious."
So he let her know the next morning that he was going to shave and she followed him to the 'fresher. He picked up his razor and shaving cream and identified them for her. It was unnecessary; she'd read about them and could identify each. It was just the process that puzzled her. Kanan took the whole process slowly, but whether that was because he wanted her to see all she wanted to or because he was nervous, she didn't know.
"Thank you," she said when he finished. "It was most enlightening."
"You're welcome."
Of course, her hair interest did not go away after that. Sometimes, while he slept in the cockpit, Hera would reach out and smooth a loose strand back away from his face. Once it had fallen out, his hair seemed cold, but still on his head, it was warm. She tried to imagine what her lekku felt like to him and panicked at the thought of her lekku falling out like his hair did.
She liked it when he let his hair down and didn't put it back in the ponytail. It was always different when it wasn't up out of his face. Several times it would be wet and cling to him like a wet cape. Other times it would be all messed up, frizzy and in sticking out here and there or curled oddly. That was how she came to understand the term "bedhead".
But then one day he came to her with a pair of scissors and a comb. "Uh…can you even out the back? I messed up."
He might have been speaking Huttese for all Hera understood. "Even out the back?"
"Yeah," he turned to show her that the hair length wasn't even. "It's easier for someone else to do it," he explained the process of hair cutting.
With slightly shaking hands, Hera combed out his hair and took a long, long time to even out the strands. Little clippings of hair tumbled to the floor and scattered like dark snowflakes. Eventually she finished and Kanan swept his hair up between his hands and snapped the elastic back around to keep it out of his face.
"Why do you wear your hair like that?" she asked tentatively.
Kanan paused, then got out a vacuum to clean up the mess. Hera thought he was going to ignore her question but after he vacuumed up the little trimmings he spoke. "Most padawans – male padawans with hair, that is – kept their hair like this. Well…in a similar fashion. I guess I just…wanted to keep something. I had to take out my padawan braid to go into hiding. It was too much of a change to go from Jedi robes to whatever was available, to hide the Force and what I'd been taught, to not use my lightsaber and use a blaster instead, taking out my braid…" he focused on putting the vacuum away and his voice thickened. "I just had to keep something."
They didn't discuss hair again for a long time.
Then on her birthday, she went out to the galley and found Kanan and prepared her breakfast and set out a few presents. He'd gotten her a new pair of pilot gloves, a new holo-novel she'd talked about wanting to read, and the last present was a braided bracelet. "Oh, Kanan," she picked it up, "did you make this?"
"Yeah," he took a sip of kaffe and relaxed against the wall. "I heard jewelry was a nice gift, but I didn't see anything that looked like you."
"Where did you get the material?" she slipped it on her wrist. "I didn't see you buy anything like this."
"I didn't," Kanan admitted. "I probably should have spent the credits, but um…the bands are from my padawan braid. I couldn't part with them before, but, um…well…happy birthday."
Hera looked up at him and wanted to cry. "Oh, love, this is the best present ever."
And she always wore it.