Author Notes: Well its been in the chilly 40s here for the past two months but I finally finished this fluff-in-a-heatwave fic I started in August. Character dynamics are always a little hard for me to write so let me know if anyone seems out of character. I've been worrying over my shoddy attempt at Kanera here. For those of you waiting for an update of Long Lost, I apologize for the looong wait. I am not giving up on it-I promise, but chap 4 made me realize that I need to plan it out a little further. I know where its going, but I need a plan of attack for how to there. Anyway, enjoy this fluff that we all need :) and I LIVE FOR YOUR REVIEWS :D
It was hot. Really hot. The Ghost's cooling system had clunked out a day ago. At first it hadn't been too much of a problem. But now Sabine wished they could've landed on the winter side of Hoth. After gaining a little too much attention on an intel mission, they had raced for the first inconspicuous backwater that popped up on the navicomputer. Now they were grounded on hot, dry, dusty Jakku. Junkyard of a planet thought Sabine. Her cabin was hot and humid and stank of paint fumes even though she'd opened the door. She'd flopped around her bunk, trying to make the most of the tiny electric fan that sat on her night stand. Its pitiful breeze did nothing to ease her discomfort.
Strands of lavender and purple hair stuck to her sweaty forehead. Sabine wiped them aside as she sat up in her bunk, coming to a decision. She'd long given up on her shirt; it lay in a damp little lump where she'd chucked it against the wall, but she had no intention of putting it back on. The boys had seen her in sports bras before, and she was too hot and tired to care.
Sabine dragged her pillow and a spare sleeping mat down into the cargo hold where it just might be cooler. At least the air would be less dense with evaporated sweat and paint fumes. She wouldn't have been surprised if she wasn't the first to have the idea. She walked in prepared to navigate around the rest of the crew. But by the dim lighting that was always present in case of emergency, Sabine was delighted to see that she had the hold to herself. It would have been nice if they could've opened the bay doors, but they'd tried that earlier and the hot winds only filled the ship with sand and grit, which was something Hera was not going to tolerate. The cargo hold was still uncomfortably hot, but better than the confining cabin.
She had just rolled out her sleeping mat, and was beginning to think she would actually get some sleep, when she heard a cabin door sliding open and heavy foot steps.
"I always snore you idiot! I don't complain when you snore!" That was Zeb.
"I don't snore!" Ezra.
"Do to!"
"At least I don't shed purple fuzz all over your bed! Not to mention the sme—" There was the distinct sound of a mighty Jedi getting smacked with a pillow.
"Ow! What? Do you know what sweaty Lasat smells like?" Another smack. Sabine almost chuckled, but could only think go to the common room, go to the common, not the cargo hold! Sweaty Lasat smell was definitely not something she wanted to deal with.
To her horror, the two roommates argued their way ever closer to the balcony that overlooked the hold, making a racket as they went. If poor Hera and Kanan had somehow managed to fall asleep, it wouldn't last long. They soon crashed they their way down the latter where they finally noticed Sabine, leaning against a crate with a well-practiced look of irritation on her face.
"Can't you two noisy gundarks sleep in the common room?" She said before they could say anything.
"Hehe, yeah Kanan chased us out." Mumbled Zeb sheepishly.
"I wonder why."
"Please Sabine, its way too hot in the cabin—"
She rolled her eyes. "I know, I know, just be quiet."
For his part, Ezra made some effort not to stare at her bare midriff and shoulders as she stalked past him, intending to move her sleeping spot as far away as possible. She hit him with her pillow for good measure anyway. Not saying another word, she flopped ungracefully onto her mat with her back to the boys as they set up camp. She tried very hard to ignore the annoying scuffling. Can't wait to get off this planet she thought as Ezra made some remark to Zeb about shed fur. It quickly escalated into whispered but infuriating banter.
"Would you please shut up?"
They quieted down for a few minutes and Sabine very nearly nodded off...until...
"Please keep snoring Ezra," She drawled sarcastically, "it's positively the most wonderful, relaxing sound I've ever heard."
"Shut up." He rolled over on his side. Sabine had no idea how he could possibly fall asleep so fast in the humid ship, but he didn't stir as Zeb took up the snoring solo.
Sabine groaned and rolled onto her stomach, kneading the thin mat under her with increasing exasperation. Would Kanan let her into the common room? She didn't want to risk waking him or Hera. Those two needed their sleep more than she did. Plus, there was the off-hand chance, they were not asleep and she would burst in on a romantic moment. Much too risky.
"Zzzzzzzzz—ZZZ—zzzz."
Nope. There was no way she was sleeping through this. Not bothering to stand up, the fight-prone Mandalorian threw her pillow at the mountain of purple fur, hitting him square on the head.
Zeb roared awake, and realizing what had woken him... instinctively blamed Ezra.
SMACK!
"GAH!" The Jedi jumped awake, sending Zeb's pillow to the floor. He brushed himself off indignantly. Sabine barely suppressed a laugh, stuffing a fist in her mouth.
"What the kriff was that for?!" He jabbed the Lasat in the chest. Zeb looked incredulous. His fur started to bristle.
"What do you think?" He gestured emphatically toward Sabine's pillow, lying innocently on the floor. Sabine tried to look as dead asleep as possible.
"Dammit, Zeb that wasn't me!"
"Then who—ooohhhh." They both turned towards Sabine who still tried to feign sleep, then realized her mistake: a) she didn't have a pillow, and b) should've woken up in extreme irritation after the racket they'd just made.
Karabast...
Two hard squares of foam and fabric cracked over her head at once. She yelped and scrambled to her feet, lunging for the third pillow. Ezra tackled her just as she reached it and rare childish joy welled up inside her as she shoved it in his face, muffling his laughter. Rolling out from under him she ran straight into Zeb, who effortlessly hauled her into the air in a bear hug. She may have shrieked a tiny bit.
"Haha, got ya!" He ruffled her hair none too gently. Her chest heaved with laughter that mingled with his as he held her prisoner. "What should your punishment be I wonder?" he mocked. "Dye your hair all grey?"
"Ezra help!"
"I'll save you!" The mighty Jedi knight cracked a whole sleeping mat on the Lasat's back, causing him to release her.
"Traitor!"
The Lasat heaved the mat and Ezra was lost under it. Sabine and Zeb duked it out with a pillow each, as he recovered, laughing and shouting all the way. Soon the three were drenched in perspiration and heaving with unheard of laughter, and still they continued whamming each other with the poor mats and pillows until the seams began to rip.
Suddenly they heard a startled yelp that definitely wasn't one of theirs and they stopped dead in horror. In the dim light, Sabine could just make out a very disgruntled Kanan standing at the foot of the latter. Like the rest of them, he was wearing minimal clothing: loose sweat pants and a sleeveless nylon shirt. A stray pillow had flown across the room hit him across the head, hard enough to whip some hair out of his pony tail. The small amount of light in the hold was just bright enough to make out his face. His hazy, sightless eyes swept over them as he took a mental survey of the situation.
"A pillow fight?" He said evenly, "That's what all this racket's about?"
"Too hot for the cabins." Sabine started.
"Yes, I recall two of you barging into the common room." Kanan said with slight irritation lining his voice.
"So we came in here." Zeb said.
"And still couldn't sleep." Sabine concluded.
Kanan considered this. "And you decided to resolve the issue with a pillow fight?"
"Sabine started it." Ezra and Zeb said at the same time.
"Hhmm. 'Zat so?" The blind Jedi's face was split by a mischievous grin made slightly unsettling by his milky eyes. The pillow on the floor levitated slowly into the stale air with a hand gesture.
"What, they sn—orrmmff!" The young Mandalorian was cut off as the Force propelled missile connected with her face.
"Count me in!" Kanan said enthusiastically and grinning like a fool as he ducked to avoid Sabine's return fire.
"ATTACK!" Kanan was charged by the bed spread-wielding teens and tackled to the floor. He dismantled one Padawan with another Force shoved pillow, but Sabine still had him pinned. Of course she wasn't actually trying to beat him, and was laughing so hard that Kanan managed to partially push her away as well.
Meanwhile Ezra had recovered and with a mock-outraged "Cheater!" And used the Force to send a mat towards Kanan who had just managed to find footing after fending off Sabine. She watched from the floor as he skillfully dodged it and grinned smugly in Ezra's direction.
But before anyone could make another move, Zeb snuck up behind them with his forgotten spread sheet and engulfed all three of the humans with it.
"Haha, gotcha!"
"Get him!" Even trapped momentarily trapped under the sheet, the Lasat was no match for all three of them. The four crumbled into an undignified heap of fabric, stuffing, hot, sweaty bodies and hard, uncontrollable, care free laughter. Stuck at a standstill, there was nothing to do but catch their breath; they'd put their lungs through just about everything the Rebellion could throw at them, but this was rarely on the list. It hurt. It was wonderful.
Among all the continuous stress and hardship of fighting for the near impossible victory over the Empire, there simply never was the time or spirit for such childish fun.
Sabine wasn't sure she'd ever heard Kanan truly laugh before, or seen Ezra act like the care free kid he could've been in another life. Sabine reflected that she'd spent all of what passed for her childhood totting blasters and explosives, working on ships and computers, and fending for herself.
But right now, in this rare, stolen moment with her adopted family, the young rebel couldn't even bring herself to be mad about it. All of them were simply absorbed in the moment. But one member of their big happy family was missing out. As Kanan, Zeb, Ezra and Sabine untangled themselves, she asked "Where's Hera?"
Kanan swept his lengthy brown hair out of his face, his hair tie a casualty of the mock battle, and replied. "I thought she was still in her cabin. Her species is more heat-tolerant than the rest of us."
"But no more racket-in-the-middle-of-the-night tolerant." Everyone looked up to see the Twi'lek hobble tiredly to the balcony and lean on the rail, eyes half closed and lekku draped limply down her back. "What's going on down her—" Her eyes focused enough to see the carnage of bedspread that dominated her cargo hold.
"Heeeyyy captain..." Ezra deadpanned.
The disheveled pilot took in the scene with raised eyebrows then, as she reached the bottom of the latter, she placed her hands on her hips and raised one brow dangerously high as she addressed Kanan next. Sabine knew that Kanan did not need to see the posture to know it was there. "Luv, may I ask why my cargo hold is a wreck and why you seem to have a hand in it?"
"uuhhh..." He raked a hand through his hair. "You know how you're the only one on this ship who likes it above eighty degrees? And its like ninety in here?"
"Hmm-mm."
"And you know how we all gotta let off some steam once in awhile?"
"And Ezra snores." Added Sabine.
"Zeb snores." Said Ezra.
The corners of Hera's mouth twitched upward. "But did you have to wake me up at 0400?" She replied, not quite ready to forgive him.
"Couldn't let you miss out on a little family fun now could I?" He said as he put one hand on her shoulder and gently stroked her lek with the other. Sabine made a fake retching noise in the background.
"There's work to do tomorrow once we get back to base" she sighed as if she would have wanted to play along if she could afford to.
"I think the rebellion can survive one more day without us. Besides, the imps love us so much, they probably won't let us get away so soon."
"Hhmm. Well I guess if none of us are going to get any sleep, we do need to fix the cooling system one of these days. And get rid of the carbon scoring on the hull. And update the signature scrambler."
The kids groaned, but before they could protest she continued, "Which can all wait till tomorrow. Who's up for a dejarik tournament?"
"Yes!" Came three released exited voices.
Kanan smiled "Knew you'd understand," and kissed her on the cheek.
"Gods, you two need walls." Said Sabine, though she couldn't help smiling.
/
C1-10P was in low power mode in his favored corner of the cockpit, peacefully monitoring the ship, when his sensors picked up an unexplainable, and excruciatingly irritating shrieking noise emanating from somewhere in the craft. Annoyed, and slightly alarmed, Chopper wheeled into the corridor, fully prepared to act as defense droid.
The noise came from the common room, and as he came closer, the astromech thought he recognized it, but it was out of place...and too loud. Taser at the ready, he stopped outside the common room. This was definitely not normal. There was definitely an intruder aboard the ship, and seeing as all his useless organic companions hadn't sniffed it out yet, he would have to do everything himself. As usual.
The noise quieted for a moment, and Chopper poised himself outside the entrance. But then he picked up heat signatures—five of them! Five was a lot. He knew for an undisputed fact that he could easily take down all of them... but maybe this was a situation he should alert his sentients to first. However, he was just about to go frantically bang on Hera's (the only intelligent being on board) cabin door, when he realized that he recognized those heat signatures!
Speeding back to his position, he parked in the middle of the entrance and tried to compute the scene before him. There was his beloved Hera sitting at one end of the Dejarik table, a wicked grin on her face as she faced the other resident female—Sabine. Sabine Mando-glared at the wriggling holopieces and then at Hera. "How?" She growled, "I beat Kanan, but I can't beat you!"
The droid equivalent of pride bubbled up through Chopper's circuits. That's my Hera!
But then there was that noise again, and Chopper cringed. His memory banks told him that it was in fact what sentients referred to as laughter. C1-10P had no idea what to make of it.