Chapter 4: Another Shopping Trip

Kanan was in the middle of making some lunch for himself and Ezra when his cell phone started to ring. "Hello," he answered.

"Hey Kanan." the voice of Hera said.

"Hello, Hera." Kanan greeted. "What are you up too?"

"Nothing much. Pretty boring day, the Imperials are being quite, and there is no small robberies with Ezra in you care." Hera responded. "What about you?"

"Making some lunch, then the kid and I will probably watch a movie." Kanan replied. "Then I might have to take him shopping again, to get him some small games, books and toys or whatever so he can occupy himself at the station."

"Good idea," Hera said. "How did you like your exploration of the town?"

"It went fine until we ran into this guy named Vizago." Kanan explained.

"You meet him?" Hera asked. "We've been trying to catch him for a while for procession, but he never has it on him whenever we catch up to him."

"Yeah I figured." Kanan said, stirring the pot of noodles. "The kid knew him."

"Ezra knew that piece of crap?" Hera asked shocked.

"Yeah, he actually used to help him." Kanan explained. "Smuggling every so often, but, also," Kanan sighed, "Vizago paid him to test the drugs he got off others to make sure it was good."

"THAT BASTARD!" Hera yelled.

"Are you talking about Vizago or my son?" Kanan asked.

"Vizago." Hera clarified. "Wait, did you just call Ezra your son?"

"I..." Kanan started. He looked over into the living room and saw that Ezra had fallen asleep on the couch. He sighed with a smile, "Yeah, I guess I did."

"Well, I was just wanting to see if after work tomorrow if you and Ezra want to come over for supper?" Hera asked.

"Sure," Kanan replied. "What's for supper?"

"It's a surprise." Hera answered.

"Oh, alright." Kanan said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you then, love." Hera said, hanging up afterwards.

"Did she just call me 'love'?" Kanan asked himself.

Kanan finished making the spaghetti and topped it off with some cheese sauce and a little garlic. He put the pot on the back burner to keep it warm, but so it wouldn't cook further and went over to the sleeping teen.

"Ezra," Kanan said, gently placing his hand on the shoulder of his foster.

Ezra jerked slightly, as his eyes opened. "I was just resting my eyes."

"Yeah, sure you were." Kanan said sarcastically. "Lunch is ready."

"M'kay." Ezra said rubbing his eyes as he got up. He followed Kanan over to the kitchen and was served a bowl of noodles. "Thanks."

After they sat down and started to eat Kanan started the conversation he figured wouldn't end completely well.

"So, after the movie, we're going to go shopping." Kanan said.

"Again?" Ezra asked. "What for?" he finished before putting more food in his mouth.

"Stuff for you." Kanan said.

"I have enough." Ezra said. Kanan saw that coming.

"I mean like books and toys or whatever." Kanan clarified.

"I don't need that stuff." Ezra put off.

"You need something to do while you are waiting at the station." Kanan said.

"You already got me stuff." Ezra rejected.

"Food and clothes don't count Ezra." Kanan said.

"You don't need to keep spending money on me." Ezra said, looking down.

"Ezra," Kanan said. "When are you going to realize I do this stuff because I want to?"

Ezra wouldn't meet his eyes.

Kanan sighed. "Remember, you don't have to worry about money. Just let me do this for you."

Ezra sighed, "You really don't have to."

"And I just said, I do it because I want to." Kanan replied taking another bite of food.

"Okay," Ezra said, knowing he wasn't going to win this battle. "Thank you."

"No problem kid." Kanan said with a smile.

They finished the meal in silence.

"Alright, how about we pick a movie now?" Kanan asked.

"You're best off picking it." Ezra said. "You know, cause I don't know what's good and what's not."

Kanan gave a smile, he picked one out and handed it to Ezra, "What about this one?"

Ezra shrugged, "I guess. I think I read that book a year or so ago."

The movie was pretty good, but Kanan could see Ezra was pretty displeased.

"What's wrong?" Kanan asked.

"That didn't happen that way in the book." Ezra said. "Like everything is wrong."

"Hollywood does that sometimes." Kanan said.

"I can barely tell it based off a book." Ezra muttered.

Kanan gave a small laugh and ruffled Ezra's hair.

"Would you stop that?!" Ezra exclaimed pushing the offending hand away.

Kanan smirked, before pulling Ezra into a light half-nelson and giving him a full on noogie.

"Oh come on! That's even worse!" Ezra protested. "Stop! PLEASE!"

Kanan laughed and released his charge.

"What is it with you and my head and hair?" Ezra asked as he attempted to fix it.

They finished the movie and Kanan got up and stretched a little. "All right kid, get your stuff ready."

Ezra sighed but got up and pulled on his sweatshirt and shoes.

"Ready?" Kanan asked.

"Yeah." Ezra said.

They headed out of the door and down to the car.

"Okay, so where to?" Kanan asked.

"I don't know." Ezra shrugged. "This was your idea."

"I guess you are right." Kanan replied before heading towards the super store. There should be books and games there for Ezra.

They pulled up to the store and entered.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the greeter asked.

"We are just looking around," Kanan said. "But where are your books?"

"Back left corner." the greeter informed.

"Thank you," Kanan smiled before heading that way, grabbing a cart on the way, Ezra trailing behind him.

Once they reached the book section Kanan saw Ezra's eyes widen.

Kanan smiled. "What kind of stuff are you into?"

"I sort of like fantasy and a little adventure." Ezra responded, looking at the plethora of books.

The two started looking around, Ezra looking at books and Kanan occasionally asking if he liked something like a book he found. Ezra found the book of the movie they watched earlier, in fact it was part of a series.

"You want that series?" Kanan asked.

Ezra bit his lip slightly, there were 5 books in the series, plus 5 more in the sequel series, and 3 of a different one by the same author that looked interesting. He slowly nodded.

Kanan grabbed all 13 books and put them in the cart. "Well, it will keep you busy for a while."

"Thank you." Ezra said.

Kanan could only smile. "Anything else?"

Ezra stubbornly shook his head.

Kanan sighed, and headed over to the toy and game section. He glanced over his shoulder to see that Ezra was about six feet behind him. "Come on Ezra, I know you can keep up." He wasn't watching where he was going and noticed to late when he ran into a kid about Ezra's age with the cart.

"Oh, I am so sorry." Kanan said.

"It's alright." the kid smiled.

The kid was about Ezra's height, just slightly taller, and had dark hair and skin.

"You're supposed to stop accidents, not cause them Kanan." Ezra joked coming up beside him.

"Really it's fine, just going in the back for an interview. I need a part-time job for after school." the kid said.

"Really." Kanan said. Ezra could see the wheels in his head turning.

"Yup," the kid nodded.

"Hey kid, how old are you?" Kanan asked.

"Fifteen," the kid answered.

"If you don't get the job here, I may have a job for you." Kanan offered.

"What are you doing Kanan?" Ezra asked.

"Really?" the kid asked.

"Get good grades in school?" Kanan asked.

Both were now ignoring Ezra.

"Yeah." the kid shrugged.

"Well, my foster son here," Kanan said, placing a hand on Ezra's shoulder, "needs to get caught up with school stuff before I send him back in January. He hasn't been able to go to school do to some difficult circumstances in the past eight or so years."

"So, you would want me to tutor him?" the kid asked.

"Kanan," Ezra begged.

"That's the offer." Kanan said.

"I'll let you know," the kid said. "My name is Zare Leonis."

"Kanan Jarrus, and this is Ezra." Kanan introduced. He handed Zare a slip of paper. "Give us a call when you decide.

"Sure thing." Zare said. "Well, I've got to get going." He continued towards the back.

Ezra glared at Kanan.

"Don't give me that look," Kanan said. "You needed a tutor, and I figured you would prefer someone your own age over an adult."

"But you didn't need to ask some random kid at the store." Ezra muttered.

Kanan sighed, and continued the way he was going, "Come along."

Ezra sighed as well and followed.

Kanan picked up a deck of cards, knowing that many games could be played with that.

"Anything else you see?" Kanan asked.

Ezra glanced around before his eyes landed on stuffed cat. He quickly looked a way, embarrassed that he was attracted to such a thing, but not before Kanan saw where his eyes had strayed.

"This?" Kanan asked holding the stuffed toy.

"I had one that looked just like that when I was younger. I lost it about a week after living on the streets." Ezra explained.

Kanan gave a sad smile before placing it in the cart.

"Well let's get you a back pack to put your stuff in." Kanan said.

They quickly found a back pack and headed towards the check out. Ezra flinched at the price but Kanan pretended not to notice.

"Come on kid," Kanan said. "Time to go home."