Never Too Far Apart (part 1):

Yavin IV…

Hera was roused by the chiming of the comm. Not that she minded. Her sleep had been restless and lonely anyway without Kanan's warm and firm body beside her to snuggle into. Not to mention the niggling worry about her family that constantly gnawed at the back of her mind.

She reached over to the table beside her bunk and blearily scooped up the noisy disk, flicking it on as she noticed that her chrono read just after 3 A.M. Yavin time. "Yes?" she said a little hoarsely to the blueish blur that popped up, and then cleared her throat so she didn't sound like a frog.

"I'm sorry, darling. Did I wake you?"

Hera's blood thrummed to life instantly at the sound of her mate's voice. "Only a little," she said with a relieved smile that he'd survived the battle on (or above) Mandalore. She pushed herself up into a sitting position with her back against the wall. And he doesn't look or sound broken, so that means the kids are still safe and in one piece as well, thank Force. With that worry off her mind, she balanced the comm on one of her raised knees and then rubbed the sleep out of her eyes so she could fully appreciate the holo image of her precious, handsome Jedi. "I wasn't sleeping well anyway. And you know I'd rather talk to you than sleep by myself anyway."

She drank in the way his eyes crinkled at the corners and the upward curve of his lips into his moustache as he smiled. "I do seem to recall something to that effect." But then his expression sobered again. "I don't sleep well without you either." Her chest tightened with emotion as he closed his eyes and reached out a hand as if he was imagining himself stroking the upper curve of a lek. "I miss you. I wish I could touch you."

His confession made her heart break with sympathy as she thought the same, but then she shivered as a phantom touch that felt exactly as if his calloused, strong, but oh-so-gentle fingers had run down the top of her left lek. "Uhhhhh, Kanan, I think you just did."

His eyes popped open and his hand fell. "What?"

"Touch me. You touched me. You know, with your invisible hands that you drive me nuts with at the most inappropriate times?"

Kanan raised his gloved hand to look at with his blind eyes incredulously. "No fragging way!"

She giggled. "Way, love."

"Karabast," he breathed, borrowing from Zeb's vocabulary, much like Ezra had. "I've only ever touched you like that from within the same room. I had no idea it would work from so far apart."

She was kind of surprised as well, but not too much, since she'd always had more faith in his abilities than he'd had. "I guess there's no such thing as too far apart and you're much stronger with the Force than you think."

"Hunh. I suppose, with our strong bond, it is possible." Kanan contemplated his hand for another few seconds as he wiggled his fingers around before he clenched it in a fist and then relaxing it. "Okay. Let's try this on purpose."

"Sure," she said, eager to connect with him in any way she could. Even if it was just him manipulating the air molecules around her (or whatever he did) from afar to imitate his own touch.

Kanan closed his eyes again as she watched his image with a smile strongly leaning towards adoring awe that she was kind of happy he couldn't see, because she probably looked like a fawning fangirl. (Ever since she was a little girl and she'd seen the miraculous feats the Jedi had performed during the war, they'd always been heroes to her. The fact that she'd landed one for her mate was still a little unbelievable but most welcome.) His hand rose slightly and the bare fingers not covered by the leather glove moved in a caressing motion.

Her eyes half closed in delight as the sensation of his touch brushed across her cheek. "Mmmmm," she hummed. "This is nice."

"You feel this?" he asked as his hand moved down and the phantom caress glided down her neck and over her shoulder, brushing the thin strap of her camisole down with it.

"Oh, I feel it, all right," she said in a cross between amusement and the beginnings of arousal. "Not even thirty seconds in and you're already undressing me."

"You want me to stop?"

The smirk tugging up the corner of his lips said he already knew the answer.

"Don't you dare," she said anyway, shivering as the ghost touch whispered back up the length of her lek.

"Didn't think so," he husked, adding his second hand and running down her other lek. "Which top are you wearing?"

Hera leaned into his touch as it felt like he was nibbling on her neck just where she liked and his hand moved to her other shoulder. "Ooooooo, kriff. Do that some more." She swore she felt him smile against her neck as he obliged. "The creamy gold silk one with the lace trim."

"Oh. I like that one. It looks so good against your pretty green skin."

"Thank you, love," she flushed with pleasure at his words as the other strap of her camisole was magically pushed off her shoulder and he tugged the whole thing down so that her already pointed breasts were exposed to the air.

"I also love peeling it off of you." He cracked his eyes open for a moment and grinned at her as if he was seeing her holo image too. (That had disconcerted her only once after he'd been blinded, but then she realized that he could always see the true her, whether it was with his eyes or not.)

"I know you do, love."

"Force, I've imaged making love to you so many times in the past, this is almost easy. It's almost like you're here with me."

"Stars, I wish," she gasped as he cupped her breasts and strummed the nipples with his thumbs. "But I think it's more like you're here with me than the other way around."

"Very true," he admitted, his touch stilling but not leaving. "I'd much rather be at home with you on the Ghost than here on Mandalore talking via a droid that's most likely going to blackmail us for this later."

"You know it!" Chopper beeped into their conversation. "Making a poor old astromech observe your organic consummation rituals should be illegal or something."

"Chopper!" Hera and Kanan practically yelled at the same time.

"You know the rules," Hera added, frustrated that Kanan's phantom touch had disappeared. "No interrupting our private conversations no matter what you hear or I'll turn you off and paint you blue and silver like a certain droid that you can't stand."

"Sorry," the astromech beeped sullenly and then was silent.

They waited a few more seconds just be sure, and then Kanan said, "Sorry, darling. I never should have mentioned him. Did I kill the mood?"

She huffed and then shook her head, a rueful smile forming. "No. If we had let things like being interrupted by Chopper or the kids ruin the mood, then we'd never get any fun time in at all."

Kanan laughed. "Very true." His cloudy eyes narrowed teasingly as he stroked his neatly trimmed beard with the side of a thoughtful finger. "Now… Where was I?"

"I think you were about to sneak one of your naughty invisible hands into my underwear again," she suggested.

One of his sharp eyebrows rose as his mouth twitched with suppressed amusement. "Oh, I was, was I?"

Hera nodded, moving the holo comm to beside her and spreading her knees a bit in anticipation. "You were, I'm almost sure of it."

"In that case…" He closed his eyes and she felt his large but worshipful hands on her breasts again. And then one trailed down her side, over the bunched up fabric of her camisole, and then onto the curve of her hip and under the elastic waistband of the comfortable boxer-like shorts she slept in. (There was once a time when her sleepwear consisted of formfitting panties that hardly covered anything to go along with her camisoles, or even an actual nightgown of the sexy variety, but then Zeb and the kids had joined the crew and things had to change for the sake of decency since she never knew who she'd encounter on a trip to the refresher in the middle of the night.)

She closed her eyes too and just let herself feel the electric pleasure as his fingers brushed over her core and then again and again, teasing her with whisper light touches. His second hand moved down her side as well and then continued down the length of her leg and back up again in an appreciative caress before he nudged her knee over, asking her to open to him even more.

She was more than happy to as she felt a long finger push inside her already weeping channel, caressing her insides a few times before he added a second finger and moving in a steady rhythm guaranteed to coil her pleasure higher and higher. "Force, Kanan," she gasped. "At least I'm not flying with an audience this time," she said between panting breaths as her head fell back against the wall and she grabbed a handful of bedding on either side of her.

The Jedi gunslinger who sometimes had a wretched sense of humour laughed, the husky tones sounding like a siren call to her earcones. "But you liked the challenge of flying that test course while staying silent as I made you come, didn't you, my beautiful adrenaline junkie?"

"Yes!" she cried as he added stimulation to her ultra sensitive bud as well as the motions of his fingers inside her. "Oh, stars, yes. I loved it, and you know it, you nerfherder."

"And that's why I did it, darling," he rumbled before going silent again, concentrating on his task.

The tension in her core coiled tighter and tighter as he stroked her expertly. Somehow knowing she was close, he magically mouthed her neck again and stroked his hand up and down one of her lekku, sending her over the edge in less than a minute of overstimulated bliss.

Long used to peaking in silence due to thin walls and unconventional trysts in dangerous places, Hera moaned nearly soundlessly as her back arched for a dozen long, perfect seconds.

Kanan's touch slowly gentled and then stilled as he helped her ride it out as long as possible and then eased her back down to reality.

When she could breathe properly again she opened her eyes and turned her head to gaze gratefully at his very satisfied looking holo image. (Not that he could see it, but she had no doubt he could he could sense her emotions, even from so far away.) "Thank you, love. That was amazing, as always."

His lips curled higher. "Anytime, darling." And then he chuckled. "Literally, I suppose, considering that it's possible that no distance is too far anymore."

She returned to sitting in a more dignified fashion as her limbs regained their strength, pulling her camisole back up where it belonged and putting the comm unit back on her blanket covered knee. She grinned at his image. "Don't worry, dear. I won't ask you to stop in mid battle or something just to make me feel good."

He snorted softly, scarred eyes crinkling with amusement for a moment before he looked at her with his heart shining through the milky teal irises. "I didn't expect that you would. But there's no just about it. I live to make you feel good in whatever way you want me to, and I always will."

Stars, can I love this man any more than I already do? Hera thought as her heart all but melted to a useless puddle in her chest, filling it with love infused imaginary goo. "Ditto, my gorgeous, strong, and talented Jedi mate," she whispered, wishing she could hold him through the holo and kiss him senseless. But since she didn't have magical powers, she made do with the next best thing; her voice.

Sounding as throaty as she could manage, knowing how much that turned him on, she added, "And guess what, my love?"

"What?"

"It's your turn."