After what felt like forever, Ezra finally pulled back and looked at Sabine with tears of joy in his eyes and the biggest smile on his face. The sight of which, made Sabine push aside her own annoying inner thoughts as the emotional weight of the end of her search, and being reunited with her best friend after so many years falls full force onto her heart and she matches his overjoyed expression.
"I knew I could always count on you." Ezra repeats and Sabine sobs as she hears him say the line she's been repeating in her head over and over again since he left.
"Ezra, I would do anything for you!" She exclaims, and she meant it. Truly. "You mean so much to me, I missed you so much I couldn't stand being without you! So when Ahsoka said she found a lead to where you were I dropped everything and started searching with her and now I'm just so happy I finally found you and I swear by the Force if you ever leave me like that again I'll…"
Sabine began to trail off as the exhaustion of this journey began to settle in. Her adrenaline had been heightened throughout most of her search with Ahsoka, and it had been even higher on this last leg of it. But now, her goal had been reached, so her body was beginning to relax and the exhaustion was settling in sooner than Sabine realized. Now her legs began to weaken and she could feel herself falling forward.
"Whoa Sabine!" Ezra exclaims and catches her with his arm as she fell.
She had turned around as she fell so she was looking up at Ezra with her upper back being supported by his forearm and his hand resting on her shoulder. Sabine had grabbed his shirt in an attempt to catch herself before Ezra caught her and now that she hadn't hit the ground, she gently released her grip on the material, and instead smooths her hand out on his chest, over his heart. She smiles as she feels the heartbeat underneath her palm.
He's here…She thinks to herself with relief. He's real…He's…She looks up at his face and seeing his shining blue eyes, and longer hair, with the sun shining behind him like a halo, while she was being held in his surprisingly strong arms made those annoying thoughts return to the forefront of her brain.
He's hot…Sabine repeats again in her mind. He's hot…he's hot? He's hot. He's HOT!
"Sabine, are you okay?" Ezra asks with concern.
"Yeah." Sabine squeaks, taking deeper breaths to try to calm her racing heart.
Her answer made the Jedi sigh in relief. "Thank the Force. I only just got you back, I can't have you passing out or worse on me now."
"Don't worry, I won't." Sabine assures him with a large exhale before meeting his gaze again. "As long as you promise me that you won't go jumping off into hyperspace with the purrgil any time soon. At least, not without me."
Ezra places his free hand over the one that she was resting on his chest and she gasps as her face heats up from the contact.
"Sabine, I did what I had to do on Lothal and it took every ounce of my willpower to not give up and run right back to you when you begged me to get out of the ship. I've been dreaming of seeing you again every night since I left, and now that you're back with me I don't plan on leaving your side again any time soon. At least not willingly. I want to be with you and I promise I will be with you for as long as the Force allows us to be together." Ezra says in a serious tone.
His voice and what he was saying to her combined with his new rugged appearance was making Sabine's entire body feel warm. Now she understood how those girls felt in all the cheesy romance holo-movies she used to reluctantly watch with Hera on "girls night" on the Ghost. She used to roll her eyes at how easily they'd swoon for their love interest, thinking it ridiculous that just some sweet words spoken by the person they were in the arms of could leave them speechless. But now here she was, in the exact same position as them, and unable to form any coherent thought, much less a sentence to reply to Ezra with other than:
"Ditto…" She squeaks.
Ezra lets out a short laugh from her lack of a reply.
"I never thought I'd ever see you so speechless." Ezra teases. "Have you changed more than just you hair in this past decade?" Ezra asks and Sabine smiles.
"You know me." Sabine says. "But you…" She starts, gently pressing against his chest as she inspects all of the new things about Ezra a bit more closely. "You've really grown…" She admits, feeling her face flush from the almost-dreamy tone she used to speak to him.
Thankfully Ezra just laughed. Oh manda he always looked gorgeous when he laughed. Even before he left she had to admit he looked cute when he laughed. But now he really looked cute….She could just kiss him right now-Wait what!?
"You sound exhausted Sabine." Ezra says, pulling Sabine away from that shocking thought. "Let's get you back to camp so you can eat and rest. I can carry you-" Ezra offers as he moves his free arm to hook under her legs but Sabine quickly stands up, practically leaping out of his hold and stood stiffly with her back facing him.
"No no no! I'm good! I'm fine! I can walk!" She quickly assures him.
Her face felt like it was on fire as the image of Ezra holding her in a bridal carry manifested itself into her mind. It was ridiculous! This was EZRA for manda's sake! He's her partner, her best friend! She was comfortable around him and never had to think too hard about how to act or feel around him before. But then again, back then he didn't look like such a….
She dares to turn her head to look at him behind her and catches him smirking at her, arm bent behind his head as he scratches the back of his neck.
Hunk…Was that really the only word she could think of to describe Ezra?
No! No that can't be right! This can't be happening! Something weird was going on here, and Sabine had to figure out what it was soon before she makes a fool of herself in front of the most important person in the galaxy to her.
When they returned to the camp,Thrawn was cooking a decently sized animal of some sort on a spit-roast over a fire.
"Oh good you found him." Thrawn says to them.
"Yeah, I did…." Sabine says and looks at Ezra again and feels her cheeks color. "I think…"
Thrawn tilts his head curiously.
"Hey uh, Thrawn is this planet known to make people uh…see things?" Sabine asks, wringing her hands as her vision darts from Ezra to Thrawn.
"See things? Like what? I don't understand the question." Thrawn says confused while Ahsoka smirks.
"You know like, hallucinations. I know that can happen sometimes on deserted planets." Sabine says, fumbling to come up with an explanation.
During their walk back to the camp, Sabine had tried to come up with some sort of logical explanation for why Ezra could look so…not like Ezra. And the best reasoning she could come up with is that he didn't really look like this, and that this was either a very realistic dream or she was hallucinating.
"Well it's never happened on this one." Thrawn says simply.
"Okay so then whatever I see on this planet…" Sabine says, waving her hands towards Ezra a bit before bringing them to smooth down her pants as Ezra turns to look at her. "Is real?"
"Yes…I have never experienced any sort of mirage or hallucination during the decade I've spent here. Bridger?" Thrawn asks.
"None." Ezra says simply.
"Well considering your abilities, if anyone on this planet was going to have a hallucination here, you would have had one by now. So Wren, why did you ask if any of us had ever had a hallucination here before? Did you experience one while you were in the woods with Ezra?" Thrawn asks curiously.
"Well…I uh…" Sabine stammers but thankfully Ahsoka's return from the ship, saved her from having to think of a response.
Ahsoka was carrying a crate that held some of their foodstuffs, that she promptly dropped in shock upon seeing the man Ezra had grown into over the past decade. Sabine was relieved that she wasn't the only one caught off guard by Ezra's drastic change in appearance. But that also meant that this wasn't some sort of illusion or dream. If Ahsoka was seeing this too then that means that this really is Ezra Bridger standing in the flesh before them! And to her horror, Sabine realizes that because this really is Ezra, and he really does look this good, that also means she's attracted to Ezra!
Ahsoka looks between them and notices how Sabine was very visibly flustered with her chin dipped down and her hands curled around her middle as she tries her very best to avoid looking at the man that's been on her mind for the past decade. Ahsoka's mouth drops open in surprise before she covers her hand with her mouth to stifle the giggles that she was obviously making due to the fact that the jokes she used to tease Sabine with about finding Ezra attractive turned out to be true.
After a moment of trying to contain herself, Ahsoka's knees buckle and she falls onto the ground, holding her stomach as she laughs hysterically.
Sabine whines and hides her face in her hands, not wanting to see Ahsoka's reaction to her frustrating dilemma.
"HOLY KRIFF!" Ahsoka shouts. "I can't believe it! I was right!"
Still laughing, she gets up, wiping the dirt off of her clothes and hands before wiping the tears falling from her eyes from her laughing fit as she gathers herself.
"Sabine I swear I didn't know!" Ahsoka assures her. "I was just teasing you! I mean I knew he was gonna be done growing up by this point so he'd look different but I did not expect-" She looks at Ezra again and breaks out into another fit of laughter.
"Nice to see you again too Ahsoka." Ezra says, confused by her reaction.
He looks to Sabine to try to get some sort of explanation from her but she quickly turns away from him. Now that he thinks about it… she had been acting a little strange around him. He didn't think anything of it because it's been awhile since they've seen each other so naturally she'd be a bit anxious but…why would she not even want to look at him? Had he offended her in some way. Was she still mad at him for leaving? The thought of how much pain he may have put her through with his absence broke his heart. She was the last person in the world he'd ever want to hurt.
Thankfully, Ahsoka's next outburst pulls him from those painful thoughts.
"I can't believe what I'm seeing!" Ahsoka exclaims.
"Neither can I…" Sabine whines and digs the heels of her palms into her eyes.
Suddenly, Ezra perks up as he thinks of another idea as to why Sabine could be acting so strange.
"Thrawn, remember how terrible we felt when we crashed on this planet?" Ezra asks.
"Oh for Force's sake Bridger why would you bring that up now!?" Thrawn exclaims. "It was horrible we were both weak, injured and starving what does that have to do with anything?"
"Because what if we didn't just feel ill because we crashed the ship here?" Ezra asks. "Look at Ahsoka and Sabine, they're acting really weird!" Ezra says and gestures to the girls both cringing and cackling before them. "Maybe the atmosphere does something to living organisms when they enter the atmosphere? It makes them have illusions and feel ill."
"If that were true then why didn't we behave that way?" Thrawn asks, half out of annoyance and half out of interest to see how outlandish his companion's theory was despite how obvious the actual answer was.
"Maybe because we just chalked it up to trauma from the crash and didn't notice?" Ezra suggests with a sheepish grin and a shrug.
For what was probably the millionth time by that point, Thrawn lets out a heavy sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose with his thumb and pointer finger.
"Bridger, that's a wonderful theory but I think the more logical explanation is that you look very different now than you did before you disappeared and the women are both reacting naturally in accordance with their relationships to you. Tano was your friend, thus she finds your adult appearance highly amusing. Wren on the other hand…." Thrawn looks over Ezra's shoulder to see the flustered Mandalorian girl and shakes his head. "Was much closer to you. She had an image of you in her mind that she was comfortable with but now you're very different from the young man she once knew. Thus she's having a harder time processing this... 'new' you." Thrawn says making finger quotes with the word "new".
Ezra's brow furrows in thought. He's been alone with Thrawn on this planet long enough to know when he was being serious. And he definitely was now. And the waves of glee coming from Ahsoka and conflict coming from Sabine only confirmed Thrawn's theory.
"Wait is that why you've been looking at me so weird?" Ezra asks.
"I was looking at you weird?" Sabine squeaks, starting to feel embarrassed that Ezra noticed her staring.
"Yeah…Sabine I know I probably look like a completely different person to you now given how long we've been apart but you know I'm still me, right?" Ezra asks, leaning closer to her.
Sabine looks at his face. His eyes hadn't changed, his nose was still the same shape. And even though it was surrounded by hair, that was still his same smile. She smiles and feels herself relax a bit with the comfort of knowing her best friend was still visibly there. She was just distracted by all of the more, obvious changes to his appearance.
"Yeah, I know it's you. It's just…it's been so long that it's hard to believe that you're really here, and that I actually finally found you after all of these years." Sabine says and runs her hand through her hair. "It's a lot to take in. I-I don't really know what to make of it. I'm literally dizzy at the thought."
That made Ezra's cheerful expression switch to one of concern and he steps closer to her.
"Wait you're feeling light-headed, and you collapsed too…Sabine are you sure you're feeling okay?" Ezra asks as he takes off his glove and reaches his hand up to her face.
Sabine gasps as Ezra places his bare palm on her forehead. If she wasn't feeling hot before, she definitely was now. The skin on her forehead felt like it was burning under his touch, but in a nice way. What was happening to her?! Was he using the Force to take her temperature or something? Yeah. Yeah that had to be it! It's not like she was finding some sort of pleasure in him touching her right? That would be absurd! And yet it sure felt similar to that….
"W-what are you doing?" Sabine stammers.
"Checking for a fever. You look hot." Ezra says.
"So do you." Sabine replies without a second thought and immediately slaps her hand over her mouth when she realizes what she said.
Ahsoka had calmed down by this point and began to listen in on the conversation. So when she heard what Sabine just admitted, her jaw drops again in surprise and she places her hand over her mouth to hide the huge grin that spread on her face while Sabine's eyes go wide with embarrassment.
Thrawn merely blinks and shakes his head slightly. He figured that that's how the Mandalorian girl felt about the Jedi but he didn't predict that she would admit her obvious attraction to him so soon given her stubborn nature that he found most Mandalorian women had.
"I look…what?" Ezra asks, confused. "Did you just say I'm-"
"HOT!" Sabine shouts and slaps her hand across his forehead, thinking of a cover up for her earlier mistake. "I was worried because you look like you might have a fever too!" She says sheepishly, obviously lying but Ezra just seemed confused instead of seeing through her bluff.
"Are you sure-"
"YES!" Sabine interrupts, shutting him up. "You look so kriffing hot right now! I can't stand it!" Sabine growls as her frustration with how his appearance was making her feel quickly resurfaces and erupts to it's boiling point.
"Again, are you sure? I feel fi-AH!" Ezra exclaims as Sabine attacks him.
The next thing Ezra knows, Sabine spins him around so his back is to her and the hand that was touching her forehead was now pinned behind his back.
"Why are you so hot?!" She shouts.
"I don't know but I take back the fever thing! Clearly you're fine!" Ezra groans and Sabine releases him.
"Just…stop being so hot!" Sabine orders him, pointing her finger at a very confused Ezra.
"I'll try my best…" Ezra says cautiously, having no clue as to why Sabine was so frustrated with him.
As Ezra shakes out his arm Sabine gives him a guilty look. She shouldn't have taken out her frustration on him like that. Especially for something that wasn't his fault.
"Sorry about that…" She admits softly, hugging herself and looking at the ground.
"Nah it's fine." Ezra says with a grin. "I've missed rough housing with you. And sparring too. We used to spend a lot of our time together doing that. It makes me feel nostalgic for those good old days back on the Ghost."
Even though Sabine's heart was pounding with all of the emotions she was experiencing, hearing Ezra saying he missed their sparring sessions, made a warm feeling spread from her heart throughout her chest.
She smiles at him and runs her fingers through her short bangs as she smiles at him.
"I missed it too." She says. And she meant it. "We should spar together again sometime?"
"I'd love to!" Ezra says enthusiastically, his blue eyes bright with excitement, warming Sabine's heart even more. "But I have to warn you…"
He gets a mischievous look on his face and the next thing Sabine knows, his arms are around her waist and he's hoisted her up off the ground, so her head was above him and his face was eye-level with the bottom of her ribcage.
"I've gotten a lot stronger since the last time we sparred." Ezra teases.
Sabine barely even heard what he said because the minute he lifted her up all she could hear was the sound of herself internally screaming: "eeee!" as color flushes across her nose and cheeks.
She prayed that Ezra wasn't reading her mind right now. She'd be mortified if anyone heard her enamored squeals from being in Ezra's surprisingly strong hold.
Holy kriff he can pick me up now! Without the Force!? He really has gotten stronger…and I think I like it!? Sabine internally exclaims.
And luckily for Sabine, she was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't notice Ahsoka snickering behind her from her reaction to Ezra's newfound strength.
And thankfully Ezra's cheerful expression changes to a more somber one as his gaze fixates on something else, calming Sabine's "exciting" thoughts.
Sabine follows the direction of his gaze and her throat tightens when she notices him staring at his lightsaber that was clipped to her hip.
"My lightsaber…" Ezra mutters as he sets Sabine back down on the ground. "You kept it with you all this time…"
"Yeah." Sabine admits with a small smile. "I've always kept it with me since you left."
She could have lied. She could have said she only brought it with her when she was going somewhere dangerous and needed an extra weapon. But no. That wasn't the truth and this weapon meant so much to both of them, lying about it didn't even cross her mind. She wanted, no needed him to know how much she missed him.
Ezra smiles a bit and Sabine slowly moves her hands to unclip it from her belt but Ezra covers her hands with his to stop her, making her gasp softly in surprise from the action, and also from that skin to skin contact that once again sent sparks through her body.
"Then hang onto it a bit longer for me." Ezra says and Sabine looks up at him to look into his eyes.
Her heart skips a beat when she sees that adoring look in them, the one that even before he left could never fail to make her melt. And that made her realize that maybe these feelings might not be so new after all…was it possible that she could have always felt this way about him…but never realized until…
"To a Jedi, a lightsaber is more than just a weapon, it's their life. And the last time I held that lightsaber, my life was very different." He continues, bringing her attention back to him. "It's a life I want to go back to but it won't be the same. And I'll need some time before I ease back into it."
Sabine completely understood what he meant. She gently laces their fingers together and squeezes their hands.
"Yeah. I imagine this is all overwhelming for you." Sabine says.
Thrawn was about to jump in with "and for me too." but Ahsoka punches him in the gut to quiet him before he ruins the moment that she was watching intently.
"Yeah." Ezra says. "Just seeing you again is…making me feel happier than I've ever felt in this past decade."
Sabine feels her face heat up and she averts her gaze from the sentiment.
"Me too, honestly." She says before looking back up at him.
"My life's been in your hands for longer than it's ever been in anyone else's. And there's no one else in the galaxy that I'd trust with my life more than you. So I'd like you to hold onto it for just a bit longer if that's okay?" Ezra requests.
"Of course." Sabine says and unconsciously steps closer to him, as if his enchanting blue eyes were a siren's call that only her heart could hear. "Ezra I'd gladly hold onto it forever if that's what you want. This lightsaber is a part of me now too in a way. Your life is a part of mine. An important part. A part that I treasure and want to be a part of for as long as I can."
Ezra smiles a bit and looks at the ground before meeting her gaze.
"I feel the same way." He says.
Hearing that made her heart pound. Her eyes were locked with his, time seemed to stand still. Nothing was moving except for their face slowly getting closer together… making Sabine's heart flutter even more because never in her life would she have imagined Ezra would have to bring his face down to hers at all, much less for a kiss-
WHOOSH!
They both jumped apart at the sound of the animal that was cooking over the fire pit catching on fire itself because they weren't paying attention to it.
Ahsoka rolls her eyes from the "perfect" timing of the situation. She had a feeling things were moving rather fast. And given the fact that the Force separated Ezra and Sabine for about a decade, it was unlikely that it would let them get together much quicker.
"Well that seemed oddly convenient." Thrawn notes.
"Yep. And I have a feeling that stuff like that is gonna be happening a lot in the near future." Ahsoka notes as she watches their dinner burn before them before getting doused with water to put out the flames.