Claiming:

Three hours after entering the banquet hall, Sabine and Ezra left the palace with an approximation of the same poise and dignity that they'd entered, Rex and Ahsoka on their heels. Once they'd managed to escape from the crowd of mingling Chiss royals and military leaders who all wanted to ask them even more questions, the Mandalorian wasn't the only one to breathe a sigh of relief to be free.

The meal itself had been fantastic, six courses long and perfectly prepared, even if she had no idea what exactly she was eating more often than not. Regardless, whatever ingredients were in the salad, soup, rice and seafood, vegetables and steak, chocolate cream dessert, and after-dinner tea and cheese biscuits had been of the finest quality and had made her taste buds sing with approval.

The conversation had also been intriguing and entertaining, what with stories being told about the Rebellion and the unstoppable Skywalker twins (a secret Ahsoka had figured out all on her own long before the twins themselves had) from the Togrutan, Rex, and herself, and stories about the war with the Yuuzhan Vong being told by Ezra, Vanto, and occasionally by Thrawn. There were also many questions thrown in by the royals about things like what the culture was like in the more populated parts of the galaxy and what kinds of technology they had. Overall, intelligent questions that they were happy to answer.

By the end of dinner, Sabine had been determined to rally the hidden remnants of her people to help Ezra fight his war, and Ahsoka and Rex had promised to go back to the New Republic senate and light a fire under their shebs to make them lend a hand with the war effort as well, since it was for everyone's own good to stop the Vong before they invaded any further into their galaxy than they already had. The knowledge of the lurking danger had made the whole two year-long search worth it as far as Ahsoka was concerned. Sabine was just happy to have her Ezra back. Kicking the asses of a vile, people and planet destroying enemy was just icing on the cake. Thrawn had agreed that Ezra had earned a break and could go with Sabine to gather more forces to bring back, The boys, though, could not. While Ezra had frowned at the thought of being separated from his sons for a few months, it wasn't any worse than his normal campaign schedule, so he'd agreed. Sabine knew Thrawn was essentially using the children as hostages to make sure that Ezra came back, which wasn't exactly the nicest thing to do, but she could understand the reasoning even if she didn't condone it.

And speaking of...

Some of the company, on the other hand, had left something to be desired.

Firstly, because she was going to hold a grudge against Thrawn until the end of time, whether he'd actually been on the Empire's side or not, no matter how pretend-friendly she'd acted for Ezra's sake. The blue shabuir had still killed many people when he chased the Phoenix Cell off of Atallon, still orbitally bombarded Lothal, and still took Ezra away from her and manipulated him into staying away. (If Thrawn happened to get himself killed by the Vong, she certainly wouldn't be mourning him.)

Secondly, because the Chiss bitch who'd tried to take her man without caring one real iota about the son they'd produced together (via test tubes, thank Ka'rase) had spent the entire meal glaring at Sabine and making eyes at Ezra from across the table. The glare had been there right from the beginning, and she'd been the only one with such an expression, which had made her easy to spot. (As soon as she'd walked through the door, Sabine had been scanning the faces, looking for the one who couldn't take no for an answer.) But said glare had gone from fiery annoyed when she'd seen Sabine hanging onto Ezra's arm to arctic glacial when Thrawn had introduced Sabine as Ezra's new wife. As they'd eaten dinner across from each other (a seating arrangement she had no doubt had been made to happen on purpose when the odds were so highly against the woman being that near Ezra on their own; there was more than a hundred people seated at the huge U of tables after all), Sabine was positive that the other woman would have happily stabbed her with her dinnerware right through the heart, neck, and eyes if she could have gotten away with it.

She'd wished the bitch had tried.

The osik would have gone done.

Sabine had spent a few enjoyable seconds imagining the scenario; her beating the snobbery right out of the overdressed floozy right on top of the table and dishes until the princess cried buckets and ruined her perfect makeup and bled all over her pretty purple dress. Aside from the conversation going on around her, Sabine might have continued her pleasant daydream except that Ezra had kicked her ankle under the table, his eyes twinkling with amusement even as he shook his head in gentle admonishment. And Ahsoka, sitting on her other side, had made a choking noise that sounded like it wasn't sure if she should be scandalized or laughing. Sabine had then realized that she must have been broadcasting. She'd glanced from Ezra to Ahsoka and then shrugged, a poodoo-eating grin twitching at her lips, and then very deliberately thought loud enough for both of them to hear, in an approximate copy of a favourite holo show the entire Phoenix Cell had become addicted to many years ago during long flights about primitive beasts that were intelligent instead of the humans, I'm a Mando, gotta love me.

Ahsoka had taken to sputtering giggles into her napkin as the Chiss looked at her like she'd lost her mind. Rex had only raised a dark eyebrow in question at his mate before shrugging and going back to spooning in his soup like he'd never get another meal as good.

Chuckling huskily, Ezra had captured her hand under the table and done incredible things to it with his thumb that made tingles shoot up her arm and resonate in her core at the same time as he leaned over and whispered in her ear, "I'm gonna love you till you're too tired to think about beating up princesses, my Mando goddess."

And the princess had glowered at them like she wished she could toss them all out an airlock after ripping their guts out with her bare hands.

And thus began the most satisfying demonstration of petty revenge Sabine had ever indulged in.

Sabine had spent the rest of dinner touching Ezra as much as she could get away with in the most obvious ways possible, just to drive the other woman even further towards mouth-frothing rage. Although, touching Ezra hadn't exactly been a hardship. Especially not with the rush of pleasure they both got from it. She'd rested her hand on his arm frequently. Leaned into his shoulder as often as possible whenever she made a comment to Vanto, who was on Ezra's other side. And best of all, rubbed the back of Ezra's neck with 'absently' caressing fingers, which made him shiver every time. (The first time she'd done it, he'd looked at her with surprise that had quickly morphed into a banked desire that she couldn't wait to unleash, his royal blue eyes all but blazing promises at her.)

And now… now they were nearly free of the curious and calculating gazes. And one hate-filled one, but that was no longer on her mind, because Sabine was being swept up into Ezra's arms and held against his hard chest in a sudden and easy motion that had her eeeping in surprise and blinking in appreciation at how much bigger than her he was now. She wrapped her arms around his neck in an automatic reaction for balance as he continued to stride with all indications of haste back towards his home. She momentarily thought about using her combat training to get out of the situation but decided she liked where she was too much to protest. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously as she glanced over his shoulder to just catch a glimpse of the princess storming off in a cloud of flurffy purple dress back into the Palace.

Ezra glanced down at her, eyes flashing again with not-so-banked desire now. "I'm carrying my new wife home for everyone to see, what does it look like?"

She giggled and let her fingers play with the fine hairs at the back of his neck again. "It looks like that. Is this a Chiss thing?"

"Nope."

"A Lothalian thing?"

Ezra laughed. "No."

She raised an eyebrow. "An Ezra trying to impress the Mando girl while telling the entire Chiss community that he's no longer the strange, deprived Human thing ?"

"Yep."

"Hmmmm. I'd say it's working." The few Chiss they happened to pass on the streets were all grinning after they got over their shock at their display.

Ahsoka and Rex were also grinning at her as they deliberately slowed down and got left behind, his arm over her shoulders and hers around his waist.

Ezra sucked in a breath as her fingers travelled over from his nape to trace the shell of his ear. His eyes looked like burning blue sapphires now. "It's also supposed to be a form of self preservation thing. You've been driving me insane for hours doing things like that, woman."

"Good," she smirked. "That was the plan. I want you all to myself for a while and figured you could use some incentive."

"Force, no incentive necessary," he muttered.

"Also good," she chortled. "But what about Ahsoka and Rex?"

His stride slowed down and his expression turned both blank and focused for a few seconds before he continued on with a grin down at her. "She says they'll take a walk by the river for a while. I told her if they followed it upstream, they'll come to a series of caves and the hot springs within. Ahsoka liked that idea very much."

She'd long ago gotten over the awe that Force users could have silent conversations like that. (Although, even she had done a double take at how blatant about it Luke and Leia had been in comparison to Ezra, Kanan, and Ahsoka.)

"I like that idea very much too," Sabine protested.

His grin widened as he lifted her a little higher in his arms and kissed her forehead. "I thought you might. I'll take you to the springs tomorrow. We'll probably appreciate the warm soak more then."

She laughed, nuzzling her nose against his strong jaw that was just starting to get prickly with evening stubble. "Most definitely, Ezra Wren."

This brought him to a complete stop at the end of the tunnel that divided the main cavern from the science community. "What?"

She grinned up at him. "Ezra Wren. You married a clan heir. You take my name."

"Well, kriff," he huffed as he kicked back into a fast walk, his building now in sight. "Can we compromise on this? What about Wren-Bridger for both of us?"

"Hmmmmmmm. It's not been done before that I know of, but I do like the sound of our names together. All right. Wren-Bridger it is for you and our children, at least."

"And yourself?"

Sabine shrugged slightly in his hold. "I'll have to talk to Mother first. She might have a few protestations to voice. Actually… kriff it, she can protest after the fact. It'll be more entertaining that way. Wren-Bridger for me too."

Ezra beamed down at her, hardly looking where he was going as he traversed the relatively quiet street. "Force, I love you."

"I know," she smiled stupidly back. "I've always known."

He opened his mouth to say something and then promptly snapped it shut.

"What?"

"Nothing."

She rolled her eyes. "It's not nothing. I know you. So what?"

Ezra paused as he waited for the lobby door of his apartment to slide open and then strode towards the elevator. "It's just… If you've always known that I love you, I just wish that you'd realized you loved me back sooner than the last five seconds that I saw you before I had to leave the Dome."

"Oh, Ez. I'm sorry." She ran a caressing, apologetic hand down his face, tracing his double scar on the way. "I spent a long time in denial. It was the thought of losing you that kicked me in the heart."

He rested his forehead against hers as the elevator carried them up to his apartment, eyes closed. "I know. And I understand, I do. I was younger and idiotic for years, Mandos don't love Jedi, you were afraid to love, and so on."

"Exactly," she whispered, in awe of his perceptiveness and still feeling guilty about the lost years they should have had together before. If only I'd been a little more self-aware and less... well... me.

Ezra gave her a crooked smile as if he'd heard the thought. (He probably had. She wasn't exactly trying to shield right now.) "Eventually, I learned to be content to wait. I knew you were the one for me. Since the first time I saw your face, actually." He gave a little chuckle. "What an absolute dork I was back then."

The elevator stopped and he carried them into his beautiful apartment, stopping in the living area by the couch.

She nuzzled her nose against his, smiling. "But you were a cute dork."

"Yeah?" His eyes lit up again.

"Yeah."

Ezra smiled proudly. And a little dorkily.

How can he be all grown up and still be just as kriffing adorable as his sons?

Sabine snuggled her head into his broad shoulder, feeling all warm and gooey on the inside. "So what are we doing now, my strong riduur who's more than proved his point that he's taken?"

"Riduur?"

"Spouse."

"Ah." He glanced at the couch with her bag on it. "I was thinking you might want to get into something more comfortable and join me in bed for the night?"

The hope in his voice was nearly an entity all on its own.

Fortunately, she had no plans on letting him down. She kissed his neck in a slow path up to his ear and then whispered, "I think that's a fabulous idea."

Air and tension whooshed out of him in a rush, indicating that he'd been holding his breath, waiting for her answer. "Thank kriff," he wheezed slightly on the exhale. Then she was getting the breath kissed right out of her instead as he hugged her body as tightly to himself as he could get with her rigid beskar chestplate between them.

Sabine kissed him back with just as much enthusiasm, humming into the kiss as she buried her fingers in his satiny soft dark blue hair and thoroughly messed it up. (She'd always admired his beautiful hair and now she didn't need the excuse of a haircut to play with it. Yay!)

Her head was definitely spinning when he suddenly lowered her feet to the floor and broke the kiss. Sabine had to cling to him until the room settled into one place before she could stand on her own. There was a large, hard thing pressing against her body that most certainly wasn't his lightsabre or blaster, but wasn't all that much smaller either. She very nearly rubbed against it on purpose before she shifted back a fraction for the sake of both of their sanity. "Whoa."

"Yeah," he breathed, lips trailing across her cheek in a series of butterfly touches as he stepped back a fraction too in a reassuring demonstration of his respect for her unspoken wishes. He's such a good man. "Kissing you is better than the drugs they give you in the medbay."

Having experienced said drugs a few times thanks to injuries that required time in the bacta tank, Sabine couldn't argue with that. And that was pretty good stuff meant to convince people that being immersed in goo was a pleasant experience. "Agreed." She reluctantly parted from his clinging hands and mouth and reached for her bag. "Which way to the refresher?"

Ezra pointed to the first door in the hallway that led to the bedrooms (she assumed) and Sabine made for it at a near jog.

She'd been waiting seven years for this moment; wasting time walking sedately at this point wasn't going to happen.

"I'll be in the last room on the right," Ezra said as he quickly caught up.

Sabine smiled up at him as she backed into the guest refresher, her eyes filled with promise. "And I'll join you there shortly."

Ezra made a sound that was suspiciously close to a whimper and then he nodded stiffly and walked away, also stiffly, as if the living lightsabre between his legs was interfering with his usual grace.

Sabine sniggered quietly to herself and closed herself in, thanking the stars that she'd shaved everything pertinent this morning so that she could take the galaxy's fastest shower now just so that she smelled fresh and pretty.

Wish I'd packed the sexy lingerie Leia gave me last Life Day. Should have believed her when she said I'd actually want to wear it one day.

Oh well, I doubt I'll be wearing my pajamas for long anyway.

The last thought made her smile like one of Ezra's lothcats.

Mando'a Translations:

Ka'ra – stars.

Ka'rase - referring to all of the past Mand'alore who have joined the stars and now watch over their descendants from above. (Borrowed this idea from another fanfic. Have no idea if it's actually Mandalorian culture or not, but I like it.)

A/N: I know I've been keeping this story Ezrabine centric up until now, but does anyone else want an occasional chapter from Rexsoka? Let me know. :D