A/N: The next 4 chapters are currently written in first person because they came from a different story. I will be changing the POV eventually, but for now, this is what you get. :P

Spectres Mission:

D200/5 BBY, Random space

Hera

I sat back in my captain's chair on the bridge of my precious ship, the Ghost, and stared out into space. Admiring the stars, and feeling the incredible peace that the vastness of space brought me, I felt a smile play across my lips. I had just received a transmission from old Jho on Lothal. It seemed the Empire was moving some blasters around tomorrow. It was a perfect mission for my crew.

I jumped out of the chair, eager to tell my mate the good news. I made my way to the crew quarters, happy to see no one else in the hall. We'd been hiding our relationship for a couple of years now. Ever since we had taken on our first official crew member, to be exact. It had seemed the thing to do at the time; presenting a professional front. Now I wasn't so sure, but we kept up with the pretence. I was going to talk to Kanan about that eventually. Maybe it was time stop pretending we were just friends.

Entering the code to Kanan's door, it slid open to reveal my very own handsome man in his meditation pose. Not wanting to interrupt, I stepped into the room and closed the door behind me, then leaned back on it to admire Kanan Jarrus in silence.

From his long auburn hair, to his strong nose and cute goatee, he was perfect to me. He had broad shoulders over a lean but well muscled chest that tapered down to narrow hips and strong legs. He still takes my breath away, even after all this time. My mate had matured so much in the past six years. When I had first met him on Gorse, he had been a reckless, way too sure of himself jerk who drank too much. Now look at him. He was responsible, mature, and never drank anymore. He was even slowly returning to the Jedi ways, such as this meditation routine, which he could do for hours. Sometimes too many hours, but I'd take that over the drinking any day.

"I can feel you thinking about me from here. I hope they are good thoughts, darling," Kanan said without opening his eyes.

"Of course they're good thoughts, love. I was just thinking about how much you've changed for the better over the years. Although... I have to admit the bad boy version of you was hot as hell."

That was enough to make Kanan open his striking teal green eyes and grin at me. He sprang up onto his feet and prowled towards me with a glint of mischief in his eyes. "Oh? Do you want the bad boy back?" He trapped me against the door with his body leaning into mine and his hands on either side of my head. He ducked his head down and nipped my neck, making me squeak.

Giggling, I pushed him back... all the way to his bunk. When he sat, I crawled on his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. "No love, I don't want the bad boy back. He was fun and exciting, but that boy could never be my mate. But you trained up nicely if I do say so myself. I think I did a good job turning you into a respectable mate." I had to giggle when I saw his eyes go from proud to wide open in disbelief, once he registered what I had said.

His fingers tightened on my waist. "Hey... surely I had some say in how I turned out?"

I smiled at him beatifically. "Nope. It was all me."

Kanan hmmmphed, but he knew I was teasing. I could tell by the quirk of his mouth and the way his hands had started skating up and down my sides again in soothing caresses.

"Seriously though, my love." I put my hand on his cheek and looked at him with all the sincerity in my heart. "Of course you did. I know you would never have changed your ways unless you wanted to."

Kanan smiled his slow, gentle smile that I loved and he pulled me forward a fraction so he could kiss me gently. After pulling back, his hand settled on my jaw, thumb brushing across my lips just so. That gesture never failed to melt my heart. "You made me want to, darling."

I kissed his thumb and then reached back to pull out his hair tie, carding the soft waves over my fingers. "You've changed me a lot too, you know. I'm not the little girl who ran away from home anymore. Without you, I might have returned to my father in defeat. You helped me stay strong when the times were tough. We grew up together, Kanan. We changed each other for the better. From kids who thought they were adults, into actual adults."

His expression was that of heart melting tenderness. His hands moved to my lekku, gently stroking them, which caused my breath to hitch and my core to clench as I shivered in delight, which he knew perfectly well, the fiend. Kanan spoke in a whisper, eyes never leaving mine. "I remember the first time I saw you. I heard your voice first. It drew me to you. Have I ever told you that you have the voice of an angel?" I shook my head, eyes getting misty. "You were the most beautiful Twi'lek girl I had ever seen. The most beautiful anything girl I'd ever seen. I didn't want to help with any of your missions on Gorse, but every time I tried to say no, I looked into your beautiful green eyes and found myself saying yes to whatever you wanted. I will always say yes to whatever you want. And you have no idea how relieved I was when you said you were eighteen. I was afraid you were too young for me, being twenty-two already."

"You never told me any of this before." I whispered through a throat tight from fighting off the tears.

"Umm, well as you said, when I met you I was not in a good place, and it took me a long time to learn to express myself," said Kanan, looking bashful and apologetic.

I ran my fingers through his hair again, fingers clenching in the reddish brown bounty. "Kanan?"

"Yes, Hera?"

"Love me?"

"Always," he said, before pressing his lips to mine in a kiss of absolute devotion that went straight to my heart.

Kanan

I loved my Hera. Loved her with every atom of my being. She was my salvation and I'm pretty sure the sole reason my heart wasn't a cold lump of ice in my chest. So when she asked me to love her, I could only think that it would be a cold day on Tatooine before I would ever do anything else.

And, of course, she also meant love in the physical sense. Now that, I was always more than happy to demonstrate. Making love to Hera was like embracing the sun and letting it fill you with light and warmth until you were full to bursting. How attachments had ever been seen as leading to the Dark side, I'll never know. Because if this is what being attached to someone meant, then I was about as Light side as a person could get.

As I kissed her, tongue exploring the sweetest mouth ever made, my hands were busy undoing her flight suit and pulling her shirt up and off, interrupting the kiss for a fraction of a second. That was tossed somewhere and my hands returned to the softest, silkiest, light green skin of her slender back.

Skimming down to her waist, I plucked her off of my lap, disappointing the hardon with a mind of its own that she'd been rubbing against, and set her on the bed.

Standing, I had my own clothes off in a whirlwind of borrowed Force energy and was back to finish undressing her in five seconds flat. I think she was impressed, based on how wide her eyes got and the emotions I could feel from her. Her clothes were removed much much slower as I skimmed the line of her shapely legs and pulled off her boots. Hands skimmed back up again and pulled the bottom of her flight suit down along with her formfitting black undershorts that covered her from hip bones to upper thighs.

I found her hairless skin infinitely fascinating, and her hot core even more so. I could (and have) spend hours just exploring every single centimetre of her body from her lekku to her adorable little toes. (Preferably with my mouth, but hands and eyes were also good.) In some strange male to female thing, despite being only slightly shorter than me, her feet were practically half the size of mine, not so much in length, but in how slender and delicate they were. I never understood that one. (Shouldn't she fall over all the time?)

The last thing to come off her was the black sports bra that she preferred. It squashed her beautiful, bountiful breasts down to something much smaller looking than they actually were, but she said they bounced too much without it, so I lived with them being mostly hidden all the time. On the other hand, it also meant that other guys weren't getting to see how well endowed she actually was, so that wasn't a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination.

Hera was now completely bare before me and her eyes, quirked brow, and smile were saying, 'what ya gonna do bout it?'

That was a good question. There were so many options. I could lick her from head to toe and especially in the middle. She liked that. (So did I.) Or I could pounce on her, skip the foreplay, and just go straight to the main event. (I could tell by how restless her Force signature was that she wouldn't mind that one either.) Or I could sit on the edge of the bed again and pull her back on top of me, letting her take control of the pace. (Always a good option.) But something she'd said earlier had taken root and I decided that we were going for the 'bad boy' today, and bad boys didn't seem like the gentle, loving type to me. (I might have had some experience with this from my dark years before I met Hera, but I will neither confirm nor deny any questions you might have about that.)

Planting my hands on the bed on either side of her hips, I kissed her hard and fast, leaving with a quick nip to her lush lower lip. I then moved down to her gorgeous breasts and nipped each one on the soft flesh just above the nipples before giving them both a lick. Then I grabbed her waist and spun her around so she was on her hands and knees before me, knees at the edge of the bed and feet hanging off on either side of me.

Hera made an eep sound at the sudden move and I chuckled. She looked back at me over her shoulder, lekku swaying along her back, curling slightly at the ends, demonstrating the tension in her body, and raised a brow at me. "Like that, is it?" Her emerald eyes twinkled with merriment.

I shrugged and stroked my hands along her lekku, revving her up more. "You said you liked the bad boy," I said by way of explanation.

Hera smirked. "By all means, continue then." She wiggled her luscious ass at me, just to emphasize her enjoyment of the turn of events.

Bending over her, I kissed that smirk right off her face until she stared at me a little glassy eyed from the pleasure. This position also had the benefit of rubbing my aching length against her wet folds. I made sure her clit was getting some of the action.

I could feel how ready she was, both in the warmth of her core and in the energy of her signature. Not waiting a moment longer, I lined up and pushed into her depths, eyes near rolling to the back of my head at the pleasure of her tight clasp around me. I would never get tired of this. Never.

Hera moaned that sexy little sound that always managed to make me harder and she clenched around me. (On purpose, I'm sure. She was good like that.) "Hera," I groaned out her name.

"Kanan," she whined mine, as I started a hard and deep rhythm right from the start. I moved my hands to her shoulders so I could pull her back against me, bottoming out in her depths with every thrust. Her lekku curled around my wrists and her feet locked behind my thighs.

We held each other and moved together. It was kriffing fantastic.

I'd like to say that I could maintain that pace for hours and give Hera a dozen orgasms, but that's not how it went. We were both too far gone already and I was feeling a great deal of what she was feeling, so my control was mostly shot right form the start. She was shivering around me and her body tensing so it felt like she might snap. I knew that meant she was close. Really close. I bent forward again and pressed my mouth to a lek near the top and kissed and nipped it lightly as I thrust even faster. (Thank the Force for that one.)

Hera screamed into the bedding, muffling her cries. (We'd gotten good at that. The walls were decently soundproof, but not enough to hide screams or extra loud groans.) She clenched around me. Tight. So tight. And hot. And wet. Very wet, as she climaxed around my frantically pounding cock.

Then the clenching turned to rhythmic contractions and I lost it. The storm building in my balls exploded out of me, sending thrills through my whole body as I came and came and came some more, filling her to overflowing. I groaned into the bedding beside her as I shook. She shook. We shook.

And breathed.

And felt.

Our hearts were pounding in sync, mine against her back, hers against the arm I'd wrapped around her front, while the other trembled but held me up from completely falling on her.

After a minute or so, I pulled out, found some tissues from the dispenser on the table beside my bunk (there for just that reason), cleaned us up, tossed them out, and then I collapsed on the bed, holding her in my arms. I felt complete, and like I'd said before, filled with her light.

I was an incredibly happy man.

We were still cuddling in my bunk sometime later. Her head was pillowed on my chest and my arms were still holding her soft and curvy body against mine. I was gently tracing the patterns on her lekku, keeping a pleasurable hum going through her body, which echoed back to mine through our bond.

Suddenly she sat up with a gasp. "Kanan, you are most definitely still a bad boy! You made me forget why I came in here in the first place. We have a mission on Lothal tomorrow!"

As she jumped off the bed, her lek hit me in the eye, and I had to stifle the urge to yelp. I loved her lekku, don't get me wrong, but they weren't exactly light. I don't know how her neck holds her head up. (Another mystery about her that would forever befuddle me.)

Hera

I hopped off the bed and frantically started pulling my clothes back on as I found them scattered all over the room. Seeing him still lying on the bed with his arm over his eyes, I swatted him on the arm. "Up! Let's go." When all I got was a groan in response, I said, "Don't make me tickle your feet!"

That had him flying off the bed and putting his clothes on double time. Starting with his socks. I laughed at him. "How well I know you, love." Kanan just sighed and continued to dress. I walked back to him and caught his chin with the edge of my hand and made him look at me. "I love you, Kanan." I kissed him soft and sweet before walking out of the room.

"I love you too," I heard, just before the door closed behind me, making my smile even bigger.

I set my wrist comm to call my crew. "Everyone please meet me in the common room in five minutes. We have a new mission."

I had just sat down on the bench behind the dejarik table when Kanan strolled in. He sat beside me and gave me a happy grin. Then he faced forward and put his serious face on. "Silly man," I whispered to him, watching his serious face crack into a smirk then go back.

We both looked up when my beat up old astromech droid, C1-10P, rolled in. I had saved Chopper from a crashed Y-Wing fighter during the Clone Wars when I was little. He was very loyal to me. A horrible practical joker to everyone else, but loyal, and that was good enough for me. Chopper beeped at us and pointed at Kanan. So I looked at him again, taking in the whole picture. He was dressed fine; nothing inside out. Then I looked at his head and not just his handsome face.

"What?" he said. I couldn't stop the giggles. "What it is?" he asked, still clueless.

I frantically searched my pockets for a spare elastic. I kept a bunch for just such occasions as Kanan was forever losing his. (Mostly my fault. Smirk.) Finding one, I handed it to Kanan. "Your hair, love. It's everywhere." I watched as Kanan quickly smoothed it back into its customary tail, mourning the loss of the ruffled looking Kanan, which reminded me both of a little boy and a sexy, well loved man. (Contradictory, I know, but true.) Hearing footsteps in the hall, we both tried to put on our serious faces.

Sabine

I was in my cabin, painting the walls of my new room, when I heard Hera's call on the comm. Kriff, I was almost done with that spot. Shrugging my shoulders in resignation, I put down my paint gun. At least we finally have a mission to go on. It was getting a little quiet around here.

As I walked to the common room, I thought back to my rescue by Hera last week.

I still couldn't believe Ketsu had left me there to die. I can only guess she wasn't really my friend, despite the years I'd known her. Good thing Hera found me before the Imperials did. Being thrown in jail for deserting the Imperial Academy would have been the worst birthday ever. Turned into a great sixteenth birthday, I guess.

Not that I'd told anyone it was my birthday. I didn't want them to feel like they needed to get me anything. I was just happy to have a nice place to live, with people that would appreciate me. I genuinely liked Hera. Kanan was alright, if a little reserved. Chopper learned pretty quick to not pull pranks on me. (Nothing like being able to take apart a droid to put some fear in them.) And Zeb. Well, the smell takes some getting used to, but he's alright. Kind of like a big furry uncle.

I think I have a new family. But I was still ready to run if I had to. I was a little short on trust these days.

As I walked into the common room I saw Hera and Kanan looking like two little kids caught snitching cookies. They were desperately trying to look innocent, but would glance at each other and grin, then repeat the process. I just raised an eyebrow and sat down beside Hera with my arms crossed over my chest. It was none of my business what the adults did. I had already figured out they were a couple, who, for some unknown reason, were trying to keep it a secret.

They were failing miserably.

But it was worth a silent chuckle to see them try.

Hera

I was glad to see Sabine. The girl with the blue and orange dyed hair was looking a little less haunted every day. Who knows what that girl's been through in her life, but it couldn't have been easy. She almost always wore her colourfully painted Mandalorian armour, barely taking it off to sleep at night as far as I could tell.

I was pretty sure she was a Mandalorian, but I hadn't wanted to pry, so I hadn't asked. They were a race of warriors, for the most part, who trained their children to fight from an early age. I was happy Sabine had been saved from her last job as a bounty hunter. There were better ways to use those skills. Like fighting against the Empire for instance. Apparently she was also good with explosives, but hadn't had a chance to show that yet. Tomorrow, maybe we'll get to see. I smiled at Sabine when she sat down beside me, getting a half smile in return. We all sat in comfortable silence waiting for the final member of the crew to arrive.

Eventually we heard loud steps coming from down the hall. The door opened and in stomped Garazeb Orrelios. He leaned his large purple striped body against a wall and grumbled out, "I was sleeping when you called, Hera."

This wasn't news to me. I'm pretty sure Zeb spent seventy percent of his days asleep. Must be a lasat thing. Sometimes, I even heard his snoring through the walls. That has got to be some kind of talent.

"Sorry, Zeb. I know you like your beauty sleep," I teased him.

Zeb grumbled something under his breath that I couldn't quite catch and rolled his eyes at me. It was probably best that I didn't hear his words.

Zeb was one of the few remaining lasats in the galaxy as far as we knew. Kanan had found him badly injured after the Empire had wiped out the population of Lasan, the lasat home world, a couple years ago. We had heard about the desecration by the Imperials from Fulcrum (my secret mission contact), and gone to see if there was anyone left to help.

Zeb had been the only one alive.

It still hurt to think about it, and they weren't even my people. I can't even begin to imagine how Zeb feels about it.

The annihilation of Zeb's people was yet another reason to fight against the Empire.

So that was how we ended up with our first crew member. Although, he's more like a big brother now. Both Kanan and I had grown to love the furry man who was just as dedicated to us.

"Now that everyone is here, I'll explain our mission," I said. "It should be a pretty simple one. I have word from my contact on Lothal that the Imperials are moving some blasters tomorrow morning in Capital City. All we have to do is appropriate them. Visago has already said he'd buy them." (He was a sleemo of a man, but his credits were just as good as anyone else's.)

"As usual, we are in need of the credits and are running low on everything," Kanan added helpfully.

"That's nothing new," Zeb grumbled.

I mentally rolled my eyes at our standard issue state of near destitution. "If someone didn't eat so much..." I left hanging in the air, throwing a teasing grin at Zeb.

He rolled his eyes at me and stuck his tongue out. I snorted. Zeb might be the oldest one here by more than a decade, but he was technically still in his teenage stage since his species tended to live for centuries. Sometimes, the immaturity made an appearance.

I got back on topic. "I'm going to get us to Lothal as quickly as possible so you guys have time to scout the area in the morning and set up a plan. I'll be standing by with the Ghost to pick you up once you have the items in question."

"Sabine, I have a few explosives in storage for you. See what you can do with those. We're all just dying to watch you make things go boom." Everyone laughed and agreed to that suggestion. "We'll get you a better stock once we have some credits to buy them." I saw a grin light up Sabine's face at the thought. It was nice to make the girl's day.

Standing up, I addressed my little family. "All right then. I'll go set a course for Lothal and one of you can make dinner. Chopper, you can come with me and do the hyperspace calculations." As I walked out of the common room, I heard a big argument break out as to who was going to have to cook. I shook my head, glad I was leaving that mess behind and going back to the calm tranquility of my bridge, where I could once again do what I loved most aside from spending quality time with Kanan.

Fly.