A/N: I know a lot of you all have been super patient for my next update. I love how I have such amazing fans so eager to read. I intended to update it on my birthday, but my family brought me out to dinner, so pretty cool of them. Anyways, here's a little family fluff.
When one goes without, it can be a humble experience when you realize how dependent you truly are on something so simple. Kanan was becoming quite humble with his dominant arm in a sling. After the imperials ambushed him a week ago, Kanan was left with his dominant hand in a sling. Even though he was no longer bed bound, Kanan was finding the simplest task a challenge.
Putting on clothes now took twice as long as usual, and carrying items required some maneuvering (and the force) to get anything without dropping them. For the most part, Kanan could manage; but there was one thing Kanan couldn't do single-handedly, and that was getting his hair up.
Kanan was actually struggling with the matter when he heard someone come into his room.
"What are you doing?" asked a small concerned voice.
Kanan looked around in his cabin, not seeing anyone enter, then saw the vent open, revealing the crew's youngest ward.
"How long have you been watching?" Kanan asked Ezra,
Ezra shrugged his shoulders as he thought about it, "About as long as you've been trying to do your hair."
Kanan glared at the boy, not happy that Ezra saw him struggle.
"You know it's rude to peep in one people, right?" Kanan scolded.
Ezra shrugged his shoulders, "I know, but I couldn't find my datapad and decided to see if I left it in the vent," Ezra then showed the man the datapad, "It was."
Kanan smirked as he rolled his eyes, continuing to struggle with getting his hair up.
"How come I can't just heal your arm through the force?" Ezra questioned as he sat on Kanan's bed.
Kanan chuckled as he abandoned his impossible mission and sat next to the kid, "If this was life threatening, I would think about it. But force healing drains people, and you were out of it for a while the last time. By the time you woke up, you had no memory of even healing me. I can't have you hurting yourself for me."
Ezra though still seemed unsure, "But it looks like you're really struggling.
"It's not too bad," Kanan told Ezra before he admitted, "The only thing I'm struggling with is getting my hair up."
Ezra chimed up, "I know, I can go get Hera, she'll know what to do."
As Ezra was about to get up, Kanan stopped him with his good hand, "No!"
Ezra seemed shocked by Kanan's tone. Kanan stood up and closed the door.
"This doesn't leave the room about my hair kid," Kanan ordered as he sat back down next to Ezra, "Hera is amazing, but when she gets a hold of my hair, she turns it into buns and braids."
Ezra couldn't help but giggle at the thought of Kanan having tiny buns and braids over his head.
"Won't she find out though when she sees your hair down?" Ezra wondered
Kanan sighed in annoyed acceptance, "Yeah, she will."
Ezra then smiled as he stood up on the bed, "Then I'll do it."
Kanan turned as he looked at the child who was now eye level with him, "I don't know…"
Ezra though got to work as he grabbed Kanan's hair, "I can do it, and this way you don't need to ask Hera for help."
As Ezra began gathering Kanan's hair, Ezra struggled to gather them all evenly.
"Have you ever done this before?" Kanan questioned the boy, almost laughing at the situation.
"No," Ezra admitted, "But I can do it."
Ezra tried to use his fingers to comb Kana's hair up, but stray hairs would fall out of his grasp.
"Is this how you brush your hair?" Kanan wondered.
Ezra shrugged his shoulders as he continued his attempts, "When I do it, yeah, but Hera likes my hair too. I like it when Heras does my hair though, it's relaxing."
Kanan smiled, "Well it's nice she does that for you. Maybe that's why Hera hasn't bothered to ask to do my hair in a while."
"Maybe," Ezra acknowledged.
Kanan was now quite grateful to Ezra for taking that burden off his shoulder's. Kanan thought Hera would be itching to do his hair but didn't want his hair to get knotted up like last time. At least Ezra liked it; good chance because he liked hanging out with Hera.
Ezra tried several times at getting Kanan's hair up before he began wondering what he was doing wrong.
Luckily, Kanan knew what to do and took the hairbrush on the side and handed it up to the kid, "This might help."
Ezra looked at for a bit, a little unsure of what to do with it. Fortunately, Kanan instructed on what to do, "Just brush the hair back as much as you can till it makes a ponytail."
Ezra did as he was told, but noticed that Kanan squinted a little bit, "I'm not hurting you, am I?"
"Nah," Kanan assured the boy, "Just pulling the hair's a little, but it happens."
"That's why I can't brush my hair. I end up pulling at the knots to hard," Ezra told Kanan.
Kanan chuckled, "That's because you make a mess of yourself when you and Chopper go to the junkyard. Yesterday you had grass in your hair. How did that even happen?"
Ezra was tying the hair back when he replied, "I think it happened when I tried to lift the wheel out of a pile of other stuff. I fell to the ground when I lost my grip."
Ezra looked at what he did with Kanan's hair and seemed to like it.
"What do you think?" Ezra asked nervously.
Kanan got up and looked in his mirror, and saw it was exactly like how he did his hair.
"Not bad kid," he smiled at the boy, who smiled proudly in return.
"Come one, let's get to training," Kanan instructed.
"Can you train with one bad arm?" Ezra questioned.
Kanan told Ezra confidently, "We can stick to fighting stances and basic force stuff. Might be a little while though till we get to do anything too extreme. Hope that's okay.
"That's fine," Ezra agreed happily.
With that, the two headed out to begin their day.
Over the next few weeks, Ezra and Kanan had the morning routine that right before meditation, Ezra would brush and tie Kanan's hair. While Kanan still did not feel so reliant for such a simple task, he wished he could thank the kid for helping him out. It wasn't even just helping with his hair. The kid did force heal him, possibly saving his life. Kanan knew he's done the same for Ezra, but he still wanted Ezra to know how much he appreciated what he had done for him. Kanan then got an idea when Ezra asked to try to braid his hair one day (which Kanan politely said no to). So When Kanan's arm was finally healed up and out of the sling, Kanan was pretty stoked. Not only because he would no longer struggle with simple tasks anymore, but now he was able to do what he should have done a long time ago.
The next morning, Ezra came into Kanan's room as usual, "Hi, Kanan. How's your arm feel?"
Kanan rotated it a bit before he replied happily, "Pretty good."
Ezra smiled, "So that means we can get back to our regular training, right?"
"Not yet," Kanan told him, earning a confused look from Ezra.
"Have a seat kid," Kanan instructed.
Ezra sat on the bed as Kanan told the kid, "There's something we need to do about your hair." Kanan told Ezra.
Ezra grabbed his hair, "What's wrong with it?" Ezra smelled his hair a bit before telling Kanan, "I washed it."
Kanan chuckled, "Nothing is wrong with your hair. I just think we need to add something to it."
"Like what?" Ezra asked
"Well Ezra, you are my padawan, right?"
Ezra nodded, with a smile on his face proudly.
Kanan continued, "Well Ezra, when one becomes a padawan, one is supposed to have their master fashion a padawan braid."
Ezra looked up, causing Kana to lose the hair he had in his hand, "I thought you didn't like braids."
Kanan smiled as he had Ezra face the door, "Try not to move."
Ezra nodded in agreement as he tried to sit still as Kanan re-grabbed a small clump of hair beneath his ear.
"It's not that I don't like braids, but having a dozen over your head in different sizes like Hera does can be a little odd."
Ezra chuckled at the thought of Kanan having a bunch of braids through his hair.
Kanan continued his explanation, "Anyways, this braid will be a sign that tells everyone you made a pledge to the Jedi Order, and that you are training to be a knight."
Ezra thought about it for a bit, "I thought we had to hide the fact we were Jedi?"
Kanan nodded his head, "In cases, we need to yes. That's why I'm placing the braid behind your ears where the top of your hair can cover it; so, you can hide it when need be. Hold the end of it while I grab the hair tie."
Ezra held it in place as Kanan got the hair tie and bead from his draw.
Ezra noticed the color of the beads, "Blue and orange, my favorite!"
"Exactly, but in the Jedi, order blue represents the calm mind, while orange is the righteous fury. Both ideal to be a Jedi knight. This way, you'll remember what I taught you…and they are your favorite colors," Kanan explained, happy to pass this tradition down to Ezra.
"Cool," Ezra exclaimed.
Once the beads were tied in at the end, Kanan looked at his handy work, "take a look."
Ezra got up and looked at it and the mirror, and he gave his reflection a huge smile, "I love it! Do I look cool?"
Kanan was relieved the kid liked it, "You look very cool Ezra. Let's go show it to the other's."
"Okay," Ezra agreed. Just as he was about to leave the room, Kanan stopped him.
"What's wrong," Ezra asked with worry.
Kanan smiled, "Nothing, I just want you to know that I am very lucky to have you as a Padawan."
Ezra smiled as he held his hand over his fist and bowed, "I'm lucky to have you too, Master."
Kanan smiled at the gesture and bowed back to the boy.
"Come on, let's show the crew your new look."
With that Kanan and Ezra went to show the rest of the crew Ezra's official acceptance as Kanan's Padawan.
A/N: hope this chapter was worth the wait. Next chapter should be more intense and adventurous. Peace out for now.
