(Sabine POV)

"Hey." I hear somewhere above me, pulling me out of my Twitter scroll and see Jaicey just as she sets her backpack down.

"Hi." I smile at her.

Jaicey smiles then gestures for me to follow. "No Ezra?"

"He has to work today."

"Work." Jaicey repeats my words verbatim.

Yup.

"Mhmm."

"What's he do? Train to become even more of a super-soldier-spy?"

"No." I shake my head. "He teaches kids."

Jaicey stops and spins back to look at me. "Teaches them what?"

"I don't know." I lie.

"Oh come on now. I'm not going to tell anyone. Even JJ."

"I really don't." I reaffirm my lie to her. "I've only seen him at work once, and all I saw was him leading a small army of kids back to where their parents were waiting on them."

"A small army?"

I nod and smile. "Yeah. And they all adore him."

Jaicey's face splits into a huge smile. "Guys that are good with kids are so cute…You should see JJ with his little nephew. My ovaries almost exploded."

"Stop." I groan.

I don't need that.

"Why?" Jaicey turns to me as we drift into the line for some Mexican food. "You finally going to admit that you guys are a thing?"

"No. We're not a thing."

Jaicey moans in disgust. "I'm getting sick and tired of you two dancing around it. He's giving you all the room in the world to, for whatever reason."

"Because he's smart."

"If he's so smart, then you should lock him down. Random dicks aren't smart like he is. They may be hot like him, but they aren't smart."

"Ezra's not some random dick." I correct her. "He's really important to me."

"You're using him like one."

"I am not." I snap back at her.

Jaicey laughs once. "Next you're going to tell me you didn't spend all weekend with him."

No…I did.

"See?" Jaicey smirks.

"I'm not afraid to admit that we spent the weekend together. But I've spent a lot of weekends with him."

"Almost every one this semester. Especially since that UCLA thing."

Jaicey…

"And don't you go telling me that things didn't change after that. I had to deal with you as you nearly had a breakdown after he rushed off to go play superhero. And now every time I see him, you're attached to his hip."

…

"Just take him to dinner. You know what he likes to eat. Make a reservation, dress up a bit, spray some perfume and flirt a little bit. His blood will get going and do most of the work—"

"Jaice—" I protest.

Ezra's not like that!

"—and at the end of it, tell him that he's a great boyfriend. Like it's a fact. Because it is."

"It's not!"

Our conversation is interrupted by the line moving up, forcing Jaicey into position to place her order.

Ezra's…I've already done this once.

Built my whole world around a boy that I thought cared about me and loved me. And he morphed into a monster.

Plus Ezra still can't or won't tell me the truth about what he does with the Jedi. I already knew he was lightsaber trained as well as other training. As demonstrated by him bailing out the entire State of California's HRT team and saving all those people.

"What can I get for you sweetie?" I hear, causing me to look up and see that I'm next up in line. Placing my normal order of a spicy chicken bowl with everything except jalapeños and the green salsa that looks like Nickelodeon slime, I then follow Jaicey down the line until we move to pay.

"You're not gonna like this, but you've got to stop using him like this. You will lose him, for good."

"No I won't." I counter Jaicey's point.

"How are you so sure?"

Because he's Ezra.

Probably the best person I've ever met. He's too good to be true, except for the fact that he's not.

He's very real.

"See? You're not. You're just afraid of the commitment."

"If I was so afraid of commitment, why was I engaged this time last year?!" I hiss out at her.

I'm not afraid of the commitment!

Jaicey straightens up just before I realize what I said.

Oh no.

I never—

"You what?!" Jaicey's eyes bulge as she turns back to me. "Engag—?!"

She gets cut off by the cashier lady calling for her to step forward.

"Sorry." Jaicey spins back, smiling and card in hand. "Hers too please."

I open my mouth to protest, only for her to stand on my toes, silencing me before the cashier runs the card and hands her the receipt back.

We both walk back to our table where our backpacks are. "I need to know everything. You were engaged?!"

"Yeah."

I never should have said that.

Good job opening your big fat mouth Sabine.

"To who? What's his name? Was he cute?"

I roll my eyes at her and open my bowl to start mixing everything together. "His name was Brett. I knew him basically my whole life. We dated all throughout high school. He proposed to me last Christmas. Broke up in May."

Jaicey stills for a moment, eying me before turning back to her food. "You dated him for four years?"

"No, I just engaged some random dick." I roll my eyes.

Yeah, he's the only person I've ever even considered marrying. And that was a mistake.

"What happened?"

I sigh, then play with my food. "He became a raging asshole. Tried telling me where I could go to college, how to live my life, all of that. I broke up with him, he didn't take it well."

…

"That's awful. I'm sorry."

I give her a weak smile, then dig into my lunch.

Thanks Jaice.

"Do you still talk to him?"

"No." I say bluntly.

I hope I never have to hear from him ever again.

…

"So that's why you keep saying you and Ezra aren't a thing. Four years huh?"

Yeah.

"We're not a thing." I emphasize that again.

"Does Ezra know all of this?"

I nod then take another bite. "Yeah. I told him."

"And?" She tees me up, then takes a bite, passing the burden of conversation on to me.

"He handled it like he does everything else."

Damn near perfectly.

Held me while I cried. Reassured me, made me feel better the whole situation.

Made me feel like a lot less of a raging bitch about all of it.

Jaicey and I eat in silence for a moment before she raises her fork, as if making a point before she even begins speaking. "That boy deserves a medal for understanding. JJ would never understand something like that. Ever."

He's too perfect.

"Yeah, he's almost too perfect."

Jaicey freezes mid-bite. "You think he's hiding something?"

Probably.

"Why's he with the Jedi in the first place? Why's that Dooku guy like him so much? Why don't his parents seem to give a shit about him, like at all? What's the problem?"

Again Jaicey and I fall into a comfortable silence, eating. "Has he mentioned why about any of this?"

"Sort of. He always says that he keeps secrets from me for my own protection. What he can say, he does." I explain. "And he does, that's what everybody else says."

"Everybody else?"

"Those two little kids that he loves so much?" I begin. "Their parents are…involved too. They told me the same thing the day after all that UCLA stuff. They had me over for dinner and seemed to tell me what they could."

Jaicey bites her lip and glances out into the food court here in the Underground. "But he's such a good guy."

"Which makes me feel like he isn't hiding anything." I continue talking it out with her. "He's just protecting me."

"Then you should trust him. I don't think he'd ever try to hurt you." Jaicey smiles. "I think he loves you."

No. I don't think he does.

"He's super hard to get a read on. In some way he's almost like a trained robot."

"Robots are programmed, not trained." Jaicey cracks, then smirks.

"You know what I mean." I roll my eyes. "He's up early every single day. House is spotless, always working on something or doing something. He doesn't relax unless I make him sit down and watch TV or something. He never just stops. He's usually pretty tightly wound."

"So he's always like that?" Jaicey confirms for herself. "Glad it wasn't just me. He seems to adapt to whatever the situation needs from him."

"He does, and he's told me that. But it's not bad, he's always had to do that, so he hardly knows who he actually is."

Jaicey's expression softens. "He doesn't know himself. And with the Jedi—"

"They're monks. Preach non-violence, all of that. They're a bunch of blank slates."

"Not his friend. Cayle, right?"

"He's an asshole. He's worse than you, always telling me to sleep with him and—"

"I'm not telling you to sleep with him." Jaicey cuts me off. "You haven't told me, but I doubt you guys just watched TV all weekend."

Yeah…we did a lot more than that.

"Anyway…" I sigh, then twirl my fork around my bowl. "I'm not ready for any of that. Maybe…I don't know. Can I just make it a year without falling head over heels for some guy?"

It that too much to fucking ask for?

Jaicey sighs. "Yeah…you have to look out for number one. Which is you." She smiles at me. "I know you care a lot about Ezra, but you are right. He does do some dangerous things and won't or can't tell you about them. You have to protect yourself."

"But it's Ezra though."

He'd never, ever hurt me.

"Normal boys are bad enough…" Jaicey sympathizes with me. "At least with JJ I only had to fend off all the insta-thots trying to sleep with him."

Yeah. At least Ezra doesn't have all of that going on too.

Jaicey pulls up into one of the open parking spaces before turning to her left. "Isn't that Matt's car?"

I mimic her movement and spot Matt's car a few spaces away, with the driver still in the driver's seat. "Yeah…"

Why's he here?

"Why's he here?"

I shrug as we both climb out of the car. "I thought he had practice right now."

"He does." I confirm. "Maybe it's like ours and they moved it because of the air quality."

Jaicey makes a face just before I hear the sound of a car door opening and Matt appears, a smile on his face like always. "Hey."

"Hi." I greet him.

"Aren't you at practice?" Jaicey asks.

Matt immediately shakes his head. "No. Air quality is too bad right now from those fires in NorCal, they moved it to tonight. By the way, have you guys texted Ezra?"

Jaicey silently turns to me, forcing me to answer. "Not since Dance today."

I know he has Sociology right about now. But I'm sure he'll text me later.

"Okay, he hasn't texted me back. Which is weird for him, he always gets back to me."

"So you drove over here?" Jaicey questions him.

Matt looks a little embarrassed before nodding. "I was going to see if he wanted to come by practice today."

And now we're all here.

Looping my backpack over my shoulder, I begin to lead all of us up the stairs to Ezra's apartment. "Things can't be going that badly then." Jaicey observes. "Especially after Bradley and Weber yelled at him.

"I don't know anything about that." Matt's expression falls. "They treat all student assistants the same really. But he's fitting in great, picking everything up super quickly."

"Picking what up?" I ask as I climb the stairs.

"Football stuff. Terminology, schemes, tactics. What's supposed to happen versus what actually happens. I think that helps him with that Jedi stuff too."

Jaicey pipes up behind me as we start up the last set of stairs. "B, do you think that we'll ever find out why they plucked him up out of that Georgia private school?"

Maybe…

I know I can't say what I know.

"I don't think so. I feel like I know a little bit, and none of it makes sense." I confess, arriving at Ezra's door and pulling my keys out of my pocket.

"Like?"

"He's secretly a great athlete." I turn back to them, then unlock then door and—

Ghost.

Immediately, I stick my hand up and stop Jaicey and Matt from taking a step further. "Hang on guys."

Why's Ghost here?

"Why?" Jaicey immediately asks before moving to follow me as Ghost peers up at me before tensing up.

Uh oh.

"Just hang on. Hi Ghost." I switch my tone and crouch down. "Good to see you…"

We're friends now. The last time I was over for dinner you really didn't bark all that much and let me pet you as much as I wanted. Which is a lot because you're a beautiful husky.

"—holy big dog." I hear Matt say as Ghost trots over to me and allows me to pet him.

"Yeah…hi." I scratch him behind the ears like Ezra does. "You here for Ezra? Or somebody else here?"

…

I bet Mira and Jacen are here today.

"Are Mira and Jacen here today?" I ask, then stand back up and gesture for Jaicey and Matt to stay where they are.

"Sabine." Jaicey insists.

"Just hang on." I say, then start towards the refrigerator before Ghost finally spots Matt and Jaicey behind me near the door. "We're gonna try what got me in the door…bribing him with food."

Ezra always keeps cold cuts in the fridge as a quick, light snack.

Two pizza boxes protrude out of the trash as I walk over to the fridge while Ghost sticks in the middle. Setting my backpack aside, I hear Matt say something to Jaicey.

"—wasn't lying about how big the dog was."

Jaicey meanwhile eyes me, clearly uneasy. "And the two kids…this is their dog?"

He's bigger than they are.

"Yeah, he couldn't be more gentle with them." I say, opening up the fridge and grabbing the package of ham. "Ghost, c'mere."

Let's bribe you.

"They're friendly…" I say as I grab out a slice, roll it up and extend the whole thing to him.

Starting out liberally.

"C'mon in. Just don't move fast. Maybe set your stuff down." I instruct Matt and Jaicey, who are still looking on.

"You sure?" Jaicey asks me.

I nod as Ghost gobbles up the ham and I pet him a little bit. A few seconds in, he peers back to Jaicey and Matt just as they shut the front door.

"They're fine. They're friends." I keep my cheerful tone as Ghost keeps his steely gaze on them.

More ham.

"C'mere guys. Sit down."

Establish that they're not a threat, just like Ezra did with me. Lower his eyes, feed him, pet him.

And Ghost will loosen up.

"He's just protective isn't he?" Matt smiles while leading the way, sitting it the edge of the kitchen and smiling at Ghost and I. "He's not mean. He just wants his people to be safe."

I nod and smile while splitting the next roll of ham into two. "Here Ghost." Ghost gobbles the ham right up and leans his head into my scratches. "Yeah…it's good to see you."

Ghost is a good dog.

"Here." I extend the ham to Jaicey and Matt. "Just hold out your palm and let him come to you."

Jaicey turns to Matt, who takes the ham. "Ghost."

She's nervous.

Ghost immediately whips around. "Here boy. Food? You want some ham?"

…

After a moment, Ghost sits up and walks over to Matt and starts sniffing him intently. "You're fine…" I speak up as they both seem to tense up. "He's getting a feel for you."

"Yeah, I know." Matt smiles. "I have a couple of dogs too. They have to know your scent for you to be okay with them."

"I have a dog too, but not like this…" Jaicey reasons.

"Small dog?" Matt deduces as Ghost walks around him and towards Jaicey, who barely flinches.

You're fine…

"He's a stupid bulldog. But he's my stupid, dumb bulldog. This…is a monster."

"No he's not…" I soften my voice and smile as Ghost completes his lap around them, then moves to take the ham from Matt. "He's just a big boy."

Ghost daintily takes the ham out of Matt's hand, only for him to fearlessly begin petting him. "Yeah. He's just a big 'ol teddy bear…"

"This is not a teddy bear." Jaicey correct him, tone dark before I break off more ham.

"Here." I extend the ham to both of them.

I need to see if the kids are here.

I think they might be napping.

"You're just a big 'ol teddy bear. You just want to make sure we're all right. Don't you?" Matt smiles at Ghost, who seems to be warming up quite quickly to him. "Don't you?"

I smile as Ghost takes Matt's ham and tilts his head into Matt's affectionate pets.

See? He's not so bad.

"You should see him with the little girl. Lately she's been grabbing onto his collar and using him as a walking crutch…" I smile, only for Jaicey to beam.

"Aww…"

"I bet he loves her to death." Matt smiles. "He just wants to protect her and keep her safe. Isn't that right Ghost?"

That's right.

"Go on." Matt turns to Jaicey, who hasn't handed over her ham to Ghost yet. "It's fine."

"He's nice." I add on.

Just protective is all. He loves his people.

…

Very slowly, Jaicey extends the ham to Ghost and in response, Ghost very slowly approaches Jaicey before modestly taking the ham from her and keeping his head down.

Like he knows that she's a little scared.

"Yeah!" Matt smiles before petting Ghost's back. "See? Not so bad…"

Jaicey smiles before raising her arms and scratching Ghost's ears. "Hi." While they do that, I prepare more ham.

"You guys hang here. I'm gonna see what Ezra's doing…" I volunteer, then stand up and extend the ham to both of them and the container to Matt.

"When should we stop feeding him?" Matt asks as Jaicey takes the opportunity to stay on Ghost's good side and gives him the new ham,

I shrug before starting to creep by. "I don't know. Here in a moment…"

Sidling by them, I step into the hallway before turning to where the couch and TV is—

Yup. Oh.

Ezra's…meditating. I think. He's upright, in a seated position with his hands on his knees with his eyes closed. Mira's a few feet away, passed out on a blanket.

And Jacen…

I turn and spot Jacen, curled up on the couch underneath a blanket. "Is he in there?" Matt asks.

"Yeah…and the two kids. I think we interrupted nap time."

No wonder Ghost had a similar reaction this time.

"No wonder he's all wound up." Jaicey comments.

"How rude of us!" Matt says, a smile in his voice as I look at the coffee table where it looks like Ezra emptied his pockets. "We interrupted nap time! We're sorry Ghost."

Wallet, keys, some spare change. My beskar and…

His lightsaber.

Hmm.

Jaicey laughs audibly as I eye Ezra, who hasn't moved yet and is completely zen while seated in the middle of the living room.

"Is Ezra in there?" Matt calls out.

"Shhh!" Jaicey snaps at him before I creep back to them. Ghost's eyes snap to me as he's now seated between Jaicey and Matt while being patted and petted by both of them.

That'll help.

"He's meditating." I explain.

Jaicey quickly makes a face. "Meditating? Ezra meditates?"

"Don't knock it." Matt frowns at her. "It helps."

"Helps with what?" Jaicey fires right back before turning to me.

"I don't know." I confess with a shrug. "Maybe he had a bad day and felt tense."