Kanan wasn't sure what would happen after his and Zeb's… Well, he wouldn't exactly call it a fight, but it was close enough to one to make him feel like things were awkward between them. Awkward on his side of things, anyways. Zeb, for his part, was acting as if nothing had happened-if anything, he was constantly teasing Karen about Hera, as if they hadn't almost kissed right before Hera's call, which stung more than if Zeb had been acting angry or jealous.

Hera… Kanan knew that nothing had technically happened between him and Zeb, but he still felt like he needed to tell her the truth. Would she be angry with him? It was hard to say. He hoped not, or at least he hoped that she'd eventually forgive him if she was mad since he had waited two months for her and had only been about to kiss Zeb because he'd given up hope that she was real since she hadn't contacted him. And for that matter, Zeb had been the one trying to kiss him, not the other way around!

Kanan kept having this mental discussion with himself over and over, hating to be caught in the middle like this-either he should have heard from Hera earlier so nothing would have happened with Zeb, or he should have never heard from her at all so he and Zeb could explore their relationship with a clear conscience! Why did the almost kissing Zeb thing and the Hera finally showing up thing both have to happen at the same time? He wasn't sure if he was mad at Zeb or Hera or even himself for this mess. But he couldn't change the past, so he needed to focus on the future. He'd explain to Hera what had happened and that there was (clearly) nothing going on between him and Zeb, and from there they'd be able to move on with their lives, with Karen fully ready to be committed to Hera and only Hera, if she still wanted him.

That commitment decided, Kanan wasn't sure if he should be spending the weekend alone with Zeb in Zeb's house. But, then again, if they were just friends then there wasn't any reason for him to leave, right? And Zeb hadn't asked him to go-it might be more uncomfortable if he did leave since it would seem like he was mad or thought that the almost-kiss meant something, which of course it didn't. So he just stayed where he was, grading his students' assignments and reading while Zeb carved and fished, with what had become their traditional movie night still taking place Saturday evening. Only during this movie night there was no cuddling and no accidentally-on-purpose falling asleep together on the couch. When the movies were over and it was time to head to bed so that they could meet Hera the next day, Kanan went up to his own room (he wasn't quite sure how it had become his room, it just had, to the point where he had started leaving things like extra toiletries and spare clothes there) to sleep.

As he lay in bed, he forced any negative or confusing thoughts about Zeb out of his head, just trying to focus on the fact that tomorrow he was going to be able to see Hera again. A million thoughts and emotions swirled through his mind at just the faintest thought of her. What would tomorrow be like? She'd sounded happy to see him, but there'd be something in the way she'd been talking that had felt a little… off. Like how she'd paused before saying, "I'm sorry it took so long, but I promise I'll explain everything when I see you", and how she'd only texted him since then in order to set up a time and a place to meet. He'd been so caught up in his own internal dilemma that he hadn't realized until now that she hadn't seemed fully excited about this either. Was it possible… Was it possible that she already had someone else out here-a partner, maybe even from before going into the game? Was that why she'd waited so long to contact him, because she hadn't wanted to face him and tell him that they couldn't be together?

Somewhere in his mind a calming voice was telling him that everything was going to be okay, that things were going to go great tomorrow. But he couldn't fight off his growing fears, and it was over an hour before he finally drifted off into a restless slumber.

Despite his lack of sleep, Kanan woke up almost two hours before it was time to leave out feeling wide awake. No, not just wide awake-wired. It almost felt like being back in college when he hadn't slept at all working on a project and was on the tail end of a massive caffeine binge. He tried to drift back off so he could hopefully sleep this off, but it was clear after a few minutes of fruitless trying that it wasn't going to happen so he gets out of bed and goes to take a shower. He felt a bit better after that, but his mood dipped again when he considered his wardrobe situation. At least he had clean clothes to wear, but not a lot of options to choose from, and definitely not options he would have normally worn for… Well, what might or might not be a date. He could try to stop by his place to get some better clothes, but he wasn't sure if he had the time to drive across town to his apartment and then drive back to the coffee shop where Hera wanted to meet. Not enough time to do what he wanted to do, but too much time to just sit and worry about how things were going to go today.

Finally he just settles on wearing the best of the clothes that he had with him and heads downstairs-his room was starting to feel claustrophobic, he figured if nothing else he could go sit on the back porch and get some fresh air while watching the wildlife on and around the lake. There were certainly worse ways that he could distract himself. He was a bit surprised when he got downstairs to find that Zeb was also awake, standing at the stove frying sausages.

"Hey!" Zeb greets him. "You sleep okay?"

"Feels like I barely slept at all," Kanan admits.

"Aw, yer just excited," Zeb chuckles.

"More like nervous as hell," Kanan mumbles.

"You have nothing to be worried about," Zeb says firmly. "Now stop yer bellyaching and go sit down at the table, I'll have breakfast ready in just a minute."

"I'm not sure I'm that hungry," Kanan answers, but all the same he goes to sit down as instructed.

"Believe me, you'll thank me later when you're not passing out from hunger once you've gotten over your nerves," Zeb deadpans.

"Since when are you my mom?" Kanan grumbles.

"Since you apparently need someone to take care of you since you don't know how to take care of yourself," Zeb answers. "But I'm not yer mum. I'm more like… An older brother, maybe?"

"I don't know if I can think of you as a brother since we almost kissed," Kanan answers, before realizing what he'd just said and wincing.

"Kanan…" Zeb lets out a long sigh. "Look, what happened Friday night… It shouldn't have happened. We were both under a lot of stress and-"

"I know." Kanan hangs his head. "I wish this wasn't so hard…"

"I know," Zeb says softly. "I… I've been thinking about it all weekend. And Kanan, I like you-I really, really like you. But the longer I think about it…We spent all those years together on Ghost, and we never really had any romantic attraction to each other, did we?"

"...No," Kanan admits.

"We were always more like best friends or even brothers, weren't we?"

"...Yes."

"So, I thought it through, trying to figure out what's different between us out here than in there."

"You mean aside from you not being an alien and me not being a jedi and about a million other things?"

"Well, yes, obviously! But not going into all of that-you and I met before you and Hera officially got together, right? And we could have easily made a go of it if we wanted to, but we didn't. So it makes me wonder… Is it possible the only reason things got so confusing out here was because we knew each other in there, and we were both missing our partners so much that we were looking for any sort of comfort that we could get from someone who would understand what we've been through?"

"Maybe…"

"I think we both know that that's the case," Zeb says softly. "Rushing into things because we were both depressed, thinking we'd lost the others for good… It wasn't a healthy basis for a relationship."

"...No, you're right, it's not," Kanan sighs.

"So let's just let this whole 'trying to confuse things with the romance' bit go-this doesn't change how close we are as friends, even family, and nothing can ever take that away from us. Okay?"

"Okay," Kanan agrees with a small smile.

"Good," Zeb says before reaching over and playfully ruffling Kanan's hair. "Now eat your food before it gets cold."

"Fine," Kanan huffs, pretending to be annoyed, but he was surprised to find that he actually had an appetite finally and he was feeling a bit better about seeing Hera.

After finishing breakfast, Zeb finally took pity on Kanan and agreed that they could head to the coffee shop, even though it was a bit early (he joked he was only allowing it to keep Kanan from wearing a hole in the floor with his pacing.) They drove over separately since Kanan would probably be heading straight home from the coffee shop, which Kanan decided was probably also for the best so that Zeb couldn't laugh at him for listening to sappy love songs on the way over.

The drive was only about fifteen minutes from Zeb's place, and Kanan couldn't help but wonder where Hera lived since she'd mentioned that this coffee shop was near her apartment. At the very least it sounded like she lived in the same town as them, which was a relief-when she'd first told him that she was in New York City he'd been terrified that she lived there (he knew that he loved her but wasn't sure he was ready to uproot himself and move that far.) She'd mentioned flying back in on Saturday-had she been on a trip of some sort? Or was it possible that Hera was a pilot in real life? He had so many questions about her, and hopefully today he'd be able to get answers to them.

Once he'd found Zeb and they'd gone inside, they placed their orders (Zeb made Kanan order his coffee decaf, saying he was jittery enough already) and then went to stake out a table. Kanan hadn't received a text yet from Hera so he doubted she was already there, and since they were early he didn't want to tell her they'd already arrived and make her feel like she had to rush. But he couldn't help but look at every person who passed, trying to figure out if one of them might be her since he had no idea what she looked like in the real world (he'd been tempted to ask her for a picture of herself so he'd be able to spot her when she came in but hadn't wanted to sound like a stalker and so decided against it.)

"You've got to stop doing that, you look like a prairie dog with a ponytail," Zeb says about the tenth time that Kanan had stood up when the door opened, only to sit back down because he was pretty sure the person who had walked in wasn't Hera.

"This is torture." Kanan puts his head in his hands. "Or maybe I should call it agony…"

"Kanan, I love you, but I swear to Ashla that if you start singing that heinous song from that musical you made me watch last night-"

"Into the Woods is a classic!"

"It's weird as shit is what it is!"

Kanan was about to argue the point when he suddenly felt a small menal "ping" and immediately dives for his phone. About ten seconds later a text arrives from Hera saying that she'd arrived. He quickly texts back to let her know they were there, to which Zeb quickly throws in a playful jab about Kanan being more than a little eager to see Hera.

"Why would you do that?" Kanan cries.

"Because it was funny," Zeb laughs.

"Zeb, I don't want her to think I'm a total dork!"

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Kanan, but that ship sailed a long time ago."

"Maybe in the game, but not in real life-not yet, at least, not until you kind of ruined my chance to play it cool!"

"...Kanan. We're three people looking for each other because we all spent a weekend playing a virtual reality Star Wars game together. I'm pretty sure that makes us all dorks."

Kanan lets out a small grumble but doesn't argue any further because he couldn't really think of a good retort to that, instead focusing on trying to spot Hera through the ever-growing crowd in the shop.

"Do you think I should go and look for her?" Kanan asks Zeb when he fails to see anyone that he thought resembled her.

"Kanan, sit down," Zeb answers firmly. "She's probably just placing her order, she'll text us if she needs help finding us."

"Fine…" Kanan mumbles.

"Christ, it's like you've never met her before-it's just Hera, Kanan!"

"I know." Kanan puts his head in his hands. "That's why I'm so nervous. It's Hera. And I don't want to mess this up…" Hopefully I haven't already messed this up.

"Kanan," Zeb says more gently. "It's going to be fine. I promise."

Kanan didn't have much time to dwell on that promise because suddenly he felt something tugging at his attention-a presence that he hadn't felt in far too long-and he knew that it was her.

"Hera?" He stands up and his eyes are instantly drawn to the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen: long, shiny black hair; a commanding yet somehow elegant presence; and eyes-oh, those beautiful green eyes he'd missed so much.

"Kanan?" the woman answers, and he could see recognition in her eyes.

"Yes. Hera, love, it's me!" Kanan somehow manages to get out (he was sure his voice must be shaking terribly), and suddenly he found her in his arms. He was spinning her around, not caring what anyone else around them thought because, after all this time, he finally had Hera back-his wife, the love of his life, the light that had kept him going through some of the hardest times of his life. He wanted so badly to kiss her until neither of them could remember their names, but he didn't know if she'd be okay with that since this was technically their first time meeting, at least in real life, so instead he just gently presses his forehead against hers, saying softly, "Hey you."

"Hey," Hera laughs, momentarily nuzzling into the contact before starting to pull away, which Kanan took as his sign to let go.

"Forgetting someone?" Zeb asks in a playful tone.

"Zeb?" Hera turns to him with a smile on her face. "Wow, is that really you?"

"Yes, and I could say the same about you!" Zeb chuckles, wrapping her in a loose, quick hug. "It's good to see yeh."

"It's good to see you too-both of you," Hera answers. "It's hard to believe we're all really here."

"It is," Kanan agrees, quickly pulling out the chair next to his for her and trying not to feel like a giddy teenager as they sit down together, resisting the temptation to reach over and take Hera's hand in his own.

"It's been an adventure trying to find each other," Zeb says wryly. "It took me a month to find Kanan, right when I'd given up hope. Then it was another month and we'd almost given up hope again when we finally heard from you. Here's hoping it won't be another month before we find someone else, eh?"

"You haven't happened to have found any of the others, have you?" Kanan asks Hera, trying not to get his hopes up too high.

"Not unless you want Chopper," Hera answers, shaking her head. "He's my cat."

"Your cat?" Zeb repeats incredulously. "They tested the game on a cat?"

"No, he was never actually there-I guess that somehow my brain imagined him being there, but as a droid for some reason? Although I know we had to design our avatars, so Dr. Tano may have taken what I said about him and programmed him into the game?"

"Considering the number of times he shocked me, I wouldn't be surprised at this point if that was her handiwork," Zeb grumbles.

"I'm sure that Chopper is very nice in real life, though!" Kanan quickly adds-he'd learned early on once he started dating that it was important to get on the good side of the person you wanted to have a relationship with's pets.

"Oh no," Hera laughs. "He's a cantankerous little diva. They were trying to train him to be a therapy cat but he wasn't doing well in training so they finally put him up for adoption, which is how I got him. He might not have the temperament for a working cat, but he's still very intelligent, and he can tell when I really need him."

"Aw, that's sweet," Kanan says with a soft smile.

"I hadn't even expected to find Chopper-didn't expect him to be based off of anyone or anything real," Zeb chuckles. "So I guess that's four of us down, just Sabine and Ezra and Alex to go. Although the kids will be harder to find since I don't feel right essentially stalking kids or teenagers, if that's how old they really are…"

"Me neither," Kanan admits with a sigh. "Sometimes I can't help but try to look for them in the people I'm passing by, but actively looking for them online doesn't feel right somehow, as much as I want to see them again…"

"Guess you haven't had any luck, Hera?" Zeb asks, turning to her.

"No." Hera shakes her head, looking a bit uncomfortable. "The truth is… I wasn't actively looking for anyone until Friday."

"You weren't?" Kanan felt his heart plunging-wait, hadn't she wanted to see him too? Or was he the only one of the two of them who thought that what they'd had in the game was real?

"I'm sorry," Hera says, at the very least looking regretful. "But I want to be honest with you. I guess I was afraid of what I'd find if I went looking-that people would think I was crazy for taking a game so seriously."

"Oh!" Kanan nods, feeling a bit relieved-it wasn't that she hadn't wanted to find them, she'd just been afraid that they wouldn't want her! And that was clearly not a problem so he dares to squeeze her hand under the table to show that he very much took both the game and her seriously.

He beams as she squeezes back, only to freeze as she continues, "I guess I realized it was getting serious and I needed to start trying to find answers when the changes started."

"Changes?" he repeats, not sure if he wanted to know what she was talking about but unable to keep himself from asking.

Hera looked about to answer when a server suddenly appeared with her drink. They'd come up so quietly Kanan would have thought that they'd been trying to listen in on their conversation if that wasn't a completely paranoid thing to think. Still, he noticed that their little group all waited for the server to be gone before talking again.

"Changes like this," Hera finally says in a much quieter voice than before, rolling up her sleeve to reveal-

"Kriff," Zeb breathes.

"Are those… Are those your leku markings?" Kanan finally manages to get out, staring down at the light green marks that he knew better than probably anyone. He almost reached out to trace them with his fingers, just to prove to himself that they were real-he'd never seen a tattoo that bright or clean, and it blended in with her skin far too well to be makeup-but holds himself back, knowing that would probably be crossing a major line.

"Yeah," Hera agrees, rolling her sleeve back down. "One day they started showing up and then they just kept getting more visible. I thought maybe you two might have had something similar happen, might have an idea of what's going on-like you, Zeb, with the stripes on your back?"

"...The what?" Zeb asks, eyes going wide.

"The stripes?" Hera repeats. "I-I thought maybe they were tattoos, or that you'd already known about them?"

"No!" Zeb cries, his head swinging over to Kanan. "Did you know-?"

"No." Kanan shakes his head, his mouth going dry. He stands up and quickly makes his way around the table, his mouth, if possible, going even drier as he saw what were very clearly purple stripes like the ones Zeb had had as a lasat.

"Shit," he whispers. "I… I think these must be new, you definitely didn't have them when we met…"

"...Kanan?"

"Yeah?"

"...Do they have fur?"

"What?"

"The stripes-do they have fur?"

"No," Kanan answers after briefly touching one of the stripes. "No fur."

"Oh thank Ashla," Zeb breathes, and Kanan could see his shoulders sinking in relief. "Still…"

"Yeah," Kanan agrees, going to sit back down in his chair. "This is… It's one thing for us to have an emotional connection outside of the game, but physical changes? It's…"

"Terrifying?"

"Exactly," Hera says, shaking her head. "I'm kind of relieved that I'm not going crazy and imagining this, but at the same time it just makes it that much more… Real."

"I thought I might have noticed I was… Stronger? By a bit?" Zeb says, and Kanan could see his grip on his drink tightening. "But I thought it was just imagining it…"

Kanan freezes. Wait, the others had things they thought they were imagining but were turning out to be true? Was it possible…?

"Kanan? Have you noticed anything… new?" Hera asks, as if reading his thoughts.

"Kanan? You still in there?" Zeb gently nudges him when he fails to answer.

"I…" Kanan runs a hand distractedly through his hair. "Y-You guys are going to think I'm losing it..."

"Kanan, please-I'm kind of freaking out here, I might feel a little less like I'm losing it if you have something happening to you too," Zeb says pleadingly.

"...All right. But don't judge me, okay?"

"Of course not!" Hera reassures him.

"Whatever it is it can't be crazier than stripes and leku markings," Zeb says wryly.

"You might be surprised," Kanan says with a weak smile. "I… I think I might have the force…"