It was clear that Hera had been bottling all of this up for a very long time, because it was as if a dam had broken and all the backed up water was coming flowing out in a huge tidal wave, only instead of water it was stories. Not that Kanan minded a bit. He could listen to Hera talking for hours, and happily listened to her tales through the rest of the ride to dinner and then all through the meal. Once they started driving to the college, though, Hera insisted that Kanan take a turn talking. He wasn't quite sure what to talk about, but she started asking questions about his classes and the school until he started thinking of stories to tell her, and he was so caught up in talking to her that he almost didn't realize when they'd reached the university's theater building's parking lot.

"Okay," Kanan breathes as he parks the car, a bit of nervousness starting to creep back in. "Everything should be fine, but I just want to warn you ahead of time, my coworkers might… Well, I hope none of them will be rude to you, but I want you to be prepared going in knowing that they might be. Also they may tell you stories about my past that will be… Not flattering, to put it lightly…"

"Kanan." Hera reaches over and gently squeezes his arm. "Love. It's okay. We went through this in the game, we can make it through this again. I know the kind of man you are now, and nothing that I hear will ever change that."

"Thank you." Kanan gratefully reaches over and squeezes her hand.

"Of course." Hera squeezes back. "Now come on-let's get going, we don't want to miss seeing your students perform."

"Right." Kanan takes one final breath for courage, then gets out of the car and goes to open Hera's door for her.

The university theater was about average for a school this size: not a tiny shoebox of a room but not a fancy performance hall either. Just enough space for the usual crowd of the family, friends, and faculty of the performers, as well as actual theater lovers who made up about the other half of the crowd. Kanan, not having had a huge role in putting on this production, didn't need to go backstage (and thought it was probably for the best that he didn't since opening night didn't need any further chaos), so he was content to just find his seat with Hera and settle in to watch. Hera was only vaguely familiar with the play and so, without spoiling too much of the story, Kanan starts giving her a general overview of the plot. He was so engrossed in it that it wasn't until someone was right behind him that he realized he'd been ignoring the loud signal his brain had been trying to send him.

"So-this is the tramp you dumped me for?" an all too familiar voice snips.

Kanan feels himself tensing as he turns around.

"Liz," he deadpans. "I thought you'd said you didn't want to see me ever again."

"I don't," Liz sniffs.

"Then why are you here?"

"It's a free country, isn't it? I can go wherever I want, and where I wanted to be was here, supporting the school's drama department."

"Right. Because you suddenly developed an interest in theater when you refused to see any of my students' other shows."

"...Yes."

"And you're not just there to harass me because you know I always come to opening night?"

"No!" Liz huffs. "But at least I got to see what kind of bitch you're trying to replace one with. You really could do so much better, Kanan."

Kanan was about to tell her exactly what he thought of her and her attitude and how Hera was a million times better of a person than she could ever hope to be when he felt Hera tugging on his sleeve, asking in a voice as if she was completely unaware of the drama taking place next to her, "Kanan can you show me which of these performers in the playbill are your students?"

"What?" Kanan asks, completely caught off guard.

"Your students-can you show me any of the kids in the play that you have in your classes?"

"Oh, um, sure?"

Kanan had no idea why this was so suddenly important, but if Hera really wanted to know-

"Excuse me, we were having a conversation here!" Liz cries.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Hera looks up at her with an innocent smile on her face. "But I'm pretty sure that I'm on a date with my boyfriend and I can't imagine why a total stranger would be interrupting that date or throwing insults at me." Then she looks back down at the playbill as if Liz had never spoken. "Okay, what about this girl playing Blanche, Kanan, do you know her?"

If he knew any of the students really wasn't that important to Hera, Kanan realized. But she was making the statement by doing this that this unimportant thing was even more important than Liz's drama.

"Oh, yes, I know her," Kanan answers, turning his back on Liz. "Very nice girl, and very talented, I think you're really going to enjoy her performance…"

He gave his full attention to telling Hera everything that he knew about the cast, ignoring any more attempts by Liz to interrupt them. And by the time that he looked up again because the lights had started blinking to signal that the play was about to begin, she was long gone.

"Thank you," Kanan whispers to Hera as the houselights go down.

"Any time, love," Hera whispers back, giving him a quick peck on the cheek that sent his emotions into such a giddy whirl that he had a hard time concentrating on the first act of the play.

It was just after eleven when they finally got back to Kanan's apartment. The play had had a great first show and, after going backstage to congratulate everyone, he was pretty sure by Monday that the campus would be buzzing with the fact the professor who was known by some as the university's most eligible bachelor of a teacher was officially taken (the assumption probably being in every sense of the word, which he was absolutely fine with.) Technically the date was supposed to be over when Kanan took Hera back to the apartment, but Kanan didn't really want it to be finished, and apparently Hera didn't either because she invited him inside and he had gladly accepted. She'd asked if he minded if she had some wine, and he'd told her that he didn't-even if he still drank he might have avoided any alcohol, both because of the lateness of the hour and the fact that Hera's intoxicating presence had him half drunk already. They ended up sitting on Hera's couch, with her head in his lap, talking about… He didn't even know what they were talking about. Nothing. Everything.

At some point Hera had convinced him to swap phones with her so that they could see each other's tastes in music. Kanan found a surprising amount of classical music in Hera's, along with a lot of indie albums from groups she'd met in her travels, and one self indulgent folder that was a mix of singles by pop artists like Taylor Swift and Katie Perry. Hera, for her part, was being very verbal about her thoughts on his music.

"Lots of musical soundtracks, I'm not surprised," she laughs. "Let's see what else is in here… Green Day?"

"What can I say?" Kanan shrugs. "I'm punk, and I stand by that."

"I should have known from your jacket-I don't think I've seen many people going around wearing leather jackets here, let alone a green one!" Hera laughs. "And that symbol on the back-that's the same one as you had on your pauldron in the game, isn't it?"

"Yep," Kanan agrees.

"I have to know now, what does it mean?"

"I honestly don't know. I found it in a thrift store and liked it, never have been able to figure out where it's from," Kanan admits.

"Mm." Hera nods, her attention already having strayed back to the phone. "Frank Turner?"

"British folk-punk singer."

"Ah, okay. ...The Amazing Devil?"

"Haven't you watched The Witcher on Netflix? It's the band of the guy who plays Jaskier!"

"...Okay, unfortunately I have no idea what you're talking about."

"We're going to have to fix this. You have to see The Witcher, it's sacrilege not to!"

"I'll take your word for it," Hera laughs, continuing to scroll through the phone and then stopping suddenly. "Wait. This playlist has my name on it."

Kanan's eyes go wide. Shit, he's forgotten that was on there! "It's nothing!" he cries, trying to take the phone back from her.

"It doesn't sound like nothing," Hera answers, raising an eyebrow. When he fails to answer, she adds, "Kanan, whatever this is I promise I won't judge you."

"...It's really dorky," he finally says with a sigh. "But it's songs that make me think of you and that I… Well, that I thought I would like to dance with you too."

"Dance? Hera repeats. "Like, dancing, or actual dancing?"

"Dancing as in end of a Disney movie, happily ever after, big fairytale ball type dancing," Kanan answers. He knew he was rambling and getting less coherent by the minute (god, he still had to drive home later…) but he hoped that whatever he was saying made at least some sort of sense.

"Aww, Kanan…" Hera grins up at him and then suddenly stands up.

"Something wrong?" Kanan asks, hoping he hadn't said too much.

"No, silly," Hera laughs, reaching out a hand to him. "You wanted to dance, so let's dance!"

Kanan could hardly believe that Hera was doing this (maybe it was the wine talking?) but he found himself letting her pull him to his feet and then, after starting the music playing on his phone, looking expectantly at him.

Take my hand, I'll teach you to dance. I'll spin you around, won't let you fall down.

Kanan didn't really know that much about dancing, but he found his arms wrapping around Hera in a way that felt right, and somehow they were managing some sort of simple steps even though he wasn't sure that what they were doing technically counted any sort of official dance.

'Cause lovers dance when they're feelin' in love. Spotlight's shinin' it's all about us.

He was so, so in love with Hera, and tonight had only proved what he'd known all along-that in this world or the other one, they belonged together.

Suddenly, I'm feeling brave. I don't know what's got into me, why I feel this way.

Kanan took a chance on twirling Hera, and she seemed to enjoy it as she laughed as he spun her out, and then pressed her face into his chest when she spins back into him. Trying to make a move while he still had some courage, Kanan whispers, "Hey, Hera?"

"Mm?" Hera looks up at him, and he has to fight not to just get lost in her eyes.

"I… H-Hera, tonight's been amazing," he whispers. "I-I didn't think things could get any better between us than they were in the game, but-"

Kanan didn't even get to finish what he was saying because Hera reaches up and pulls him down into a kiss.

"I love you too, you sweet, ridiculous nerd," Hera says with a grin when she finally pulls away.

"I…" Kanan shakes his head, feeling like everything was spinning slightly. "H-How did you know I was going to ask you if you felt the same way as I do?"

"Because I know you." Hera kisses the tip of his nose. "And I know I'm not always the greatest at saying how I feel, so I wanted to make sure you know."

Kanan feels himself grinning like a fool as he pulls Hera even closer. "I love you so, so much."

"Yeah." Hera nestles into the hug. "I know."

Afterwards, Hera would only remember the rest of the night as something of a fuzzy blur. She would remember that she and Kanan had danced some more, although she wasn't sure how long they danced for. She would recall how when she started getting a bit dizzy (spinning and alcohol were not a good mix) Kanan had helped her over to the couch and made her drink a full glass of water because he said he didn't want her to be dehydrated and have a headache in the morning (she wasn't usually this much of a lightweight but being tired from a flight and then having a full date afterwards wasn't helping matters.) And then she somehow ended up curled up against Kanan, using him as a human heating pad-slash-pillow, while Doctor Who played on the TV.

The next morning she woke up feeling extremely warm and comfortable. She felt another form pressed up against hers and for a minute she thought that Chopper had come to snuggle with her in bed. But then she realized, as large of a cat as Chopper was, whoever or whatever she was cuddled up with was much too large to be him. Her eyes fly open, feeling a moment of panic, but she relaxes some when she realizes that it was Kanan and they weren't even in bed, they were still on the couch. The fact that the TV was paused on a "Are you still watching?" screen and that both she and Kanan still had their clothes on told her everything that she needed to know: they'd just fallen asleep together after the date and nothing less than innocent had happened. Still, she had to admit that it felt nice waking up next to Kanan again…

She feels her cheeks reddening a touch as memories of the night before came back to her. Usually she wasn't so open and expressive with her feelings-last night must have been the wine loosening her lips. But did she regret anything that she'd said?

...No. She'd meant every word of it. She'd wanted to wait until she'd been able to spend time with Kanan in-person to say anything-she'd wanted to make sure the feelings were still real out here-but she knew now that she loved him just as much out here as she did in the game, and it was an incredible feeling. She lets her eyes slide shut again, wanting to enjoy this moment for as long as she could. Unfortunately Chopper had other ideas.

When the fifteen pound Maine Coon was hungry, he was hungry, and he didn't care if his mistress wanted to cuddle her newly reunited boyfriend/husband. He expected breakfast to be served at 7:00 am sharp, just like every other morning, and he was going to make his complaints known if his personal caterer did not respond with due promptness.

"Mrow."

"Chopper," Hera whispers to the cat, who had wandered into the room and planted his furry butt right in front of the couch, "just give me five minutes, okay? Give me five minutes and I'll get you your breakfast."

Five minutes was clearly not acceptable.

"MROW."

"Two minutes? Two minutes and I'll even let you have wet food for breakfast!"

Who did she think she was dealing with? Chopper was not in the business of making deals with humans! He would of course have wet food, but he would not wait for it.

"MREOWR."

"Okay, okay!" Hera winces and carefully starts extricating herself from Kanan's arms-she didn't want Chopper to wake up Kanan when there was the chance that she could get up, feed the cat, and then go back to cuddling Kanan.

Chopper was momentarily appeased, trotting into the kitchen with his tail held high. However, he immediately expressed his displeasure when his mistress filled his bowl with dry food.

"Hey, you didn't let me sleep so no wet food for you," Hera says firmly.

To show her exactly what he thought of that, Chopper proceeds to noisily flip over his dish, sending food scattering everywhere.

"No! Bad kitty!" Hera hisses, but the damage was already done. She could see Kanan lifting his head up from the couch in the other room, looking slightly dazed and confused. Yes, she needed to clean up Chopper's mess, but since he was being a little shit he could wait for his food or just eat it off the ground since it was his own fault that it was there in the first place.

"Hey," she says, walking back into the living room, not quite sure how to start this conversation-how much of last night did Kanan remember? Probably more than her, truth be told.

"Oh, hey!" Kanan answers, seeming to realize where he was and a smile forming on his face. "G'morning."

"Morning," Hera replies, trying not to laugh-his hair was a bit of mess from sleeping in a ponytail, but she wasn't about to say anything about it. It was actually kind of cute.

"Sorry, guess I must have passed out on you last night," he apologizes, sitting up. "Didn't mean to impose on you like this…"

"No, it's fine!" Hera hurries to reassure him. "I kind of fell asleep too, I guess we didn't realize how late it was getting."

"...Wait, so did we sleep together on the couch?"

"Yes," Hera answers, a bit worried by the tone in his voice-wait, was that a problem for him?

"Huh. That explains why I slept so well," he says, and the smile on his face makes her heart melt like butter.

"I slept really well too," she admits, and it was odd but actually really nice just how soft and domestic this felt, almost like being back on the Ghost when he'd spent the night in her cabin.

"That's good to hear." Kanan gives her a ridiculously sappy but incredibly sweet smile before looking around curiously and asking, "I thought I heard a loud noise, is everything okay?"

"It was just Chopper being Chopper," Hera sighs, gesturing to where the cat was still sitting in the kitchen, looking expectantly up at her. "He flipped his food dish because he's grumpy he didn't get wet food-I love him but I don't spoil him. He gets wet food for dinner, not for breakfast."

"Ah, I see," Kanan chuckles. "That sounds a lot like the Chopper I know."

"Somehow a lot of his personality did get into the game," Hera admits wryly. "Sorry that he woke you up, I was trying to be quiet so I wouldn't."

"It's fine," Kanan reassures her. "Probably a good thing that he woke us up, we're supposed to meet Zeb at eight for-well, whatever it is that you planned for today."

"Oh, you're right!" Hera had almost forgotten that-if Chopper hadn't woken them up, they probably would have overslept. So in a way she owed him a thank you-not that she would ever tell him that.

"Guess I probably should get changed and showered before we get ready for the day," Kanan admits. "Would you mind if I went ahead and drove over to my apartment to do that and then met you at Zeb's?"

"No, please, go right ahead! That actually works perfectly for me, I need to clean up Chopper's mess and then do that too."

"Sounds good-I'll pick up some doughnuts on the way so we can have breakfast at Zeb's?" Kanan offers.

"That sounds perfect, love," Hera agrees with a warm smile.

"Great." Kanan grins and pecks her on the cheek. "See you in a bit-already counting the seconds until I see you again."

Hera manages to hold in a loud sigh until Kanan had let himself out. She was absolutely in deep. Maybe a little too deep-being in this deep for someone she'd technically only met such a short time ago was something that would normally be sending up red warning signs for her. But the truth was she'd really known him for most of a lifetime, so she was going to finally stop overthinking things and just let herself enjoy the feeling of loving and being loved by Kanan. Because she was tired of being so cautious and letting good things pass her by because of her fear of being rejected. She'd been reckless enough to leave home when her dad didn't approve of her becoming a pilot. She'd been reckless enough to make a name for herself in the air force, and reckless enough to not be content spending her life as a stewardess just because it was the "easy" career path for her. So she could allow herself to be a little reckless with love for once-after all, it seemed like life liked to reward her for being willing to take chances with fate, so why stop now?