(A/N)- Aaaaaand the plus one, because Anger Born Of Worry Sabine is one of my favorite things. :)
Thanks for reading and enjoying!
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own. Drat.
Chapter 6
Kanan had warned her that people would come for her now that she had the darksaber. But Sabine had been expecting, perhaps naively, an open challenge, a shouted word across the courtyard, a thrown-down gauntlet flung by an angry Mandalorian warrior.
Not assassins striking at her like cowards from the shadows.
She should have been more on guard.
The meeting with the Lythian pirate guild—for the negotiation of mutually-protected backroads around Imperial-occupied territories—had been tense and hardly cordial but productive, she'd thought. No one had drawn blasters, they had come to agreeable terms that satisfied what they both wanted—namely, to be able to avoid the Empire and keep a hidden hyperspace route open through the guild's usual territory—all in all a successful mission.
She had noticed the Neimoidian who eyed the saber on her belt with more than a little passing interest. But as deep as Hera was in the negotiation she didn't want to draw any attention to herself, so had let the stares pass without comment.
It wasn't until they were walking back to the Ghost, out in the street, in the open where she should have been relatively safe, that she thought back to the encounter, vaguely wondering if she should have been worried about him.
And it was then that the assassin took a potshot at her from a rooftop a block away.
She didn't even hear the shot going off, so absorbed in her own thoughts. Somehow, Ezra heard, or perhaps foresensed it, maybe through the Force.
All she knew was that his head shot back behind them as they were walking and then the next second his arms were around her middle and he was tackling her to the ground.
She had been ready to snap at him but then the blaster rifle fired from across the distance and Ezra jerked violently around her as they were falling, and her heart was already pounding when they hit the ground, the outraged shouts of the others almost white noise in her ears as she tried to process what had happened.
She had twisted herself around, freaking out at how stiff Ezra's arms were around her, wide eyes looking up at him.
His face was grimacing, but he was smiling, his grin strained as he met her eyes.
"You okay?" his voice warbled.
She almost couldn't unstick her tongue for a moment, her cheeks warming at his proximity, heart still pounding and confused about what had just happened.
"Yeah," she breathed.
"Good," he rasped, before his arms buckled and he collapsed onto her, and the blood from the hole in his back started seeping through her clothes.
She'd freaked out, and everything after that had been a blur honestly, all she could recall with any clarity had been Zeb and Hera drawing their weapons, pointing them towards the roofs with wary apprehension, Kanan pulling Ezra's limp, boneless body off her, shouted accusations as pirates pointed fingers at each other, the rush as they'd ran for the Ghost.
She was at his bedside now, fretting and biting her nails, wringing her hands around his. He was stable, but in a medically induced coma for his recovery, his chest rising and falling in a peaceful rhythm.
She waited, her heel tapping anxiously, knee bouncing, unable to keep still as time passed interminably slow around around her, as the helpless repetition, it should have been her, it should have been her, resounded through her head.
Sabine pulled her hands up, burying her face in her palms, her fingertips curling into her forehead. She leaned her elbows on the bed, miserable, fighting the burn under her eyes.
"C'mon you idiot..." she pleaded quietly, whispering the words through dry lips. "Don't do this to me." Tears she couldn't stop made their way past her guard, dripping off her cheeks, as she raised her face, her hands grasping feverishly for his again. "Wake up," she begged in a thin whisper.
His sleeping face was as empty and serene as ever.
-SWR-
She must have dozed off at some point in her vigil, because she slogged to awareness, her head rolling to the side before she groggily pulled it up. Blinking, an aching stiffness all through her shoulders, it took a moment for her to realize what had woken her.
She gasped softly, seeing and feeling Ezra shift again, and give a little mumble.
Sabine quickly pulled her hands into her lap, fisting them tightly, biting the inside of her cheek as she watched Ezra stir.
He pushed up with his arms, raising his torso a bit. He grimaced, pinching his eyes before opening them slowly.
As his vision slowly cleared and he registered and recognized her sitting there, her hair surely a mess, her eyes lined with worry wrinkles and bags, vibrating in place, a smile stole across his face.
"Hey 'bine," he said. "Glad you're okay."
She strangled a cry, lurching from the chair and flinging arms around him.
"Idiot!" she said again, squeezing so tightly she felt him strain a moment for breath. She pressed her face into his collar, digging her fingers against his back. "You didn't have to do that!" she scolded. "I had armor! I would have been fine!"
"They shot at your back," Ezra pointed out in weary aggravation, even as he wrapped arms around her shuddering body. "You don't have armor there. I couldn't take the risk."
His embrace made things seem somehow more real, all her worry and anger rising up into concrete heat inside her.
"So push me out of the way next time or—or deflect the bolt with your lightsaber!" she cried.
"Because that would have been smart to do in a crowd of pirates," he muttered under his breath.
"Anything instead of throwing yourself in the way and taking the shot for me!" Sabine finished. She pulled herself free from the hug, blinking furiously, brows scrunched and angry and hating how soft his blue eyes were, at how he looked at her with worry and concern as if he had any right to after getting himself shot on her. "Do you have any idea how—"
She cut herself off as his eyes flickered down, his face falling. The momentum of her tirade faltered as she watched him stare towards her middle, his hands still lightly clutched on her hips.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "I do. Because it's how I would have felt."
All the anger deflated out of her as she gave a tired sigh. She leaned her thigh against the bed, resting on the side, her head giving a little shake. "I just had to fall for the moron that was as stubborn and protective as me," she wondered aloud at herself.
"You can yell at me all you want," Ezra was going on, oblivious to what she had said. "I would have done it again in a—" His brain caught up and his chin lifted, startled. "Wait, what?"
She huffed, snorting a chuckle through her nose, and leaned in, grabbing his face and pressing her lips to his fiercely.
She enjoyed the moment as it stretched out, breathing in his scent, feeling her hair tickle between their cheeks, warm relief finally settling into her, chasing away all the fear and worry and anxiety until it was all but forgotten.
Ezra sat dumbfounded as she pulled back, affectionately brushing her nails against his lightsaber scars.
"I'm glad you're okay too," she told him. She grinned a little. "Still mad that you did it, but I guess I can't argue with the results. You're alive, I didn't get shot. I guess I can forgive you."
"O—Okay..." Ezra acknowledged in a daze. His left hand raised to point towards her in confusion. "You..." he trailed off. "You just... What...?"
"Bet you're probably hungry," Sabine interrupted, straightening and turning to head for the door. She looked back over her shoulder, grin even wider now. "I'll go see if I can bring you back something edible from the mess hall."
"Wait, Sabine!" he cried in distress after her back. "You can't just kiss me and then walk away! Does this mean we're dating now? Hey!" His shouts got increasingly irritated. "Sabine!"
She laughed as she left the room behind her.
(A/N)- Ezra: YOU GET BACK HERE AND EXPLAIN THINGS TO ME, WOMAN!
Lol. This was a fun little set to write. Love getting to indulge a little. Thanks for reading along you guys!