The Treatment of Scars

A.N: Timeline setting. Three one shots in one this time. First one takes place after shortly after Malachor. Second one takes place after 'Vendettas and Strategems'. Third one takes place after 'To Take Down An Emperor'. Enjoy the fluff.

"Love, you got a minute?"

Kanan was brought out of his deep meditation by the sound of Hera's voice. To him, it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever heard. Capable of healing anything around it, whilst also destroying anything that opposed it. When angry, Hera Syndulla was a force to be reckoned with. He'd almost compare her to a Star Destroyer.

But in here, in his private quarters on the Ghost, there was no malice or damage intended. Only compassion and love.

"For you, always." Kanan replied, listening to the force around him as he heard Hera move to enter his room, the doors sliding shut behind her. How he longed to be able to see her again. To lock eyes with her own. To watch her pilot, and marvel at her skills.

But since Malachor he couldn't. He was blind, something that had deeply affected and traumatised him at first.

But now, now he was used to it, and he used it to his own advantage. Without his sight, he had been forced to fall back on his training, to relearn the basics.

And through that, he had learnt to see again, albeit in a much different way.

The force shimmered around him, indicating that Hera had sat down opposite him. He may no longer have been able to see her, but he would always be able to feel her.

"I've got something for you. Picked it up on the market when I had a minute." Hera spoke, her ever calm voice soothing him.

"Hmm, I do like presents. What is it? A new speeder bike? Or maybe a new blaster? Oh, I know, piloting lessons!"

Hera's laughter in response was music to Kanan's ears, one that brought a bright smile to his face.

"No love, it's for your scar."

Kanan's smile fell at the mention of his wound. It was an ugly mark, even if it had mostly healed by now. The dark black stripe that covered his eyes had burnt away skin at first, and it had taken months of bacta treatment to heal the skin.

Now, all that was left was an ugly scar, one that frequently chaffed.

Still, he wasn't about to let it get him down. So rather than show weakness, he opted for his fall-back.

Humour.

"Finally got fed up of seeing my ugly face huh? Brought me some makeup?"

Hera chuckled again, before her hands reached out to gently grasp the mask that covered Kanan's face.

Kanan felt the pressure being removed off of his eyes, before he heard Hera set aside the mask.

"No exactly love, but it will help. You trust me, right?" Hera replied, her voice compassionate.

"Always Hera, always." Kanan replied, his own voice showing nothing but affection for the Twi-lek in front of him.

"Then hold still."

Kanan had learnt long ago to follow the orders of Hera Syndulla in any situation. Those who disobeyed her often did not fare too well. Even in more private situations such as this, Kanan knew that Hera was the boss.

Frankly, he wouldn't have it any other way.

It was then that he felt the gentle touch of Hera's hands upon his face, gently caressing a line across his closed eyes, rubbing something cold into the scar tissue.

The sensation sent a shiver down his spine briefly, and the cold of whatever it was being rubbed into his face caused him to shiver further.

"Oh come on you big baby, it's just some cream for scar tissue. It's supposed to help ease any after damage, such as chaffing." Hera's voice was full of humour as her hands briefly left his face, only to return moments later with more of the cold stuff.

"Couldn't you have brought the warm version?" Kanan inquired as he underwent the treatment from Hera, who scoffed aloud and continued her work.

A few minutes later, Hera pulled her hands back again, and Kanan hear what sounded like the screwing up of a pot lid.

"There, put some of that on your eyes every day and it should make the injury less uncomfortable." Hera said, coming to embrace Kanan in a warm hug.

Upon feeling the embrace, Kanan reached out and hugged her back, his face already feeling better.

"Thanks Hera. Glad I've got you to watch my back."

Ezra was busy, as he was most days. Running around a rebel base organizing supplies and inventory was not his idea of fun. Why he had been volunteered for this assignment he didn't know.

And it didn't help that he had to work with AP-5. That droid was a perfectionist. If something was out of place, he would no doubt submit an entire report on it to their superiors, and Ezra would be left taking the blame.

And then Zeb would no doubt mock him for it.

Still, he pushed forward, helping to move a crate of rations across the rebel base on Yavin Four. They were scheduled to be transported to another planet shortly, one that was under the oppression of a trade blockade thanks to the Empire.

As he shifted the crate, something bumped into his leg.

Glancing down, he spotted the familiar orange paint job of Chopper, who beeped up at him in concern.

"Not now Chop I'm busy." Ezra spoke, before continuing on with the crate he had, carefully carrying it to the location it was required in.

But Chopper apparently was not going to give in so easily, as the astromech followed the young Jedi, once again bumping into his legs from behind, causing Ezra to stumble.

"Hey! Watch it Chop!"

Chopper seemed to laugh for a moment, before he beeped up at Ezra again, saying something about him forgetting to do something.

"Look Chop, I've got stuff to do. Whatever it is can wait. Go bug Zeb or Kallus."

This time Chopper seemed to give up, as he released a series of offended sounds, before wheeling himself away.

Rolling his eyes, Ezra continued onwards with his crate, entering into the hanger bay of the temple on Yavin Four that acted as the rebel base.

Depositing the crate where AP-5 had told him to, Ezra turned around, intending on heading back to receive his next orders from the inventory droid.

Only to walk right into, and trip over, Chopper.

Crashing into the floor, Ezra heard the laughter of Chopper echo inside the temple. Clearly the droid had decided to cause mischief today.

Groaning at the brief amount of pain that shot through his body, Ezra rose back to his feet, gently kicking the astromech in annoyance.

"What is your problem today Chopper?!"

The orange astromech seemed to rear back in false shock for a moment, beeping something that sounded like 'who me?', before producing something he had evidently stored inside of him, and handing it out to Ezra.

The young Jedi was confused momentarily, before bending down to look closer at the object Chopper held.

It was a small plastic container, one that clearly contained something. On its side, a small picture of a human female applying something to her face was present.

"Chopper, why do you have some moisturiser?" Ezra inquired, recognizing the product. Chopper was into some bizarre things, but this was new and confusing.

But what was even more surprising was the droid's response.

[It's for you.]

'Ok, he's lost it. Better run a diagnostic.' Ezra thought briefly. Clearly something was wrong with Chopper. It would explain the droid's actions so far.

"Why are you giving me women's moisturiser? Where did you even get this from?" Ezra decided to humour the droid for now. It would make it easier to get him to shut down for a diagnostic.

[Bought it.]

"With what money?" Ezra replied, now beginning to grow suspicious.

[Stole it then. Same thing.]

Ezra couldn't help the sigh that escaped his body, or the face palming that followed. That sounded a lot more like Chopper. But it still didn't explain why he had stolen it in the first place. And why for Ezra?

So he asked the astromech again.

[For the scar on your face. Thought it might help. Make the skin smooth again, like my plating.]

Ezra could count on one hand the number of times that Chopper had done something nice for him, even if it was a bit out of nowhere. Usually, the droid only did so when he wanted something.

And whilst the 'gift' was a bit random and perhaps a few years too late, Ezra was not one to turn down a surprise. Maybe he could find a use for the moisturiser.

After all, it was not every day that Chopper was feeling generous.

Reaching out, Ezra extracted the pot of moisturiser from Chopper's clawed hand.

"Thanks buddy. I owe you one."

She didn't know about it, at least as far as she was aware.

Every night, when the two of them retired to bed, Kaeden Larte would ensure she stayed awake longer than Ahsoka, waiting for the Togruta to fall asleep beside her. The woman had a tendency to sleep on her side, offering her back to Kaeden.

And that played perfectly into Kaeden's hands.

When she was absolutely certain that Ahsoka had drifted off into a deep sleep, usually evidenced by her light soothing snores that the Togruta was adamant she didn't do, then Kaeden would make her move.

Tonight was no exception. Reaching down beneath the bed they shared, she scooped up a small pot of cream that Maul had given her in one of his rarer kind moments, and unsealed the lid, before reaching her hand into the cream within, and taking a sizable amount out.

When that was done, she used her other hand to gently lift the back of Ahsoka's top up, exposing the orange skin of her back.

The orange skin that was now covering in lightning shaped marks, the only lasting damage of her fight with Sidious.

Ahsoka claimed that they didn't hurt, and that she cared little about what people would think about them, but then Kaeden had seen Ahsoka in her more private moments, reaching a hand back to scratch the scarring. Clearly they were disturbing her.

So one night, Kaeden have covertly began to apply skin irritation prevention cream to Ahsoka's back, gently rubbing it in when she was asleep.

Clearly the stuff was working, as Ahsoka stopped scratching her back, and seemed less in discomfort in her day to day life.

Repeating the process that she did every night, Kaeden gently massaged the cream into Ahsoka's back, careful not to wake the Togruta up. When she had covered the length of the scarring, Kaeden allowed herself to smile, before leaning forward and gently placing a kiss to Ahsoka's back, willing the injury to heal, before placing the lid back on the pot of cream, and returning it to the hiding spot under the bed.

Settling back down into bed, Kaeden gently pulled Ahsoka's top back down, covering the scarring, before nestling her own head against Ahsoka's back.

The last thing she heard before she drifted off to sleep was the gently snore of Ahsoka, who was none the wiser to Kaeden's nightly mission.

Author's thoughts

So, I promised you fluff after the last depressing one shot, so here it is. Hope you liked the look at these more private moments for these characters.

Not much really to say regarding this one shot, Just thought it would be nice. :)

Now, some people have expressed an interesting in writing their own one shots to me set in my universe. If you wish to, by all means go ahead. You don't even need to ask. My only real rules are no splitting up established couples (Hera and Kanan, Ahsoka and Kaeden), and no character death (unless they are an OC of your creation). The reason for this is because I want to maintain the right to kill of characters myself. Aside from that, the world is yours to play with. :)

Anyway, next one shot is a bit of an experiment in the way it is written. Essentially it is a report written by everybodies favourite Chiss about the crew of the Ghost.

As normal, comment and speculate at will. (Oh by the way, is it me or has the website been slow at uploading comments recently. Sorry if I don't respond to some, they might not have shown up for me for some reason. Feel free to comment again though, or PM me. :D)

Travis Middleton: Glad you liked the look at Vader's more human moments, despite his cyborg body. I understand that you think that Vader was somewhat out of character and overly possessive, but that was the whole point of that one shot. I feel that is how he should be in regards to Ahsoka, not actively wanting to kill her as Filoni seems to think. My opinion though. Wrong no doubt. :)

FossilQueen1984: Don't worry about not seeing it. I didn't exactly make it clear what it would be called and when it would appear. Glad you like these brief backstories. Many more to come, with Thrawn included.

Maliwan: I'm glad you liked the Maul one shot, with him finding himself. And Vader's one shot was great fun, yet depressing to write, considering what happens in this AU.

Cranky Paws: Vader was meant to creep you out in the one shot. That is how he should be in regards to Ahsoka in my opinion, not bloodthirsty.
No, it's not weird reading it in Palpys voice. He is rather notorious for short sharp lines like that. ("Do it!" for example)

Chiara Polairix Edelstein: I'm glad you enjoyed the perspective of Vader and his opinion of Ahsoka. While I love rebels and won't argue with the direction it has gone, the one thing I didn't like was how they handled the Ahsoka/Vader dynamic. It was too predictable and boring, even if the duel was episode were awesome.

SLE's fave guest: Yeah, I'm back. Wasn't expecting to return so soon, but I thought, why not?
One of the biggest problems with Star Wars as a whole (my opinion) is that the characterization of Vader is inconsistant. One moment he is a bloodthristy tyrant, the next he is completely apathetic about the situation, and the next he is crying over Padme. I get that it is character development, but with the amount of different people who have written for him, his character has sought of become lost.
Or course Filoni said that for that exact reason. I trust him with the series at the moment, but if he takes the lazy option and has him kill her that trust will be broken.
And surely Sidious is a greater reminder of Anakin Skywalker and his failures than all the others. Sidious promised to save Padme, and then didn't. Betrayal much. (way of the Sith I guess)
And to be fair in their duel he is never actively trying to kill her, even after she attacks him. When he gets an opening her uses the force to push her away. It's only after his mask is damaged that he snaps.
Ranting is good, after all, I have done it a fair amount over this AU. :)

WolveHulk: Glad you enjoyed it. More Maul is coming, as well as him having interactions with Sabine. :)

jojobinks01: Oh man, as much as I would love to do Ahsoka bringing Anakin back, I can't in this AU. He is dead, and I can't and won't change my AU storyline. Nor will I do an alternate reality of an alternate universe, otherwise I might get confused. However, I do have a one shot planned for some Ahsoka and Anakin goodness, so yay.

TerminatorJedi1995: I'm glad you liked the look at Vader. It was hard to write, but fun at the same time. He just wants his Snips back. :(

Jedi Master Seth Skywalker: Obi-Wan is coming down the line. When I am not sure, but he is coming.

Mysterious Guest number one: The Eighth Brother will get oneshots. But there will be no romance for him. Sorry. :(

Mysterious Guest number two: Glad you liked Vader's conversation with himself. It was certainly interesting to write.
I am planning to write the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Ahsoka and the suicide mission, just not sure when. What I will say is that it won't be what you expect. :)