A day later, Ezra and I visited Hera, over on the other side of Lothal. We rang the doorbell, and Jacen answered.

"Hi, Bean! Hi, Ezra!" the little guy said in his six-year-old babble. I smiled.

"Hi, Jacen!" I responded, crouching and waving at him. "Is your mom home?"

"Yeah, she is. She's in her quiet room. Do you want me to get her?"

"No," I said. We'll go see her."

"Alright. C'mon, I'll show you the way!"

Jacen took off immediately, dashing through the hallways. I took Ezra's hand and dragged him after the race-car masquerading as Jacen Syndulla. In less than thirty seconds, we were standing outside the half-wood-half-metal door to Hera's quiet room.

Inside, there were hundreds of names on the wall, each under an inscription at the top, like, "Coruscant, Sector 51-C."

Hera looked up from her desk. "Sabine. Ezra."

"Hi, Hera," I said, knowing full well what she was doing. Ezra didn't, and as he let his hand slide over a plate with "Lothal," at the top, I took a closer look at what she was doing.

"Kanan Jarrus, Mira Bridger, Ephraim Bridger… Ezra Bridger?" Ezra muttered.

"It's a list of all those killed in action on Lothal," Hera answered. "We assumed you were K.I.A as well. I'll have to scrub that name out."

Ezra sat down on the floor. "Why is this room here?"

"I memorize all the names of the soldiers killed on ops I ran or planned. It's my way of helping myself come to terms with those I've lost," Hera said. "Right now, I'm trying to figure out what went wrong on one op. Our entire squad is missing in action."

"Where?" Ezra asked, letting one hand stray to his lightsaber. I read over Hera's shoulder.

"The identity of the planet is classified, but it looks quite a bit like Cardia on a map," I said with a deadpan tone.

"I think it's actually Corellia," Ezra responded, matching my tone of voice.

"Wherever it is, the problem with the op is that you left yourself open to a counterattack when you planned the exfil. Did your men have E&E training?" I asked, using the Army shorthand for Escape and Evasion training.

"They're Alliance Special Forces. Of course they do," Hera said. "Hal Mireled is a survivalist, Mika Wren is a Mandalorian, Lauren Pierce is an aspiring hunter, and Prentice Guu is a tracker."

"You drafted a Mandalorian into a Special Forces team?" I asked.

"As a commander," Hera responded.

"Good."

"Well, I'll leave the SaR team to do their job," Hera said, getting up from her desk. "In the meantime, I believe I have something to ask you two. Come with me."

Hera walked out the door and up a flight of stairs, Ezra and I following behind her. Her house was quite posh, most of it being made from high-quality materials. I'm not entirely sure how she got the money, but, as Mother used to say, "Don't look a gift shaak in the mouth." In the dining room, she took out a bowl, filled it with some crackers, and put it in the middle of the table.

"So, question one. How long have you two been together?"

Her opener made my cheeks heat up a bit. I looked at Ezra awkwardly. He looked back with an expression of embarrassment. Somehow, I stuttered out, "Uh, I w-wouldn't say we're together, exactly, we're friends… but I'm not sure were together… Like, we're friends, but I… we're not, like, together-together..."

"Y-yeah, I'm…. I mean, we're not…" Ezra stammered. His face was a light shade of pink. I'm not sure why it was so hard to say we were a couple to the world.

"You think I can't see what's going on between you two?" Hera asked with an inscrutable face. "You're obviously in love. I know you two already kissed each other- the way you two look at each other is like a giant glowing sign with two arrows pointing to both of you and saying "In Love!""

I blushed deeper. My face was probably red as a beet. "Uh… Maybe…. A week? I'm not sure…" I said. Ezra just nodded.

"Now, are you two planning to get married and such, or are you just going to ignore your feelings like you did for four years?" Hera inquired.

"Maybe? Probably…" I said, probably sounding embarrassed as all heck. Hera smiled.

"Good. Have you two already gotten fully intimate?" Hera asked next, making my face feel like it was going to melt off. Ezra's face was a deep, deep shade of red. A rather pretty shade, too; it was gonna be my new hair color.

"No!" I shouted. "No, no no no no. No we have not." For some reason, the thought horrified me at the time. Ezra just shook his head to respond.

"Okay. Good to know. I don't need to ask you anything else, so I'll make lunch," Hera responded. "Do either of you want to help?"

I nodded. "I'll help."

"I'll go play with Jacen, then," Ezra said, pushing his chair back so he could get up and leave. I followed Hera to the kitchen, where she took out a frying pan.

"Have you ever made Cardian Lamb Kebabs?" Hera asked. I nodded. I opened one wooden cabinet and took out a small green bottle of lemon juice. Hera grabbed a white plaster bowl and put in two pieces of lamb meat, which she put on a cutting board and minced with precise strikes of the silver kitchen knife. Then, I took two teaspoons of lemon juice and poured them into a bowl. Hera then put the meat in. After that, we took out a small bottle of cooking oil and put it in another bowl, this time with some green Cardian chillies, as well as garlic, ginger, some crushed peppercorns from Manaan, cumin, some more lemon juice, turmeric powder, and salt. We took that concoction and put it in a food processor, turning it into a paste, which we stirred in a bowl with coriander. Next, we put the mince and the paste in a bowl. After that, we wet our hands, then we skewered the meat into a couple of long sausages, and then we pressed the meat to the skewers gently, rotating them around slowly. After that, we brushed them each with cooking oil, then grilled them for five minutes. The scent was amazing. Finally, we put them on plates, which we then put on a cardboard-and-wood carrier (like a basket) and took them outside.

Ezra and Jacen appeared almost immediately. I motioned to the food, which we had set out on a glass table. It looked very… enticing. "Lunch is ready, boys."

We all sat around the table while Hera passed out the kebabs. Jacen arced an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Cardian Lamb Kebabs," Hera responded sweetly. "They taste really good."

"I agree," I said, in unison with Ezra. Immediately, we looked at each other, blushing. We were sitting next to each other. Warily, Jacen took a small bite of the kebab, then took a larger bite, after which he hungrily began to devour the meat.

"I like it," he said in between bites. Hera smiled.

"Glad you like it," she responded. Ezra looked at me, then Hera, then back to me.

"You guys made this? Because this tastes like heaven," he asked. I clasped his hand under the table.

"Yeah, we did," I said. Was that a tint of love in my voice?

"Hera did all the work, didn't she?" Ezra teased.

"No," Hera said. "Sabine did about 25% of the work."

"Ow. I'm hurt."

"Hey, think of it this way: I did 0% of the work," Ezra joked.

"You little turd," Jacen commented. Ezra and I laughed; Hera looked insulted.

"Jacen! Where did you learn that word?"

"From me," Ezra said, smiling sheepishly. "We were playing with the Force, and Jacen told Chopper to lock his legs down when I was lifting him."

I immediately flashed back to Ezra's first couple days. "Deja vu much?"

"Yup," Ezra responded, smiling widely. "That was a good prank."

"I've done better," I said nonchalantly. Hera, Jacen, and Ezra all laughed. They all knew my long, long history of larks, like the time I switched sunblock with water. It was totally worth it, both for the look of confusion on Hera's face and the look of joy on Jacen's.

"So can we play some more after lunch?" Jacen asked peppily. He had a look of perpetual excitement on his cute little face.

"Sure!" I responded. He smiled even wider. "What are we gonna play?"

"I'll tell you after," Jacen said. Immediately, I knew the game: Tag. I beat him to the punch. I looked at everybody's plates and saw no food on them. As such, we were finished with luncheon.

"Okay, well… Tag! You're it, Jacen!" I shouted, pushing my chair back, standing up, and tagging Jacen lightly with my hand. I sprinted about five yards before I was frozen in place. Then, I was turned around to see Ezra standing right in front of me, wagging his finger, one of his adorable locks of hair falling over his eyes. Sigh...

Oookay, maybe I was a little…. obsessed.

"Jacen, if you will?" Ezra asked. The little guy waddled up, tapped me with one finger, then ran inside. Hera took the dishes from the table, then followed Jacen inside. As soon as the door closed, Ezra kissed me, then released the Force Stasis.

"You know, if you had unfrozen me before you kissed me, I would have been able to do the same to you," I said, crossing my arms, trying to look as petulant as I could. Ezra put one hand on my forearm and gently pushed it down.

"Then do it now," Ezra said flirtatiously. I smirked, then jumped up and wrapped my legs around his, kind of like a fishhook. If he felt pain from my Beskar plating hitting him, he didn't show it. I put one arm around his neck and the other one under his arm. He put both of his arms on my back as we made out for a minute, before we heard the door open and a triumphant, "I knew it!"

Ezra and I unwound ourselves from each other and turned to find Hera standing in the doorway, a goofy smile on her face. "Took you two long enough."

"You could say that, yeah," I responded.

"Well, Jacen is getting bored in his hiding spot, and if he finds you two making out you will never hear the end of it."

Well, it took me maybe an hour to come up with this pure, unabashed fluff. Started typing, and a couple of hours later? This happens. I think it's a good thing.

To all the people that couldn't find Chapter 8, that's because it's now Chapter 7. I took down a chapter.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed! Next chapter, we (well, you- I've already seen it in my mind) get to see more of our (least) favorite character, as well as a setup for some action. YAY! More shooty-shooty-bang-bang scenes!

I'm rambling. I'll shut up now- can't give too much away! : )

-RebelliousWaffle