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Sabine...Sabine...Sabine...

Just when you think you know a person, said person pulls out a whole new repertoire from her bottomless bag of tricky baggage.

...

Ezra knew that if he never saw Sabine again life as he had known it up to this point would be impossible. Though that might have sounded melodramatic and sadly trite, it would be true. He had grown to love the feisty Mandalorian; that was his blessing as well as his curse. Regardless of how many times he had confessed his feelings for her, she was a pro at putting him off, telling him they were the best of friends. Possibly more…one day, that was a big possibly. But for now, keeping what they were to each other as it was, meant a lot less needless bother for them both.

Weren't their lives complicated enough owed to Empirical interference?

Both of them were young, with numerous choices to make still ahead of them. Why would he wish to tie himself down? The galaxy was filled with women, of whom he could have his pick. Sabine couldn't emphasize enough how good having choices was. She'd already made hers; battling against and ultimately winning the war came first.

When she had used the word bother, it had sent Ezra's spirits nosediving. Was that how she actually saw him as, a pest? Someone so unworthy? Hadn't he'd already shown her just how much he cared for her to treat him as though he would never matter?

Knuckle down, he advised himself. Perhaps if he had been concentrating more as he'd clung to the departing shuttle, he would not have been picked off so easily like a Womp rat in Beggars Canyon. So here he was, stuck on Corellia, agonizing over Sabine's unsettling disappearance in that shuttle. Her long-lost shadow from her past, Ketsu hot on her trail. Ketsu Onyo, the mystery bounty hunter, who had tried ambushing them in that hangar. Sabine had once been one too? That explains so much, he thought again for as many times. Why did intrigue dog Sabine like Banthas loved mowing down Sand People? Maybe he should have continued quizzing Sabine about her past more than he had thus far. Ezra sat on the Phantom's boarding ramp, contemplating his struggling love life while he waited for Hera. She said that Kanan was scanning the last space the shuttle Sabine had stolen and Ketsu's ship had occupied before jumping. Forlorn and despondent, Ezra raised his eyes as far as he could to glimpse a meager wedge of lofty cerulean sky. Where could his reluctant ex-bounty hunter sweetheart be? Was she all right? If he were a fool for caring, so be it.

He would always care. Even if she kept kicking him in the teeth with her callous digs and insults, it wouldn't faze him. Didn't she do most of that because deep down she was covering up how she really felt about him? She was the girl of his dreams and the woman of his future. How could he show her she wouldn't be sorry for getting involved with him the way he wanted them to be involved? It wasn't going to be easy, that was for sure. Sabine was as stubborn as she was heavenly. Wanting what he wanted added to the plight his emotions had put him.

Being in love was supposed to be fantastic, as if the galaxy was yours for the taking? Then, why did he feel so out-of-control, so much more helpless and confused every time Sabine rolled her unfathomable eyes and curled her seductive lips at him? Then had no problem telling him to act his age, not his shoe size when he would tell her how pretty she looked. According to her, he needed to pull his head out of the clouds, plant his feet on solid ground, whenever they were on solid ground and focus on why they lived the way they did, championing the greater good.

And not catering to personal whims.

Kanan had once said some women liked being hard to get. Well, if that was Sabine's intention, he would show her he was a man who was hard to shake. He wasn't giving up to show her just what he was made of. He was the embodiment of determination that had no idea what quitting meant.

An abrupt shout from Hera snapped him out of his moody musings. As she bounded from the Phantom, she barked again, "One of the ships has been picked up, heading to us."

Hoping as he had never hoped before, Ezra blurted, "Is it Sabine?"

"The ship's Mandalorian. That's all we know."

Uncertain whether he should cheer or lament, he sighed, looking relieved suddenly. Why else would the ship be returning here if she weren't aboard, alive, not delivered up to the Empire for a reward? Ezra winced, wondering if that reward still applied if Sabine were no longer alive and mercenary Ketsu had the EG-86 Gonk binary droid all set to collect her earnings from the Black Sun. But first, she'd come back to gloat before lightspeeding off to the Empire.

Such troubling thoughts whirling willy-nilly in his head caused Ezra to sway, his legs wobbly in comparison to how badly his heart beat. He thrust out a shaky hand to the Phantom for support, steadying himself as Hera sprinted to the landing spacecraft.

It wasn't long before two feminine forms emerged from the vessel with their blast helmets still on. His heart beating savagely in his chest, Ezra streaked to the figure he knew best and threw his arms around it, sorely carried away. Into Sabine's elegant shoulder, inches from her ear, he exulted, "I thought I'd never see you again." He hugged her fiercely, it being a living demonstration of what she was never going to live down, Ezra's slavish devotion. Hearing her wheeze inside her suit, he loosened his grip, not ending it entirely. "Next time I'll be sure not to get blasted loose from an ascending ship and left behind."

Music to his ears, Sabine unabashedly admitted, "I really could have used your help. Is that a promise?"

"You bet it is," he vowed gleefully, restraining himself from scooping her up into his arms and dancing around the hangar with her like some spacer hopped-up on Rx stimulus, a powerful, illegal narcotic on Bauulet. When she took off her helmet and gave his scarred cheek a coddling kiss, Ezra soared beyond the confines of the stuffy, paltry, hangar not about to come back down to Garel any time soon.

Focus, he reminded himself. Oh, he was; on how good it was having her back. Going forward, regardless of the circumstances, he'd be her shadow whether she liked that or didn't. His personal mission was to see to it that he stuck close to her, regardless.

Going with the feeling because Ezra knew he should, scooping her up into his arms swiftly came next.

"I can't tell you how glad I am to see you," Sabine whispered back as he set her down. Who was he? Surely not the same; the change in him nearly palpable. In the back of her mind, the thought had plagued her that maybe he hadn't survived the fall from that impossible height. He was tough, had such heart. When would she admit to him how much he meant to her too?

Ezra never budged from her side. "That makes two of us. But I can tell you." His smile wasn't as shy, not now. "I'm delighted, and relieved to see you. I was worried sick. You know that thing about Inquisitors…"

"What thing?" Sabine queried, wishing she could read his mind. A first.

"They come in twos. That's how it's going to be with you and me. Where you go, I go too." The set of his jaw and the tenacity embedded in his eyes indicated how much he meant that. More softly, he capped, "Yeah?"

Flinging her arms at him, snagging him by his neck, Sabine nodded. "Yeah…" Which she meant with all her heart.