"Your game is really off, Goot," Jonner said, full of good nature. If he let her win, she'd know it, so he didn't. Although, since she was acting as strangely as she was today, he wasn't so sure she'd realize.

She hadn't been herself since they'd joined this large band.

Gooti Terez, sat at the game table in the Ghost common room, staring back at him blankly. Her heart wasn't in the game. Jonner had beaten her four out of the five times they'd played, so far. "I'm much better than you are at dejarik and you know it," she told him in a spate of breath. That used to be true; lately, not so much. The Theelin often clipped her words when she spoke. Not all Theelins did, but Gooti did.

"You aren't proving that." Perceptively, the square-jawed, bald human with big eyes, a paler blue than Ezra's, asked, "What's with you?"

"Nothing," she fired back moodily.

Just then, Mart Mattin, their good friend, and leader of Iron Squadron, sauntered into the common room, feeling proud that their new friends had left the Ghost in his charge. His uncle, Jun Sato had requested that the crew join him and his command for an impromptu reconnaissance mission. Iron Squadron had no hard feelings, not feeling left out. Jonner and Mart weren't sure if joining Phoenix would work for them, over time. It was great being with other Rebels, but Mart had his own ideas and plans in the making about combating the common foe. For the most part, Jonner Jin had better piece of mind when he went along with Mart, whom he'd always looked up to.

Gooti wasn't making her wish to be with this main battery of resisters silent. Jonner was right, something was up with her, and admitting what it was, wasn't easy for her. Some things were meant to be kept private, at least until the time was right to tell all. This was the first time anything like this had happened to her. The pull of her heart was strong. Someone had caught her eyes, and that someone was none other than...Ezra. This Theelin was smitten with the rash, brash Jedi-in-training. He'd sent her hormones in a tizzy, and she was tail-spinning even as she sat here with Jonner, trying to concentrate on some silly, old game.

Just thinking about Ezra made her weak in the head.

"I know what's up with her," Mart boldly proclaimed, striding up to his friends. He was munching a handful of tart, freeze-dried goodies he'd discovered in a storage nook in the cockpit. His manner jaunty, he gave each menacing hologame piece scrutiny, then said with an offhanded laugh, "Your love life is showing, Goot." He was all too familiar with unrequited love himself. "The person with the initials EB has Goot all ga-ga."

One might have heard a pin drop in the common room, here on Atollon. The reverberating vibrations would have stopped Rebels going about their business, or relaxing, or entertaining, in their tracks. Droids too. Starships of the Rebellion might have glitched in orbit.

The chalky white cheeks of Gooti's face flamed crimson, a telltale trait she shared with fair-skinned humans. The jig was up, and so was her temper. "Mind your own business," she spluttered when exclaiming, jumping up from her seat at the table, frowning as if she could silence persons with her uncompromising stare. Her meaning clear, Mart needed to keep his big mouth shut.

"What?" Jonner shouted, looking stun. Disbelief imprinted itself on his wide face. His eyes were the size of saucers. He buried what he felt for Gooti deep inside, cross with himself. Why hadn't he ever let her know how he felt about her? He'd merely taken it for granted that their being together had forged an inseparable bond of friendship, and something inexplicably more. Had he ever read her wrong. E.B. It didn't take a genius to figure out who that was. Decisively, Jonner made his next dejarik move, which automatically made Gooti the winner. She was a winner with him, always was, always would be.

"She couldn't be more obvious." Then Mart repeated that again, personalizing his smug statement. "You couldn't be more obvious. Being around him so much. Acting like whatever he says is the best stuff you've ever heard, and telling him that on, and on, and on. Goot, you should see yourself. It's embarrassing."

Ezra...she had 'heat' for Bridger. Jonner winced. Of all the...she'd just met the hotshot. Jonner hung his head like he was the only person who'd been deserted at Tosche Station. He'd known Gooti for as long as he could remember, and that was really a long time, their throwing in together on Mykapo as they had, having grown closer ever since. He'd assumed they were as close as two beings could become without actually meshing.

How had she gotten to this point, having eyes for the skinny guy, who thought he knew so much? Things were so unfair, Jonner grunted to himself, thoroughly peeved.

Quietly, he asked, "Goot, is this true?"

"Yes, it's true," Mart insisted.

"I want to hear it from her," Jonner zinged back.

She looked away from him to glare at Mart. "You didn't have to say anything. My feelings are my business." Before Gooti fled the area, Mart's words stopped her cold, like freezing water sloshing her in the face, drenching her from head to toe.

"You're wasting your time, Gooti-girl," Mart claimed, his tone a marriage of candor and sympathy.

Jonner brightened as his breathing slowed from its rapid escalation. Why was she wasting her time, stormed his mind. His own answer wallowed in his mental grasp. Because, she's too good for that smarty-pants. 'He probably thinks he's too good for her,' Jonner nearly said, but thought saying something insensitive like that was better left unsaid. Gooti was way too good for Ezra Bridger.

"Like it's any of your business," Gooti complained, making ready to scurry away from the testosterone contingency of Iron Squadron. They were guys, what did they know?

Plenty...

They weren't as clueless as many females of whatever species often conclude.

Breaking it to her as gently as he could, Mart informed, "He's married, Goot."

The other pin had dropped.

"Ma-married," she dribbled out, looking as if a blaster bolt had crashed into her between the eyes. So much made sense now. Despite her overtures, Ezra had never made any advances. He was a gentleman, yet why hadn't he ever said anything about his being wed?

Jonner slapped his hand across his face, making certain he wasn't dreaming. Softly, he muttered, "Who'd say yes to him?"

"Sabine," Mart clarified, with a look of confirmation, which had come straight from the beauty's mouth. He'd been sniffing around her too, and Mrs. Wren-Bridger, being Mrs. Wren-Bridger had made it clear that she was taken. The same way she had had to spell it out for Wedge Antilles when he'd come a callin'. The Mandalorian was feminine magnetism after all. If she had hailed from Coruscant, and fun as long as there was a party was all she craved from life, she might have been the toast of the more popular cantinas and clubs. IF she had been that kind of girl who lived for that sort of meaninglessness.

"Ma-married..." This time there were tears puddling in Gooti's eyes, but not one fell. She was too quick. Before either Jonner or Mart could say another thing, she cut out faster than a speeder.

"If there's any consolation," Mart called after her with understanding eyes trained on her retreating form, "I thought the Mandalorian was up for grabs too. They're kids like us." He faced back around to Jonner, and posed, "Who would've thought they'd be married already?" When he shrugged, he made a crazy face too.

"Too young?" Jonner voiced.

"Way too young," Mart promoted, assuming that Jonner and he saw eye to eye.

Once she's over this thing...I should tell her how I feel, Jonner decided. But then, he figured maybe he needed to go comfort Gooti. Now.

"Hey, you," Mart challenged. "Championship-level dejarik. One game."

Maybe letting Gooti calm down, swipe tears off her face alone, was a better idea.

"You're on, nerf-herder. I win in less than four moves."

"Less than four? Ha-I got it in two."

"This I've got to see," Jonner said, calling Mart's bluff."

"Prepare to see," he declared, eyeball deep in strategic implementation.

In the room she was sharing with Hera, Gooti Terez lay on her back, staring up at the instrumentation-paneled ceiling. She'd stopped crying, refusing to think, or feel. All she wanted to do was drift off, float away, to a place where hearts never got broken. After a good while, mentally, she brightened. Suddenly all she could think about was Jonner. Later, when she was able to, she'd have a long talk with him. If she ever ran afoul of this troubling, mysterious thing hailed as love again, she wanted him to talk her out of it.

No one listened to her better than Jonner Jin did.

And she would listen to him too, with all her heart. The way she'd been listening to him for years. For as long as she'd known him, he'd never given her anything but amazing advice. The kind that usually cost him much, and her, nothing, neatly trimmed with sincerity all around the edges. Advice that, when she heeded it, would prove to be the best.

The advice of a loyal, devoted...friend.

Friend, Gooti, pondered, just a friend? Or, perhaps...something more. Serenity settled over her like a thick blanket and she gave the ceiling a wide, easy grin.

"Something more," she whispered. "And true..."