And this is the chapter that the mental games begin! ...Although most of it is funny fluffy-bonding material. I've had an idea with the vents in my head for a loooong time now, and it just fit so perfectly here I couldn't help but stick it in.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I've been doing so many of these that whenever I read/hear the word 'disclaim' in any form I immediately start thinking about Disney owning Star Wars, no matter the context. It's... not been easy.
It was late the next day when the crew was actively up and moving, as they'd allowed themselves to sleep in after their late-night mission. It didn't matter much, though. Hera's gotten orders from Fulcrum to stay put- they were going to be part in the strikes against the multiple shipping locations, and Hera's contact wanted them in one spot until everything was organized with a definite plan of action.
Which meant, with the absence of any jobs, they were doing maintenance.
It wasn't fun, but it was a necessary part of keeping their ship running. There had been so many modifications and tweaks to the ship that frequent maintenance stops were a required part of life, and it became the ever-constant chore. You were never bored on the Ghost- you either had something to keep you occupied, or you were doing some form of maintenance.
Ezra had actually lightened that particular burden severely when he came aboard. With his... lithe frame (he sulked when called short), he was able to sneak into the air-flow ducts, which gave him access to the various wiring inside the Ghost's mainframe. Before, they'd been forced to open up the entire ceiling, wall or floor in order to reach the wires, something that was time-consuming and most definitely not fun for anyone. Especially when several of those panels had mysteriously been stuck together by large clumps of purple fur.
And while they still had to pull the paneling for the few areas Ezra couldn't reach, the workload in that particular field was greatly diminished. Though, while Sabine and the rest of the crew were much relieved once they'd realized this, one particular teen himself wasn't very pleased whenever asked by Hera to crawl into a particular space and mess about with the circuitry. He still did it, knowing it eased the burden on his friends as they were allowed to focus on other maintenance-worthy areas, though the complaint levels he'd display would rise significantly.
Currently, he was somewhere up above the cockpit, and Sabine could hear him shuffling around as she monitored the sensors displaying his progress with the turret controls. Hera'd noticed a slight delay between her pressing the trigger and the canons actually firing, so they had to be re-calibrated. When an automated calibration failed to make any difference, Ezra's been sent up to manually find out what the problem was and hopefully fix it. Sabine was stationed up at the scanners, watching the turret's stats to see if what he did changed anything.
"Well, there's definitely something in here." He called out, voice muffled through the metal barrier but still coming through legibly.
"What'd you find?" Sabine raised her voice to be heard as well, not taking her eyes off the screens and sipping her cup of caf. She'd stayed up pretty late designing her romance picture, so the beverage was sorely needed and appreciated.
"There's- something pressing down on the wiring; it looks like it's heavy enough to cause some jamming with the signals coming through."
Sabine hummed. "Can you get it out?"
"... I should be able to... it looks like it might be-" He cut himself off with a yelp, making Sabine glance upwards with raised eyebrows. A moment before she was about to call out to him, the scanners pinged, flashing green to indicate the connection with the turrets had been re-established correctly.
"Did that work?"
Sabine resisted the urge to smirk, a small half-smile filtering through nonetheless. "Nah, the sensors are just having a field day over here because they like me. You alright?"
"Yeah..." She heard further mumblings, and was greatly amused with the mental image of Ezra crossing his arms in disgust while confined in a small metal duct. She was amused further when she realized that was very possible at the moment, considering the amount of musing going on up there.
"Did the big bad wires give you a big bad electric shock?"
"No!"
Sabine turned a raised eyebrow to the ceiling, not caring that he couldn't see it. A moment later, he grumbled, "It was the conduit pressing up against them."
She shook her head, chuckling slightly, and sipped more of her caf as Ezra clambered out from the open panel in the middle of the room. Looking just a little disgruntled, he nevertheless flashed her a cocky smile. "Mission accomplished, o' mighty Mandalorian."
"Excellent- now my plans for galactic domination are that much closer to fruition. With Chopper by my side, we shall rule the Galaxy, spreading fear and terror throughout the entire universe!" Ezra snorted, then swept into a low mock bow.
"As you wish, oh great and powerful one- and until that day comes, I shall remain by your side and re-connect every wire that comes your way."
"And protect me from all the shocking conduits that wish me harm?"
"Of course."
Sabine laughed, rising from the pilot's seat and heading out the cockpit. "Excellent. But first- we must tend to the wishes of our Twi'lek overlord, until that time comes when we dethrone her and claim her power for our own!"
"Do what now?" Hera peered from her open cabin door, apparently having finished tuning her sensitive communications equipment. Ezra pointed a dramatic finger at her from behind Sabine, determination and amusement alike blazing in his eyes.
"You shall be overthrown!"
Hera blinked, smiled, then morphed the smile into a smirk and leaned against the doorway. "Not until the shields get re-calibrated, I won't."
Ezra's head slumped down, his finger flopping slightly. Sabine laughed, knowing Ezra was doomed to crawl into yet another air filter and mess around with the wiring. Hopefully this time in the absence of any vengeful shocking conduits.
"I wouldn't be too quick to laugh, Sabine- the Phantom needs some work on the ship-to-ship communications. The signal's fuzzy when connected to the Ghost's, and I don't want it to get worse." Sabine sighed, resigning herself to working for possible hours. At this rate, she wouldn't be able to paint her teasing artwork in the eating galley until it was late in the day... maybe even early in the next one. It was a good design, too, something that neither Kanan or Hera would be able to ignore and/or misunderstand. Nothing as cliché as a heart between them or anything... but something that was nonetheless pretty obvious in it's meaning.
Ah, poor Kanan... while Hera was doing rather well in the 'don't-give-a-reaction-and-they'll-leave-me-alone' department, Ezra was giving his Master absolutely no breaks with the teasing. Which Sabine believed was part of the reason he'd been sent to go and deal with the turret connection anyways... to give Kanan a respite from all the jabs the teen was rather capable of delivering.
"Alright, I'm on it..." Hera smirked a bit as she and Ezra headed off, chuckling lightly to herself. As they left Sabine swore she heard the Twi'lek say,
"It's good to be an overlord..."
"Hey, Sabine!"
Popping out of the Phantom's maintenance hatch and wiping her sweaty brow, Sabine answered Kanan's call. "Yeah?"
"Do you have a minute to take a look at this?"
Glancing at her mostly-finished work in the Phantom's control panel, she re-connected the last circuit and smiled when the console flashed in recognition. Now done with the communications and general check-up of the excursion vessel, Sabine exited the docking port, heading towards the commons where Kanan was fiddling... with the Dejarik board.
"I'm thinking of rebooting the overall system, but there's a line of code in here that I don't think is supposed to be." He looked up at her, thoughtful expression swiftly changing into an inquisitive raised eyebrow as he saw her 'really?' face. "What?"
"The Dejarik board? Really? I mean, I know we use it for more than just board games, but really?" He shrugged, standing from his crouched position and leaning against the holographic display table.
"Well, it needs to be done, and it shouldn't have taken more than a few minutes."
"Why didn't you just get Chopper to do it?" Kanan snorted, eyes rolling in the direction of the cockpit.
"Chop is re-calibrating his charging station on his own, apparently because he doesn't trust 'anyone but himself' to do it properly."
Sabine laughed, remembering the last time the little astromech had made the mistake of letting Ezra anywhere near his charging port. Although Hera hadn't been very pleased either, no one was more upset than Chop, and Ezra had actually had to take refuge in the Phantom until the droid had calmed down. Apparently, it was a very, very bad idea to rewire the charging station to drain power instead of give it. Though the fix had been an easy one (made, of course, by Ezra), since then the little astromech hadn't let anyone even touch the darned thing, excepting Hera- who was currently up on the roof, doing some grunt-work with Zeb.
"Right, right. What kind of code did you need me to look at?" Sabine moved towards the Dejarik board, crouching in Kanan's earlier position and peering at the diagnostic screen he'd pulled up beforehand.
"Not exactly sure- it looks like a standard code to connect the controls to the hardware, but everything necessary for that is already programmed in." Sabine hummed, her eyes catching the string of binary that looked out of place from the rest. Her eyes narrowed, trying to decipher it, and was interrupted by a familiar voice floating from the ceiling-
"It might be a back-up program in case the primary is damaged. Though why a Dejarik board would need one I don't know."
"Hn. Maybe Hera put it in there because we use it more as an information display than a playing board?" Kanan responded, and Sabine nodded.
"Yeah, that's what this is looking like... yes, that's what it is. It only connects to the controls in the absence of anything else coupled to them. False alarm, Kanan."
The Jedi huffed, taking Sabine's place as she maneuvered out of the position she was crouched in and stretched. "I don't know how you cope with being up in the vents for this long, Ezra- just being in the Phantom's maintenance hatch absolutely killed my back."
A harsh bark of laughter reverberated through the ceiling, followed by Ezra's slightly sarcastic reply: "Oh no, I'm absolutely wonderful up in here, believe me." Sabine grinned up at the top of the room, banging the area she knew a vent to reside in with the back of her hand.
"Hey, I'm just messing with you."
"Uh, no, you're not. You're messing with an empty vent next to me."
"Hm?" She could've sworn that was where his voice had been coming from... Narrowing her eyes, Sabine scanned the ceiling, internally mapping out the vents above her in her head. If she was wearing her helmet she could simply scan for the empty air pockets, but as it was in her cabin she had to make do with her memory alone.
Walking a few steps to her right, Sabine tapped the ceiling again, listening to the hollow ringing. It was definitely a vent... but from Ezra's cackling, not in the spot he was in. Scowling, Sabine honed in on the laughter, zeroing in on a spot just in front of her.
"Colder... you'll never find me at this rate!"
Sabine couldn't stop the grin. Oh, she'd find him all right, if it killed her. There were only so many air filters, after all... Sabine hit the underside of the ceiling again, cackling when she heard Ezra laugh in confirmation. A moment later, there was shuffling, and then Ezra's head popped out of the opening he'd crawled into the vents with in the first place. The way his hair flopped beside his face while upside down was comical, matching the grin plastered onto his face.
"Took you long enough!"
"Psh. I wasn't even trying!"
"Really? Well then let's see how fast you find me when you DO try, mighty Mando!" And he was off again, flipping his head back into the vents. Expecting to hear him shuffle to his next hiding spot, Sabine was momentarily surprised when she heard nothing. Well, it made sense- if he made that much noise on missions he'd've been found out almost instantly. Of course he was going to have some stealth while up in the vents.
Eyes once more glued onto the ceiling, Sabine tried thinking like Ezra, to try and figure out where he'd head next. She immediately moved towards her left, to the door to the eating galley, and tapped the space above the door connecting the two rooms. After hearing some dark chuckles, she switched her target to just a little behind her, instantly rewarded with the outcry of surprise that made her laugh.
"Looks like the might Mando has you all figured out, Loth-rat!"
"Oi! That's Zeb's name for me, not yours!"
She cocked an eyebrow at the ceiling, well aware that even if Ezra couldn't see it, he knew she was doing it. "Well, it's not just his name for you, it's your secondary name!"
"Oh really?"
"Yup- Loth-rat's just who you are, kid."
"Ha! Could a Loth-rat hide in the ven- don't answer that." Sabine laughed, even harder when distinct grumbles reverberated through the thin metal sheets. Oh, the corners he drove himself into...
"Well, let's see how easy this 'Loth-rat' is to find when I give absolutely NO clues to where I am!" And then there was silence, save for the few giggles that still slipped out of Sabine. Oh, this kid was on, and he'd soon be regretting ever challenging her.
Within thirty seconds, Ezra was stuck in the vents because he was laughing so hard he couldn't move. Apparently, her 'futile' attempts to find his spot were just that amusing... she sobered him up real quick when she found him immediately after he'd gotten into his next position.
Two more rounds had passed, and they were in the middle of their third when Sabine finally took notice of the other person in the room. She cocked her head and one eyebrow, smiling at him with a question while simultaneously tapping the vents above her, revealing Ezra's latest spot. "Yes?" She asked, still staring at him as Ezra's head popped out of the vent's opening.
Kanan stared at them. He blinked.
"Hide and seek. You're literally playing hide and seek."
Sabine blinked, turning a blank face to Ezra's upside-down one, and turned back to Kanan, frowning. "Noooo! Hide and seek and tag and all that stuff is for kids- Ezra and I are just honing our skills for missions." Ezra nodded, hair bobbing oddly as he did so.
"Yeah- I mean, who knows when I'll be stuck in the vents and one of you has to come find me? If we don't practice, I may never be found again!"
Kanan rubbed his eyes with his hand, standing up from under the Dejarik table and staring both Sabine and his Padawan down with a raised eyebrow and a practically invisible smile. "You were getting up on my case for rebooting the board, and now you're playing a kid's game?"
"We're not playing a kids game!"
"Yeah- we're training!" Sabine backed Ezra up, firmly believing in what they were saying. All the same, she couldn't help but to also firmly believe in Ezra's next plea,
"Just don't tell Hera." And then, of course, his face turned into one big, upside-down mischievous grin. "Although, I guess I can't ask that from you... after all, 'you tell each ot-"
"Finish that sentence and you'll be stuck up in those vents for a loooong time." Ezra narrowed his eyes, sizing up crossed-arms-Kanan. Seemingly finding him serious about his threat, Ezra flipped out of the hole, swaying slightly as the blood returned from his head to the rest of his body. Sabine grinned as Kanan nodded, content with the way he'd handled the situation.
"Now come on, we'd better go and ask what's next to update." Sabine shook her head, prompting both Kanan and Ezra to raise an eyebrow at her.
"You two go on ahead. I've got to switch out my own air filters in my room- the paint fumes are beginning to get a little thick."
"Why don't you just have me do it?"
Sabine grinned at Ezra. "Because, Loth-rat, it's sensitive equipment, and from the looks Kanan's giving you, you'd better go with him instead." Ezra smiled tentatively at the frowning-yet-still-just-barely-smiling Kanan, who nodded his head.
"Yup- you and me both are going to get the next assignment from Hera, because I for one don't want to incur her wrath by messing around." He turned and headed towards the door to move up topside, but before he fully left the room, Ezra leaned over to Sabine.
"I'm sensing some dominance issues here, how about you 'Bine?"
She could have kept her laughter in. She really could have. It would've been a challenge, yeah, nevertheless she still could've done it.
But the way Kanan's head just slowly turned to face Ezra's, eyes narrowed and mouth open as though he was still deciding what words to rebuke with made keeping her laughter to herself impossible. Ezra bounded out with a grin, quickly overtaking Kanan out the door before the Jedi could make a move, leaving Sabine to very nearly collapse on the floor. This was priceless...
"One of these days, every tease and prank that kid ever pulled will come back to bite him in the rear, I swear it." Sabine grinned at Kanan, still giggling, and shrugged.
"I don't know, they haven't so far and he's really good at dodging everyone else's..." Kanan just sighed, shaking his head and moving out the door and towards the ramp that'd lead him up to the top of the ship.
Wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes, Sabine moved to follow him out the door and to her room when she stopped, frowning.
'they know how to make you laugh...'