The day didn't seem to weird to begin with.
Hera woke up first, getting some food and then going to the cockpit, chatting quietly with Chopper so not to wake the others, nothing unusual in that at all. Kanan woke next but spent some time trying to meditate before joining Zeb in getting grub for themselves. Sabine joined them not long after, hungry for fresh fruits but settling for some of the dehydrated rations that they had since it had been a while since their last supply pickup.
And then things turned weird as Ezra crawled on all fours into the common room, crawled onto the couch and curled up, mewling.
Zeb stared at him. "...Did...I hit my head?"
"Why, because Ezra just crawled in on all four and mewled at us? Because if you saw that then I did too." Sabine confirmed, almost dropping her plate.
Kanan frowned and moved to his padawan's side, touching Ezra's shoulder carefully. "Ezra?"
He got a grumpy mew in return and Ezra curling up more on the couch. The Jedi frowned then brushed his fingers over the others forehead. "He...has a slight fever? I...errg, I'm going to ask Hera what she thinks, you two, look after him." He straightened and hurried to the cockpit to talk to the Twi'lek.
Zeb's ears twitched a bit before moving over to the kid, kneeling down. "Ezra? You hungry?" He asked cautiously only for Ezra meow at him. "...Sabine?" He looked to the teenage girl, looking lost as he did.
"...We give him a bowl of milk?" She said, lips twitching, grinning more as Chopper came rolling. "Chopper, just the droid I wanted to see!" Her grin growing wider. "Tell me you're gonna record this." The mech beeped questionably only to whirl to Ezra as he mewled loudly.
Then he beeped and warbled excitedly.
"Ugh...Sabine, honestly he needs to eat." Zeb grumbled and poked at Ezra only to have his hand slapped at in what looked like Ezra was trying to make a claw with his hand. "He's skinny enough as it is."
That sobered Sabine up enough. "Well...we aren't really certain what's going on with him. We might wanna wait until Hera comes before we do anything." She came over and sat down on the couch, eyeing Ezra before gently petting his head.
That made the teenager purr. Actually purr.
"Do humans have the vocal cords to purr?" Zeb blinked. He hadn't noticed any of the others purring ever.
"Not really, if you listen you can tell he's forcing it, humans don't have the vocal cords at all to really purr like you do." Sabine continued petting him though, noting that Ezra needed a shower as his hair was getting a bit greasy.
"I don't purr." Zeb grumbled only for his grumble to be lost as Hera hurried in.
"Kanan said Ezra was acting wei-what is he doing?" Hera stared at him before moving to kneel beside Zeb, staring at Ezra.
"He's...purring?"
"He's also walking on all fours and each time he says something h-"
"Meow."
"Yeah that." Kanan stopped behind them.
"I can't reach him through the Force either. Whatever it is has left his shields up at least though I could try going through them..."
"That would hurt Ezra wouldn't it?" Hera gently stroked the teens cheek.
"Very, those shields exists for a reason." Kanan crossed his arms over his chest, frowning in worry. "Can you tell what's wrong with him?"
"I...I'm not sure honestly. My best guess right now would be the Force but from your expression that seems unlikely." She frowned and stood. "Perhaps I can find something on the holo-net?"
"Right now, any advice is better then nothing." The Jedi sighed before moving to the kitchen, getting something cooking.
"Um..."
"He needs to eat. If he's acting like a Loth-cat, we treat him like a Loth-cat until we know better." Kanan sighed a bit. "He still knows how to chew, we just need to feed him."
"Not doing it."
"Nope, not me. He's your padawan."
"I'd do it but someone needs to check the holo-net to see what we can do and I need to take a blood sample to see if there are any drugs in his system, I'm going to do that first once I've fetched a needle." Hera stroked the teens cheek gently then got up. "Chopper what are you doing?"
There was a series of whirls and beeps, Chopper waving a arm in the air.
"Oh, well I guess that could be useful if we had imagines to compare to symptoms..." She gave him a suspicious look before heading to the medbay.
Kanan sighed and continued cooking until he had a meal made of finely chopped up meat in sauce with rehydrated vegetables mixed in. He was hoping he could get Ezra to eat this at least as he wasn't sure he could get a 'cat' to eat space waffles, cereal or meal bars.
He moved to the couch, noticing that Chopper was, uncharacteristically, silently recording everything. Sabine had moved to her usual spot to polish and re-color her armor while Zeb was lazing in his chair, watching Ezra in mix of amusement and worry.
The young padawan himself was just curled up on the couch though he perked like a curious Loth-cat when Kanan came over with the bowl and sat down on the couch. That got a smile out of Kanan as he ruffled Ezra's hair carefully. "Okay Ezra, lets see if you won't eat this..." He took the spoon and tried feeding him.
Ezra blinked and sniffed at it before eating the sauced up food from the spoon Kanan was offering him. He did try to put his face in the bowl after a bit but Kanan managed to keep him from it, not wanting to clean the teen up if he could help it, reduce the amount of embarrassment Ezra was sure to feel later once he didn't think he was a cat.
Hera came in just before Ezra finished the bowl with a syringe in her hands. "Kanan, can you keep him distracted? For a blood sample I mean?" She frowned, not wanting to upset the feline acting teen.
Last thing they wanted was for Ezra to panic and go into the vents in this state of mind.
"I can try." Kanan set the mostly empty bowl on the table and then gently started petting Ezra, trying not to be surprised when the teen crawled into his lap with his upper body and flopped his head against Ezra's stomach, peering up at him with half lidded eyes.
"Hey there Ezra..." He murmured quietly, starting to run his fingers through the others hair instead, watching blue eyes close up as the teen relaxed against him. Hera sat down slowly on one side and drew Ezra's arm from him, petting it when a cranky blue eye opened to look at her.
They waited until the eyes closed again before Hera took the blood sample, Kanan having to hold the trashing kid against him as he hissed unhappily at having his blood drawn by the pilot before she quickly finished and pulled the syringe back, not wanting it to break and to have to repeat the proceeding.
She quickly put a bandage on the lightly bleeding area and nodded to Kanan while stepping back, the man letting Ezra go.
The teen murred rebelliously at them before basically rolling of the couch and crawling away into a corner where he curled up, still murring as he snuggled up and stayed there, clearly awake but ignoring them.
"...I gotta admit, I kind of like him like this, he's quieter and not complaining." Zeb sniggered softly only to shut up when the others looked at him in a unimpressed manner.
"Zeb, we have no idea what's going on with him." Hera pointed out sensibly. "For all we know he has a brain parasite." She headed to the medbay back to get the blood sample analyzed.
"...Its not a brain parasite is it?" Zeb asked hesitantly. "I mean he just smells kind of sick. Not...well... I don't know what a brain parasite smells like but I imagine it would smell worse?"
"I don't know Zeb. He's not acting like normal that's for sure." Kanan sighed and buried his face in his hands. "But from what the Force is telling me, he doesn't seem to be to sick, just...addled I guess." He scrubbed his face only to look up in surprise at a poke at his knees.
Ezra was in front of him, having moved from the corner he had sulked of to. But he was looking up at Kanan with concern in his blue eyes, mewling up at him. Kanan forced a smile on and reached out, pulling the teen up on the couch again and into his lap, holding around him. "Its alright, you're gonna be alright." He said, more to assure himself and the others then Ezra who just snuggled against his chest.
"Okay, the good news is that I know what's wrong with Ezra. The bad news is that we can't just remove it from his systems, it has to go naturally." Hera said while coming back, frowning a bit
"Well what is it?" Sabine asked, sitting up.
"Its from the gas plant we were on, the one where we were SUPPOSE to be wearing our masks the whole time." The Twi'lek shot Ezra a annoyed glance before sighing and smiling. "He must have taken it of and breathed in some of the fumes. The chemicals go to the brain and...well scrambles the signals a bit. I contacted the plant foreman and he said that Ezra's behavior isn't that unusual for people exposed to the fumes."
"So its normal that they act like cats?" Zeb raised his eyebrows.
"Not exactly but that they act like animals, yes. Or sometimes regress to a child state. I don't know what I'd prefer but at least he's not being to much trouble?" Hera sighed then smiled as Ezra craned his neck and meowed at her. "Yes, yes, you silly thing. As it is the fumes are gonna need to ruin its course and that's going to take everything from three to six hours."
"Why can't it be removed from his systems though?" Sabine tilted her head curiously, Zeb mimicking her with questioning eyes.
"Well the fumes messes with the brain, if we were to just remove it it could do damage to the brain functions."
They all contemplated that as Ezra nuzzled Kanan's shoulder, giving a low purr.
"Then we wait. He's just laying here for the most part and seems content to be petted." Kanan settled on, rubbing the teens back slowly.
"...So he's basically just hooped up on fumes right?" Zeb asked.
"Well yes."
"...So we can TOTALLY hold this against him and tease him right?" A grin was growing on his face as he gestured to where Chopper was still recording.
Hera tried to remain stern but her twitching lips blew her cover. "...Just don't rib him to much and not until he's had a full rest." She settled on before going to pilot the Ghost, giggling a tiny bit as she slipped out.
Zeb rubbed his hands together, grinning. "Oh this is going to be FUN." Both Sabine and him traded looks of equal glee.
Kanan just rolled his eyes and tucked Ezra against himself, smiling a bit at the grumbled murring coming from the teen. "Perhaps you wanna stay the kitty cat for a while longer huh?" He teased lightly, smile softening up as Ezra peered at him with those gem clear eyes.
Author note: ...I was tipsy when I started writing this. And now its to hilarious to just delete. Enjoy