"So!" Ezra threw a few more credits onto the sabacc table, grinning as he looked around. "Anyone here hear about the Wookie, the Twi'lek and the human that wandered into a bar?" He said cheerfully, his grin almost splitting of his face when everyone shook their heads.

At the door Rex stopped, raising his eyebrow.

"Well." Ezra threw down some more credits as he started, luring the other into a sense of safety. "The Wookie comes first and finds himself a booth for his two friends, the human and the Twi'lek. They're all bounty hunters of course." He watched the pot grow then focused his eyes on his fellow game players, knowing the gig, knowing he had to grasp their attention and distract.

"His friends arrives after getting their bounty and they all order drinks, one after the other but not enough to get really drunk, just tipsy. Suddenly the human notices that their Twi'lek friend is gone and looks to the Wookie in surprise, telling him that their friend has run of. By now the Wookie has been strangely quiet for a while."

Rex glanced behind him as Kanan showed up, gesturing to where Ezra was gambling with a few of Sato's men and a big pot on the table. Ezra meanwhile was carefully doing his duty for...ah the Ghost ship. Plus he could keep a few of these for himself too and some of them had been betting objects.

"He says 'mate have you seen our friend? She hasn't had her last drink.' And he gestures to the table where her drink surely sits, all full. Suddenly the Wookie roars and shakes himself. His human friend sits there in confusion for a few moments." Ezra added a few more credits to the table, finding the whole table interested in the end of his story by now.

Behind Kanan, Hera popped up, frowning before her eyes went wide, already having heard the joke and the end of it and her mouth opened in a shocked O.

"Suddenly the Twi'lek pops up on her side of the table, her limps plump and moist and a wide grin on her face. 'Oh don't you worry, I got my drink!' And then sits back with her shot." He didn't laugh, he found the joke distasteful really but it helped to distract horny men, which was why he had told it. There was a burst of laugh and Ezra did his last move before smiling at everyone. "Cards?" He asked happily, grinning as he showed them his hand and raked in the pot. "Why thank you gentlemen, I believe these are now mine and the Ghost crews...also you owe me a pair of new tools according to this Durns." He waved a note at him. "So pay up tomorrow, and don't mope, they'll be in good work!"

"Bah, you win this round Bridger. Heh, you play well for your age." One of them patted Ezra on the shoulder and he tensed, chuckling in return despite his discomfort at being touched. "Perks of growing up on the street, you learn a mean sabacc face."

He blew it of so they wouldn't catch on to his little cheat, pulling over the gloves to take a good look at them. Pilot gloves, good quality. Hera might like them he beamed happily, feeling them out. If they fit that was. He half listened to them leaving for their jobs, some chuckling and some grumbling about loosing.

"Ezra!" He jumped a bit and looked up in surprise before beaming. "Hera, I was just playing Sabacc and look at all I won. This will be a good float for the Ghost and look!" He held up the gloves to her, eyes wide and happy. "These are for you if they fit." He gave her his best two wide blue eyes before blinking at the look on her face, glancing behind her to see Kanan come over too, Ezra's grin faltering.

"Um...what's up?" He asked warily as Rex stood there in the doorway, watching.

"I'm currently wondering if I need to kill Zeb for teaching you a joke that I told him was rather insensitive. Or if I need to have a long talk with you Ezra..." She sat down on one of the discarded boxes as Kanan quietly took the other, leaving Hera to talk while watching his young padawan.

"Oh, that..." Ezra grimaced and continued putting the credits away. "I...wait, Zeb knows it and told it around you?"

"Yup. Didn't know Hera was listening. Means you didn't hear it from him." Kanan rested his hands on his knees, watching closely.

"...I learned it on the streets. From the traders that came to Lothal, the same ones who..." Ezra fiddled with the gloves a bit. "They weren't exactly...interested in behaving properly around me as a kid after they had their...fun out of me, they were more interested in joking with their friends while I was getting dressed." Rex jerked a bit at the door, staring at Ezra as the lad continued talking. "I tell it if I need a advantage because...well." Ezra gestured to the table and the gloves in his hands and then finally looked at Hera. "It distracts anyone straight because Twi'leks are pretty much galaxy acknowledged as gorgeous." He gave a small smile then let his eyes fall back down. "I just..." He let out a breath.

Hera watched the mop of dark hair before looking at Kanan. Then she slowly reached out and took the gloves. "Thank you Ezra, for the lovely gloves...and the credits will do the Ghost some good but, keep some of them for yourself, buy yourself something you want." She stroked his cheek then got up, leaving Jedi and padawan together as she took Rex by the arm and lead him away.

"He..."

"Ezra's a survivor." Was all Hera said shortly.

"...Got the traders names? Because I got a few blasters I can shove up the tail end of any of them."

Hera smiled a bit at Rex words.

With Kanan, he was carefully mulling over what to tell his padawan, what to say. He had been waiting for Ezra to come to it on himself but perhaps he'd have to prod this conversation on his own, it had been so long since this all started he felt he had no other choice by now.

"I know its wrong. I know they were wrong." He looked up in surprise as Ezra stared into his own lap. "Not me. I just needed the money and I was desperate. I got sick a few times because of it." Kanan blinked then shifted his crate closer to the teen.

"Nothing...long lasting but I knew it was their fault." Ezra sighed a bit, his shoulders hitched high. "Sometimes though I...felt like..."

"Like?" Kanan carefully prompted.

"...Like I deserved it."

"Ezr-"

"I know I didn't." He looked away from his lap to a abandoned empty crate to the side. "But at the time...I just...and now this thing that happened with the Seventh sister..." His shoulders slumped again. Then he looked at Kanan. "You said if I needed a hug, I could just ask for it...I'm asking for a hug now." He whispered, trembling a bit, half expecting a rejection from the man.

Kanan didn't waste a second. He reached out and pulled his padawan of the crate and right into his lap, holding him tightly while burying a dark hand in the dark hair and tucking him under the Jedi's chin, feeling the brace on Ezra's right hand and arm against his strong chest.

Ezra settled into him, his heart beating a harsh dance on the inside of his chest. "Thanks..."

"Anytime...thank you for telling me." Kanan started rubbing a mindless pattern on the teens back.

"Knew you wanted to talk. Could feel it, I just wasn't...sure how to start."

"Heh, guess we're a bit to alike in that way. Like Jedi like padawan."

Ezra smiled thinly.

"...Like father like son." Kanan added softly, feeling Ezra cling tighter to him before he kissed the top of the teens head.

Author note: *shrugs* I made up that joke, not sure it even fits...implications are everywhere I see