Sabine woke up that morning to the loud sound of thunder booming in the sky.
Quickly, the Mandalorian girl sat straight up, looking around to see where the others were, planning on waking them up to suggest they find some shelter. But to her surprise, Ezra and Thrawn's beds were both empty and Ahsoka was washing some dishes in a bucket by the fire.
"Good morning sleepy head." Ahsoka greets her.
"How late did I sleep in?" Sabine asks, feeling slightly embarrassed about how late she must have slept.
"Pretty late actually." Ahsoka says, drying the dish and placing it with the others. "I would have woken you up but Ezra wanted to let you sleep in because he thought you needed the rest."
Sabine dips her chin down and smiles. He's so sweet….
"I was really that exhausted huh?" Sabine asks.
"Yeah, but I'm not surprised considering you had quite an eventful day yesterday. And you didn't get much sleep last night either since you were out stabbing that tree for a few hours at least."
Sabine felt her face burn and pulled her blanket closer to her.
"You saw that?" Sabine asks.
"Well, first I heard it, then I went to check on you and saw it." Ahsoka says, teasing the Mandalorian girl.
"Wait…if you heard it then does that mean that Ezra-" Sabine panics.
"No." Ahsoka assures her and Sabine lets out a sigh of relief. "But you should probably tell him soon before he figures it out on his own."
"Do you think he will?" Sabine asks, feeling nervous again. "Can he use the Force to sense that I might be uh…"
"Thirsty as hell for him?" Ahsoka finishes for her, making the Mandolrian's face burn. "No. Not unless he read your mind, and you'd know if he was trying to do that. But he can sense your emotions. So he can feel that you're frustrated, conflicted, and embarrassed but the Force won't tell him why unless he invades your privacy by reading your mind which he would never do. But he's gonna ask you why you're feeling the way you do eventually. So you're gonna have to come up with something to tell him, and it better be the truth. Your cover-ups have worked so far but you can only do that so much before he senses something's up."
"You're right…" Sabine sighs and stares at her lap.
Thunder booms again and Sabine winces and decides to get up and put away her sleeping bag. She didn't need to change, because she had gone to sleep wearing her armor. But she did notice that Ezra's lightsaber wasn't by where she slept. Did he take it with him somewhere?
"Where is he anyway?" Sabine asks, feeling worried for Ezra's safety in this storm.
"He's off somewhere sparring with Thrawn." Ahsoka explains.
"Sparring? They spar together?" Sabine asks.
Well that explains where his lightsaber went. Sabine thinks. But why would he and Thrawn be sparring?
"Yeah. They need something to do to pass the time and they want to stay in shape too. And they've only got each other to do that with." Ahsoka explains.
"Well I guess that makes sense but it's going to rain soon." Sabine says, looking up at the sky. "Shouldn't they be taking shelter somewhere?"
"Apparently they've been sparring with each other for so long now that they're evenly matched." Ahsoka explains. "So now they're adding more difficulty to their sessions by fighting in different weather conditions and different environments."
"Huh…" Sabine says.
That was actually pretty smart. Which means it was probably Thrawn's idea.
"They also gave us something to do to prepare for our journey to Csilla." Ahsoka says and shows Sabine a purple fruit. "We need to stock up on food so they want us to pick some of these. Ezra calls them 'juice fruits' because you can juice them and make jam out of them."
Sabine chuckles.
"Juice fruit." She rolls her eyes. "Of course he'd call it that. He was never very good at coming up with new names. That's why he always called himself Jabba the Hutt when he got caught doing something illegal." Sabine says.
(The author isn't very good at coming up with new names either XD. That's why it's just "juice fruit" because I couldn't think of anything else, sorry lol.)
Ahsoka laughs too.
"Come on, I'll show you where we're supposed to pick them." Ahsoka says and leads Sabine into the jungle.
Sabine plucks a fruit from the tree and places it into her basket. She wipes her hand on her forehead to wipe of the sweat.
"The humidity's rising." Sabine notes and checks the temperature on a device on her wrist. "But somehow the thermometer's getting low. There's gonna be a storm here alright."
There wasn't anymore fruit she could get on this tree. And she and Ahsoka had split up to cover more ground and get the picking done faster so they could beat the rain. But she told her that when she was done picking here, the stream was the place to go.
So that's where Sabine went, and she was in awe of what she found at the top of the hill above the stream.
"Wow…" Sabine mutters as she takes in the scenic landscape.
From the top of the hill she could see the storm rolling in above the trees on the other side of the river. The few beams of sun that broke through the clouds shone onto the forest below, making the trees that already had rain on them shine.
"It's beautiful." Sabine says, admiring the sight before her gaze moves down and her eyes widen and she loses her breath from the sight at the bottom of the hill.
Ezra, with his fists wrapped up in tape to protect his hands as he spars with Thrawn by the stream, shirtless…And without the cover of darkness, there was nothing to shield her eyes from the sweaty, muscular upper body of her best friend.
There was no denying it now. Somehow, Ezra kriffing Bridger managed to get a six-pack. And pecs. And his biceps were a little bigger now too, as well as his forearms which had some hair on them now. His chest did too. And her eyes couldn't help but follow that trail of hair lower, down his abs, and along his sharp v-line and the beginnings of a happy trail that all pointed lower to what Sabine knew had to be something big hidden inside of his pants.
SQUISH!
The juice fruit that Sabine was holding in her hand burst from how hard she was clenching it as she thirsts over the sight of her shirtless friend.
"Well, at least he can't look any sexier right?" Sabine says to herself.
At that exact moment the skies opened up and rain poured down onto the Chiss and the Jedi.
The extra water highlighted the lines in-between Ezra's muscles even more. Defining every ab and making his v-line look even sharper.
Force bless Mother Nature…
Thanks to the water highlighting his muscles, Sabine could see how each one moved as Ezra throws his punches at Thrawn.
"I just had to ask…" Sabine squeaks.
"Ask what?" Ahsoka asks, stepping out of the clearing and setting down her basket of fruit.
Sabine's face burns as Ahsoka looks at Thrawn and Ezra sparring, and then at Sabine who was very clearly flustered and holding a squished fruit in her hand and immediately knew what was going on.
Once she hears Ahsoka laugh, her body tenses in embarrassment.
"Well would you look at that, it's raining men!" Ahsoka teases.
"Hallelujah…" Sabine grumbles sarcastically.
Ezra and Thrawn stop sparring when they notice the girls at the top of the hill.
"Hey guys!" Ezra calls up to them and gives them a friendly wave that Ahsoka returns.
"Hi!" Ahsoka calls back with the same friendly expression that Ezra has.
Sabine flashes him a forced smile with a small wave because that was all the poor, horny girl could manage at the moment.
"I filled up the basket so I thought I'd drop by and see what you boys have learned from each other over the past decade!" Ahsoka explains. "Ezra, I think your hand to hand combat has improved a lot!"
"Wow thanks Ahsoka!" Ezra calls back to her. "What about you Sabine? Are you done picking fruit or did you stop by to admire the view?" Ezra asks smoothly, brushing a few locks of his wet hair from his face.
Sabine panics and quickly drops the mangled piece of fruit to the ground and stomps on it to try to hide it as if it were evidence of her ogling him.
"What! No! I wasn't staring at you!" Sabine quickly exclaims, her face hot as he catches her in the act.
Or not, since he seems confused…
"Uh Sabine…I was talking about the stream, and the view of the storm." Ezra says and gestures to the scenic view behind him. "Why'd you think I was talking about myself?"
"I uh…" Sabine's face felt even hotter now. She shouldn't have assumed he was talking about himself! But then again he was on her mind since…
"Wait… were you checking me out?" Ezra asks curiously as he brushes back his long, wet, raven locks with one hand.
"N-" Sabine starts before she realizes how hot he looked when he did that. "Oh… No! No no no no! Absolutely not! Never in a million years would I ever do that!" She quickly retorts. "I just assumed you were being cocky and talking about how you look fighting Thrawn! Checking you out… Ezra please! Don't be ridiculous!" She exclaims facing away from him and crossing her arms so he can't see how flustered she is while Ahsoka chuckles at the girl's lies.
Ezra presses his lips together and looks down as he rubs the back of his neck with his hand.
Thrawn raises an eyebrow, noticing that Ezra seemed a bit disappointed to hear that. Could he really not see that the girl he cared for was obviously lying and that she's been wanting to jump his bones from the moment she laid eyes on him?
And Ahsoka could sense Sabine's conflicting emotions coming off of her in waves. She was clearly frustrated. And what better way to work out that frustration than with a little sparring?
"Hey since we're done collecting fruit why don't you give Thrawn a break and go spar with Ezra?" Ahsoka suggests, loud enough for them to hear and Sabine quickly turns to face her, with anger in her eyes.
Ezra however, immediately perks up with a hopeful look on his face.
"Ahsoka that's a great idea!" Ezra exclaims.
"Ahsoka…" Sabine growls.
"What? You said you wanted to spar with him again." Ahsoka cheekily reminds her.
"I know but not when he's…." Sabine growls before trailing off as she turns to look at him and gulps.
"Half-naked and wet." Ahsoka finishes for her and Sabine nods.
"Well, you can't back down now, or else you'll have to explain to him why the fact that he's shirtless and wet would be too distracting for you to spar with him." Ahsoka reminds her.
Sabine growls and kicks the ground in frustration, knowing Ahsoka was right. She'd either have to admit that Ezra was hot shit or do her best to act normal during this fight. And the latter option was definitely the more doable of the two.
"Besides, who could say no to that face?" Ahsoka says and gestures to Ezra looking at her hopefully with those big, sapphire, puppy eyes that made her heart melt.
How can he be so cute….and hot at the same time!? Sabine shouts in her head before letting out a frustrated sigh.
"Fine." Sabine sighs, admitting defeat and moving down the ridge towards Ezra and Thrawn, unbothered by the fact that she was getting wet from the rain.
"Alright Ezra, let's see if you've gotten better in the past decade…." Sabine trails off when she notices something on Ezra's chest now that she was closer to him.
He hadn't just acquired muscles. He'd gotten scars…
Ezra notices her staring at the one on his shoulder and brings up his hand to rub it while she looks at the others on his body. One above his v-line. One on his left bicep and another one on the right one. And there was one on his left pectoral, suspiciously close to his heart…
"How did you get these?" Sabine asks.
"When Thrawn and I first crashed on this planet we uh…didn't exactly get along." Ezra explains. "We got into fights a lot. And then some of them got physical and he even tried to kill me a couple of-"
"You did this…." Sabine growls and turns towards the Chiss who seemed unafraid of the Mandalorian's wrath. "You hurt him you bastard!" She shouts, beginning to run towards that blueberry bastard to beat the crap out of him for what he did to Ezra.
Until she's stopped by the other blueberry bastard who wraps his arms around her waist to hold her back.
"Sabine it's okay!" Ezra pleads to her.
But Sabine still struggles to escape his grip so she can beat the shit out of Thrawn for hurting the man she cares for.
"No it's not okay! He hurt you Ezra! You have scars from him! He tried to kill you!" Sabine exclaims and lunges forward again only for Ezra to tighten his grip on her again and hoist her into the air.
The sight of that makes Ahsoka laugh and it even pulled a small grin from Thrawn too!
Sabine gasps, once again in shock of this newfound strength that Ezra possessed, but also because of how he was seemingly so forgiving of a man who had tried to murder him!
"Put me down and let me at him!" Sabine cries out in frustration, kicking her legs in the air in a desperate attempt to somehow hit the Chiss even though he was standing too far away for her kicks to hit him.
He was smirking at her feeble attempts to hurt him. How dare he mock me when he so clearly deserved to get his ass beat for hurting my Ezra! Wait…my Ezra? How is he mine? Mine like a friend or…Ugh! Never 's not important right now. Right now all I want is violence and revenge but this stupid, sexy, blueberry won't let me have it!
"No, Sabine it's fine. We may have gotten off to a rocky start for our first few years here but that's all in the past now. We learned that if we were gonna survive here then we'd have to learn to co-exist so we've forgiven each other and now we're cool." Ezra explains. "This is why we spar together. So we have something to do to pass the time and learn from each other. And this way we can also let out any frustrations we have with each other in a safe way instead of bottling them all up until one of us tries to murder the other. He's not going to try to hurt me ever again and I'm not going to hurt him either as long as we're on this planet. That's the deal we made and we've stood by it. I trust him. So you don't need to protect me from him Sabine. You can stand down."
"If it's any consolation, Bridger gave me a few scars as well." Thrawn says and turns to the side to show Sabine a few burn marks along his torso that were obviously from blaster bolts. Which made Sabine calm down a bit.
"Yeah, see Sabine we're even, you don't have to beat him up for hurting me, I already got my payback on him for that." Ezra says with a smug grin that makes the Chiss roll his eyes.
"Okay, fine." Sabine says reluctantly. "I won't beat him up. Can you put me down now?"
"If I do, do you promise you won't attack him?" Ezra asks.
"Yes." Sabine says through gritted teeth but Ezra still doesn't release her. "Why are you still holding onto me, I said yes!"
"Yeah but you didn't say 'I promise' so there's still a chance you'll charge at him as soon as I let you go." Ezra explains and Sabine growls in frustration.
"Well if you don't put me down right now I'll beat your ass instead!" Sabine threatens.
"Fine by me." Ezra says with a slightly deeper tone that makes a rush of heat wash over her and settle in her lower belly. "We're supposed to be sparring together now anyway. So go ahead, see if you can get out of my grip."
"Well this isn't exactly a fair way to start a sparring session." Sabine points out.
"Well as I recall, I believe you were one of the people who told me that outside of practice, no one ever fights fair." Ezra reminds her, riling her up even more.
"Oh you're gonna get it now you little shit!" Sabine growls as she elbows him hard in the gut, making him release her.
She quickly turns around and runs at him. She pushes her hands on his chest with her hands, throwing her full wait at him in an attempt to knock him on his back. And her eyes widen in surprise when he only staggers back a step or two but remains standing. She picks her head up to meet his eyes and the Jedi chuckles at her failed attack.
"That won't work on me anymore." He tells her in that low tone that makes her gulp as her face heats up and her mind ventures to places it shouldn't be venturing during a fight.
By the Force, what have I gotten myself into? Sabine thinks before Ezra places his hands on her shoulders and pushes her back towards the ground.
She quickly rolls to the side before Ezra can get on top of her and kicks him in the side, making him grunt before he quickly gets back up, in a fighting stance with a smirk that said he was ready for more. And Sabine was more than happy to give it to him. This is what he gets for being so attractive and making her conflicted! Maybe if she beat him then she'd get over these frustrating feelings.
Yeah…that's it! If I can beat him in a sparring session like I used to then that'll remind me that this is still Ezra and then things will go back to normal! Sabine theorizes and looks back at Ezra with newfound determination to make him pay for being so sexy!
As soon as Ezra stands up Sabine is on him, blocking his attempt to punch her by grabbing his arm, spinning him around, and pinning it behind his back.
"Thankfully I've got more tricks than that up my sleeve!" Sabine says proudly.
"I can't wait to see 'em." Ezra says, looking at her over his shoulder and flashing her a charming grin that made her heart flutter. "I love it when you kick my ass."
Shit! Can he stop being so handsome and perfect for like five fucking seconds so I can punch his stupid, pretty face! Sabine shouts in her mind.
Ezra leans back, threatening to fall on top of her to crush her on the ground with his weight, so Sabine has no choice but to let go of him. As soon as he gets out of her grip he turns around to face her. She swings at him but Ezra blocks her blows.
"Are you pulling your punches?" Ezra asks her and Sabine's face heats up when she realizes that she is.
As much as her mind was screaming at her to punch him in the face, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. It went against her very nature as an artist to wreck something so beautiful. He was like a work of art himself. As if the Force had somehow sculpted her best friend into the perfect man. Clearly the Force was trying to torture her, and Sabine had no clue what she did to deserve it but she prayed it would stop so things could just go back to normal. If that's even what she really wanted anymore…
"I could say the same to you." Sabine says, dodging a few of his swings. "Have Thrawn's teachings really done anything-" She says before dodging another swing and grabbing his bicep to block it. The size and firmness of it making her realize it definitely had done something…
"Oh they have. Just you wait and see." Ezra says with a wink.
"Eep." Sabine squeaks in response. So softly that Ezra couldn't hear it over the sound of the rain.
Thank the Force for that. Sabine didn't know how she was gonna win this fight when he was distracting her like this….
As they continue to spar, Thrawn takes a seat beside Ahsoka on a large rock to watch their companions spar. To his surprise, she pulls out a bag from inside of her robe and opens it, revealing something that smells buttery inside.
"Want some bang-corn?" She offers.
(Yes that is what popcorn is called in the Star Wars universe. Idk why they have a lot of different names for things and why some of them are weirdly sexual but that's a question for George Lucas not me lol).
"You hide snacks in that robe?" Thrawn asks.
"Yeah. I always keep a little food and water on me in case I find myself in some sort of trouble and get stranded somewhere without any." Ahsoka explains.
"That sounds like something a person who lived in a desert would say." Thrawn notes.
Ahsoka winces and looks away from him and since Thrawn had met Ahsoka's Master before, he immediately deduced who she learned this little life hack from.
"I'm sorry I forgot-"
"It's okay." Ahsoka says, cutting him off. "You didn't mean to."
Thrawn cautiously takes a piece of bang-corn out of the bag and inspects the kernel with interest.
Ahsoka snickers and Thrawn was irritated at first but upon further thought figured that he deserved it since he brought up her fallen Master. At least she wasn't thinking about him anymore. Especially not with the scene playing out in front of them as Sabine finally manages to sweep Ezra's leg out from under him, knocking him on his back while she straddles him and holds his hands down by his head.
"Ha! Take that blueberry b-" Sabine starts to taunt but finds herself unable to say the word "boy" to describe him.
Because he certainly wasn't a boy anymore. He may still have some traces of that annoying, scrawny little 14 year old she met all those years ago, but he had matured greatly since then. Both physically and mentally. And even though she tried to deny it, she knew she couldn't help but fall for the man he'd become.
And when he flashes her a smug smirk, she realizes that she let her guard down and Ezra took advantage of it. He frees his hands from her grip and grabs her wrists tightly in his. Pressing on her pressure points to weaken her grip on the ground so that he could force her arms back while he sits up and looks her in the eyes, feeling very smug from her shocked expression.
"Take what exactly?" He asks before using his wait to flip them over so now Sabine was the one laying on her back and Ezra was on top of her, holding her hands down by her head and smirking at her while he laid in-between her open legs, allowing her to feel him pressed against her crotch!
Oh manda help me…Sabine thinks as her face and other parts of her body begin to heat up from the position she was in while Thrawn and Ahsoka's jaws were hanging as they stared at the scene before them.
"Ooookay that's an image of Bridger that I never needed to see and I certainly don't want to stick around to see more." Thrawn says quickly, standing up and going to leave before Ahsoka grabs his pant-leg.
"You really don't want to see what happens next?" Ahsoka asks him excitedly.
"You do?" Thrawn asks in disgust over her interest the sex lives of their companions.
"Well not everything!" Ahsoka says, clarifying for Thrawn that her intentions weren't creepy. "Believe me I'm ready to bolt too before they start going at it like a couple of tookas in an alley! But, I at least want to know if I actually do need to give them some privacy first. Then again, you know Ezra well by now. I'm sure you know exactly what he's going to do in this situation, don't you?"
Thrawn was about to reply with his answer but then he realizes…he doesn't have one. Strange. He's spent ten years alone with this man, and he's learned so much about him that he was sure he knew his every move, and his every reaction to a threat. But, how he would react in a situation like this where he has the chance to confess his feelings…Thrawn wasn't sure if he would take it or not. He knew every aspect of Ezra's life at this point except for his love life. And although the thought of possibly seeing him in a romantic or sexual situation made him want to gag, he couldn't deny that he was intrigued to observe this altercation in order to get a better understanding of the Jedi. Specifically how his romantic feelings would influence his decision making.
So he observes Ezra with curiosity as he gloats his victory over the Mandalorian girl pinned underneath him.
"Ha! Looks like I win!" Ezra teases while Sabine glares at him. "Hey don't look too upset, at least having me on top of you is keeping you dry right? Anything you want to say to me now that I've finally beaten you in sparring?"
Dry? How in the world could Sabine be drywhen she had this attractive Jedi that she may be in love with, sweaty, wet, and shirtless laying in-between her legs on top of her!
She wasn't dry at all. She was absolutely soaking wet.
And in one place in particular that she was grateful she'd be able to use the rain as an explanation for. She was in shock that she was even in this erotic position with Ezra, much less wanting more from it.
And it appears he feels just as flustered as a flush creeps across his cheeks and his body freezes on top of her as he finally realizes what an erotic position he was in with her. Even though she was sure that infatuation he used to have for her was long gone, he's spent the past decade alone with his hand as his only option to take care of himself. And now she was presenting him with another option, the woman he cares for that he had pinned down underneath him as he lays in-between her legs. And he seems to be considering it since she could feel something hard rubbing against her thigh. But, in this position she couldn't tell if that was his lightsaber or his dick and quite frankly she didn't care. Whatever it was, she just wanted him to stick one of those stiff rods of his inside of her and-
"Fuck me." Sabine boldly replies, shamelessly, with a breathy exhale of sexual frustration as the man on top of her gasps and tightens his grip on her wrists in response.
The action makes Sabine's heart pound in anticipation as she stares into his darkening gaze.
And her, along with Ahsoka, frozen in place holding that piece of bang corn in-between the bag and her open mouth.
And Thrawn, watching the Jedi he's come to know like the back of his hand with strategic interest.
All three, wait in suspense of Ezra's next move.