Chapter 8

Sabine POV

As the Absolution flew towards Atollon, Sabine rested on the couch in the captain's quarters, trying to sort out her thoughts. When she'd come back to the ship on Krownest to find the whole thing looking like it'd been given a thorough cleaning, she'd asked Ezra if there was somewhere that she could lay down for a while.

Having grown up around such fighters as this, Sabine knew that Kom'rk fighters had two living quarters, not being a particularly large model of ship but still acceptable to live in. There was the captain's quarters on the upper deck, and the crew's quarters on the lower, right across from the engine room.

When she'd asked for a private room, she'd expected to go to the crew's quarters, but Ezra had instead insisted that she go to his own room, telling her that she could use the bed, which he apparently never did as he preferred to sleep in the cockpit.

However, Sabine had noticed that he seemed almost relieved when she requested to go to a private room, and began to think that maybe he didn't want her around as much as she'd thought, or perhaps hoped. She'd refused to take the bed, not wanting to feel like she was imposing any more than she already did.

Her mother's words still in her mind, Sabine silently began to curse her luck as she realized that Ezra probably either wasn't interested in her or was indeed married. It only made sense, after all.

She didn't understand how she'd managed to fool herself for so long that someone as capable and genuinely friendly as Ezra wouldn't have already been scooped up by someone else. Of course, she hadn't really thought about it until her mother had brought it up, but oddly enough, Ezra suddenly seemed even more desirable.

Sabine groaned to herself as these things went through her mind. When she'd turned sixteen, the thought had shortly passed through her mind that she was now the age when most Mandalorians would be marrying, but she'd quickly put it out of her mind and never even considered anyone as a romantic partner. Now, as she imagined Ezra's presumed significant other, somewhere out there in the galaxy waiting for him to come back to them, Sabine was overcome with a sort of jealous rage that she didn't understand.

She hadn't even considered Ezra as a partner until just recently! She didn't even really know him, any of the details of his life! She shouldn't be feeling like this!

Getting up from the couch and huffing to herself in anger, Sabine stomped her way over to the cockpit. Her thoughts were driving her crazy, and she was going to follow her mother's advice, just ask Ezra. She needed to know, even if the truth hurt her.

Ezra POV

Ezra heard the cockpit door slide open and grimaced.

He'd had Sabine on his mind since they prepared to leave Krownest. The thought of never seeing her again after he returned her to Atollon had plagued him since he'd first realized what would have to happen next. Since then, he'd done everything he could to try to distance himself from her. His distracted mind was dangerous to him as a warrior, and he needed to start moving on from Sabine as soon as possible.

That was why, when she'd returned to the Absolution and requested a private room, he'd internally cheered at his fortune, even as the rest of him had been dismayed to lose some of the last time that he would get to spend with her.

Yet his mission was over. After seven years, he had finally accomplished what he'd always wanted to, and now he could go home, if only he could put Sabine in the past, but it was easier said than done. Now, she'd come to join him in the cockpit, which would only make things more difficult for him.

Then from behind him in the doorway, he heard her ask, "Are you married?"

The unexpected question caused Ezra to jolt forward and turn his head towards her. He wanted to ask, "What?" but he was unable to as his shock caused his arm to push a button on the console, which caused an alarm to blare as red lights flashed.

Not sure what he'd done, Ezra spun around and panickedly began to check his systems, trying to find the source of the alarm. He pressed random buttons on the console until Sabine finally walked forward and gently pressed one of the buttons he'd missed, which immediately shut off the alarm.

Groaning with embarrassment, Ezra laid his head down on the steering yoke, careful not to jostle it, and said, "Well, hopefully that answered your question."

Sabine chuckled good-naturedly at him and asked, "But, seriously, are you-?"

"No, I am not married," Ezra answered, raising his head. "Haven't had time for… anything like that. The last few… Er, sorry. You don't want to hear about my largely uneventful Imperial life."

To his surprise, Sabine quickly said, "Sure I do!" He looked over at her with confusion, but she seemed to be being truthful, wearing a somewhat shy smile on her face, no doubt because of her outburst.

"Er… Okay," Ezra said, "Well, what I was going to say was that the last few years, it's just been work, work, work. Even before I became a Captain, you were my only assignment. You've been my entire life for the last few years."

Looking over at her, he quickly added, "Not in a creepy way, just a…"

"I get it," Sabine cut him off, glancing away from him as she sat down in the co-pilot's seat.

Ezra turned his attention back to the controls as the ship exited hyperspace above Atollon. He retook the controls and guided them smoothly down to the planet, though this time he chose to land them at the actual base as the rebels should be expecting them.

As they set down, they both stood up to exit the ship, and as they faced each other, Ezra told Sabine, "Well, I guess this is it. It was an honor to know you, Sabine Wren."

Sabine grinned at him and began to exit the cockpit. "Don't worry, Ez. It won't be the last time. Remember my custom weapons? Well, here's one of my newer ones."

She then tossed a small object backwards over her shoulder as she left, and on instinct, Ezra caught it. Then, his eyes widened as he looked at it and recognized it as a detonator, which Sabine had already activated. His instinct told him to toss it away, but his only option would be to toss it at Sabine, which he found himself unable to do.

Looking up in worry, Ezra said, "Uh… Sabine?!" After she was out the doorway, she turned and winked at him before she shut the door.

Ezra quickly donned his helmet for some extra protection, meager as it was, and the detonator began to beep faster and faster, and Ezra panicked before… BOOM! The detonator exploded, but rather than emitting a blast of fiery death, it exploded into large amounts of multicolored paint, which covered Ezra from head to toe, as well as the entire interior of his cockpit.

Ezra stood frozen for a moment, his hand still outstretched in front of him, holding nothing. Slowly, he brought his hand back to his face and wiped the visor of his helmet to free his vision up more.

He then sighed to himself and said, "Paint. It's a paint bomb. I should've seen that one coming."

He looked around himself, then down at his armor, but it was clear that it was a lost cause. All of the paint would have to be cleaned off manually. Until then, his ship wouldn't be going anywhere, meaning that he was stuck here for a while, which undoubtedly had been Sabine's intention. So much for avoiding her. Yet, some part of him felt elated to realize that Sabine had done something like this to try to keep him around a little longer.

He slowly trudged his way out of the ship and found Sabine, facing Hera and Kanan, who both had their arms folded across their chests, and a small white astromech with an orange top. C1-10P, if Ezra remembered his Imperial briefing correctly.

As Ezra approached, Hera, Kanan and Sabine all directed their gazes at him. Hera smiled and brought one hand up to cover it, clearly amused by his paint-covered armor.

Kanan, being blind, merely tilted his head in confusion and said, "Uh… Can someone please caption this image for me? Hera and Sabine, you suddenly got really happy, and Ezra's… not."

Hera lowered her hand, revealing her wide grin, and explained, "Sabine gave Ezra's armor an explosive makeover. The shape of the armor itself also looks different, but I think his new look rather suits him."

Kanan smiled at Ezra and said, "Oh, yeah? Has she been bullying you long, Ezra?"

Ezra stopped in front of them and tried in vain to wipe some of the paint off his armor, only succeeding in spreading the paint. "Only since I helped her survive her family reunion, which tells me that she appreciates my efforts," Ezra answered, then muttered, "And right after I got my armor the way I wanted it, too. No longer Imperial, my clan's colors, the antenna rangefinder."

"Well, thank you for returning Sabine to us," Hera said. She then turned to the girl in question and said, "And Sabine, if you're ready to deploy again, we have a mission that we could use you on."

Sabine stood tall and asked, "What's the mission?" Ezra couldn't help but admire her willingness to immediately get back in the action, even with how annoyed he was with her at the moment.

"We've lost contact with the Protectors on Concord Dawn," Hera explained. "Kanan and Chopper here are going with Fenn Rau to inspect the disturbance."

Trying and failing to activate his energy shield on his paint-clogged vambrace, Ezra said, "Well, that sounds like fun. I'd be happy to go along with you if you have someone that could clean up my armor and cockpit."

Hera looked at him in confusion and Ezra explained, "Due to Sabine's little surprise, I won't be going anywhere until I can get myself and my ship cleaned up, but in the meantime I would be happy to help you with this mission if some of your people can get to work on cleaning up my ship. No offense, but I don't trust any of your people to do the cleaning on my armor."

Sabine suddenly spoke up, saying, "I made the mess, I'll clean both of them. Ezra, leave your armor here, and I'll clean it when we get back."

Ezra frowned, but ultimately just sighed and walked into his ship to hang up his armor.

He walked back out of the ship wearing brown pants and an orange jacket, his "civilian-wear". On his wrist he kept a small detachable comm unit, on his back was his jetpack, one of the few things that hadn't been hit by the paint, and at his hips were his dual Westar-35's. They had been hit by the paint, but not enough to jam them, and frankly he refused to go anywhere without his weapons anyway. In one of his boots was his vibroknife, giving him a total of three weapons not counting himself, but he still felt almost naked without his vambraces and their many features.

As he walked back to the group, Kanan said, "You look good."

"Hilarious," Ezra said back, rolling his eyes, and Kanan chuckled at his own joke.

Sabine elbowed him and said, "Don't worry, Ez. Maybe he can't see you, but you really do look good. The orange is a good look for you."

Ezra smiled and explained, "My favorite color. And before you ask, no, it's not blue just because blue is the color of my clan."

Sabine smiled, enjoying his enthusiasm, and Hera said, "All right, then I guess you all are ready to go. You'll be taking the Phantom II."

Sabine frowned at that and asked, "The Phantom II?"

Kanan stepped forward and placed his arms on Ezra and Sabine's shoulders to steer them towards their ship, saying, "It's a long story that we'll tell you later, Sabine. For now, let's go grab our cranky guest. We need to visit Concord Dawn."