The next day, Kanan awoke to the familiar chime of Hera's morning alarm. Stirring in his arms, she reached over to hit the button which would stop it. After the noise was silenced, he felt her relax back into his embrace. Normally, she was up five seconds later.
After ten seconds had passed, she mumbled sleepily, "I should get up."
Kanan caressed her lekku, "You know, we really don't need to be up at any specific time. You could turn off your alarm."
"Mmm, I don't want to waste daylight," she replied without opening her eyes.
"You could spare a few minutes," Kanan encouraged, "You're growing a youngling after all."
The idea was appealing to her. She hadn't worked as hard as Ezra, yet she felt as tired as he had looked yesterday. However, her days chasing down Imperials had honed her drive to be proactive. To be otherwise almost certainly invited a close call or worse. Even here, in the safety of relative obscurity, on a planet defended by a strong coalition of pirates, Hera wasn't about to change her habits.
Stretching her muscles, Hera rose up from the bed, pecking Kanan on the cheek as she did.
With mild disappointment, Kanan knew he had lost the battle to sleep in. Still, he let himself relax for as long as he could, listening to her get dressed. Exhausting the last bit of time in bed before he felt obligated to follow her.
After a quick breakfast together, Hera and Kanan discovered Sabine and Ezra were already awake and sparring in the cargo bay.
Once there was a break in their game, Hera asked, "How are you feeling, Ezra? Up for planting today?"
The young Jedi looked up at her and nodded confidently, "Yeah, I think so."
Chopper interjected with another dig against his flawed flesh and blood system.
"No, I'm not sore anymore. Actually, my muscles are better than ever."
Chopper added a challenge.
"You're on! I can do over half the field before you could."
Sabine laughed under her breath, smiling and shaking her head at his overconfidence.
Although Sabine didn't catch it, Hera saw the appreciative smile Ezra held as he looked at his sparring partner. Some feelings never change. Hera only hoped that, for his sake, Ezra would continue to cope without reciprocated feelings from the Mandalorian. She had been watching for any signs of change, but Sabine still never displayed any interest in the young Jedi.
Still, there was one unanswered, nagging question in Hera's mind: why did Sabine choose to stay?
Kanan listened as Hera told the group how to open the fruit pods they had collected days earlier. Sabine instructed them on how best to pour the viscous seeds into the loading container on her planting tool. The tool itself was a straight rod integrated with the loading container. It would deposit one seed at a time at the bottom of it. This would prevent the team from needing to bend down to plant, speeding things up and saving their backs. There was also an offshoot structure near the bottom to help with spacing out the seeds.
All of it would require eyesight.
Kanan had already felt one of the tools to learn about it. He wasn't even upset that Sabine hadn't bothered to make one for him.
Peeling a fruit to discover if he could help with loading, Kanan found the embedded seeds were just too slippery and sticky to tell if he had gotten a majority off his hands or not.
Hera hadn't noticed what he was doing, and dismissed the team just as she would at any of their former pre-battle briefings. Only this time, she grabbed her own farming tool and headed out to the field.
Without any assigned task, Kanan made his way to the sunny meditation spot. To his left, he could hear his family working in the distance. To his right, the morning sounds of the forest soothed his soul and brought him focus. Kanan started today by counting the familiar things he was grateful for: Hera's voice, her warmth in his arms last night, the Ghost, and their family.
Then the challenge of living here without the Force came to mind. The relationship with the Force had cycled in his life. Kanan had gone from being duty-bound to it in the Jedi Order, to suppressing it during his days on the run, to embracing it once again with Hera's support and encouragement. And recently, he had become reliant on it to see.
Now, it was gone.
Cut off from even its guidance, Kanan wasn't sure what to do. He wanted to find some way to help out his family.
Not too far away, he heard the sound of a stream.
Hera gazed across their field proudly. Unlike traditional fields she had seen, this one was long and winding and bordered by trees. The forest landscape and ysalamiri proximity requirements for Ezra's sake forced it to be shaped this way. Hera couldn't be happier. They had made it work for their needs.
The sun shone high overhead.
Satisfied with their progress, Hera suggested they all break for lunch. Sabine, Ezra, and Chopper filed on into the cargo bay. But Kanan was nowhere to be seen.
"Kanan," Hera called, wondering if he was still in the meadow. As soon as she heard a loud splash, she took off in that direction. When she arrived at the bank of the creek, she shuffled to a stop, "Are you ok?"
He was sitting in a quarter meter of water.
"Sorry," Kanan apologized for worrying her, as he rose out of the brook, "I slipped."
Hera studied his upper arms and parts not dunked in the water. She smirked, "On second thought, I think you'd better get back in; you're covered in mud."
Sabine and Ezra caught up with her. Upon examining Kanan head to toe, Ezra raised an eyebrow, "What were you doing?"
Kanan smirked. Judging from Ezra's tone, he really must look ridiculous. The Jedi shrugged lightheartedly, "Just playing in the creek."
After a quick clean up, Kanan joined the crew in the galley for the midday meal.
The conversation was dominated by Ezra and Chopper's dares to finish a majority of the work first. Lunch was over when Ezra put down his fork and Chopper unplugged from the charging port at the same time. After one final taunt, the duo raced off to see who could reach the cargo bay first.
The others followed at a more reasonable pace. Sabine and Hera retrieved their own farming tools and joined them in the field.
Kanan listened to their fading footsteps. Then he made his way back over to the creek.
Cautiously, he sat down on the bank, feeling the rocks and earth around him. Memorizing the uneven terrain here would take a while, but he did not want to fall into the cold water again.
Finally, he found the spot he had been playing with earlier. The mud here was smooth and easy to mold.
The feeling of the clay brought him back to his early childhood. The memory of an art class from long ago resurfaced. He had hated it at the time. Wanting to be anywhere else, doing anything else. But his Jedi mentors insisted it would teach him a valuable cultural skill, and, most importantly, patience.
Young Caleb Dume found the pottery class to be dull. The elderly teacher's droning voice nearly put him to sleep each day he was there. By the end of it, each student had made their own bowl and cup. He had celebrated his graduation from that class by smashing both of his ceramic creations. Now Kanan struggled to remember just how he had crafted them.
Just before the sun set, the very last seeds were planted by Chopper and Ezra. The sowing was done. Cheers and congratulations were shared among the team. Sabine rolled her eyes once more at Chopper and Ezra's continuing competition. When he noticed her tiring of their arguments, Ezra backed down and let Chopper take the glory. Hera smiled to herself, following the team into the cargo bay. Taking a silent roll call, she noticed that, once more, Kanan wasn't there.
She found him by the creek again, crouched down, his hands working around something.
"What is that?" she asked.
Her voice startled him, "Hera!" he stood up, slightly embarrassed.
She moved closer to see what was in his hands. It looked vaguely like a misshapen, open container created out of mud.
"It's a mug." Kanan offered proudly.
It warmed her heart, knowing that he was trying to replace her cup that he broke. However the thought of putting her lips to that mud-art made her want to wretch. Instead, she controlled her reaction, and gently began, "Kanan, I appreciate what you're doing-"
"Is that a cup?" They both turned to Sabine.
"Yes," Kanan said, a little surprised that she was there. He was also pleased that he had made it recognizable as a drinking container to at least one other person.
Sabine held her chin as she studied the oddly shaped object, "It reminds me of one of Aalik Sparn's pieces. He always placed holes like these in his pottery."
"Holes?" Kanan grimaced, "I was hoping to make something more practical. You know, like an actual mug that held liquids."
"Oh ... " Sabine made a face as she struggled to suggest a way to fix his creation without starting over from scratch. She was glad Kanan couldn't see her reaction, "... well for that, you'll need to do a few more things, including firing it in a kiln."
"Ah ... that's right ..." the long-forgotten details of his art class were finally coming back to him.
"You'll also want to apply some seed oil sealant if you're going to be drinking from it. Fortunately, I happen to have some in my art supplies."
"Great, you wouldn't happen to have a kiln too?"
"No, but we could make one."
Hera smiled. Perhaps with Sabine's art prowess, she could help Kanan make something that wasn't disgusting to drink from, "Thank you, Sabine, I'll leave you both to it tomorrow. Now, how about we get cleaned up for dinner?"
That night, Hera insisted they celebrate.
Expensive dessert ration bars were broken out of their hiding spots.
Hera cooked something that wasn't meat; a stir fry of vegetables and herbs she had picked a few days ago just for this occasion.
While she cooked, Kanan showered and washed his clothes in the laundry unit.
"Sabine? Where are you going?" Ezra asked when he saw her donning her helmet.
She held up a welder, "To the cargo bay."
"Why?"
In her other hand she held up some scrap metal, "I've been inspired. I want to get the basic frame done while it's fresh in my mind."
"Can I help?"
She waved the metal casually as she continued towards the cargo bay, "Sure; find some tunes to help with the creativity."
Ezra walked into the cockpit. Chopper was already there.
"Hey, Chop, how do I stream music to just the cargo bay?"
Chopper recounted his own victories today, then explained that he didn't fulfill requests from losers.
"Fine, I'll figure it out myself." Ezra grumbled.
Chopper gave a gloating laugh as he exited the cockpit.
"Let's see ..." Ezra tried the radio first. Satisfied with the music the pirate station was currently playing, he hovered his hand over the other confusing dials. Finally, he gave up, and hit the default button to route the radio to all comms across the ship.
Lively music began playing in the sonic shower room. Kanan cocked his head, baffled.
Hera heard it as well, "Now that's more like it," she smiled, swaying to the music as she cooked.
"Not bad, Ezra," Sabine commented in the cargo bay. She continued welding her art piece.
Chopper heard the beat coming from all four cabins as he rolled down the hallway and into the common area. The music was even emanating from the galley. Chopper chuckled at Ezra's failure, and proceeded to plug into a droid port.
Everything turned off.
The lights in the cargo bay went out along with Sabine's plug-in welder, "Hey!"
The sonic shower and laundry machine died.
The music was silenced across the ship.
The stove and appliances in the galley turned off, leaving Hera in the dark, "What the?" The dim emergency lights came on. She angled to shout out of the galley, "Chopper, locate that power disruption!"
The droid stated the reason calmly.
"What?! Why?!"
Chopper reminded her of his earlier promise.
"Ugh, I said to let me know when we're using too much power, not immediately shut down all systems!"
Chopper defended his actions haughtily.
Kanan cautiously opened the door to the shower room and leaned out to warn, "Avert your eyes everyone! ... except Hera."
"It's just me and Chopper, love. ... and the lights are out."
"Hera, what's going on? I can't get the laundry unit working, or the shower."
"Chopper turned off all non-essential systems. Which apparently includes everything except his charging port."
Chopper had a lot to say about that.
Hera interrupted his rant, "Point made, Chop. For now, let's turn everything back on. We can afford to waste some fuel for one night. Besides, we're celebrating."
Chopper did turn all systems back on, including the music. The Spectres had a feast that night. The mood was high and the lively song had everyone tapping to the beat.
Suddenly, Kanan stood up and offered Hera a hand with a gentlemanly smile.
"What are you up to?" Hera eyed him, a smirk starting to form on her face.
"Care to dance?" he inquired.
"Kanan, you know I don't dance."
"That display on Tifkaran IV says otherwise."
Ezra whispered to Sabine, "Hera knows how to dance?"
Sabine was equally surprised, "It must have been before I came on board."
Hera overheard them, "It was something I learned only for that mission." she turned her attention back to Kanan, "I don't know any other dances."
Kanan smiled, "Then let's do that one again."
Hera shook her head, conceding with amusement, as she rose, "You were pretty good at it yourself." Placing herself in the proper position in front of Kanan, Hera stopped, "Wait, weren't you using the Force to sense the moves?"
"I don't need the Force to dance."
Sabine looked perplexed, "He knows how to dance?"
Ezra shrugged.
Kanan began to lead. The dance was fairly simple, but both Ezra and Sabine were amazed that neither of them stepped on each others' toes. Even without sight, Kanan was doing a remarkable job. Hera was impressed. She was beginning to suspect that he had learned this dance before they had that mission together. Probably something from his early education. She'd have to ask him about it sometime when they were alone. The song came to a close and Kanan and Hera slowed to a stop.
Hera chuckled, "You know, I've forgotten how it was supposed to end."
Kanan smiled, "We were interrupted by a brawl back then."
"Which I'm fairly certain you started."
Kanan rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Sounds like you two had fun," Ezra commented.
"Tell us the full story," Sabine requested.
Hera rolled her eyes. Perhaps she could gloss over the embarrassing parts, "Alright ..." she began.
It was the first of many memories they all shared that night.
A/N: Life is still crazy busy. I'll do my best to get these published though.