Sabine had been raised to admire the strong. From the time she was born, her parents shared with her their hand-picked stories of athletic heroes: Mandalorian champions with rippling muscles winning in battle and in love. Strength often went hand-in-hand with nobility and political power. This was likely groundwork that her mother had laid to encourage Sabine to pick a suitor favorable to their family.

It hadn't quite worked.

During her first year at the Imperial academy, Sabine met a boy who fit her definition of ideal. A couple years older than her, he did indeed have the charisma, cunning, and muscular physique from her fairy tales. He was also the son of an Imperial starship captain. A trait which would have pleased her mother at the time.

Sabine didn't just suspect he was the one. She knew he was the one for her.

His flirtatious smiles and comments gave her hope. Eventually she found the courage to tell him her feelings. But it happened just after a mutual friend informed him that Sabine was a Mandalorian. He hadn't known before. Her feelings were rejected, very publicly, with hateful, humiliating criticism from the one she had fallen in love with. He loathed her kind.

It broke her young heart.

Shortly after, she discovered what her work was really to be used for. That day, she abandoned the Empire, and locked up her heart. Never again would she open up to another and risk having it broken. This is what she had silently promised to herself.

Sabine awoke with a start. Glancing at her chronometer in the dark, she sighed and laid back down in her bunk. It was an hour too early.

Her mental notes from late last night flooded back into her awakening mind.

It had started in the forest, just after Hera sent Ezra to his room. Hera had helped Sabine and Chopper retrieve the next solar blade half and fit it onto the Ghost. Hera's comments had been few and mildly lecturing, but nothing hinted that she was furious. Only worried. Sabine had tuned out most of Hera's words as she struggled to ignore her own thoughts surrounding Ezra. It slowed her work on the solar blades.

Hera's anxious mood turned elated when Sabine successfully wired both solar panels into the Ghost's system. There was even more electricity generated by the panels than she had originally estimated. They'd be even less reliant on the ship's fuel. Kanan and even Chopper congratulated her. But the pride she should have felt was overshadowed by her troubled feelings.

There was no time to escape to her room; dinner was ready. That brought Ezra out of his room and into a seat next to her. Sabine then had to endure the awkward challenge of hiding her feelings from everyone at the table. Even she had to commend herself for doing a good-enough job. No one seemed to suspect a thing. At least none of them questioned her about it.

After dinner, Sabine excused herself and locked herself in the sanctuary of her room, exhaling a sigh of relief. It was there that she began to really focus on sorting out these confusing feelings.

As she lie on her bed, her thoughts intermixed with memories. Memories of flying over the third moon of Concord Dawn, with Ezra clutching her. Of his touch during their daily spars. Of admiring his fighting style while he trained with his Jedi master. Of his shirtless form today. Of their personal stories that they told each other when Chopper wasn't listening. Of a kiss on Lothal which never happened. She wished it had.

It was then that Sabine realized what was going on.

"I have a crush on Ezra Bridger." she said aloud to herself.

At once, her thoughts realigned and a new feeling of terror gripped her. If she opened her heart again, would it end in disaster like last time? Would she lose her friends and family again?

Truthfully, there were many differences between now and then. She wasn't at the Imperial Academy, building a weapon against her people. Her crush knew and accepted that she was a Mandalorian. They had been friends for a much longer time.

Even with these logical reassurances, the irrational fear still clutched her heart. And the thoughts came:

What if these feelings for Ezra are wrong? What if he's wrong for me? What if we started a relationship only to realize it wouldn't work out, and then end up hating each other for however long we have to live on this planet?

Sabine's mind ran through these thoughts again, desperate for answers to these questions. But none came to her. She needed another perspective. She needed advice from someone more experienced than her.

She needed to wait for Hera to wake up.

A familiar sensation caused Hera to stir from her rest. She would have groaned a "not again" if she hadn't needed to keep her mouth closed. Hopping out of bed and hurrying to the door, she barely heard Kanan's sympathetic mumble.

Hera ran down the hall, into the lounge, and finally to the vacc tube where the contents of her stomach ended up. And again. Eventually, her gut settled. Turning from the vacc tube to the sink, Hera just about had a heart attack when she saw a figure silently watching from the doorway.

It was just Sabine.

"I need-" the Mandalorian began.

"Hold that thought," Hera was in no shape to answer requests this very moment. Sabine waited patiently as Hera washed her face in the sink and regained her composure. "Ok, now what's up?"

"When did you know you had feelings for Kanan?"

Bemused, Hera inspected the young Mandalorian. Sabine appeared worried and unsure. "What's this about?" she asked with levity to assuage Sabine's insecurity.

The younger woman struggled to explain, "You mentioned one time that you kept your distance from Kanan at first. You were ... not attracted to him?"

Hera chuckled, "Oh I found him very attractive the moment we first met. That's why I kept my guard up. I'd seen too many fall for an attractive person only to have them take everything away. I even acted as one such person during a mission or two. But Kanan ... there was something about him. Something hidden that only time would tell if I was right about."

"What was it?"

"Who he really was. His past, his Jedi abilities, and the real person that he hid behind a facade. By the time I discovered the real Kanan, I realized how well we worked together. Then, one day, I knew it was the right time to start a relationship with him."

"But how did you know?"

Hera looked at her sympathetically, "A successful relationship is made up of trust, attraction, proximity, goals which align, and more. It's difficult to put the rest of it into words, and the rest is different for everyone anyway."

Sabine tried hard to imagine a concrete example from Hera's experience that would apply to her situation. Nothing fit perfectly. And the last bit of wisdom was too vague to reveal any hint as to what she should do with her feelings for Ezra. Why couldn't things be as simple as they used to be? Somehow, Sabine had gone from easily ignoring the skinny orphan they brought onboard to finding him irresistible. With a final sigh, she rubbed a palm across her forehead, overwhelmed.

"He's different now than when we first met him, isn't he?"

The Mandalorian looked up again at her, "Kanan?"

Hera smiled sympathetically. She shook her head gently.

Sabine carefully hid the shock from her face. Hera knew. Of course she'd know. It was obvious by now. "Don't tell him." she pleaded.

"I won't," Hera promised, "You're the only one who can know when and if you're ready to tell Ezra."

The sun rose further into a clear sky. Last night's rain still dampened the ground. Kanan and Sabine decided to do some preliminary work for the kiln. First, they cut a clearing in the meadow grass near the creek.

Starting a fire with the wet kindling would have been hard, if they hadn't had Chopper. The droid dried and lit the wet tinder ablaze as he hovered above the small fire pit. With the campfire well established, they placed more logs to dry around it.

Against Sabine's insistence, Ezra kept offering to help them. When Hera noticed the Mandalorian's increasing discomfort, she pulled Ezra away, asking him to help her inventory their supplies. Ezra obeyed, but his gaze kept slipping out of the cargo bay to Sabine and Kanan working outside.

Finally he whispered to Hera, "Did I do something wrong?"

"Hmm?" Hera tapped on her data pad.

"Sabine's been avoiding me since yesterday. She didn't want to spar today. She sat really far away from me at dinner last night. Do I have bad breath?"

"I don't think so," Hera said casually as she kept her focus on writing updates to their inventory.

"Then what could it be? ... Maybe she's still upset about yesterday. Maybe you were too hard on her when we came back with that solar panel."

"Broken solar panel. And no, I went easy on you both. Very easy." Hera reaffirmed.

Ezra wouldn't drop it, "How was Sabine when you two got the next wing? Was she as quiet as she was at the dinner table?"

"I don't remember," Hera was trying to keep her promise to Sabine, but was losing patience with Ezra.

"Seriously? How could you not remember!-wait ... you know something don't you?" Ezra's tone turned instantly suspicious.

Hera swore a curse internally. Even without his Jedi senses, Ezra was beginning to pick up on things. At least for this topic. Hera turned and looked the young man square in the eye, "Even if I did, you need to talk it out with Sabine."

Suddenly they heard Kanan's footsteps up the cargo bay ramp, "Hera, do you happen to have anything I could use as a mold? Preferably something small and rectangular?"

Sabine walked up behind Kanan, clearly trying to keep out of Ezra's sight by staying behind the older Jedi. Sabine muttered something to him.

"About 30 centimeters by 10." Kanan relayed the clarification to Hera.

The pilot glanced around, "Yeah, I probably have something like-"

"Here you go!" Ezra had already found a container which roughly fit the description and handed it to a surprised Sabine.

Instead of responding, Sabine just stared at Ezra. Eventually his smile began to falter self-consciously.

Oblivious, Kanan asked Sabine bluntly, "Will that work?"

Sabine returned her focus to the container in her hands, "Um ... yeah."

"Great! Thanks, Ezra." Kanan nodded to him. Then he walked down the ramp, back towards his work area.

Sabine followed, keeping her eyes squarely on the container in her hands.

Hera went inside and Ezra followed. Much to her dismay, his questions continued.

"I can't talk to Sabine if she keeps pushing me away. If I had my Jedi abilities back, I could at least sense how mad she was at me. Is she mad at me? What should I do? Should I make a pie? That solved everything last time."

Amid his rambling discourse, Hera took a silent deep breath to regain some of her patience. At the first pause, she took the opportunity to interrupt, "You know what I would do in your situation? Give Sabine some space. Let her come to you when she's ready to talk about it."

Ezra seemed to mull this over, "How can I know if that won't make things worse?"

"Trust me, it won't."

The rest of Sabine's morning was taken up by the zen-filled construction of the kiln and relief from Ezra. She had Hera to thank for that last one.

Kanan and Sabine had made good progress on the kiln before lunch time paused their development and pulled him away. Sabine chose to stay outside a little longer, enjoying the sun and moment to herself. More time to think.

Had Kanan still had his connection to the Force, Sabine would have considered asking him to fortune-tell whether her and Ezra's relationship was doomed. Currently, she decided it was better if he didn't know anything about her feelings towards his padawan. It was already bad enough that Hera had figured it out. The fewer people who knew, the better. At least until she could sort out what she wanted to do.

What did she want to do?

Sabine wandered along the creek as she thought about her options, laying them out as she would with any complex engineering plan. There were two main decisions she could make; she could stay or she could leave Myrkr.

If she stayed, she could start a relationship with Ezra, or not. She could stay here and keep their relationship at friend level, but would she want that forever? Before the Imperial Academy bitterly shattered her dreams, Sabine had always pictured herself having a life partner and starting a family together. After her heart broke, she had locked those dreams away ... until now. Here, on the edge of the forest, with sunlight filtering through the canopy leaves, the serene view of the Ghost and farm field brought a sense of peace she hadn't known she wanted. It beckoned her to consider those dreams again.

Was this a trap? Was this the same path that all other doomed partnerships started on? Would it be better to just leave and find a better partner; one who's attraction wouldn't make her feel so awkward? Could she find one as trustworthy as Ezra? Considering her past experiences, Sabine knew trust was not abundant in the galaxy, and time was the only reliable determinant proving whether someone was trustworthy or not.

Then, there was her mother. She'd have to face her eventually. Sooner if she decided to leave Myrkr. She would certainly not approve of Ezra, a Jedi, as a husband for her Mandalorian daughter. Sabine felt the weight of the word 'husband' start to overwhelm her. Here she was planning out their married life when they hadn't even started a relationship yet. That wasn't something Sabine wanted to do right now. It was what her mother would pressure her to do.

Of course ... she didn't have to tell her mother about their relationship. Sabine considered how mad her mother would be to learn that she had not been consulted before Sabine engaged with Ezra. It almost made her smirk. Almost. Dread overshadowed the amusement. If she did start a relationship with Ezra, Sabine decided it was best to not tell her mother about it.

She wanted to try out whether Ezra and her were a good match before making anything official. That was how many of her rebel friends approached their own relationships, and it seemed to work well for many of them.

What did Hera say? A successful relationship is made up of trust, attraction, proximity, goals which align, and more.

The first three were all there. Exploring a relationship together would answer the rest.

Sabine smiled. Laying out her options had helped her make up her mind. Awkward or not, she wanted to pursue a relationship with Ezra. If nothing else than to satisfy her own curiosity of whether they would be right for each other.

A gentle, warm breeze entered the forest, rushing past Sabine. She could hear it rustle the trees bordering the field as well. This place was a beautiful safe haven. The perfect location to see if there was a future for her and Ezra.

When Sabine hadn't come in with Kanan for lunch, Ezra quietly slipped outside to find her. It was against Hera's advice, of course, but he couldn't stand it any longer; he had to know if he had made Sabine angry. If so, he would find a way to make it up to her.

He found her by the creek, just inside the forest bordering their field. She was standing next to a tree, gazing into the forest, away from him. The wind whipped through her hair. Ezra had never seen anything more beautiful. He shook his head to bring focus. Then he cleared his throat to announce his presence.

Sabine turned her head slightly in acknowledgment, but didn't turn around.

For a moment Ezra forgot what the words he had planned, "Um ... are you hungry?" he cursed himself silently for saying something so inane.

"I'll be there in a bit." she responded, still gazing into the forest's depths.

Ezra waited a few more heartbeats, and then he couldn't hold it in anymore, "Ok, did I do something to upset you? Because if I did, I'm sorry."

At this, she did turn around to face him. Her surprised expression gently changed into a sympathetic smile, "No, you didn't upset me." She shrugged a little, slanting her gaze to the side in self-conscious admission, "I just ... needed some time to think." Her cheeks reddened.

"About what?"

"Just think." she reiterated. By her tone, he knew that she would reveal nothing further. Still, he longed for more of an answer than that. A moment passed before she found the courage to offer, "Hey, um, do you want to help me finish that sign I started in the cargo bay?"

Ezra had expected her to withdraw again. Her invitation took him by surprise. Of course he wouldn't say no. Especially not when she was giving him that smile.

He smiled back and accepted.

In the cargo bay, they took off the tarp covering the pile of scrap metal that Sabine had carefully hidden out of the way. Arranging the pieces on the unfinished frame, Sabine showed Ezra where to weld. Ezra was pleased that she let him use her welder. He was even more pleased that she sat so close, even leaning somewhat across him to point to the next weld spot.

Was she flirting with him or was it just his wishful thinking?

He smiled when he realize what the scrap-formed words in Basic were spelling out. She had kept it a secret. They finished the last letter when Kanan and Hera came in to see what they were doing. Ezra and Sabine took off their helmets and smiled, holding up the sign proudly to them. Hera wasn't usually one to get sentimental easily. But when she read the words, her hands flew to her mouth to stifle a small gasp.

"What is it?" Kanan asked.

Tears began to well in Hera's eyes, "It says 'Hera's Farm'." she whispered.

She climbed down to hug Ezra and Sabine both.