#ezra said : hi yes she scared me but she's so pretty and shiny !!!!

[dcwnrisen-aa]

a sneaky gaia creeps up to whoever had intruded upon her peace & jumps right in front of them; a bright smile letting her fangs show. " stranger! you mustn't pass without me properly greeting you." & with that, she held the other's hand & planted a quick kiss against their knuckles. // whoever you think could work great with her ♥

ezra decided he'd give his wings a break and took to simply walking around, getting his bearings and merely taking in air into his deprived lungs. of course, he hadn't known he'd intruding into someone's space until she jumps infront of him, and the hawk's wings bristle, shuddering as his heart thuds in his chest. it's hard to calm himself after such a fright but his curiosity at the kiss to his knuckles steals the bird's attention rather swiftly.

nose wrinkles as he extracts his hand from her hold, a wry grin curling up the corners of his mouth. there's nothing that feels more surreal than being in a weird situation and yet, in someway, he feels most atease now that the scare is gone. ❝ ━ i apologize for intruding on your space. heh, i was lost in thought, do forgive me. ❞ he bows in apology before straightening up. moments later, a small grin eases across his face. ❝ ━ you are most beautiful, why are you galivanting all alone like this ? would you like some company ? ❞ / @suender

[gondalsqueen]

Chapters: 17/18 Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Ketsu Onyo/Sabine Wren, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios Characters: Hera Syndulla, C1-10P | Chopper, Original Characters, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Alexsandr Kallus, CT-7567 | Rex, Mart Mattin, Wedge Antilles, Ketsu Onyo, Jacen Syndulla, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian, Jan Dodonna, Ahsoka Tano Additional Tags: Pregnancy, vague mentions of abortion, future character death in the background, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, Chair Sex, Table Sex, sex during pregnancy, chapter 2 has lots of sex, Secrets, the best pilot in the galaxy, flying combat, character injury, canon torture, flight of the defender, rebel assault, Jedi Night, Major character death - Freeform, Grief, Morning Sickness, Counseling, Masturbation, Dreams, Traditions, Space family, Inappropriate bets, Lothal, Shopping, down time, Space Combat, Battle of Scarif, Rogue One - Freeform, hammerhead corvette!, Yavin 4, Stardust - Freeform, Alderaan, Death Star, labor, Childbirth, domestic life, Lothwolves, Dogfight - Freeform, Hoth, did i mention babies yet?, Babies!, One baby, Work/Life Balance, Advice, Bounty Hunters, Capture, this story has it all apparently, Return of the Jedi, Second Death Star, Existential Anxiety, parenting, Breakups, wine and cheesecake, wine and cheesecake needs its own tag, battle of endor, Battle for Coruscant, forces of destiny: an imperial feast, The New Republic - Freeform, Quests, letting go, Travel

...

Within a year, Hera and Jacen hopped back into military life. She had plenty of vacation time, so they could take off and see the galaxy whenever they liked, and having a stable place and a community was important for Jacen. Hera had had that growing up.

So she was on Coruscant, helping out with combat training, when the other shoe finally dropped. Except that it was her day off and she wasn’t training pilots, she was trying to replace a particularly disgusting air filter on outside of the Ghost while Jace ran around recklessly on top of the ship, probably learning all sorts of enriching things.

“Hey, Mama. Mo-om!”

She stared at the bolt. It was stripped smooth; that’s why she’d skipped this filter last time.

“Mom. Mom.”

“What, love?”

“I’m bored.”

“Find something to do.”

“There IS nothing to do.”

“Well, come down here then and help me.”

He considered. “Are you wiring stuff?”

“No.”

“Are you taking stuff apart?”

“Sort of. I’m replacing this disgusting air filter.”

“Ew. No thanks.” He flopped down on the ship just above her head; Hera heard the thunk. Hmm… She tried to tighten the wrench on the bolt as far as it would go and then use her body weight to push the handle down. It slipped, she scraped her knuckles, she cursed.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, what?”

The naughty pause indicated that nothing good was coming “Bloodflowers are pink, your feet really stink.” He burst into giggles.

“Hmm. Did you learn that at school?”

“No, Poe told me to say it to you.”

“Why am I not surprised? Well, jacinder are blue, your feet stink too.” Maybe she could just CLEAN the filter and keep using it. ...No.

“Sunblossoms are yellow, your feet really smell-o,” he fired back almost immediately. Oh, good one, kid.

“N’Omis are purple, you’re about to get in trouble,” she told him.

“Purple and trouble don’t rhyme.”

“They do in Ryl.”

“That joke is still not funny, Mom.”

Hera grinned to herself. “Jace, you have any ideas for loosening a stripped bolt?”

“Maybe hold the wrench on with bubble gum?”

“I don’t think that’s going to work.”

“Nope, then. Let me think about it.” He ran off towards the middle of the ship. “HEY there’s really cool bugs here!”

“What kind?”

“Beetles. Blue and shiny. Huh.” Then he went silent, playing with the insects.

Hera picked up a vibrotorque and just fused the darn thing to the bolt. She could unfuse it later, but somehow this stupid air filter had to come off.

She was absorbed in her work and used to people walking back and forth across the main hangar, so she didn’t even register the footsteps until they were almost upon her. Then they stopped, and the absence of sound was unsettling. Hera looked up as their visitor cleared his throat.

She saw him with the sunlight behind him, outlining his shoulder, and the thought went through her like a shock: I know him. I know him like I know myself.

He wasn’t quite the same, though. A little broader. His hair had grown long again and his beard was bushy, and she thought, terrified: Maybe I’m seeing things. Maybe it’s not him.

Then he spoke: “Hera, you haven’t changed a bit,” and she knew for sure.

The vibrotorque hit the ground and she threw herself at him with a little moan, and he was taller than her — taller than her; she had to stand on tiptoe to put her arms around his neck and hug him. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed too.

“What are you doing here?” Hera asked, wiping a hand over her face. She touched the lightsaber at his belt before he could answer. “You got it back.”

“Yeah, uhm...I think I’m supposed to be a...present? Or something?” He unhooked his lightsaber from his belt and ignited it experimentally for her to see. “Good as ever.”

“Wow, cool!” Oh, no. Footsteps thumping on top of the Ghost, coming their way. Jacen launched himself at them before she had time to yell a warning.

In an instant the lightsaber blade was gone, Jacen caught safely in his arms, and Hera yelling, scared witless, “How many times have I told you NOT to jump from the top of the ship?! It’s not safe!”

“It’s safe for me,” Jacen said blithely. “I never get hurt.”

“Well, this time you almost skewered yourself on a lightsaber blade!”

Jacen peered at his savior, blue eyes into blue eyes. “I’ve seen you in pictures,” he declared.

“Jacen Syndulla, meet Ezra Bridger,” Hera said. “Ezra, Jacen.”

Ezra had acted fast to catch the kid, but then he just stood bewildered, looking between Jacen and her. “Syndulla?” he asked, trying to do the mental math and failing. “Hera — did you…?”

“They didn’t tell you,” she said. Of course they didn’t. Sabine would think it was a great joke, them surprising each other like this.

Ezra shrugged.

“He’s my son.” Now understanding began to dawn on his face. “And Kanan’s.”

“He’s…” A long breath. “How — ?”

Hera inclined an eyebrow at him. The usual way, that look meant.

“I mean, I know HOW, but… Oh, good Force.” Ezra sat Jacen on his feet. “Hey, kid, let me take a look at you.”

Jacen stood dutifully and preempted the questions that he knew would come. “Yes, I’m really Twi’leki. I’m half-Twi’leki. No, I don’t have lekku. Yes, she’s really my mom. No, I’m not adopted.”

“You look just like your father.”

He grinned. “Yes, I look just like my father. Except Sabine says prettier because I look like my mom too.”

Ezra laughed. “She’s right.”

“Did Sabine come back with you?” Jacen asked the question that Hera couldn’t bring herself to voice.

“Yeah, she’s here. But she sent me on first and said I was...a present?”

“For me,” Jacen explained. “Yeah, you’re a pretty great present.”

“Ahsoka?” Hera asked softly.

He shook his head.

She swallowed down...what was that feeling? Sadness, yes, but mostly guilt. Don’t you dare come back here without them, she’d told Ahsoka. “Ezra,” she asked, hardly daring to hope. “Are you going to...stay?

“Well…” he considered. “I came to see you first, so I have to do some debriefing with Reb — ” he corrected himself, “ — with New Republic command. Things might not be as smooth flying as we think.” He frowned with the memory of something dark, but they would tackle that later. “But,” his eyes met hers again, “other than that I’m at loose ends. I just want to hang with you guys for a while, figure out where I fit in again.”

Hera nodded. Ezra and Sabine both back. The ship would be crowded again.

“Are you crying?” Ezra asked.

“No. I’ll arrange to use some vacation time and comm Lira San. We’ll go see Zeb.”

“Guess I’d better get on this briefing, then.”

“Wait — ” she caught his wrist. He’d just gotten here and she was loathe to let him go so quickly. Plus, there were six years of his life she knew nothing about, almost seven, and some important questions needed to be asked. Did you have a life out there? Did you want to come back, or was it a duty? Did you know where you were? Were you kept from us? “It’s been a long time,” she settled. “Are you — okay?”

“I am now.” He took her hand and squeezed it in both of his. “Don’t worry, Hera. I’ll be back in a few hours. I mean it this time.”

They get away from you so quickly, even when you’re holding their hands.

She nodded and let go.  

“Mom?” Jacen’s voice was surprisingly subdued.

“Yes, love?”

“Are you okay?”

It was meant to be a laugh, but it came out mixed with tears. “Yeah, baby, I really am.” She looked out at the sky and thought, Thank you, Ahsoka, thank you. If I could wish for anything in the world, this would be it.

...

They parked the Ghost in Zeb and Alexsandr’s front yard and surprised them with Ezra. Hera thought Zeb was going to pass out for a minute, and then she thought Ezra was going to pass out from being squeezed too hard.

“Where in all the hells were you?!”

“Uhm...away? Later, okay?”

The first night on Lira San, they all ran Jacen ragged. Hera put him to bed a half-hour late and mostly asleep before his head hit the pillow. Then she crept back into the common area and shut the door. Zeb pounded his mug on the table and declared, “Caf, dejarik, and partying all night! Er, quiet partying so we don’t wake up the kid.”

Hera laughed and passed more mugs around. “Fire up the board, Chop.”

They played two games of dejarik and then ended up just talking, which was kind of the plan to begin with. At first it was remember-when:

“Remember when Chopper knocked Ezra off the top of the Ghost while we were ten kilometers up?”

“Remember that time Sabine attached a smoke grenade to a little mouse droid and then drove it into your dad’s team?”

“No,” Hera said. “I missed that.”

“It looked so funny,” Zeb chuckled. “Just — zhhhhoom, right at them.”

“You know,” Alexsandr put in, “to read the reports on paper, you looked like idiots who kept getting away only because every single soldier on Lothal was incompetent.”

“Yeah, that was true,” Zeb told him.

They brought up things they’d left unspoken before.

“Alexsandr, he never TOLD us that you guys were trapped under the ice together.”

“Well, not never,” Zeb protested.

“‘Oh, by the way, ISB Agent Kallus decided he’s going to be on our team now and smuggle information to us,’ is not EXACTLY breaking it smoothly,” Ezra pointed out.

“I remember you were weird when we picked you up from that planet, Zeb!” Sabine added.

“How could you tell the difference?” Ezra was jumping back into their old routines nicely.

“Hey! I’m never weird!”

Chopper defended Zeb for once — “ugly” and “weird” were two different things.

Hera just laughed at them.

“Okay,” Ezra said at around 0100. “This has been fantastic, but I want to know about all the stuff I missed.”

“Hera blew up the Death Star!” Sabine shouted.

“Shh! I did not.”

“Did too. Second Death Star.”

Chopper protested that HE had blown up the second Death Star.

“You did not!” Hera told him.

Ezra looked bewildered. “What’s a Death Star?”

They all stared at him.

“Seriously?” Zeb asked.

“Come on, guys, what’s a Death Star?”

“He’s been gone for a while,” Sabine shrugged.

“Do you even know the ending of Clone Wars 2?”

“What’s Clone Wars?”

Zeb chuckled evilly. “We’ve got the only unspoiled virgin in the galaxy here.”

“Hey! I am not — !” Ezra threw up his hands in exasperation.

It was good times. Old times.

“We can catch you up on a lot of it,” Zeb told Ezra, taking mercy. “Sabine took lots of holos.”

“And painted lots of pictures,” Hera added. “Oh, I think I have those here! You gave them to me for safekeeping, and I put them…” she considered. The top shelf on her closet, she was fairly certain.

“Did you look at the paintings?” Sabine asked.

“No, I didn’t want to invade your privacy, and I didn’t know which ones you wanted me to see.”

“Hera, you didn’t even open the package? Those were for you, especially the canvases!”

“Well, you didn’t tell me that! Wait a minute, I’ll go get them.”

She moved a bunch of stuff aside in her bunk and they were right where she’d expected, left-hand corner of the closet shelf, tied in a plain cloth. Sabine did most of her work on walls, and the portable versions — holos of the originals — fit on a few tiny datachips. Some of this was more traditional canvas work, though. Hera took it all back to the common area and handed the data chips to Sabine. “Which ones first?”

“Uhm...This one’s from right after Ezra left. Let’s start there.” Sabine handed the chip to Chopper and he put it in the dataport on the table. There they all were, looking...shocky and thin, actually. Mostly holos of her or Zeb or Chopper working, their expressions studious and absorbed as they bent over the glow of a datapad. Sabine clicked through a whole series of Hera and Chopper fixing the Ghost, literally seventy-five holos of the same thing, as if she were afraid she wouldn’t get another chance to record it. They were busy, and animated by that work, but never happy. Ezra frowned and asked no questions.

Sabine thumbed through an entire collection of Lothali murals: “Let’s just get to the people.” And then the “people” were...mostly Hera, six months pregnant, shot after shot captured at exactly the right moment to look like a portrait — half-turning to answer some question, or looking down at a cloth in her hands in the early morning light, or palm on her stomach with an expression as if she were listening to something only she could hear.

Ezra’s face took on that stone look it got when he was trying not to cry. Then he rallied and said, “I’ve missed a lot.”

“Yeah, kid, we keep telling you that.”

“These are...art,” Hera said, wondering.

“No, they’re just holos. The art is on the canvas over there. Open them up.”

So she untied the bundle, but the first painting wasn’t any of them. It was Kanan — a portrait from the waist up, the full beard and scarring across his eyes that they remembered from those last two years. Hera couldn’t see the crooked nose because he was facing the viewer, holding a green-haired baby on his shoulder who was clearly sacked out and comfortably sleeping. Kanan looked down at him, kissing the top of his head.

Nobody said anything for a long moment.

“I painted it right after Jace was born.” Sabine sounded nervous now. “But you were really exhausted, and that didn’t seem like a good time to give it to you. Then I forgot about it until I was cleaning out all my stuff before leaving with Ahsoka.”

They were all looking at Hera, and there was nowhere to hide her reaction.

“I’m… I’m sorry if it — ”

“Sabine, thank you,” Hera cut her off. She tried to keep her voice even and utterly failed. “I love it.” Then she dropped her head to the table and sobbed.

Zeb picked her up bodily and just plunked her onto his lap, and then they were all fighting teary eyes. She’d cried for Kanan — really, for herself and her own loneliness — hundreds of times over the years, but it hadn’t happened in a while. This time, it finally didn’t hurt.

She pulled herself together and they talked about Kanan until dawn.