Not Alone Anymore

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GUYS!!!! The Mando Episodes!!!!! WATCH THEM BEFORE YOU READ THIS!!!!!!
Anyway. Woohoo, 20 chapters - 20 stories! Let's celebrate. Because I like doing follow ups, as you know, here's a follow up to the Protector of Concord Dawn with plenty of Sabezra! Since we just had a fun one, with Hera still in the sickbay I thought we'd have a more one- on- one talk one. And there will be cute stuff! So please read, comment and reviewwww! Here we go.

Sabine was in her room, spraying a new plasti- canvas Kanan had got her. She was using the canvas because the walls in her room were crammed with graffiti and colour, and she wanters to paint something professional and fun. Or maybe she just wanted something to do, something to take her mind off... everything.
It was getting harder and harder to do that these days, what with the Rebellion, escaping from the Empire and getting into more and more tight and dangerous situations. And she'd not been able to do much art recently, which pained her more than she could have imagined - because her past, her roots, they were coming back to her and she was unable to distract herself.
The reunion with Ketsu, Hera nearly dying at the hands of her people, Fenn Rau almost making her go back to what she had fled from and to reconsider all that she'd been taught - it was all catching up to her. And she felt troubled. Normally, she was calm and grounded when she painted. Stable. But today, she was unsteady and shaken, feeling like she was about to fall over any minute.
Ezra was right, about her wanting to paint and be left alone. He had dealt with his fears surrounded by people who cared about him and wanted to help him. She was one of them. But it seemed that she couldn't let anyone help her.
And sometimes she missed the quieter days on Lothal, when Ezra first joined and things were lighter, less dangerous and serious. She felt more or less the same, but now she had to face her past as it caught up with her, and it was like being wounded all over again. It wasn't as bad as Kanan. Kanan went through something no one but Zeb had really gone through. The trouble was, everyone was made to believe that the Jedi were traitors. And so Kanan's very fear was the past.
All of their worlds had been shattered by the Empire. She had abandonment issues, and trust issues, she knew that. So why couldn't she talk about them? Why was she so apart, so alone? She felt more than uncomfortable. Uncomfortable and troubled, a sick feeling in her stomach. So she got to work, sketching and painting over Ezra and Kanan doing Jedi training with their lightsabers, along with Chopper throwing cartons. She painted Ezra last, focusing on that bluet-black shade of his hair, and his features wincing as he got hit by a carton, and it made her smile. Just a little. She loved capturing moments like that.

"Didn't know you liked my hair so much," Ezra said, a lazy grin spread across his face as he entered the room and broke her concentration. One look at her pained expression though, and immediately alarm bells started ringing in Ezra's mind.
Sabine immediately put on her gruff face, shouldered her paint gun and said, "Ezra, not a good time, I need - "

"To be alone?" he interrupted, and she internally cursed herself for that mission with him back on Garel. He knew her so well now, and it was getting harder to deter him.
Then again, he was a soon-to-be Jedi, with his stupidly cool Force powers. At least mind tricks were his weakness, or he'd have figured out even more stuff out. He wasn't dumb, that boy. For all Sabine's teasing, he was actually very sharp. And according to Kanan he had a real talent of connecting to things and people.

"Nuh-uh, I don't think so. Something's really bothering you this time, and I'm gonna nag you until ya tell me." he said, crossing his arms and looking at her pointedly.
Sabine groaned, and growled a little too fiercely, "Ezra, it's nothing! I told you before, I want to - I - just leave me to it, okay?"
She slumped onto the bunk, putting her sprayer down and hurting, realising that her usual defence was weaker this time.
He plonked down beside her and looked into her eyes with his own ocean blue ones, filled with concern for once.
"Look - we all have our moments. I - I've had it hard recently - with my parents, and so has Kanan, with the clones and his master. We faced our pasts, and you helped us. But you had Ketsu, and the Protectors - and you keep it all bottled up inside. You think you're alone, but you're not. You're so strong, but you shut us out - and normally I wouldn't go so far, but you helped me through my stuff. So, so, let me help you. Now, I' not the best at advice - I could sure use some myself. But you can trust me. I do know when to shut up and listen. Sometimes."

Sabine looked up at him in a new light. He wasn't a cocky, annoying, selfish kid anymore. Now he was a cocky, annoying yet slowly maturing guy who she could trust.
So she tried to do what she hadn't done in a very long time - open up.
She sighed and said, "After everything that's happened recently, I - I haven't been feeling too good. Worse than usual. So art is an escape, okay? It always has been. Whenever I get too many bad memories, and I just have to get away - from everything, it's not you guys. It's not that I want to - it's my past, my feelings... I know I'm supposed to talk, but I just - I can't open up easily. You know what I mean? I want to get away from it. So I paint to escape."
Ezra nodded, finally understanding her. And then he put an arm around her shoulder, rather tentatively since he didn't want her to flip him to the ground. Even he could see this was a very sensitive subject for her. He looked back into her eyes and said, "I mean, I'm no razzle-dazzle professional artist lol you, but the escape thing? I get it. But, um, somebody told me once that no matter what, there always hope. We're all jerks, sometimes - but I think that everyone has  good inside all that. And I'm telling you now that you'll always have me - I mean us. It doesn't matter what your past is, you're not alone anymore."

He then gave her the sweetest smile she'd ever seen on him. Not the mischievous one she's grown to love. Not even the full laugh that made a bubble burst in her chest. His eyes were honest, twinkling with kindness - and the blushing, sincere smile that rested across his  face made her heart nearly jump into her throat and perform the splits. She's never really seen that before, and while the cocky, flirty side of him was equally endearing as annoying, this was something else. She was half inclined to yell 'Who are you and what have you done with Ezra Bridger?'
But she didn't. Instead, she smiled back, a real smile for once and not a sarcastic one. He grinned his usual grin then, seeing how she had cheered up.
"See? Told you I'd nag you and you'd tell me. I was right! I generally am about these things!"
She covered his mouth, rolling her eyes pointedly. "We're having a moment here. Don't ruin it."
Ezra pouted but after that his eyes lit up, the same way he did when he though he was going to have a moment with her and Ketsu.
They grinned at each other for a second longer, and then Ezra rose to say goodnight. She did something she'd never normally do then, with the exception of very rare cases.

He turned around as she tapped him on the shoulder, and took him completely by surprise as she said, smiling a little shyly for her he thought, "I'm never calling you kid again," she said, and kissed him on the cheek, not a tiny embarrassed peck but a real kiss, making his eyes go round in shock and his mouth drop open. She beamed and expected a witty comeback. Instead, his copper skin went bright pink, and he coughed, his voice going comically deeper than usual, "Well - glad we cleared that up," and sounding more like Commander Sato than himself. He breathed out, his eyes as round as marbles, completely in disbelief that that had just happened, and she resisted the urge to laugh as he walked out , the expression of shock and delight spreading across his face as he pumped his fist in the air and yelled, "Zeb, ZEEEEEB!!" as he ran to his room.

She grinned and continued her painting with more vigour, and most importantly more happiness, the feeling of discomfort long gone. He tried to act all smooth, flirting, cracking jokes and pulling pranks all the time, which she'd found irritating at first, but had grown to tease him back.
But he'd sincerely wanted to help her - and secretly she loved him for that's. Okay, maybe it was all a facade. Maybe she did like his jokes - and although some girls may have found 'intense, brooding' Ezra more appealing, she didn't care. He was happy. And she liked him best when he was happy. More than that, he made her happy for once. Truly happy. Because she wasn't alone anymore.

Hey hey hey! How'd you like that! I'm thinking of doing another, 'prequel' chapter of how Sabine warmed up to Ezra for her to care about him so much in Empire Day - because there was unnoticed but SO IMPORTANT character development there. So yeah. I got me some ideassss! (For once, I am out of writers block. Go me.)
So imma hit the highway and you guys had better get prepared for the next episodes (Zeb's ep tho - it was so SWEET!) and dun dun duunnnnn season finale coming soon. Byeeee!

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