A New Chance, A New Start (SWR)

Chapter 6: Panic Attack

Five days later, Ezra's room was almost finished and they were just adding the finishing touches. He and Sabine had been painting all day everyday and to say Sabine was impressed was an understatement. She couldn't wait to show the family what he painted on her wall and she didn't know if or when she was going to paint over it.

The family had just come down from the almost done room to find Sabine on the couch with a sketchbook in hand like always and they heard banging in the kitchen with a small voice and tune in the background.
"What's that noise?" Kanan asked Sabine. She glanced up for a second, "Ezra's making dinner while singing along to the radio." The family besides Sabine walked over to the archway to see the said boy was standing with his back to them dressed in his gray sweatpants with no shirt and was cutting up some vegetables next to the stove. The radio was placed on the counter, lightly playing some old song.

He paused in his movements and lifted his head while he stopped humming.
"I'm almost done with the vegetables, garlic bread, and spaghetti. About 5-10 minutes and it'll be ready." He continued chopping up the vegetables before lifting the cutting board and dumping it into the pot which was boiling in the stove. Ezra turned around to see everyone still standing there. He furrowed his eyebrows and slowly placed the dirty board in the sink.
"What?" He asked throughly confused.
"How'd you know we were here? We didnt make any noise." Zeb answered back, equally confused. Realization dawned upon Ezra, "Oh I could smell Hera's perfume and your footsteps coming down the stairs." He turned back around to stir the pot and continued humming along while Hera got the plates for the dinner table.

Dinner was eaten and everyone was impressed once again by Ezra's skills. He smiled in thanks at the compliments and helped Hera clean up with dishes. She smiled at the teen next to her as she handed him plates and pans to dry, wondering how she met such a sweet child with a horrible past. She shook those thoughts out of her head, promising herself she would make new, happy memories for him.

Ezra sat down next to the window where he's down sleeping for the past week, looking out at the green woods. He looked around the Living Room before opening the back door which was right next to him. He stood outside waiting for his nightly visitor to come. While waiting though, he wondered about what was to come with his new foster family. Deciding he wasn't coming after a few minutes, he went back in and laid down on his pallet of blankets. He slowly closed his eyes with tiredness, dreaming about what tomorrow will bring.

The next morning after breakfast, Kanan announced that Ezra could see his new room tonight and that they would go out to celebrate the addition to the house and him getting somewhere permanent to sleep. Ezra's eyes widened, 'They actually want to take me somewhere. Why? Aren't they embarrassed?' Hera glanced over at him and seeing his face was enough for her.
After everyone left and she sent Sabine up, it was just her and Ezra. They went to the kitchen to do the dishes and Hera sparred him glances every now and then, not knowing how to approach the subject. Ezra could feel Hera's stares as he dried the plates and knew she wanted to ask him something but waited till she was ready to ask it.

After one more minute of glances, she sighed and stopped scrubbing the dirty plates.
"Ezra, back in the dinning room when Kanan said we were going out to dinner, you had this look of disbelief on your face. Why?" Ezra stopped his hand motions as well, laying the plate on the counter. He didn't speak for a moment and Hera frowned with furrowed eyebrows, "Please Love, can you please tell me?" The teen furrowed his own eyebrows at the counter, "Why?" "Why what, Love?" He looked up and stared straight into her emeralds, "Why aren't you embarrassed? Your taking care of a street rat. Everyone else who has taken care of me didn't want to be seen with me in public so why aren't you?" Hera's eyes widened at the speech but softened as she heard his disbelief and complete confusion in his voice.