Star Wars Rebels: Hera & Kanan

Chapter Seven

Three Months After A New Dawn

Hera sat at the Dejarik table in the common room, sipping her beloved caf and listening to the sounds of Kanan returning from a lengthy late-night foray into Garel City. Many hours had passed since the start of their usual sleep cycle, and she really didn't know why she was awake. She had tried to sleep but had ended up tossing and turning for an hour. Doing work had proven futile, so she'd challenged Chopper to a game. He was winning.

A crash and several loud thuds came from the cargo hold, followed by a string of curses.

Well, there went her carefully stacked crates. Maybe that was why she was still awake- to ensure that Kanan didn't destroy her ship on his way back into it. It was clear that he wasn't even in the same universe as sober. When he'd told her he was "meeting a friend" in Garel City earlier that evening, she'd given him a suspicious look. He'd had spent some time on Garel a couple of years back, so it was certainly possible that he'd been telling her the truth. The thing was, he had never once gone alone to visit anyone on any planet- not even on Lothal, where they had a few friends and contacts. Not only that, but he'd been quiet and in a bad humor all day, which was unusual. The thought occurred to her that he might have gone to meet a female "friend", and for a few confusing seconds she felt a rush of unpleasantness well up within her. She pushed the thought and her feelings aside. People had needs, and Kanan's certainly weren't being met by her. Why should she begrudge him an evening of companionship?

It was, however, the first time in several weeks that he'd returned to the ship intoxicated, so she tried to be fair. She knew staying sober hadn't been an easy thing for him to do. She would never have told him so, but when he went to sleep sober, he sometimes had nightmares that she could hear from her own cabin. The more frequently sober he was, the more often he had them.

"Hera!" Kanan shouted from the cargo bay. "Are you still here?"

She rolled her eyes. "Where else would I be?" she called back. "You don't need to yell!"

Chopper grumbled from across the Dejarik board, directing his Grimtaash to pummel her Houjix. She watched in dismay as her creature got thoroughly thrashed.

"That was rude," she said. Chopper chortled.

Kanan stumbled into the doorway looking very disheveled, and drunker than she'd ever seen him before. His hair had escaped the usual ponytail, and the reddish-brown locks hung around his face. It suited him. She felt a surge of warmth deep in her belly, but her face remained impassive as she sat there regarding him with an unimpressed look. He gazed back at her with unfocused eyes.

"You realize," she muttered, "that I might've been asleep, don't you?"

"But you're not asleep. Were you waiting up for me?"

She frowned at him. "No, I wasn't," she said in a flat tone. "I couldn't sleep."

"So you decided to play Dejarik with Chopper the Cheater?" he snorted.

Chopper immediately turned away from the Dejarik table and made a beeline for Kanan, electroprod extended. He still viewed Kanan as an interloper and appeared to believe that any time was a good time to make his life as miserable as possible.

"Chopper, no!" Hera hissed.

Kanan saw him coming. He scowled and lifted his right arm, extending his fingers. Chopper stopped moving instantly.

Hera sat up straight, her eyes wide. Chopper also seemed dumbfounded for a second, but he recovered quickly, wildly waving his grasper arms and berating his captor. Kanan held Chopper in place with a smirk.