A/N: I don't ordinarily write Mature fan fictions, particularly for Star Wars, but there have been occasional exceptions, and Sabine Wren is, in my opinion, the sexiest character in Star Wars Rebels. Besides, she's nice with Ezra, even if she ignores all his attempts to woo her in the show.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars Rebels. Dave Filoni, Disney, and a few other good people do.

Scars and Tattoos, Inside and Outside

"How late is it getting to be?" asked Zeb.

The team of Rebels onboard the ship, the Ghost, were feeling tired after a milk run of supplies to another world that needed relief effort because it was starving. Zeb sounded like the one who was most eager to rest.

"Yeah, I think it is time for us all to get some sleep," said Kanan, "On Lothal, it's nearly bedtime just about now."

"Seeing as I'm the pilot and captain of this ship," said Hera, "I'll take the first watch up here in the cockpit."

"Fine with me," said Kanan, "And I'll take the second shift at 0100 hours sharp. The rest of you, get some sleep. You'll need your strength for our next run-in with the Empire."

"Gladly," said Zeb, "I could use a little snooze just about now. Besides, anything's better than staying up all night with Chopper."

Chopper squawked derisively at him.

"Now what did he say?" demanded Zeb.

"He said that you're no day at the beach either, Zeb," interpreted Sabine with a smile.

Zeb squinted. "Well that's hardly surprising, seeing as droids rarely go to the beach, unless they're battle droids in a battle, of course."

Chopper beeped a raspberry at him.

"Oh, shut up, Chopper!" said Zeb.

Chopper laughed. So did Ezra.

"Looks like he really doesn't like you," Ezra remarked.

"He doesn't really like any of us," said Hera, "Although he's still loyal to us and our cause. Now come on. Get yourselves to bed. I can handle this myself."

"She's right, guys," said Kanan, "Get to bed."

"If it's all right, I might stay up for a short time," said Sabine. "I'm not quite that tired yet, and I wanted to catch up with my art in my quarters."

"Sure, it's all right, Sabine," said Hera, "Just don't take too long in finishing it. You need your sleep too, you know."

"Agreed," said Sabine, saluting smartly. Then Hera settled in for her watch in the cockpit, while Kanan, Ezra, Zeb, and Sabine retired to their quarters, and Chopper plugged himself into the wall for recharging and shut himself down for the night.

Zeb was tired indeed, and drifted off a short time after settling down in his bunk. Kanan was also tired, and gently allowed himself to slip into a Force dream as he dozed off. Ezra, however, found it rather difficult to sleep, and was curiously restless, tossing and turning as quietly as he could, so as not to wake up Zeb or the others. He was thinking about Sabine. So far, she had been ignoring every attempt he had made to make a pass at her. He wondered if he was just unpopular with the ladies, or if she just didn't find him attractive enough to have a crush on. But more importantly, he wondered what had happened to her to cause her to lose her family and build up such a hatred for the Empire.

He remembered that Sabine was still up and about, leading him to believe that maybe she would be willing to have a personal conversation with him, so he silently crawled out of his bunk above Zeb's, taking extra special care not to wake the Lasat. He tiptoed out of the quarters and down the hall. He noticed the refresher (bathroom) that was near the cabins, and heard water running from inside it. In fact, he had come out in time to hear the water get turned off.

Ezra's curiosity got the better of him. He opened the door a crack with the Force and peered inside.

Sabine had just come out of the shower. She was dripping wet, and she was drying herself off with a towel. She eventually dropped the towel and stood there in the complete nude, looking in a small mirror to check out something on her face. Her hair underneath all the purple and orange paint was brown, he noticed. But what he noticed even more, though, was her body, and most of all, the markings on it.

As a boy who had been through puberty, Ezra was as attracted as almost any man would be to Sabine's lean, muscular arms, her sinewy legs, her perky breasts, and her tight abdomen and rear. And at first, his eyes were wide as he stared at every sexy inch of her, front and back. But then, it was the markings on her body that really caught his attention.

First of all, she had a small scar above her left breast that looked like someone had cut her there. She also had a tiny scar near her belly that looked like a blaster bolt wound. And on her back, she had a tattoo, a tattoo of the blue Rebel phoenix, plus another tattoo on the front-side of her right thigh that said in Aurebesh language, "For Mandalore!" next to the Mando alien skull symbol in black.

Ezra sensed then that as lovely as Sabine was, she was hiding some sort of pain behind those marks. Maybe she had gained those scars from some run-in with the Empire, or when she had lost her family. And the tattoos must mean something too, in addition to Sabine's love for art, that is.

Suddenly, she wrapped the towel around herself again and began to walk towards the door. Ezra quickly and discreetly closed it and slipped into a nearby hiding place as Sabine left the 'fresher and headed for her quarters. After she went inside and closed the door, Ezra tiptoed over and opened it a crack again with the Force to see what she was going to do.

Sabine dropped the towel to the floor again and pulled up a mirror. She combed her hair, and then carefully sprayed purple and orange paint on her hair again, exactly the same way as it was before, and used a hair dryer to quicken the paint drying. Ezra was transfixed by the way her muscles moved when she did…almost anything. By the Force, she was the loveliest, sexiest thing he had ever seen, and not just because of her female figure. Something about those scars and tattoos told him that she had suffered under the Empire, prevailed, and decided to leave something to remember it by, although he wasn't entirely sure why.

He continued to watch as she put her tight pants and boots back on, but before she could put her shirt and armor back on too, she suddenly picked up one of her blasters and walked to some spot out of the range of Ezra's vision. The Force seemed to be telling him that she was disturbed about something.

Then, without warning, the door slid open all the way, and a beautiful hand reached out from the side of it and pulled him in. There was Sabine, staring straight at him, most of her glory still exposed to his sight. But he almost couldn't pay attention to that, because Sabine held one of her blasters to his head, and she had a furious look on her face.

"All right, you little pervert!" she said through clenched teeth, "How much did you see?!"

Ezra choked. "Um, what do you mean, Sabine?" he said with a weak grin.

She put the blaster right to his forehead and said, "How much did you see…of me!?" she ground out, at a loss for words for once.

"Um, basically, all of you," said Ezra, blushing fiercely, his face hot with embarrassment.

"Oh, no," she said, "Don't tell me you're embarrassed! You're the one who spied on me!"

"I'm sorry, Sabine!" said Ezra, pleading with her, "I didn't mean to see you like that. I just…"

"Just what?" Sabine asked impatiently.

"I just wanted to talk for a little while," he said, "Because I couldn't sleep, and I knew that you were staying up a little longer than the rest of us."

Sabine stared at him. She blushed for a moment. Then she released him, or at least she released him from her death-hold grip. But then, she put her blaster aside, closed and locked the door, and proceeded to strip Ezra of everything he wore.

"Hey!" he said, "What are you doing?"

"This is your punishment for spying on me while I was nude," she said, "You saw me nude, so I get to see you nude!"

Ezra wasn't a weakling, but he was one to submit easily to someone he cared about, and he could see how upset she was, so he stopped resisting and let her take every article of clothing from him, and she threw it in a crumpled heap into a corner of the room.

To Ezra's greater surprise, though, she didn't make a move to cover herself or put on her shirt or chest armor. "Uh, why aren't you finishing getting dressed?" he asked, glancing at her perfect breasts and belly again.

"You saw me this way just now," she said, "And I don't see any point of hiding something you've already seen." She was still visibly upset, but Ezra felt like he detected a note of amusement on her face as she glanced in turn at his crotch. He moved his hands to cover it, then thought that she was finally interested in him personally.

It must have showed on his face, because she frowned at him and said, "Don't even think about taking me to bed with you. I'm not making love to anyone at my age, especially not you."

Ezra nodded, and he said, "Couldn't we at least talk? I'm a little lonely right now, and I'd like to talk to someone who isn't a father, mother, or uncle figure to me, someone whose age is close to mine. And you're the only person on this ship who's like that."

Sabine looked at him and sighed. "Oh, all right, but just for a short time," she said. "What do you want to talk about?"

Ezra blushed again. "Well, I wanted to know, what sort of life did you live before the Empire ruined it? If that isn't too personal, that is?"

Sabine was surprised to hear that question. "I was a child growing up on Mandalore. As a very little girl, I grew up in one of the Mandalorian academies where Duchess Satine Kryze taught her students about how to run Mandalore as pacifists with self-defense skills. But I was still very young when the Death Watch and some people who called themselves the Shadow Collective came and took over the planet. Satine was murdered, and some dark warriors took control, but Satine's sister, Bo-Katan, of the Death Watch's Nite Owls, fought to protect Mandalore from its enemies with help from her son, Korkie, and his friends from the academy, Amis, Lagos, and Soniee. But then, an unknown trespasser snuck into Mandalore and destroyed the Shadow Collective, and took over Mandalore for himself. Nobody really knows for sure who did it, but I suspect that the Emperor, or his favorite foot soldier, Darth Vader, had something to do with it."

"Where are Bo-Katan, Korkie, and the others now?" asked Ezra, "Are they dead?"

Sabine looked sad. "Not all of them are accounted for, but I suspect they are. Amis and Soniee definitely died, and so did Bo-Katan, but I grew up under their wings when they taught me how to fight, wear and use Mando gear, and stand up against the threat of the Empire."

Ezra said, "How did you get those scars? Was it when you lost your family?"

Sabine blushed once more, and almost cried, but she calmed herself and said, "I was cut across the chest by a vibroblade from an Imperial officer before his stormtroopers executed my parents and sisters. It hurt like hell, but even after it healed, I've never forgotten how painful it was. And I was also hit by a blaster bolt when I tried to stop troopers from killing Korkie and his friends. Korkie and Lagos got away, but the others died. I was knocked out cold by the blast, and I guess the troopers left me for dead."

"And the tattoos?" Ezra asked, "Are they a sign of your artistic talent?"

"Partly, yes," she said. Ezra was beginning to notice that Sabine didn't seem to be nearly as bothered by Ezra's intrusion as before. He wondered why. "The phoenix symbol is, of course, the symbol of our cause against the Empire. And the Aurebesh tattoo says, 'For Mandalore!' and stands for my home and my desire to make my planet free again."

"Oh," said Ezra. "Look, Sabine, I'm really sorry I intruded on your privacy. And I'm sorry about what happened to both your real family and your surrogate family on Mandalore. I don't just think about my own problems anymore."

Unexpectedly, Sabine smiled a kind smile. But then, she suddenly pulled down her pants and boots, until she was as nude as he was again. Ezra suddenly felt like he was getting hard, as he gazed at her willingly expose herself to him. Sabine reached out and hugged him, kissing him hard on the mouth. He could feel her breasts and tight nipples push on his chest.

Sabine guided his hands over her scars and tattoos. He gently kissed each scar, feeling that it made her feel not only loved, but like her past pains were eased by the tender act. She turned around and let him kiss her phoenix tattoo, and she guided his head down to take a close look at the other tattoo. He was about to start exploring the open spot between her legs, but she stopped him.

She brought his head to her chest, burying his face in her breasts, and hugged him again. Ezra found himself looking at the most beautiful things he had ever seen, and they belonged to Sabine. She put her mouth to his ear and said, "You are really something else, Ezra."

Ezra looked up. "What does that mean?"

Sabine replied, "It means that you can see a lot more than just a sexy body in a woman, or girl, who you fall in love with. And while I can't say just yet if I love you back or not, I'm grateful that we have an understanding of each other here."

A sound came from a cabin nearby. Apparently, Zeb was talking in his sleep.

"We'd better get dressed," said Sabine, "There's no telling if someone will come down here and catch us in the act, and I don't want to think about what Kanan or Hera would have to say."

"Yeah, you're right, Sabine," said Ezra. As they put their clothes back on, Ezra said, "I thought you were going to say that I really was something other than else."

Sabine blinked. "Why?"

"Because I thought you didn't like me," he said.

Sabine laughed quietly. "Of course I like you, Ezra. I'm just not ready to commit to something yet. Anyway, see you in the morning. And Ezra?"

"Yes, Sabine?" asked Ezra.

"What happened tonight is strictly between you and me. This goes no further, right?"

"Right." Ezra winked at Sabine, and he returned silently to his quarters.

"Where have you been?" Zeb greeted him when he closed the door.

Ezra started. "Uh, in the bathroom. It took me longer than I thought to get it out of my system. Must've been a small case of constipation, or something."

He got into his bunk and soon fell sound asleep.

"Uh huh," said Zeb to himself, "Or something."