(I LIVE! This is for me most amazing beta, RadicalCat, who filled in all the holes in this story for me. The crystals were her idea.)

Dinner was fantastic. Dev complained about the stew, but Ezra couldn't remember a time when he had anything other than stolen mealpacks or half-rotten fruit.

"Momma, why is Ezra here?" Dev stirred his spoon through the lukewarm stew- Ezra was tempted to ask if he could have it if Dev wouldn't eat it. He was starving, and the spicy meat stew was delicious.

"He was hurt and needed help. He'll be staying the night." The woman answered politely.

"What about his family?"

Ezra choked on his stew. The boy spun around and gave him an odd look.

The woman gave her son a gentle prod in the arm. "Do you remember how it felt when Audra Thomso kept asking questions about your dad?" she asked gently.

The air got quiet and Ezra looked to the boy in confusion, and he saw something growing in the boy's eyes. Sorrow? Grief? Whatever it was, the kid looked down into his lap quickly and nodded his chin limply against his small chest.

"Yes." he said quietly.

"It's alright to ask questions, just make sure you don't step on anyone's feelings." the woman told him, calmly waiting out the mood change.

Her words brought the kid back, and he boy lifted his eyes to glance first at his half eaten stew, and then carefully over to Ezra.

"My daddy is dead." he said firmly, "and I miss him very much."

Ezra was taken aback, by both the bluntness and the genuine look in the boys eyes. He didn't know what to say, but the boy ploughed on.

"He died a long time ago. And now I have a new dad who loves us. He works in the meens."

"The mines." she corrected gently, smiling very softly at one corner.

"The mines." Dev continued, nodding. His wide eyes bored into Ezra. He suddenly felt uncomfortable and he didn't know what to say. What do you say to a child who is suffering? Ezra didn't know. Most people had turned their backs on him.

"I hope you find a new dad too." Dev told him firmly, and gave him a very serious nod.

Ezra sat, still too surprised by the unload of information from the boy. But the kid and his mother turned back to their stew, unfazed.

Ezra swallowed his mouthful down, trying not to slurp. He didn't really know what to say, but he still felt like he should say something-

"Thanks kid." he found himself saying. Dev looked up again, and smiled broadly. "I'll keep an eye out, I guess."

"Good!" the boy nodded, now happily swinging his legs under his chair. "All boys need daddy's to teach them. Rorck is teaching me to diff-en-chi-ate the rocks!"

"Differentiate." his mother corrected, "And Yes. You're learning lots about crystals, aren't you?"

His eyes got comically big and he rounded on Ezra with so much enthusiasm Ezra almost choked on his dinner .Again. "There are so many crystals on Lothal! Have you seen them? I have five!"

Ezra choked his food down, now trying not to snort his food up the wrong pipe. "N-No. I've seen the mines though. They have some big extractors down there." He tried to keep his tone bright, and not to think about the conditions most of the workers dealt with down there. Whatever the Empire was draining out of the center of Lothal was certainly important. Most people believed it was starship fuel for the new TIES, but there were rumors of something more sinister. "I don't think I've ever seen a crystal." Ezra continued. "Maybe you can show me after dinner?" he asked, more for conversation's sake.

Dev was almost bouncing in his seat, and refused to eat more than a few more mouthfuls until Ezra was done.

The woman told Ezra to go and keep the boy entertained until she was done cleaning up. Ezra followed the kid back down the hall, where the boy excitably pulled a small box from under his bed and began babbling enthusiastically as he showed off each rock inside.

There was only a handful, and as far as Ezra could tell- they were all just rocks. Three were just different shapes and shades of gray, but Dev insisted they were all very different and very special. He handled each one with care, replacing them in the box before pulling out another.
The other two were smaller, and Ezra could see through them if he held them up to the light. One was a clouded white, and the other a dark glassy black with a thin uneven vein of bright green running down the center.

Ezra held this one for a long time, while Dev loudly babbled about how his stepfather Rorck had brought it home for his birthday the year before. Ezra only half listened, turning the crystal this way and that, inspecting the green vein running through it from every angle. It seemed to almost glow- but that was just the light obviously. His neck hair stood on end, and he was struck with the idea that he wanted to pocket the crystal- but the thought was gone in a second and Ezra quickly and carefully gave the boy back his precious rock.

"OK boys, Bath-time." said the woman, appearing in the doorway.

Dev let out a guttural moan in protest. "But I had one this morning!" Ezra almost laughed, he used to hate baths too.

She raised an eyebrow, "Not for you, my sweet son." she turned and looked pointedly at Ezra. "Come on. I'm not letting you sleep in the clean sheets like that. Last time was an exception."

"W-what?" Ezra demanded, flabbergasted.

"Yes." he said impatiently, and beckoned him to follow. "Now come on."

"I think I'm a little too old for you to help me put the shampoo in my hair."

She snorted as she opened the door.

True to her word, a real bath was waiting for him. He watched the steam rising off the water, a little amazed this family could afford such luxury. "The only towels you didn't unfold are on the counter. I have some clothes for you when you're done." With that she closed the door.

Ezra sighed and eased into the bubbly water, relaxing tight muscles he didn't even know he had. He sat to one side, bracing his ankle- which was wrapped in a plastic wrapping so it wouldn't get wet- on the side of the tub.

Months of dirt flushed out of his pores. He pulled the plug and let new water flush away the old. Ezra watched the gray water disappear; replaced with clear, refreshing hot water.

This was a far cry from the quick scrubs he got out the back of the washer factory. Here he had real soap, real true steam! This... this was pure luxury.

The moment of silent luxury gave him time to think.

"You are the judge, jury and convicted. Tell me, do you think what you did was wrong?"

Ezra ran a hand through his wet, tangled hair. She was right. No one should tell him whether he did the wrong or the right thing- it only matters if you believe it yourself. That is when redemption or damnation came.

So what did he believe?

He had stolen, but he had never wanted to in the first place. He didn't ask to be made a petty criminal, but corruption ran through the veins of the Empire and infected those living under it. He was not stealing out of spite, despite how funny it was when the Troopers ran after him. He stole to eat and to survive.

Living was not a crime. Stealing was a crime, but he did not do it for money, he didn't do it for criminal reasons.

Ezra had done a crime. Ezra was not criminal. He was still human. He had done wrong, but he could still be right.

The guilt he had been holding flushed down the drain like gray water, replaced with clarity and peace.

Ezra rolled his shoulders and laughed, garbled underneath the water. He blinked the water out of his eyelashes. He felt lighter and cleaner than he had for years.

He was finally clean.

He'd rested late into the next morning, only really finding sleep after Dev had. The kid sure has a mouth on him, Ezra mused, and a million questions to boot.

When he'd woken, Ezra had tested his ankle, and found he could grit though the pain of the weight on his foot, unlike the day before when the pain was still too sharp. The thick bandages helped brace and support the joint, and Ezra absently thought he might be able to find an old armor brace in the scrap yards in a few days, when could stand for longer than a few seconds at a time.

It was time to get going. He could feel it.

It was warm and safe here, and this family was no friends to the Imps. Ezra could get used to this.

And that was why Ezra had to leave, as quickly as possible, and with as little as fuss as he could manage.

The woman, his makeshift nurse and protector, scowled when he told her he intended to leave that day.

She was sat at the table with a cup of tea, and one waiting for him. Dev had already been sent off to school, much to his displeasure when he had a guest staying in his home.
She frowned unhappily at him over the rim of his cup.

"It's foolish to leave now. You're still injured."

Ezra rolled his ankle, only wincing a little, and showing off the extra inch of mobility he's gained in the night.

"It's foolish to stay. Eventually the troopers will come back for a report. My ankle's alright now. I'll keep off it for a few days." he shrugged, and was sure to put a sour, uncouth twang on his words. "Besides, you don't need a lothrat like me hanging around, eatin' all your food and teaching Dev all the bad words I know. I'd just be a bad influence."

His threat was empty. And they both knew it.

She looked away though, into her tea and frowning at it. After a moment, she spoke.
"Dev will be sorry to see you go," she said quietly. "He doesn't have a lot of friends."

Ezra knew this was her just using the kid as an excuse to manipulate him, to force him into staying. For Dev of course.

It was working, and Ezra felt his gut shift with shame, thinking about the smaller boy's smile slipping off his face, as he was told Ezra had left without so much as a goodbye.

"Well it's a good thing I'm not staying any longer." Ezra answered shortly, meeting her eyes evenly, but his throat threatened to tighten off his words. "I wouldn't want him getting attached to some dirty urchin like me."

She narrowed her glare a little, but then dipped her chin and nodded.

And that was the end of the argument.

Ezra was allowed to leave, but she refused to send him away unprepared.

Ezra packed the extra bandages and food she'd given him in his pack. It was stuffed to the gills with food, and medical supplies and few unused gadgets and tools she'd pulled out of an engineering box. She'd insisted on one more meal and a trip through the fresher again. But Ezra insisted it was time he got moving. She'd already cleaned his clothes for him and even changed his bandages.

"Gotta dodge those patrols." he told her, shrugging the backpack onto his shoulders. "I don't wanna get stuck here all night again."

The woman watched him in pensive silence.

Ezra glanced at her over his bulging backpack. Somehow, he knew exactly what she was going to say. "Don't say it."

"You don't have to leave yet. We have food, clean clothes-"

"My suit has all sorts of useful places to hide things."

"We have more of that stew. I know how much you liked it." She offered in a halfhearted attempt at humor, but her heart wasn't in it.

Ezra squeezed his eyes shut. Compassion hurt more than anything after he'd gone without it for so long. He'd started to feel like he didn't deserve it, and pushed it away- which only made him feel guilty.

You can get used to a certain kind of pain. It was the only thing Ezra knew, it was his lifeblood, what kept him going and fighting.

A home never lasted forever, and afterward it's a tainted memory.

"I prefer being alone." Ezra replied briskly, tested his weight on his ankle. Still sore, he wouldn't be able to walk more than a few feet. He'd borrow the speeder.

She watched him roll the spliced ankle, and 'hmm'd' unhappily, pursing her lips. He was being stubborn. "Why? You're only trapped with yourself, nothing to-"

"Not if you're on the move. Besides, the loneliness…it's gotten sweet." Ezra bit his cheek. Why was he saying this?

"Like wine." She tutted. "But wine is dangerous in large amounts. Kid, you're hurting yourself. Silence is the loudest scream for help, and when you're alone you can't hear your own cries."

This woman was almost as stubborn as he was. He felt his facade slipping, and built it up tenfold. "You've helped enough and I'm grateful, but I need to be alone now. Dev chatted my ears off last night." Ezra recalled the kid's bright smile melting from his face. He saw something of himself in there.

But Dev let his screams be heard.

The woman said nothing now, just stood back, watching him through narrowed eyes. She saw right through him. Dev's lucky to have a mother like her... His thoughts, though fleeting, dusted at the image of a woman with long dark hair and bright blue eyes and a smile warmer than the summer sun-

Ezra shook his head sharply, dislodging the image. It was well past his time to be gone. The pain was the first sign. When the numbness faded, it was time to move.

He sighed, slipping his pack over his shoulders. "Well, I guess it's time for me to go. If you find anything missing-" Ezra grinned, but her flat expression did not change. He shrugged and looked away, "Like I said, no promises."

He almost expected her to try and stop him again, as he made his way along the wall. She's probably excited to have the filthy lothrat out her house; he mused, and let the idea give him the last push he needed to get out the door.

This wasn't his home. Ezra had no home. Or rather- all of Lothal was his home. He had the freedom to go anywhere he wanted, to do anything he liked. He was luckier than most kids his age- bound by rules or responsibilities. All Ezra had to worry about was his own wants and needs and whether or not he got caught snatching food at the markets again.

The thought made Ezra pause, right in the frame, and he half turned, glancing over his shoulder at the woman still nursing her tea. "I have an answer now." he said.

Her eyes sparkled, and there was hint of a smile at the corner of her pursed lips. She didn't need to ask what his answer was for. "And what is it?"

Ezra readjusted the straps of the backpack. "Most people would say what I did was wrong but…Like you said, living shouldn't be a crime."

She smiled. "Goodbye, Criminal." She said.

Ezra paused in the doorframe one more time. He had never gotten her name, and it felt wrong when the woman had been so kind. "What's your name?" Ezra asked.

She smiled. "Morgan."

Ezra nodded and stepped off the threshold, pulling the door shut behind him, firmly, and pretending like he hadn't heard her say "hello, Ezra." as he mounted the speeder bike.

He'd return it sometime soon, when his ankle wasn't sliced anymore.

Maybe when no one else was around.