Chapter One: Rise of the Old Masters

Ezra had been practicing with Kanan for well over an hour when the sun was beginning to set on their little patch on Lothal. After a good long while of practicing deflection, using form five, they had moved on to the first of a series of katas for form three. Kanan was perched on the cargo ramp of the Ghost, watching Ezra move with the lightsaber in hand. For the first time, Ezra didn't feel like he needed to impress the Jedi. For the first time, he didn't feel judged or frustrated or even held at arm's length.

It sure made focusing a lot easier.

For the first time since he had begun training with Kanan, Ezra felt the Force like a warm blanket around him rather than an intruding presence. He was able to float atop of it in a way he never had before and he found that the motions of the lightsaber came to him naturally.

Ezra stole another look at his Master as he continued on with the kata. Kanan had his eyes closed and at first Ezra thought he was observing some facet of the Force rather than his physical moves. But then he noticed a little bit of a furrow to Kanan's brow. He opened his eyes, cautiously, and squinted against the setting sun. This seemed to be uncomfortable and he closed his eyes again, rubbing the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger.

"You okay, Kanan?" Ezra asked, bringing his motion to a halt and deactivating the lightsaber. Playing a hunch, Ezra placed himself so that his shadow fell over Kanan's eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Ezra," Kanan said without looking up, "I guess it's just been a longer day than I thought."

"Headache?"

"Yeah," Kanan replied, working some tension out of his neck muscles, "probably just from the stress of everything."

"Not surprising," Ezra said, handing Kanan the lightsaber, "Master Unduli is alive, then she's still dead after all, then there's a creepy, crazy guy after us..."

"Guess it's all catching up," Kanan agreed, "maybe we should call it a day."

"Besides, I think I smell grub coming on," Ezra agreed.

As if on cue, Zeb stuck his head out the cargo hatch and bellowed their names at the top of his lungs before he realized they were right there. Kanan's face twisted up as if something was drilling into his temples.

"Oh, you're already here," the Lasat said in a more reasonable tone, "Soup's on! Hera says you two better wash up first." Zeb then retreated back into the ship before either of them could respond.

Kanan looked green at the mere mention of food. He stood up and, impossibly, seemed to turn even greener. If Ezra hadn't been watching, he wouldn't have noticed the slight sway in Kanan's step.

"Say," Ezra ventured carefully as they began to make their way into the ship, "you took a pretty good hit when the Inquisitor threw you. You were pretty slow to get up."

Kanan gave a sigh and rolled his eyes, a motion that did nothing for his complexion. "It's just a headache, Ezra," he said, "I already took something for it."

"It doesn't look like it's helping," Ezra commented, "what'd you take?"

"That stuff I always take, that Hera keeps in the red bottle," Kanan replied, with a dismissing wave of his hand, "I'm sure it'll kick in any time now."

"You know Hera keeps the anti-inflammatories in the red bottle, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"And are you better or worse since taking them?"

"What are you, my doctor all of a sudden?" Kanan shot back, reaching for the ladder that went up to the common area.

Ezra reached out and put a hand over the one that Kanan had resting on the ladder rung, halting their progress toward the upper levels. "You're not having a headache, Kanan. It's a migraine."

"No it's not," Kanan replied, sounding sour, "I don't get migraines." He moved to start up the ladder, but Ezra pushed him back down again.

"But it's not uncommon for people to get them after getting knocked in the head really hard," the boy stated, somewhat smugly, "kinda... like you were?"

"Ezra," Kanan groused, "I'm fine."

"Light and sound sensitivity," Ezra stated, "the mere mention of food turned you as green as Hera, and I'm betting... you're seeing stars on the outside of your vision."

Kanan gave a resigned sigh and let go of the ladder, leaning back against the bulkhead. "They keep zipping in and out like drizi flies," he said, "okay, so it's a migraine. But like I said, I took something already."

"Yeah," Ezra said with a note of skepticism, "anti-inflammatories, which in some people make migraines worse."

Kanan let out a frustrated moan, looking toward the ceiling. "Great," he said, "fantastic. Now I really don't want to go up to dinner."

"Wait a minute," Ezra said, giving his Master a sidelong-look and lowering his voice, "you didn't tell Hera you got hit in the head, did you?"

"Shhh!" he exclaimed, putting his hands out in front of him. "She'll go into mommy mode and obsess about it for days," he said, "and I need her focusing on the ship for right now."

"Whatever you say, Spector One," Ezra replied, tossing a two-fingered salute off of his forehead, "but you know she'll be pissed when she finds out."

"If she finds out," Kanan shot back, pointedly.

Ezra gave a casual shrug. "Whatever you say. You've known her a lot longer than I have, so I guess you must be right."

"Sarcasm is the recourse of a weak mind."

"Of course it is, Master."

Somehow, Kanan managed to keep down some dinner, though it wasn't nearly as much as he would normally eat just after an op. Dutifully, Ezra ran interference with the others during the meal, directing their attention off of the uncharacteristically quiet and slowly eating Kanan. That didn't stop Zeb and Sabine from their usual antics and today they had a lot of stories to share, filling Hera in on what she had missed on the op. Loudly.

"So then, Sabine says," Zeb said around a chuckle, "she holds up a grenade and says."

"One last miracle!" Sabine put in.

"And then she tosses the thing at the troopers," Zeb continued without missing a beat, still laughing, "and the dumb bucket-heads just look at it rolling on the ground until it blows up in their faces!" Dissolving into riotous laughter, Zeb brought his hands down on the table top, setting the dishes rattling.

Ezra noted a wince from Kanan at the same time and joined in the laughter. "Yeah, that was pretty great," he said, "so, Kanan, you were mentioning something about a variation on that kata, right? Something you needed to look up?"

Kanan caught on immediately and looked up from the food he had pushed around on his plate. "Oh right, Ezra, right," he said, clearing his throat, "something in the holocron, I think."

"Well, don't leave me hanging," Ezra said standing and pushing away from the table, "let's go take a look."

"Sure!" Kanan said with forced enthusiasm as he got to his feet as well, albeit significantly slower. "Now's as good a time as any."

The two Jedi beat a hasty retreat through to the hallway for the living quarters, letting the door close behind them without waiting for any reaction from the others. There was a long, silent pause in the common room for several seconds.

"What was that about?" Sabine asked.

"You get the feeling they're hiding something?" Zeb put in.

"Oh no," Hera said, wearing a look suggestive of a put-upon mother, "they're not hiding anything."

To be on the safe side, Kanan and Ezra kept up their act until the door to Kanan's quarters slid shut. It was completely unspoken between them and purely a combined effort of self-defense.

With a sigh of relief, Kanan sagged against the inside of the door as Ezra turned the lights on, keeping them low.

"I owe you one, kid," Kanan said, gathering himself up and shuffling toward his bunk only to collapse into it, letting an arm flop over his eyes.

"Yeah ya do!" Ezra replied, careful to keep his voice low. "Do you know what Hera's gonna to do me when she finds out I helped cover for you?"

"If!" Kanan insisted.

Ezra simply shook his head, rolling his eyes skyward. "Just wait here," he said, "I know something that might help. I'll be right back." Poking his head back out the door, Ezra checked the hallway and found it still empty. He zipped down to the fresher and soaked a towel in cold water, grabbed a bottle of pills from the cabinet, then stole back into Kanan's quarters just as quickly with both in hand. As an afterthought, he stopped by the quarters he shared with Zeb and retrieved a small can of a fizzy energy drink that he liked.

"Here," Ezra said, shaking a couple of pills out of the green bottle and handing them to Kanan, "take these, they should help."

"I said I already took something," Kanan protested.

"Yeah, the wrong thing," Ezra said, "just trust me. This is different. It's a cyco... cyto... something-or-other inhibitor. It'll work better." He handed Kanan the energy drink to use to swallow the pills.

Kanan looked at him skeptically. "This is gonna keep me awake for hours," he complained.

"Kanan, take the stupid pills and drink the stupid drink," Ezra muttered, "or would you rather Hera was helping you out instead?"

"You don't play fair," Kanan said, shooting a glare at his Padawan, but taking the proffered medicine and drink anyway. After downing both in one large gulp, he plopped his head back on to his pillow again.

"Here," Ezra said, placing the cool towel over Kanan's eyes. The elder Jedi gave a sigh of relief and Ezra saw some of the tension leave his face. There was a long few minutes of silence between them after that. Ezra settled in on the floor, leaning back against the side of the bunk.

"Ezra," Kanan ventured several minutes later, "where'd you learn all this?"

"My mom," Ezra said after a moment, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. "She would get the worst migraines. As soon as I was old enough to tell one bottle of pills from another, my dad made sure I knew how to take care of her when she had them."

Kanan let that hang in the air for a while before replying. "Well, he taught you well, kid," he said, lifting the cool cloth up and peering at Ezra. The boy looked back at him with a small, crooked smile and found that his master was mirroring it back.

"You should get some rest, Master," he said, "mind if I take the top bunk tonight? I don't think I can face Hera until morning."

Kanan flopped back into his pillow and replaced the cool cloth over his eyes. "Get up there," he said, "just be quiet."

"You got it," Ezra said, vaulting up the ladder and flopping down in the top bunk.

An hour or so later, the door to Kanan's quarters opened just a little bit and Hera looked in. She saw Ezra sacked out on the top bunk, one arm dangling down off the side. Kanan was completely asleep, too, but he had one arm reached upward, grasping on to Ezra's hand. She gave a small smile, then closed the door as quietly as she could.

When she turned back into the hallway, she found Chopper there, looking at her. It made a series of noises and looked for all the world like a petulant child telling on delinquent classmates.

"What?" Hera said, giving the droid a shrug. "I'll yell at them tomorrow."

D'awww... All floofy and made of warms. I just adore these two. Not since Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan has Star Wars had quite so adorable a pair of Jedi. I'd like to say that The Force Awakens is what got me back into the fandom, but it was these two and this show. I wanna hug them all.

So, seriously. Kanan gets knocked unconscious just about every third episode of the first season. And yet, up he gets and just continues right on. The most egregious of these instances is Fire Across the Galaxy, of course, but I'll get to that. For now, I hope you enjoyed. Please remember to leave a review.

Next up is Gathering Forces which won't be quite as floofy, I promise.