Happy Valentines' Day everyone! Be good and sweet to one another!

This chapter has a bit more canon-stretching, from a silly explanation of how Tie Fighters fly to how Interdictor's work. Please don't kill me!

Final chapter - much sooner. I hope. Work is tough though so I'm only going to promise that the story will be done before the end of Rebels. What a ride it has been!

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Chapter 9:

One Last Dance

Sabine was careful not to let go as she helped Ezra into the hatch, leading him down the rungs of the airlock and through the ship to the common room, acting as his steady hand in spite of the shaking and wobbling of the craft as Lando steered the ship spaceside. Ezra leaned back against the sofa by the Dejarik board as Sabine tried to helped the exhausted Jedi into a more comfortable position.

"I'm going to man the turret - just wait here, ok?" Sabine shouted as she shook Ezra gently by the shoulder, making sure he was still conscious. Ezra nodded back, alert and slightly confused about how concerned she was - this was exhaustion from the Force, and while his muscles burned, he wasn't on the verge of losing consciousness or bleeding out.

He wanted to reply but the Mandalorian was already sprinting away to a turret control system, yelling angrily back at Lando's intercom system as she stumbled and collided into one of walls circular tunnels that snaked through the ship. The craft shuddered as a wave of laser bolts scorched the shields, prompting Lando to roll the ship.

Ezra looked at his gloved hand steadying himself on the table: with a thought his hand curled into a fist, and then relaxed. With a momentary grimace and gasp of air, he pushed up and followed after his friend. Rest could wait.

He followed the path that Sabine had taken to help Lando deal with the Ties, making his way to a three-way juncture - left to the cockpit, forward to the maintenance outlets, and right towards the center of the ship and to the quad laser controls.

He stumbled his way to the metal rungs, looking up to spy an empty control seat at the top of the access ramp. Ezra leapt onto the ladder, forcing himself not to count the rungs as he clambered and dragged his way up to the targeting system. Collapsing on the seat and switching the turret to the manual setting, he placed the headset on his ears just in time to catch the screech of a Tie Fighter as it overtook the ship.

Sublight engines were funny - the sensors aboard the ship could detect these sublight emissions and give humans a sense of "sound" to track the space flying ships. It couldn't have been a coincidence that Tie Fighters had such an incessant scream both in air and in vacuum, a conscious effort of engineers to make shooting them down so annoying…

But the reward of blowing one out of commission was a pleasure like no other. Ezra smiled as he focused his shots and took his first kill of the night. Sabine saw the solar fighter explode and quickly realized Ezra had ignored her commands.

"Ezra? What the heck are you doing?"

"Doing my part! You think I'm just going to slack off on the final stretch?!"

Another set of sub-light engines exploded in space as Sabine's turrets punched right through the paper-thin starfighter.

"I have it under control."

"No, she does not:" Lando interrupted, strangely calm and cool for a pilot in his position, " I have it under control. I just need an opening."

"Uh." Ezra grumbled, only just remembering a crucial fact as he trained his turret sights towards the approaching blockade, "We do have those Interdictor cruisers in front of us."

"I told you, everything will be just fine!"

Ezra swallowed, his mind echoing back to Atallon. The slaughter which occurred in orbit was terrifying and absolute - the only thing preventing the Star Destroyers consigning the Millennium Falcon to the same fate was the freighter's phenomenal speed… But what was speed to the gravity wells of a Interdictor?

"Sabine?"

"What are you going to do Ezra, close your eyes and Force it all away?"

So, she was aware of it too - Ezra smiled a bit at the sardonic response.

"No, I don't think I can Mind Trick out of this one."

"Then we trust Lando." Sabine affirmed as she blasted another TIE out of the air. "Lando! Heading 3.56! Take it!"

Ezra strained his eyes as he fired a couple more shots towards the cloud of starfighters pestering the ship. He was going to see this through to the end.

"Be sure to communicate to the rest of the fleet that they are to cease fire." The commander snapped at his subordinate working in the tech-trench below him. "We have orders to capture the stowaway, and there will be nothing to capture from a scorched clump of space-trash."

"Understood, commander. The Destroyers will hold their fire - but the Chimera has energized it's tractor beam. Should I signal them to advance?"

"Advance? No! They will have their pickings when I drag them out of hyperspace. There is no need to break formation when we have our gravity wells up and running. Lock on to their signature and prime our generators."

The commander looked out at the speck of white that spun about in the inky void, dodging tendrils of green plasma fire and leveling out to make it's leap to Hyperspace. Throughout the hull of the Interdictor Cruiser, a bend began to take effect as the gravity wells warmed up to full capacity - soon, at a moment's notice, they would be able to lock down any hyperspeed object within an area of three thousand meters.

"Target locked, sir."

"Activate the gravity well on my command..."

The white spot vanished - leaping forward into a stream of energy and acceleration that could not be matched - but could be interrupted with a burst of gravitational force. Even after thirty seconds, the Interdictor's Gravity Sink would still be able to drag a ship out of hyperspace, only a couple thousand meters off from it's initial jump location.

The captain didn't have time to waste, however. The Grand Inquisitor's orders were as absolute as an order from Darth Vader himself - and fulfilling such a command was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He brought his hand down and barked out the command. The ship flexed inward and groaned as the gravity field took effect and brought speed to a standstill - air became a slurry mucous and the glow of the planet seemed to bend as gravity tugged at the light.

The Captain relaxed as the gravity field vanished, and waited for the Sensor Officer to detect the floundering rebel vessel.

He waited.

And waited.

After two long seconds of holding his breath, Ezra started to think they were in the clear. Five more heartbeats later and he couldn't keep his silence.

"Alright, Lando: What's the secret?"

"Extra hyperdrive engines, modified for over-the-top performance. They cooldown fast, jump to lightspeed quicker. As it turns out, those gravity wells can't grab a vessel that's too quick for their field to lock down. As long as they don't power up the gravity wells right from the start, the Falcon flies free."

"So, it only works if they're try to pull you out of hyperspace. " Ezra said, trying to understand what Lando said.

"Ezra, didn't I tell you to stay where you were?"

"Right. I've never had an Interdictor try and put a leash on me though - it's possible that these engines could break free of a gravity well already in effect."

"Ugh, nevermind ." Sabine huffed as she disconnected her headset.

"And let me guess... you haven't actually tried to pull this off until now, have you?"

"Does it matter? Meet me in the common room."

Ezra laughed and pulled off the headset, too happy to care. He went to the rungs to meet Sabine clambering up from her turret's perch, a no-nonsense sigh still lingering on her face.

"Ezra, how are you even moving?"

"You know what? Don't ask." Ezra laughed as he pulled himself off the ladder and up to look her in the eyes. Sabine laughed at his sheepish response, grabbing him by the neck and pushing him forward towards the rec room.

"Well then, let's go congratulate the flyboy."

The rec room was empty, and as Ezra scanned the room for Lando and his shenanigans, the door leading to the common room hissed shut.

As Ezra sighed and slumped his shoulders, Sabine took initiative, stepping forward to address the intercom system.

"Hey Lando? You do know we have sabers, right?"

"That is true, but you know I'm at the controls to the ship. Want me to depressurize and turn off your local life-support?"

Sabine grumbled and took a defiant stance.

"What's the meaning of this?"

"The last time I let strangers to the cockpit, I lost my ship. Consider it paranoia, but I'm going to be a bit reclusive for the flight, if you don't mind. We go by the book - sit tight in that room and I'll dock you to The Ghost."

"As long as we're headed to our rendezvous, we'll behave." Ezra affirmed, stretching his shoulders, pulling off his jacket and gloves before landing on the couch. "Care for a game?"

Sabine stared at him before rolling her eyes and summoning a neutral face, pulling off her helmet and removing her armguards to humor her Jedi friend.

"Fine."

Three games later, Ezra fiddled with the Dejarik in hopes of finding another game Sabine wasn't as proficient in - activating a game of Cubikahd instead. It got her to smirk and offer him a challenge in that game instead, revelling in Ezra's terrified grimace and inability to walk away from a challenge...

After four scenarios of Cubikahd, Sabine was thoroughly bored while Ezra studied at the hologram, trying to understand how he had lost so quickly after such a promising opening. It was cute how the Padawan always took every experience as a gift - voraciously learning from each loss. Sabine was already impressed with how fast Ezra caught onto the rules of the game, and the elementary tactics...

Ugh. Cute. The word felt weird , coming out of nowhere and unsettling Sabine slightly. Yes, yes, it was true: Ezra had grown, attractive in his own, Lothalian way, and it was certainly confusing for the Mandalorian to see him look at her, eye to eye...

Ezra noticed her discomforted sigh and powered down the table.

"What's up."

"Ugh." Sabine repeated out loud as she looked away from Ezra, speaking the first thing that came to her mind: "Bored."

"Yeah… I'm not one for these games." Ezra agreed, looking around the room for something to distract him. Sabine glanced back at him as he stood up and left the table, minorly ashamed by her outburst and how it seemed to demean him.

"I'm just tired." She tried to explain as her friend knelt by the wall, taking a look at the panels and instruments that were available, "Looking at holograms is exhausting my eyes, that's all. After today..."

Ezra turned back and smiled, unphased by the whole exchange and already onto another topic - his finger pointed to a readout and series of switches.

"Check it out, an audio transceiver!" As he flipped a switch - filling the room with a empty static. "Hey Lando! You got any tunes?"

"No, but I do have a receiver for broadcasts - we're pretty close to the galactic center, you're bound to pick up some stations!"

"Sweet..." Ezra announced as he began to mess with the dial and scan through stations, the sounds bouncing off of every wall of the ship. Sabine's ears perked up as voices and melodies and sounds began to fade in and out, back and forth, trying to catch a tune of a song she enjoyed.

Some unappealing Jatz, the sellout melody of the Max Rebo Band, some other catchy pop tunes and waves emanating from Coruscant… and there!

"Hey! That's Q!"

"What's what?" Ezra snickered, tuning into and then past Sabine's preferred genre. Sabine soured when she realized she was being pranked by a faux-ignorant Bridger.

"Quenk Jazz you shutta - what are you…"

Ezra grinned as he twisted the dial further, zeroing in on an all-to-familiar acoustic, vocal Lothalian nightmare. Sabine snarled as she clenched her hands into fists.

"How is your kriffing music being broadcasted in the Galactic Center?! Turn it back!"

"Ah! Traditional Lothal!" Lando's voice announced from behind the music. "Good taste! That's getting some recognition these days."

"No, not good taste. Horrible taste!" Sabine corrected with a yell, before she advanced on her friend-turned-mortal-enemy. " Ezra…"

Ezra stood up and put himself between her and the dial, moving ever so slightly to the music, with one hand on what Sabine could only guess was the volume dial.

"I got us through to the Imperial Academy - I earned this."

"I got us out of the Imperial Academy." Sabine shot back, her thoughts returning to their infiltration, from the moment she used the snapper chargers to cut power to the system and their close call on the bridge… Stars, what a rush that was!

"Well, I found the Rebel cell." Ezra retorted, turning up the volume just a pinch higher.

"I got the Rebel cell on our side." Sabine retorted, thinking back to how silly she had looked when she said the codeword, and how awesome it was to haveworked.

"Well, I stopped the Inquisitor."

"I got us away from the two Inquisitors." Sabine yelled back as she stepped forward, feeling more confident as a grin formed at the thought of watching an Inquisitor helpless at her feet. She actually beat an Inquisitor - she couldn't wait to tell Fenn Rau - her mom! Her dad...

"Just before I escaped from all three of them!"

"Well… With my help- ugh! Oh, alright! Fine!" Sabine relinquished at last, almost laughing at the situation as she turned away and let Ezra dial up the music until it lived in every corner of the room. They survived, and of all crinkin' things, they were listening to Loth'ral and enjoying it…

No, she was laughing, and it was hilarious. The stress had finally drained from her body, and in its place was a surreal, invigorating and almost hysterical triumph. All of the petty things were so wonderful all of a sudden, after staring down death and the Dark Side. She felt empowered then, she felt invincible now - addicted to this feeling of relief and pride. So what harm could this 'music' do?

After he was done with the volume Ezra ran up to the Mandalorian and grabbed her by the arm, turning her around to face him. Sabine stumbled in surprise as he dragged her to the center of the the rec room, leading her in one direction, then the other.

"You have to dance to this, Sabine! That's your problem!"

With one more tug of the hand he let her go, letting Sabine stand straight and freeze up in spite of the music. Undeterred, Ezra paced around her, stamping his feet and counting out loud, egging her on.

"Just like this! It doesn't have to be special, just move with it!"

Sabine stared at him, incredulous and doubtful. She swayed to one side, and to the other, hesitant and unwilling to commit to such foolishness…

She put one foot to the right and pushed off with her left, trying to catch up to Ezra's speed and tempo. She tried to twist as Ezra did, but found herself straining against her own limitations, unfamiliar with these motions.

She could've given up there, but Sabine was in no mood for surrender - she followed Ezra as he leaned the other way, and when he pulled her hand she stubbornly followed.

He led her outward and she took a spin, which she stopped with a one foot proudly slamming to the ground, right on tempo.

"That's it!"

They circled each other for a couple of beats, Ezra moving in tune and Sabine doing her best impression. Then they linked hands again and Ezra led her through some elementary movements, moving Sabine around himself, rocking all of the way. With each rotation, Sabine found better balance and more confidence, moving more and more independently and with her own flair.

Ezra threw her out and they both leaned away, balancing off of their linked arms. They let go and the dance was finished - the song over.

And Sabine was still smiling. Incredibly enough - she was having fun.

Before Ezra could comment, Sabine was commandeering the transceiver - fiddling the dial and scanning back to her favorite channel. When the Jazz blasted from the speakers, the Mandalorian hopped up and pushed Ezra back to one of the stools by the desk.

"Sit down. Sit down. "

Ezra looked at her with an skeptical look , but then shut his eyes and tried to stop his restlessness and trust his partner.

Sabine nodded and then began to break down the music to him, how the strings was working to compliment and work with the solo brass instrument and it's improvisations. She pointed out Quenk's signature jitter, quintuple format and a loud, abrupt and sharp drum set…

Twice Ezra tried to stand up, twice Sabine has to push him down and keep seated.

"You have to listen to this, Ezra! That's your problem!"

He smiled at her wit, and closed his eyes doing his best to catch onto what Sabine was trying to explain. She smiled and continued with her lesson, hoping that Ezra's absorbent mind would catch onto her musical taste. With such aptitude for learning, from Cubikahd to sleazy underworld charms, he could learn how to appreciate this - right?

Sabine's voice tapered off, her understanding of this song at her limit. So she waited and judge Ezra's reaction: who shut his eyes closed and put on a neutral appearance. Handsome face, much more defined and sharpened then the childish complexion Ezra first had when he had joined the Ghost crew - Someone would be very lucky to have him.

The song ended, and Ezra blinked, star-purple eyes focusing into the world and looking to Sabine.

"Well?" Sabine asked.

"I never knew how important format is to music... I guess it stands out to me, now that you mentioned it. The rest... I guess I have to listen to it more often?"

"Ha - I didn't know you could be so politically correct!" Sabine said with a smile while she stood up and away from the seat. Ezra rolled his head and chased her.

"Hey - it was an honest response!"

Lando checked the scopes one more time, happy to see that the hyperspace drive was functioning as the designs had predicted. Fuel was good, shields were stable…

"Now to check on our ruffians..." Lando announced out loud, looking to the co-pilot seat only to find a dead protocol droid with a blaster bolt straight through its head. Electricity sparked from the wound at random moments - a testament to how recent its demise was.

Lando looked at the readout and watched Sabine sit the Jedi down and try and explain Quenk Jazz. When it was over, they went back to bickering over the smallest things, taking enormous enjoyment out of messing with one another.

Quenk Jazz and Lothalian folk… neither really suited Lando's taste, and since they had their fun…

"Might as well have a song for myself, right?" Lando spoke to his dead droid companion, who sparked back in affirmation.

Lando turned his attention to the intercom panel that was set apart from the rest of the shuttle controls - checking the audio screen and broadcast frequencies, Lando began to adjust the setting to a calmer, friendlier, smoother channel to calm his nerves.

The two Rebel operatives froze in place as they realized that their music was being hijacked. Sabine knelt at the transceiver, trying to wrestle back control, but soon realizing that their pilot had taken over.

"Lando, what's this?"

"A waltz." Lando responded, "You've had your fun, now I get to pick."

He remembered this piece well, and in his mind he could think up many nights where this tune had accompanied him on his more romantic entrepreneurial bargains. The welder from Corellia, the data technician from Cloud City… and so Lando kicked back and drifted off into his nostalgia, humming to the tune.

"Heh, I guess it's only fair…" Ezra added meekly, looking to Sabine as Lando cut off the intercom and flooded the room with an orchestral melody setting the stage to a regal waltz. He took a step in the direction of the bench, ready to take a seat and rest for the duration of the flight.

Sabine just sighed as she closed her eyes and tried to immerse herself in the melody. She was having fun so far, sampling music and spending time with Ezra...

She stood up and spun around. The young Jedi looked at her funny when she stepped forward with hands out.

"Care for a waltz, Sir Bridger?"

"You're... kidding, right?" Ezra announced skeptically, even as he stepped forward, nervously taking hold of her hand and carefully placing his hand on her back. "Waltz's aren't…"

"Hey, this is the only time I'd allow it." Sabine explained as she began to dance around in a circle, dragging Ezra along for the ride. "We're celebrating. Waltzes are for celebration."

"Uh, technically…"

"What?"

"Well, c'mon. Are you telling me you've never watched a holodrama like 'Across the Stars'?"

Ezra spun her out, holding onto her by her hand. She looked back at him with a classic Sabine look. When Ezra pulled her back in, he had one of his classic Ezra expressions.

"Right : obviously Mandalorians don't care much for cinema. I've watched tons of them: you'd be amazed as to how many of them have a waltz scene. When you waltz, you just shuffle around and… um. Talk."

"So we are doing it right, then." Sabine affirmed, getting Ezra to awkwardly nod his head and 'agree', "Never saw you as much of a theater-goer..."

"Well, when you're striking it out on your own and it's cold season on Lothal, sometimes you sneak into cinemas for the distraction."

"Oh, right …" Sabine responded warily, feeling awkward by bringing up Ezra's past. But to her relief, her concern washed away as Ezra shrugged with one shoulder and smiled, somehow undeterred by the past.

How was he like that? Sabine could never understand how Ezra was able to move past his history, his loss of innocence and the death of his parents. He was incredibly motivated by his roots, made peace with Rider and Tseebo, and there was never a moment of weakness around him when revisiting the past. Not once - even Sabine wasn't that laserproof. What was his secret?

"Well, I stopped sneaking in when I was 13." Ezra continued, unaware of Sabine's growing inner conflict. "All of the Empire's meddling made it more propaganda than anything else."

"Kriff... " Sabine began, "I can only imagine what that must have been like. Imperial art must have been torture."

In her head, Sabine began to wonder what else Ezra had kept from the team - there were moments where Ezra would pause and stare off with a twinkle of nostalgia in his eyes, down the alleyway or to a city's skyline, and Sabine could almost read the thoughts and emotions that dwelled within him. Once she had considered his roguish, savage street-side roots as a burden, a downside and a dangerous variable for the team's missions. He would change his appearance and his voice on a whim, with whiny snarls and Zeb and sycophantic flirty lines at her... She thought he couldn't be trusted, an embarrassment that couldn't handle the responsibility or grasp the importance of their cause. But mission after mission, Ezra's history proved to be his greatest source of strength… and through them, it became a reason for him to grow.

"I'm sure you must have seen some of it at the Academy."

Sabine rolled her eyes with a sardonic smile as she swayed into their next step, adjusting her hand to better fit the curve of Ezra's shoulder:

"You've been at an academy, Ezra. You may have noticed…"

"That… they're pretty bland." Ezra agreed, wincing at his mistake and remembering how monotonous the Imperial barracks on Lothal were, "Even with no propaganda… how'd the artist in you deal with that?"

"She didn't. I only started working on art until after the academy, with Ketsu." Sabine explained, as she inched a bit closer to loosen up. Ezra was as tall as her now, and although she didn't like Zeb's teasing, she had to accept it.

"That's a strange thought: I always saw you as an artist."

"Well, I always took after my father but I never applied myself until I broke out with Ketsu… Being apart from my family, it was a way for me to feel… connected."

"Oh, right… " Ezra muttered, an awkward phrase that Sabine recognized and laughed at, prompting Ezra to frown in concern: "What?"

" Nothing… " Sabine struggled to say as she tried to contain her good humor, looking straight at Ezra with a smile on her face. "... Sometimes I don't know if you're doing it on purpose or not."

Ezra, confused and nervous, did the most natural thing his empathic mind told him to do. He smiled and gazed back.

As she caught her breath and reigned in her laughter, a sudden spark of urgency settled into Sabine's stomach. All in a single moment, with one shared look, she was aware of how fast her heart was racing, how tremendously sensitive her fingertips felt. Her first reaction was one of confusion, concern, and only after staring him right in the face, deep into his eyes, did she realize the source of her problem, and its extent.

Oh no.

Was this the same song, or had Sabine happily pranced into another waltz? Where was her awareness drifting off to? Why was she so enthralled by...

No, no!

Sabine's next reaction was one of pure fury. Her internal conscious raced as she rushed from query to query. Where had these emotions come from? How dare they try and ruin this moment? How could she be finding him so attractive so suddenly ? How was she enarmored with Ezra Bridger!?

"Doing what?!" Ezra repeated, his voice a teensy bit louder and a lot more curious.

"Ha!" Sabine laughed, trying to swallowed down her nerves and her heart, preferring to keep her thoughts a secret. She has having enough difficulty with them on her own. But she had to respond, she needed something quick :

"You're... always trying to do what's best for everyone."

Ezra responded incredulously wheezing a bit and blinking his eyes in confusion.

"Really."

"What?" Sabine growled in exasperation, nervously - anxiously awaiting his response with a smile. Him and his smiles. Him and his funny mannerisms. For the longest time she had tried to stay professional while Ezra remained playful and positive - unabashed and lacking any care in the world. Maybe it was inevitable that his cheery disposition would wear her down, but just when did she acquire such a fondness to his company , such an attraction to the face of this daredevil? She tried to be angry, she tried desperately wanted to shut off this surge of euphoria and defuse this situation… but lost in his smile she found herself smiling back. She couldn't help herself.

Maybe it was the way how his eyes looked like the flash of a night sky lit up by Rhydonium explosions. Maybe it was his voice and how earnestly he spoke: as clear and refreshing as the rivers of Krownest.

"Are you sure about that? I was the jerk lieutenant commander who scrapped the Phantom I ."

"But you got the Phantom II ."

"No no, that was Chopper." Ezra corrected, smiling and curious with Sabine's strange mood. "I don't know where you're getting this from, Sabine: If anything, you're the one who is always turning things for the better. Always working on the shield generator on Chopper Base and still having time to give the Phantom II a fresh coat of paint, planning that strike against the Interdictor turret. I have a lot to learn from you."

"Well…" Sabine began, trying and failing to come up with an adequate response to turn down Ezra's praise. Suddenly Sabine grew fearful: what if the music stopped? What should she do, what would happen? And, for the thousandth time, why?

Maybe it was because, no matter how often she tried to cover it up with stoicism and silence, she loved to color the world in her own positive emotions like he did. Maybe it was because of the Ghost Squad being there to help her test her limits, face her fears, and return to her family.

The truth couldn't be hidden - during their journey through the galaxy, from the grassy plains of Lothal to the dry air of Atollon, Ezra had changed from one of Sabine's largest irritations to one of her greatest assets. It was more than just his reliability at deflecting blaster shots - it was how he listened, how he spoke, how he would eagerly catch a thermal detonator she tossed to him, or how he would happily present her with a helmet, a tribute that she would transform with her art... How he would offer help, and how he asked for help. There was a connection between them that was deeper than his interest in color and jetpacks, her curiosity of meditation and The Force.

He never expected anything from her, and was always eager to learn more about her. He treated his friendship with her as not a labour or a convenience, but something that was as natural as his right hand. And it was the same for her: There was always something about Ezra Bridger, something Sabine wanted to learn or understand. She... she loved that about him. Stars, it was true...

Well, if this desire was genuine, then she might as well act on it.

Ezra was lost trying to figure his own way out of the situation - with Sabine's sudden epiphany and surge of determination, his nervous front became quite apparent. Understanding her own feelings gave her a better sense of control, and she took lead of their waltz and steered it in a much more Mandalorian fashion. After dancing around in a couple circles to throw Ezra off, she slipped her hands out and up to his shoulders and drew close…

Lando's eyes widened as he stared at the monitor's feed.

"Oh, man! "

It was the strangest sensation, making her mouth press onto his. There was warmth, and a texture, a feeling that seemed to spark through her body like lightning.

And like lightning, it was over too quick. She - she had just pulled away from the moment they collided, a touch and go. But a touch was all that was needed for Sabine to attempt again - looking into his eyes she swayed back towards him so that she could feel his heat on her skin.

Then she pressed forward again, this time reveling in the union between them, no longer afraid of the stupid context or the awkward timing. She basked in the sensation, how her lips dragged across his. It was such a rush, and it scratched an itch that had only just begun awaken-

This time, Ezra broke the contact. But at this point, rationality and fear were non-applicable to Sabine. She let one of her hands reach around to caress the nape of his neck, enjoying the touch.

Ezra took a breath, then a short one. Frozen in his tracks, Sabine could feel the current brush by her chin.

"...Oh. Man. Sabine… uh..."

"What… Do you have any complaints?" Sabine whispered, tilting her head and waiting for a sign of consent, eager to resume.

Ezra stood still, electrified. He tried to come up with something to say, Sabine saw his mouth open in close in a record pace. But his heart was clear, as Sabine felt the palm of his hand rest on the curve of her waist. Maybe it was reflex, but it was enough for her to inch closer, forcing him to show his hand. She felt her eyes close as she opened herself up to the unknown...

For a moment Sabine felt air, but then Ezra met her halfway, gentle as always. They started off still as stone - before moving slowly, wanting to make the moment last, holding every sensation sacred. But with small tastes, a deeper hunger awakens.

Sabine found herself loving the feast. Every time they parted, she found herself frustrated and yearning. Each time they returned to their embrace, her confidence and desire drove her to push deeper, hold their connection longer. To an observer, it would be fractions of seconds, but they made all the difference to the Mandalorian. It may have been a heartbeat more, a flutter of an eyelid more, the twitch of a finger more… milliseconds, nanoseconds, whatever! But it was more .

She liked more. She wanted more. She could tell he was hungry as well - how held her longer on the last embrace, and how he pushed himself closer to the rest of her body, losing patience with all this flirtation. She happily led him to the lip of the Dejarik board, letting him push her against the tables edge as he pressed his chest up against hers in a deeper embrace. Without the armor and the layered clothes, Sabine felt his thighs against hers, her chest drag against his. The sensations drove her wild, as she tried to keep up with the urges that followed. She felt her mouth open more and more as they kissed, relishing the suction and eagerly playing with the thought of feeling their tongues overlap. When they did, a small little noise made its way out from the depths of her desire.

"Well, well, well... would you look at that. The kid finally got the Mandalorian girl's fancy!" Lando announced as he leaned into the monitor, watching the two Rebels engage in a passionate Corellian kiss. He absentmindedly motioned for the protocol droid to get a better look at the action, but the droid remained aimless, stationary and dead.

For a moment, Lando was laughing at the matter, but then his face fell as he leaned away from the monitor and back into his chair, looking up at the ceiling of the cockpit in dismayed revelation.

"...Now, this presents a problem." Lando mused out loud, "If I turn off this monitor here, I leave these two to their privacy… but can I really let them operate unsupervised? I only just got the Falcon back and I already have so much to clean up… can't risked being hijacked again. "

Lando looked to the droid and chuckled. His jovial demeanour faded as he revisited the conundrum.

"...But if I keep it on, I may end up a witness to something much more…."

Lando's demeanour fell further when considering that possibility. Another wisp of lightning appeared from the droid, miniscule fireworks of flickering out into the cockpit atmosphere.

"...No, no..." Lando concluded, almost as if he was arguing with the droid (and not himself), "...I'm not going to record them! They've done me a favor, and blackmail on them rubs me the wrong way…"

Another bolt of power from the droid, but this time it was an audible crack .

"They're kids for crying out loud!" Lando responded passionately, leaning forward decisively as defended his position. "I'll just…"

Lando stared at the monitor for two seconds.

"I'm turning it off." He announced to nobody but himself.

Sabine gasped as they parted to catch her breath - in her rash and reckless pursuit, the need for oxygen was the only limit that slowed her down. And strange enough, the breathlessness was welcome - blurring her senses and rushing adrenaline through her body was the only sane way of managing all of these feelings. Everything was so fast and so raw - when she kissed him, at times she would lose herself in the taste, the ashen tinge of a foreign land that still carried the scent of Lothal - other times she would obsess over the bumps and textures of his tongue as he played with her, teased her, so wild and exciting and charming…

And it wasn't just the kiss that drove her mad. They pressed and pushed against each other, awakened and enjoying the pressure and sensation of their partner's body. The heat, the flesh, the muscle… Their hands were always frisky, mindlessly and instinctively changing location with each movement - while Sabine played with Ezra's hair and kept his head in control with one, her other hand found itself traveling around his back, feeling his muscles tense and the fire that smoldered behind the fabric of clothing, hot like the surface of Shu-Torun. When Ezra's hand found itself grabbing deeply onto one of Sabine's thighs, it was natural for her to settle on his grip, wrapping her leg around his for support and riding up onto him. Was it uncomfortable? Maybe. To feel his hand grip her haunch and press deep into her skin may have been uncomfortable in some other context. But now, the pain was distant, and only seemed to give her more pleasure as she now pressed her waist even closer to his, feeling the friction intensify and grow as she settled in.

Breathe...

Their faces broke off suddenly, so that the two rebels could struggled to catch their breath. In this moment of clarity and recovery, Sabine felt as though she was using her eyes for the first time since the dance. She could see her breath mix into the atmosphere, the flush on Ezra's face, the struggle in his eyes. She instinctively edged forward, tempted to dive in once more and fall further into the embrace...

But she wouldn't. She swayed back ever so slightly, finding herself erring to a more cautious, calmer state of mind - Her consciousness was awake, bickering and lamenting over how fast things were playing out, how reckless and stupid all of this passion was. The tension within her had shattered and whatever madness had infected her suddenly wilted, overshadowed by a surge of regret.

She got her hand onto Ezra's chest, putting a bit of pressure as a touch of deterrent. She was fearful that he wouldn't understand, and stars forbid, lean in for another kiss. Yet Ezra was more mindful than that - and probably just as surprised as she was. His grip slackened and he set her down upon the table, slowly edging his hands off of her as if a wrong move would set something off.

And there they waited, and breathed. Sabine was absolutely beside herself to end up in such a situation: One part of her was furious at stopping, the other was horrified at how far they had gone. There was no consensus. Even if Sabine did like Ezra, and love him terribly, that did little to answer the small, teensy, but oh so pertinent questions: For how long did she like him? Could five minutes of honesty really override the attitudes and opinions Sabine had held onto for years?

All of this internal agony while Ezra lingered half a foot away. It wasn't sustainable or sensible - she needed to explain herself…

"Sorry." Ezra mumbled, wincing out a smile and trying to mask his own alarm and concern. It was strange to hear him apologize. It confused the Mandalorian to see him so apprehensive, since - since...

"Sorry…?" Sabine echoed, "It was a kiss."

Ezra's eyes avoided hers, but his shoulders relaxed, and his body deflated in timid relief. Sabine loved to hear the sound of her voice - it was more calming and reassuring than anything in the galaxy.

"It got…"

"...It got… it went somewhere. Yes." Sabine interrupted, feeling more confident and eager the more she spoke, even if she was tripping and struggling through her sentences, "I… Er… It's ok. I just…"

"Need time. Yeah," Ezra agreed while nodding and dodging her eyes like they were laser blasts, "I wasn't thinking. I…"

He stepped back and away, putting his hands up in penance.

"I went-."

"We went too far..." Sabine announced, overriding Ezra's confession. " We got a bit carried away… and that's fine ."

Ezra looked up to Sabine and lowered his hands, making eye contact for the first time in a while. She looked back at him - and so his eyes darted around the room, still trying to make sense of things and avoid her inquisitive stare. It was nice for Sabine to so easily see that she wasn't the only one off of balance - it even got her to smile.

"So. Do you…" Ezra began, red as rhyolite and gesturing from her to himself, "...like me?"

Sabine instinctively looked at her helmet, sitting on the bench just out of reach. Karabast.

"I...guess? I guess… Ezra, it's been a long night, and we've got tons of work in the coming cycle. We're off to Mandalore, remember?"

"Ah." Ezra responded, thinking about Ursa Wren, Tristan Wren, various subordinates of Clan Wren... Sabine's father. Sabine was thinking about her family as well - She wondered what her father would think of all of this.

"Thank you for stopping." Sabine continued. "...Maybe -"

Some other time. After a bit of courtship. After we save my father. After you show my family how well you can fight…

"...Forget it." Sabine finished, feeling pink in the face by the words that she had almost said. She hoped Ezra would understand we she meant, what she needed…

And he did. The Jedi took a breath and nodded with face of gentle understanding.

"Alright."

Lando raised his hands to his temple, his mouth aghast and utterly baffled at what he had just witnessed.

"Damn it all, man, confess! Don't let her slip out of your fingers - you had her ! "

He flicked off the display in disgust and depression, trying to lose himself in other technical matters - the Falcon 's steering coupling was a bit loose and jittery from the escape from the Interdictor, and some technical readouts weren't displaying properly.

"Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren..." He huffed as he knelt underneath the control panel to get at the wiring - "I hope you two free yourselves from these silly burdens that you put on yourselves. Kids like you should be making mistakes and learning about life, not fighting a war…"

Kids. As he ripped apart the wires, he couldn't help but realize that they were still kids. Teenagers on the cusp of adulthood. Tenderfoots. Greenhorns. And yet they held themselves to such high standards, strangled their impulses and desires like Jedi monks - he knew so many people who lacked such resolve, who succumbed to impulse, debauchery and decay. How did these two keep going in spite of it all? How could they maintain such purity while fighting the Galactic Empire? How did they keep such... hope? Faith? Resolve?

People would call them idiotic. Naive. Arrogant. And yet they persisted for so long…

It was a mystery that Lando couldn't shake off his mind, for whatever reason. It made him feel…

...terrible.

A spark of electricity from the wires zapped the pensiveness out of him. He snapped out of his malaise and shook the thoughts of sympathy from his mind.

He was an entrepreneur, a man of fortune. He was doing just fine.

Lando shoved the wires back after he reconnected them to their respective ends. He settled into his chair and checked the star map.

Thirty more minutes and he'd get his reward, and be free from this rebellion rabble for good.

End Chapter