Hands on Tension

A Star Wars: Rebels two shot by Andrew Joshua Talon

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Wars is owned by Lucasfilm Ltd. and Disney. Please support the official release.

Note: Set around Season 2…

Soon enough, the visit ended and an almost giddy Ezra returned to the Ghost, with almost all of his family.

"She is so cool. I'm telling you Kanan, she's got to be a Jedi! It's like pure instinct with her! I'd love to train with her," Ezra gushed happily.

"Heh, yep. Train," Zeb said, his sharp teeth bared in a grin. Ezra missed the significance as he went on about the Princess.

"She'd be amazing if we could just teach her enough!" Ezra said. Kanan nodded, smirking quite a bit.

"It's possible... Unfortunately, we can't afford to get too close to her right now. You especially," Kanan observed. Ezra blushed.

"I-I don't mean like that!" He said quickly, waving his hands. Zeb's grin widened just a bit more.

"Like what, hm?"

Ezra blushed harder, as Kanan patted Ezra on the shoulder.

"You know, wanted terrorists with a princess," Kanan said, smiling innocently. "What did you think I meant?"

Ezra opted for silence, so as not to bury himself deeper. The blush on his cheeks was answer enough, and Kanan and Zeb just laughed as Hera covered her mouth to conceal her own amusement. Chopper, however, had no such restraint. He beeped and booped several lewd things, making Ezra's face even hotter.

"Sh-shut up Chopper!" Ezra shouted. Chopper continued to beep, and Ezra gave chase. He pounced on the droid and bashed it with his fist, as Chopper continued to laugh and make lewd suggestions in Binary.

Hera watched them go, and pulled out her commlink. She muttered some instructions to Chopper via their link, and the droid buzzed back in acceptance. Kanan looked at her questioningly. Hera smirked.

"Just helping things along," she said.

Chopper dumped Ezra in the crew corridor of the Ghost, and wheeled off laughing. Ezra glared after the little droid, and was about to get up and resume the chase when he heard something familiar: Furious, angry painting. He peeked into Sabine's room, and saw her hard at work, painting in broad, bright strokes: Abstract, but unmistakably angry shapes. He didn't need the Force to tell she was annoyed.

"Whoa," Ezra murmured. Sabine stopped, and glared over her shoulder at him. Ezra winced. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm just fine," Sabine replied tersely. The Force screamed this was a lie, not that Ezra needed the danger sense to help with that.

"You seem angry," Ezra said, trying for the tone of voice Kanan would adopt when trying to keep Hera from losing her temper. He called it the 'Jedi tone'. In this case, it just made Sabine scoff in annoyance.

"Perceptive, aren't you?" She snorted. Ezra coughed, still trying to keep the 'Jedi tone' going.

"Do... you want to talk about it?" He asked. Sabine looked back to the wall, hiding her face from him.

"Not really," Sabine stated. Ezra nodded.

"Okay," he said. "It um... looks great though."

Sabine sighed in irritation.

"You're just going to stand there, aren't you?" She asked.

"I wanna make sure you're really all right," Ezra admitted, shrugging.

"...You can be a real idiot, Ezra Bridger," Sabine sighed. Something flashed in Ezra's mind. Now the danger he felt in the Force made sense.

"Wait... were you upset because me and Leia were getting along?" Ezra asked, trying to contain his many conflicting emotions: Amazement, elation, and some disbelief.

"No! Of course not… Why would I be?" Sabine said, far too quickly. Ezra nodded, trying hard not to smile too widely. He was almost there...

"Yeah, why would you?" Ezra asked. Sabine nodded, still not looking at Ezra. Her eyes were locked on the painted bulkhead.

"Of course! So I'm obviously angry about something else," Sabine said.

"You were... jealous?" Ezra asked. Sabine shook her head rapidly.

"No!" She barked. She went back to painting, a little too dedicated to her art. Ezra crossed his arms, and leaned against the edge of the hatch. He looked aside.

"Look, Leia's cool and all, but I'm not interested in her," he admitted. "It was just nice."

The tension he felt in the Force, and saw in her shoulderblades, relaxed almost immediately when he said this.

"Oh," Sabine said. She shrugged, "well. Whatever."

Ezra nodded. He took a deep breath and walked up to stand by her side. She made no move in response to this, as she kept her eyes locked on the wall.

"There's really only one girl I've been interested in for a while now. And she doesn't have to worry about princesses or ex-Jedi or whatever," Ezra said softly. Sabine nodded, still not looking directly at him.

"I see," she said. She glanced at her paint brushes. "I suppose that's comforting."

"Yeah," Ezra said. He grinned, feeling a bit more confident. "But she does make amazing art when she's mad."

Sabine was silent. She turned away to pull on her helmet. Ezra coughed, and turned to quickly retreat.

"Well I gotta go! Later!" He said fast, as he got out of there. He still needed to find Chopper and pay him back, after all.

Thus was the evening that Ezra Bridger left Sabine Wren's face so red she had to hide her face. Not that he knew that at the time.

Zeb had to admit, it was interesting to see Sabine on the backfoot the next "morning" as they flew back to Lothal. First she was super jealous, now she was actually daydreaming as she cleaned her weapons in the rec room. The Lasat leaned against the bulkhead, raising his brows.

"Yer gonna put that trigger guard on backward," he observed. Sabine started, and quickly corrected her mistake.

"Ah? Ah, right," Sabine said. Zeb's grin grew sly, and he leaned forward just a bit.

"Kid did a real number on you, huh?" He asked. Sabine snorted, shaking her head.

"What? He didn't even touch me," she said.

"That's the funny part," Zeb chuckled. Chopper, having wandered into the rec room, made a few suggestive beeps and boops. Sabine glared at the little astromech.

"You're a crude little oil bucket," she said.

Chopper merely beeped back at her. Sabine rolled her eyes.

"Hmph," she grunted, going back to her weapons. Zeb shrugged.

"So you like him, what's wrong with that? Just like him," he said. Sabine rolled her eyes again.

"I do not like him."

Zeb continued, ignoring her poor denial.

"I'm already desensitized to Kanan and Hera being all lovey-dovey. What's one more couple?" He reached out for a thermal detonator on the table.

"I don't like him. I just don't like people touching what's mine... Is all," Sabine said, smackingZeb's hand away from her detonator.

"Oh! So he's yours then?" Zeb smirked. "Does he know that?" He got up and strolled off, chuckling. Sabine stared at her weapons, nibbling her lower lip.

"He'd better," Sabine said. Chopper laughed, and said something involving lubricants. Sabine's face burned bright red.

"Oh shut up!"

Hope you enjoyed this short story.

Also, I'm building a new canon for Star Wars that combines the best of the Disney with the best of Legends. This is just one of several stories I plan to fill out the universe. If you'd like to join in, look me up on Spacebattles. I'd love to have you aboard.