Kanan's apartment, Tuesday morning

[futurespacemom]

All right, Hera had shirts. She had gone to sleep in a shirt, she had just bought shirts at the store, and she didn't have so many things that she'd have lost them!

She was pretty sure Kanan wasn't the sort to steal all her shirts for a joke, and anyway all of his seemed to be missing too, and Chopper was still back on the Ghost (she had checked).

She had finally resorted to weaving her new scarf around her and tying it, in lieu of an actual top.

Then she went to make caf. She was not dealing with whatever this was without caf.


[Open post, though if you don't live there, you'd better knock!]

Comments

[uncertain_dume]

"... A surprisingly small number," Kanan replied, after pausing to seriously consider that. "I mean, some stick around entirely because they're stuck here, but figuring it out isn't usually the dealbreaker, with this place."

Usually.

[futurespacemom]

"What is?" Hera asked. "Or don't I want to know?"

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan pursed his lips a little.

"Sometimes, the island gets dangerous," he said, finally. "Really, really dangerous. Nobody ever gets really hurt. At least, nothing that lasts any amount of time. But until whatever happens is dealt with, you might as well be trying to navigate an asteroid field in a disarmed TIE."

[futurespacemom]

Hera pictured that, and of course immediately started picturing how she'd do it. Which wasn't the point, she was sure.

Instead, she gave Kanan a determined and slightly grim smile. "Well, I always did like a challenge."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan gave Hera a wry smile in return.

"Sometimes, it isn't even a complete surprise," he offered, and then his expression shifted, for just a moment, to something kind of tentative, hesitant, before he added, "to me, I mean. If leaving before things get ugly here is ever an option, I mean..."

He could speak up. Probably. He'd stopped carrying his lightsaber around so openly again since Gorse, but he'd circle back around to that point eventually. Hopefully.

[futurespacemom]

Hera nodded back, not wanting to make a big deal of that admission. "If you ever want to get out of here, just let me know," she said firmly. "We'll find someplace else."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan blew out a breath, and then nodded, trying to act like, hey, that wasn't a big deal at all. Really. Just another thing he could do. Like catching large falling objects with his mind. Whatever.

"Great," he said. "We can skip town, let someone else deal with it..."

Feel terrible about it. Worry the entire while. He buried his face in his hand for a moment.

"Or just... brace for it. Or whatever seems right at the time."

For all the insisting that he did that he didn't just randomly help people, he was actually kind of terrible at it in practice.

[futurespacemom]

Which Hera was not at all smirking about. Really.

"Whatever seems right," she agreed.

[uncertain_dume]

He'd gone full Jedi Padawan in every way except for the robes and the braid, the last time the island had gone to hell.

... And there had been a braid, at that. It just hadn't been his.

"You're smirking," he accused. He still had his hand over his face, but look, he just knew these things.

[futurespacemom]

"Me?" Hera asked innocently. "Never."

It was breaking through now.

[uncertain_dume]

"Here's where I start protesting that I don't just go around helping people again," Kanan announced, wrinkling his nose. "And then you smirk even more and I end up making a big show about being disgusted with myself and the galaxy in general."

He uncovered his face, nose still wrinkled.

"Isn't it?"

[futurespacemom]

"We can skip the last part if you want," Hera suggested. "You could just give in and agree that you're bad about letting things go."

[uncertain_dume]

"Uuuuuuugh," Kanan groaned, throwing his head back and looking up at the ceiling. "That would make me a quitter, Hera. I'm not a quitter, either."

... Actually, he kind of was. That was one of his survival tactics. Quit often, move on.

[futurespacemom]

"No," Hera said patiently, "that would mean you're admitting you're not a quitter." She leaned forward and whispered, "even if you want everybody to think you are."

Everybody including himself.

[uncertain_dume]

"It would mean admitting I'm..." Dammit, Kanan kind of let that sentence drift off so that he could pick apart the corner he'd just backed himself into. He sighed. "Can we just go back to pretending I don't actually care? That part's easier."

Look at him, admitting it was an act. That was like forward progress, if you squinted a lot.

[futurespacemom]

So it was tiny progress; it was still progress.

"Nope." Hera moved to sit next to him and tugged on his ponytail. "Don't worry; I won't tell."

She said it lightly, but she meant it on a few levels.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan wrinkled his nose and waved a hand behind his head, though there really wasn't any effort being put forth to try to get her away from his hair. Congrats, Hera. You'd reached the 'allowed to tug the ponytail' zone.

At present, you were the only person in that zone.

"I appreciate that," he decided. "I have a reputation to uphold, and all."

[futurespacemom]

Well, it wasn't like he had lekku for her to tweak when he was being silly.

"Right." She nodded. "Kanan Jarrus? He mostly hates everyone. Really unhelpful. Don't trust him, either."

[uncertain_dume]

"He definitely doesn't help people. Not when he can avoid it," he supplied, helpfully. "His favorite place to spend his time is passed out on the floor, behind the bar at the local cantina."

Okay, it had been a while since he'd been found like that.

But so help him if he found another bar with ryncol...

[futurespacemom]

Hera raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't know I'm going to say that. I mean, I have my own reputation, you know."

[uncertain_dume]

"Do you?" Kanan gave her a little grin. "And here I thought you were trying to cultivate an air of mysteriousness. I'm at least a little surprised you'll be seen in public with me, you know."

... He kind of was.

[futurespacemom]

"Well, every lady likes to have a bit of arm candy," Hera said airily. "You'll do. Even if you are weirdly hairy."

[uncertain_dume]

"I'm just hairy enough," Kanan countered. Through a broadening grin. Hey, if he was going to be classified as arm candy, that was a definite step up from 'not a bad guy, but I don't take passengers.' "You know, for a human."

[futurespacemom]

Well, Kanan wasn't a passenger now.

"You're a lot hairier than my other crew member," Hera pointed out. "I can't help it if humans are weird."

[uncertain_dume]

"Well, your other crew member is a droid," Kanan snorted. "And I'm not even all that hairy, even so far as humans go."

He could be much hairier! He was pretty average on the 'hairy humans' scale!