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]

"Offhand, nah," Kanan replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm a drifter, not a wordsmith. Mostly I was just curious."

And truth be told, there were really only so many words for a junkyard, and there was no way he could possibly come up with something catchy and alliterative without immediately accidentally stepping in something he didn't want to.

It would probably help if he knew more about Hera, perhaps. Twi-lek Trash was right out and Rebel Rubbish was unflattering and it said too much. Hera's Junk?

... Mostly just made him want to make an amused face like a twelve year old.

[futurespacemom]

Well, the fact he wasn't saying any of them out loud was a point in his favor.

"I'll think of something," Hera said, opening the gates and heading for the Ghost. "I should probably find out if any of these other ships have owners. I haven't made my way through all the papers in the office yet. On the bright side, my High Galactic's getting much better."

[uncertain_dume]

"This place is good for that," Kanan allowed, chuckling and shaking his head. Not that his High Galactic had ever really needed a spit-shine. Fancy Jedi upbringing and all. "If you want help going through those, just let me know. I don't have nearly enough to do with my time when I'm not corrupting young minds or yelling at idiots over weird Earth flatcakes."

[futurespacemom]

"Thanks." Hera paused as she unlocked and lowered the ramp. "Why are you yelling at them over flatcakes?"

[uncertain_dume]

"Stop by during one of my weekend shifts and you'll understand," Kanan replied, rolling his eyes upward and shaking his head. "They have no self-control. One of these days I'm sure Eliot will beat them to death with the leftovers."

[futurespacemom]

"Sounds like fun." Hera shook her head and led the way to the ship's tiny medbay. It wasn't exactly full-service, but it had a single bunk, assorted bandages and scanners, and a decent amount of bacta.

[uncertain_dume]

"They mean well, I think," Kanan mused, following along. "They just happen to be idiots."

He would have meant that affectionately, if it wasn't so true.

[futurespacemom]

"So...they don't know enough to come in from the strange rain?" Hera asked. "Or bandage up wounds?"

She set a pack of bacta patches down next to him and pulled the first one out, dangling it at him.

[uncertain_dume]

"Look, when Stance has to go, you try telling him he's got to stay inside," Kanan replied, lightly. "He does this thing with his eyes that is the single most pathetic thing I've ever seen..."

That bacta was so, so enticing, damn it. Kanan was following it with his gaze, trying not to look too lusty over it.

[futurespacemom]

Hera laughed and opened the patch, reaching to put it on the largest and deepest-looking bruise on Kanan's side. "All right." She smoothed it down carefully. "Hopefully this'll reach deep enough to do some real good."

[uncertain_dume]

"Well, whatever it does, it'll be an improvement," Kanan replied, sighing and kind of slouching down a little in relief. "Thanks, Hera. You really don't have to do this."

On the other hand, it would make it much easier for him to dry his hair.

[futurespacemom]

"Hey," she said with a smile, reaching for another patch, "I take care of my crew. And you did get most of this helping me."

[uncertain_dume]

"Or being bombed by Skelly," Kanan noted, smiling wryly. "Guess I'm just not used to being taken care of."

It had been a while. Okadiah had done good by him, too, but in totally different ways.

[futurespacemom]

"Well, you've done it now," Hera said wryly. She smoothed down the second patch and took a look at his back for where to put another. "I'm pretty bad at not taking care of people."

[uncertain_dume]

"Guess I did ask for it," Kanan allowed, glancing over his shoulder at her. "But you know I'm probably going to stay stubborn about it. Warning you now so it doesn't drive you completely barvy."

He would've been stubborn about it with anybody. People didn't live forever, after all.

Knowing what Hera intended to do with her future wasn't going to help that any.

[futurespacemom]

"Duly noted," Hera said. She put one more patch on. "That's the worst of what I can see. Anything else I can't?"

Which was her way of asking if there were areas that hurt without too much visible bruising, not an invitation for Kanan to take off his pants.

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan paused for a moment to consider that, and then sighed, nodded, and crouched down to un-tuck his pant leg from his boot, rolling it up to expose the knee that had given out on him after he'd thrown down with Charko. He could have made a crack about taking off his pants, but at this point...

Maybe he just didn't feel like it.

"Could probably use some here, too. That knee took a bit of a beating last week."

It wasn't like Charko had been the last of the punishment he'd taken, either.

[futurespacemom]

Hera nodded and knelt to wrap another patch around it. "Thought I saw you favoring it, but I wasn't sure. You're good at hiding it." She smiled up at him. "Not a bad thing. Just know you don't have to with me."

She looked back at the patch as she smoothed it down. "That goes for all of it. I know it's probably second nature by now, so I don't expect a lot of revealing talks or anything. But whatever you do want to say, whenever - I'm here for it."

She tugged his pants back down. "Has that got the worst of it?"

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan was silent for a few seconds before he nodded. He wasn't sure what to really say in reply to that offer.

She knew. That part was important. She knew more than anybody had known since Kasmir, when it came to people from home. And Kasmir, he'd run away from. Convinced himself that it was for the best, and had taken off with the Escape, never to look back. With Hera... he'd done very much the opposite.

"Yeah," he said, smiling at her wryly. "Yeah, I think that's about it."

[futurespacemom]

Hera grinned back. "So, want a tour of the rest of the things around here I know we didn't get around to supplies and things before. And maybe the weird rain will stop before we head back out."

[uncertain_dume]

"Never going to complain about a tour of this ship," Kanan replied, shrugging. "Let's see if you can wow me any more than you already have, huh?"

[futurespacemom]

Kanan definitely knew the way to Hera's heart.

"Well, I can show you the galley. It's not impressive, but maybe you can give me some ideas for stocking it. And you still haven't seen the Phantom."

[uncertain_dume]

"Besides 'more caf?'" Kanan chuckled a little. "Give it time, I'm sure you'll think of things from home that you're not going to be able to go without for a while. Bacta is the sensible option. But I saw the way you were stocking up on meilooruns."

If she missed them half as much as Kanan did, hey...

"So, tell me about the Phantom."

[futurespacemom]

"I like meilooruns," Hera protested. "But you're clearly the cook of the two of us."

She shrugged. "The Phantom's a VCX-series fighter. Twin laser cannon in front, dorsal laser pointing aft. Makes it a good extra gun for the Ghost. Seats four aside from the pilot, or can carry cargo." She led the way up the ladder to its hatch and stood aside for Kanan to follow. "It's a little bit fighter, a little bit shuttle."

[uncertain_dume]

"You know something has gone horribly wrong when I'm 'clearly the cook,'" Kanan snorted, shaking his head as he followed her up the ladder. "But this, I like. About the same size as Expedient, but actually useful."

Low bar, there, Kanan.