Star Wars Rebels: Hera & Kanan Season 4 One-Shots

"Recon"

From S4E6 "Flight of the Defender"

Hera watched through macrobinoculars as the speeder bikes carrying Ezra, Sabine, Zeb and Ryder disappeared on the horizon, heading towards Seinar Fleet Systems. The would reach the TIE Defender factory in about a half hour. She'd give them some time to get into position and gather some intel, and then she would check in. In the meantime, she and Kanan had their own mission.

During their earlier briefing, when Hera told the crew that she, Chopper and Kanan would stay behind and do some recon, it elicited a snort from Kanan. "Picking the blind guy for a recon job isn't going to get you promoted very quickly, Hera," he'd said, laughing. This had gotten everyone else giggling, mostly because Kanan's newfound sense of humor about his blindness always resulted in terrible jokes that only he seemed to find extremely funny.

She smiled at the recollection. His laughs had once come so easily, and were now so rare. But humor was in awfully short supply.

Hera perfunctorily scanned Capital City for the twentieth time in five minutes. Unsurprisingly, nothing had changed since her last scan. She lowered the macrobinocs and looked up, checking for any sign of new Imperial ships, but saw none. As the sun made its descent, the ash-filled atmosphere took on a reddish tinge, and the clouds streaked pink across the sky. Hera found the beauty of Lothal's new sunset incredibly unsettling.

Behind her, she could hear Kanan's footsteps as he passed- again. He'd been pacing the circular balcony of Ezra's comm tower for the past hour, with a bored Chopper trailing slowly behind. Something was on his mind.

Hera sighed. Ever since Atollon, Kanan had been different. It was a very subtle change, one that only she would notice. One that was meant for her. Or, more correctly, due to her.

He'd tried to bring it up a few times, but the conversation he was clearly angling for never seemed to make it past the preliminary stages. She recalled the previous night, standing in an alley in Capital City with Kanan- the sweetness of the moment, abruptly shattered by Zeb on the comm- what might have come of that moment, had it not been cut short? Interruptions, though annoying, had always been commonplace on a small ship full of people in dire circumstances. Kanan's tolerance for it had never been particularly high, but now he seemed almost resentful. There was more to it than just frequent intrusions of their crew, however; his attempts at broaching whatever he wanted to discuss had been halting and hesitant. He was slowly working up to something.

Hera just wasn't entirely sure she wanted to hear what that something was.

When they were younger, things had been much simpler, for so many reasons. It was hard to believe that there had ever been a time when it was just the two of them, a time when Chopper was the only one who ever interrupted them. Hera rarely allowed herself the luxury of spending time thinking of better days, but when she did, she couldn't remember either of them ever wanting more than what they already had. Then again, it was hard to imagine what could have improved on something that good.

So many things had changed since those days. But despite the insanity around them (or maybe because of it), Kanan seemed more determined than ever to have that kind of relationship again. Hera, on the other hand, felt herself pulling back. Every rare stolen moment between them seemed like an extravagance, especially when so many people were suffering, and she and Kanan had the ability to do something about it.

He was coming around the curve of the comm tower again- she could hear Chopper complaining. Kanan ignored him, apparently lost in thought.

"I'm still not sure that sending Sabine and Ezra on missions together is such a great idea," Hera called to him, hoping to stop his pacing. "They're too impulsive."