Five days later, Ezra's room was almost finished and they were just adding the finishing touches. He and Sabine had been painting all day everyday and to say Sabine was impressed was an understatement. She couldn't wait to show the family what he painted on her wall and she didn't know if or when she was going to paint over it.
The family had just come down from the almost done room to find Sabine on the couch with a sketchbook in hand like always and they heard banging in the kitchen with a small voice and tune in the background.
"What's that noise?" Kanan asked Sabine. She glanced up for a second, "Ezra's making dinner while singing along to the radio." The family besides Sabine walked over to the archway to see the said boy was standing with his back to them dressed in his gray sweatpants with no shirt and was cutting up some vegetables next to the stove. The radio was placed on the counter, lightly playing some old song.
He paused in his movements and lifted his head while he stopped humming.
"I'm almost done with the vegetables, garlic bread, and spaghetti. About 5-10 minutes and it'll be ready." He continued chopping up the vegetables before lifting the cutting board and dumping it into the pot which was boiling in the stove. Ezra turned around to see everyone still standing there. He furrowed his eyebrows and slowly placed the dirty board in the sink.
"What?" He asked throughly confused.
"How'd you know we were here? We didnt make any noise." Zeb answered back, equally confused. Realization dawned upon Ezra, "Oh I could smell Hera's perfume and your footsteps coming down the stairs." He turned back around to stir the pot and continued humming along while Hera got the plates for the dinner table.
Dinner was eaten and everyone was impressed once again by Ezra's skills. He smiled in thanks at the compliments and helped Hera clean up with dishes. She smiled at the teen next to her as she handed him plates and pans to dry, wondering how she met such a sweet child with a horrible past. She shook those thoughts out of her head, promising herself she would make new, happy memories for him.
Ezra sat down next to the window where he's down sleeping for the past week, looking out at the green woods. He looked around the Living Room before opening the back door which was right next to him. He stood outside waiting for his nightly visitor to come. While waiting though, he wondered about what was to come with his new foster family. Deciding he wasn't coming after a few minutes, he went back in and laid down on his pallet of blankets. He slowly closed his eyes with tiredness, dreaming about what tomorrow will bring.
The next morning after breakfast, Kanan announced that Ezra could see his new room tonight and that they would go out to celebrate the addition to the house and him getting somewhere permanent to sleep. Ezra's eyes widened, 'They actually want to take me somewhere. Why? Aren't they embarrassed?' Hera glanced over at him and seeing his face was enough for her.
After everyone left and she sent Sabine up, it was just her and Ezra. They went to the kitchen to do the dishes and Hera sparred him glances every now and then, not knowing how to approach the subject. Ezra could feel Hera's stares as he dried the plates and knew she wanted to ask him something but waited till she was ready to ask it.
After one more minute of glances, she sighed and stopped scrubbing the dirty plates.
"Ezra, back in the dinning room when Kanan said we were going out to dinner, you had this look of disbelief on your face. Why?" Ezra stopped his hand motions as well, laying the plate on the counter. He didn't speak for a moment and Hera frowned with furrowed eyebrows, "Please Love, can you please tell me?" The teen furrowed his own eyebrows at the counter, "Why?" "Why what, Love?" He looked up and stared straight into her emeralds, "Why aren't you embarrassed? Your taking care of a street rat. Everyone else who has taken care of me didn't want to be seen with me in public so why aren't you?" Hera's eyes widened at the speech but softened as she heard his disbelief and complete confusion in his voice.
"Because when we took you in, we saw you for who you are inside. We didn't judge you for a past you didn't want or chose so why should we look at you differently because of something you didn't have control of. We aren't embarrassed to have you in this family because we see you as a survivor, not a scared little kid who has to hide away. We are different then other people Ezra, please remember that" Hera could distinctly see tears gather in his sapphires, making her proud as he saw the point in her words. She smiled at Ezra and held out her arms, "Im going to hug you now, ok?" Ezra just nodded, still thinking about what she said. Her eyes lit up with joy and she wrapped her arms around the skinny boy.
Ezra's eyes widened at the motion and his whole body tensed. Memories of beatings and nights locked away without any contact came flooding back.
His breath started to pick up.
Hera quickly noticed the breathing pattern and grabbed his shoulders softly, turning him to herself. She frown at his wide eyed look of fear and softly shook him to get his attention. When it wasn't working, she leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "Ezzy, I need you to listen to my voice and my voice alone. Breathe in deeply and let it go. Let go of the memories and come back to me."
Ezra fought hard to accomplish her words but it was so difficult. His vision was getting blotchy, tears starting to make their way down his cheeks. Hera ignored the salty water and continued to tell him to let go.
Ezra continued to fight but his legs were starting to go numb and his chest was getting tighter, black spots showing up in his vision. Even though it was getting harder he continued to push through the memories, listening to Hera's voice.
When she saw how hard he was working and it not taking effect, Hera grabbed both of his skinny wrists with one hand and put them above his head while using her other to gently rub circles on his chest.
After a minute, the soothing voice Hera talked in and the rubbing lessened some of his breathing but it wasn't fast enough. Ezra's eyes rolled back and he collapsed into her arms. Hera sighed as she picked him up bridle style. She frown at his light weight but continued walking and made it to the stairs.
"Kanan!! Get down here!" Hera screamed as she went up the stairs. She smirked at the frantic stepping up her husband, but instantly frowned again as Ezra's head lolled back and forward on her arm reminding her of the incident. She saw Kanan come out of Ezra's new bedroom door but he stopped in his tracks as he saw his wife come up the hall carrying his new foster son. He ran up to her, pausing her movements, "What happened?" Kanan saw his wife frown, "Panic attack. I tired to get him to breath down in the kitchen for like 7 minutes but it was to late. I was going to put him in our room until he woke up." Kanan frowned with worry but nodded and went with her to open the door for her and pulled back the covers. Ezra didn't move not an inch the whole time, worrying the adults.
Kanan went back to Ezra's room, trying finish it before he woke up. The kids instantly noticed Kanan's mood change and paused in their movements of moving around furniture. He didn't seem to notice and continued to stand against the wall with crossed arms and furrowed eyebrows. Zeb decided to finally break the silence after 5 minutes, "Mate. Wha' happen'?" Kanan seemingly came out of his trance and looked at them. In hesitation, he answered, "Hera called me down in the hallway and she was carrying Ezra." They furrowed their eyebrows in their own confusion.
"Why was he being carried? Did he hurt himself?" Sabine questioned aloud. Kanan shook his head, "Hera told me he started to have a ... panic attack in the kitchen and tried to calm him down for almost 10 minutes before he passed out before it could stop." The kids looked down saddened. Kanan cleared his throat, "So let's get his room done so he can have somewhere to go when he gets up. We're almost done anyway." They nodded new determination burning in their eyes.
2 hours later at noon, the group went downstairs for lunch but frowned when they saw only Hera in kitchen. "He's still not up?" Kanan's asked as he kissed her head and went to the fridge for a water bottle. Hera shook her head making her sloppy bun move and continued chopping up vegetables, "No he's up. He had a headache when he woke up so he went outside for fresh air. But can you go get him, lunch is almost ready." They all nodded and left, everyone wanting to see how Ezra was doing.
They opened the back door to find something unexpected. Ezra had his bare back to them with his legs wide apart and his arms out to the side. They could suddenly see a flash of color before Ezra was tackled to the grass. He landed on his back with an 'oof' before he becgan chuckling.
The others had their mouths dropped open in shock. An orange wolf just tackled their foster kid and the kid was chuckling. Ezra got up after pushing the large animal off. "That wasn't nice. I was excepting a nice, gentle, kitty hug and then you come and full on football tackle me to the floor." The wolf sat down growling at Ezra.
He full on laughed again like a lunatic, they others were so close to pulling Ezra back inside but they were to shocked to do anything. Ezra held his arms out to the side, "Bring it, pup. We've done this many times and you still haven't won." The wolf pounced up into the air and Ezra slid right under him, grabbing the wolfs tail in the process bringing the animal down. While the wolf was down, Ezra belly flopped on top of him making the animal let out a puff of air. The sound of a throats being cleared caught the attention of the teen and he looked up to see open mouthed Kanan, Zeb, and Sabine. He rolled off of the wolf and sat up crisscross. The wolf whimpered and put his head in the teens lap letting Ezra pet him. Ezra smiled at them, "I'm guessing it's time for lunch?" Kanan nodded but had to ask, "Why is that wolf not eating you?" Ezra chuckled as the wolf let out a puff of air and turning his head away from every else.
"He won't eat me. He's friendly well sometimes, he's still a pup and likes to play but nothing more." Ezra waved them over and they all sat around him and the animal.
Sabine gently ran her hand over his fur as she was sitting next to him, "So how'd y'all meet?" Ezra smiled softly thinking back, "Well I was about 10 when this helicopter came down in the woods. At that time, I was leaving with another foster family who lived out in the woods. After they went to bed, I snuck out through the back door and ran all the way to the crash site which was about 2 miles away. When I got there, everything was burnt down and once I decided there was nothing there, I started to head back to the house. But then I heard this crying. I found it a minute later in a den which is where I found this little pup. His pack was living there when the copter came down, killing his family and leaving him all alone so I took him home with me. I cleaned him up, stole a bit of meat and sent him on his way but he came back and wouldn't go away. So I thought if he was going to stay, he needed to learn the ways his family had lived with like hunting and all that so I went to the library and did research. Now, he can hunt, live in his own den, and sort of defend himself but he can't against me, that's for sure." Ezra laughed and gave the wolf a noogie which resulted in the creature trying to bite Ezra's leg. The wolf instantly drew back from pain, "The perks of a metal leg, pup. Thought you learned that by now."
Ezra looked up to see everyone with shocked faces, "What?" Zeb answered, "Nothin', just shock yer got a wolf. What's his name?"
Ezra said with a smirk, "Chopper, his name is Chopper."