Sabine rechecked her mission pack for the last time before making her way to the ship that had been prepared for her and Ezra. She had her paints, her blasters were all loaded up with backup ammo if necessary, and of course the explosives she never left home without. She had everything she needed on a mission. But why was she still so nervous?
Maybe it was because it was a mission with only Ezra. Sabine couldn't decide how she felt about him. In some ways he was a best friend, in others, he was a brother, and others... well he seemed to be more.
The feeling had started when she stayed behind with her family on her home planet of Mandalore. Out of all the members of the crew, even Hera who she had come to see as a mother, she missed Ezra the most. The way he could get her to smile and laugh with his stupid remarks, even when everything was going to heck around them. Or his brutal honesty. She still felt bad about the time she was self pitying herself and brought up her troubled family past and how he answered " At least you have parents to go back to". That had knocked some sense into her and that was one of the reasons she decided to go back to her family.
She still wanted to apologize to him though.
Sabine shook her head, trying to get the idea of Ezra being more than just a friend out of her head. He couldn't possibly feel the same way right? Sure he had flirted with her when they were younger, but he had outgrown that and now their relationship was more family than love.
"It'll never happen" She thought bitterly.
*****
Ezra sat in the passenger seat, awaiting Sabine's rival so that that they could take off. As he plopped up his feet on the dashboard, he thought about the new assignment Hera had given them. He didn't know why but he just had an overall bad feeling about the upcoming mission. Ezra had wanted to talk to Kanan about it, but he couldn't find a moment in private to talk to the older Jedi knight.
Maybe it was just a bad feeling. Nothing more, nothing less. But he knew if something bad was going to happen, he would protect Sabine at all costs. He always had feelings for the mandalorian but at first it was just childish flirting. As he got older, instead of those feelings fading away like everyone thought they would, the emotions got more indepth and complicated.
He wanted to tell Sabine so badly about how he felt about her. It just seemed wrong to bottle all his feelings up. But there was an ongoing war against the empire. That meant there should be no distractions, like the stress of a relationship, for both Sabine's and his sake.
Anyway, what if Sabine didn't return his feelings for her? Would she laugh in his face if he told her that he truly loved her? Or would she run away in disgust? Maybe he was overthinking this. He had a tendency to do that, especially when it came to this.
" Ezra? Ezra, you in there?" Sabine's voice broke his chain of thoughts. "Universe to Ezra Bridger. We are about to take off." Sabine snapped her fingers.
Ezra jerked up in surprise, " Yeah, yeah I'm here," he replied as he sat straight up and let Sabine get into the pilot seat. "Just thinking, that's all."
Sabine nodded, understanding. " About what?" She inquired, wanting to know what was going on in the youngest crew member's head.
Ezra shrugged. " I was thinking about Lothal." He lied easily. I was thinking about you and me, he added in his own head,
Sabine nodded sympathetically. " Don't worry Ezra. We'll help Lothal out soon. Just not today. The time WILL come, I promise you that." Sabine stared
at Ezra, into his refreshing, lighting blue eyes, while he stared back into her amber ones.
"Anyhow," Ezra grinned as they were about to take off from the base to start on their mission. "let's get this party started!" Sabine laughed and Ezra laughed with her. It was just like old times when they were kids taking the Phantom for a test drive.
They rode to the Star destroyer in a comfortable silence, each one in their own different worlds,