#spectrcsix

“Ezra?” Zeb’s voice sounds tight. Suspicious. When the boy -- man, now, look at how much taller the little lothrat got -- turns to look with that animated expression that stirs a familiar fondness in him, every one of Zeb’s prickly defenses drops away. “EZRA.”

Zeb rushes toward their friend, their long-lost family member, and seizes his shoulders. “What the kriff were you thinking, you absolute madman!” Zeb shakes him. Ezra is a little bit more solid than the child that disappeared himself and Thrawn’s entire Star Destroyer, but not so much that Zeb still doesn’t need to be careful not to break him. Zeb’s arms fall limp, his growl fading to a choked little rumble. “Karabast.” Zeb pulls Ezra into a big purple hug. “Good to have you back, kid.”  

after the conversation that he’d had with master nu, returning to atollon felt like... the right thing to do. from what he’d heard, there wasn’t much activity on the planet these days. that was not a huge change from the planet that he remembered but it was no longer an active rebellion base which meant the two of them would need to be cautious, given the precarious state of the galaxy these days. danger was nothing new to either one of them. but if bendu was still there, then perhaps he could be of some help. maybe not in fighting the vong, but in giving them a better sense of how to deal with it. how to see, again. but this was a new challenge, a different one, than the rut that kanan had been stuck in when he had first met bendu.

The hesitation was unusual. Sure, there had been rocky patches in their friendship before, but it had been so long, and so much had changed while he was gone. Wars finished and begun, jumps in time not even the Jedi could really explain. Entire moons collapsing and a handful of holonet scandals. And he’d missed it all. She didn’t blame him, of course, but there were blanks that hadn’t there before, for the both of them. It had been months since Ezra’s return, but Sabine still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was doing something wrong. Even as he had answered their call and agreed to meet them on the mission, Sabine felt tense. 

“Look what the loth-cat dragged in!” They slowly reached for an embrace, not used to reaching upwards at his now-tall frame. “Glad you could make it, Ezra. Ought to be a fireworks show if everything goes right,” they grinned even despite the anxiety. Their bond may look different, but he was still their brother. Not one year, not even a hundred years in wild space could change that.