Title: Letters Across Hyperspace
Author: Raissa Baiard
Characters: Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren
Genre: romance, drama
Timeframe: OT, 1 BBY
Synopsis: Ezra and Sabine write letters to each other following the events of the Rebels finale.

Notes: Written for the OTP Love Letters challenge.

This story is a bit of an experiment for me; Sabine and Ezra really aren’t my OTP, not the way Kanan and Hera are, and I have no current plans to expand on it. (Also, this story is not connected to my story “All Our Yesterdays” in any way. Consider them separate universes)

Thanks to @Findswoman for beta-reading and encouragement

————

Sabine,

I know there’s no way I can actually get this letter to you, but I have some flimsi scraps and a lot of time on my hands, so—

I hope everything went okay after the purrgils jumped to hyperspace with the Chimaera. Hope there wasn’t too much mopping up left do on Lothal after Thrawn and Pryce were gone. It’s probably too much to hope that everyone who came together to help us fight made it, but I hope it anyway.

Me? I’m all right, considering that I’m on a ship full of Imperials who blame me for ruining their Grand Admiral’s moment of triumph. Once he finally got over the shock of having his ship taken over by flying squid-whales, Thrawn had his goons take me to the detention block. But you know me—they haven’t made an Imperial prison yet I couldn’t get out of.

Guess where I’m hiding now… Remember how I said I didn’t crawl through ductwork anymore? I might have spoken a little too soon on that. Once a Loth-rat, always a Loth-rat, I guess. It’s not the greatest accommodation in the Galaxy, but it beats being Thrawn’s special guest. I hope he’s having litters of pittins that his elite troops already lost me.

I’ll find someplace more comfortable and secure tomorrow, then I’m going to get my lightsaber back and start figuring out how I can steal a shuttle once we’re back in realspace.

So here I am, hiding out in a maintenance shaft, trying not to think about you too much. It’s not working.

Thanks for helping me slip away without being noticed today. I feel kind of bad about leaving Hera that way, but she’s been through so much losing Kanan that I thought it would be better if she didn’t know what I was planning to do. Take care of her for me, okay? I know she’s got Zeb and Chopper, too, but, they’re not exactly the most considerate guys. She’s gonna need someone a little more understanding.

And... I’m sorry I couldn’t let you know what I was planning either. It’s not that I don’t trust you—you know I do—but even after all my meditating I didn’t know for sure what would happen… the future is always in motion and all that. I didn’t want you to have to keep fighting wondering if it was going to come to this (I won’t say worrying; Mandos don’t worry, right?). You can chew me out for keeping you in the dark the next time we meet; I won’t even care.

Well, my chrono says it’s night on Lothal, and my body says it’s been a really long day. So even though I don’t think I’m going to sleep very well, I’m going to wish you good night.

Love, Ezra

(Oh, the signature? Yeah—I love you, Sabine. Always have. But you knew that, right? Not like I’ve ever tried to hide it. I wish I’d gotten the chance to tell you face-to-face before I left, but that might have made things harder for both of us, so maybe it’s better I didn’t. And I figured if I let you know in the message I left for all of you with Chopper, you’d hunt me down and shoot me for being a nerf-headed insensitive male.

So I guess I’ll just have to wait until you bring me home from wherever it is I’m going to tell you properly.

Don’t take too long, okay? I’ll be waiting.)

————

Ezra,

Well, we did it. After you took out Thrawn and the Chimaera, and we took out Pryce and the Imperial headquarters, the Imps that were left surrendered and Ryder declared Lothal independent. It’s not the end—the Empire’s not going to just sit there while Lothal secedes—but it’s what you wanted. Lothal is free, and it’s all thanks to you.

There are celebrations all over Capital City tonight. They’re celebrating you, the homeworld hero, toasting your heroism—your sacrifice. And it just makes me want to start shooting things. Because they’re talking like you’re dead and you can’t be. You said you were coming home, so you must be alive. Somewhere…

You have to be alive. You have to be…I never got to tell you that I love you.

I know, it surprised me, too. I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know how it happened. You’re my best friend and I knew that I’d do anything for you, but I didn’t realize until I knew that you weren’t going to make it off the Chimaera before the purrgils jumped to hyperspace that what I felt—what I feel—for you is really love.

Why? Why did you do it? There had to have been some other way… Why do you Jedi all have to be so stupid and noble?! Don’t you care about the women you leave behind? If you were here right now, I’d…

I’d kiss you. Because I love you, Ezra Bridger. You’d just better come back soon.

I’ll be waiting.

Love,
Sabine

 

Wow, this is different LOL because Marzra The tones of each letter is very much in character as each finally shares what they suddenly realized and wished they'd known before.

 

Very well written! I used to be a big shopper of these two but I doubt it will ever happen now. So I gave up a long time ago. This does bring back some memories though. A great read.

 

I'm so, so glad you went through with writing and posting this! And extra respect to you for giving it a go as an experiment even though this isn't an OTP pairing for you—I know that would be very hard for me. Even in these two brief letters, you manage to pack in just as much sincerity and true caring as any of your OTP stories, and it's all done in a way that's fully in the spirit of the Rebels epilogue and the characters—if they do have this kind of relationship (and one can interpret the canon material in either way, I think), then I'm convinced this is pretty much exactly how they would express it to each other. Just as I am totally convinced that Ezra is putting his Loth-rat duct-scaling skills to very good use while stuck aboard the Chimaera—yes, ma'am, you can take the Loth-rat off the streets of Capital City, but you most certainly can't take the streets of Capital City out of the Loth-rat!

I have to say, I love the way that manages to bring in the other members of the Space!Fam, with Ezra's concern about how Hera will get on; losing Kanan was hard enough on her, but losing her youngest crew member on top of that—and to such an indeterminate fate—had to have hit her hard, too. And speaking of hitting hard..

Oh, oh, oh, my heart! Because Sabine almost certainly also has Hera in mind when she says this.

Wonderful work and very well done—be very proud of yourself.

 

I don't know why I haven't made more frequent stops on your work, Raissa. It is always a treat and I almost always come away smiling or feeling better for reading it. This is no exception.

I love the Ezra's tone in this letter. He still has a youthful exuberance in sharing his dire circumstances with Sabine. It's like he just chatting with her in written form.This jab at Thrawn was perfect.

This line jumped out for some reason. I think it was Ezra's earnest desire for Sabine to understand why he did what he did in secret. His tone changed just a little because he cares for her and wants her to 'understand'.

Don;t mind me, I'll just drop a love bomb on you in this letter and hope you feel the same way. Nice Ezra. Just be sure you do get the chance to tell her in person.

Sabine's letter is has just the right tone as well. She is excited by the Empire's defeat, but worried about his situation. But she KNOWS he's not dead. And this why the honoring of presumed dead hero is so encouraging and frustrating at the same time.

Ah, Sabine. Jedi aren't supposed-ah, shut up! He is stupid in love and a noble Jedi. Bound to make reunions combustible.
Great fic, Raissa. I wonder what that reunion would entail?

 

Oh, well... thank you so much! That means a lot to me, especially coming from someone whose work I enjoy as much as yours! (I’m terribly behind on comments, but I’m working on it.)

Ezra and Sabine have a great camaraderie, and I think it really shows in S4, they way they look to each other in both good times and bad. Ezra has matured a lot over the course of the series ( and so has Sabine!), but he still does have plenty of that irrepressible kid in him. And Ezra wouldn’t be Ezra if he didn’t get in some snark directed towards everyone’s favorite egotistical Imp.

He does. Sabine has had some issues with feeling that people didn’t trust her when she wasn’t included in their plans, and it’s important to Ezra that’s not why he did what he did. He goes out of his way to tell he knows he can count on her before the battle and in his message to the crew.

Yeah, subtlety is exactly Ezra’s strong point. But I guess that’s the thing about writing letters you can’t send—you can say all the embarrassing, heartfelt, mushy stuff you couldn’t in person without fear of rejection!

Thanks Yeah, Sabine’s got quite the jumble of emotions here, celebrating their victory on one hand and reeling from Ezra’s disappearance on the other—and realizing that she has feelings for him on top of it all.

[/quote] Stupid, noble Jedi—always saving their families and the women they love! No, really...I feel for Sabine here. After watching Hera mourn Kanan’s sacrifice, there’s got to be at least some small part of her that wonders if Ezra really is dead and if she will end up mourning, too. And if you’re wondering about reunions: Things You Said...With No Space Between Us and these drabbles might answer some questions (and I have to say this fantastic comment makes me want to develop the further).

Thank you so much for this wonderful comment! I always enjoy getting your insight on my stories.