Killing Strangers (Leave Me Alone) [Star Wars Rebels Fanfic]

Can't Pack Emotion

Wallaway turned out to be a good man after all. Maybe not scrupulous, but he –out of all the people on Lothal –deigned to stop and help a little girl out, and even take her under his wing.

The Xexto owned a pawnshop that he ran by himself. He took in various stuff, and didn't cheat people out of their money. He did, however, tend to pickpocket many a times, and taught the skill much more effectively to a young Ezra. She was a quick study, which pleased and amused Wallaway immensely.

Kallus also noted that Wallaway had a lot of underground connections, people he didn't let near or see Ezra (and oppositely let her see them, when he could).

Ezra's parents had left her when she was seven, and a year had passed since then with her turning eight, and during that time meeting this Wallaway character. Since then, the two were as thick as thieves, with Wallaway teaching her whatever he could of the trade, and even having her scan wealthy-looking tourists and trick them into selling their own belongings. The two would even pick each other for fun, which exasperated Kallus. Still, it was better than the way it had been before, and she was steadily finding a more stable life and livelihood, even with this scoundrel.

Ezra would also start stealing helmets (what was with this girl and Stormtrooper helmets? Or Imperial helmets, he meant, given how he remembered she'd wanted his too that one time...). She mostly sold them on the black market, along with other stuff she found or stole.

Kallus was even more relieved that Ezra, in this time, managed to find and make a friend out of a fellow girl named Moreena Krai, who knew about Ezra' s more underhanded skills. She was a good influence, he thought, especially since she was someone Ezra could find to be girly with and do girly stuff with too.

The only problems he found through the years were the more frequent occurring of Ezra's Force abilities. Though Ezra never understood or paid too much attention to what happened each time, it was quite obvious the Force was involved. He didn't want her to be found out, even if he knew that hadn't happened until he came onto the planet and met her.

But right now, he was just watching a ten year old Ezra selling stupid tickets to a stupid event.

"This? This I would have arrested you for," he told her irritably, crossing his arms across his chest in exasperation. "But I suppose you had to learn your criminal leanings somewhere," he almost huffed.

Still, maybe he would have or wouldn't have arrested her. She was a ten year old kid. Even he wasn't sure what he would have done, even though he knew he had been (still was) a pretty strict, to-the-letter-of-the-law kind of guy. He might have let her off with a warning, or really did take her into jail to scare her and make sure she wouldn't do something like it again.

His attention was caught by that Moreena kid appearing and coming closer to Ezra, wearing a shy smile of sorts.

"Hi, Ezra," she greeted the other girl.

Ezra beamed back. "Hi, Reena! What's up?"

Here, the girl's shy smile faltered and she looked sad instead. "Um, my family is going to move to Alderaan to be with my grandmother. We just...can't stay here anymore. Not with how the Empire is here."

Ezra looked startled and he was sure she was going to be upset, but instead she maintained a smile for her friend.

"That's great! You take care and stay safe, huh?"

Moreena smiled again and hugged Ezra tightly, though Kallus could now see that Ezra looked just as sad now. However, just as they pulled away from each other, Ezra's face was back to being cheery.