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This... has not been the easiest haul. It would have been enough of a pain without Zeb and Chopper complaining from start to hopefully-soon-finish. What's worse was that quite a few of those complaints were right. The cargo bay was a mess, the noise was constant, and Kanan was skeptical about whether they'd ever get the ... strong smell of nerfs out.

On the other hand, he has to admit, the group of calves licking the block of salt left out for them are pretty cute.

Which might be why he calls down, when he sees Chopper rolling up behind them -

"Chop, you scare them one more time and I swear -"

Chopper blats, waving his arms, but reverses and resumes his makeshift 'herding' path around the bay.

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"You'll end up coated in salt and swarmed by all of your brand new nerf friends?" Hera calls out as she emerges into the cargo bay, smirking just a little.

Don't threaten her droid, even in jest.

Especially not at feeding time for their cargo.

"Hey, you know what happens when he scares them."

There's a lot of fur and slime and Kanan's not cleaning it up.

"I know what you tell me happens, sure."

She looks over at Chopper, lifting her voice again.

"So make sure I never have to see it, right, Chop?"

Just to encourage him in his 'herding' and not his 'terrifying the nerfs'.

Chop bleeps innocently, carrying on his rounds.

"Either way, there's going to be a lot of cleaning when we finally unload these guys."

He's trying not to complain, but he'll be glad when they're back to non-living cargo

"I guess it's good, then, that about the same time we brought these guys on I also picked up a cartload of mops."

And cleaning fluid. So many varied cleaning fluids.

Kanan leans over the railing. "Maybe we should think about just being arms dealers."

Cons: Cargo sometimes explodes.

Pros: Fewer mops.

Hera cranes her head back to look up at him. The smirk hasn't left her lips, yet.

"Come on, don't you agree we all need new challenges every so often?"

"I'm just thinking about cost versus payout."

He's always all about business, obviously.

"The mops were cheap!"

Hera thinks about costs, too. Obviously.

"And they came out of my share, don't worry about that."

"Good to know."

Chopper rolls a loop near the resting nerf mothers. "But maybe next time we could deliver a herd of ash-rabbits or something."

Would smaller mean easier? Maybe they'd just be harder to contain.

Hera gives this all the consideration it deserves, which is to say two seconds of thought and a low chuckle.

"If you agree to climb through the duct-work to find any that escape the cargo bay, sure."

Kanan sighs. "All right, but I bet the smell's better."

Hera's eyebrow goes up.

"Do you know how many more ash-rabbits we could fit in here?"

So many droppings. So many.

Edited 2017-05-27 16:49 (UTC)

"I'd still bet on it."

Ash-rabbits, as far as he knows, don't cause a fur-explosion when frightened.

"All right."

Hera is still chuckling low in her throat.

"You find us a client that wants a herd of ash-rabbits and I'll take that bet."

"Yeah, I'll work on it."

He is not going to work on it.

"But I guess they're probably not as useful as these are."

Hera is shocked, appalled, and betrayed. Or, you know, that was her plan in the first place.

"These nerfs are going to help feed a lot of hungry people," she agrees.

"And with room to run and a lot more ready air flow, they're probably easier to deal with, too. These are some close quarters."

Okay, she'll give you their mess is really obnoxious, Kanan. But needs must.

"Well, if we ever do go with rabbits, Chopper can chase them as much as he wants."

See, Kanan can be nice to her droid. Hypothetically.

"Maybe we should just get him a pet."

She'll see you that plan and raise you one, Kanan.

That plan, unfortunately, is terrifyingly plausible.

"I don't think he'd take very good care of it..."

Hera can't blame him for pointing out the incredibly obvious, right?

Hera hates to admit it, maybe, but . . .

"Fair point. Maybe we should just call it the ship's pet?"

Then everyone would have to take care of it, right?

"All right..."

He spends a few moments coming up with absurd suggestions, but instead asks, "Have you ever had a pet?"

"No, but when I was very little I always wanted one."

She smiles, and there's a softness to it, for the little girl she was and couldn't long afford to be.

"It seemed like such a safe thing to have, or a sign that things were safe."

Kanan lets out a breath.

He really doesn't want to say what he's about to say.

"Unfortunately, I don't think they are that safe."

They couldn't exactly have a Tooka running around the ship during a raid.

Hera, too, sighs a little. He's right, and she knows it.

"I know. But the thought of you and Zeb running around after something tiny and quick really makes my day brighter, you know?"

"Hey, I don't know how I ended up in charge of this pet."

Other than that it was sort of his idea, okay.

"No one else has your inherent sense of responsibility and cleanliness."

Yes. That. Exactly.

"Yeah, I think we both know between the two of us, you're the responsible one, I'm the mops up after one."

To be fair, he does have the cleanliness part down.

"Hmmm."

Hera taps her fingertips against her mouth.

"Speaking of bets . . . want to try changing that up for a week and see who gives in first?"

Edited 2017-05-27 17:59 (UTC)

"I wasn't complaining about -"

He glances over at her. "Wait, are you serious?"

"Am I ever not serious?"

Shhhhhhh.

Kanan shrugs, looking back down to the nerfs.

"All right, I'll take that bet."

"Guess I'll go get the mop."

Wait, that's her being responsible again, isn't it?

Oops.

"I think you still have another..."

... however much longer it's going to take them to get to their delivery site. Which.

"... I guess I should go find out when we'll arrive."

Hera tips a faintly mocking salute to him.

"That's the first part of a great plan."

And, because she honestly can't resist --

"Boss."

Kanan turns, his back to the railing, about to answer her when -

Well, there's a rather unpleasant sound from below. Apparently Chopper deviated from his herding path again.

"Dammit, Chopper!"

Hera may be bellowing. A little. Then she looks back up at Kanan.

"All right. Go, figure out the schedule. I'll handle things in here."

Chopper is already beeping and whirring, trying to convince Hera and everyone around that it was definitely an accident!

Kanan, to his credit, does not look smug.

Probably because he does have to go figure out their schedule now.

"I'll go get Zeb," he says, heading up toward the crew quarters.

"Good luck with that," Hera calls up to him.

Zeb doesn't really like dealing with the nerfs, either. Go figure.

Now to go calm down some very hairy and slimy nerfs.

"Chopper! Do me a favor and go get the rest of the mops."

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