You know, Kanan really did look forward to these calls. Particularly when he was in the middle of thinking about just how many credits' worth of bacta had been wasted on warehouse wall.

Ah well. At least he seemed to be having a decent week otherwise, trauma aside.

"Hey, Rey," he greeted when he answered the phone. "How goes it?"

"Full of smoke and ash, and after dark we get attacked by zombies that make rancors and gundarks look cuddly," Kanan reported. "It might be hell? I never really believed in hell but there's a decent chance we're actually literally parked in hell."

So, that was a thing.

"Oh, and I won a clock on Wednesday."

"No zombies thus far," Kanan promised. "Just a mess left behind from last week's goblins."

A sigh.

"I'm going to have to replace these medkits. There are bacta patches everywhere."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Kanan replied. "A supply run, maybe knock over some backwater Imperial supply depot somewhere. Cheap and easy and with minimal getting shot at, depending on how much experience their guard has. My favorite, really."

"Kinda looks like it's going to be my life going forward," Kanan replied. "Might as well start treating it like the norm, right?"

There was no sense in denying it.

"Neat," Kanan echoed, thoughtfully. "You figure?"

He hadn't really thought of it quite like that. He was devoted to it, but having a handle on it?

Neat.

Huh.

"Well, they're a pack of sleemos and they have it coming," Kanan replied.

... Because they did. And because leaning too hard into the 'noble Jedi hero' narrative still made his skin crawl a little.

"Well... if you like, I can start telling you more about that side of things," Kanan said, after a pause. "About trips home and how those go for us?"

Yeah, Kanan already knew that bit. Figured it wouldn't hurt anyway. After all, it was basically just history lessons for Rey, wasn't it?

"Well, then I'll have to start taking notes," Kanan replied. "Hera's starting to get anxious about this place and I'm not far behind her, we might start doing more jobs just for the excuse to take off now and then."

"This week, it's a little bit like guilt came to life and decided to throw a party. Also, smoke. The respirators are seeing a lot of use this week. Stance hasn't been out in a while, again. I'm going to need if I can get my hands on a respirator made for Shistavanen younglings or something, just in case we run until something like this again."

Not that Stance would enjoy having a muzzle-slash-respirator on, but it sure beat letting the dog inhale smoke for days on end.

"I've kind of had to fake it," Kanan agreed. "But you figure Stance wants to wear it? That's a whole other issue, right there. At least Hera's ship has the air scrubbers. And a bit more room to get into trouble than the apartment."

"He hates it," Kanan sighed. "Desperately. Every time I move toward the door without him, he gives me the most betrayed look."

A beat.

"And won't let me take his vest off."

Stance continued to live in hope.

"I have wrestled it off of him once or twice," Kanan promised. "Mostly for baths. He doesn't need to wear his swimming vest in the bath, Rey. No matter how badly he wants to."

"Considering how convincing he was back when he could speak Basic, I'm pretty sure that's an argument I would lose every time," Kanan agreed.

"It ought to be," Kanan replied. "He picked it out."

Well. Kanan had helped. Something about his dog not being able to see like half the visible color spectrum that human eyes could pick up on.

"I'm pretty sure he's one of a kind in every way," Kanan agreed. He chuckled a little, reached up, and slooowly peeled a bacta patch from the wall, quietly hoping that maybe it hadn't been totally wasted.

No luck. Sigh.

"We're clearly all lucky to know him."

It was true.

"And I know he loves you back," Kanan replied.

Because Stance loved everyone. Eeeeveryone.

"Other than that... pretty much the new normal for the island," Kanan replied. "I think I'm just resigned to the headaches, at least I'm loved by RNGs everywhere finding my pace again in spite of them."

He'd done well in Rosa's class today. That had been nice.

"Looking forward to Monday. Or afraid it'll get here. One of those."

"That seems to be the way of it, yeah," Kanan agreed. "Once I wake up and get hauled to the radio station by squirrels."

Which was, at least, a good way to scope out the situation on the island before his class, too.

"And then I run off and teach a class about how to adjust," Kanan replied, with no trace of irony in his voice whatsoever.

"I'm saying I can at least fake it almost well enough that one or two of my students haven't called me out on it yet," Kanan countered.