I saw fanart of Ezra with a cold here - post/134695055824/he-doesnt-like-to-admit-when-hes-sick and I was inspired to write a short fic for it. Just fluff.

Ezra stretched to reach the last bolt securing the panel on the Phantom to get to the electrical system inside, jerking and barely managing to turn his head and tuck his face into the inside of his elbow as he sneezed once, then a few more times in quick succession. He grumbled as Chopper made an amused sound, wiping his nose on the back of his glove and sniffing. "Shut up, I'm not sick, Garel's just got a lot more air pollution, makes my nose run. Now check and see if this is where the short is."

He stepped back as the droid rattled off another series of beeps, moving in to examine the wires.

"So what if the air in here is filtered, it's not… ah. It's… aaachu!" He covered his mouth with an annoyed sound, rubbing his nose again. It was starting to get raw from his constant attempts to keep it from dripping. "Don't even say it, just do your job." He sniffed again, waiting for Chopper's announcement that he'd repaired the wire before he started the diagnostic again, checking the screen.

If Ezra was honest with himself, he was fully aware it wasn't just air pollution. He felt terrible, achy and tired and he couldn't seem to shake a dull headache even when he gave in and got a headache pill out of the first aid kit to take. He sighed when everything came up as working properly, turning back to Chopper. "You can go tell Hera it's fixed, I'll get the panel back on. Plenty of time for the meeting today." They had close to a dozen stolen crates full of parts for repairing standard issue Imperial speederbikes. Next to useless for the Rebellion, but they'd found a buyer willing to pay a decent amount for them.

Ezra was getting the panel back in place when he could hear someone coming up behind him to look over his work.

"Done already?" Hera looked over the panel approvingly. "Good job."

"It was just the one short in the wire, the hard part was finding it." Ezra smiled at the approval and then tensed, trying hard not to sneeze and failing, making a face as he scrubbed at his nose again.

"Are you coming down with something?" Hera looked over him, concerned.

"Just dust." Ezra smiled, trying to look a lot more energetic than he felt "How long until we leave?"

"A couple hours. Are you sure? You look flushed." Hera started to tug a glove off like she was going to feel his forehead and Ezra backed away.

"I'm sure. Really. I feel fine." Ezra had to catch himself from sniffing and ruining the illusion.

"If you say so. Why don't you get a quick shower then? Rinse off the dust." Hera suggested, pulling her glove back on.

"Good idea. I'll, ah, I'll go do that." Ezra edged around her to make his escape. A shower wasn't a bad idea, it might help him feel a little better.

Ezra stepped out of the shower, slumping over to dry off with an unhappy groan. The shower hadn't helped much. The steam seemed to help with the sneezing some, but even though he'd blown his nose a dozen times it just felt even more stopped up than before and he could barely breathe through it. He felt overheated and chilled at the same time and a little lightheaded. At least his headache wasn't any worse than it had been all day. He scrubbed the towel over his face, sniffing and then hanging it up. He'd manage somehow. He turned to where he'd left his clothes and stared in confusion. They were gone. There was no sign on any of his clothes, just a folded thick purple blanket and a pair of slippers. Zeb had picked them up as a joke back on Lothal ages ago, not expecting Ezra to actually like them. They were fuzzy and shaped like loth-cats, with the head on the front of the shoe and the ears sticking up, like something a child would wear. They were also soft and warm and a lot nicer than bare feet on cold floor plating in the middle of the night, and less trouble than waking up enough to get his boots on.

Ezra just really wasn't sure why they were here, and not his clothes. If someone was pulling a prank… He huffed quietly, trying not to cough, putting on the slippers and wrapping up in the blanket before he peered out of the 'fresher. He was glad for the warmth, outside of the warmer air of the 'fresher it felt like the ship was even colder than usual. He looked around for anyone, finally knocking on Kanan's door and hoping he was in his room.

He was in luck, the door opening after only a couple moments.

"Kanan, someone took my clothes."

"I think Hera said something about washing them." Kanan didn't look overly surprised to find him wrapped up in the blanket and before Ezra realized what he was about to do Kanan had his hand on his forehead. "She's right, you've got a fever."

"No I don't, I'm fine. Really." Ezra tried to brush his hand away. "I just need my clothes back. I can't go out like this."

"You're not going anywhere with a fever. Look, I'll make you a deal, go sit down, I'll get the thermometer from the first aid kit. If it agrees with you then I'll find your clothes." Kanan offered.

Ezra nodded, going out to the galley so he could slump, tucking the blanket tighter around himself. He just wanted his clothes back and to keep going on like everything was fine.

"Open up." Kanan held up the thermometer, Ezra glared and took it from him so he could stick it under his tongue himself to wait. Kanan just smirked at the sulky look and carefully plopped an ice pack down onto the top of Ezra's head.

"It'll help with the headache." Kanan said, taking the other side of the curved bench and sprawling out to wait.

Ezra hadn't said anything about his headache but it wasn't worth fighting about, mumbling something indistinct without taking his tongue off the thermometer. Even if he wasn't feeling well it was just some sniffles, not the sort of thing you stayed home over.

Kanan waited the time, finally reaching over to take the thermometer and check it. "Two against one, Ezra."

"Let me see that." Ezra grabbed for it, trying not to disturb the ice pack. It was starting to help his headache a little, not that he'd admit to it.

"Are we voting on something?" Sabine's voice came from the doorway.

Ezra made a soft unhappy sound, scrunching down further into the blanket wrap. The last thing he wanted was everyone coming by to gawk at him and ruin the last few shreds of dignity he still had.

"No vote, Ezra's sitting this one out. He's running a fever." Kanan let Ezra see the elevated number on the thermometer before taking it back to disinfect it and put it away.

"You watched to make sure he didn't do the hot water trick with it, right?" Sabine looked over both of them.

"No, I think the thermometer's wrong, I feel fine." Ezra straightened up some and then scrubbed under his nose when it started to drip, trying to sniff quietly.

Sabine gave him a sympathetic look "It's just selling a few crates of parts, don't worry about it. That's the good part of being part of a team, we look out for each other."

"Yeah, but…" Ezra started.

"No buts, you stay in and rest and if we need you later you'll be in better shape to help." Kanan found a packet of tissues, plopping them in Ezra's lap.

"Fine, you win. " Ezra sniffed again, using one of the tissues to mop under his nose and then gathering himself up, holding the blanket tight around himself and carrying the ice pack. "If anyone needs me I'll be in my room."

Ezra didn't intend to fall asleep while everyone was gone, but it was quiet and the blankets were warm and it wasn't often he had the room entirely to himself. He still slept fitfully, it seemed every time he found a comfortable position his nose clogged up, but breathing through his mouth dried everything out and was unpleasant all around. Finally it felt like he had just drifted off when he felt a hand on his shoulder, lightly shaking him. He groaned, hunching down and opening his eyes to glare at Zeb.

"Here, picked you up some stuff while we were out." The lasat didn't seem bothered by the glare, he rarely did, dropping a bundle onto the top bunk.

"Everyone's back already?" Ezra sat up, rubbing over his eyes and coughing quietly as he reached for the bundle.

"Yeah. You look terrible." Zeb observed.

"At least I don't look as bad as you smell." Ezra sniffed, pausing to find where the pack of tissues had gotten. "Wait, actually, unexpected benefit, I can't smell you at all like this."

"Just for that if you want anything from the galley you can get it yourself. " Zeb growled

"I think I'll live." Ezra smiled when he got the bundle open, starting to sort through it. There were some of the things he's expect, more packets of tissues and cough drops but there was a lot more than that. The tin of tea was probably Sabine's idea, while she was fine with caf she was also just as likely to fix a mug of whatever tea blend she'd managed to find in the markets. There were bottles of juice blends that made him think Hera had a hand in picking them out. He knew on Lothal drinking juice was supposed to help prevent or shorten a cold, so it stood to reason it would be the same elsewhere in the galaxy. He's always sort of suspected it was mostly because fruit was plentiful on Lothal and it tended to taste ok even when nothing else did, but he wasn't going to argue. There were other assorted little things, candies that weren't cough drops that were probably Zeb's doing. He'd teased Ezra about his habit of keeping packaged food in the room, but he'd also started adding more food like that to the shopping lists. The final thing he had to dig out from under everything and it confused him for just a moment. It wasn't new, the folded cloth shirt was faded and fairly warn and as he shook it out he could see it had been mended in a few places with neat even stitches. The pants were the same way, and he could see the bottom hems had been taken up with the same stitching.

Zeb watched him as he looked over the shirt and pants. "Uh, that part's not new, but Kanan said if you wanted some new clothes to sleep in you'd probably want to pick them out yourself. But at least it's something, eh?"

Ezra tugged the shirt on. It was loose, and the sleeves were a little long. It was perfect. "No, it's fine. I wouldn't want to risk getting snot on a new shirt anyway." He carefully wrapped the rest of the stuff back up, stretching back out on the bed. Maybe things wouldn't be too terrible after all.