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Alexsandr Kallus kept thinking he had Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla figured out.
The first time he encountered the Ghost, he naturally assumed that Kanan was the leader and Hera was… well, most of what he assumed about Hera was grounded in Imperial attitudes toward her species. It didn’t take long to work out that her actual role was related to her considerable piloting skills, but he still assumed that Kanan was making the decisions.
It took him longer to realize that Hera was the leader and Kanan the trusted second in command.
He wasn’t expecting to deal with this particular pocket of rebel activity long enough to analyze their dynamics. Unfortunately, this pocket proved to be deeper than the pockets on their flight suits. It gave him enough data to realize that while his initial assumptions about Hera were incorrect, the two were romantically involved.
When he found himself among the Rebels, he realized two things. He’d already worked out that Kanan wasn’t the leader, but now it was clear that the Jedi knew as little as he could get away with about the actual rebellion. He was by no means decorative, but this was even more Hera’s operation than he’d thought.
Which was presumably why Hera was reviewing a datapad and Kanan was engaging in the mission-critical task of rubbing her shoulders. He stopped the massage when Alex arrived, but didn’t actually move out of Hera’s space.
“Looking for Zeb?” Hera asked.
Apparently he wasn’t the only one making observations about interpersonal dynamics. It was becoming apparent that he may have understated things when he’d determined the two of them were romantically involved.
“Actually, I have the schematics you requested for the TIE factory.”
Hera took the datachip, but her eyebrow still gave the slightest quirk.
“You might as well admit you’re planning to visit him next; Hera always figures those things out.” Kanan punctuated the statement with a brief kiss. He hadn’t seen those interactions when they were his enemy.
Alex willed his cheeks not to warm. “Well, I didn’t not bring you schematics.”
“He’ll tell us when he’s ready, love.”
Those were not the interactions of people having a simple liasion.
Alex hadn’t expected to find anything unusual when he was asked to update Kanan’s technical security clearance. It was strange that he wasn’t supposed to tell Kanan about it, but the task itself was simple.
But there was no spouse listed. Hera was, of course, the emergency contact, but no spouse? Surely that wasn’t right.
As soon as he reached a natural stopping point, he sought out Zeb. For the usual reason, but also for the sake of asking, “So. Kanan and Hera.”
“What about them? I think they’re talking to the doctor about that thing we’re pretending we don’t know about.”
Another reason his recent finding was so surprising. He would have expected Hera at least to want to settle certain legal protections. “Are they…”
“Alex, did they not cover where babies come from in spy school?”
Okay, so there was fairly incontrovertible proof that on at least one occasion they’d engaged in sexual relations. But he hadn’t been observing two people who happened to get pregnant from a single night of desperate passion. Kanan’s goofy face didn’t fit that at all. “You know what I mean. Are they not married?”
“You know. I don’t think they ever specified when I joined the crew. I had a lot going on back then.”
A lot going on seemed like a basic requirement for joining the rebellion. Alex was no exception. “Were they already together?”
Zeb snorted. “I wish I didn’t know the answer to that. My poor nose.”
So at the very least it was a long-standing relationship.
Making sure Hera ate properly was at least generally easier than convincing her to get enough sleep. It was a little more challenging now that she had even more responsibilities. A lot of Alliance leadership had that issue. It was no coincidence that one of Thanni’s primary duties was to chase them down and make them eat donuts. The rest of the command staff weren’t growing an entire new sentient being and struggling to keep food down, though.
Step one of Kanan’s mission was to locate something in the kitchen that was going to tempt Hera into eating. Step two was figuring out where she’d gotten to.
Fortunately, there were certain advantages to the Force. All that Jedi training resulted in him walking through the corridors of the Great Temple with a Katchan rice bowl.
“You look like a man on a mission,” Kallus commented.
Weren’t they all, lately? He wasn’t sure Hera even knew what to do without one. “The most vital mission of bring Hera lunch.”
“Has that always been one of your responsibilities?”
Kanan stifled a laugh. “I guess you could put it that way. I’m pretty sure it’s the main reason she kept me around early on.”
She’d really needed someone to teach her about the world outside of ration bars. Eventually he’d proven his other talents, but knowing the difference between daro root and brekka beets must have been his initial appeal.
“We could get a lot of people to defect if they realized how much better the food is here.”
“How bad is standard Imperial fare?” There was a lot of improvising going on at Massassi Base. He was good at it, but limited resources were the only kind they ever seemed to have.
“Why spend money on the common troops when you could build more Star Destroyers? I’ve seen marriage proposals over a jar of spice. Not spice-spice, kitchen seasonings.”
“I believe it.” He was, after all, still on the ship after all these years because of it. “Properly seasoned food is the way to most people’s hearts.”
That conversation with Kanan almost seemed to answer Alex’s question, but it was still inconsistent with the records. He needed to continue the investigation.
He came across Sabine in the armory. “You’ve been with the Ghost a while, right?”
Sabine squinted. “Pretty sure you know the answer to that one, Agent.”
He had had access to that answer when he was still with Imperial Intelligence. “Fair enough. So you would know about Kanan and Hera.”
“Most of the Rebellion knows about Kanan and Hera. They’re professionals, but they’re not exactly subtle about it when they’re off duty. It took Ezra a bit to put it together, but the rest of us are still allowed on recon missions.”
He couldn’t argue with that either. People who weren’t romantically involved just didn’t touch each other that often. “But are they married?”
Sabine set down the blaster she was cleaning. “You know, they never said one way or the other. I always just figured they are. Don’t your spy dossiers say anything?”
“They’re intelligence dossiers, not gossip rags.” This would be easier to answer with Imperial Intelligence resources, but he hadn’t realized he needed to ask the question back then.
“I’m not sure it matters, anyway. But figuring it out seems more like your thing.”
Now it was a challenge.
Hera had never had much free time. It was mostly on purpose because she had an Empire to overthrow, but she had almost lost Kanan. That was a wake-up call that she needed to start making more time for him. And then she discovered she was really going to have to juggle her priorities.
So she’d put him on her calendar in an effort to avoid anyone else trying to book a meeting. It didn’t always work, but today she had successfully defended a precious hour.
And if Kallus was here to disrupt that, she was going to have some choice words. “Did you need something? I’m supposed to be meeting Kanan.”
“Nothing that’s worth keeping you from…”
Hera laughed. “A walk in the jungle is what passes for a date when it’s not meal time.” Dinner dates weren’t appealing anyway when the odds were even on whether she’d actually keep the meal down. Spending time outside in the morning was lovely before it got too hot to exist.
“Sounds romantic.”
Hera smiled. “That’s how you know Kanan made the plan.”
“Don’t let me keep you.”
Zeb was right that Kanan and Hera did not routinely refer to each other as anything. It was touching that they were so comfortable with whatever their relationship was, but it didn’t answer his question. It wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things, but at this point, he needed to prove he could figure it out.
He still had options to explore.
“Ezra?” Slightly desperate options. Options that were banned from recon missions. But he had options.
“What’s up?” So casual from a Jedi.
“I’ve been trying to figure something out about Kanan and Hera.”
“Haven’t you done enough of that?”
He hadn’t meant for it to be a fifteen point list, there were just a lot of signs that Hera was pregnant. This time the evidence wasn’t adding up to such an obvious conclusion. “Do you know if they’re married?”
“Does it even matter? They’re… Kanan and Hera.”
“So you don’t know?” That sounded like the kind of answer someone who had absolutely no clue gave.
“It never occurred to me to ask. They didn’t even tell me they’re together; I had to figure it out the hard way.”
Kallus had his suspicions about what that meant, but he wasn’t going to pry. If he was right, it was probably a traumatic experience. “They really don’t disclose much, do they?”
“I mean, we’re rebels. There’s this thing called OpSec. Thought you might have heard of it.”
Jedi were patient. Even when waiting for a stolen hour for a date with the person who meant so much. Kanan could always meditate until Hera arrived. He didn’t need to actively search for her presence any more than he needed to actively detect the temperature of the air.
So he knew as soon as she was in kissing range. He took care of that vital business before addressing the note of irritation. “Draven giving you trouble again?”
“Always a safe guess. But actually, it’s… has Kallus been acting strange lately?”
Kallus was just a strange person. “He’s been chatty. Maybe he’s trying to figure out how to fit himself into the larger rebellion.”
“I guess he could have just been trying to find a good place to take Zeb on a date.”
Also an option. “Do we really want to spend our precious hour where everyone thinks we’re with someone else talking about Kallus?”
Hera leaned into him. “When you put it that way… absolutely not.”
There was only one member of the Ghost crew left to ask. The one who almost certainly knew the definitive answer but was least likely to want to chat about it.
It wasn’t always easy to catch Chopper on his own. He was usually with Hera, which was generally considered the desirable state of affairs from a damage control perspective.
Eventually, he managed to find the astromech running diagnostics on the Phantom.
Sabine says you’re acting weird.
“I’m trying to get to the bottom of a mystery.” His desire to find the answer was outweighing his survival instinct.
I don’t snitch.
“Ezra already lectured me about OpSec. I don’t think it’s classified, though. Are Kanan and Hera married?
Kriff off. Chopper brandished several attachments in a menacing manner.
Alex was well aware that he would use them.
Mornings were quite the challenge. Hera needed to eat before the nausea got too bad, but it was hard to convince herself to eat while she was already nauseated.
Kanan was an incredible cook, but the item that did the trick right now was simple frozen space waffles. So that’s what he heated up and brought to her. “Thanks, love.”
“Anything for you.”
Kanan had risked so much for her. But compromising his kitchen? That was devotion.
“Ooh, space waffles.” Zeb, for his part, was quite appreciative of the change. Sabine and Ezra mirrored his enthusiasm.
“All this time I could have just been making these?”
“As long as you keep making my caf the way I like it.” Which was, to be fair, not actually caf at the moment. But that wouldn’t last forever, and Kanan would keep remembering how she liked it.
Kallus set his fork down. “Okay, I give up.”
“Give up?” Hera hadn’t thought there was anything to give up in a conversation about space waffles.
“I can’t figure it out. Are you two married or not?”
Kanan coughed as space waffle travelled in directions space waffle was not meant to go. “Excuse me?”
“You act like you’re married, but the official records don’t specify.”
Hera sighed. “Do you realize what you’re asking?”
“It’s a simple question.”
“It should be a simple question,” Kanan muttered.
It always bothered him more. He’d seen an alternative in the Jedi Order, even if marriage was not traditionally encouraged. She’d spent her whole life knowing how complicated relations were between humans and Twi’leks.
“Look at us and tell us how simple that question is.” The man had probably enforced several of the complicating factors in his Imperial days. Surely he could figure this out.
“You’re…” Kallus’s eyes took in the room and finally settled on her lekku. “Oh.“
“Exactly. The answer depends entirely on what planet we’re on. We’re married on Ryloth.” That was the one that mattered most to her. The kalikori told the story and legal datawork could shove it. It used to matter if she needed to take Kanan to a medical facility, but these days they were a little too wanted to go anywhere she would have to argue.
“And Alderaan, of course,” Kanan said. “But definitely not on Coruscant.”
Kallus should have seen that one coming. Not being married on Coruscant kept them from being married on a large number of planets.
“If you’re not married on Lothal, Ryder will fix that,” Ezra said.
It took time to unravel Imperial law, but Lothal was already improving. Marriage restrictions were an important symbolic gesture, but it was understandable if they were prioritizing barriers to food and shelter. But Hera always liked to hear there was another planet where no one questioned them. “So probably Lothal.”
“I don’t think you want to be considered married on Mandalore,” Sabine added.
Kanan sighed. “Do we want to know what that involves?”
“Mostly giving each other knives and pledging to raise warriors together.”
Hera frowned. They had picked up equipment for each other often enough. She didn’t want their baby to be a warrior, but there was no denying that Ezra and Sabine had followed that road. “I think we might technically be married on Mandalore.”
“Just what I always wanted.” Kanan continued counting on his fingers. “Are we still considered peasant married on Chandrila?”
“I’m… actually not sure what the legal framework is like there since Mon left. I know we’re not married on Tatooine.”
“Not that that one matters because we’re not going anywhere near kriffing Tatooine.”
There were a few too many places where their marriage wouldn’t be recognized because she was barely considered a person. Generals didn’t do the sort of infiltration work she’d had to do in their younger days. “Unless the war takes quite the turn, we’re not going to Coruscant any time soon either.”
Kallus sighed. “Okay, but right here. In this room. On this ship. Are you married?”
“Oh, well, that one’s easy. Absolutely.”
Kanan wrapped his arms around her. “But as soon as we set the galaxy right, I’ll marry you again just to be sure.”