Who: Lina & Kanan, with baby Amelia What: Kanan offers the little one a teddybear named Broomhilda, and light saber talks commence When: Recently Where: Firestarter Fortress Rating/Warnings: Lowish Status: Complete!
Where was the time even going? Seriously?
Pregnancy felt like it’d been dragging on for an entire millennia, but the moment Amelia (formerly known as Baby Girl Wisdom, Demon Baby Wisdom, and the Chimichanga) made her debut into the world as they knew it, it was as if someone pressed the fast forward button on time and things accelerated. Mostly because it was kind of amazing how much this tiny wrinkly pink thing had changed throughout the few weeks after birth, and she was less rose-colored and her limbs weren’t so curled up into herself. Gaining weight had been very much a thing, but she was still such a little human - much like her mother, but Lina hoped she wouldn’t end up on the shorter scale of life.
It was hard being a short person, alright? Fuck off.
Now, the parent life wasn’t too stressful, though they could probably thank Amelia for not being too terribly fussy - she mostly liked to sleep and eat, soil some diapers, repeat that throughout the day and night. It was routine now, and between the joint efforts of Romany and Lina’s rambunctious family, they had helped them with most household chores. It meant the floors were clean, dishes were done, laundry was tumbling (there was a lot of fucking laundry thanks to this drooler and pooper, holy crap). Oh, and the cat was taken care of, but Guess lately hid from the sight of this blob of human life wrapped in a blanket.
Especially when she wailed. The cat thought ‘fuck this shit’ and made her domain under the couch. Surrounded by bottle caps, because cats also did some weird things.
The infant wasn’t asleep when the doorbell rang, and it was that quiet period of when she was awake, fed, burped, cleaned, and comfy in a onesie that said ’Ah pardon, good sir, but I do believe I have shat in my pantaloons.’ Appropriately English sounding, wasn’t it? Soft blanket and all, the redhead scooped the baby up to greet the visitor at the door.
“Hey, Scruffy,” grinned the sorceresses, a little tired but fully functional. “It’s okay, she’s awake.”
Babies weren’t really Kanan’s thing. They were so small and fragile and utterly dependent. It was the fragile and dependent parts that made Kanan a little uneasy at first. Like…what if he accidentally dropped the kid? Didn’t you have to support their heads a certain way? Why? Was there something wrong with their necks? If you didn’t, would their heads just flop around and fall off? Was that even physically possible?!
Kanan was definitely not a baby person. The children he’d grown up with in the foster care system had all been able to speak, feed and walk for themselves. He never understood how terrifying a baby could be until he was at Lina’s door for the first time since Amelia had made her grand entrance and all of these questions started running through his head at once.
Then he saw her and Kanan’s first thought was how tiny and adorable she was. A complete little package all rosy and small and looking quite snug and content in her mother’s arms. How much things had changed since Kanan had come to California.
“Hi, Mama,” Kanan grinned at her, “how are you feeling?” He turned that grin down at little baby Amelia. “Hi, there,” he said offering his index finger as a kind of hand-shake.
“Wearing my third shirt of the day,” Lina snorted a chuckle, rolling her eyes. Yeeee-up, babies were gross little things, but this particular bundle in her arms was her gross little thing, she’d make an exception. But overall, she looked well - she recovered a little faster thanks to the daily applications of a slow recovery spell, but the maternal glow seemed to stick even after the bun was ejected from her oven. “And I smell like baby powder, but hey, I can’t complain.”
Amelia’s eyes were still that odd, filmy blue, and her mouth was open and moving and making all sorts of cooey noises. Kanan’s finger was something she gripped on for a second. “Come in, by the way. You can get comfortable and hold her if you want, but if she starts stinking you can keep her.”
The living room was where she’d been hanging out in, an infant rocker with music and plastic doodad toys was out for the little kiddo to rest. Some baby gadgets were around, and the musty tombs on the coffee table belonging to a different era, a different world, stuck out like a sore thumb.
“I can think of worse things to smell like,” Kanan observed as he followed Lina into the house. It was an orgy of evidence that a wee little one was now living there as well. Baby stuff was everywhere and it took Kanan a little off guard. He had never put the idea of Baby in the same thought as Lina Inverse and even though he’d had four months to get used to the idea, it was still a little odd to see in reality. Then again, he’d never pictured her settled down period, either so…
But the “quiet” life seemed to suit Lina and she seemed to be doing just fine with it. Flourishing even. Kanan wondered if maybe it wasn’t so far fetched for him either, if he could just let go of certain habits.
“Oh, yeah, I have something for the little stinker,” he fumbled around in a backpack for a moment before producing a medium sized fuzzy cream colored teddy bear. It had on a little witch’s hat with holes for it’s ears to poke through and had a little broom attached to its paw by a rubberband. “Amelia, I’d like to introduce you to Broomhilda. She’ll be your buddy, alright?” No, Kanan had not spent nearly a half hour at the local Build-A-Bear Workshop making the toy and he would deny anyone’s accusations stating that he had. Teddy bears were important, alright? ...and maybe a little therapeutic.
“The hat and broom come off,” he told Lina. “‘Cause, you know...choking hazards. And I’ve heard babies like to stick things in their mouths.”
If the “quiet” life involved going through a mountain of diapers like it was nothing and balancing a life of magical mayhem, and figuring out how to handle the next county-wide crisis then, yeah, she had grown into it - needless to say, it was a lot less stressful than being tits deep in weapon trafficking or running from a steep price tag tacked onto her head because she just had to get the last word in with her ex-employer (and she did, in the end, haha, fucker).
Lina couldn’t imagine her life as anything else. Maybe it wasn’t a life she didn’t think she’d ever have for herself, but she’d waddled through a river of shit to get to this point - nothing in this world worth having came easy, after all.
“Holy shit, that’s adorable,” she laughed. Broomhilda. It suited the possible sorceress-to-be, and how funny was it that the teddy bear was even a little bigger than the baby herself? “I’d have killed to see you browsing for the perfect toy, you know. It’ll go well with her nursery.” It had evolved into some kind of whimsical, crystal sort of thing - soothing and witchy, the scent of magic clinging to the room. “Eventually she’ll want her own lightsaber, by the way.”
Hinthint. Or maybe that was Lina wanting one herself - they’d reminded her of Gourry’s Sword of Light, which was technically a demon in weapon-form. In the dreams it was returned to its rightful world, and she mourned for its absence like a spoiled brat who never got her toy.
Well that was a subtle hint. Kanan gave Lina a kind of sheepish look. “Jedi’s build their own sabers, apparently. I haven’t dreamed about how I made mine. I just...kind of always had it. I did a little research though and kind of understand how they’re made, just not the science behind it. The main obstacle is getting my hands on the right kind of crystals...and a sufficient power supply. Maybe, if I get gifted with a crystal or two, I can craft one for her...or you…” he winked at her. A sorceress with a light saber? Why not? Was there much difference between a magic wielder and a Force wielder? “Maybe we can make some kind of hybrid?”
The expression on Lina’s face became the epitome of no-nonsense. “Don’t toy with my heart like that,” she replied seriously, eyebrow raised. “I have a sister weapon of the one I told you about before? The sword that’s similar to a light saber, but technically a demon?” Galvayra was sometimes known as the Bow of Light, which was ironic considering it spawned from a dark lord of another world - but unlike Ruby Eye Shabranigdo who made his subordinates into demonlords, Dark Star turned his into weapons. Somehow, someway some of those weapons transcended from one world into another. How and why was still a historical mystery.
Though she had planned to dissect Galvayra in the safest way possible, but she’d been waiting until after the end of her pregnancy. Uh, less risks and all. To ease the somewhat noisy baby, she reached for her pacifier while the adults talked adult things. “They sorta seem similar, so maybe we can draw inspiration from both of them. What crystals are you going to need anyway?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Kanan assured her. He had to admit it was an intriguing idea attempting to combine the power of a light saber with that of one of Lina’s demon swords. He had no idea how that would work, but the two ideas seemed similar enough, at least on paper. The biggest difference of course coming from how the weapons were each powered, and Kanan had to admit, that was a pretty big fucking difference. However, he had an idea that they could figure it out. Of the two of them, Lina was the smarter, the more experienced when it came to Dream gifts.
“I don’t remember the names of the crystals off hand,” he admitted a little sheepishly, “Only that they come from a specific quadrant in a galaxy far, far away. In the mean time I can at least start getting a hilt constructed. That’s where all the sciencey and mystical shit happens. I made mine and even though I didn’t actually Dream about making it, I’m pretty sure I can make another one here. I mean, I didn’t Dream about my Jedi training, but it still came to me when I was fighting that invasion of Storm Troopers last month. I guess I just know certain stuff.” which Kanan thought was weird, but wasn’t about to question it.
“Speaking of light sabers, I did actually bring mine with me. You wanna see it?”
At least when it came to the magical sort, since the sorceress was something of a treasure hunter in the medieval landscape she dreamt about - but usually that led her into a clusterfuck of a situation, trying to uncover the arcane secrets of the demon race, the sole source of black magic. Lina’s gifts from the dreamfairy were vast, and good to have here. There was a lot to learn from them, a lot of things to draw out and pick apart and modify for future spells. Lightsabers were of something of a different nature, more sciencey, but she was curious.
“Yes, because I know that’s not a euphemism,” she snickered, carefully setting the little one in her rocker. Turn on the pretty colors and music and, oohhhhh, distracted! Amelia was beginning to recognize things a little more as time went on, though most of the time she was sleeping - newborns slept a a lot, christ. Right now, she seemed content suckling on her binky, foggy eyes fixated on the dangly things above. “What’s the color of yours again?”
Kanan laughed. No light saber had never been a euphemism for his dick. Well, maybe once with Dutch, but that was it. It seemed kind of sacrilegious, really, and Jedi was a type of religion, wasn’t it? Maybe? There was definitely a degree of mysticism that went along with believing in the Force and what it could do. It took a type of faith as well to lay your trust in it and let it guide you. It was the faith part Kanan struggled with both here and in the Dreams. But he was learning, starting to accept it more and more as he felt his connection with it grow stronger every day.
“The blade is blue,” he said as he set his bag down and fished out his lightsaber. It had come in two parts: the grip containing the power cells and science and the section that housed the crystals and produced the blade. At first Kanan had no idea how the hell he was supposed to put it together. However, once he had in his hands he had just known, and a good thing too considering a mere few days later storm troopers had flooded out of Disneyland and had demanded his undivided attention. After that, wherever Kanan went, the light saber went. It had quickly become his most treasured and prized possession.
After a quick glance around the room to make sure there was nothing around or above him he would accidentally destroy, Kanan activated the sword. With the iconic buzzing swish a light blue blade of light shot up from the hilt.
Ohhhhhh, ahhhhhhhh. Very reminiscent of the Sword of Light, almost to the point where she was mentally calculating the funds in her bank account to see how much she could spend in persuading Kanan to sell the goddamn thing to her but, nope, different weapon, and he’d be like Gourry - who would adamantly tell her no. Sigh.
Welp, a girl could still dream sometimes. Add that right under ‘castle’ on her wishlist of things.
Lina observed from the floor, gently pushing the rocker with the tiny person making suckly noises. Broomhilda, the meticulously created teddybear, was next to it. “So how’d you activate it, exactly? Did you think about it, is it a button you press, what?”
“You know, it’d be a whole lot cooler if it was thought activated,” Kanan admitted, “but it’s actually a switch.” He retracted the blade with a loud hissing swish and held the hilt out for Lina to see, tapping his finger lightly against the little button that activated the blade. “Truth time,” he went on as he looked at the hilt carefully, “when I was a kid, I always thought that the blade of a lightsaber was a kind of manifestation of a Jedi’s control over the Force, or something. When I found out it was actually crystals I kind of thought that was lame as shit. Now…” he sort of shrugged. “I guess not as much? I mean from what I understand from the research I’ve done, there’s still a certain amount of mysticism involved. Like a Jedi has to attune himself to the crystals he obtains and wants to use. Not really sure how a Jedi would do that but…” he shrugged again. “I’m assuming that would have been covered in my training at some point. I just haven’t dreamed it yet.”
“Not saying that only a Jedi can use a lightsaber,” he went on before Lina could drum up any disappointment for not having one of her own. “The last movie pretty much proved that anyone can.”
“Must have been the equivalent to finding out the Easter Bunny wasn’t real,” she smirked, climbing up from the ground, taking the hilt in her hands. Not anything remotely close to the oddly designed hilt from the Sword of Light, but still otherworldly in its own way - she took note of the grip, the switch too, and made sure to keep it pointed away from her. You know, in case her finger slipped. “There’s definitely something mystical about crystals producing something like that. Energy is found both in science and magic, they’re not exactly exclusive.”
Hmmmmm. Ruby eyes squinted as she examined it, investigating any screws or parts that seemed welded together. “Any idea how to take it apart? I’m not suggesting we do surgery on this now or anything, but I’d like to see the crystals if we can at some point.” The rest of the mechanics were a little over her head - though she imagined it almost similar to a firearm, maybe? The hilt a gun, the energy the bullet.
“The Easter Bunny’s not real?” Kanan feigned shock at this revelation, but his expression soon gave way to a playful teasing smirk.
He hesitated a moment before letting go of the lightsaber hilt so that Lina could give it a proper visual examination. He watched her very carefully as she looked it over. It wasn’t as though he didn’t trust her, but this was his most prized possession, irreplaceable if something should happen to it.
“I have a vague notion how to take it apart,” he admitted. “Like I said, Jedi build their own sabers and I must have built that one, even I haven’t Dreamed about it. I didn’t dream about learning how to fight with it either, but I still know how. Maybe, uhm, maybe once I’ve Dreamed a little more we can take a look inside, let you take a look at the crystals.”
“Yeaaaaaah, I don’t want to break the thing,” she laughed, and handed back the precious cargo that was the lightsaber hilt. “It’s better to know all you can know about this before you look at the insides. I still have my own research to do before I can even make an attempt to figure out what makes Galvayra tick. It’s supposed to be able to shoot through dimensions, open up a portal to another universe when paired with another of it’s kind - but the research is half of the fun, you know?”
At least to her. Anything when it came to magic, to the weapons, the lore of monsters and the dragon gods; she inhaled the knowledge right off the books, got to experience some of the legends in the flesh, and was able to debunk the widely spread myths about some. Lina may have been a little cocky with her sorcery prowess and expertise in the dreams, but she knew her craft - enough to weave her own spells, though the consequences of that proved...apocalyptic. Putting it lightly.
Gently, she pulled the rocker closer to the couch. That way she could help keep with the repetitive movement with the pull of her foot, because multitasking. Amelia was behaved for the moment, chubby fingers tangled with each other. “Everything else going okay, though? Dreamwise, lifewise?”
Kanan hesitated a moment before answering. Whatever physical injuries he’d sustained last month had mostly faded. The stitches in his face had long been removed, leaving behind only a faint scar across the bridge of his nose and another up his cheek, barely visible if one didn’t know they were there. The angry red line around his throat had also faded and disappeared as though it had never been there to begin with.
All the years Kanan had been smuggling and dealing in weapons he’d never been jumped. He’d been in his fair share of fights, yes, but no one had ever straight up ambushed him before. He had done a decent job of hiding it, but the whole damn experience had really freaked him the fuck out. Now that the Old man had been taken care of, the feeling of wire tightening around his throat didn’t haunt Kanan when he was alone.
He gave Lina a half shrug. “Yeah, things are starting to smooth out a little now,” he said. “I’m trying out the semi-retired life. As for the Dreams, they’re progressing. I have no idea what my Dream Half has gotten himself in to, but it’s never dull.”
Lina understood the struggle. More than she liked, really, but her and Kanan’s backgrounds were similar and steeped in gunpowder and metal - the smuggling and dealing of firearms, the dangerous lifestyle it brought, the allies and enemies and how hard it could be to tear yourself away from it. It wasn’t an overnight transformation and for her, it’d taken a couple years and cold-blooded murder. Even after the fact, there were ends that were never tied, and returned with vengeance.
Her tongue clicked thoughtfully, watching him closely. “Nothing’s ever dull on the other side. I’d like to meet the asshole who gets stuck with the most mundane and predictable stuff,” she scoffed. “You know if you need anything, I’m here. Right?” Whether it was an ear or a power boost from someone who could eradicate a city with a snap of her fingers - she took care of her own when she could, and now she was more than able to. That eight-month (it should have been nine, but Amelia insisted on an early debut) hiatus was mostly over.
“Semi-retired isn’t a bad life, though. This place has a way of helping you put things into perspective, I guess?”
Interestingly enough an attempted murder and an actual murder had been the two things that had made Kanan seriously start to consider retired life. He’d already pretty much decided that he would stay in Orange County for the duration. In fact, he’d been making plans to sell his apartment in New York and make the move permanent the very same night he had been jumped. If Kanan intended on staying here than he had to make certain changes in his life. There really wasn’t much of a choice. He wasn’t going to put the lives of the people who mattered to him in anymore danger.
“Or it gives you an entirely different kind of perspective,” He said with a shrug. “Like seriously? Wizards and Jedi? Who would have thought either you or I would have been either of those things? You know the whole Jedi thing still throws me every now and then and I haven’t been one for very long, but now it's like I can’t imagine not being one.”
“Um, I prefer the term sorceress,” she laughed. Wizard sounded so Hogwarts-y, but, nah, she got the point - life got extra weird when she started living here but, hell, it’d been over two years now? Of calling this place home? Lina was used to the extra weird, so much that it became the new normal and she wouldn’t have it any other way. “But life’s never the same after living here. It’s so much you can’t undo, and going back to the lives we had just...it doesn’t seem like the best option anymore, does it?”
In the dreams the monster race had given her offers to join them, and she rejected because like hell she’d want to lie in bed with a bunch of demons - but here the core ones were humans, and she had done the exact opposite. Joined them, and even shared a bed with one. As time passed had separated herself so much from it all, the trade and the ones pulling the strings behind it thanks to this place. It’d given her another purpose. A redirection in life, a fresh start.
All the bullshit that happened between then and now had been worth it. Not easy, but fuck, worth it all and ten times more.
Amelia began making whiny snuffy noises, which probably meant that the rocker she was in was nothing compared to the warmth of softness of mommy’s bosom. Time to slide her hands under those tiny armpits and pick her up, then. “For the record, though, the Jedi thing’s badass, Kanan. Has a nicer ring to it than firearm dealer.”
Kanan shrugged lightly. “Going back doesn’t really seem like an option at all,” he stated. “I mean, what do I have to go back to? I don’t have any family waiting for me anywhere,” that he knew of, anyway. Kanan had been orphaned so young that he had no memory of who his biological parents were. He knew nothing about them, not where they came from, or what had happened to them. He didn’t even know their names.
“No real friends on the east coast.” There was Janus, obviously, who was the closest thing Kanan had to family after The Chaplain and his Wife had passed away. Other than that? Kanan really had no one. “But here? Well, I got people here.” Good people too, people he could count on. “So between that and the Dreams,” he shrugged. “I’ve kind of inadvertently started to set roots down. Not something I ever thought I would do, but now that I have…” another shrug, “it’s not so bad really. At least it isn’t boring.”
He smiled as Lina picked up little Amelia to snuggler her close. Nah, family life wasn’t so bad. It may not be in the cards for Kanan now - baby steps after all - but it wasn’t completely outside the realm of possibility as it had once been. “Being a Jedi’s not a bad gig,” he said, sliding his hands into his pockets. “At least not here. In the Dreams it’s another story, but I think my counterpart’s starting to come around. Not easy when you’re literally playing with the Empire on their home turf.”
“Definitely not boring,” Lina snickered, giving Amelia a kiss to the forehead before bringing her close to the chest. “I don’t think either of us would settle well with boring. I’m pretty determined to have it all, though – the family thing and that rush of adrenaline every once in awhile. You can have it here. Just gotta be smart about it, and protect what you’ve got.”
The sorceress was a bit of a danger junkie anyway, and she enjoyed the thrill and excitement of a good fight. Toss a spell, summon the darkness, let the disaster that she was run amuck for a bit. Destruction, the summoning of magic from demons - it was all part of her nature in both versions, and the reputation of catastrophe followed her in every world she lived in.
The spot next to her was patted, a sign that it was okay for the Jedi to take a seat. The baby wasn’t biting anyone just yet. “Even if shit goes awry there, I can listen and have a couple beers with you?” She had him here now, didn’t she? Call it fate, or the weird twists of probability, but he was a friendly token of a former profession she liked and wanted to keep around. “Now c’mere, Kanan, she’s in a mood where she wants to be held. Gotta know how to handle her before I task you with the favor of changing her diapers, eh?”
Because what were friends for? Seriously.
Nope, Kanan could never settle with boring. Not even when he’d been a little kid, climbing up onto the roof to fetch a tossed ball for the other younger foster kids and then promptly getting stuck when the ladder was accidentally kicked away from the side of the house. Or as a teenager, when he’d been on the run alone. He’d been scared and lonely, but somehow never bored, and that had suited him, somehow. Now, as an adult, here and Dreaming of another life and another time. He wasn’t running anymore, even had the notion to settle down with the little makeshift family he was forming. There was no plans for little anklebiters in Kanan’s immediate future, but hell, a home and family? It wasn’t a bad deal.
Kanan took his hands from his pockets and took a seat on the couch cushion Lina patted. He was a momento for her, of a life she had left behind, but could still occasionally visit. She was a momento for him of what he could have. He gave her that easy smile. “Alright,” he said with a nod and held his arms out. “I gotta support the head, right?” Still didn’t know why that was such a thing with babies, but hell, Kanan would support the shit out of that little girl’s head. Just as he’d support the shit out of her mama.
‘Cause, yeah, seriously, that’s what friends were for.