Who: Kanan & Lina What: Catching up and discussing Kanan's birth certificate When: Recent Where: Brotherhood of Thieves bar Rating/Warnings: Language but overall tame Status: Complete!
Brotherhood of Thieves. Hell of a name for a dive bar, wasn’t it? Lina was a little fond of it - it was considered ‘neutral ground’ between the less than savory groups, and there was more to do than just sit around and drink. The mechanical bull, for one was a very popular centerpiece (the current champ of that thing being none other than Emma Swan) among its regulars. Jenga, dart boards, pool, a table for blackjack and other card games were all available to the patrons too. And as long as everyone followed the golden rules of ‘don’t break this fucking bar’ and ‘keep the fights outside,’ it was all pretty kosher.
Beer could be a little better but it was what it was. Before she was strapped down by the responsibilities of motherhood the sorceress frequented the place often, the atmosphere nostalgic in regards to an old lifestyle she abandoned. Not to mention, it was a decent place for rumors and following leads if there was someone or something that needed locating - but she was here for neither of those things, and just thought it’d be a place Kanan wouldn’t mind loitering around with her in awhile they caught up on things like life.
“Thanks for my bedazzled rice cooker, troll,” she grinned, wrapping her fingers around the plastic cup of urine-colored ale once the bartender slid it in her direction. Fiery hair was woven into a loose braid, strands framing her face, and she wore comfortable jeans and an old tattered leather jacket (it was a light one, it wasn’t that cold yet). “I still don’t know if I should hug you or beat you with it.”
Kanan lived for dive bars like these. Business was best conducted in these places of neutral territory and Kanan had done quite a bit of business in shadowy back booths of places like this. Those days were gone, and Kanan would be lying if he said he didn’t miss them. But, he had responsibilities now he hadn’t had when he’d first come to Orange County. It was kind of funny how this place had sucked him in with all its weirdness and random happenings. Like the crimson headed sorceress seated next to him, Kanan had responsibilities now he hadn’t had when he’d arrived.
It had also been something of a trip to reunite with a few past associates. One of those being Lina herself. My, my, how the times had changed. She was all grown up now with a family and an adorable little munchkin of her own. Prior to reuniting earlier this year, the last time Kanan had seen Lina, she had been on the run after pulling an extremely impressive stunt against her own employer. Considering Kanan had a bit of experience with murder (or attempted murder as he had most recently learned), he had been all too willing to help the girl out. The least he could do was secure her that van. She had come a long way since then. Being present for her wedding had been truly special.
“I told you I’d get you one,” he said over his pint of beer. A shit-eating grin played on his mouth under his well groomed beard. “It was even full of treasure. I deliver on my word.” He winked at her, “that’s why you love me.”
Cheeky fucker. Lina wouldn’t deny he held a special place in her twisted little heart, though - he was an interesting dose of nostalgia, one of the better things that had come out of that entire mess. There’d been a couple gems of friendship salvaged from her more reckless days. Kanan had been one, and how funny that the pieces fell in such a place to drag his ass all the way out here too. Not that she’d complain.
“You did, you did,” she nodded, impressed at his interpretation, as she sipped her foamy ale. Behind them the jukebox was bursting with classical rock - a good choice for the scene - and smoke from cigars cast a bit of a mist. “I’m glad you were able to make the wedding, y’know. I would have tried hounding some kind of address even if you weren’t stuck in this hellhole we come home, but you wouldn’t have made finding you even the slightest bit easy for me.”
Some of that classic rock currently playing may have been Kanan’s doing. He absolutely loved music from the late 60’s and 70’s (Minus disco. No one liked disco). And there was nothing quite like a little bit of classic Eagles or Eric Clapton to fit the mood of a place. And they could smoke in here, a rare beast in this society of health consciousness and No Smoking signs all over the place. Kanan leaned back far in his seat and turned his head away so he wouldn’t blow smoke in the nursing mother’s face, becuase that couldn’t be good for small children.
Kanan laughed. He had made it a point to be something of a whisper on the wind. Changed his name and even though technically his base of operations had been on the east coast, once he had taken over the business from Janus, Kanan had made it a point to be a ghost. There were people out there he did not want finding him. Lina, however, was not one of those people. If he had known she had settled herself down in Orange County, he would have made more of a point to come for a visit earlier.
“Maybe?” he raised a thoughtful brow, “But, I’m pretty sure there isn’t any place I could possibly hide that you couldn’t find me. Not even Hell itself.” He laughed before taking a liberal glug of his thick foamy beer. “I’m glad I was here, though. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss your wedding for the world.” He feigned a sniffle and a tear, “my little girl’s all grown up. Off on her own getting married and becoming a sorceress. Does a man proud.” He set his beer down for a moment in favor of their conversation. “So, what’s next for you and hubs?”
If only Lina had been able to be a ghost in the wind - there was usually a trail of destruction left in her wake, and back then it’d all been accomplished by more mundane methods. Oh, she’d tried to keep a low profile, but sometimes her situations called for loud means of dealing with them rather than the quiet ‘cloak and daggers’ thing she obviously failed at doing. It was why her old ‘partner’ had stepped in, betraying direct orders to clean up her messes and keep her off his grandfather’s raging radar. Bless his heart, or whatever he had in place of it nowadays with that partial-demon status.
His bullshit show of tearful emotion almost made beer come out her nose, so she needed a minute to clear her throat with a cough and flash him a lovely view of a middle finger. “You’re such a prick,” she snorted, though the words with filled with affection to some degree. “But we’re back to the grind, really. Honeymoon’s up so it’s making sure we raise our kid to not be a total asshole in life, and I’ve sort of been working on a side-mission.”
One that was always going to be on-going and needed to be treated carefully, of course. But considering her job involved magical threats, there was someone who could fall into that category if she didn’t keep tabs on him.
Beer set back down, she propped her elbow against the back of the bar chair, and her scarlet eyes looked to Kanan with a lifted brow. “Xelloss showed up after all this time - on good terms, mostly. I left a voicemail on an old phone I know that was still in service to tell him I was getting hitched, and would like him to be there.” It wasn’t a lie; their history had been so goddamn messy but he’d once been her best friend, the reason why she survived being under Shabranigdo’s thumb all those years. But she wasn’t naive, and she knew that demon part of him also made him a very real and potential enemy that might need to be put down later on. “He’s not completely monsterish, but there’s enough in him where it could be an issue in the future.”
Their conversation had taken a turn Kanan had not expected, but was oddly interested in. He had not hat the opportunity to meet Xelloss one on one himself, but he had always known that he was someone special to Lina. A protector, a friend, perhaps more - he’d never pried because it had never been any of his business. It still wasn’t, not really, but the idea that Xelloss, monster or not, reappearing and somehow messing up the good thing Lina had going here did not sit very well with the former smuggler.
“How are you doin’ with that?” He asked, a frown pulling slightly from within his beard. “You and he were tight.”
Her wave was dismissive, and oddly apathetic. “Hey, he had a choice to go down a different path - he chose the one he’s on, so it is what it is,” Lina said, corner of her mouth tugged into a smile. Was she doing cartwheels with the possibility of having to come to blows with him at some point in the future? Not a damn bit. Coming toe to toe with Xelloss was likely to be a bloodbath, but the sorceress she dreamt of being was mentally preparing for the day and she’d done the same here. There wasn’t much else to entertain. “He’s behaving so far, except I might have to zone in and out of town to keep tabs on him. Now that I’ve got him reeled in a little bit, I gotta keep him on the hook.”
Alright, sure, there was part of her that was taking advantage of the fact that Xelloss still felt the need to sometimes stick close. It was how the game had to be played, though. Her heart wasn’t bleeding to ‘do good’ all the time, but she had a sense of responsibility to protect.
A little ruthless, maybe. Lina’s heart only stretched so far, and only for certain people.
“Other than marrying my baby daddy, that’s the only other exciting thing in the life of Lina. But what about you, Scruffy?”
“I getcha,” Kanan nodded. “We all have choices and if we choose to go down the wrong path knowing it’s the wrong one, well sooner or later we pay the price.” Kanan had taught that lesson to the Old Man earlier that year when the asshole had attempted to kill him. That had been a wrong choice. “You know I’m in your corner if you need me. Light saber, a set of gettaway wheels, another jewel encrusted rice cooker, baby sitter? I’ve got you covered.”
The conversation had turned towards him and Kanan took a moment to take a deep sip of his beer. “Well, not much,” he started carefully. It wasn’t entirely true, but compared to an old partner showing up out of the blue, what was going on in Kanan’s life seemed far less exciting. “I will say that something you said a few weeks ago got me thinking. Like maybe I should try and find my actual blood. You know, find out where I came from. I’m still mulling it over, but a contact was nice enough to find my birth certificate for me.”
D’aw, Kanan was the sweetest, wasn’t he? There was still hope it wouldn’t come to that, but Lina overall prided herself in being fairly realistic when it came to certain scenarios - no point in bogging herself down in unnecessary cynicism or blind optimism. Right now, she had every intention to just enjoy the way things were at the moment. Married, watching the milestones of her half-mutant munchkin, and the occasional mayhem with Isabela when there was an itch for robbing crooks.
Drinks too with her pals, can’t forget that.
“Oh,” Lina blinked, letting that news sink in. Damn. “That’s some heavy soul-searching stuff there. What’s the scoop on the birth certificate, then? Were you named something ridiculous?”
“My name is my name,” Kanan said with something of a smile. Already more people knew his real name than Kanan was really comfortable with. Killian had learned it by means Kanan still wasn’t sure about and Katou had because Kanan had been careless. It wasn’t as though he didn’t trust Lina. Oh, no, the exact opposite. Lina trusted him was the issue.
“I apparently was born in Boston, which should come as no surprise considering the two foster homes I was in were also in that area.” He took a drag off his cigarette. “I did find out my parents names, but I can’t tell if they were married or not, but there’s enough other information that I guess if I decide I want to find them, I have something to go off of.”
Uh-huh, suuuure. Probably meant he was named something weird, like Bartholomew or something - but she couldn’t exactly pester him about his birthname considering how much she opted to ignore hers. The issue here was his flesh n’ blood, the ones that hatched him and anything that could come from that.
“Sometimes it does the soul some good to find out exactly who you came from,” the sorceress replied after a minute, finishing up the rest of her beer like she was gulping water. A second one was already being poured thanks to the barkeep - she and the dude were sort of buddies (as long as she kept the destruction outside of his business). “Curiosity about the entire thing’s natural. You just gonna sit on the information? I’d be itching to dig, personally.”
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested,” Kanan admitted. He nudged his glass forward helpfully for the barkeep to refill. “But, I’d also be lying if I said I wasn’t completely sure it’s a good idea. I don’t know what good it would do either me or them if I decided to find out who and where they were. What would I go from there? Do I try to have some kind of relationship with them? I mean, that’d be the point, right?”
Kanan picked up his freshly refilled glass with an appreciative nod to the bartender. “If I was an unwanted pregnancy, there’s a high possibility that I’m not wanted now, either. And if they’re dead, well then, what’s the point?” He paused a moment to take a drink. “Plus there’s all the less than legal ways I made my career. I’m not exactly a son to be proud of, either. So maybe just knowing their names is enough for now. It’s more than I knew when I started.”
All those were pretty valid questions, Lina wouldn’t knock on it there - at least on her end, she considered herself very fortunate to have parents who’d been aware of the bad name she’d made for herself, but were willing to move on towards the future (especially after her ‘coming back from death’ stunt). There were plenty of different ways this could go for Kanan, and not all the outcomes had a happy ending, either.
“Very good points,” she replied, tilting her head in his direction. “But a lot of those answers, you won’t know until you come into a scenario where you’re face to face with them - assuming they’re still alive and kicking, anyway.” Still, it wasn’t like his hesitance was misplace. This brought up a whole mess of mixed emotions for him, she was sure, and it’s not like there was a guide for this specific life situation. “I guess it depends what you think what’s best for you. Guarding yourself from what could potentially happen, or knowing the absolute truth even if it puts a dent in your heart.”
Lina had to pat-pat his manly breast for emphasis.
This was new territory for the man. Most of his adult life Kanan had been very zen about things. Back many years ago when Kanan had been young and still going by Caleb, Janus had told him worrying about things you couldn’t control was useless waste of energy. Furthermore, why worry about the things you could control? If you could change them to favor you, even in a small way, then stop worrying and just do it already. Good advice for a young teenager constantly looking over his shoulder and a philosophy Kanan had lived his adult life adhering to. The issue with that now was that his current situation fell into both categories and Kanan had no way of changing anything to benefit him in any regard.
“I don’t actually know what’s best for me,” Kanan said. “And this,” he tapped the spot on his chest where Lina had patted him, “is only complicating matters.” He went back to his cigarette and beer, taking a pensive drag and drought respectively. He was quiet for a moment, thinking. “I guess the least I should do is find out whether or not they’re alive.”
“I’d say that’s a good start - kinda gives you an idea of what you’re options actually are?” Obviously if they were dead, any other possibility was essentially moot. Nothing else to do there. But if they were alive and kicking out there, somewhere, then those were venues to explore should he choose to. “I’m always on the side of finding out everything I can. The truth can hurt, but at least it’s a clean wound.”
Lina thought it a better option than being kept in the dark, always stuck wondering about the ifs and buts. Best to rip the bandaid, simmer in what it meant and move the hell on. That’s how she’d nudge Kanan to go about it but, in the end, all his choice and his alone to live with. “And you can’t exactly rule out the chance of something good coming from it, either.”
Kanan chuckled despite himself. “Yeah, that’s true,” he admitted. The good being, of course, that finally, after all these years he’d have a family of his own. He considered Katou his family, yes, and the kid was important to him - having wiggled his way under Kanan’s skin, but to know who his parents were, that he even had parents, was something amazing. Something he had always kind of wondered about at the back of his mind.
“I’ll tell ya what,” Kanan smirked, “whenever I figure what I’m gonna do, you will be one of the first to know.”