It's time to let go
Summary: Bahryn Fest day 4! Kallus' Bo-rifle finds his way back to him.
Word Count: 1,367
Relationships: Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios
Warnings: None.
Can also be read on AO3 here!
Fic under the cut:
"Zeb I-" Kallus starts as he re-enters their home, looking forward to a nice relaxing lunch with his bondmate after a laborious morning weeding his garden. He cuts himself off when he sees Zeb sitting at the table with everything laid out and ready to eat - they usually prepare the meals together when they're both home.
"Hey Kal" Zeb greats, smiling the way he does when he's about to ask for forgiveness instead of permission.
"What did you do?" Kallus asks.
"Why can't I just do something nice for my husband without him thinking I have ulterior motives?" Zeb asks in return.
"Start doing nice things just to be nice and I'll stop being suspicious" Kallus says as he eases himself down into the chair across from Zeb. It's not like Zeb never does anything nice for him, Kallus is a lucky man with a wonderful partner. But Zeb's nice things are usually small everyday things like making caf in the morning or getting the heating pad out for Kal's legs on cold rainy days. It's never this - making a meal alone and cleaning up the mess before they've eaten so Kallus can't try and do them after. He's even laid out a new tablecloth that he obviously bought recently because Kal has never seen it before, which means he's definitely done something. What he did remains to be seen.
"I promise I didn't do anything bad this time!" Zeb protests.
“But you did do something.” Kal points out as he serves out the food for the both of them. No use in letting the food go cold because Zeb did something Kal probably won’t be thrilled about.
“Well kind of, Ezra did most the work,” Zeb explains, which just raises more questions. Ezra was just recovered from wild space less than a month ago, they only got to see him in person a few days ago, what could he have possibly been up to in that time that has Zeb trying to apologize. Zeb gets up and goes into the next room before returning with an obviously bo-rifle shaped object wrapped in fabric.
“Zeb, I told you, I don’t want a new bo-rifle. I didn’t - I barely deserved the first one,” Kallus says, correcting himself halfway. This has been an ongoing argument between the two, and Kallus chooses his words carefully as he doesn’t want to get into a fight again.
He knows that in everyone else's eyes, he got his first bo-rifle honourably, and he didn't question it at first either when he was still an imperial agent. But after everything he's learned since then… he doesn't feel like he ever deserved to touch it let alone wield it for so many years. The idea of getting a new one - one not received honourably in battle but one made for him - made him shudder. They're not even supposed to be used by anyone other than members of the Lasan High Honour Guard, which he most certainly is not.
He knows Zeb really wants to be able to spar with them again, and Zeb has explained that Kallus already rightfully owned one previously so getting a new one wouldn’t be that big of a deal. He also knows that the people on Lira San dont have the same strict rules or customs surrounding Bo-Rifle’s as those on Lasan did, but it still feels wrong to him. He already fears he's overstepped by living with Zeb in a village of Lasan refugees here on Lira San, he doesn't want to overstep anymore than he already has. No. He refuses to use a new one.
"It's not a new one." Zeb says proudly.
"Zeb, that's even worse," Kallus is starting to panic now. The thought that this is someone's used weapon - that it being left this way meant they didn't die honourably in battle in order to perform the Booshan Keeraw. How was Zeb okay with this? He remembers how angry Zeb was to see he had one, how undeserving he thought Kallus was until Kallus told the real story when they were stranded on that ice moon.
“What? Oh Kal no- I mean- look!” Zeb rushes when he realizes Kallus’ line of thought. He unwraps the bo-rifle and holds it out for Kallus to take. Kallus stares at it in shock for a second, before slowly reaching out and taking the bo-rifle, his bo-rifle, from Zeb.
“This is…” Kallus starts but trails off as he gets a better look at it. It’s his, the one he lost when he got caught out as fulcrum and had to make a quick escape. He assumed he’d never see it again, especially after Ezra and Thrawn disappeared along with the Chimaera.
“Your bo-rifle yea, Ezra brought it back with him and gave it to me when he came to visit, Thrawn had it in his office as some trophy, I had to clean it up of course, that’s why it took a couple days, it’s still a little banged up of course, but it’s yours.” Zeb explains, rambling a bit as he gets progressively more worried at Kallus’ lack of reaction. He was understandably nervous. He knew Kallus wasn’t too keen to have a bo-rifle again, but he’s hoping since this one is already his, it may be the compromise they’ve been looking for. He was shocked when Ezra handed it to him, he hadn’t expected the kid to lug around Kallus’ old weapon for that long - but he did.
“Bridger must really like you,” Kallus says finally.
“What?” Zeb asks, that was not what he was expecting.
“It’s a weapon of your people’s culture Zeb, I don't see why he’d carry around the weapon of an imperial for that long, especially seeing as we weren’t that close. Plus he handed it to you, not me.” Kallus explains.
“Ex-imperial.” Zeb says, the correction as much of a habit to him as Kallus still referring to himself as an imp.
“Right, yea, ex-imperial. Point still stands” Kallus amends, and Zeb’s ears fold back as he thinks it over, he wants to argue Kal’s points so badly, but he can’t find any points to make. Damn him, it frustrates Zeb to no end when Kal is right - or at least when Zeb can’t articulate why he’s wrong.
“Relax, love, does it really matter how it got back here?” Kallus says as he starts inspecting the rifle in more detail, there’s some visible wear upon close inspection, but overall Zeb did a really good job in cleaning it up. Zeb’s ears pick back up as he realizes Kal isn’t mad.
“No, I guess not, does this mean…” Zeb asks, trailing off as he watches the fluid movements of Kal changing the bo-rifle between the different configurations. Watching Kal be so confident with a weapon of his people was doing things for him and it’s much harder to ignore now that there’s no hatred of the man to focus on instead.
“Yea, I’ll keep it. It’s time to let go” Kallus says softly. It would be hard to argue against keeping a bo-rifle Zeb has already made him agree was rightfully his while trying to get him a new one. And even though he knows that it may not have been brought back for him, it was brought back for Zeb and who is Kallus to deny him this.
“So we can start sparring with them?” Zeb asks hopefully as he watches Kallus get up and move to place the bo-rifle next to where Zeb keeps his own by the front door.
“Yeah, though I may be rusty with it. It took me longer to learn how to use a bo-rifle than any other weapon, and it’s been a long time since I’ve used one”” Kallus says as he returns to the table and they resume their lunch.
“We’ll see about that.” Zeb says, and later after they’ve finished eating and cleaning up the small mess in the kitchen, they do just that.
“Rusty my ass” Zeb says with a laugh, as Kallus offers a hand to help him back up. Kallus just laughs as well as they get into position for another round.
