I lay majority blame and/or credit on YouTube adoption request videos for this story.


"Here."

Glancing back, Kanan just caught the motion of a hand reaching for his. A steaming mug was soon resting in his palm.

He took an appreciative sip of the hot, sweet brew, and smiled as the giver of it sat down on the balcony beside him. "You've gotten good at making this."

"Thanks," Ezra answered, stifling a yawn. "Still wish we could have Caf in the house."

"That's not fair to Hera now, you know."

"I know. If the little guy would hurry up and get here already everything would be fine."

Kanan chuckled. "If you want that, imagine how she feels!"

"Hmm," Ezra murmured, resting his head on his teacher's shoulder.

"If you're that tired, you can go back to bed."

"No, no, if you can be up at this hour, so can I. We don't get much alone time anymore."

Kanan sighed, setting his cup down and wrapping an arm around his apprentice. "I wish I could say it's going to get easier but..."

"I know. I didn't mean…I'm just happy to be with you that's all. Even if you do make me meditate with you before sunup."

"I didn't ask you out here to meditate."

"Huh? Then why?"

The older Jedi lifted a hand to where the first rays of sunlight were peeking over the mountains in the distance. "I thought we could watch the sunrise."

"Haven't we done that before?"

"Not since," a vague gesture to his face got Kanan's point across. Not since I've been able to see them again.

Ezra shivered a little and took a long drink of his tea to steady himself.

"Right. Watching sunrise it is. You come out here a lot don't you?" He asked after a while.

"What makes you think that?"

"Some mornings I wake up super early and can't go back to sleep. I hear you climb up here."

"Oh."

"Is it…I mean are you okay?"

Kanan nodded quickly. "I'm perfectly fine. I've always tended to be up early, you know that. And I figured since we have a home, why not take advantage of the fact. Watching the sunrise was something I learned my master did every morning we were at the temple. She found it peaceful. For me it's more of a reminder." He glanced over to find his child's eyes watching him closely. "A reminder that I shouldn't take anything for granted."

Ezra looked away with a little nod and the two of them lapsed into silence.

Eventually the younger man put down his own cup and started fidgeting with his glove. "I wanted to ask you something."

Kanan shifted so his whole focus was on his kid. "What is it?"

Ezra took a deep breath and counted to five before blurting out, "Will you adopt me? I mean, do you want to?"

"Of course I want to," Kanan answered once his mouth started functioning again. "I just thought you didn't-"

"I didn't. I still don't, legally speaking. But it's kinda…well it's like the Loth-wolves."

"The Loth-wolves?"

"It's rare for a wolf pup to truly be alone. The packs are so big, and they're almost all related, you know? So even if one is technically orphaned, the others step up and take care of it. But it goes beyond that. If ever a whole pack is attacked and all the adults are killed, there's almost always another no more than a day or so away. If a pup can survive long enough to be found, a new pack will take them in. They won't be blood of course but they'll still be family." He paused and blinked a few times. "I think you get where I'm going here."

"We took you in and made you our family." Kanan answered slowly. "But you've been family for years. You've called us Mom and Dad before. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled you want to be my son in any way. I'm just curious why you want a formality now?"

"It's not because of my little brother."

Kanan said nothing, waiting him out.

"It's stupid."

"Nothing that means this much to you could ever be stupid. And I know jealousy is far too shallow an emotion for you to have made a choice like this."

"I'm…I want to now because…because Mom told me I could."

"Pardon?"

Ezra winced slightly. "Mom as in the mom that gave birth to me Mom. This is gonna be a little confusing."

"I follow you."

"Back when I saw my parents on Thrawn's ship, I could hear what they were saying. When Ryder begged my mother to escape he said something like 'no one could love me like she could.' She said that wasn't true. That I had a family and that she knew, somehow she knew how much you love me. In that moment it was like she was giving me permission to love you back. I mean, I..I already loved you but.."

"But now you can love us without feeling like you're betraying the parents that brought you into the world."

"Does that make sense?"

Kanan smiled gently and held out his arms. Ezra quickly buried himself in the others' embrace. "Oh, my boy. That makes more sense than you can ever imagine. I do love you," He added after a few moments, "I'm sure I don't say that enough."

"You've said it every way that counts. Anyway, I've been thinking about asking you ever since that day but I didn't know how. You see, the laws here won't name someone the child of another family unless the birth parents have been declared the worst kind of criminal scum and basically erased from recorded existence. That's not… I couldn't bear it if…"

He trailed off and Kanan rubbed his shoulder. "Marida explained everything to Hera and I. That's why we never asked again after that first time."

"Anyway, 'Bine figured there had to have been some sort of custom before that stigma showed up. She and I have been devouring every historical anything we could get our hands on. It wasn't until last week that we found what I think will work. It's a ceremony that's so old it's probably meaningless now but she said what matters is that it means something to me."

Kanan kissed his forehead and pulled back. "That's exactly what matters. Come on, Hera should be up by now. Let's go inside and you can tell the two of us all about it."


"Now remember if he wakes up, he may get fussy. Try playing a lullaby and rocking him -"

" - gently-"

Hera made a face at her husband, "Rock him gently and see if that does the trick. We won't be gone long, only call as a last resort."

"Whap whap whap," Chopper gave a jaunty salute and pushed her in the direction of the door, promising he was more than capable of guarding the tiny organic while they performed whatever ritual the other juvenile wanted them for.

"Technically an adult Chop." Ezra muttered, tracing a finger over Jacen's soft hair. As badly as he wanted to go through with this it was almost impossible to pull himself from the newborn's

side.

Their droid friend had no problem helping out with that. "Pbht." He chortled, sending out the tiniest of shocks in Ezra's direction.

"Why you-"

"Enough you two." Hera interrupted with hiss. "Let's go."


"Is there any particular way we're meant to start this?" Kanan asked as he twisted a knife blade in the fire they'd built.

Ezra thought for a minute. "I'm probably supposed to say something? Nothing specific that we could find, I think it's meant to be personal. So I…just thank you, first of all. For being willing to do this. I know it's strange."

Hera leaned over and hugged him. "Thank you. For asking. For accepting us in this role. You're a grown man now, in the eyes of the galaxy. Technically this is a sacrifice for you, to install us in a position of, well, semi-authority over you still."

Ezra tilted his head. "I never thought of it that way. Still I don't know if you'll ever understand what this means to me."

The soon to be parents traded a quick glance and Hera squeezed her son's hand. "Why don't you start by walking us through this. Words come better when you don't think too much about them."

"Okay. So you know we had to wait for a night like this one. A double full moon was specifically required." He gestured at the sky above them, aglow with silvery light. "Best we can tell that's because the two moons were thought to represent the two families involved, in this case my birth parents and you guys.

"Then there's this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of bone hanging off a thin cord. "Loth-Wolf tooth." He chuckled. "One of the journals we read acted like getting one of these would be the easiest part of the whole ritual. Guess they didn't count on the wolves disappearing for over a century."

Kanan's mouth quirked. "Probably not."

"Seeing a Loth-Wolf was only the second least believable thing I thought would ever happen. No such thing as an orphan among them. Before the Empire there was supposedly no such thing as an orphan anywhere on the planet. Least that's what I hear. Certainly wasn't my experience.

"Meeting you changed everything. For the first time in ages when someone ran, they ran to me not away from me. And you never stopped. I know I didn't make it easy. I had a lot of walls built up and I was in no hurry to let you see through them, much less take them down. I mean," he snorted, "Hera, the first time you said you loved me I laughed, left the room and wouldn't talk to you the rest of the day. Then afterwards, I tried to think of how to explain but there were no words. I couldn't understand why I'd reacted that way. But, somehow, incredibly, you did. How I'll never know."

Hera opened and closed her mouth once or twice before shaking her head. "Motherly intuition," she quipped and the three of them chuckled.

"And Kanan," Ezra turned to his master, trying desperately to formulate a sentence. "I…I wish I… I'm," he broke off with a watery chuckle. "I'm usually good with words, why can't I…"

Kanan reached over and cupped his cheek briefly. "I know Son. It's okay."

Blowing out a long breath the kid stayed quiet a few minutes more than roused himself from the thoughts swirling through his mind.

"If I keep talking we'll be here all night and I don't think Jacen or Chopper would appreciate that. Can I have the knife?"

Kanan passed him the now sterilized blade and Ezra lifted up the tooth, turning it until his finger found the notch that had been carved down its center. Carefully he pressed the tip of the blade into his thumb drawing a few drops of crimson blood which he let drip into the crevice.

Passing the knife back to Kanan he watched as first he, then Hera repeated the action, blending fresh red and magenta blood in with their child's.

Lastly, picking up a bottle of salinized water - another difficult find given that Lothal's only non fresh water source was at the near frozen south pole - Ezra added a little to the mixture before pouring the rest out over the flames.

"Last chance to run."

"We're not going anywhere."

A brief moment of eye contact was all that was needed to read the unyielding truth of the statement. Inhaling deeply the young Lothalian plunged the symbol of their permanent bonding into the simmering ashes in front of him.

"Honey, your fingers!"

"I'm fine!" Ezra yelped, pulling his arm from Hera's grip and holding the unharmed digits in question up for her to see.

"Oh!" She glanced between the two men she loved the most, frowning at their poor job of hiding their amusement. "I realize it's ridiculous to be worried that my son puts his hand in a freshly extinguished fire, but you'll have to get used to it."

"Sorry Love."

"Sorry Mom."

Mollified, the new parent crossed her arms while they waited for reaction Ezra said was supposed to happen. An eternity and one minute later it finally did. A pop and a puff of odd colored smoke lazily drifted up in front of them. Waving it away, Ezra carefully extracted the tooth.

"Pretty impressive huh?"

"Stunning," Kanan agreed, taking in the blended hues of red and ivory forming wandering streaks just below the tooth's surface.

"It's beautiful," Hera added softly. "I feel a bit foolish asking this but, is this something you're going to wear or do we put it somewhere?"

"No I'm wearing it," Ezra answered, slipping the cord over his neck. "I'm proud to wear it. Don't be surprised if very few people recognize what it means though."

"We know what it means," Kanan told him, reaching out to brush a finger across the symbol linking him to the boy who could rightfully be called his firstborn son. "That's what matters."

Ezra nodded, taking the outstretched hand in one of his and grasping Hera's with the other. "I love you."

Their simultaneous squeeze of his hands was more than enough to assure him that the feeling was, and would always be, returned wholeheartedly.

His parents bundled him into their arms and the three of them sat silent and enraptured as the moons slowly slid toward the horizon line.

"Are you ready to go in?" Kanan finally asked. Hera nodded, getting to her feet. She cocked her head inquisitively when their son didn't move.

"Coming?"

Ezra gave a negative. "I'm alright, you two go on. I think I'll," he paused, his grin clear even in the fading moonlight. "I think I want to watch the sunrise."


Fun fact: Twi'lek blood can range anywhere from pinkish red all the way to a purpley blue, depending on the individual and environment. Since I'd already spent way too much time researching bits and pieces for this story I just picked magenta for Hera and went with that.

Comments would make my 'Rona addled brain feel better. :)