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The first thing that Zeb learns about Kallus when she finally joins them on the base is that she has a sweet tooth. Her Imp behaviour has started to slip, she no longer holds herself straight like Zeb's bo-rifle and she wears her hair in a wavy cascade down her back when she isn't on a mission, and in some complicated weave that Hera helps her do when she is. It looks better than the tight, neat coil at the bottom of her neck that she used to wear it in, although Zeb must admit that the two shorter pieces of hair that she has let grow out at the top of her head are endearing when they slip from the hair-weave. He's heard Sabine refer to them as bangs, whatever that means. She's changed the colour of it too, with some foul smelling chemical solution that Sabine's room often smells of. It's lighter, and it suits her.
Zeb finds her, one afternoon, hunched over a stack of papers and a data pad with a cup of caf in one hand and a sticky bun in the other, with icing the colour of her new hair.
"Where did you smuggle that from?" He asks, rather than greeting her.
To her credit she doesn't jump, but the bun in her hand wavers slightly and she places the caf cup down before turning to face him. "Good afternoon, Garazeb." It's said with a smile, not the smug Imperial bastard smile she used to have, but one that paired with the use of his full name, made Zeb's stomach go a bit mushy. "I baked them."
As if that answered it. "You baked what?"
"The fruit buns, Garazeb. I asked Captain Syndulla to get me some flour on the supply run and made icing from old meilooruns and Lothal sugar cane."
He had no idea what she was talking about but he nodded regardless. "The stuff on it matches your hair." That was a stupid thing to say, why did he say that?
Kallus' lips twitched before examining the treat more closely, "well yes, I suppose it does. Would you like one?"
Zeb didn't say no, and discovered that the woman indeed had talent in the kitchen. He was always the first one to know when she had baked something new, as the sweet treat always found it's way to his next meeting room, or quarters on the Ghost, or wherever he went. It was a little spooky, honestly. There was always a little note next to the plated cake, often still warm from the oven, generally reading:
'For you, Garazeb.'
And it couldn't have been from anyone else, but her.
~
Number two, is that Kallus swears when she's sleepy. Hera has placed them both on night watch again for the third night in a row, and although Zeb's sleeping pattern has adjusted accordingly (as well as can be in a rebellion) Kallus' hasn't done the same. Humans are weird, and Kallus almost looks cute standing there in a large cream jumper and black leggings, the biggest cup of caf that Zeb had ever seen in her hands. She has a little pout on her face because she's "sleepy Garazeb, I must speak with Hera about how I can't sleep properly in the kriffing day". She's huffing a lot, and her complaint almost comes out in a whine, before she catches herself and straightens up back to Agent stick-up-her-ass Kallus which Zeb is not having.
"Relax, Kal. I'll put in a good word for ya, 's-my fault anyway. Usually take these shifts, Hera must have forgotten human sleep pattern is more delicate." Zeb explains, and to that Kallus grumbles.
Grumbles.
"She's too busy with her own kriffing human, kriffing her human for that matter, to notice me, sure." She complains with another huff and Zeb wants to laugh before he gets landed with a death glare from Kallus for smiling.
A death glare that would have been intimidating if she didn't have bags under her eyes, and a fluffy cream jumper on. He doesn't want to give her satisfaction of saying that indeed Kanan and Hera use the night watch to have some *alone time* so he coaxes her to the kitchens. They can have a snack before night watch officially begins, sitting in front of cameras all night and doing a witching hour patrol needs something to make it better. Zeb's plan is fool-proof, brilliant, that is until they get to the kitchen to find Ezra in his sleep clothes holding a pastry. One of Kallus' pastries. The crumbs around his mouth betray him, he has ate one and was about to sneak the last one that Zeb had tried hard to hide at the back of the Ghost Crew's allocated cupboard. Ezra nearly jumps a mile when he sees Zeb and Kallus, instantly appealing to Zeb, who he must believe is the most amenable of the two. Zeb can't really blame him, Ezra is still wary of the ex-Imperial despite what she had given up for the rebellion, but Zeb isn't known as the most forgiving either. Still Ezra tries his best.
"Zeb, I can explain I-," he cuts himself off with a frown. "To be honest actually I just wanted a late night snack, I didn't know you were coming to get them."
Zeb laughs, he has to, because Kallus is glaring a hole in the floor. "Kid, I thought I'd hidden those well."
Ezra has the decency to look sheepish, and scratches the back of his head. "Sorry?" He offers, seemingly deciding to ignore the floor being burned by Kallus' grumpy glare.
That was not the correct decision. Kallus steps forward, every bit still the ISB agent, and Zeb has to place a hand on her shoulder to anchor her back to reality. It seems to work, for she looks a little less murderous, but her tone is still clipped, but the worst of it is dulled by the sleepy lilt to her words.
"You're very lucky I decided to defect, Ezra Bridger. Rather than shooting you, as you rightfully deserve, you can cover my next night watch." She demands.
Ezra huffs, every bit the moody teenager, and carries on to Zeb, "Kallus can't do this!" He gestures towards the woman, "Hera's in charge of night watch!"
"You just stuck your claim on my last Hoth bun, dank farrik!" Alexsandr shouts. Actually shouts, her voice loud and crisp and clear, and Ezra actually flinches. She's commanded armies with that voice, Zeb is reminded.
But Zeb is too amused to chide her, because she just swore again. Instead he tells Ezra off, "Yeah you definitely own Kal a night watch, count your stars she's not asking you to cover for tonight. Come on, Kal, let's do the patrol, I'll get you a meiloorun from the next Lothal run to make up for it."
And as they leave Ezra, looking uncertain now at the pastry in his hand, Kallus lets out a big yawn and nods, "You kriffing better, Garazeb."
~
The third thing that Zeb learns about Kallus is that she can sing. He's heard humans do it, Kanan sometimes getting Hera to join in when he's drunk. Kallus' voice had changed, the cold and clipped Imperial tone had melted away to a warm, if not slightly posh, Coruscanti accent. It's cute, Zeb thinks, and it suits her better. He almost doesn't recognise her voice once when she comes up behind him and directs a question about a mission towards him, for a second he thinks it's a new recruit. When she's had a few drinks, he notices she favours a particular blue gin from Naboo if given a choice, she grows loud. Loud and carefree, and when he hears that Coruscanti accent singing, well he knows that he's in for it now.
She's standing alongside Rex, the old Clone had soon warmed to her strangely enough, one hand on his arm that does not make Zeb jealous at all, and they're singing something. It's towards the end of the evening, and it's now mostly couples on the floor they've turned into a space to dance after a win against the Empire. Kallus has gained a new black eye, so similar to the one she got from Thrawn upon her initial reveal that it makes Zeb heart ache a bit, but she's happy and buzzed. The song is slow, but most humans seem to recognise it and sway softly, arms wrapped around each other. Zeb spies Kanan pulling Hera up gently by the hand, the couple looking all soppy at one another. He has no idea what the song is, but Kallus allows Rex the lead before joining in alongside him. Someone's playing a guitar, obtained from who-knows where and it's the most relaxed the rebellion has been in a long long time. Rex's voice is surprisingly soothing, and the song is sappy, but as soon as Kallus opens her mouth, Zeb can't take his eyes off her. In all honesty, he's surprised to see her looking back at him. Her eyes are alight with something, shining as she says the words that make his heart stutter.
"Shall I stay, would it be a sin, if I can't help falling in love with you?"
She's looking right at him, an almost shy smile on her face as she does so. The words are so meaningful, but Zeb's head spins as he wonders whether she is singing to him, hiding behind the music.
"Take my hand, oh take my whole life too..."
Karabast, Zeb is glad he doesn't blush. The song comes to a close, and Kallus (Alexsandr, he reminds himself for the first time, the pretty 'a' sound at the of her name isn't spelt) takes two steps towards Zeb. His eyes land on her lips, and Zeb thinks he'd rather like to kiss them, when a cheer breaks them from their trance. Alexsandr looks up, and Zeb's eyes follow the same path to see Kanan and Hera kissing instead.
Alexsandr looks back at Zeb, and gives him a wink. A wink!
[Zeb finds out she can sing other songs too, and raw arousal shoots through him as he hears Alexsandr singing along with Sabine in the mandolorian's room to a rather filthy song he's surprised either of them recognise. Maybe he could convince her to sing it to him personally, he thought with a grin, but it was nice to see the ex-Imperial getting along with others.]
~
The fourth thing that Zeb notices about Kallus, who's been Alexsandr since the singing incident, is that she is incredibly good with weapons. It's a given, she's been an ISB agent for a long long time, but to see her in action with more than just a blaster is astounding, even for Zeb. He hasn't forgotten their first meeting, clashing with respective bo-rifles, all teeth and rage and anger.
Alexsandr's armed to the teeth for this mission, it's her second since defecting from the Empire, directly after the one that caused that second horrible black eye. Zeb guesses it's for peace of mind, but when he sees the large blaster strapped to her back, knives strapped to her arms and two small hand-blasters hung at her hips (and probably some more hidden weapons, knowing her) he can see the ISB agent in her. He feels naked with only his bo-rifle, but he's a lasat with claws, so he suppose he can't argue with her logic. Alexsandr has been paired with him, and they sit together in the ship on the way to the abandoned base they're stealing some intel from, using her codes to get them in the system.
"It's an old base, Garazeb, I doubt when Thrawn wiped me from the system after my betrayal, that he was thinking of places like this."
Zeb wouldn't exactly call it a betrayal, but he knows what she means and doesn't call her up on it. Her accent might have slipped back, but some of her language is taking longer to change. They're ripped from their quiet peace when the ship starts hurtling towards the ground, terror flashes through Alexsandr's face for a split second, barely noticable but Zeb sees it. Then, she's back, running into the front of the ship - somehow, she manages to land the ship without too much of a bump, but the pilot is dead (a bullet through the poor Pantoran's chest) and a single hole through the glass shield.
"Garazeb, behind me. I'm guessing we have a sniper." Zeb wants to point out that he should be in front of her, but he doesn't push it. It might be his mission (Captain Orellious has a nice ring to it) but this is Alexsandr's field of expertise, so he says, "Are the Empire on to us?"
She nods, grimly, "Either a lucky shot, or Thrawn's anticipated this."
Thrawn had anticipated it, as it turns out. They get in a nasty brawl with a small army of stormtroopers, and Zeb is worried that they'll lose and get captured, when the squad leader shouts something at Alexsandr, and her eyes turn cold. That's not the woman who he wanted to kiss when she was adorably drunk, this was the remnant of Agent Kallus.
"You'll find," Comes a sharp, icy voice, "that if I really was just a... how did you say, a little traitor bitch, you would get back to base alive. You're messing with the highest qualified ISB agent in the Empire, boy."
God Zeb could fall on his knees for that woman, the way she spat out boy at the cocky trooper like it was filth. He looks over with a mix of admiration and arousal as Kallus kicks the man down and rips the helmet from his head, gun pointed at his chest. None of this squad come to his aid, dumb stormtroopers, just watch in horror as she slices her knife across the man's throat. She pauses for a second, blood splattered across her face, and then flies at the other troopers, pulling the large gun from her back as she takes four men down single-handed before Zeb can even join in.
They get back to base with minor injuries, but Alexsandr looks a little too comfortable with dried blood covering her face and clothes. She attracts some strange looks, but ignores them. Zeb drops her off at the communal freshers to wash off the blood and sweat before going back to report to Hera, but she stops him with a hand on his arm.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Garazeb." Her pretty accent is back, and she almost sounds tired. "My temper... He struck a nerve."
He gives her a lazy grin, "S'alright, Kal. It was hot."
She gives a laugh, half surprised-half amused and Zeb leaves her to wonder if it was a joke. It wasn't.
~
The fifth thing that Zeb learns, is that he really really wants to kiss Alexsandr. They've been flirting for weeks, it's been a couple of months now since Alexsandr joined the rebellion, and it seems that she's finally fitted in. She joins varied members of the Ghost crew on mission, other than Ezra, who hasn't learned to fully trust her yet, but is more comfortable around her than he used to be. But that's where it all goes wrong. By then they've moved to Yavin base, and she's growing more and more comfortable as a rebel leader.
But when Alexsandr is captured on mission, Zeb is beside himself with worry. She's told him a bit more about what it was like being Agent Kallus, ISB-021 and about the cruel workings of the Empire. The Imperial Security Bureau was strict, even for the Empire, and Zeb's heart sinks when he hears that it was Colonel Yularen who has taken Alexsandr, her old commanding officer. Alexsandr had once confessed to Zeb that she was indoctrinated with xenophobic propaganda, and he dreaded to think what her defection, and known relationship - friendly or otherwise, with a lasat, would mean for her. Somehow Kanan and Sabine manage to get her back, carrying her between them as she's become a dead weight. When Zeb sees her again, Alexsandr is unconscious, her face coated in dried blood. Her legs are dangling in weird angles as if they've both been broken, and it looks like she's been electrocuted or burned from the scarring on her shoulders and back. She's been gone for a week, the Empire clearly making use of their time. Everyone wants to know if she's given them up, but the condition that Alexsandr is in speaks in her favour when she can't - plus she was trained to withstand torture.
It's another week before she wakes up, and she's been floating in a bacta tank for four of those days. Zeb is the first one there when she wakes up, and she sobs when she sees him standing there in the doorway. The medic tells Zeb the long list of injuries, he was right: her legs had been broken and she's got permanent scarring from the burns of an electrical probe all across her back and shoulders. Two of her teeth have been chipped, and her left cheekbone has been fractured, and her head was bleeding from an Imperial memory probe when drugging her on a cocktail of hallucinogens didn't work. Zeb's more worried about the mental scars, he knows Alexsandr is tough. Her brain is still a little muddled from her torture, and she's slurs when she speaks.
"Gar-. Gar-, er, 'Wazeb, I tolf 'dem nothin'." Alexsandr tries to tell him, eyes wide and watery, but she can't even say his name properly.
The medic reassures him that there is no permanent damage to her brain, and she should been speaking normally soon. Zeb's heart breaks for her, she will feel a fool when she comes around fully.
"Oh, 'sokay Kal. You just need to rest, let the what the bacta started fully heal." He places a large hand on her face, where her cheekbone isn't broken, and she leans into the touch.
"Wil-uff told me 'dat I'm a failure." She sniffles to him as she snuggles into Zeb's chest, clearly craving some comfort. "That I was'a disappointment, betrayin' d'Empire for a creature like you. So I told him to kriff himself, and he broke m'legs."
Zeb's blood turns to ice at the words, Alexsandr looks so vulnerable here, clinging onto his chest like a kit. It takes him a minute to realise she's talking about Colonel Yularen when she says 'Wullf' and Zeb had never wanted to kill a man more. Even the anger he felt when he first met Kallus, holding the bo-rifle of his people - cocky, arrogant and cruel, it didn't compare to this. Alexsandr has gone quiet, and Zeb almost thinks she's fallen asleep until she looks up at him, eyes glassy. It's then and there that Zeb decides she's beautiful. In fact, she's always been beautiful, when they were trapped on that moon together, she was beautiful to him. Not just her face, but the trust she put in him, her enemy. She was too good for the Empire, she always had been. Zeb wasn't sure if he'd ever been in love before now, but having Alexsandr in his arms, he never wants to let her go. She's still looking up at him, with a look in her eyes as as if he's the most wondrous being on the planet - and that could just be the drugs affecting her brain, but Zeb feels her breath, warm on his face, and time seems to stop. He doesn't even realise their lips have met until they part, a gasp leaving Alexsandr as she smiles softly.
"Do 'dat again." She says softly, but with the command of the power she has held, and who is Zeb to resist the request of a beautiful woman?
"I've got you, Alex." He murmurs after they partand she smiles again softly, pressing her body into him and his warmth even more. He's not sure where the nickname came from, he's never even called her by her full name, but she doesn't even argue.
"Thank you Zeb." She whispers, and Zeb knows it's not just for the touch, or for the kiss, or the rescue, or the flirting, or the jokes. He also knows she's only calling him Zeb because her mouth hasn't figured out long words properly yet. He thinks he knows too, what she means when she says 'thank you'.