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“Alright!” Sabine yelled down from the top of the comm tower, “Bring ‘er up!”
Ezra, who was finally, finally home from wild space, was at the base of the LothalNet comm tower E-272. It had been her home for the past decade; it’s been their home since he returned. It was two weeks before life day, and while most people in Mandalore had large, intimidating trees decorated with various lights and weaponry inside their homes, the people of Lothal did not know about the tradition.
She had assumed it was a common way to celebrate the holiday, but when she asked around where she might find a tree farm the first year she stayed on Lothal, she got a lot of weird looks and side eyes. Later on it was explained to her that the people of Lothal were tree-huggers and she wouldn’t find any such farms here (of course it was phrased differently, but that’s what she got out of it).
The man precariously using the force to lift a random tree from a forest up their tower was the one who suggested that they make her Life Day tree. It originally was brought up when she jokingly was asking if his tree-hugger friends would mind having a Life Day tree for the party they’re planning. He took that one step further and not only convinced Governor Ryder to have a tree in the party, but he also is going to allow people to cut down and take trees for personal purposes.
So long as they return to plant a new tree, which wasn't a big deal.
She and Ezra were going to be the only people with a personal tree in the city, but that also wasn’t important.
“It’s just about up there!” He called, “Can you reach it?”
Stretching over the fence, she grabbed the tree and yanked it over. Once he let it go, it plopped onto the floor with a thunk and she got a face full of leaves.
Excitement bubbling in her chest, she yelled down, “I’m gonna move it inside! Don’t be too slow getting up here or I’m gonna start decorating without you!”
“We’ll see about that!” He yelled back up, one of those stupid grins on his face. She was sure she had one to match.
Dragging the tree inside was a bit of a pain and getting in the makeshift tree-stand was also a struggle, but once it was placed, she crossed her arms and nodded, satisfied with its placement in the corner of the common area. She heard Ezra enter the room. When he stopped behind her to see where she put the tree, he nodded, “It looks good! Like a tree!”
She laughed and leaned back into him, “Yeah, but it’ll be a Life Day Tree once it’s decorated! And the whole tower will be more festive for it.”
He set his bearded chin on her armored shoulder, wrapping his arms loosely around her. She still wasn’t sure about the beard—it reminded her of her father if she’s brutally honest–but she supposed it was growing on her now that it had been trimmed.
Standing there in their home with their Life Day tree in the process made this place feel like home for once. It’d been far too long since she’d felt like she belonged anywhere. Mandalore had long since lost its charm, and Lothal had been missing the one reason she stayed. The one person.
“Well then, let’s pull out the lights, shall we?” He asked, pulling away.
She nodded, smiling with warmth in her eyes as he abruptly stopped walking. “You wouldn’t possibly happen to know where the lights are, would you?”
Chuckling, she gently patted his cheek before heading off to where she built an attic a few years back. There was so much space up there, it was just asking to be turned into an attic!
“Most things have been moved up here,” she said, yanking a foldable ladder down from the roof with a rope. As she climbed up, she heard a quiet whistle and a mutter of “Damn.”
“Eye’s on the prize, Bridger!” She said, digging through tools to get to the Life Day decorations that had been building over the years.
“They were!” He shouted back, teasing.
She tossed a stuffed starship down on his head before picking up the box of lights to carry down. “Focus, Ez,” She playfully scolded, hip bumping him as she passed.
He rolled his eyes behind her, “How can I possibly be focused when you’re so distracting, ‘Bine?”
Setting the box down on the couch, she handed him a tangle of lights and told him, “Maybe I’ll cook tonight if you behave.”
He looked at the tangle of lights in his hands, looked back up at her before kissing her forehead, “That’s okay, you really don’t need to do that.”
She crossed her arms and pouted.
Sabine, his darling weapons expert who knew hundreds of ways to kill a man, pouted.
His heart wasn’t sure if he could take it, but his stomach was really sure he couldn’t take her cooking again.
“My cooking is wonderful, thank you very much.” She huffed, grabbing for a different set of lights that needed untangling.
Setting his lights down, he wrapped her in his arms and swayed dramatically as he said, “Sabine, darling, love of my life, you are brilliant and many wonderful things, but no one is good at everything.”
She looked up and melted when he hit her with a smile and crinkle of his eyes. She smiled back, “Fine. I won’t cook, but we do need to get these lights up, loth-rat.”
Laughing, he released her to return to untangling the lights. She said, “I never understood why your people just hang lights around the house for the holidays, but I’ll admit it’s pretty. I’m excited to put them on a tree again, too.”
He hummed, and once their tree was wrapped in lights with memories and random objects hanging from the branches, she turned to him, “Are you ready for the final part?”
“What’s that?”
She rushed out of the room, leaving him standing there in confusion as she brought back out a small box and gently set it on the table in front of their couch. She plopped down and patted next to her for him to sit.
“This was something my mother sent me, the first year I didn’t travel back to Mandalore for Life Day,” she said, slowly unfolding the box. There was a box of foam inside, and as she pulled it out, he realized that there was a seam on the foam, and something was being protected inside.
She turned to him, nodding, “Open it.”
Gently, not knowing what to expect from a Mandalorian gift, he lifted the foam piece off and relieved a clear, glittering crystalline star. Eyes wide, he asked, “What is it?”
She pulled it from the other half of the foam container and held it by the base, “She also thought that people everywhere decorated trees, so she sent me this to use on mine. This is the first year it’ll be properly used since it’s our first tree.”
She pointed at the very tip of the tree, “It’s a star that goes at the very top of the tree. It’s always been the last thing to go on, it completes the tree.”
“Why do we put it up there?”
We. She smiled, she was so grateful there was a we this year.
“Well, Life Day is a time of friendship and family. I think it started with the Wookies and their Tree of Life, but for Mandalorians, it’s one of the only times where the fighting stops. Everyone agrees to put their weapons down and celebrate those around us because we know that life can be too short to not take the time to do so.” She chuckled, “Even the grouchiest of Mandalorians take the chip off their shoulder to celebrate with loved ones.”
She looked up, “The star represents life because we couldn’t live without the sun above our heads. It keeps our planet warm, it provides life for the plants and animals that keep us fed. Our culture may surround violence, but we are a culture of honor and respect as well. The star is also a reminder that the stars will always guide us home when we’re lost.”
She placed it in his hands, “And I want you to put it up there.”
He shook his head, “I couldn’t, this is all for you, Sabine. You should be the one to do it.”
Smiling, she replied, “Ezra, you may not be Mandalorian, but I want you to be a part of this, too. My home is where you are.”
His eyes went glassy, “Sabine…”
“Oh, stop that,” She pulled him up as he juggled the star in his hands, “Let’s get it up there already!”
He chuckled wetly, “Okay, okay. Let’s see.” Stretching the long limbs that had developed in the years he was away, he balanced the star at the very top and sighed in relief as it stayed up when he let go.
The lights bounced through the star as if it were glowing, but he looked down to an even more stunning sight.
Sabine was amazed, it was the first-ever tree in her home of almost a decade, and it was beautiful. It was the typical Mandalorian tree, and there wasn’t melted snow dripping from its branches, but it was theirs and it was beautiful.
“Ezra, it’s perfect,” she whispered, only just then looking to see that his eyes had long since left the star.
He smiled, “I knew it would be. How could it not, with such a brilliant mind behind it all?”
She was enchanted. She could never decide if his eyes were blue or purple, and the flickering of the tree lights made them even harder to escape from. Her breath had caught as she darted between looking at them and his lips, as his fingers brushed against her cheek and landed on the back of her head.
She was almost dizzy and out of breath before he finally, finally kissed her—and it was like all of the tightness in her chest disappeared. She grabbed the front of his too-tight tunic and pulled him closer. Before she knew it, it was over too soon.
But the way his arms fell around her—the way he rested his forehead on hers and smiled with that big, stupid grin had her matching it once more. Quickly, as the giddiness rushed through her limbs and her heart, she kissed him again.
Before long, giggles burst from their lips, echoes of their joy bouncing throughout their home.