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Kanan was only eight when he was adopted by Depa Billaba but he had already formed a deep resentment for the world that up until now had been anything but kind to him. Having been abandoned at birth and been thrown around like a rag doll between various orphanages and foster homes since so you could hardly blame him.
He’d expected Depa to throw him back to the orphanage within a week but she was a fiercely kind woman who had delt with things a lot worse than his angsty pre-teen arse. She refused to give up on him and soon he began to open up to the woman who he would come to see as a mother. Especially once she told him that she’d been adopted to, causing her to want to provide a loving home for a child to grow up in just like her adopted father had done for her.
Kanan shed a lot of his anger under her nurturing care but sometimes he still couldn’t help but get into fights and such at school so she enrolled him for classes at The Jedi Dojo where she worked as an instructor to help him control it. Kanan fell in love with the place immediately. The feeling of pure warmth surrounded him the moment he stepped through the door.
Under Depa teachings he was able to finally keep his emotions in check and the fact that she wasn’t just his mother but his teacher too made their bond grow stronger. It also helped that he had a natural affinity for martial arts. Every move felt like an extension of his body. Pretty soon he was winning tournaments and the proud smile on Depa’s face when he came home carrying a trophy was worth all his arching bones in the morning.
But the winning wasn’t what Kanan loved most about the place. No, it was the people inside it.
There was his mother of course, who was somehow kinder yet fiercer than anyone else he knew. His grandfather Mace Windu who to most people appeared emotionless and stern but Kanan knew cried at Pixar movies and had the wildest vocabulary of swear words he’d ever heard when watching his favourite football team.
There were other masters like Plo-Koon who always brought snacks for everyone and fussed over the tiniest of injuries as well as Luminara and Barris Offee who could take a man down before he could even blink.
Then there was also Qui-Gon Jinn, a man around his grandfather’s age who was originally from Ireland and still had the accent to prove it. His eldest son Obi-Wan could be a right stick in the mud when he wasn’t cracking dad jokes that only Qui-Gon laughed at (there was no wondering where he’d gotten them from). His second eldest Anakin was the rising star of the Dojo with the largest number of wins under his belt. Kanan wanted to be just like him when he grew up even if the man did a look a little scary sometimes when he fought. And finally his youngest Ahsoka who was the ultimate badass and would always wave at Kanan when she saw him at school despite her being a few years older and would send any bullies trying to pick on him or anyone else into next week with her infamous sucker punch. They had all been adopted too so Kanan had always felt a special connection to the trio. From what he’d heard Obi-Wan and Ahsoka has been in the care system since birth but Anakin had been taken from his mother when he was young as she couldn’t care for him despite how hard she’d tried to keep him. Apparently since his adoption she’d manage to get herself together and even settled down with a new family however Anakin always refused to talk about her so Kanan guessed their relationship was strained.
There were others to that Kanan honestly didn’t think have any reason to be at the Dojo but since they were awesome people he wasn’t complaining, like the local congresswoman Padme Amidala (Anakin definitely wasn’t complaining about her presence either if the love sick looks he was constantly sending he were a thing to go by) as well as Obi-Wan’s best friends Satine and Cody although the latter only seemed to use the Dojo as a place to sleep between shifts.
And finally there was the owner of the Dojo himself Master Yoda. He was a short man who nobody knew his real age (although Kanan had a bet with Depa that he was over 400). He was always kind to the younger pupils with his words of wisdom that would be unintelligible even without his odd manner of speaking and had a framed picture of Kermit the frog on his desk that when Kanan asked why replied with “Understand me on a spiritual level he does”.
Overall despite his rough beginnings Kanan would say that he had a good childhood growing up with Depa and everyone at the Dojo. That was until the night that everything changed.
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It had been a tournament night at the Dojo so everyone was there. It was packed with everyone from the newbies (or as Yoda called them younglings) to the old masters like Windu and Qui-Gon. Like so many others Kanan had been so rapt in watching Kit Fisto, a Jamaican man with the coolest dreadlocks he’d ever seen and a woman named Shaak who was wearing so much fake tan that her skin looked orange, fight in epic dual that he missed the fact that someone had set the Dojo on fire until he heard the screaming from the next room. Kanan and a number of others immediately tried to race into the next room to see what was going on but when they opened the door they were met with a wall of smoke. Kanan was just able to make out the shape of people burning on the other side before Depa quickly shut the door.
“Run!” She told him dragging him away from the flames that were staring the claw their way through the door. People ran around them blindly in a panic unsure where to go or what to do. He ran into the next room with Depa but as soon as he did the one he was previously in started to crumble as the beams holding the Dojo up started to give way. He would never forget the sudden silence of screams as the room collapsed.
He jumped when he felt someone grab his arm but relaxed slightly when he looked up to see that it was his grandfather.
“This way!” Mace said pulling him and Depa up the nearby stairs before the fire could take over the room they were in. They all knew that going upwards wasn’t a good idea but they didn’t have any other choice as the fire closed in from around them.
Once they were upstairs they headed into the nearest room. Kanan sunk to the floor on the opposite side of the room as he watched his mother and grandfather barricade the door in a desperate attempt to keep the fire from entering their room. His heart was in his mouth as it threanted to leap out of his chest in a frantic panic. Once they were done Depa and Mace sank to the floor besides him.
“It’s going to be alright.” Depa lied gripping her son’s hand like a life line.
Kanan tried to nod but the motion made him feel sick and dizzy. The edge of his vision had started turning black thanks to his shredded nerves and the invading smoke. His body started to sway along with his vision and after a moment of darkness he found himself staring up at his mothers face from her lap unsure of how he got there.
“We need to get out of here.” He heard her murmur through the sea of smoke. He felt himself being lifted by arms that felt abnormally weak until they stopped. He managed to turn his head to see that they were by a window and since Mace was trying to open it he guessed that he was in his mothers arms.
“It’s locked.” Kanan had never heard such terror in his grandfathers voice before and prayed that if they survived this he’d never have to again.
“I’ve got an idea.” Depa said putting him down. Kanan stood unsteadily on his feet and leaned against Mace who was struggling to stay up himself. Depa found something on the floor of the room and threw it at the window smashing it. They then peered outside to see the night sky lit up by the hypnotic flashing lights of emergancy vehicles surrounding the building that looked like a dying bonfire. They also saw that they were to high to jump without serious injury. He saw Depa and Mace share a look before they started taking off their clothes.
“Shout and wave out the window. Try and get the firefighters attention while we make a rope.” Depa told him.
Kanan nodded weakly and leaned out the window, numb to the broken glass cutting into his palms.
“HELP! HELP!” He cried, his voice courser than he’d realised. He took off his white robe and waved that outside the window as he continued desperately screaming. “HELP!”
By some miracle one of the firefighters heard him and started pointing and shouting at them from below. Kanan couldn’t make out what he was saying over the roar of the flames but a short time later a long ladder on top of one of the fire trucks headed towards him with a firefighter on the end. He was delighted to recognise the firefighter as Echo one of Cody’s brothers. But that happiness was short lived as a bang exploded behind him causing Depa and Mace to shield him as the door burst open in a monster of fire sending their barricade flying across the room. Fortunately Echo reached them a moment later.
“Take him first!” Depa shouted over the flames pushing Kanan towards the man.
“Then her!” Mace shouted shortly after.
“Don’t worry. We’re going to get you all out.” Echo said in a surprisingly calm voice that only someone who’d seen horrors like this before could manage.
Kanan was about to protest when Echo pulled him out of the burning building and onto the ladder. Despite knowing that it was better than the building he still felt scared on the shaking ladder.
“Keep heading down and don’t look back. I’ll get the others.” Echo ordered him. Obeying on autopilot Kanan made his way down the ladder and didn’t know the fate of his family until he reached the bottom.
Once his feet touched solid ground he was greeted by Cody in his police officer’s uniform who started to march him in the direction of an ambulance. Kanan turned around to look back at the ladder and was overjoyed when he saw Depa and Mace heading down from the top. That joy shattered when the room they were just in exploded catching his family in the blast.
“NOOOOO!” Kanan cried escaping from Cody’s iron grip as he ran back towards the building to see their scarred bodies lying in a broken heap on the floor. He dropped to his knees by their sides as he took in the burned flesh of his mother’s face and the shard of glass attacking his grandfather’s left eye.
“I...Kanan I’m so...so sorry.” Cody whispered once he caught up with the kid. Kanan didn’t answer. He couldn’t do anything but sit there and stare. Suddenly a medic pushed past Cody and kneeled besides Kanan to place a finger to their necks.
“What are you doing Kix?” Cody said sadly. “They’re-“
“Shhhhh!” Kix ordered. When he couldn’t find a pulse he started pounding Depa’s chest with his fist.
“Cody.” Kix said. He didn’t need to say anymore before his brother got the idea and immediately started doing the same to Mace. Kanan watched through a waterfall of tears that he hadn’t realised he’d released as they tried to force life back into he pair. Just as he was about to give up hope Depa let out a choked breathe followed by Mace who’s head managed to be turned by Cody at the last second so that he threw up onto Kanan instead of himself. Kanan didn’t care. He had his family back. He wrapped his trembling arms around the pair who still weren’t entirely back into the land of the living and refused to leave their side as they were carted into one of the many ambulances.
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When Sheriff Rex told him that it had been Anakin that had started the fire at first Kanan couldn’t believe it but the more he thought about the more that he remembered the sinister looks that took over the man his fights and then he found that he could. That didn’t mean it wasn’t still a shock. Rex, Cody and the other officers tried to track the man down but they could never find him. Eventually they were left to assume he was dead but nobody really believed it.
Mace had to have his left eye removed and Depa was in a coma for a week but overall they were ok. Others hadn’t been so lucky. Plo-Koon, Luminara, Barriss Offee, Qui-Gon, Kit Fisto, Shaak Ti and Padme along with so many others didn’t make it. And those that did were never the same again. Yoda closed down the Dojo indefinitely not that there was anything left of it so that he could move far away, Obi-Wan became a hermit on the outskirts of town and Ahsoka dropped off the map entirely. Not that Kanan could blame any of them.
It was only once Depa and Mace came out of the hospital they realised that they were out of a job. Thankfully Yoda had insurance on the Dojo and offered them some of the money to make a new start. They decided to open up a garage since Depa had been thinking of doing that anyway even before the fire. Kanan liked working on cars so he didn’t mind even if most of his knowledge of mechanics came from Anakin. He supposed that it was poetic justice that he was using the skills caused by the destroyer of his old life to begin his new one.
Still Kanan couldn’t get the broken bodies of his family had final screams of friends that he could no longer see out of his head and he started turning to booze to try and get rid of them. Depa and Mace didn’t think much of it at first. They had their own traumas to deal with. But after a long while they realised that Kanan had a serious problem. They tried to get him off the alcohol but he wouldn’t listen. His life was headed to a short dangerous end. Until she came in.
After spending a night and most of the day at Old Joe’s Kanan was completely wrecked and collapsed in the sofa barely an inch from the front door in the garage. He lay there unconscious, his mind plagued with vivid images of that night when he was awoken by a loud bang.
He fell off the sofa in a start and landed face flat in a heap on the ground.
“Are you alright?” He looked up to see him lying at the feet of the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. His eyes glassed over as he took in her gorgeous dark skin and hair that was held in two long braids that contained ribbons of green woven in to them.
“I.....” Kanan said in a daze before suddenly shaking his head and jumping up “What- yes! I am. Totally ok! I just errrrr.....”
The moment she raised her eyebrow in an unimpressed expression he knew that he was in love.
“You must be Hera!” Kanan was startled by the sudden appearance of his mother behind him who ignored him and started talking to the girl who was apparently called Hera. He watched them go into the main part of the garage with a love struck smile before shaking himself out of his stupor and headed upstairs into the main part of the house for a shower.
When he was done he was surprised to find Depa waiting for him.
“Mum!” Kanan cried wrapping his towel tightly around his waist.
Depa ignored his state of undress and stared his straight in the eye.
“Her name is Hera Syndulla. She will be working here as a mechanic. If you want to impress her then sober up.”
And with that she left him to his thoughts. The next morning when Kanan came down stairs to find Hera in the garage and was not a drunken hallucination and did in fact work here and was indeed that beautiful, he realised that as always his mother was right.
So he started going to the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that were held at old Joe’s (which he thought was a bit ironic since it was a bar but hey it worked) and within a few months he was alcohol free. However he was still surprised that when he asked Hera if she wanted to go out on a date she actually said yes.
He took her to Big Bongo’s sushi bar since it ran by another two of Cody’s brothers (seriously how many brothers can one person have) Gregor who caught the fish and cooked it and Fives who knew how to actually run a business.
They had already been getting on well at the garage but tonight they really hit it off. She even laughed at some of the Dad jokes he remembered from Obi-Wan. He then told her all about his life including the alcoholism, his adoption and the Dojo. In return she told him how she grew up in Canada in a small town where her father was mayor but their relationship had become strained after the death of her mother and that she’d wanted to be a mechanic for as long as she could remember.
And at her place afterwards they hit it off even more despite her cat Chopper trying to bite his fingers off but apparently he does that to everyone so Kanan counted that as a win.
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Within a few years he found himself in Big Bongos once gain but this time kneeling down on one knee with a emerald ring waiting in a box in his right hand. He still can’t fully believe that someone as amazing as her agreed to marry him.
The wedding itself was a beautiful affair even if Kanan was a wreck of nerves not helped by the fact that he’d only met Hera’s father hours before the ceremony and he was pretty sure the guy didn’t like him. But all those nerves his mind the moment he saw Hera in a silk white dress. Kanan didn’t think it was possible but somehow the dress made her look even more beautiful than she already was. They’d decided to get married in his garden since neither of them were particularly religious and his home had been the first place they’d met. He watched as Hera walked down towards him with her father on her arm and her two best friends Numa and Chopper walking behind her even though the latter was a cat. Kanan had decided to have Depa as his best man since there was no one he trusted more. Kanan was surprised at how many people they’d managed to fit into their garden. There was Mace along with some of Hera’s friends from her old town but they’d had to turn some of the Fett siblings away since there were just so many of them (man did their dad get around).
Afterwards Kanan jumped on the back of Hera’s motorbike dubbed the Ghost and headed off for a week of celebration in Vegas for their honeymoon. He assumed they had a great time but he honestly can’t remember most of it.
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When they found out that there was a 99% chance that they couldn’t have kids neither of them were that disappointed. Kanan had always planned to adopt due to his upbringing and Hera was more than happy to help a child in need.
So not long after they welcomed eleven year old Garazeb Orrelios into their home. Garazeb or Zeb as he liked to be called was a well meaning kid but the traumatic events that lead to him being in care and the time in it had turned part of him sour. He reminded Kanan a lot of himself as he was constantly getting into fights at school and couldn’t seem to keep his anger under control. He tried to teach him some martial arts that he still remembered from his time at the Dojo so that he too could control his anger but Zeb didn’t have the same natural affinity to martial arts that he did and his lack of ability to do the moves only started to make him angrier.
It was actually Mace that suggested the kid try football after noticing how much he enjoyed it when they watched the game on family night. So Kanan convinced him to sign up for his school football team. The kid was a natural thanks to his broad frame and teamwork skills. When he was made team captain Kanan didn’t know who was more proud.
As much as Kanan and Hera loved Zeb they still felt like they had more love to give so a few years later they adopted Sabine. The first question she asked was if she was allowed to paint her room and when they replied that she could do anything she wanted, the pure joy and relief in her face made their hearts melt.
Not long after Kanan was walking home when somebody stole his wallet. He chased after the thief only to find that they were a young a boy that lived a cardboard box surrounded by dozens of alley cats. Well obviously after taking him to the police he had to sign the adoption papers at the station and bring the kid home as his new son before even asking Hera. Thankfully his wife wasn’t mad although she did ask him to warn her next time.
Apparently Kanan wasn’t the only one who liked to bring home strays. His kids must have inherited the habit to since most nights he came home to find one of their friends bunking on their couch usually Zeb’s friend Han Solo but sometimes it was one of Sabine’s mates like Ketsu or Jyn. One time it was all three of them and they spent the huddled in a pile of blankets on the floor together. It was kind of adorable. And the local street cars were still trying to follow Ezra home but Chopper made it clear that none of them were welcome. Speaking of Chopper he eventually managed to find someone besides Hera that he actually liked when he brought home a tall black cat that according to his collar was named AP-5. His previous owner had been abusing him so Chopper has rescued him and taken him home. Kanan supposed they had another cat now. The kids even held a marriage ceremony for the pair that half the neighbourhood cats turned up to watch.
Kanan might have started his life with no family but by the end he managed to find one bigger than he could have possibly imagined.