here's the thing:

Title: then that's it
Ship: Kira/Jadzia
Summary: Farmer!Kira and OnBajorForSomeReason!Jadzia fall in love and get married.
Length: 2.4k
Note: brought to you by my grandparents being homophobic, is Super Duper Gay Married Three Times, a Kira/Dax fic.

Read on AO3




Kira wondered, sometimes, if she’d ever stop working.

The soil split under her feet, the top layer still dusted in that dry, white salt the Cardassians had bombed the farmland with. Under her axe, though, she could see the rich black of loam. Though it had been almost a decade since the Occupation, the earth still survived. Whether it was the lack of rain in this usually-verdant area from the ash clouds that had protected the land, or something kinder, it survived.

Bajor survived.

She survived.

Another load of tainted soil went into the wheelbarrow, and Kira studied it. She might be able to fit another few shovel-loads onto it, or she could leave it as is and take the easier journey.

She closed her eyes. Breathed. Kira could smell salt, dirt, the flowering nerak bushes clustered at the edges of her field.

One more shovelful.


#


Something was reading strange on Jadzia's tricorder.

True, the whole planet seemed to read off. Whatever toxic waste the fleeing Cardassians had dumped into the ecosystem lingered. In the depths of the sprawling jumja forest, Jadzia had a hard time believing it. To hear it told, it was a miracle plant life still existed on this planet.

Well. Not a miracle. A marvel of stubbornness.

Ahead, there seemed to be a concentrated patch of contamination. It was piled high, a few kilometres off the main way. The land around it was reading as… clean? But there weren’t any life signs reading past the small things: grass vipers and hara cats and barrow bugs. Either the farmer was out, or they had managed to install a life sign mask out in the middle of nowhere.

Either way, Dax was delighted. So she set her compass, combed the barrowbugs out of her hair, and set off.

#


The sun had set between Kira entering the soil reclaimer and exiting. Keying the purifier to this load of soil had been more difficult than she expected. The closer she got to the river gully, the deeper the pollution sank.

It could have been worse. Her allotment could have been in Rakantha province. Dahkur had it bad, but nothing compared to Rakantha.

And it was always worth it, here. For these trees, these weeds, the bright spots of flowers bordering her field. It was home.

She had seen the Resistance’s work spool out in front of her like this, some days. The work and the work and the work and the sweaty palms and aching back and sweat in her eyes. But mostly all Kira had seen then was death. Deaths that meant something and moved things forwards, towards freedom, but still death.

Makara herbs were sturdy things. Kira could watch them grow. They grew even when she couldn’t make her way to the field to water them, stuck to her sheets in a panic. They forgave.

Kira tried to keep that in mind. When the Federation took her soil reclaimer half the year because apparently a quadrant-wide organization didn’t have enough resources to help out such a new member, she tried. The Prophets taught compassion.

A more useful lesson, Kira felt, would have been something about farming. How to properly cultivate a stubborn kava root, how to plant it eye-down in the soil and cover it in mulch. That would be immediately useful, not like emotions were.

Tonight's dinner, like most, was under seasoned. Kira watched the stars shined their way out from behind the black expanse of sky while she ate. It had been a week’s katterpod harvest for a transparisteel window, but it had been worth it. Safety and the stars together were worth the world.

Kira took the constellations with her to sleep.


#


The alien knocked on Kira’s front door a half hour after Kira had risen. Everything still seemed to have a fog over it, mussed hair and yawns chasing her from the bed.

“Hello!” the alien said, bright as a star, when Kira opened the door. She towered, her cheeks round and red with effort. “So you are here. I figured when I saw the wheelbarrow. No rust.”

Kira didn’t move from her place in the doorway. “Federation?”

"Technically,” the alien told her. Her fingers tapped, near frantic, at the casing of a tricorder. “I’m a Federation citizen, but I’m here on my own agenda.”

Kira snorted, the grasp of sleep slipping away. It was hard not to become alive when this alien radiated life. “That agenda being?”

“Science”, the alien said, with absolute relish. “I’m Jadzia Dax. I’ve been studying things for almost three hundred years now, and let me tell you, your planet is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

That softened Kira. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen someone brim with excitement. It was nothing like the Cardassians. Nothing like the Federation personnel she'd seen before. They had all looked like they despised every moment their feet were on the ground instead of up in one of their precious starships.

Kira stepped aside. Tea. She had tea somewhere, she thought. If her kettle wasn't rusted from disuse, she could make this impossible creature some tea. “You should come in then."


#


Kira was abrasive, but not as much as she pretended to be. Jadzia wasn’t sure if Kira knew that.

The way she breathed though, when she walked out her door and found the earth still beneath her feet… that gave it away. The way she touched her plants like they were precious, even as she pinched away diseased leaves. The way she looked at the river, mouth parted and eyes wide like she could drink it all and still be parched.

All this before she sent the shipment of makara herbs to the village. It took her most of the day to walk to the village and back, her heavy pack hiked high on her shoulders. Her half-full bottle of water was the only thing she’d taken in return from the villagers.

Jadzia watched Kira pour a libation of water by the threshold, her voice a murmur of prayer. Then Kira was gone, back to her fields to clear the poison and leave greenery behind. The swirling patterns in the dirt faded to dust, but Jadzia didn't forget them.

Within the span of a few weeks, Jadzia felt more at home in Kira’s tiny cottage than she had… Well. It had been a long time since she felt like part and parcel of a place.

It was mostly Kira. Kira, with her fire hair and flint-sharp wit. Kira, with her soft morning smiles and deft hand for tea. Kira, with everything she was and everything she didn’t need to be

It felt a little like yearning.

It felt a lot like love.


#


Jadzia was quiet, when Kira gave her time to be. The first few days, she'd filled up every spare second with chatter. Had Kira heard of this gossip? This latest development? Did she know-

And then Dax seemed to realize that Kira wasn’t going to mind if she stopped mid-sentence to go examine a plant. That Kira would still smile at her even if she didn’t start off the morning with a quip or observation

Jadzia still talked Kira’s ear off, of course. But some mornings and nights, they would watch the stars and the sky and drink their tea and that was enough.

It felt a lot like belonging.

The kiss tasted a lot like home.


#


“Nerys,” Jadzia whispered. Kira twitched slightly, but refused to move. It took effort not to break and laugh all over her, but that would bother Kira in a way that kisses never did. “Nerys. Wake up.”

Kira mumbled something close to a no.

Jadzia smacked a kiss on her shoulder. “Yes."

A groan, and Kira rolled on her back, her face emerging from her pile of blankets. “If you loved me, you’d get me tea.”

Another kiss, directly to the crinkles of Kira’s nose. Her eyes crossed trying to watch Jadzia. “Okay,” Dax told her. It felt like dawn to watch Kira squint at her, not quite awake enough to remember she was in love. “Tea it is, little barrowbug."

Kira finally gave up on language and rolled over, the covers following her in a cocoon.

Jadzia made her tea. And later, when Kira remembered, told her she loved her until her throat went hoarse.

It was a good morning.

Most mornings were, now.


#


Someone behind them was arguing about marriage.

“Men and women,” he said, for what must have been the third time. Kira had to close her eyes for a second against the wash of anger. The sun coming through slatted blinds made everything flicker red. “They’re the ones who create a family!"

A pause, as whoever was on the other end of his comm line said something. Jadzia looked at least as irritated as Kira did, if not more. It had been a while since they’d gone to town for a weekend. Jadzia had arranged work for them on the new Starfleet station, and it would be a while before they were back planetside. It was supposed to be a relaxing morning.

It wasn’t.

“It isn’t the same,” the man whined. He shifted in his seat and Kira knew when he caught sight of them, crammed into a corner booth with their fingers twined together. Kira felt the disdain against her skin like blaster burn. “It’s not real.”

Kira turned, nestling her nose into Jadzia’s wild hair. She smelled, hilariously, of the nekar bushes she claimed to hate. “Would you marry me?”

A squeeze of her hand. Jadzia's smile was brighter than the noontime sun. “Yes."

Kira breathed in. Breathed out. “Right here? Right now?”

“Yes."

Kira pulled Jadzia down, nose to nose, her cheeks hot beneath Kira’s fingers. “Then that’s it.”

There was a sound suspiciously like a squawk from behind them, but Kira didn’t care. She could barely kiss Jadzia she was smiling so wide, Jadzia’s hands raking Kira’s hair into disarray.

“I love you,” Kira said.

“Lets do this again.” Jadzia said.


#


Kira had nearly forgotten she’d agreed to marry Jadzia again by the time they were on Deep Space Nine.

“Time to get married again,” Jadzia had said, then run off, practically flinging Kira’s hand in the air with her excitement. Kira watched her bound away, amused.

When Kira managed to find Jadzia through the press of crowds on the Promenade, she was clinging to a human man, chattering away. After a few minutes and several expansive arm movements, Kira managed to catch up.

“This is Ben,” Dax told her. She was grinning in the way she did when she knew adventure was afoot. “I’ve known him for ages and he’s agreed to marry us.”

“Captain of the station,” he explained. “Comes with certain privileges.”

Jadzia wiggled her eyebrows at Kira. Something warm bloomed in Kira’s chest, to be so wanted. Here, in the middle of their day. Here, with her oldest friend. Here, bar nothing.

"Okay," Kira said. "Let's do it."

So they did.

“Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax, Ambassador Kira Nerys." Ben held his hands out to the both of them. "With the power vested in me by Starfleet Command and the United Federation of Planets, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

Then, surprisingly, he gave them a Bajoran blessing. His pronunciation was as close to perfect as Kira had ever head from a non-Bajoran. Then Jadzia swept her up in a kiss and off her feet and she forgot all about it.

Later, at the impromptu reception at some Ferengi bar, Kira made an effort to find Ben. He lingered by the bar, having just waved off a man with translucent skin. His drink, some kind of brown liquid, fizzed softly.

He gestured a welcome, and Kira sat next to him. “Thank you for marrying us on such short notice,” she told him.

Ben laughed, tipping his head back. When he looked back at her, he looked as fond of her as he was of Dax. “Thank you for asking. Dax always has the most interesting life. I adore being a part of it.” He offered a hand. “Benjamin Sisko. I don’t think we were ever properly introduced."

Kira blinked. “Sisko?

The Emissary of the Prophets grinned, the same manic delight in his eyes she sometimes saw in Dax and Kira felt, suddenly, faint.

“Dax!” she bellowed at the crowd, knowing Jadzia would always hear her. “You got us married by the Emissary?"


#


The morning of their third marriage dawned bright and clear.

Jadzia wanted it small. Not for anyone else. They’d had that, on Deep Space Nine. Not because of anyone else. They’d done that in the village.

For them. For the land and for Bajor and for them.

Kira took her time looking at Jadzia when they reached the river. She catalogued each freckle, the rough feel of calluses against her palm as they held onto each other. “You sure you want to get married again?”

Jadzia grinned. “Oh, does it only count after the second time? Let me think.” And then she swept in and spun Kira around, the world flashing by. She put Kira down and declared, “I want to marry you.”

Kira smiled right back. “I want to marry you too.”

“Then that’s it,” they both said, overlapping. And then Kira laughed and kissed the laughter off Jadzia’s lips, honey sweet.

They sat, then at the riverbank. Jadzia toyed with the soft fringe of Kira’s hair. “Do you think it’s work still? Farming? Being here, making everything grow?”

Kira considered that. She considered the waving fronds of the makara herbs, and the bread she knew was waiting inside, fresh-baked in trade from the village midwife. “It is work. It’s not like they grow themselves.”

“Technically-“

“Scientifically, the tending I do guarantees my harvest. But I don’t think I mind.”

“No above, no below, only through.” Jadzia echoed.

Kira shook her head. “That’s what survival sounds like. I mean living. I get to go through.” She stepped in close, till the whole world narrowed to Dax and her, her spots and her smile and her warmth. “I get to marry you.”

Speechless in a way Kira loved, Jadzia kissed her.

And they got married.

Again.

Because they could.

Because they wanted to.

Because sometimes, things worked out.

Oh man. I am super not kidding about the homophobia. My grandparents think marriage should only be between a man and a woman and although couples are "fine" we should find our Own Words because "husband" "wife" and "marriage" aren't for us! So I immediately revived from death my idea of lumberjack!Kira and it transformed into farmer!Kira which transformed into "one time they met + five times they got married" which transformed to this.

The whole "working" thing just started when I started typing. I think in a universe where things went differently and they joined the Federation right away and Kira didn't DS9 etc she would end up just... tired. A lot of her growth and healing came from other characters and show stuff that if I'm assuming didn't happen... yeah. So. Tired.

I don't know if they actually salted and razed the land but honestly that seems nice and Cardassian. Salt is cheap! And effective! Idk if you can actually just dig the salted part out and then Magically Science Clean it but hey. I can do what I want.

The life sign masker is something Kira had in Shakaar when they were being chased by the milita. I like to think that's a pretty unusual thing to be able to do.

Dahkur is Kira's home. Rakantha is where all the farmland was but got super duper fucked by the Cardassians.

Makara herbs are the Bajoran plant that Kira had when she was pregnant to help with the sneezing. Basically she's growing nausea herbs for nearby pregnant ladies who can't afford them and giving them away free because that seems very Kira to me.

I'm pretty sure that transparisteel is Star Wars but also you can bite me. I like the idea of Kira not going with glass cause that's not gonna stop a blaster shot.

Katterpod and all other things mentioned, plant and animal, are canon or beta-canon Star Trek.

"Cheeks round" and tall are mentioned bc you know, malnutrition means neither of those things are super common on Bajor so Kira notices it immediately.

Jadzia being atrociously curious about Bajor is my fave. The land matters just SO much to Kira. Her planet is her heart and to see Jadzia :D at it instead of "ugh I'm stuck planetside" makes her have heart eyes.

I originally said Kira was prickly, but I changed it to abrasive because thesaurus and it felt better.

I played a lot with "felt a little like" "felt a lot like" in those two sections. I think I like how it turned out.

I really like the idea of them finding solace in each other. The healing and the quiet. Mmm yes. Good.

The in-bed scene where they say they love each other was actually added in late because I felt that I was speedrunning their relationship to get to the marriage too much. Which changed the structure of the fic! I ended up not doing the 1+5 that I intended. The relationship that makes the marriage is important, not necessarily the marriage itself.

Barrowbug. Ha hA. If you've read Otherwise Occupied you'll know that you can crush barrowbugs into candles. This is me doing a winky face at that.

Me, reusing my OO worldbuilding again: you're married if you want to be. If you declare you're married you are because the Cardassians control the marriage system. Also, title!

The marriage thing is a quote from Voyager and Tom/B'Elanna's marriage. Canon!

Kira getting married by the emissary but not knowing it because all she's heard of him is "Ben yeah we went to Risa a lot he's a wild man" etc and then this mofo is like "oh yeah by the way I'm space Jesus". Beautiful.

And back to my #thesis of work. Work is work and sometimes that's hard. But sometimes, when you're okay, it's worth it.