Chapter Text
Din-Djarin`s helmet made a deafening noise as it hit the hard ground abruptly. Din grunted as his head went dizzy from the force of the impact. Before he could fully regain his senses, Bo-Katan was on top of him, pressing his legs into the ground with her body weight.
Din used the force of his hips to push her off him and seized the moment to land a kick on her stomach. It was Bo's turn to let out a small grunt thanks to the strength of his foot connecting with her abs. Din got up and eyed his opponent with caution.
“Buuuu”. Grogu cooed from the sideline, half amused and half worried for both.
Sparring with Bo-Katan was fun. He was so used to training with his fellow members of the Coven that he could predict every move they would make in advance. Many of their creative strikes were taught by him, which made the exercise a bit monotonous.
With Bo the situation was completely different. It had been years since he had found such a competent and creative sparring partner. She was ruthless and didn`t pull back on her punches, what made exercise exhilarating. Din always learned something new from her fighting style.
They were so well-matched that the other mandalorians liked to bet on who would win that day. It was unpredictable.
Bo-Katan quickly recovered her breath and attacked him with a sequence of precise and ruthless movements. Din did his best to block them, but a few blows landed on his body as she was quick and packed a mean punch. He patiently waited for her to tire of the continuous attack. As she let her guard down a little, he took the opportunity to knock her to the ground. Without letting her recover, he climbed on top of her and held both her hands against the ground next to her helmet.
“Yield”. He commanded, doing his best to keep her from escaping.
Bo-Katan squirmed against his restraint, doing her best to push his body off hers.
“Yield”. He insisted, his voice hoarse from the struggle.
She swayed her hip to the side and tried to squeeze her knee up his hip bone. It was a typical maneuver to make your opponent lose balance. Din only used his body strength to hold her tighter, preventing her knee from escaping.
Holding her down, he turned his head to Grogu. “She is trying to escape by unbalancing me with her knee. That is a basic move to break free from someone who is on top of you”.
Suddenly, Bo-Katan stopped moving beneath him, relaxing her muscles. Curious about her intentions, Din turned his head back in her direction. Before he could ask if she was surrendering, he felt her hips jutting forward and coming into direct contact with his. Immediately, all his breath caught in his throat and his blood turned into fire inside his veins. With her hips pressed tightly against his groin, she made a circular sensual movement. Din was so caught by surprise that he was not able to bite back the groan that left his lips.
Using his astonishment in her favor, Bo-Katan efficiently pushed his body off hers, reversing their position. With each leg pressed against his hips, she hovered above him. Din was certain she was displaying a wicked smile under her helmet.
“And you dare call my moves basic… Now you yield”. She repeated the command he had just said.
I took him a moment to find his voice. “I-I… yield”.
She quickly got off him, offering a hand to help him off the ground. “You have to know your strengths, Grogu, so you can use them whenever everything else fails”. She explained to the confused child, who was trying to understand what had just happened.
Din took her hand and stood up. He adjusted the sudden tightness of his flight suit, trying to hide the outcome of her tactic. “That… was not fair”.
Bo-Katan removed her helmet and sat down beside Grogu grabbing a bottle of water. Her eyes looked big, feigning innocence as she drank the cooling liquid. “I don’t know what you are talking about, Din Djarin”.
Din groaned again, this time in frustration. This woman was going to be the end of him. His body was overwhelmed, so he chose to keep standing up.
Ragnar suddenly opened the gym door, without announcing his arrival. The young Mandalorian looked surprised to find Bo-Katan and Din Djarin there. “Oh, sorry for interrupting. Axe told me I would find Grogu here”.
Bo-Katan smiled at him. “Don’t worry, Ragnar. You didn’t interrupt anything. We were just teaching Grogu a few basic fighting moves”.
From the way Din paced uncomfortably from one foot to the other, Ragnar felt like he really interrupted something. The boy blushed. “Um. Grogu. Do you want to train darts with the other foundlings?”
Grogu chirped in excitement and jumped into Ragnar arms. The boy looked at his Mand'alor and Din. “Ok. Sorry. We are going to go now. Um. Bye”. He managed to say before storming out of the gym with Grogu, slamming the door behind them.
Din grabbed a clean towel from his bag and handed one to Bo-Katan. He took his gloves off and wiped his sweaty hands on the tissue. Bo also took her gloves off and used her towel to wipe her face and hands.
Without hesitation, Din sat beside her on the bench, his hip purposely pressing into hers. He could hear her hold a breath.
“Can we talk about what happened in Cloud City?”. He asked, a tingle of apprehension on his voice.
Bo-Katan fixed her gaze intently on the water bottle she was holding. She took so long to respond that Din had already accepted the possibility that they would never talk directly about what happened.
“I owe you an apology”. That was not the words he was expecting. She turned her eyes in his direction, a small sad smile planted on her face. “I reacted like an idiot after you saved me. What I should have said was thank you”. She unexpectedly sat the water bottle on the bench beside her tight and grabbed his ungloved hand. “I’m sorry, Din”.
“Don’t worry”. Din replied, his voice lower than usual. He intertwined his rough fingers with hers. “We almost died for a minute there, emotions were running high”. He squeezed her hand back, enjoying the feel of the skin against his. “But that was not what I was referencing”.
She tilted her head in confusion. Din inhaled, hoping the air would carry the courage he needed to keep talking. “I wanted to talk about what happened while we were falling”.
Her eyes widened, and her eyebrows raised for a brief second. She was definitely not expecting him to acknowledge what had happened. They were so used to push down their emotions toward each other that they had grown accustomed to it.
Taking advantage of the moment, Din decided to finally expose his feelings out loud. The worst thing that could happen is for her to admit that she doesn't feel the same way about him. At least that way he would know, because not knowing was driving him crazy. “I know we don’t talk about it. But this… thing between us has been happening for quite some time”.
Clearly uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, she turned her eyes down to focus intently on their intertwined hands. He could not read her. Doubt started to creep into his mind. “Unless I'm reading this situation completely wrong”.
Her silence made his stomach twist. Oh no… He gently took his hand out of hers, suddenly forgetting how to breathe. He tried to compose himself, hoping that she would not get mad at him for admitting he had feelings for her. Feelings that seemed to be non-reciprocal. He fought to find his voice as his heart shattered into a thousand pieces. “I am so sorry for…”
She grabbed his hand back in hers and finally looked at him. “You are not reading it wrong, Din”. She assured him, and he was stunned by the amount of emotion that danced in her eyes. She sighted, breaking their connection with a sad smile. “But this is complicated”.
He trailed her knuckles with his thumb in a soothing way. “I know… but I kind of don’t care”.
She narrowed her eyes at his answer. He could see her logical mind making excuses for why they shouldn’t pursue their feelings for each other. Before she could say anything, he lifted his free hand and caressed the side of her face with tenderness, his hard palm touching the silky skin of her cheek for the first time without the barrier of a helmet or glove. “What do you want, Bo? Forget Mandalore. Forget your duties for a second and think about yourself. What do you want?”.
A shadow crossed across Bo-Katan’s face, showering her eyes in anguish. “I wish it was that simple, Din”. She argued but did not remove his hand from her face, which he counted as a small victory. “You don’t know me. You don’t know half of the things I did when I was younger”.
“And you don’t know me. I was not always like this; I was pretty selfish before Grogu came into my life and changed everything”.
Bo-Katan shook her head from side to side, pressing her lips together. “I don’t think you would want to pursue this if you knew…”.
“I don’t care”. He interrupted her. “Remember when I told you that I cared about honor? And loyalty? And character?”. Din’s voice had an unknown edge to it. “You have that. I see it every time we are together. I don’t care about your past. I…”
She removed her hand from his, interrupting his rant. In an instant, she grabbed his helmet with both hands, urging him to look straight at her. “Din, listen to me. You are the most honorable and loyal man I have ever met. You deserve someone better. Someone who can give you all of them. Someone whose baggage isn’t so heavy that it would drag you both down”. A small tear escaped from the corner of her eye, conveying how much those words were hurting both the one saying them and the one listening. He had never seen her cry, not even when she had lost everything that she held dear to her heart. “You deserve the world, Din Djarin. And I will not allow you to throw it all out because of me”.
Din was astonished at her rant. How could she believe that she wouldn’t be good for him? He was the one lucky enough to love her, not the other way around. She was so damn stubborn that she honestly thought that speech would push him away. “Since I met you, you have become my world, Bo”.
She finally let go of his helmet and put some distance between their bodies. For the first time since he had met her, her eyes clearly displayed every emotion that she was feeling. The love, the despair, the apprehension, the sadness. With a small voice, she continued. “You have Grogu to think about”.
Din inhaled, hoping to subdue his frustration with her stubbornness. “I am thinking of him. That child loves you, and you know it. Don’t try to use him as an excuse to push me away”.
Anger clouded her eyes. “I’m not…”.
“I am in love with you”. He abruptly confessed, desperate to make her understand the depth of his feelings. There it was. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a huge weight lifted from his shoulders.
The words hung heavily in the air between them. She turned around, showing her back to him. Din took advantage of the small recess to take a deep breath and organize his mind. He observed as she ran a trembling hand through her hair. He knew she did that movement when she was nervous, so he waited, his ears pulsing with every beat of his heart.
That was it. The moment they have been waiting for. What would she do? He had confessed his feelings and now the ball was in her court. A minute passed, then two. It was getting harder to breathe as Din waited for her response.
Without another word, she walked away from him, each firm step hurting more than any pain he'd ever felt in his life. Did she know the effect that her actions were having on his battered heart? Did she know she was hurting him this much? He was speechless. He knew there was a chance his confession would end with this outcome, but to know it could happen and to live the moment were two very different things. Din closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, she had reached the door and was staring back at him. Din forced his walls back up to prepare for the final blow. And the worst thing was that he could not get mad at her for it. She just didn’t love him enough to ignore reason and just go for it, like he had. And he could not blame her for not loving him enough. That was not fair.
For a moment, she just stood there, watching him from afar. He tried to read her expression, but it was impossible. When she finally moved, he flinched, preparing himself to let her go. But she did not leave. Her hand grabbed the door handle, and she locked the door. What…? Then she turned the gym lights off, engulfing them in immediate darkness.
Before he could suffer any longer, he heard her steps as she walked back to him. The helmet`s night vision turned on at the exact moment he felt her body directly in front of his, so close they were almost touching. Her eyes were sparkling, and the corners of her mouth were turned up in a small, tentative smile.
He waited, his naive heart already filling itself with anticipation. He needed her to take the next step. Her hands found the bottom of his helmet, and Din exhaled deeply.
“Do you trust me?”. She asked without breaking eye contact, her voice dropping an octave.
“Yes”. He managed to say.
Her hand grabbed the beskar helmet and lifted it a little, just enough to expose his mouth. He had never let any woman… or any person in the universe do that. That fact alone said a lot about the depth of his trust in her. He shivered as she traced a finger along his jaw.
He could no longer see her as his helmet blocked his eyes, but he felt her smile before he felt her lips on his. The kiss started slowly and tenderly. But as soon as he responded, she deepened it, opening her mouth, and turning her head a little to the side. Din immediately reacted, pushing his tongue inside to meet hers.
His hands found her waist, and he pulled her body closer. She reacted with a small moan that sent shivers down his spine. How could they have wasted so much time hiding their feelings?
He slowly slid his hands down her side, stopping only when they reached the side of her thigh. With a fluid motion, he lifted her body up, supporting a good part of her weight. She let out a sigh of surprise, but soon composed herself and laced her arms behind his neck for more support.
Carrying her weight and never taking his lips from hers, he walked until her back was against the gym wall. She seemed pleased with the ride, her hands grabbing at his short hair.
Before they could continue, a heavy knock sounded at the door, ruining the moment. Instantly, he let her down to the floor, and they jumped apart. Din quickly pushed his helmet back down.
“Lady Kryze?”. The worried metallic voice of her personal assistant droid came through the metal door. “Are you alright?”.
The night vision turned on in time for him to see Bo-Katan`s flushed face staring back at him. She looked as startled as he felt. He could see a timid smile playing on her lips as she hurriedly walked to the door. She unlocked it, and the bright lights from the hallway flooded the dark gym.
“My Lady!”. The droid exclaimed, oblivious to her disheveled appearance. The droid turned his gaze to Din and paused. “Lord Djarin”.
Bo-Katan cleared her throat. “We are fine, C2-SO”.
“I was looking for you, my Lady. You have an appointment with the…”. The droid paused, finally noticing that the gym lights were out. “Oh. There seems to be something wrong with the lights here. I'll send a maintenance team to check what's going on. The door also appeared to be stuck”.
Smiling at the obliviousness of the droid, Bo-Katan stepped outside the gym. “Thank you, C2-SO. Give me a minute”.
“Do you need me to…”.
She interrupted. “No. It`s fine. You can leave”. The droid nodded and walked away.
Bo-Katan turned back to Din and used her right hand to turn on the power inside the gym. The bright lights flooded the place, forcing Din`s night vision to turn off.
She looked at Din with a conspiratorial smile. “Well. That was…”.
“Yeah. It was”. Din chuckled. The surrounding atmosphere seemed lighter, as if a dense fog had been removed, and only now could they look directly at each other without anything getting in the way.
“I have to go. I am late for a meeting”. Bo-Katan approached him and reached for his hand. With his other hand, he bravely stroked a strand of her red hair, affectively tucking it behind her ear. He always wanted to do that.
He leaned forward and touched her forehead with his beskar helmet. “I need to leave Mandalore tonight, Bo. Carson Teva sent me a message requesting an urgent meeting. I'll pick up Grogu with Ragnar and go now. The sooner I leave, the sooner I'll be back”.
He felt her nod against his helmet. “Ok. Just… be careful”.
“You know I am. I'll come back as soon as I can, probably in a few days”.
She placed a tender kiss on the side of his helmet and stepped back with a smile gracing her face. “I'll be waiting, Din Djarin”.