Chapter Text
Luke doesn’t remember falling asleep that night. He guesses it wasn’t too long after explaining his life story to Din, since he thinks he vaguely remembers Din carefully leaving the bed at some point, but he can’t recall any specifics. He wakes up while it’s still dark— it can’t have been too long since he even fell asleep— and the first thing he notices is that he has to piss. Badly. The second thing he notices, only after he’s attempted to get out of bed, is that Din is draped over his side, on the verge of cuddling with him. Luke isn’t sure how he didn’t notice it at first, the weight and warmth on one side of his body, or the hair on his neck, and shit wait Din doesn’t have his helmet on. Luke scrunches his eyes closed, trying to think of the best way to extract himself from the other man, but he can’t think of any way that won’t wake him up. He tries gently pulling his arm away, but that only serves to make Din shift further onto him, so he exhales and nudges Din, who goes rigid and, after a few moments that Luke assumes is him waking up, rolls away.
Luke hears him stand up and shuffle around a bit before his helmet makes a noise. He slowly opens his eyes, giving Din enough time to stop him if needed. When nothing happens, he looks around the room while his eyes adjust to the darkness, and he finds Din settling into a chair next to Grogu, body language seeming stiff and tired. Luke feels bad for waking him and retreats to the refresher to achieve what he’d originally woken up to do, trying not to mull over his guilt. He wastes his time by taking far too long to wash his hand and staring at his messy hair in the mirror. He needs a haircut, but that’s an issue for another day.
He only goes back into the bedroom after his hand has been scrubbed to hell, and when he does, he finds Din laying on the bed again, helmet still on, and wonders if it’s uncomfortable. It has to be. He tries not to feel worse.
Luke settles back in his spot on the bed, turning to look at Din.
“Sorry for waking you,” He whispers. Din turns to look back at him. “I had to use the restroom.” Din scoffs in what Luke hopes is amusement and nods as best as he can.
“I understand. It’s just…” Din says softly, as if he doesn’t want to whisper, and he gestures to his helmet with his hand. “I didn’t want to risk it.” Luke smiles.
“Of course. Goodnight again.” He says, getting comfortable again and closing his eyes.
-
When he wakes up for the second time, it’s thankfully morning. Din’s getting ready by the chair that’s opposite of the bed, and Luke clenches his jaw when Din flexes his forearm to adjust his armor. He clears his throat. Din turns to him.
“What’s on the agenda?” Luke asks, smiling in a way that he hopes isn’t strained. Din inhales audibly and then sighs.
“Cara wants us to spend time with her. She hasn’t been here for long either, but since you and I are leaving later, she wanted to…” Din shrugs. “Get to know you?” Luke nods thoughtfully. The room is silent for a few seconds before Din sighs again. “I, uh… forgot, when we arrived, but I technically, uh… own property here.” Luke raises an eyebrow.
“You… forgot. That you own property.” Din hums. Luke stares. Blinks. Furrows his eyebrows. “May I ask how?” Din shrugs again.
“I guess I wasn’t thinking the first night. Too focused on my kid. After that it felt like it was too late to say anything.” That made sense. Which, actually, reminded Luke.
“Oh, right! Back at the party, what did you say to Han? He seemed to find you hysterical.” It had been bothering Luke. Din tilts his head.
“I… just told him that Fett has taken Jabba the Hutt’s place on Tatooine, because he was telling me about how Leia’s the one who killed Hutt. I’m still not too sure why he found it funny…” Luke stares.
“Fett as in… Boba Fett?” Din nods. Luke purses his lips, then laughs. “I see. I thought I watched him die with my own two eyes. Should’ve known we couldn’t get rid of him that easily,” Luke jokes, and it’s Din’s turn to stare. “What?”
“Nothing. I didn’t know you knew him.” Din shrugs.
“I mean… know him is inaccurate. I knew that he was a bounty hunter and that he was hunting my friend, but…” Luke trails off. He looks at Grogu, who is standing in his cradle and watching them. He waves when he and Luke make eye contact, and Luke waves back, smiling softly. Grogu might just be the cutest baby ever. Even if he looks like a smaller version of Yoda. Luke looks back up at Din. “Are we getting breakfast?”
Cara and Greef don’t end up joining them that morning, and the three of them finish breakfast quickly. Grogu quickest, of course, since he’s a growing…alien thing, and he’s soon asleep in his cradle as Din and Luke walk toward where Cara had told Din to meet her. She appears out of nowhere once again, but Luke had sensed her with the Force anyhow, so he smiles at her. She laughs.
“I’ll get you one day, Jedi.” She says. Luke’s smile turns into a grin.
“You can try.” Cara chuckles a bit more before she turns her attention to Din.
“Alright, big guy, where are we taking your lovely family?” She asks, but Din just stares her down. She stares back, making Luke feel a little left out, before Cara sighs in frustration. “Fine, I’ll choose where to take your husband on a nice day out.” She nudges Luke’s arm, beginning to walk away from the city area. Luke is helpless to follow, sending a look of distress toward Din, who shrugs and, after making sure Grogu is alright in his cradle, joins them as well.
Luke has met many people over the years, but none of them have been as strange as Cara. She treats him like they’re old friends, but at a distance, as if she doesn’t trust him. She banters with him, asks about his history, and reveals her own, but something about it feels unnatural. He can’t put his finger on it. He supposes she must have to be prepared for anything at any point in her line of work.
They stop at a small field of rock, and Cara smiles at Luke when he raises his eyebrows in confusion. She pulls out her blaster then, aiming for one of the small rock formations across the field.
“Show me how Jedi fight.” She says, challenging. Luke hesitates, glancing at Din, who is leaning against a large boulder. He looks back at Cara.
“I dunno…” He begins, but she shakes her head.
“I saw you use your light sword and magic back on Gideon’s ship. I want to duel.” Luke hesitates a moment longer before sighing and nodding.
“Let’s start, then. What rules are we using?”
“Standard, best of three. Not to the death. Mando will be our witness.” Cara nods to Din, and Luke pauses.
“Won’t it be unfair since you only have a blaster? Shouldn't I use one too?” Cara just waves him off.
“I can handle myself in a fight.” Luke shrugs, takes that as it is, and pulls his lightsaber out, and the duel starts.
Cara’s good, Luke’ll give her that, but she isn’t good enough to oppose a Jedi. Only using his lightsaber to block shots is a bit difficult, but using the Force to do the offensive attacks makes it a bit easier. He wins the first round easily, and halfway through the second one, he notices Grogu is watching them alongside Din. Din’s head is tilted a bit downward, so he can hear Grogu, but his helmet seems glued to the duel going on before him. Noticing this distracts him long enough for Cara to almost get a hit in, but the Force is too good, and Luke dodges at the last moment. He turns to face her, uses the Force to take her blaster, smirking when she glares at him.
“I win.” He picks her blaster off the ground and offers it to her, holding his hand out for a handshake. She takes the offered blaster and shakes his hand, and Din starts to clap from his spot by the boulder. Luke blushes and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, causing Cara to nudge him with a smirk.
“You really are a strong fighter.” Din says to Luke when they approach him, sounding a little breathless. Luke grins.
“Thank you. It means a lot coming from you.” He means it. Mandalorians are warriors, anyone would be honored by one complimenting their fighting. Cara clears her throat.
“Are you two done flirting? I have more on the agenda for today.” Luke blushes again, coughing lightly. Din scoffs.
“Sorry. What’re we doing next?” Luke asks, turning his attention back to Cara.
“I was thinking we could race,” She says. Luke perks up.
“You know, I was the best pilot on Tatooine.” He says, only feeling a little bad about bragging. His ability to pilot is something he’s always been very proud of, even after defeating Darth Vader and becoming a renowned Jedi. He couldn’t have done those things without his skills. Cara smiles at him, then nods to Din, who doesn’t seem like he’s going to contribute to the conversation.
“He’s pretty good as well. I think I’m fairly decent.”
So, Cara leads them to a few small ships she had prepared, and lets Luke explore all the controls. It’s a type of ship Luke’s never seen before, but it’s fairly easy to get the hang of. Cara has them on their own comm channel, and after being given the okay by her companions, she leads them to the starting point of the race.
“I asked Greef beforehand if this was okay, so we shouldn’t get in trouble.” She says through the channel. She then explains the objective, and Luke can feel excitement rising in his chest. He hasn’t had the chance to do something like this in a very long time.
Luke’s a little surprised Din agreed to this, since he doesn’t really seem the type, but then Cara counts them off, and Luke becomes too preoccupied with winning to care too much anymore. His competitive streak hasn’t seen the light of day since… he can’t remember when. He’s in the lead, but not by much; he can see another ship behind him, though he can’t tell if it’s Cara or Din. He weaves through the area with relative ease, his lead growing with almost every turn they take. He tries not to feel too cocky, because overconfidence could be his downfall, but for having not raced in years, he thinks he’s doing really well. Then he notices that the ship that was right behind him at the start has begun to catch up, and Luke curses himself for jinxing it. When the ship is slightly closer, Luke can see that it’s just Din, which makes him more determined to win, just to rub it in his fake husband’s face. He accelerates a bit more, needing to regain his lead, and soon enough, he’s crossed the designated finish line. Din wasn’t far behind him, and Cara not too far behind him, and Luke’s high on adrenaline from winning. He can’t stop smiling, and once his ship is safely parked, he gets out and does a small victory dance.
“Nice!” He hears Cara say from behind him. He turns to look at her. “You definitely earned that title of best pilot, that was impressive.” Luke bows jokingly, a smile still firmly on his face.
“Thank you! There weren’t many other fun things to do on Tatooine, in all honesty. Maybe aside from card games and drinking contests, but I usually just watched those.” Din had approached while Luke was talking, and so Luke greets him once he’s done, and gets a nod in return. Grogu looks happy.
“The kid enjoyed that,” Din says, not even bothering to acknowledge Cara. She scoffs in offense, but Din continues looking at Luke. “Good job out there. You did well.” Luke’s smile widens.
“Thanks. You did too.” They stare at each other for a moment, Luke’s smile not fading at all, until Cara clears her throat, and Luke is reminded of before the race. He tries not to feel embarrassed when he moves his attention to Cara.
“Come on, lovebirds, I’m not here to be a third wheel. Let’s get going.” She gestures back toward the city, and Luke nods. He thinks he hears Din sigh irritably, but he could just have been imagining it. Din awkwardly grabs ahold of his hand before they start walking, and Luke feels himself smiling again.
The sky is already darkening again by the time they get back to the city, and Cara stops before they’re near their room. She’s pursing her lips in contemplation.
“Do you guys wanna get drinks with Karga and I before you leave?” She asks. Luke hums, looking over to Din, who is standing a lot closer than Luke remembers.
“I’d love to, but it depends what Din thinks.” Luke looks pointedly at Grogu, then back at Din, who shrugs.
“I don’t see why not. Grogu’ll be fine.” Cara beams and gives them a location and time then leaves to retrieve Greef and let them freshen up. Din takes the refresher first, leaving Luke to sit on the bed.
As he sits on the bed, he thinks about the past couple of days, and kind of wishes he’d bought a souvenir or something while they were in the city the day prior. Just to commemorate his trip, to have in his house, though he realizes that it would probably just upset him once this arrangement with Din is over. Actually, he’d honestly forgotten that all of this is fake. A pit forms in his stomach as he thinks about it, about how this little family of three won’t last forever. How these friends aren’t his, and he’ll soon go back to living in almost complete isolation, aside from Han and Leia and, occasionally, the man causing all of this deep thinking.
Luke has never understood the old Jedi way of having no attachments. It’s an impossible task, at least for humans, because attachment is in human nature. In some alien nature, too. Even old Ben had attachments, and Ben was the one who had taught him the basics of being a Jedi. From what Luke understands, part of what led his father to the Dark Side had been the strict rules of the Jedi temple, and so despite Yoda’s contemplative looks and Ben’s defeated sighs, Luke had decided a long time ago that he would raise other Jedi in a more nurturing environment. This included being softer on himself than the old Jedi had been, which means Luke isn’t ashamed enough to act like he doesn’t understand and/or admit to himself how he feels about Din. Really, he’s known for a while, and the last couple of days have just established even more what was in his mind.
No, it’s not shame that’s keeping Luke from admitting it, it’s guilt. He can’t identify what there is to feel guilty about, but he has a deep enough understanding of himself as a person and of emotions to know that it’s guilt. It builds the longer he sits on the bed, until Din opens the door to the refresher and snaps Luke out of it. Luke curses at himself for being so consumed by negative feelings, and as he stands to take his turn in the refresher, he decides that once he’s done he should meditate until it’s time to leave.
Din must think he’s a complete psycho or something when Luke ends up sitting in absolute silence for almost an hour, but he doesn’t do anything to interrupt the whole time, until he coughs awkwardly to tell Luke that it’s time to leave. Luke opens his eyes to see the beautiful beskar helmet that Din wears looking down at him, and the pit in his stomach that he’d just gotten rid of returns full-force. Luke swallows and accepts the hand he’d just noticed being offered to him as he stands back up.
“Ready?” Din asks. Luke nods jerkily, retracting his hand so he can readjust his robes. Din watches in silence, and Luke chances trying to see what Din’s feeling. All he can sense is disappointment, and the pit grows. Luke doesn’t look back at Din’s face, too afraid of the emotion on his own, and Din sighs. “I took the things we had to the ship. We can leave whenever.”
“Thanks.” Luke responds, voice low. Din hesitates, putting a gloved hand on Luke’s shoulder. Luke finally looks back at Din’s helmet, hoping he doesn’t look too sad.
“If…” Din starts. He doesn’t seem to know what he wants to say, though, and pauses to gather his thoughts. “You don’t have to go. If you don’t want to.” Luke’s chest aches at how considerate the other man is, and feels bad for making Din worry.
“It’s alright, I want to go.” Luke smiles weakly, patting the hand on his shoulder. “I’m just sad that we’re leaving, I guess.” Din hums in understanding, hooking a thumb over Luke’s hand and rubbing gently. Luke’s heart flutters, and he can’t help the way his smile turns genuine.
“Tell me if you get tired.” Din finally says after a few moments of silence. He takes his and Luke’s hands off of Luke’s shoulder, leading Luke as well as Grogu’s cradle to the location Cara had mentioned. Luke resolves to enjoy the rest of the night.
-
The bar isn’t very crowded when they get there, which Luke wasn’t expecting. He supposes since Nevarro is a trade hub, people are constantly coming in and out, but he expected more people to stop at the bar before they left. Though, to be fair, it’s not a very big one, nor is it in an obvious place. They find Cara and Greef fairly quickly, at a table in the corner. They both have drinks in front of them, and Cara notices Luke and Din before Greef. She waves them over, and then nods to the alien behind the counter, who brings Din and Luke drinks. Din hesitantly stares at the drink for a moment before shaking his head no.
“Not in the mood to drink.” He says by way of explanation. Luke nods in understanding. He, on the other hand, will be having as much alcohol as he can handle, since meditation didn’t work to get rid of his thoughts.
“So, Luke,” Greef starts. Luke turns his attention to the other man, raising his eyebrows for Greef to continue. “You’re from Tatooine, right?”
The evening blurs together after a few drinks. Luke’s sure he’d be getting to know these people really well if he could make any sense of what they’re saying. At some point, Din decides Luke’s had enough fun, and he helps him stumble back to the ship. Luke thinks they talked a bit on the way, but he can’t remember the specifics, and he passes out the second he’s mumbled their destination to R2.
-
He wakes up in his bed the next morning with an awful headache, regretting all the drinking he did and how he was unable to give Cara and Greef a proper goodbye. The pit in his stomach didn’t even go away with the drinks, either, so it was all in vain. It hurts to open his eyes, and it takes him a few minutes to do so, but once he’s conscious enough to be aware of his surroundings, he remembers that Din had been with him. Shit, he hopes Din didn’t have to drag him all the way to his bed. Luke tries to get out of bed quickly to find Din, but immediately regrets it when he falls right back onto his bed. He’s just thankful it wasn’t onto the floor, really, and he groans when all the blood rushes back into his head. He sits up carefully then tries to get up again, slower this time, and makes a noise of victory when he’s successful. There’s a glass of water on his nightstand, and he smiles softly at that. He drinks it, then goes into the kitchen and briefly scans the room for Din, but he isn’t there, so Luke gets more water for himself and then knocks quietly on the guest room’s door.
“Come in.” Din’s voice comes from inside the room a few moments later, and Luke opens the door to find him sitting on an armchair with Grogu, who is playing with something Din’s holding. Din doesn’t look up to greet him, which worries Luke.
“Good morning,” He sheepishly starts. “Sorry about last night, I don’t know what got into me.” Din tenses the slightest bit.
“It’s alright.” He responds. Luke blinks and furrows his brows.
“I don’t usually drink like that, you know. Sorry if I left a bad impression on your friends, I don’t really remember what happened last night.” He continues. Din pauses, looking up. “And, you know. Sorry that you had to drag me home. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Din says, putting Grogu back into his cradle and standing. “You, uh, don’t remember much?” Luke shakes his head.
“Only talking with Cara and Greef a lot. You were kinda quiet, then you had to force me to leave.”
“I… see. You drank a lot. How do you feel?” Din seems to have relaxed, and Luke smiles at him.
“Awful. The water helped though, thank you.” Din nods. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, when are we going to see your people? I think we should relax for a few days, and Mandalore isn’t too far from here anyway.” Din tilts his head in thought, tensing up again. Dammit.
“I.. hadn’t thought about that. Whenever’s convenient for you, I guess. I don’t have much going on.” Luke raises an eyebrow.
“Aren’t you the Mand’alor? Does that not come with responsibilities?” Luke thinks he should know more about Mandalorian culture than he does, but he never had the opportunity to learn. Din sighs.
“I thought so, too, but I have a… committee.” He sounds a bit disgusted by this, and shrugs. “They take care of things. I didn’t even want to be Mand’alor.” Luke raises both eyebrows at that.
“Seriously?” Din nods. “Then why are you Mand’alor?”
“Long story.” Din sighs, and Luke hums in response, deciding to drop it for now.
“You want something to eat? My head is still killing me. I really am sorry about last night.” He’s already leaving the room to go back to the kitchen when Din says that food sounds good, not wanting to stay long enough for Din to respond to the other part of his sentence.
Luke is joined in the kitchen a few minutes later by Din and Grogu, and he finishes fixing the food another few minutes later. When he goes behind Din to give him the food, Din tenses up, and is quiet when Luke leaves the room to let him eat. When Luke enters his room, R2 beeps at him, but Luke is thinking over his interactions with Din that morning. He can’t help but think that Din is acting weird. The helmet makes it hard to discern how Din feels without using the Force, but Luke feels that using the Force for such a selfish reason isn’t a good idea. Even though he has done it before. It’s the principle of the matter, he thinks, and decides he really needs to meditate again.