Chapter Text
One day earlier
It's this planet's fault. Or the New Republic's, whatever. The point being, it is certainly not her fault. Right?
Leia had been tasked with organising these negotiations months ago, but the people of the planet Esmot were understandably vary of outsiders - the Empire had repressed the Esmotians and all but depleted their planet's resources. That made Leia's job all the harder; the planet’s inhabitants were unwilling to negotiate, least of all with another powerful faraway government. Finally, one of their representatives, an older one who still clearly remembered the Republic before the Clone Wars, suggested that a Jedi be present. He explained that in the past, Jedi had been present at all such tense negotiations, to keep the peace and ensure fair proceedings. And there were Jedi once more in the New Republic, weren't there, he'd asked with a meaningful look at her.
And so, in order to keep the negotiations from falling apart before they even happened, Leia was forced to annoy her brother into coming. Her brother, who was in the process of creating a new Jedi academy and had about half a dozen younglings running underfoot.
Luke's caveat for coming was he brought one kid, Grogu, with him and that Leia organised someone to take care of him during the meetings.
That didn't seem like a huge ask, and for the first two days of the meeting, it wasn't. While Lando went to look after Luke's padawans for the time, Chewie and Han were here, as well, because they wanted to spend some time with Luke, and were invited to another meeting taking place on this planet. But this meeting (veterans of the Rebellion, who had wanted to meet the ("Famous!" Han preened. "Infamous," Leia muttered under her breath) pilot who helped Skywalker destroy the Deathstar) only took place today, so for last two days, Leia left Grogu in their care. The two times that Leia checked in on them, the little one was being a perfect little angel. The first time, he sat and watched intently while Han cleaned his blaster, and the second, he was being carried around wedged under Chewie’s ammunitions belt looking content with the world. So, seeing as this child seemed so unproblematic and Chewie and Han had in all probability not given him anything healthy to eat, Leia decided to push her luck and asked the kitchens for some vegetable mash on the day that it was her turn to babysit. She could do this; she had a child at home.
Wrong! Apparently, the kid had taken one look at her from his little crib and decided not to be a little angel anymore. Before she'd even started feeding him, he'd already had a screaming fit that had her ears ringing about having to put on some clothes, he'd struggled and wriggled in her arms and kept pushing the highchair away with the Force when she tried to put him into it. When she had finally successfully inserted a spoonful of mash into his little mouth and the kid had opened his mouth in protest and disgust, she’d put in another spoonful and smiled smugly. For about a second. Then, the kid spit his whole mouthful all over her white dress.
“Why did I decide to wear white, today of all days,” she muttered, coming out of the fresher. Only to find an empty highchair – where had the little menace gone now? She let her gaze sweep across the room stopping for a second on the aquarium containing the four fish she'd been given... Four? Yesterday, an Alderaanian expat biologist had given her five of the fish; the kind that had been a fixture in the palace garden ponds back home; fish she’d thought lost and which the biologist was trying to settle on new planets.
She crossed the room and took a closer look at the aquarium to find it the fifth fish. One, two, three, behind the stone was number four… and there, with only its flapping tail fin visible, was number five. The child slurped, swallowed, burped and giggled.
“That’s it!,” she exclaimed. The murderous little toad was grabbed unceremoniously, put into the fresher and the door locked.
So now, Leia is on her way to get her brother. Blast these negotiations! Pish posh, Jedi. He had brought the little menace, so he could very well take care of him.
She hardly notices the people she rushes past. But considering their quick steps to the side and averted eyes, she must have a hell of a facial expression. Good. This way no one will distract her, and Luke will know what's coming for him.
She stops in front of the hall that the negotiations are taking place in and sends in a protocol droid to get Luke. Leia is gearing up to let him have it when her brother comes out the door and doesn't even let her speak.
“Wait, if you are here, who's with Grogu? Han and Chewie are at their meeting, right?”
“Your horrible little student ate my fish!”
“That's not important right now! Who is with Grogu?”
“Not import… Arg! I left him locked in the fresher; don't worry, he can't hurt himself in there.”
“Kark,” swears Luke and takes off at a sprint. Leia curses herself for not changing into pants after the earlier spewing incidents, gathers her skirt and races after him.
She finally catches up to him at the door the fresher. The very empty fresher. Oh no.
Leia follows the direction of her brother’s gaze upwards, spotting a small ventilation shaft, so high up that even Chewie would have trouble reaching it. It’s missing its grate.
This is totally not her fault! It's the little menace's fault for not sitting still for three seconds consecutively; it's Chewie’s and Han’s fault for making babysitting look like a breeze; it’s Luke’s fault for not warning her about Grogu’s escapist tendencies.
“He’s either still somewhere in the ventilation system or already out in the city. We’d better put together a search party right now, before he can get too far.”
Leia looks out of the hotel suite’s window. The wind is picking up quite a bit.
Oh no. This is absolutely her fault. She is a horrible mother and an even more horrible person who cares more about some lousy fish then an admittedly stubborn toddler. How are they ever going to find a child the size of a handbag in a city this bustling? And during a storm with sunset approaching quickly?
The answer is: they are not. A search party of tiny droids has scoured the entire ventilation system, twice, without success, and the team of hotel employees, Leia, Luke, Han and Chewie (who they called back from their meeting to the disappointment of the veterans) haven’t found anything in a 500 metres radius from the hotel. Luke finally called a halt when the storm had picked up so much that Leia had to struggle with every step she took.
“We won’t find him tonight, not with the darkness and the winds,” Luke declared. “Let’s head back for some rest and start again fresh in the morning.”
Now, they are back in their hotel suite. Leia is leaning her head on Han’s shoulder, grateful for his support. She supposes he has some idea what she’s feeling. Losing an innocent toddler in a stormy city has just brought her insecurities about not being a good-enough mother to the forefront; she leaves little Ben with others far too often. But someone has to do all this stuff for the New Republic, right?
“This is my fault,” Luke echoes what’s in Leia’s mind. “Grogu was always a little rascal, but he learnt and listened well. A few weeks ago, it was like he just… shut down. He wouldn’t listen to me or train anymore; and every time we meditated, he shut me out and kept showing me the same three images. And I still can’t get what he was trying to tell me.” He puts his head in his hands.
“What images? Some mystical Force stuff?” Han asks.
“No, just normal things. A metal ball – so I got him a ball to play with. Then a ratty old hammock hanging in a star ship, I guess. So I switched his bed for a hammock. But it didn’t seem to have any effect. He just showed me the images even more, even when we weren’t meditating.”
Chewie grunts; he wants to know the third one.
“That one I didn’t get at all. It was a view of some metal and transparisteel thing, only – distorted or something. I didn’t recognise what it was supposed to be at all.”
“Maybe he showed it to you from a weird angle. The kid is tiny, after all,” Han remarks.
Luke sits up straight. If such a thing were possible, Leia could swear she sees a light bulb turn on over his head. He groans emphatically and leans his face back into his hands.
“I’m such a kriffing nerf herder!”
Now, it’s Leia who leans forward.
“What is it?”
“I know what he was showing me. Why didn’t I…? Oh Force… When I got the kid, he was with a Mandalorian. He had his helmet off when he gave me the kid, but I got the impression that that was not the norm. Grogu kept showing me the Mandalorian’s helmet! That’s what the metal and transparisteel thing was: the helmet from Grogu’s angle held in the Mandalorian’s arms! He wants to go back to him!”
During this entire speech, Luke keeps his hands plastered to his face. Leia guesses she’s not alone with her guilty feelings.
“Well, he is not going to find his precious Mando traipsing around on this planet, so we better find the kid in the morning. That means no more moping and off to bed with you, my favourite nerf herders!”
It’s rare that Han is the voice of reason among them, so the siblings and the wookie comply without complaint. But Leia is sure she will not be able to sleep a wink.
By the time the sun rises, they've all given up on sleep. Some considerate hotel employee has brought them a platter of sandwiches and some caff.
Leia joins Luke at the table and pours herself a cup.
“So what do you intend to do once we find the child?” Leia asks. She does not consider the possibility that they will not find him. They have two Jedi and two former smugglers. There is nothing and no one who can hide from them indefinitely.
“Bring him back to his Mandalorian, I suppose. That’s what he wants. And he has learnt enough from me to protect himself. Although it might be a bit difficult; getting Grogu back to him…”
Leia has the impression that Luke said more than he meant to say. And sure enough, her brother busies himself stirring sugar into his caff, and looking anywhere but at her.
“You don’t know the Mandalorian’s name, do you?” Leia prods.
Luke stirs his caff harder.
“I suppose you swept in, spouted some ancient-sounding wisdom and made a dramatic exit without exchanging any contact details or any such sensible thing, am I right?”
Luke sighs and looks at the ceiling. Leia grins, this is too easy. But finding one random Mando won’t be…
“Whatever. First, we need to find Grogu. Then the rest.”
Luke puts down his cup, hands her a sandwich and grabs himself one.
“Let's go. I have a feeling I know where to go.”
Luke leads them out of the city's governmental centre through narrow alleys to a marketplace close to the spaceport. Leia doubts that he knows exactly where he’s going, but she has gotten used to him following his feelings. While her brother searches with the Force, Leia keeps her eyes open and uses her logic. Not that she doesn’t feel the Force’s nudges from time to time as well, but she does not want to discount good, old-fashioned rationality and simple eyesight.
There was a storm last night, so it's likely that the little one either hid in a small, sheltered place, or that some of the people living or working here at least saw something or even helped him. But she doesn't even really have time to look carefully; the father they walk, the more certain Luke seems to be where to go.
So focused is Leia on her perusal of every nook and cranny along the road that she walks straight into Luke when he suddenly stops.
“Ah, here we go,” says Luke, relieved, just as Han whispers “What the hell?” in astonishment.
Leia follows their gaze. Her eyes fall on a fully armed and armoured Mandalorian. In a flash, she is no longer on a quiet street on the planet Esmot, but in the dining hall on Bespin, and Boba Fett is about to take Han away for torture. Get a grip, the rational side of Leia says in her head. Fett’s armour is green, not unpainted; also, he’s, you know, dead. She takes a deep breath, letting the Force calm her.
At second glance, Leia wonders how she could have ever mistaken this Mandalorian for Boba Fett. His armour is in much better shape then she had ever seen Fett’s. It is polished to a high gleam which reflects the early morning sunlight. His ammunitions belt is slung across his torso and he only has a small blaster. The most glaring difference, however, would be the careful way he carries a small green being in his arms. Grogu.
Leia blinks. No need to ask herself is this was the Mandalorian who had Grogu before Luke. The child projects such love and happiness into the Force that there can be no question about it. And looking at his blaster and ammunitions belt, it is easy to see why he took more to Han and Chewie than to her. Leia has to wonder… what are the chances that the Mandalorian and they are on the same planet at exactly the same time? Did the little one sense that his former caretaker was on planet? Was that why he made a break for it?
While the three of them stared, the Mandalorian has come closer. Weirdly enough, even though everything about him seems geared to be menacing, Leia gets the sense that he is uncomfortable. Mixed with a hefty dose of anger and… sadness?
“Skywalker,” grunts the man.
Luke simply smiles his most mysterious smile in answer; probably to hide that he does not know the man’s name. Leia scoffs.
“I found the kid.”
Luke nods and keeps smiling.
“You know, when I gave him to you, I didn’t think letting him walk on his own like that in an unknown town would be part of your training programme.”
Leia hides a wince. The Mandalorian’s voice is tight and clipped. He does not appear to have any qualms about giving The Last Jedi an earful about proper childcare.
“You need to promise me to take better care of him in future. Yes, he has his magic powers, but he’s… he’s a kid who needs to be protected, alright?”
Leia can tell that he is gearing up for a lecture, would bet that the next words out of his mouth will be “And another thing…”, but Luke interrupts.
“Him walking around on his own was very much not my plan. But if you took care of him long enough for Grogu to be so attached to you, I bet you know how stubborn he can be.” Luke chuckles. “I guess he could sense you, and nothing could have stopped him from seeing you. He missed you.”
The Mandalalorian looks down at the kid; the kid looks up and holds out a shiny metal ball with both hands. The man takes it, holds it a bit farther away and Grogu pulls it back with the Force. Leia supposes it is some kind of game for them.
“I missed you, too, you little womp rat.”
The softness in his voice makes Leia want to coo at the scene, but before she can or Han can make light of the situation, the Mandalorian visibly pulls himself together. He holds out the toddler in his arms.
Han looks as stunned as Leia feels, Chewie lets out a questioning whine. Luke is more composed, but still he asks: “Why are you holding him out to me like that?”
“So you can take him, genius. I found him and brought him back, now you can continue his training.” Luke does not move. “Come on, just take him. This is hard enough as it is.”
His voice breaks, but he stretches his arms out a little further nonetheless.
“I’m not taking him back,” her brother says.
The helmet tilts, reading as confused.
“Grogu has been ready to return to you for a while now. I think he is of the opinion that he has learnt enough from me for now; and you know how he is when he wants something,” Luke says with a gentle smile.
“So he can stay with me?” Luke nods. “And you won’t come in a couple months to get him back?” Luke shakes his head, still smiling.
In most cases, Leia would remind her brother to actually ask whether the man wants the child back and is ready to care for it; but the wave of happiness, love and protectiveness coming from Grogu and, let’s face it, his dad, makes this question redundant. Leia smiles: she loves happy endings.
“Alright then.” Both the Mandalorian and her idiot of a brother seem to think that’s that. Luke turns to go, but she catches his arm and gives him a significant look. Luke’s eyes widen, and he facepalms. That’s right, where would the great Jedi Knight be without me, Leia thinks with a grin.
The next part seems weirdly normal, considering they were just talking about Jedi training and getting lectured on childcare by a bounty hunter. Luke and Din, apparently, exchange names and contact details, and Luke promises to be available if there are any questions or problems or in case Grogu changes his mind about training. Din nods at them, the child waves its stubby little arms, and in no time at all, they have vanished around a corner.
“Well, all's well that ends well,” exclaims Han, claps the wookie on the should and the two head towards the hotel. Leia hangs back with her brother, who is lost in thought.
“I’m going to miss that little rascal,” he laments with a sad smile. Leia, thinking of the fish and her puke-covered dress, wisely keeps her mouth shut.
“He is so talented, it was a privilege to teach him. Also, he had some interesting memories about the old Jedi order to share.”
Leia’s brain grounds to a halt. That toddler of five years maximum is supposed to remember the Jedi order, which fell decades ago?
Luke, seeing her confusion, explain: “Remember what I told you about Master Yoda and his longevity? Grogu is the same species. It is possible that he is over fifty years old or even more.”
Leia will have to think more about a fifty-years old toddler later, but now she has other issues to deal with; namely, Luke’s unjustified sadness.
“You know you can visit, right? You did just exchange contact details.” The things you do for your siblings. Leia has no desire whatsoever to forge a closer acquaintance with a Mando bounty hunter, but Luke’s face lights up.
They turn to follow Han and Chewie and Leia realises she has no basis to judge. Her son’s father is a smuggler, and still, Leia thinks he makes for a great dad. So, relieved that the crisis is over, she listens to Luke tell her how he got the kid in the first place. And if she is honest with herself, she could not stand having a boring, normal life anyway. Who else gets to hear crazy stories like that? Ex-Imps, a stolen lightcruiser and the kriffing darksabre? Leia loves her life.