Chapter Text
“LUKE I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE.”
A woman screaming and banging on the door jolts the Mandalorian awake. Putting his helmet on with one hand, he grabs one of his guns with the other. He checks on Grogu before creeping through the door of his room, and walking through the house. More banging. He opens the front door, prepared to shoot, when he sees a short woman, about Luke's age, holding bags of stuff. Her lips tilt up at the corners. “Who are you?” She says, barely containing her smile.
“None of your business.” The Mandalorian responds coldly. “What is your business here?” He says, blaster still pointed at the lady. “Oh he must not have told you, I'm Luke's sister.” She says, now fully smiling. “I came to stay for a couple of days.” Luke's sister? I don't see it.
“I'll be back.” The Mandalorian says and shuts the door in her face. He can hear her chuckling before she shouts, “Of course Mando, take your time.”
The Mandalorian rushes to Luke's room and knocks on the door. “Skywalker.” He says. There's no response. “Skywalker.” He raises his voice a little. There's a shuffling behind the door, and then it slowly breaks open. “What?” Luke says groggily, obviously still half asleep. The Mandalorian takes a step back, “Your sister's here.” He says without greeting.
Luke's eyes widen. “Kriff, I forgot she was coming, give me a moment.” The door closes in the Mandalorian's face, only to open again a minute later. “Okay, I’m ready now.” Luke steps out of the room completely, shutting the door quickly, not letting the Mandalorian look inside. Luke smiles sheepishly up at him, “Sorry about last night, it usually never gets that bad.”
The Mandalorian doesn’t pry, turning to go back into his own room. “Do… do you want to meet her?” Luke asks carefully. The Mandalorian stops in his tracks. “I’ve had my fill of your sister.” He says, not facing Luke.
He continues walking to his room. While opening the door, he hears Luke sigh and his footsteps retreating. The Mandalorian waits outside of his door for a second before he hears the front door open and-
“LUKE! You’re alive thank gods. Your Mandalorian friend isn’t joining us I see?” A sigh. “Leia,” and that’s all the Mandalorian hears before entering his room.
He goes straight for Grogu, who is sitting up in the bed. “Hey kid, how are you doing?” Grogu babbles and reaches his tiny claws up to the Mandalorian. He locks the door before walking toward Grogu, taking off his helmet. “Hi buddy,” His unfiltered voice rings in the room. Grogu squeals, touching the Mandalorian’s face while he sits down.
“You doing good?” Grogu points toward the floor. “Wanna get some energy out?” Din chuckles while setting Grogu on the floor. Grogu immediately runs toward the door, sticking his tiny hands up toward the handle, a slight click sounds. Grogu squeals and uses the Force to open the door, and run out of it. “Grogu!” The Mandalorian whisper-shouts, quickly putting his helmet on while rushing out of the door.
He sees Grogu at the end of the hallway, turning into the small living room. Damn it. The Mandalorian walks into the living room, looking around for Grogu, who just so happened to be in Luke’s lap. “Skywalker.” He says in greeting, barely giving his sister, Leia apparently, a glance under his helmet.
“Wow, no greeting for me, Mando?” She says smugly. “Oh Leia, stop it.” Luke says, mock-glaring at her. “I’m sorry Mando, she does this sometimes.” Luke says while patting the top of Grogu’s head. “It’s fine.” He says shortly, finally turning toward Luke’s sister, who has a smirk on her face. “Why are you looking at me like that?” The Mandalorian asks, tensing up. “Oh nothing,” She says, “It’s just, Luke over here is quite lonely, so it’s nice to see him have some company.” “Leia!” Luke exclaims, clearly exposed. “Am I lying?” She faces Luke, a full on grin forming on her face. Luke play hits her, holding Grogu in one arm. Grogu squeals at the sharp movement. The Mandalorian reaches out to catch him, when Luke chuckles, “Oh he’s okay, we play like this all the time.”
Leia giggles, reaching out and cooing at him, before turning serious. “Okay, I know we planned this a while back, but it seems the New Republic heard that I was visiting and asked a favor.” Luke tenses up, and without even looking at him, hands Grogu back to the Mandalorian. He takes Grogu, holding him gently. “Leia, you know I don’t work for the Republic anymore. My political days are over.” Luke says, face absent of any of the joy it had one minute ago. “I know Luke, but I can’t just say no. You haven’t been seen, heard of, or even mentioned by anyone. You need to get back out there.” She says gently, this is clearly a sore subject for Luke.
“I don’t want to ‘get back out there’,” Luke says, spine straightening. “I don’t want anything to do with them.” “I know, just… hear me out, okay?” Luke’s sister says. Luke nods tersely. “Okay, they want you to travel to two worlds to investigate an Imperial presence.” Luke is already shaking his head, “Why do they need me to do it? Don’t they do this all the time by themselves?” “Well yes,” Luke’s sister starts, “But they think it’s… more stuff like Doctor Pershing and what happened with Grogu.” The little guy perks up at his name, and the Mandalorian shushes him and pats down his ears. “Oh,” Luke says, actually considering it. “If you don’t want to, I’ll absolutely tell them to fuck off, okay?” Luke chuckles at his sister. “Um, may we come back to this conversation later? I want to enjoy our time together without politics lingering over our heads.” Luke’s sister’s expression softens at that. “Of course. Now!” She says much more excitedly, “Got any good drinks?” Luke chuckles. “Of course, you know me.” He gets up and walks to the kitchen.
The Mandalorian takes his leave, walking back to his room with Grogu in his hand. “Grogu, you can’t just run away like that. What if we were somewhere dangerous!” Grogu just giggles, reaching up toward the Mandalorian’s helmet. “Not now, okay? I need to do some things.” He sets Grogu down on the bed, reaching for his datapad. He scrolls on the holonet, looking for a ‘Luke Skywalker’ bounty. “Holy Manda.” The Mandalorian whispers. 150,000,000 Imperial credits. Now, he understands why Luke was so on edge yesterday. He also understood why he was so isolated. It must have been exhausting with that high of a bounty, no matter how cool your magic powers are.
He mindlessly scrolls for a bit before turning off the datapad. He looks at Grogu, who’s quietly playing with the toys in the corner, before quietly exiting the room. He walks down the hall, entering the kitchen to see Luke and his sister sitting at the counter, gossiping. “Skywalker,” the Mandalorian says. “Where is the ‘fresher?” Luke turns, grinning at the Mandalorian, cheeks pink from the drink. “2nd door on your right in the hallway.” He says before turning back to his sister.
The Mandalorian walks away, just hearing the edges of their conversation. He walks into the fresher, a sink, toilet, and shower greeting him. He locks the door and takes off his helmet, splashing water on his face, just barely flinching at the sight of it in the mirror, almost used to it. He thinks about all the Mand’alor duties and Mandalore politics he’s avoiding by being here, he’s sure he has about a million messages from Bo-Katan telling him to get his ass back to the newly liberated Mandalore. She’s doing fine. He reassures himself, stripping and getting in the actual water shower. For the last couple of months, all he had were sonic showers and old lake water, never actual, filtered water. It felt nice, actually being able to clean himself.
Before he knew it, an hour passed. He spent way too long in here, he shuts the water off and towel dries himself before throwing his clothes and helmet on and walking out. He walks straight back to his room, finding Grogu gone. He immediately panics, rushing to the living room, only finding Luke’s sister there, reading on her datapad. “Where are they?” The Mandalorian asks. “Oh, they’re in the back training.” She says not looking up. He goes back down the hallway to the final door, and exits into the cool noon air. He sees Luke cross-legged, one eye peeking at Grogu, who is getting distracted by a butterfly. Luke chuckles and looks at the Mandalorian.
“Hello, Mando. Grogu is just something else isn’t he.” “Yeah.” Luke looks back at Grogu. “Come join us, it will be nice.” Grogu perks up, looking toward Luke, who just chuckles when his ears flatten against his face. The Mandalorian sits reluctantly. “What was that?” Luke closes his eyes, breathing deep. “I can communicate with him through the Force. It’s an interesting ability, to say the least. Especially with Grogu, his thoughts can be so random.” Luke chuckles.
He breathes deep while Grogu crawls over to them, sitting cross-legged as well. The Mandalorian decides to copy them, feeling a bit out of place in this sacred feeling place. Luke’s face relaxes while he breathes in deep, and sighs out. Things start to float around them. Rocks, branches, even bubbles of water from the small pond a couple feet away. The Mandalorian looks on in awe, never having seen such a serene and calm scene. Scared to disturb this peaceful area, he stays perfectly still, waiting for him to finish.
30 minutes later, Luke comes out of his meditation with a deep sigh. Grogu gave up focus a while back, going over to the pond and splashing his claws in it. The floating items get gently put back onto the ground, the water splashing Grogu’s face slightly. The child squeals and giggles, turning and waddling back into Luke’s lap. Luke laughs, bright and loud while hugging Grogu. It’s an amazing sight to see Grogu be so comfortable with someone. Luke stands up with Grogu in his arms, hand reaching toward the Mandalorian to help him up. “Let’s go back inside, I think Leia has been waiting long enough.” The Mandalorian nods, too scared to ruin the nice atmosphere with his rough voice modulator. It’s strangely domestic, the way Luke holds Grogu, looking at the Mandalorian with the sun shining on his face, making him glow. Luke turns toward the small house and the Mandalorian follows. Luke Skywalker leads the Mandalorian away.