Chapter Text
The next time Din woke up, he found himself blinking up at the high, sand colored ceiling, disoriented and aching. Something had woken him, a soft, cool brush against his cheek, and he rolled his head on the pillow to see what it was.
Luke was sitting next to his bed, staring at him, a tube of bacta gel in his hands.
“Good morning,” Luke whispered, and Din felt himself smile, his face aching, but he couldn’t help it.
“Hi.”
Luke smiled now too, a heartbreaking thing, and he ducked his head as his eyes watered. He reached out and took Din’s hand gently, cradling it as if he were made of glass. He let out a sob, and Din squeezed his hand, trying to prop himself up on his other elbow and wheezing when his whole body protested.
“Luke, hey, please don’t cry,” he rasped, “I’m okay, cyare.”
Luke grasped his hand as if he were afraid Din would vanish if he let him go, and bent forward so that his forehead rested on the edge of the bed. His shoulders shook, though he didn’t make another sound, and Din found himself helpless to do anything but make quiet affirmations that he was here, Luke had saved him, he would be okay.
“I--- I’m so sorry, Din,” Luke gasped, raising his head to look at him. His face was streaked with tears and his eyes were red. “I should have-- have known,” he hiccuped, and swiped at his eyes. “I should have known something was wrong. It took us too long to find you.”
Din shifted to sit up more fully, ignoring the pain that flared up, and reached out with his other hand (something tugged at the skin on the back of it, but he couldn’t care less) to wipe at the tears on Luke’s cheeks. “ Cyare, it’s not your fault. How were you supposed to know what happened? You saved me. You got me out of there.”
Luke leaned into his touch, even as he shook his head and screwed his eyes shut, clearly not believing him. “No, I should have known, I should have-- ”
“Luke. Please. Please don’t.”
Luke took a shuddering breath and turned his head to kiss Din’s palm. “I’m still sorry.”
Din stroked his cheek with his thumb, watching him. Even with his face blotchy and tear stained, Luke was so beautiful, Din still couldn’t quite believe this was real. Only the warmth of his skin under his palm told him this wasn’t a dream, that he was really out of that cursed cell, really was safe.
“You should lie back down,” Luke murmured, letting go of Din’s hand and reaching out to help steady him as he slumped back onto his pillows. “You’ve been getting IVs, thanks to Fett, but you’re still dehydrated and you still have a while to go before you’re fully healed.”
Din looked down at himself, noting for the first time the IV line taped to the back of his left hand; that must be what had tugged earlier, when he reached out to Luke. It was tinged a slight blue-green. “It’s mixed with bacta,” Luke said, “To help heal any internal injuries. I knew you wouldn’t want to go in a tube, and this was the next best thing.”
Din nodded gratefully. He continued taking inventory of himself-- there was a stabilizing boot on his broken ankle, and his torso was wrapped in bandages, as were a few of his fingers. His whole body ached, but it was a healing ache, very different from the overwhelming, exhausted pain he had felt before. He was wearing what seemed to be a set of Boba’s clothes-- the shirt and leggings were much looser on him than his flight suit. He breathed in, and the dry air set him coughing, making him grit his teeth against the pain that lanced through his ribs.
“Oh!” Luke said, reaching out a hand and summoning a canteen, “I’m so sorry, I forgot. Here, go slow.”
He helped Din tip the canteen into his mouth, monitoring it so that he was forced to take small sips. The water was cool and wonderful after so long without, and Din closed his eyes, savoring it.
”Did you find my armor?” Din asked when he finally lowered the canteen, less than half full now. “Earlier, I was wearing my helmet, but it was broken, and Boba didn’t say anything about the rest of it.”
Luke nodded, and something in Din’s chest eased.
“Yes, we found it.” His eyes were hard with barely concealed fury. “They ripped all the electronics out, but we got the rest of it back, even your weapons. They were keeping them near the rings.”
Din nodded, memory flooding into his brain. “They-- they would give me one weapon to fight with, every time.” He said, quietly. He clenched the blanket in his fist, to give himself something to focus on. “Usually the spear, but sometimes it was my blaster, or a shock charge. Whatever was more interesting at the moment, I guess.”
Luke reached out to take his hand again.
“It wasn’t your fault, Din.” Now he was the one doing the reassuring. “You did what you had to do to survive.”
Din shrugged. “I know. But it still… I don’t know. I didn’t want to. There’s a big difference between hurting those who want to hurt me, or my family, and those who are forced into it.”
“I know. It’s hard, and I think it’s going to be hard for a long time. But we got the other prisoners out too, you know, everyone we could find. Their organization is gone. They won’t hurt anyone else, ever again.”
Din looked at him for a moment. Luke’s eyes were blank, and his teeth were gritted, jaw clenched. The air around them felt charged with something Din didn’t understand-- something powerful and slightly cold, centered on Luke. He shivered, and that seemed to pull Luke out of his reverie.
“Sorry,” he murmured again. “You should probably get some rest. I’ll be here, I promise.”
He reached out and ran his fingers through Din’s hair, stroking it away from his forehead, his touch feather-light and tender. Din’s eyes slipped closed even as he tried to fight it, and the last thing he saw was Luke’s smile.
“I really don’t think I need to keep using these kriffing crutches.”
Luke rolled his eyes and turned to look at Din, who was leaning against the wall of Slave I , holding the pair of crutches the medic had given him. Even while wearing his helmet, Luke could tell he was giving them a look of utter disdain.
“The medic said you need to keep off that ankle for at least another week, Din. You don’t want to mess it up.”
“Hmmpf.”
“If you don’t want to use the crutches, vod, I’m sure lover boy could carry you,” Boba called back from the cockpit. Fennec, seated in the copilot’s chair, snorted, and Luke laughed out loud when he felt the roll of embarrassment coming from Din.
“I’ll use them,” he grumbled.
“Come sit down,” Luke said, patting the seat next to him. “It’s a long flight to Yavin IV.”
It was a long flight, but both Luke and Din ended up sleeping through most of it. Din had been healing nicely since the rescue nearly two weeks ago, but he still tired easily. He was still underweight, but he had insisted on putting all of his armor back on the second the medic deemed it okay, and the extra weight only exacerbated his exhaustion. Luke couldn’t bring himself to stop him from wearing it; he had been without it for so long, he couldn’t take away that protection now. Luke, for his part, hadn’t let himself sleep much during the past two weeks, too busy checking up on Din, and it was nice to catch up with sleep while he had the chance.
Luke could feel their family’s Force presences the second they broke through Yavin IV’s atmosphere. Leia’s and Grogu’s were the brightest, of course, and they both sent him happy greetings when they sensed him, Grogu sending him thoughts of his father that radiated with excitement. Han and Chewie were a little dimmer, less present in the Force, but no less pleased.
“Grogu is excited to see you,” Luke murmured to Din as they swung around for a landing. His Force presence brightened, and he stood up as soon as the hold stopped rotating, obediently tucking his crutches underneath his arms when Luke shot him a look. He all but bounced in place as they waited for Boba to let the ramp down, and the second it was deployed, he was moving. Luke reached out with the Force to keep him steady-- the last thing they needed was Din falling-- and followed close behind.
Grogu was squirming in Han’s arms, when they finally came into view, and from the look on Han’s face, he was putting up quite a fight to get away. He shrieked when he saw Din, and Han immediately moved to meet them at the very end of the ramp once he saw that Din was on crutches. Luke reached out to take the crutches and slip a shoulder underneath Din’s arm and hold him steady, so that he could have both hands free for Grogu. His hands shook as he gathered Grogu in his arms, and Han and Luke both looked away to give them some semblance of privacy.
Leia came up on Luke’s other side, reaching out to brush his cheek. “I knew you would find him and bring him home,” she said, glancing at Din and Grogu with a fond smile on her face. Luke nodded and leaned into her touch.
“Thanks for uh… for taking care of Grogu,” Din said, looking around at them, voice rough. Chewie grumbled and reached out to pat Din (very gently) on the shoulder.
“Chewie says it was no trouble,” Han translated. “He was the only one that kept the kid happy. He really missed you.”
Din nodded and clutched Grogu a little closer. “I really missed him too.”
Leia smiled and circled around Luke so that she could hug Din from the other side, which sent a bolt of confusion through him that Luke felt with some amusement. Leia had never been particularly affectionate with him before. “We’re all glad you’re home, Din,” she said. “And relatively alright.”
Din stared down at her for a second, apparently dazed. He cleared his throat. “Uh, thank you. That’s thanks to Boba, the- uh- the healing, I mean.”
As if on cue, Boba’s drawl floated down from behind them, at the top of Slave I’s ramp. “The healing would be easier if he had stayed in bed and not pushed himself to come back here so soon.”
Han and Leia stiffened as their group turned to look at Boba, Fennec behind him as always, but they didn’t say anything, thankfully. Maybe they knew how much Boba had done to get Din back-- or maybe they could sense the daggers Luke was glaring in their direction. Either way, all Leia said when Boba joined them was “Fett. Thank you for getting Din back,” which he took with a nod. Han growled a little under his breath, but refrained from saying anything at all.
“Come on, let’s get inside,” Luke said, looking back at Din and taking Grogu in his arms so that Din could take the crutches back. They moved in a slow group, Boba and Han side eyeing each other the entire way, towards Luke’s house. Towards home.