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It was the day Din was finally going to marry you.
He was stood in front of the mirror in the fresher. It wasn’t massive, since the fresher is so small. But it’s bigger than it used to be. Before you came along, he only ever really needed a mirror for when he’d shave. And the shaving was just for convenience, otherwise his face would itch underneath the helmet, which isn’t a particularly fun experience. But once you joined him, and offhandedly mentioned that you didn’t understand how he got on with such a small mirror, he bought one at a market and installed it for you. Now as he looked at his reflection, the significance of the day hit him. Today, you were finally going to see his face.
He looked at the bags under his eyes. As he looked at them, he realised how tired he looked. He felt tired, sure, but he’d never really looked at himself like this before. He looked old and weathered. He looked at the scruff that littered his chin and jaw, and rubbed it with his hands, debating its presence on his face. He eventually decided to keep it, but just tidied it up a little around the edges. He looked at the mop of hair on his head, trying to neaten it up, but ultimately giving up. It was a pointless exercise, given he’d be putting the helmet on again for the meantime before the actual ceremony.
As he studied his face in the mirror, he grew anxious. He turned and angled his face every which way, worry etching his features as he did so. What if you didn’t like his scruff? Or the colour of his eyes? Or the shape of his nose? Do his ears stick out? He’d never really taken notice of other people’s ears before, but the longer he studied his own, the bigger they looked. He sighed deeply and dragged his hands down his face.
Frankly, he was terrified that once you saw his face, you were going to be disappointed. He didn’t consider himself much of a looker. He’d never thought it was something important, figuring he’d never have to be helmetless, so who cared what he looked like, right? But now he has you, he wants you to be happy. And now he’s incredibly self-conscious. Din thinks you’re the most beautiful person he’s ever met, both inside and out, and he’s worried you won’t feel the same once you see him.
He snapped himself out of it as he placed his helmet back atop his head. He knows he’s being unfair. You’re not as shallow as he’s making you out to be. He knows you love him, despite never having seen his face. But he still worries that he’s not good enough.
The door opens and he walks out into the hull of the ship, observing you sat feeding the Child, and smiling down at the little womp-rat as he babbles up at you. Din’s heart aches at the sight, and he can’t believe he’s lucky enough to be marrying you. By the evening, he’ll be able to call you his wife. It still doesn’t quite make sense to him that you said yes. He’s still waiting to wake up from this wonderful dream. He’s pinched himself on several occasions to make sure this is actually all real.
You turn around to look at Din once you notice the Child watching him, “Everything okay?” You smile brightly at him.
“Y-yeah. I’m good.” He nods slightly at you and climbs the ladder to the cockpit. You sigh as you finish feeding the Child, wondering if he’s having second thoughts about today.
Once you get the Child asleep, you climb to the cockpit and sit in the co-pilot seat. You sit in silence for a few minutes before Din puts the ship on autopilot and turns around to face you.
“Are you ready?” He asks softly through the modulator, and you nod in reply, smiling at him.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Your question catches him off guard, and he doesn’t answer you immediately.
But he’s reaching a hand out to you, and encasing one of your hands with both of his and you feel the visor of his helmet bore into the depths of your soul, “I’ve never been more sure of anything, cyar’ika.”
Your eyes water at his statement, and his gives your hand a gentle squeeze as he stands and beckons for you to follow him to the hull. Once you reach the middle of the hull, he kneels on the ground and you join him.
He’s told you a little bit about the ceremony. It’s not like a traditional marriage ceremony you’re used to. There’s no officiant. There’s no witnesses. It’s just the two of you.
“So I will say the vow, and you repeat it back to me, okay?” He takes your hands in his and holds them against his chest, and you nod.
“Mhi solus tome.”
“...Mhi... solus t-tome.” You repeat back to him slowly, and he gives the faintest of nods.
“Mhi solus dhar'tome.”
“Mhi solus... dhar’tome.” You say with a little more confidence this time.
“Mhi me’dinui an.”
“Mhi me’dinui an.” You’re somehow looking straight into his eyes through the visor, and Din almost falters on the last vow.
“Mhi ba’juri verde.”
“Mhi ba’juri verde.” Din lets go of your hands and moves his own to cup your face, and you fall into a silence.
“My wife.” He finally says after what seems like an eternity of just staring at one another. You let out a small chuckle and a tear rolls down your cheek. He catches it with his thumb, before pulling his hands away. They find your own hands once more and he brings them to the sides of his helmet, taking a deep breath as he presses the release mechanism and waits for you to lift it up, moving his hands back to his lap, where he wrings them anxiously.
You take a deep breath yourself as you slowly lift the helmet. You honestly don’t know what to expect when you remove it, but when you see Din’s face for the first time, your breath hitches and you’re at a loss for words. You place the helmet softly on the ground, not breaking your gaze with him. More tears form in your eyes as you reach your hands back up to touch his face.
You smile as you touch the scruff littering his jaw, and you feel his jaw tense underneath your touch. Your fingertips trace his features, committing then to memory. You subconsciously lean closer as your fingers ghost across his face. Din opens his mouth to speak, but you lurch forward and kiss him. He’s stunned at first, but quickly responds, placing his hands on your face, as he feels your hands move to his hair, where he feels your nails scratch at his scalp slightly.
You pull away breathlessly, with a big grin on your face, and Din fully appreciates your beauty without the filter of his helmet. He thought you were stunning before, but now... oh man, he couldn’t get over it. You blushed under his gaze, and he was definitely blushing under yours. Your hands make their way back to his cheeks, where your thumbs gently graze the skin there, and you both stare lovingly at one another.
“So... do you like what you see?” You gasp at the sound of his unmodulated voice, but you hear the worry lacing his question, and your heart bursts thinking about him being anxious to show you his face.
“Din, you’re beautiful.” You sound almost breathless as you speak, and it calms Din ever so slightly. You see him let out a deep breath, and you watch as his shoulders relax and his head drops slightly.
“Were you worried?” You lifted his chin with your fingers and you saw tears forming in his eyes. He nodded at you, not trusting his voice.
You pulled him to you, resting your chin atop his head. You wrapped one arm around his torso as the other made its way into his hair, gently stroking through it. He wrapped his own arms around you in response and you sat like that for a few minutes before you placed a kiss on the top of his head and spoke quietly, “Honestly, you could’ve been a Gungan under that helmet, and I’d still love you, Din.”
You feel him laugh quietly against your chest, and you lean back and he loosens his grip on you. When you see his face again, there’s still the remnants of the few tears that escaped his eyes, but now there’s a smile on his lips, and it only gets bigger as you speak again, “I guess I’m pretty lucky though, because I get to look at this face for the rest of my life.”
“Really?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything, Din.” You repeat his earlier statement and it makes him smile even wider.
You lean in again, and he closes his eyes in anticipation, but furrows his eyebrows and opens them again when you kiss the tip of his nose, then move to pepper little kisses all over his face before finally landing on his lips. He pulls you towards him and kisses you deeply, and you feel his worries dissipate.
You stroke his hair as he pulls away from you and rests his forehead against yours, “My handsome husband.” You mutter against his lips.
“My wife.” He says the words almost in disbelief, before repeating them again with some more strength behind them, and you don’t know if it’s physically possible to smile any wider than you already are.
After you sat for a little while more just enjoying one another’s company, you made your way to the Child’s crib, and you both spoke the adoption ritual, meaning the Child was now your own until you found his home planet.
From then on, whenever Din has his helmet off (which is anytime it’s just you two and the kid on the Crest), you insist on littering his face with kisses to remind him how handsome he is. It takes some time for him to get used to the affection, and he’s still self-conscious, but your actions definitely help him see himself a little better, and the more you do it, the more he believes that he doesn’t look half bad. Now when he looks at himself in the mirror in the fresher, and he starts to feel self-conscious, he thinks about your lips ghosting his features, and he remembers all the compliments you whisper against his skin, and he smiles.