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A sand storm hadn’t been forecasted, so it sure as hell wasn’t expected. Then again, Tatooine was an unpredictable place to rest your head.
It was around 3am in mos pelgo when the temperature dropped drastically, and noticeably, inside the homes of the small mining town. As if that wasn’t unusual in and of itself, the strong winds outside which threatened to blow gusts of sand into any and all crevices of the street and the homes within it sure was. So now, with the howling winds outside, it was unknown how long the townsfolk would have to remain locked up inside.
Amongst those indoors, the marshal of the town, Cobb Vanth, had yet to be made aware, roused from his sleep as opposed to hearing it firsthand. The fairly late wake up call was received by his year-long partner Din Djarin, the renowned mandalorian that somehow enjoyed his company and whom he owed his life simultaneously, who had tried his very best to keep the sounds of shutting windows to a bare minimum.
It wasn’t the right amount of minimum, however, as the marshal woke to the clattering despite not knowing the cause.
With a harsh shiver, Cobb tensed in his blankets, before abandoning them in favour of sauntering silently into the next room he knew would keep him warmest. “Din...make room,” was all he could manage to sigh, which earned an equally exasperated sigh from the man occupying the bed before him, and a slow shuffle to one side so as to create a Cobb-shaped space for the man on the bed.
Their sleeping arrangements weren’t the easiest to wrap their head around at times, but they made do. Some nights, if it was was much cooler than it usually was, the pair would share a bed, where Cobb would have his back turned to Din so that he could sleep without his helmet on.
The mandalorian trusted him not to look, and so he didn’t.
On warmer nights, the two parted with a kiss, before going to less than allocated rooms so that neither of them woke up in a puddle of sweat. On nights like those, the child would take turns sleeping in each room. They made it work.
This had been one such night in which it had been just as hot as the day, and so the two had chosen to sleep in separate rooms, with Grogu sleeping beside Din’s bed for that select evening. As it was soon to turn out, the reason for the maintaining temperature was a rising storm of blistering sand, which would most likely last until the early hours of the afternoon the next again morning. If they were lucky, a storm of this scale was a yearly occurrence. The most they could do was wait it out.
“Get in,” the man murmured, although without any bite of annoyance to his words. “But you know the rules.”
With his usual nod of understanding, and a roll of his eyes which he hoped was outwith Din’s line of sight, Cobb clambered backwards into the warm embrace of Din’s arms, a low hum escaping him as he sank back into the man’s chest, thankfully bared at that, with nothing less of a satisfied smile.
“It’s colder than a wamp rat’s tail on a hoth winter in here. Why’s it so damn cold?” The marshal inquired through jittery whine, just as he was met with a calloused hand slipping not-so-subtly into his hair so as to card through it fondly. Unbeknown to him, Din had a fond enjoyment for the texture.
“A sandstorm picked up outside. You were sleeping, I didn’t want to wake you,” Din concluded softly, tucking Cobb’s head beneath his chin so as to pull him closer. Both men seemed to relax at that.
“We’re gonna be shut in a while, then. Storms last a couple ours to a day or two. Here’s hopin’ it’s the first,” Cobb mumbled, encouraging Din’s fingers into his hair with a shake of his head as he buried in closer to the scarred chest before him. Blindly, the marshal lifted his hand from Din’s side in favour of cupping the mando’s stubbled cheek. Gorgeously familiar features he had yet to see, but that he didn’t rush to see all the same.
“Gimme a proper kiss, mando...-“ Cobb mumbled, feigning an upset pout which was quickly uprighted as he felt the familiar roughness of Din’s hand covering his eyes, and the equally familiar but completely opposite softness of the other man’s lips meeting his own. They held themselves together like that for a few moments, arms winding unskillfully around waist and neck from both parties until they drew back for a breath. Even if they didn’t say anything out loud, they both knew this was good. Good for them, and good to feel. Just: good. Cobb figured he should break the silence, given that the winds battering their windows weren’t very comforting.
“Wish you’d let me see your face b’fore we start doin’ all this...”
There was a lengthy pause following those words, and Cobb wasn’t sure if he had broken the silence or simply made more. He was more worried, however, about the idea of having created an uncomfortable silence. That was worse than any word unspoken. He couldn’t stand it. The last thing he wanted was to put Din in an uncomfortable situation for his own sake.
“Sorry, darlin’, I jus’—“
“I want you to see my face,” came the abrupt reply.
Instantly confused by the choice of words, Cobb sat up in order to get better bearings on what tone was being used, although securing Din’s hands to his eyes. Despite wanting to stick to his partner’s rule, the mandalorian’s hands seemed to falter. Knowing better than to question it, Cobb decided not to mention something Din might otherwise not want to discuss. Especially when it came to emotions.
Instead, he laced his fingers together with the other’s and continued to press Din’s palms against his eyes.
“How’d you mean?” Cobb finally spoke, which led to a complete dissolve of the hands to his eyes altogether as Din reeled him in close to his shoulder, resulting in his hands immediately bracing the man’s back. In turn, the taller man kept his eyes closed on his own accord.
“I want you to see my face.” He repeated. “I wish you could see it, right now,” Din began, bringing his face in towards Cobb’s head so as to keep the words strictly between them. “But...I think we should keep it like this until I know my way. My own way. A way with you. Cobb...I’m not sure if the way I’ve been living has been real. Children of the watch, my creed...they seem more like lied to followers every day,” he tried to explain. He’d never been gifted in crafting long sentences, especially the emotional kind. Especially the kind where he had to share his own.
Cobb didn’t dare speak in that moment, nor did he breathe a decibel louder than Din, intent on hearing each and every syllable that the man intended on saying to him. He couldn’t bring himself to deprive him of that. Nor himself. Despite the heartache in hearing the other man struggle.
“Maybe if, one day, we decide we want to stay like this for the rest of our lives, here, somewhere in between—I’ll let you see me. It’s going to take time.”
“An’ what if I already decided?”
Although Cobb couldn’t see Din’s face, the subtle hitch of his breath above him following his choice of words was enough to give away how much they impacted him. If there’s one thing Cobb was good at, other than “rootin’, tootin’, raider shootin’” (as he so liked to call it), it was listening to any imbalances in Din’s voice. All thanks to the mandalorian helmet and it’s way of hiding Din he had come to despise.
“I ain’t sayin’ you made your mind up or nothin’, but I’m sayin’ I know where I stand. And that’s next t’you, every day. As far as I can tell—for the foreseeable future.”
The silence fell over the room again, only this time neither man could pinpoint if it was comfortable silence or the exact opposite. It was Din’s turn to break the silence.
“Turn and face me, Cobb.”
Cobb refused to move for the better part of thirty seconds despite the demanding tone of the statement, outright refusing to acknowledge Din talking to him at all. “You’re jus’ sayin’ that ‘cause I was gettin’ all in a twist about it—I ain’t gonna pressure you into breakin’ a creed pack, Din. I ain’t gonna be the one to make your choices for you—“
“No one else is making me do this. I’m choosing to do this. Because I love you, and that’s the honest truth. You deserve to know my face. You’re with me every day, yet you don’t even know how I look. If this is all a lie, somehow, then I think it’s best I do it now in case...”
“...in case I don’t like what I see? That’s mighty considerate of you, Din, but I ain’t gonna stop feelin’ the way I feel about you even if you look like a jawa’s sun-dried ass. I didn’t fall in love with your face. That’s somethin’ I get to fall in love with all over again, the same way I’m lovin you now.”
Din let out an airy laugh at that, his previous reserves slowly beginning to dissolve under the newfound touch of Cobb’s other hand against his cheek. He’d long since left some ways of the creed behind in order to stay on Tatooine with Cobb in the first place. If he wasn’t to give to him his appearance, his full self totally and freely, then what even was the point?
If he knew one thing, it’s that he loved Cobb Vanth. More than anything. More than honour, more than armour. He knew, in his mind, that this was the right thing to do. This was the way.
“Cobb,” the mando began softly, bringing his own free hands up to his partner’s. Despite how obviously he was trying to ease the marshal’s hands from his face, the man still seemed hesitant. “I wouldn’t have let you talk me this far into the thought if I wasn’t thinking it myself. Trust me.” Din dropped his voice a volume lower, taking intense care with every movement. He wouldn’t admit it, not even to himself, but his heard was practically jumping out of his throat.
What if he did have reservations, but he’d just forgotten about them? What if Cobb thought they were moving too fast? Or that he wasn’t what he imagined him to look like? What if Cobb left him—
“An’ all it took was a tiny gust of wind—?”
Having been preoccupied with second thoughts, it was startling to say the least when he heard Cobb’s voice sound out like a saviour’s song from behind his thoughts, instantly panning his gaze down to the direction from whence it came. There Cobb was, looking him in the eye with his own pair of mesmerised browns, looking at him with the expression of a man who’d just seen the stars for the first time. To Cobb, the sensation was similar.
Din opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He was completely devoid of them.
Though he couldn’t say the same for Cobb.
“You’re so kriffin’ handsome...and you ain’t never showed this—“ he whispered in disbelief, brushing his hands slowly over Don’s cheeks and framing his face in an effort to make a point only he understood. “—to nobody before?”
The mandalorian refused to respond, but he knew deep down that Cobb could see it in his eyes. No matter how hard he fought him on it, he knew that man could see right through him. With or without the helmet. The silence was brief, until the unprompted sound of Cobb’s suppressed sobs began to fill the space between them. Din, although still overwhelmed by the situation, knew almost by reflex to cradle Cobb close.
“I ain’t never wanna hear you sayin’ anythin’ about your looks, Din. You’d have to be the biggest goddamn liar on tatooine even tryin’ to say you look bad. Kriff, look at you-“ he exaggerated through a slight whimper, tracing slowly over every finer detail of the man’s face.
It just then dawned on Din why Cobb was reacting the way he was. Why Cobb had been so eager for so long to sleep beside him without his helmet, and why he’d always joked about peeking during the night despite never doing it. He’d been in love with a man who had reserves of loving him back in the very beginning. A man whose face he could even see. And now, here he was, sitting in their bed years later, love unrequited, holding that man’s bare face in his hands. He couldn’t imagine the overwhelming joy he must be feeling in that moment. And he couldn’t express how sorry he was for making him wait.
“You sure you aren’t just saying that?” Din finally asked with a slight chuckle to his words, hoping to ground himself a little more to the reality of the situation.
“I ain’t, I ain’t—I ain’t just sayin’ that,” Cobb chuckled, very audibly swallowing back tears, much to the breaking of Din’s heart. “If you ain’t the loveliest man I ever did lay my eyes on, then I never did have eyes, Din—“
The mandalorian had never been good with words. He was a direct man. A two word input, instructions and planning, straight to the point kind of guy. He’d never been in love before. He didn’t think he was capable. So not only did he realise some years ago that he was in fact capable, more than capable, but that he didn’t have enough worse to catch up with him. So he opted for the next best thing he knew he could deliver at least competently.
Din couldn’t bare to waste another minute not doing everything he wished he could’ve done without a care in the world, cradling Cobb’s face in his hands and sinking his lips slowly into the pair before him, uttering apology after apology. Both men found themselves completely entranced, finding moments between breaths to look over one another’s faces and smile in the aftermath. They allowed this to draw out for several minutes, until both men realised they weren’t exactly immortal and had to draw back for breath.
In the midst of their continued pecks and touches, Cobb sat himself up onto his side, taking increasingly nervous glances towards his partners face. He expected to see any sign of regret on the man’s face, waiting for the mumble of “this was a bad idea”—but it never came. Seeing Din so strangely at peace made him happy. It was enough to relax him slowly into the bed again.
“Y’know this means I get to fall in love with ya all over again, right—?” Cobb eventually piped up, watching intently as the soft eyes sank into his own once again. “I get to take in every detail...and fall in love with it all on it’s own. How amazin’ is that-?”
And then it happened. That laugh of which he was all too familiar, and the smile which he had never seen, both came forward together and could’ve caused Cobb’s heart to burst right out of his chest right then and there. That face, which he had the honour of being bared to, belonged to that of the man he loved most in all the galaxy. He had to count his stars he felt so lucky.
“Din...” the marshal began softly, pressing himself closer to the man beside him who, in that very moment, seemed none the more at ease by their proximity. “...you know how amazin’ you look, don’tchu sugar?”
For every second Din hesitated, each additional finger slipped up into the back of the other man’s hair. Hair which now had a face, and which made it an all the more pleasant experience. It was just how he’d imagined it time and time again, only better.
“Cuter than a...I dunno, gimme a cute critter you’ve seen somewhere—there ain’t none on this planet I seen before you,” the marshal finally huffed in defeat, only to be greeted by a more than welcome breathy laugh from the man beside him.
“The kid,” Din concluded, seemingly pleased with the effortless answer he had given despite the look Cobb gave him.
“Listen, no offence to either of ya, but that kid ain’t got half of what you do. Now c’mere.”
Before he could even begin asking Cobb to elaborate in where “c’mere” was, the other man had already seized the back of his head, bringing him slowly into the unoccupied space of his chest, embracing him if only for a moment. It only then occurred to him that he hadn’t been in Cobb’s position before. It felt—safe. Secure. At peace. That was rare for him to feel. Lying like he was, next to Cobb, feeling like he could do anything, was all the more proof that being open was the right choice for him to make. He wouldn’t go back on it I’m that moment even if he wanted to.
“So you aren’t...not interested? In me?” The mandalorian inquired, only to be met by a familiarly rough hand pushing down his back, less calloused than his own and pleasingly so, and embracing him to the man’s chest before encouraging him to move eye level in the same instance
“We’re...what’s the damn word—star mates, or somethin’, right? I already told you,” Cobb began softly, drawing the man back from him just enough to look Din in the eye once more. “I don’t care what you look like. It ain’t what I fell in love with. I’d look at you all day ‘nd night if I could.”
Both men looked at one another again, a smile sewn onto both of their faces, despite Din being so foreign to the expression that his was lopsided. Cobb didn’t mind. He thought it was endearing, and better yet, felt lucky to be the only one who’d ever seen it, and who ever would. Something about it screamed romance in the best possible way.
“That storm ain’t gonna let up. Should try ‘nd get back t’sleep, Din,” the taller man sighed and, being a creature of habit, went to turn himself away from the mando. Din almost let him, until he came to his better senses. Before Cobb could get the chance, he felt a rough hand find its way around his middle, instantly drawing him back into the arms he had grown all too attached to. Without any need to protest, Cobb settled against Din once more, hoping to drown out the winds from outside as he allowed the enchantment of slumber to get the better of him.
“Love you, darlin’...” the marshal sighed out, only to have one of those familiar, callused hands slide into his now messy head of hair once more.
“You too. Go to sleep,” the mandalorian urged in response, pressing a few gentle kisses into the crown of Cobb’s head. He seemed to relax at that.
“Promise me you won’t put that rusty bucket on b’fore I wake up...” Cobb mumbled, hoping for nothing short of an “absolutely” in return. He was disheartened, however, to hear Din’s response of “no promises,” before tugging the blankets higher up. “But I can promise that you can look, whenever we’re alone. I don’t feel like I’m hunted when I’m with you,” the man concluded.
Cobb seemed to take that for an answer, nodding and allowing his eyes to finally, reluctantly, close over. And in that moment, seeing the man he loved so content knowing what he really looked like, who he really was: it showed him how it should’ve been for a long time. It showed him his way.
This is the way.