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Din confessed his feelings for you through his actions and the way he treated you long before he said them out loud. Even long before he realized he had deeply fallen in love with you. But when he finally came to terms with his feelings he stayed quiet. He didn’t approach you right away. To be honest he wasn’t considering to ever tell you. After all you deserved way better and way more then what he could ever give you. All he had was a rusty old ship and a life full of danger. He was pretty sure you wouldn’t accompany him for long (he didn’t even understand why you agreed to join his little improvised crew in the first place), he knew that you would find something, someone better and leave him. He dreamed the perfect life for you, pushing himself to the sidelines in the process, knowing it was no use dreaming about a future with you because he could never have that. But he never stopped a second to consider that maybe your dream of a perfect future included him.
So, no, Din wasn’t the one to confess first, you were. The circumstances weren’t ideal… okay, to be honest they were quite catastrophic.
You thought you would lose him right then and there because he had been stabbed with a spear right below his protective beskar. He had jumped in front of you and taken the stab that was aimed at you. It was your fault that he was bending forward in pain as he finished the last one, the one that stabbed him, while you could only stare at him in absolute horror, hiding the Child, who was placed in your bag, behind your back. You had been prepared for the pain, you had been ready to protect the Child no matter the cost, you had been prepared to take the hit directed at you. You hadn’t been prepared for Din to jump in front of you. Your body was frozen, your mind screaming in terror as he sunk onto his knees, clutching the wound that was profusely bleeding, staining his flight suit and leather gloves deep red. Only when he grunted in pain, the sound low and desperate, echoing back from the walls of the small street, were you able to break yourself free from your paralysis.
“Din!” you screamed, your voice breaking with tears forming in your eyes as he collapsed on the ground. “No, no, no, no…”
You were panicking. You had no idea how to help him. You only had limited medical knowledge and no bacta with you. You were in some small side street with no one around to help. There was nothing you could do. You felt utterly helpless. The only thing you could do was to press your hands over his wound, watching as his blood coated your hands scarlet red, watching as he became weaker and weaker. “Please, Din, you can’t- I can’t lose you! Please, please, please!“
You begged and screamed, tears streaming down your face. But Din barely moved, only able to grunt in pain as his chest rose and fell rapidly. “Don’t leave me, please… I love you!”
That seemed to give Din a bit of strength back because his helmet suddenly snapped up, staring straight at you. “You-“ he began but was unable to finish his question as a coughing fit forced him to stop. But you understood him and you nodded strong and hard, reassuring him that he had heard you correctly. “I love you.”
In that moment Din was okay with dying, now that he knew that you loved him too, everything felt worth it. But luckily for him the Child was able to free himself from your bag and waddled over to him. Luckily for him the Child healed his wound so he would be able to tell you that he felt the same, that he loved you, too. In your panic you had forgot about the healing powers the little one had.
When Din’s wound stopped bleeding and he felt like he could breathe again without his lungs burning with every sucking in of air, he slowly sat up and just stared at you for a few moments. You were sitting in front of him, holding your shaking, blood coated hands uselessly into the air, not knowing what to do with them. Your whole body was trembling, your cheeks stained with the trails of your tears as you stared right back at him, your eyes still wide in terror and filled with unshed tears of relief. The Child had passed out and was leaning against your leg. You would have grabbed him and cradle him in your lap if your hands weren’t still scarlet red, you would have kissed his head and thanked him if you had been able to open your mouth and from any words. Instead you just stared, your heart beating hard against your ribs.
“You love me?”
You nodded with quivering lips, only able to breathe out a barely audible “Yes”.
Din grabbed you by the elbows and pulled you into a tight hug, making sure to scoop the kid up and onto his free arm. In this moment he didn’t care that he might not be good enough, that he couldn’t give you everything someone would expect or want in a relationship. He decided to be selfish. But what he didn’t know was that everything you wanted was him, that everything he gave you was already enough.
“I love you, ner kar’ta.”
It hadn’t been how you imagined your confession to play out, but in a galaxy filled with danger you probably should have expected it.