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Chapter Text

Din stared at familiar blue eyes. Eyes he never expected to see again. Luke, the boy who used to wear ponchos and had hair that never seemed to lie straight at the back, was the same person as the Jedi in front of him. The one who he had just witnessed taking out a dozen of dark troopers without breaking a sweat. 

Din had never felt more thankful for the helmet that shielded his face, he was sure his mouth was hanging open. But that wasn’t the only reason. He couldn’t stop thinking about the cold stabbing feeling after everything that happened all those years ago. 

He felt like his whole brain short-circuited and uttered the only thing that his mind managed to conjure up.

”Are you a Jedi?”

18 years earlier 

The deserts of Tatooine reminded him nothing of the forests of his home planet. The sun was harsh, hurting his eyes, and the coarse sand was ruthless. The final straw had been the storm the night before that had left sand piled up in the corners of their house.

He slowly dragged his spoon through the rich-blue-colored yogurt in his bowl. If the color itself wasn’t off-putting, the taste left Din having to keep himself from gagging. 

His mother seemed to sense his mood and responded by tracing his face gently with one hand and kissing his head. ”Come on, Din.” She smiled at him and ruffled his hair. ”You can’t judge it so quickly, we have only been here three days.”

”Three days too many,” Din muffled and crossed his arms. 

His mum let out a chuckle laced with amusement. ”I’m sure there is something here to do that you will like. Why don’t I help you sew that hole in your tunic and just have a quiet afternoon?”

Just as she stopped talking his cousin walked in, his cheeks were pink and he looked sweaty as if he had been running. 

”Well that’s too late now…” Din muttered and his mother kicked him lightly under the table. 

His cousin wasn’t...unlikable, but something about his constant positivity made a hard clash with Din’s sour mood. Perhaps if they met during different circumstances he would have liked him more.

”Hi, Din!” he said as he was catching his breath. ”You have to come with us. Luke just got a new model ship.”

”Biggs, how nice to see you”. His mum gave him a pointed look. ”I’m sure that Din would love to come.

Never mind that Din had no idea who this Luke person was and had no interest whatsoever in seeing some toy. But his mum’s expression clearly stated that there was no room to argue. 

So instead he gave Biggs a forced smile and walked after him with heavy steps out through the door. 

Luke wasn’t what he expected. He didn’t know what he had anticipated but it was certainly not Luke laughing at his sarcastic comments instead of them flying over his head as they did with Biggs. 

So when Luke came to their house the next day after breakfast asking for Din. Both of his parents' faces had surprise written all over them as he went after him without as much of a sigh. 

Most of the time they spent together was while helping out with the chores at Luke’s aunt and uncle’s farm. Din found that he didn’t mind that at all. It reminded him of helping his parents at home before all this. He used to gather fresh water at the river every day and help his father catch fish at the local lake. While he knew he and his parents were grateful that his aunt and Biggs had let them stay with them, he couldn’t help but feel restless. The boredom had been gnawing on him, feeling like a dull ache that slowly was building up, like water in a glass that was on the edge of spilling over. 

Luke on the other hand seemed more reluctant at helping out but nonetheless did his part, but not without ardently chatting Din’s ear off in the process. 

”I bet we could borrow your parent's ship and once and for all leave this kriffing planet,” Luke said. 

”Yeah, except that my parents would probably hunt us down and I would be grounded for the rest of my life”, said Din as he wiped the tools from grease.

Luke sighed as he arranged the tools that Din had cleaned into a metallic box. ”I know you want to go just as badly as I do.”

Din diverted his gaze downward and gave a small nod. It had been true once. It was the thing that they had bonded over the first time they met. How much they hated Tatooine and their hopes of leaving as soon as possible. Din knew that Luke was longing for adventure, for experience, for anything other than the sand barren lands that were the only thing he had seen in his life. Din had felt the same, even though he hadn’t lived here for as long, he was already sick of it, missing his friends from home. But he found that he didn’t mind it as much when he spent his time with Luke.

Especially the evenings they spent racing on speeder bikes in the soft pink light, where he would look to his side and watch his friend’s face filled with excitement and eyes twinkling. Or the days like these, spent in the shade, helping out on the farm as the sun was looming above them and the heat made Luke’s cheeks flush. 

”You know I could fly it,” Luke said, limbs splayed out on the floor.

Din rolled his eyes.

Luke sat up quickly. ”You know I could”, he insisted. ”Your dad showed me once.”

”I’m sure that knowing the controls aren’t nearly the same as, you know, actually flying.”

Luke pouted and then repositioned himself back on the ground. ”You’re no fun.”

Din just hoped he wouldn’t wake up tomorrow morning and find the ship gone. But deep down he knew that Luke would never do that. Luke was a bit like the sand storms; quick and no one knew when they were coming. He often rode the speeder bike further than they should, spied at criminal trades, did things without asking his aunt and uncle. But Din trusted Luke that he would never leave him alone. They had promised that.

Din was the one that broke the promise.

Din was walking home one evening. That was Din’s favorite part of the day when the suns were setting and the sky was painted in a soft pink. They didn’t have those at home, the sky was usually covered by thick clouds and you could consider yourself lucky if you caught a glimpse of the sky underneath. 

Din was walking with a skip to his steps when his ears caught voices from inside the house. He knew that you shouldn’t eavesdrop, but he could not deny the curiosity that was blooming in his chest. He shook out of those thoughts and was almost about to walk toward the door when it suddenly swung open. Din just barely managed to duck behind a box before his aunt walked out. 

”You have to understand that I just want you to be safe.” He heard her say.

”If you don’t want us here you could just say-”

”You know that’s not it,” His aunt interrupted his father. ”You know just as well as me, that they won’t stop coming after you as long as…” Her voice trailed off. 

There was a silence and Din thought he heard someone shuffle.

”I don’t know what to do.” His father’s voice cracked. 

”I know someone that could help you, she lives in Aq Vetina.” She seemed to hesitate. ”I know it’s not ideal and I know that you don’t want to have to leave so soon again.”

Din’s heart dropped. Dread was pooling up inside his stomach. Not again. He could hear faintly how their voices continued their conversation but it sounded like they were underwater. 

When he stood up his aunt was gone. Left was his dad standing in the doorway. His eyes widened as he caught sight of Din. 

He felt how tears started to pool in his eyes, staring at his father. Suddenly he ran past him inside the house and slammed his bedroom door after himself. Sliding down on the inside of the door to a sitting position. 

He let the tears roll down in silence, tasting the salt on his lips. 

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he heard a gentle knock on the door. He stopped leaning on the door and turned slightly to face the entrance. 

His father merely helped him up and sat down on the bed. Din instinctively curled up to his side, leaning his head on his father’s shoulder. 

”I’m sorry.” He murmured and gave Din’s head a light kiss. 

”It’s not your fault.” Din caught a pained expression on his father's face. ”I just…”

”I know.” 

They sat like there, neither of them speaking. Eventually, Din's eyelids started to get heavy and he felt himself being repositioned on the bed, and a blanket being pulled around him. The last thing he registered before slipping into his slumber was a faint voice singing a lullaby. 

Their bags had been packed, not that it was much. They had traveled lightly and hadn't had time to pack properly in their haste. 

It was strange to see his aunt standing in front of them with a saddened expression. It wasn’t that she was unemotional usually, but rather that she seemed to be more prone to express positive feelings more than negative. He had never seen her angry or sad, not even when Din had broken a vase in the living room. So seeing her in the morning light, with her clothes flapping dramatically in the wind with tears in her eyes was like experiencing a cold day on Tatooine. 

Biggs was holding his mother’s hand. Din had grown quite fond of him. In the end, he didn’t feel annoyed at all at his enthusiastic mood, but rather the opposite. Someone he could tease all he wanted but not without getting a jab back. He felt like a brother.

Din would never forget Luke's eyes, wide and glazed over when he said his goodbye. His hug was so tight it was almost painful. Din felt his throat starting to hurt when he realized he might never see the sand-covered lands again, or lay in the garden of Luke’s farm and watch the night sky with a faint chill in the air only ever found during the night. But most of all, he was scared that he would never see Luke again. 

”I’ll come back!” Din said as he retreated from the hug.

”You must.”

”I promise.”

Din had never seen anyone look so small and alone as Luke looked outside of the window of the ship as they took off. 

It wasn’t the last time that Din heard from Luke. They frequently wrote messages on their data-pads to each other. Every time after Din got home from school he checked if Luke had written anything new and in the evenings they often talked long through the night. 

It had only been a few weeks since he had moved that he realized what the warm feeling in his stomach was as he thought of his friend. He had thought it had been feelings of friendship, but Din never felt like this towards his other friends. He never felt an urge to touch their hair or feel his cheeks heat up when they laughed at his jokes. He wondered if Luke felt the same, but the thought of confessing his feelings felt unbearable. He didn’t think he could take it if Luke rejected him, and if he stopped wanting him as his friend. If he wouldn’t want Din to keep his promise of returning anymore. 

So Din didn’t say anything to Luke, and they continued to write to each other. He could tell that his mum was surprised when their writing did not stop a few months after the move. He guessed that she had assumed that their friendship would cool off when they couldn’t meet anymore. But instead, he felt like he had, even more, to tell him since Luke wasn’t by his side most of the days. So he told him about his new home, about how the sky was always cloudy, about the people in his school, about the strange woman whose meditation session his mother always made him attend. 

It wasn’t until another few months that Din told Luke. 

But one day he finally got the nerve. As soon as he had sent the message he put the data-pad down and started to nervously pace around the room. He wondered how long it would take for him to answer. Ten seconds, five minutes, two hours, one day? He waited and waited but an answer never came.

It had almost been a week when his parents dragged him to the marketplace. He had been reluctant to come with, but after some persuasion he did. 

After ten minutes Din could conclude that he regretted his decision. Sounds surrounded him; low whispers, and rumbling laughs. He inched closer to his mother, half his face buried in her red robes, squeezing his eyes shut. He felt her hand gently stroking his hair as she talked to the salesman.

With some reluctance, he opened his exposed eye and surveyed his surroundings. A man with his face hidden was speaking to a short man in expensive robes. Their voices were low, making it impossible for Din to hear their conversation in the loud surrounding, but he watched as their eyes shifted and kept their hands behind the table during their trade. Din looked away. 

”Look, Din. They have that fish that you love,” his dad said and pointed to a stall on the other side of the road.

”We could make fish soup to apologize for dragging you with us,” his mum added and both his parents gave him matching smiles. 

But then their smiles faltered. 

A silence stretched out across the streets. It was like the moments after throwing a stone towards the water and waiting for it to catch the surface. Like waiting to hear the thunder after a lightning bolt. And then - 

Screams filled the air as droids filled the place. Their laser shots caused mud to recoil into the air. His dad grabbed his hand as they ran. 

He would never forget how his mother traced his face for the last time. How his dad gave his last kiss ever on top of his head. Their faces as they closed the latch, the sound of two shots on the other side. A sound that would echo in his head forever. 

The unanswered message didn’t feel as important after that.

Chapter Text

The wind was seeping through Din’s clothes with an icy cold that not even the heating of his armor could deter. He was starting to regret ever accepting this job. The damaged droid was dragged behind him as he made his way over the snow-covered ice, his footprints disappearing as soon as he lifted his shoe as the wind pushed the powdering snow around. 

His feet felt like pins and needles and he was longing to make his way back to the ship, and drink something warm to ease the freezing cold that seemed to have made its way into his bones.

He was reluctant to call it ‘his’ ship yet. That title still belonged to the razor crest, and he feared that it always would. Sure, it had been cramped, in dire need of repairs, and had a distinct musky smell over it that had never diminished even after multiple cleanings. But it was home or had been home at least. The new ship was bigger and had a sterile smell, even after a month of use it still felt like he was a guest. Unfamiliar and lifeless. Din suspected that the lack of homelike feeling was linked to something else or rather someone else…He quickly pushed those thoughts away, now was not the time to dwell on that. 

He focused on putting one foot in front of the other as he made his way back to the village. The woman who hired him was at the same spot he had met her, still inside the bustling cantina. She had a cup in front of her that was steaming on its spot on the wooden table. Din thought it was taunting him, the promise of a warm beverage right in front of him but still unattainable. It had to wait until he was inside closed doors. 

She knocked her fingers on the table. “That took you long enough.”

He took the seat in front of her, he hoped his silence somehow spoke for him. 

She didn’t seem surprised at his lack of response and instead cut to the chase, putting a bag of credits in front of him. 

Din opened the bag and counted. “This isn’t what we agreed.”

She looked unfazed, tossing her hair back onto her shoulder with a flick of her hand. “Hm, maybe not.” She took the droid and started dragging it towards the door. 

If this had been a few months back, Din wouldn’t have left the Cantina without the proper amount of credits. He would have demanded her to pay what she promised. But this was now, and Din was exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with the distance he walked out in the cold. So all he did was let out a sigh. 

He reluctantly went outside again, to make his way to the ship. He was surprised by how busy the streets were. Vendors eagerly waved at him to shop from them. Din assumed that the inhabitants were probably used to the snow and wind that seemed persistent on the planet.  

So instead of focusing on the cold, he focused on trying to navigate the street without accidentally bumping into someone, a task that was proved harder than one might think. He had just managed to maneuver a woman carrying plates stacked so high that they were almost tipping to the side when he noticed it. 

Someone was following him. 

Most people would likely not pay attention to it, but for someone like Din, whose life strongly depended on being able to detect threats, it was like second nature. 

To confirm his suspicions the hooded figure seemed to mimic his pace as he slowed down. Din decided to make a quick turn to the left, then another left and then continue straight until making a shortcut through a cantina that had another entrance to another street. He tried to make his route appear as random as possible, making decisions on a whim to avoid any pattern. He had just taken a turn to a desolate alley when he made a sigh of relief. There was no sight of the cloaked figure behind him, he must have been successful in shaking them off. He started to turn his head back to the front-

He jerked back, feeling his heart hammering in his chest. In front of him stood the mysterious hooded figure he had been trying to get rid of. This could never end well was all he thought and then the figure removed his hood revealing…

Luke. 

His eyes had a mischievous sparkle to them that Din guessed came from having caught the stoic Mandalorian off guard. Something that didn’t happen very often. 

”I didn’t mean to startle you, I couldn’t remove my hood in the crowded streets for obvious reasons.” Din thought he seemed a lot more like the farm boy he knew all that time ago, talking fast and smiling than he had at the light cruiser with his calm and intimidating presence.

”Why not?” Din asked, his deadpan earning himself a huffed laugh from Luke.

He seemed to have no plan on answering his question leaving a moment of silence where the reality of what Luke’s presence could mean hit him. 

”Grogu?” Din choked out, worry seeping through every syllable.

”He’s fine.” The Jedi replied calmly. 

”Then why-”

”But his training could go better.” Luke sighed. ”I fear that he has some deep trust issues, and I think he would feel much better with you there.”

Din shifted his weight to his other foot. ”So-” He paused for a second. ” You’re asking me to come with you?” His voice sounded unsure even to his own ears.

”Yes. But I understand if you have other obligations-”

”I’ll come,” Din replied fast. It surprised him how fast the words slipped out, but in all honesty, there wasn’t much else waiting for him. 

Luke smiled his sunny smile again. ”Great.” His smile faltered and shifted into an apologetic expression ”Do you mind if I catch a ride with you? I went here with a friend and he won’t be done for a while,” He said, looking as if asking was physically painful.

Din nodded. ”This way.”

Din hadn’t been around people much in the last month. The only social contact he had was associated with bounty hunting and there had barely been any conversation. Not unlike how it had been before he met a certain green individual. He had never minded before and didn’t understand why solitude had suddenly turned into loneliness, a slow and constant ache that had never been there. An ache that grew stronger every time he woke up during the night, looking above him only to find no hammock hanging there, or when he glanced behind him when he was sitting in the cockpit only to find that seat empty. Only that this time it wasn’t empty. This time it was occupied by a Jedi that seemed extremely arduous in his attempt to get to steer the ship.

”Please? I’m an excellent pilot, I promise.” Luke looked at Din with puppy eyes. 

”No.”

”You’re no fun.”

Din couldn’t help being reminded of Luke as a child, just as whiny and stubborn. Except that this Luke was significantly taller and a lot more deadly. 

Luke seemed to give up his attempts after that and had instead chosen to sit splayed across the chair, sulking in silence. 

After getting into hyperspace Din spoke up. ”Are you-” He hesitated. ”Are you sure this is a good idea?”

”Hm?” 

”For me to see Grogu.”

Luke sat up straight. ”Grogu needs someone he trusts right now, he is afraid of his powers, and he won’t be able to make any progress until he gets rid of that fear.”

The thought of Grogu being scared made Din’s heart clench. He didn’t know why he hesitated, he had yearned to see him, missing him so much that it physically hurt. But deep down he knew why. He knew that if he saw him again he didn’t know if he would be strong enough to leave when the time came. Luke's insistence made it clear, Din would want to help Grogu with his training any way he could, even if it meant he had to leave him again. 

”I thought Jedi frowned upon attachments? That it hinders your training.”

For a moment a somber look came over Luke’s face like a shadow and he suddenly looked much older. But after a blink of an eye, it was gone.

”There are different opinions about that, but in this case, it shouldn’t matter.” 

Din merely nodded. Perhaps it was simply like with Mandalorians, like how different tribes had different traditions about their helmets. But the almost haunted look on Luke’s face made him assume that there was more to the story. He refrained from asking. It wasn’t his place.

Luke cleared his throat. “There is an old Jedi practice to get to the roots of your fears.” He paused and shifted in his seat. “I don’t think he would be comfortable going through it without you.”

There was a slight worry seeping through his words, that made Din turn to look at him. 

“He needs you,” The Jedi continued, his voice barely louder than a whisper. 

Din’s heart clenched painfully, he didn’t trust himself to speak. He had left Grogu when he needed him, and he felt a pang of guilt start to pool in his stomach. 

They were silent for the rest of the flight. 

As they landed Din felt his heart beat fast in his ribcage. They exited the ship and set foot on a meadow. It was quiet, and the wildflowers and high grass were slowly swaying in the wind. On the other side of the meadow was a section of low-cut grass and then an old-looking stone-house that had moss growing on its walls. 

It was from said house that Din caught sight of two small silhouettes making their way over to them. The first one was a young boy with curly dark hair that wobbled in sync with his steps. He had a large smile and eyes twinkling with excitement. Behind him was a slightly older girl, with long thick dark hair tucked behind her rather prominent ears. She ran slower after having caught sight of him, her eyes scanning Din up and down and lingering at his vast collection of weapons. 

”Are you Grogu’s dad?” The boy asked, showing a missing front tooth.

Din gave a curt nod, trying to ignore the warm feeling that rushed over him after being addressed as such.

”Is Mr. Grogu’s dad staying with us now?” He looked at Luke with big eyes.

”Yes for a while, why don’t you introduce yourself first.” Luke surveyed their surroundings. ”And where is Grogu?”

It was the girl's turn to speak. ”He was taking a nap but I told R2 to wake him. He will be here soon.” For the first time she met Din’s gaze with her jaw clenched and eyes determined. ”I’m Cendra.”

”And I’m Saak.” The boy said.”I turned six last week, and we had a party with a cake and candles.”

Luckily Din was spared from having to answer the kid as he caught sight of Grogu waddling towards him. As he got closer he seemed to almost squee with joy, making his way over as quickly as his tiny legs would carry him. 

Din took a few long strides to get to his son and scooped him up in his arms, a weight familiar, one that he so desperately had been missing for the last months. Grogu’s little face was staring up at his visor, with a small hand gently touching the sides of the helmet. Din didn’t know what to say to communicate what he was feeling, how to make the kid know how much he had truly missed him, so he did it the only way he knew; by gently touching their foreheads together. He wasn’t sure if its meaning was known by Grogu, but he hoped that he had managed to get his message across. 

The moment was interrupted by the loud beeping of a droid that was slowly making its way towards them. If Din didn’t know any better he would write it off as annoyed. It almost ran straight into Luke, who swiftly moved out of the way, holding his hands out in front of him.

”Okay, okay, I won’t leave you in charge next time.”

That made Din turn his head sharply to face Luke. ”You left a droid to supervise the kids?”

”I assure you that R2 is more than capable of the task.”

”Is it a nanny-droid?” That caused the droid to utter a large number of beeps that made Luke wince. For a moment Din was scared that it might try to run into him as well. 

”No, he is more of a-” Luke glanced at the droid. ”trusted friend.”

Din huffed but didn’t say anything more.

”Mr. Grogu’s dad,” Saak said. ”Why do you carry so many weapons?”

”Saak,” Cendra scolded. 

”I am sure that our guest has a name he would rather be called,” Luke said looking at Din apologetically. 

”Mando.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. ”That’s your actual name?”

”No.”

Chapter Text

Din’s new living arrangement was…awkward.

It reminded him a bit of when he had stayed at the fishing village a while back, in the way that he felt like he was intruding. Luke seemed to try to be friendly but he seemed unsure of how to treat him, just like most people he seems to have a hard time reading him with his full armor, helmet-covered face with more weapons on his body than Luke probably realized. Din understood that he made a threatening figure, something that was useful in his profession that was filled with hardened people who were ready to do anything to get their way. It was however less useful in the presence of some kids and their teacher, no matter that the teacher had been proven to be someone not to threaten a fight. 

Nonetheless, Luke seemed determined to not step on his toes, not to make him uncomfortable but in that way just ensuring his discomfort. Luke was constantly checking that everything was up to a standard, Din could help but feel guilty for wasting the Jedi’s energy and time when he surely had more important stuff to do. 

But Luke didn’t have to worry. Everything was more than fine. The room he was sharing with Grogu was a lot bigger than the spaces he was used to sleeping in, with a reasonable-sized bed, lush blankets, and a large window overlooking the forest outside. 

Outside was a garden where fresh vegetables were growing. The stream running outside the house was coming directly from the mountains causing the water to be so clear that you could drink it. 

So Din couldn’t wrap his head around why Luke was asking, and he could help but wonder what sort of standard he thought that a Bounty hunter possibly could be used to. 

But it wasn’t only Luke that made him uneasy. Saak hadn’t ceased to ask him a million different questions as soon as he saw him, that left Din unsure how to answer. Especially since Cendra never failed to give him the stink eye if he so much as looked at the younger boy. 

So most of the days he did his best to avoid the others, either by trying to fix miscellaneous things in the house. His last project had been tending to the creaking doors. That had kept him busy for a few hours. Luke on the other hand had bumped into him during that time and given him a strange look, that had even turned even stranger when Din declined to eat with them. Din had only shrugged when he watched the Jedi retreat into the kitchen, he had been quite proud of his achievement of keeping out of their hair. 

The hours that he didn’t manage to find anything useful to do were spent by taking long walks in the nearby forest. The forest was easy to walk in since the tall trees seemed to hinder any other plants growing on the forest carpet leaving it bare except for the leaves that had fallen from them making a soft surface for his soles. 

He usually walked to the lake with its still water and surface looking like a painted canvas with the trees and sky above as the motif. He would usually sit on a stone and just take in the calmness of it all, how still it all was except for the occasional chirping of the birds nearby. Sometimes he would take Grogu with him and he would be frog-hunting but he was rarely successful, it seemed like they had quickly learned to avoid the toddler's grabby hands. This evening he had gone alone, having left the kid who had been quietly snoring, wrapped snugly in his blanket. But somehow he hadn’t been left alone despite this. 

Luke was sitting on Din's usual spot absentmindedly throwing a stone or two, causing the water surface to break out in a number of ripples. He looked startled when he saw him, something that surprised Din, he would have suspected such a skilled fighter as the Jedi would be attentive enough in his lookout for enemies. But looking back on their meeting a few days prior, Din guessed that they were now even with the whole ’startling each other’ thing. 

”Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Din said, his voice interrupting the serene atmosphere.

Luke shrugged. ”It’s all right.”

”I didn’t know you were here.” The apologies felt awkward in his mouth, and he moved to turn around and retreat to the house when Luke abruptly stood. 

”No, you can stay.” He gave him a nervous smile. ”I needed to talk to you anyway.”

”Oh.” Were all the words that Din managed to conjure. A slight uneasiness started to grow at the pit of his stomach, and he sat down beside him on the big rock. The quietness that Din had always considered peaceful suddenly felt heavy. 

Luke was the one that broke it. ”Am I making you uncomfortable?”

Din was taken aback by the bluntness of his question. That was the type of thing he might have said, direct and concise, the common way for Mandalorian culture. He did not however expect it from Luke, a person who, from what he had seen the last few days, seemed to ramble more than anyone Din had ever met. 

Din decided to answer him in the same fashion. ”No, do I seem to be?”

”It’s just that, you seem to be avoiding me, I thought perhaps that you were unhappy with the living arrangements. But I am suspecting it has something to do with me, the way you’re always out, and you never eat with us, you rarely talk. I just…”Luke combed a hand through his hair. ”I just want you to feel comfortable, that’s all.”

Din almost laughed at the absurdness of it all. ”That’s not it, it has nothing to do with any of those things.” Din took a big breath. ”I’m just not used to this sort of stuff.”

Luke looked at him quizzically, hands still caressing the stones he had previously planned to throw into the water. ”What stuff?”

Din looked out on the water that was mirroring the sunset’s orange and pink colors. ”Being around people, I guess. Or more, being around people that don’t look like they are one decision from killing you and stealing your armor to sell.”

”I can understand that.” There was laughter in Luke's voice now. ”Maybe I should tell Saak to start calling you Mr. bounty hunter instead.”

”Well, anything is better than ’Mr. Grogus dad’”. 

Luke let out a huff of laughter, and Din smiled underneath his helmet. 

”He’s a great kid.” He said when his laughter had stopped. ”Cendra too.”

Din nodded along. He shifted position. ”I’ve noticed that she is very protective of him.”

”You mean by glaring daggers at you at every given opportunity?” Din only gave him a curt nod. ”Yeah, well she used to be that way with my sister and her husband first as well.”

Din was yet again thankful for his helmet as he was sure that confusion was written all over it. He certainly didn’t remember anything about Luke having a sister. 

”It will pass, she’s just wary of new people.” He seemed to hesitate for a moment whether he should continue. ”I found them the same way I found Grogu. They had been calling out through the force from the ruins of a Jedi temple. Their village had been attacked, their parents killed and they had been on their own for a long time before I met them. That changes a kid. Saak was younger when it happened and always had Cendra to take care of him, it affected them differently.”

It seemed that it was the same story told all over the galaxy. The story about children in danger, having their family forcibly taken from them. Left to forever mourn a peaceful childhood that never was. 

”I imagine my weapons don't help.”

Luke cracked a humorless smile. ”Probably not.” Then he looked serious. ”Can I ask you something else?” He waited a second and Din nodded. ”Do you ever take off your helmet? It’s just I never see you without it so I was just wondering if there was a reason.”

Din knew that this question would arise sooner or later, it was inevitable. He was so used to the taunts and jokes that someone genuinely asking was so unexpected that he didn’t know how to respond. 

He cleared his throat. ”My creed forbids me to remove it in front of another living being.” Luke merely looked at him just listening to his words attentively. He hadn’t intended to say anything more but perhaps it was the distinct wander in Luke’s gaze, the way he seemed to ponder at his words, lacking judgment and ridicule that made him continue. 

”But as you know, I broke it on the Cruiser.” 

Luke looked at him sharply. ”That was the first time Grogu saw your face?”

When Din closed his eyes he could see the kid’s face in front of him. His clawed hand reaching towards his cheek. There was a burning in the back of his neck, knowing that the Jedi and the others on the bridge were watching the back of his head. He found that he didn’t care. His eyes were fixed on the Grogu and he felt his heart break. 

”I didn’t think I was going to see him again” He swallowed. ”I needed to look at him with my own eyes, just once.”

Luke was looking at him strangely, for a moment his eyes looked glossy, but Din wrote it off as a trick of lightning. 

When Luke spoke again his voice sounded hoarse, almost strangled. ”It’s getting dark, we should get back.”

When they walked the short way back to the house, the forest felt peaceful again. Quiet, save for an occasional bird chirping. 

They settled into a routine after that. Din would help in any way he could, carrying buckets of water to the house, doing the dishes. He even built a woodshed to store all the firewood they used to heat the house during the colder days. 

Luke didn’t expect Din to join their meals anymore and instead settled for leaving him a plate wherever he found him. It didn’t take many days until he decided to join them anyway, even if there was no plate in front of him. 

Instead, he would help Grogu, who was very proficient in spilling food on himself. Resulting in numerous washes on Din’s side. 

It was still stilted at times. Cendra remained apprehensive of him, glaring at him across the table and Din still felt strange in the company of others. But in some tiny way, the familiar ache that had made its way into his heart; the dull throbbing sensation in his chest was easing ever so slightly. 

So one evening when he had just finished cleaning Grogu’s clothes and tucked him into the bed they shared, he put his hands on either side of his helmet and lifted it with a quiet hiss. It was the first time he had shown his face to the child since that day on the cruiser. The third time anyone had seen his face since he swore the creed. 

He could see Grogu watching him with big curious eyes. 

He should have felt scared and vulnerable like he did among the Imperials on Morak but instead all he felt was calm. When he took a hand out to gently caress the end of Grogu’s ear, the kid actually smiled. A small and timid smile, but in Din’s eyes, it was the best thing he had seen in his life. 

He ached to tell Grogu the Mandalorian adoption vow. To make Grogu his child. To make the two of them family for real, not just until he had finished his quest. The thought made him feel warm, desperately wanting to quell the gnawing ache of loneliness that had made a home behind his sternum. But he knows that one day he will press his forehead to Grogu’s wrinkled one for the last time, make his way into his ship and leave. But not today.

Not today. 

Chapter Text

Din had watched them do their routines many times, sitting in the grass a distance away. Grogu would always crack an eyelid open during meditation and look at him with a mischievous expression on his face and then quickly squeeze them shut. It always brought a smile to Din's lips.

But training was different today. 

Din knew that today was the start of Grogu’s one-on-one lessons. The other kids hurried away, looking forward to spending the rest of the cold day huddled up in their blankets inside. 

There was a slight chill in the air that Din hadn’t experienced before. The weather had always provided a warm temperature and clear skies, but the sun was never overbearing with its beams like they were on Tatooine nor was the air muggy like it always was on jungle planets. He figured that the warmer season was coming to an end.

Luke motioned for Din to get closer so he did and Grogu climbed up his lap. 

Din is not a force-user but even he could feel the apprehensiveness radiating from Grogu in waves. 

As he looked at Luke he saw his concern mirrored in his features. ”Grogu, this will not hurt you - and I won’t force you. If you don’t want to do this, I won’t make you.”

The kid seemed to communicate something through the force as Din watched Luke's worry creases smooth out and turn into a loop-sided smile. ”Let’s start, then.”

His expression changed again to a more collected one, back was the calm Jedi from the imperial cruiser. 

”How - will this work exactly?” He found himself asking, clutching Grogu’s hand tighter. Luke had gone through it all yesterday evening but it all felt like a fog in his head. He had to admit that all the magic things weren’t something that he could easily wrap his head around. He was a practical man, after all, had always liked to speak of things that he could see and touch rather than abstract ideas.

”There is an old practice of the Jedi’s to teach how to overcome fear. I stumbled across the texts of the temple where I found Cendra and Saak. There are twenty-four steps - but don’t worry, we will only go through the ones relevant for Grogu.”

Din looked down at Grogu whose eyes were glued on his teacher, his ears perked in interest. 

”The first one is about identifying the fears that need to be overcome, which is where we will start today.”

Luke held out a hand for Grogu to take. ”I will help guide you through your mind to find it. If you want me gone you can just lightly push me away, I won’t pry okay?”

It was quiet for a while, as they communicated through the force. Din used to wonder how much of what he said he understood, never getting any response other than an occasional gurgle. To know that Grogu had been able to communicate all that time but not have anyone that could hear him, made Din’s heart clench, he wondered how lonely it must be to only have your thoughts as company. 

But after the last few months, he was starting to understand.

They seemed to have reached an agreement. Luke took Grogu’s hand in his ungloved one and they closed their eyes. It was quiet for a few seconds and then…

Luke was flung across the grass as if moved by an invisible force, he tumbled and then sat up quickly. His eyes were wide and he had grass in his hair.

”I did not expect that,” he said as he moved back towards them sitting back down cross-legged.

Din didn’t know how to respond to that and was relieved when the Jedi didn’t seem to expect him to. He thought perhaps he should ask him if he was alright, but by his movements, it was apparent that he was. So instead he said nothing, only watching as a wrinkle between Luke’s eyebrow appeared as he examined Grogu with thoughtful eyes. 

Eyes blue as the sky on a clear day. They seemed hard to forget. Din thought that he had, but the way they radiated calm and excitement all at once seemed to tickle something at the back of his mind. Like smelling how a scent could sometimes bring memories to the surface that had been buried deep in the mind.

”Okay, we will try again.” He took Grogu’s hand in his again. 

Din braced himself for the same thing to happen again. But a minute passed and he felt himself starting to relax, it was just as the thought that it had worked crossed Din’s mind that Luke was thrown back again. 

This time Luke didn’t look shocked at the result, merely pensive as he rose, looking ridiculous with his hair all tousled. It made Din feel a sudden ache. Nostalgia, he supposed. 

”Perhaps we should take a break.” This time Luke winced slightly as he walked back to the house.

”You okay?” Din asked. 

”Yeah,” Luke said. He sounded distracted, still lost in his thoughts. 

Din looked back at Grogu in his arms and shrugged. 

Din felt how his knees cracked as he stood up. His age was starting to make itself apparent in recent years. He wasn’t old at all when he thought about it, but numerical age and his physical age didn’t seem to align. The Mandalorian lifestyle wasn’t kind to knees or backs, constantly fighting and taking punches. Din supposed it made sense for his body to ache, even if he was just on the cusp of entering his thirties. 

”Let’s take a walk, kid.”

Din let Grogu waddle the first part of the light incline of the mountain behind the house. They walked next to the stream. Grogu walked closer to it, bowing his head down as to see if he could view his reflection in the water surface as he often did by the lake, but the stream provided no such image, and Grogu resorted to letting the water stream across his palms, cooing at the sensation. Din took off his gloves so that he too could feel the icy water slide across his hands. He removed his helmet and cupped his hands, bringing the water to his mouth.

Grogu was watching him and then tried to mimic him, unfortunately, most of the water had escaped his grasp before it reached his mouth and Grogu let out a disappointed noise.

”Here”, Din held up his hands in front of the kid so he could drink. Grogu’s eyes met his and Din suddenly felt very aware of his bare face as the chilling wind made an appearance. It was an odd sensation, to feel the wind on his cheek, a rare occurrence but not as rare as the sensation of Grogu reaching out to stroke his face. 

It brought back memories of his mother and father doing the same, the kisses on his forehead, and the gentle caress of his hair. It was funny in a way, how Din rarely used to think about his parents, and if he did it was about the day they had died, but how meeting Grogu seemed to bring it all back. He wondered what they would think of him now. He had done many things in the past that he wasn’t proud of but were necessary to protect his covert. He supposed he had sacrificed part of his humanity for their survival, almost so much that he had been ready to leave an innocent foundling in the hands of the Imps.  

Din looked at Grogu as he splashed the water. The expression of glee on his tiny face made his heart feel full. He had never been more thankful for that decision, how he had come back for him. How the sight of the missing metal ball on the controls had made him turn back. He clutched it in his pocket. It had taken a day after he had left Grogu with Luke until he had realized that he never had returned it. It had been sitting in his pocket since Din had developed a habit of touching it when the nights felt too silent. 

It only felt right for it to be returned. 

As soon as Grogu caught sight of the ball in his hand, Din felt how it was tugged away and suddenly Grogu was holding it in his grasp. Din smiled. Not much had changed since he had been away, that was always good to know that some things always seemed to stay the same. 

He slowly laid down on the soft grass, looking down at the house in which the windows were emitting yellow light, the lights must have been turned on recently. Despite it being the middle of the day, the sky provided little light with its thick clouds that were looming over them. 

Grogu laid down next to him after looking at him with the same curious eyes as he had when he had watched him drink. Din got an idea. 

”Kid, let’s go back.”

Din scooped Grogu up in his arms after putting his helmet back on. He figured that Grogu was most likely tired from the way up and wouldn’t mind being carried back. 

Once they entered the house, he suddenly became aware of his muddy boots. Not wanting to make the stone floor dirty, left them just inside the door. 

The door to Luke’s room was open, yellow light flowed into the dark hallway, illuminating their way. The inside was…chaotic. Flimsiplast and holobooks were laying all over the table in the middle of the room. The shelf next to the table seemed to have been emptied of nearly all its contents that were now laying stacked in a messy pile on the floor. Luke was sitting behind the table with his face planted on the desk. His back rose in a slow rhythm. He appeared to be asleep. 

Din cleared his throat. The man by the desk didn’t stir. 

Grogu wriggled in his grasp so he put him down. The kid didn’t waste any time walking to Luke and gently tugging at the hem of his pants. Luke woke up with a start, his head shooting off the table so fast that a piece of flimsi managed to get stuck on his face. He quickly removed it and then looked with wide eyes around the room, he quickly caught sight of Din standing at the entrance. Then Grogu gurgled and Luke picked the kid up in his arms.

”We didn’t mean to startle you.”

Luke hummed and blinked at his surroundings as if trying to make sense of what he was seeing. ”And I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” He frowned as he looked at the chronometer. ”It’s not even midday.”

Luke looked at him again, this time the blurriness seemed to have disappeared and been replaced with a sort of scrutiny that made Din suddenly feel awkward standing in the doorway in his socks. Especially since Din just realized that said socks were sporting a hole where his big toe was poking out from. 

”It must be these old Jedi holobooks that tired me out, they are almost impossible to understand, it makes me tired just to think about them.” Luke sounded alert, probably from having awoken in such a fashion. He sighed. ”It’s just very difficult to find a solution to a problem where the solution is the problem if you get me?”

”No,” Din responded bluntly, and in that way earned a surprised huff of laughter from Luke. 

”I just mean that to address Grogu’s trust issues we have to go through this ritual, but that isn’t possible to do when his trust issues cause him to push me away.”

Luke’s shoulders were slumped. He looked drained, not in a sleepy way, but of someone who had given up. 

”I-”, Din didn’t know how to express his idea. ”I think I know something that might work.”

Luke looked at him, eyes open with curiosity. ”I’m all ears.”

Din suddenly felt silly, perhaps this idea wasn’t the best after all. What did he know about Jedi teachings, he barely knew what they were, having called them sorcerers most of the time. He hesitated. 

”Do you know if that ritual would work on non-force sensitives?”

Luke frowned, taken aback by the strange question. ”I don’t know,” he answered slowly. ”Why?”

Din walked further into the room and ended up standing awkwardly in front of the desk. He felt like a child standing in front of their teacher.

”You’re not the first Jedi I’ve met. Maybe Grogu has told you of our meeting.” 

Luke nodded slowly. ”He has mentioned it, yes, but he never told me why she wouldn’t teach-”

”It was because of me,” Din interrupted. It felt like years ago since that had happened but it was not much longer than a couple of months. Luke looked intrigued and slightly surprised by his interruption. ”Because of his attachment to me.”

”I see.” He shifted in his seat. ”I fail to see how that’s relevant. I already told you that I don’t have a problem with that.”

Din didn’t know how to explain it to the Jedi. Words had never been his strong suit. The things he had thought to say on the way back to the house seemed to have vanished in smoke.

”What I mean is-” He sighed, feeling frustrated with himself. ”Grogu trusts me.”

Luke raised an eyebrow.

”If I do the ritual too, perhaps he will follow.”

Luke merely looked at him and blinked. He seemed pensive as if he was turning his proposal over in his mind looking for pros and cons. Then he nodded slowly. ”You know what, that might not be such a stupid idea.”

”Thanks, for your vote of confidence.”

The Jedi laughed. ”I just mean that I have spent the last hours reading through all this.” He gestured at the mess around him. ”Trying to come up with something that might help and then you show up and come up with a probable solution just like that.”

Din was unsure whether Luke was annoyed with him or complimenting him.

”So will you try it?”

Luke smiled. ”Yes.” He stood up and stretched, cracking his spine in the process. ”But tomorrow.” He walked out the door.

”All this reading has left me starving, so I might try to make some soup.” He paused and turned to face Din. ”Wanna help?”

The open expression on Luke’s face made it impossible to decline.

Chapter Text

The cold weather from the day before seemed to have vanished altogether. Having instead been replaced by a familiar sunny day that they had experienced before. The children were delighted by the change, running around outside barefoot instead of being stuck in the house the whole day. Grogu looked fascinated by Cendra’s cartwheels and tried to do the same, but his arms were too short. He sat back down on the ground with a huff, but he didn’t look defeated for long, being quickly distracted by bugs hovering over the fruit they had taken out for snacks. 

It almost felt mean to disturb the kid, to tell him that it was time for his lesson. Luke was sitting on the same spot on the grass like he had the day before. His eyes were closed in meditation. He looked peaceful in the morning sun, his hair gently swaying in the light breeze. Din was just about to speak to alert him to their arrival when Luke suddenly opened his eyes just as Din opened his mouth. 

”You ready?” Luke asked.

Din’s mouth felt dry, but as he looked down at Grogu, who was gazing up at him with his big brown eyes he felt himself make a determined, if somewhat, jerky nod.

He sat down in front of him just as he had the day before. Only this time Grogu was sitting next to him instead of in his lap and he was the one who reached his hands over to Luke. The Jedi had already closed his eyes so he assumed he should do the same. 

”What do I do?” He asked as Luke's bare hand squeezed Din’s gloved ones. He realized that he hadn’t given the whole as much thought as he thought he had. His focus had been so fixated on trying to conjure up a solution that he hadn’t stopped to think about what the whole thing would actually entail. Could Luke read his mind, walk through his memories and thoughts? The whole concept seemed invasive to him. 

”I will help guide you through your mind to try to find your most profound negative emotion that is inhibiting your growth.”

Okay, so Din might not have mentally prepared for this at all. Din couldn’t resist opening one eye to peer at the Jedi. The serenity of his facial expression almost annoyed him.

As if having read his mind Luke opened his eyes. Sporting a seriousness in them that somehow felt misaligned with his usual playful look. ”I won’t look at anything you don’t want me to, okay? Just gently push me away- and remember gently - I would prefer to avoid being thrown across the grass today.”

Luke closed his eyes again and Din followed suit. He was still out of his depth. Should he think something special, empty his mind? ”Do I-?”

Luke shushed him and Din frowned. ”Just relax, your mind is too loud.”

Din huffed but nevertheless tried to take deep breaths, forcing his muscles to relax. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, Din was fully calm, paying attention only to the rhythm of his ribcage expanding and contracting with each breath.

Then he heard Luke shifting in his seat. ”It’s not working.” He sounded defeated.

When he opened his eyes again the sunlight felt harsh to his eyes. Maybe they had been too optimistic. The ritual had been used among the Jedi, it was nothing that was no way of knowing if it would work on someone like himself. It was a far-fetched idea anyway. 

Din slowly retracted his hands. Eyes lingering on the leather coating his fingers. ”Maybe I need to remove my gloves?” 

Luke moved his eyes a bit to the left as he appeared to consider his question and then started to nod slowly. ”Can’t hurt to try.” He said with a shrug.

He took off his gloves, carefully placing them on the grass next to him. Gloves weren’t expected to have the same reverence by the creed as the armor but they felt as familiar as the inside of his helmet so he failed to see why they shouldn’t be treated with the same respect. 

Touching the skin of another, without the shielding of the familiar leather felt strangely intimate. Luke’s hand was cool and smooth, unlike his own rough ones. He had still kept the glove on his right hand, Din had yet to see him without it. He suspected he had suffered a severe injury preventing him from doing so, but he had never asked. Strangers didn’t go around expecting to know each other's life stories. 

Except maybe for now. If it would work Luke would end up knowing a truth about himself that even Din was yet unaware about.

They closed their eyes again and Din fell into the same ritual as before. Concentrating on his breathing, feeling strangely aware of the warmth of the sunlight on his body that the armor did not cover. 

It happened slowly. A light tug at the back of his mind. It was almost like a knock on the door, a stranger seeking permission to enter. 

Din felt himself accept. They seemed to walk among his memories tapping at the surface, never indulging, just getting the essence of the mood of them. None of them had been what they were looking for. He felt himself start to drift away, like how someone among the waves in the sea would start to lose their direction if they were not sure to keep an eye on the shore. 

That was when he experienced the same tug again, but only this time it brought him back to the same spot he had been before. 

He wondered how Luke would manage to untangle the memory he was looking for. They had accumulated over the years. For the first time in his life, Din could feel them all, the taste of blue milk on his lips, swearing the creed, bringing in his first bounty, saving Grogu. He felt the vastness of it all and he could not help the existential dread that was growing in his mind. All that he was, all his experience, all his feelings, and thoughts were here. It was impossible not to feel overwhelmed by that thought.

He felt the tug again, grounding him, driving him away from the dread that was threatening to consume him. This was why he needed Luke to guide him. He felt himself be pulled deeper inside his mind. The memories in this part emitted a melancholy feeling. He wondered if Luke would choose one to enter but that tugging feeling did not appear again. He had a hunch that he was waiting for Din to make the move. He did not understand what he should do. It seemed impossible to differentiate them from each other, it was like they were sticking together, linked by some impossible force.

Din tried to focus. They all were uninviting, almost hurting if Din concentrated hard. But one, in particular, felt like a stab to his heart, piercing and burning, like an unhealed wound. 

This was the one. 

For a moment he did not know how to proceed until the surface of the memory seemed to break causing him to plunge into it. 

It was disorienting.

He had assumed that he would be able to see the memory, relive it as if he was really there. But the pictures were unclear, the details fuzzy. This only included the things Din remembered, not how things had actually been. It was dark and at first, he had no idea what this memory was, but after a few seconds, he knew exactly what it was.

The helmets were piled up in the middle of the tunnel just how he remembered it. He felt himself lift one. The same burning feeling in his gut returned, hitting him in waves. Everything he had felt that moment was hitting him all at once. The utter guilt he felt for leaving them, and for exposing them for the danger that had caused so many of them to fall. 

He had never regretted saving Grogu, and he did not think he ever would. It had been the right thing to do. It was the way. Just how he knew that his tribe had felt the same with helping him. At the same time, it was a hollow feeling that had been eating away at him from within. His tribe was lost, he did not know if any of them survived and he had no way of contacting them anyway. He had tried to find them and that had brought him no luck. For the first time in his life, he felt completely and utterly alone. 

He had his parents at first and after they had died he had his tribe. But now he did not have anyone, not even Grogu. He had always thrived on feeling useful, working hard to develop his skills during the years, but no one needed him anymore and that was the truth. Soon he would leave this planet and he no longer had anyone to protect. No one to provide for as he had for his tribe over the years as a bounty hunter. 

He had no purpose. 

He felt the tug again but this time it was more forceful, like being yanked by the collar. Then he felt the grass underneath him and Luke's fingers in his hands. He opened his eyes and he was surprised to feel slight dampness underneath them. 

Luke was looking at him with an emotion in his eyes that Din couldn’t decipher. But his gaze felt intense, too intense and the sharp pain in his chest was only intensifying. It was unbearable. All he knew was that all the feelings made him want to flee. So he did just that. He just stood up and left, leaving a confused Grogu and Luke calling after him. He barely paid any mind to them as his legs quickly carried him over the forest floor. 

His heart was hammering in his chest, his breathing hitched. The walk to the lake was a lot faster than usual but he nevertheless uttered a sigh of relief as he sank down on the patch of grass near the water. He let his head rest in his hands as his breathing evened out. 

Jedi magic, he grumbled.

Perhaps Din should have listened more when Luke explained what it all meant. He had been so focused on Grogu that he had not even dwelled on what he would uncover about himself. And just in a few minutes, the Jedi managed to help him put words on what had been bothering him so long, since the day on the Cruiser. Why he barely collected any bounties, why he never stayed in a place for long, why everything seemed so quiet.

No one needed him. 

Din’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of laughter and water splashing. It was Saak and Cendra running into the water. He was first confused about how Luke would let a six- and nine-year-old go swimming on their own until he realized that the Jedi probably could sense Din being there. Another one of his tricks he supposed. 

They were both proficient swimmers for their ages. Cendra was able to pull off an impressive dive from the cliffs that made a platform on the left side of the lake. Saak had tried to do the same but had ended up with a belly flop instead that had made a loud splash. Din had almost worried that he had hurt himself until he heard an explosion of laughter from their direction. They had grown up next to a lake Luke had told him. Saak had learned to swim at three, Cendra did not remember her age. The people who had known were all gone. 

Din couldn’t help but smile as he watched the looks of glee on their faces. He felt a sudden thankfulness towards the Jedi, for saving them and letting them feel those happy feelings again. Din remembered the feelings of hopelessness he had felt after his parents died. How he thought he would never be happy again. How Paz had thrown a smelly sock in his face his first week there and how he had sent a sweaty shirt flying in his direction. Something that had led to a wrestling match that ended with both of them laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. While the hurt was always there, so was joy. He just needed someone to show him that. 

Din was watching Saak making his way up the cliff when it happened. It all felt like it was going in slow motion as Saak took a wrong step on the wet stone. Din’s heart skipped a beat as he watched the boy's foot slide off the cliff, head colliding with stone and body plunging into the dark water. 

Din didn’t have time to think until he was running toward the lake, jumping in with a dive. It was dark but hopefully not too deep he caught himself thinking as he was making his way to the bottom. That was just as his hand collided with something. He felt the hair on Saak’s head and quickly took hold of him as he kicked off the bottom to give him momentum to reach the surface. It didn’t take long to reach the shore, and Din carefully put him down in the grass. He had a deep red gash on one side of his face. Blood mixed with water trailed slowly down his forehead. 

He looked back and caught sight of Cendra’s blood-drained face, looking at Saak with wide eyes. 

They needed help. 

”Go get Luke,” He said.

Cendra gave a stiff nod and then broke into a run towards the house. 

Din knelt down and brought his visor just above Saak’s face. He felt a coldness that had nothing to do with the lake when his visor didn’t fog. No breathing. He placed his hand on his throat, feeling no pulse. He then placed his hands on the small boy’s chest and pressed in a rhythm. 

It didn’t take long until he heard a sharp intake of air. His eyes didn’t open but the sound of him breathing made Din sigh in relief nonetheless. He just sat and stared at the boy for a few seconds. Shocked at what had just happened and scared that he wouldn’t wake up. He watched Saaks eyelids flutter open. He seemed to have a hard time focusing at first, blinking and squinting until his gaze finally settled on Din’s visor.

”What-” until he interrupted himself to turn his head to look around. 

”Don’t move.” Din said, laying a reassuring hand on his shoulder. ”You hit your head.” 

That was when Cendra came back with Luke and Grogu. 

He felt Cendra hovering behind his shoulder and saw how Saak moved his eyes to look behind him. She sat down in front of him, her hand gently caressing his cheek. 

”I thought-” she couldn’t finish her sentence and instead grasped his hand.

Saak gave her a reassuring smile that looked too mature on his young face. ”I’m okay.”

He would be at least, was all Din thought as he watched Grogu waddle towards him, reaching out with his hand, eyes closed. They all watched as Grogu managed to seal the wound making it look like nothing had happened. 

Despite the wonder that was Grogu’s healing abilities, Din felt Cendra looking at him in awe.

”No purpose, huh?" Luke nodded towards the kids. "I don't think they agree."

Chapter Text

It took until the next day for Din to realize his mistake. The events of the day before had left his mind occupied well through the night. He couldn’t stop Saaks pale, cold face from appearing in his thoughts. He knew all too well that dwelling on ’what ifs’ was rarely a good idea but that did not mean he could restrain himself. But most of all he thought about Cendra’s blood-drained face and shaking hands. He feared what would have happened to her if Saak had not woken up, she had already lost so much.

He also had time to process the things he had discovered about himself, through his memories. It had left him disoriented, but surprisingly the overwhelming feelings of dread that had struck him immediately afterward had not returned. Instead, he was left in a strange middle ground between grief and determination. Strangely, even how frightening and difficult the memory had been to relive, he no longer felt lost anymore. He didn’t go around fumbling in the dark. 

With so many thoughts roaming his head it was not until lunchtime when he watched Grogu’s slight snoring as he slept next to him on the bed that he startled. Din walked with decisive steps to the kitchen where he heard Luke roaming around. 

Luke was standing by the kitchen table kneading a dough. He seemed to have taken in the seriousness in his steps and removed his hands from the bowl. ”What got you so worked up?”

”Grogu –” He began. Luke raised an eyebrow. ”I ruined it. Grogu will never want to go through the ritual now that I ran away afterward.”

”Grogu has already talked to me.” He picked up the dough again. ”He wants to do it.”

Din sighed in relief, feeling wisps of embarrassment pool in his stomach. ”Oh, good.”

He had forgotten that they could do their creepy Jedi communication thing. He should probably borrow some of those books that Luke’s office was filled with and actually learn some of the terms. At least he had stopped calling them sorcerers. But he found little good with learning about the culture when he would be gone from here after he was no longer needed. 

”Want to give me a hand?” Luke gestured to the pot on the stove. ”It needs stirring.”

Din crossed the kitchen and opened the lid. A wave of condensation fogged his visor. He lazily dried it with the sleeve of his arm. The bright red soup was bubbling slowly in it and he picked up the wooden spoon from the counter and stirred gently. 

”Is it up to your standards?” Luke asked and Din scoffed at the joke.

”We’ll see,” Din joked back. He wasn’t sure he even had standards. 

”This is a soup that Leia, my sister, taught me to cook. It is from Alderaan, where she is from.”

Din turned his head towards him. He only had one explanation to this sister that made sense to him. ”Was she adopted?”

”She’s my biological twin. We were separated at birth, and I didn’t know about her until after I joined the rebellion. It’s quite a long story.”

Well, that certainly explained a lot.

”She’s the princess of Alderaan and I grew up on Tatooine. Quite a contrast.” He laughed. ”Can’t say I miss the food from there, except maybe the blue milk.” He added thoughtfully. 

Din could still remember the tangy smell of it. He almost thought that Luke was joking but by the wistful look on his face, he appeared serious. Perhaps that was the only thing below his standards. Luke is even weirder than he thought.

He sometimes found himself wondering if Luke remembered them from when they were kids. If he ever thought about the laughter they shared, the stories they told each other. If their friendship had meant more to him than just the fleeting acquaintance of the neighboring kid, that had burned out too quickly. 

It hardly mattered anyway. Din had lost his chubby cheeks and his innocence had been robbed from living in a galaxy full of frauds and criminals. He was as much like that young boy, as the other man in the room. A man who no longer was that stubborn kid who wanted nothing more than to leave his life behind. Who had grown into a wise Jedi fully capable of deciding his own destiny. 

”Any Mandalorian food you’re missing? We could try making it if you want some time.”

Din thought of the stews that made your nose run and throat burn pleasantly. The uj cake that the armorer’s father would make for the whole convert once a week. Sticky and sweet. His heart ached. ”Mandalorian food would be too spicy for you.”

Luke must have sensed the somberness in which he said it because like pushing a light switch the playful twinkle in his eyes was gone. ”You want to find them, don’t you?”

Din didn’t have to ask what he meant to understand the Jedi’s question. ”Yes.” He looked back down on the pot, feeling Luke’s watchful eyes on him as he stirred.  ”If they were alive they would probably have found a way to contact me now, you had no trouble finding me.”

Luke abandoned the bowl on the table, made his way over to him, and put a gentle hand on his elbow. ”You’re forgetting a crucial detail; I’m a Jedi”

Din rolled his eyes, even if the motion was lost to the man in front of him. ”Don’t get cocky.”

”You know what I mean.”

Din huffed and proceeded to stir in silence.

”Is it normal for Grogu to sleep this much after healing?”

Din nodded and Luke retreated his hand, and he found himself missing the warmth of it. 

”I didn’t even know that Jedi could do that until yesterday.”

Din stopped stirring. ”Maybe you should read more in those holo-books of yours.”

Luke looked amused, a loop-sided smile on his face. ”Yeah, maybe.” His smile faded. ”There isn’t much I know about the Jedi.”

He got a feeling that there was more than Luke wanted to say. The silence was heavy. 

Luke cleared his throat. ”I think the soup is ready, can you go and get the kids?”

The food was enjoyed outside, even if the weather was slightly too cold for that. It was only the sunlight that protected them from shivering. Cendra was for the first time talking to him, feeling the need to recount all the different insects that they found in the high grass. Din tried to nod at the right places, hoping that he got it right. Saak was for the first time not babbling away, his mouth too busy with slurping soup to bother, with Luke skillfully maneuvering the bowl when it threatened to spill over the edge. Grogu helped himself to a bowl that he quickly devoured but afterward seemed content to gently snore in Din’s arms. 

A calm and pleasant feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. The air felt easy to breathe, the weight in his arms grounded him. Din wondered if this is what peace feels like. 

The peaceful feeling, however, did not last long. The evening had been uneventful and they all had gone to bed early. Din had just managed to calm his mind enough for the sleep to finally come.

That was when a piercing scream woke him, making him bolt out of bed. He quickly put on his helmet that he had now forlorn when sleeping. His heart beating in his chest as he grabbed his blaster on the way out of the room to make his way towards the source. 

The door to Cendra’s room was half-opened. Inside she was sitting on the edge of the bed crying, backlit by the two moons outside of the window. A quick scan of the room showed nothing, no detected life forms except for the girl herself. It didn’t take long for Din to put the pieces together and when he did he made sure to put away his blaster from Cendra’s view. 

He approached slowly, not wanting to startle her. He didn’t understand how Luke hadn’t awoken, even Grogu had slowly lifted a heavy eyelid even if he quickly fell into his slumber again. 

”Nightmare?” he asked gently. She looked up quickly, looking almost frightened but then relaxed when she realized there was no threat. She nodded slowly. ”Do you want me to get Luke?”

She shook her head. ”He’s already on his way.” Right, the sorcery thing. Din slowly sat down on the bed that gave a small creek, he was unsure what to do. Not wanting to overstep. He knew firsthand how little she trusted new people. 

Luke walked in with long strides and quickly scooped her into his arms. Din slowly rose from his seat, making his way to the door to give them some space, when Cendra caught sight of him, reached out to grab his hand. ”No, please stay.” 

A request that seemed to surprise Luke as much as it surprised himself. He nevertheless sat himself down on the bed again, both of the adults on either side of her on the edge. 

”Do you want to talk about the dream?” Luke asked.

She was quiet for a while, propping her feet up on the bed, resting her head on her knees. ”I – I dreamt of my family. How they –” She took a sharp inhale of breath. ”How they died.” Her voice was quiet.

”I just – I’m never going to see them again. They are gone, forever.” She put her head on Luke’s shoulder. Tears slowly made their way across her cheeks that she made no effort to wipe.

It was almost like deja vu, hearing the words he had uttered around her age being repeated back to him instead. He carried the words of comfort offered to him during those times with him forever. Close to his heart. 

”I’m still alive, but you are dead. I remember you so you are eternal.” Din said. ”It is a Mandalorian remembrance of those who have passed on. Just because they are dead doesn’t mean they're gone.” 

Cendra was quiet, seemed to ponder on his words. 

”You still have your memories of them.” Din thought about his father’s voice singing an upbeat song, food cooking on the stow. How he started twirling his mother around. His mother’s laugh as his voice cracked on the higher notes. ”Don’t they feel alive in those?” 

She nodded slowly. 

”Do you want to tell us about them?”

 And that was just what she did. 

She told them how her little sister would draw in the sand, how her mother told them stories every night, how her grandfather could dance the longest despite his old legs. She trailed off after a while, having fallen asleep again.

They both managed to make their way to the hallway, and close the door behind them without Cendra waking up. 

”I won’t be able to fall asleep after that.” Luke sighed and rubbed his eyes. ”I need a drink, want to join?” 

”I won’t –” Din started. 

” - be able to drink, I know, but just for company?” 

Perhaps it was Luke’s easy smile or perhaps simply the fact that he himself felt wide awake that made him accept the offer. 

Luke poured himself some Spotchka. The blue liquid swirling in his glass. His eyes lacked the twinkle that they usually had and for the first time, Din noticed a weariness that he figured he rarely showed. Din didn’t know if he should take this as Luke trusting him enough to show some vulnerability or if he had simply surpassed a certain limit of exhaustion to care. 

Luke took a large gulp of his drink and grimaced. ”Kriff, that tastes like bantha piss.”

”Familiar with that taste, are you?”

Luke rolled his eyes. ”Not really much of a drinker, especially not now, alone in a house with two kids.” He put the glass back down and leaned back towards the backrest. ”My friend, Han, brought it with him when he visited and probably forgot it here.”

”No explanation needed, you can drink as much bantha piss as you’d like.”

Luke chuckled. ”Cheers to that”, he said as he brought the drink to his lips again. 

They were quiet for a while, and Din was no stranger to silences. He was more comfortable that way, used to making his company feel uneasy. Most people would take one look at him and rarely saw him as anything else than a piece of armor. An empty shell of a man with little else to him than his creed. Din was not sure that he himself thought any differently. But the silences he shared with Luke felt different somehow, instead of being filled with the wariness and intimidation that he was so accustomed to, it was more of a familiarity that didn’t always need words to understand each other.

 Luke broke the silence. ”Thank you, by the way.”

Din turned his head to face him, tilting his helmet slightly sideways. 

”For helping with Cendra.” He paused. ”I liked what you said, and it seemed to help her.”

Din didn’t know how to respond to that so he didn’t. 

Luke sighed. ”I don’t know what to make of you.”

Din frowned underneath his helmet. He didn’t know if he should take the words as an insult or a compliment.

”You’re very quiet but sometimes you say the most profound things.”

Din turned away slightly from Luke, his cheeks burning from the praise. ”I don’t know about that.”

Luke gave him a knowing look. ”I know you don’t,” he said cryptically. 

They got quiet again. Din leaned back on the backrest looking up at the ceiling where the trees were casting shadows in the night wind. 

He turned his attention back to Luke, and the expression on his face made him make a double-take. It almost looked like he was in pain, the desperateness pooling in his eyes made Din wonder what had triggered such a sudden onset of emotion in the man who had just been calmly sipping Spotchka. 

“You don’t have to go,” He blurted out. 

Din felt confused, he hadn’t planned to go to bed yet, and either way, he failed to see why such a decision would affect Luke this way. 

Luke must have sensed his confusion. “I caught some snippets of what you were thinking during the – session.” He seemed unsure what to call it himself. “I made a mistake, taking him from you, without a way of contacting us.”

Din’s mouth felt dry. “I don’t understand.”

Luke sighed, rubbing his eyes. He suddenly looked much older. “I thought I did the right thing. That separation was to teach him the value of detachment, that he would learn to let go, teach him to not let his emotions rule his decisions. But it didn’t do any of those things, all it did was make him – sad.”

He turned his gaze to Din, eyes glossy in the moonlight. “You don’t have to leave when he is done, you can come and go as you please.”

“But – attachments,” Din said, frowning again.

Luke raked his hand through his hair. “Attachment itself is inevitable, the key is to love without possessiveness, without a selfish intent, being able to let go of each other when the time is needed. Something you both have shown you can. To prohibit any attachments was something that in the end became the old order's downfall.” He shifted in his seat as if he was justled from his thoughts and looked Din right on. “I am trying to find my own way.”

He tried to ignore how his words struck a chord in him. His own way. 

Luke turned his gaze to focus on the window behind Din’s helmet. ”I lived my whole life wanting nothing more than to know my father, I won’t rob Grogu of the time he has with his.” 

Din didn’t trust himself to speak, the way a lump made itself into his throat. He swallowed thickly. “He’s not really my kid.”

And he wasn’t. The Armorer had called them a clan of two but that was only until he had delivered him back to his kind, back to the Jedi. He had finished his quest.

Luke raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know if I believe that.”

Hearing those words made something shatter within him. The walls he had built for himself to distance himself, to try to persuade himself that he wasn’t anything more than an adult that had found himself protecting a child for a short amount of time. Now he saw clearly what a lie that had been. 

“Thank you,” was all Din said, the words felt inadequate to the warm blooming feeling that was rising in his chest. 

Later when he went back to bed he kept his helmet on. It felt comforting, hiding behind the visor as warm tears threatened to make their way down his cheek. He had his hand on Grogu’s back, feeling the slow rhythm in which it rose with each breath. It was as the kid could sense his thoughts as he snuggled into Din’s chest, sighing contently at the contact. His son. 

For the first time in months, Din didn’t feel alone. 

Chapter Text

Grogu was up early the next day. Yesterday's rest seemed to more than make up for the exertion that the healing entailed. Din on the other hand did not share his energy. The disruption in the night's sleep left his mind fuzzy and eyes sensitive. So when Grogu woke him up by sitting on his chest, Din didn’t have enough energy to do more than let out a sigh. He tried to fall asleep again, the darkness just on the cusp of his consciousness, it would be easy to tip over the edge to the land of dreams again. Well, if it wasn’t for the kid who didn’t seem keen on that idea, and started banging his hands on the front of his helmet. 

”Ouch,” he exclaimed in surprise. ”What’s the matter with you?”

Din opened his eyes and Grogu stared at him with his big eyes that radiated innocence, like he hadn’t just woken up and decided to harass Din the first thing in the morning. 

Din sighed again. ”I will get up.” Saying it more to himself as a mantra than for Grogu. But as soon as he sat up he regretted it, wanting nothing more than to just lay back down and put the blanket around him again. So he did just that ”…Soon.” 

That earned him another banging fist to his helmet.

Din decided to do some exercises to wake himself up properly. Grogu seemed to be the first one awake, judging by the complete quietness from the rest of the house inhabitants. The sun was just about to rise, the sky a deep purple color. He decided that was enough light for him to go outside. 

The cold air was a good way to diminish the last traces of grogginess from his consciousness. Grogu seemed content with sitting on the porch with a blanket wrapped around him and a cup of tea that Din had brewed him. Din took out his beskar spear. It felt perfectly balanced in his hands as he whipped it back and forth in the air. Repeating the same motions that he had practiced in the fighting corp when he was a kid. 

Din didn’t know for how long he was going on, the sky turning lighter and lighter. Before he knew it the sun was rising, and he stopped in his movements to take in the sight. The first sunbeams reached over the treetops bathing them in a pale rosy light. He had been so immersed in his training that he hadn’t realized that they had gotten company and none of them were admiring the sunrise. Saak was sitting on the porch, his head resting on his hands, alert eyes watching him. Luke was also there, his eyes on Din as he leaned on a pillar. 

“I want to be a Mandalorian, too,” Saak exclaimed in a wistful whisper.

Din tilted his helmet at him. There was not anything forbidding Saak’s wish but he couldn’t fathom what had triggered these thoughts in the kid so suddenly.

Saak’s expression brightened even more. “Can I borrow your spear?” He clasped his hands in front of him and shook them slightly. “Please.”

He looked at Luke feeling a bit unsure. If this was a Mandalorian child he would not hesitate, but feel sure in his belief that they would use the spear safely. He turned to look at Luke, who rolled his eyes as he shook his head. 

“Another time.”

Saak visibly deflated, but seemed to accept it even if his lip pouted. 

“Can I see you fight Master Luke instead?”

Din looked at him sharply. “Why would you want me to do that?”

“As a play fight,” he explained. “You know, where you bet money on who wins.”

Luke’s lip curled in amusement. Grogu cooed and Saak lifted him into his lap. “You heard that? Grogu wants to see it too.”

It was like Grogu just wanted to see him suffer today. Din sighed and turned to Luke. Hopefully he had some way to divert Saak’s line of thought. 

He did not, nor did he seem to want to. Instead, he smiled at Din, his eyes twinkling more than usual. “What do you say, Mando? For the children’s sake?”

Din looked at the two kids again. Saak’s grin so big that his teeth were showing, Grogu watching him with hopeful eyes. 

Din let out a loud sigh. “Alright.”

He waited for Luke to join him in the grass. His mouth was curved into a vibrant smile. The air was charged with excitement, and Din was not sure if the source was the children on the porch or the man in front of him. 

Din licked his lips in anticipation. “You can use your laser sword-”

“Lightsaber,” Luke corrected, laughing. 

Din ignored him. “-against my spear.”

Luke frowned. “It can cut through-.”

Now it was Din’s turn to interrupt. “Not through beskar it won’t. Just don’t strike me in between the plates of my armor.”

Luke’s smile turned even bigger, and Din himself was struck by a sudden desire to spar as well. It was a long time since he had put his fighting skills to the test, longing for the way the blood rushed to his ears, the feeling of adrenaline in his veins.  

The fight went as Din had expected. It was like Luke could sense his next move before he had even thought it, and easily blocked nearly all his attacks. Din was proud that he was still standing upright, thankful that he managed to duck from the Jedi’s blow. 

He managed to aim his whipcord at Luke’s feet  and yanked. He almost looked as if he was going to trip but he cut off the cord before that could happen and found his balance. Din used Luke’s loss of attention to, with the momentum of the turn of his torso, swing his spear at him. 

Luke seemed caught off guard, but blocked his attack just in time, but his arm seemed to be straining at the impact. 

Then, he quickly spun around, making Din step forward at the loss of contact. Luke kicked his foot at his spear, causing it to fall from his grip onto the grass. He then hooked his leg behind him as he pushed him down with brute force.

Din landed on his back with a thud. Luke was standing over him, one shoe on his breastplate and lightsaber pointed above his chin. 

Din’s chest was heaving from the exertion, his breathing loud. But Luke didn’t go unaffected either, with his face red with a glimmer of sweat trailing down his forehead. Something in his eyes made them look even bluer than usual with a spark in them that Din had yet to see before. 

The silence was broken by the loud cheering of Saak and when Din turned his head he briefly locked eyes with Grogu who let out a bubbling laugh.

Din looked away from them, staring at the sky. He could feel the morning dew from the grass slowly seep into his clothes, but he found it hard to motivate himself to move. Just as he was about to sit up a green fist collided with his visor.

Luke was having a good day, his head was clear, eyes alert and not even the depressing gray weather could lessen his spirits. He didn’t know if it was only because he himself was in a good mood or if the other force-sensitive kids managed to project their moods onto him. 

Cendra had been in good spirits since she woke up, despite the previous night's nightmare. She had a certain enthusiasm that made its way through every gesture when she talked, something that was rare to see, but nevertheless made Luke’s heart swell. 

Saak chatted even more than usual this morning, mainly about him and Mando sparring this morning. He seemed to exaggerate every detail more for every time he told it. Luke wouldn’t be surprised if he were to hear the story more than ten times before he went to bed that night, despite being present during it. He was also very hung up on the idea of becoming a Mandalorian, and Luke couldn’t help to be amused as he threw nearly a hundred questions at Mando during breakfast, who stiffly tried to answer them in time before the next question was asked. 

And Grogu. He never seemed to cease to amaze him. Luke could sense that the force was strong in him, but even so he had not known that healing wounds was something that was possible. Sure, it did take a lot of his energy, but with enough training Grogu could unlock an art that would otherwise be completely lost from the world. Luke had for a long time thought that all the knowledge on the Jedi that was left was what his masters had left him with and an occasional relic that he managed to get his hands on. Now, the burden on his shoulders felt slightly easier to bear, not as crushing.

He could feel a tiny hand on his arm and he turned his head and found Grogu looking at him with his big brown eyes. They didn’t have to exchange any words for Luke to understand him.

He was ready.  

It was almost deja vu, sitting on the same spot they had a few days prior. Grogu in Mando’s lap and Luke in front of them in the grass. Only that this time, Luke had no doubt that it would work. The way that Mando had managed to find a way for Grogu to do this despite having to submit himself to give away the privacy of his own doubts and fears made Luke’s chest warm. 

For a hardened man, someone who Luke would guess had to do a lot to survive, to have that utter devotion to a child he had not known for that long. Well, Luke could only assume it said good things about his character, and that he was right to invite him into their home. After all, he took a risk, trusting the word and feelings from a toddler to make his decision. 

Mando brought his head down, and gently let his forehead rest on Grogu’s. Luke wondered about the gestures' meaning, but even without the context Luke could almost feel the gentleness in which he did it, the shared affection between the two. They really had a special bond. One that Luke didn’t know how he could have missed on the cruiser.  

None of the three people there were unfamiliar with what was going to happen. So Grogu simply grasped his hand, and closed his eyes. It shouldn’t take long, Luke made the assumption that Grogu would be better at calming his mind after his meditation than his father. 

And Luke was right. He barely had to wait another second before he was pulled in. It felt no less jarring than last time. While he didn’t know the memories around them, Luke could still feel the emotions coming at them in waves. Like a whisper whose words were too quiet to discern. He tried to redirect them so they wouldn’t completely lead them astray. It would be easy to lose yourself in this, there were more memories than one was able to comprehend and Luke feared what taking them all in at once would do to a person. It was best not to dwell on it. 

It wasn’t hard for them to find what they were looking for. It was almost like a scar, if memories could have scars. Like a great disturbance of the peace of his mind. He waited for Grogu to take command, and when he did…

Luke could sense the utter fear circulating through his body like a poison. Grogu was laying down on a stiff mattress and he could hear the sound of quiet beeping from the medical machines next to him. He could see a tube making its way beneath the fabric of a green arm, where blood was slowly seeping out from, collected in a large plastic bag.

The memory wasn’t just one memory, but a series of them stuck together that was shown one after another.  The images he had seen would haunt him a long time to come. Luke understood now. Grogu’s apprehension of him. His fear associated with anyone who expressed any wish for him using the force. He knew now, after watching Grogu in shackles, after watching them torturing him until he did what they asked. After they took so much blood from him that the whole room felt like it was spinning, and his breathing got hitched. The utter loneliness of a child who wanted nothing else than for someone to hold him, to care for him, to save him.

Luke’s heart broke for him.  

He felt himself return to the present time. The sounds of peaceful chirping of birds felt utterly misplaced. He looked at Grogu, meeting his big brown eyes, and for the first time since their meeting he felt like he properly understood him. 

His feelings must have been written all over his face because Luke could see how Mando gripped Grogu tighter. How could he have been so stupid? To have taken him from the person he had needed the most, the person that had saved him and protected him. That was what he needed to heal, to keep his thoughts from turning dark: the pure and instinctive love of a parent.  

Luke blinked and took a deep shallow breath. He shakily reached for Grogu, taking him from his father's embrace and bringing him to his chest. One hand gently caressing the soft white hairs on his head. 

“We’ll protect you. I promise.”

Chapter Text

The way that Luke was pacing in his study did nothing to ease Din’s worries. They had put Grogu to bed together and Din could feel the protectiveness radiate from Luke like waves as he pulled up the blanket, carefully tucking the kid in. Grogu was out like a light, so different from how Din usually had to spend a majority of his evenings having to chase after him as he giggled with glee at the mischief. 

He was watching Luke from the doorway. Din had never seen him so uncomposed. Gone was the calm and serene Jedi, replaced by…whatever this was. 

Luke seemed to alternate between pacing back and forth in the small room, mumbling quietly to himself, and looking through his books. His gaze was wild and his hair a complete mess from Luke running his hand through it repeatedly. Din wondered if he had noticed him standing there at all, or if he would if he were to talk to him. 

Just looking at him made him feel agitated. “You need to calm down.”

Luke paused mid-pacing, his eyes widening as if he had just been shaken out from a train of thought. 

“Sit,” Din said and Luke reluctantly obliged, looking completely deflated as he sunk down in the chair at the desk. 

Din pushed the glass of water from the edge of the desk towards him. Luke looked at it, considering it, and then gave in and took large glumps, almost panting as he put the glass back down with a thud. 

“Can you please take it from the beginning?” Din said as he took a seat on the stool on the opposite side of the desk. 

Luke nodded slowly but didn’t meet his gaze, busy tracing a water drop that was sliding down the glass with his finger. 

“What do you know about the force?” Luke asked, having finally composed himself.

Din shrugged, other than the things he had seen during his stay here and the time he had spent with Grogu, there wasn't much he knew. But judging by how amazed everyone who had seen Grogu’s powers was, he wasn’t alone in the galaxy with his ignorance.

“Not much,” he settled for. 

Luke looked at his visor, seemingly trying to meet his eyes. “The midichlorians are what gives us Jedi our powers, they are small lifeforms living in our cells. The higher the number of midichlorians in our cells the more force-sensitive the person is.”

Din nodded. That seemed to line up well with the things he heard from Doctor Pershing's transmission to Moff Gideon. That must have been midichlorians that the M-count referred to. 

“Wait- they were going to use Grogu’s blood to donate.”

Luke took a double-take. “You already knew this?”

Din frowned, he thought Luke was aware of the circumstances in which he came to their rescue. That he would have least learned about it from Grogu. The kid had been more tight-lipped about his past, to Luke than he had thought. But in a way that made sense. Luke did say he had a hard time trusting him. “Yes, that was why they hunted the kid in the first place.”

Din heard Luke swallow thickly. He reached for the glass again only to find it empty. He rested his face in his hands instead.

“What is it?” Din asked. 

Luke looked at him again with emotions flowing from him, but not quite as open and unfiltered as they had been the night before when Din had watched his walls crumble before him.

 “I just–” Luke paused and pursed his lips. “I knew that blowing up the death star didn’t make the Empire disappear overnight. It’s just - I’m all that’s left of the Jedi Order, I should protect them, the force-sensitive kids.”

The way he held his shoulders and chin showed determination and maybe a tiny bit of anger. But there was something about his voice, how it cracked slightly on the higher notes, that showed fragility. 

Din wanted to offer words of comfort, to ease Luke’s fears and worries, but words never came easy to him. He was no poet or softly spoken person. The words often came out of his mouth, stilted, blunt, and more harsh than he meant them. 

So instead he reached across the table and cradled Luke’s hand in his own, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You’re only one man.”

Luke looked at him again with those blue eyes that seemed to soften at his words. He slumped further down in his seat and gazed at the ceiling with a look of defeat. 

“I never really completed my Jedi training. It was short and not even close to enough to deal with this kind of stuff. There wasn’t enough time. Not even their force-gho-” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

Din tilted his helmet sideways. 

There was a burning shame in the pit of his stomach. How Luke so easily took on his responsibilities while Din had left the Dark-saber tucked at the back of a drawer on his ship to be forgotten. 

“Grogu is safe.”

Luke nodded slowly with an absent look in his eyes. “Let’s hope he stays that way.”

That absent look didn’t go away for the rest of the day. It was like there had been a switch turned off that removed the previously approachable man. Replaced with a new version of him to whom you needed to repeat yourself five times just to pass you the salt. 

But Luke had spent a lot of time with Grogu, making sure he was okay. Din had seen him peppering the kid’s face with kisses until the kid laughed loudly, squirming away from him. It had brought a smile to Din’s lips, but he could tell that the energy he put into Grogu’s well-being was all that he had, having spent most of his time cooped up in the study, peering over his collection of holo-books.  

Which is why he volunteered to look after the kids the next day. Saak was as energetic as always, talking fast, seemingly trying to tell three stories at the same time during breakfast. However, Din could see some of the worries he had, mirrored in Cendra’s face.  

He tried to supervise their daily meditation, but he found it hard not to sigh at the prospect. It was strange to see such a concentrated look on Saak with his eyebrow drawn together and face blank. Even Grogu could do it and if even a toddler could deal with it, he should too. 

It was easy to tell that he was not alone in this feeling today, however. The kids seemed to shift in their seats much more than the other days. And Din caught them opening their eyes on multiple occasions, even if they closed them quickly again.

It was when all three of the kids decided to take a peek at the same time that Din sighed. “Okay, this is not working.”

Saak let out a breath in relief. “Thank god for that.” He brushed his knees as he stood, not quite succeeding in wiping away the green stains from the freshly cut grass. “Now, can you tell us why Master Luke is so sad?”

Din was taken aback by his question. He had acted so oblivious to the tone shift in the house that Din truly didn’t think the six-year-old had picked up on it. Suddenly he saw the constant smiles Saak gave during breakfast in a different light. 

Cendra gave him an unimpressed look. “We can sense his bad mood even from here through the force.”

Din tilted his helmet. That made sense, he supposed. 

Cendra continued to give him a blank look.

Right. It was only natural that they were curious and also worried about what their guardian found so distressing. It was clear that Grogu hadn’t seemed to want to tell them what they wanted so they went to their next victim. 

“Another time.”

Saak groaned dramatically, grabbing a tuft of grass in frustration, throwing his head back. “You never tell us anything.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.” Din knew this was probably not the most efficient way to calm down the kid. “Let’s go eat,” He continued before Saak could open his mouth. 

The kids made no argument and followed him into the kitchen. He figured by the rumbling sounds of Grogu’s stomach that it would be time for lunch. Except that it was not the wisest choice to trust Grogu’s appetite to tell time. 

Din was no cook. He could probably count the number of meals he had made in his life on one hand. So that trying to make something somewhat appetizing was challenging to say the least. 

He settled for the only thing he knew how to make, a dish he had learned to make not soon after he was rescued. A dish that every Mandalorian should know how to make. Tiingilar . Except that he would go easy on the spices for the present company's sake. 

It surprised him how smooth it was going. He had easily distributed the tasks between them. Saak made the table, Cendra on the chopping board, Grogu trying to steal the meat and R2 keeping Grogu's hands away from said meat. 

It didn’t take long until there was a bubbling pot on the stove. The aroma of garlic and spices spread through the kitchen. Cendra was happily stirring and Grogu and Saak were busy being chased around by the droid. 

So he took it upon himself to get the only one missing.

Leia Organa was not having a good day. She had spent the whole day in meetings so stagnant and tiresome that they were enough to give anyone a pounding headache. But that had not been enough. Instead, she had opened the door to their home to find it in utter chaos. Furniture turned over and toys all over the place. A sight that had made Leia fear for the worst, words like burglary and abduction making their way into her mind. 

That was until she, with a rush of relief found her son and husband asleep on the living room carpet. 

Once the relief had washed off her, she wondered what in the worlds had happened that turned their ordinarily orderly home into utter chaos. Something that she asked her husband as soon as he opened his eyes.

It turned out that having an emotional and highly force-sensitive four-year-old was not the easiest. Apparently, the mere indication that Ben was to spend a day with a babysitter was so upsetting that the whole apartment had to suffer for it. 

Which left Leia with a new problem.

”I don’t want you going on your own,” she said over the Holo to her brother. The plan to have Han go with him had been thrown out of the window, Chewie was busy with his family and Leia had a problem finding anyone else to trust with the task. 

Luke sighed. ”It will be fine.” Even through the pixelated picture, Leia could see the weariness in his shoulders, the exhaustion he rarely let slip in the presence of others. 

And Leia knew that it most likely would, but she couldn’t ignore the nagging worry that has festered in the back of her skull. ”What if you get injured and can’t get back on your own?” 

”I don’t have any choice, do I?” He gave her a brave smile. Luke was the most capable person she knew. The most skilled fighter she had ever seen. But he was also the most reckless when it came to his own life and Leia didn’t know if even the information from an Empire base was enough to risk the safety of her brother. 

Leia heard a knock on the door. She first assumed it had been from her end, it wasn’t rare that her young son had a question that, in his mind, couldn’t wait until after she had finished her calls. But Leia was in the living room and her son was fast asleep in his room. It had to come from the other side of the call.

She could barely contain her surprise when she saw a man clad in Mandalorian armor make his way into the frame. Despite the intimidating impression the armor should have on her, the man made such a timid approach once he caught sight of the holo. The tenseness in his shoulders made him seem embarrassed from having interrupted their call. 

Leia watched as he managed to mumble a few words about food to then quickly turn around to get out of the room. It was strangely endearing in a way, and as soon as she finished the thought she got an idea. 

“Wait,” The sound of her voice made the Mandalorian stop in his tracks. “Get back here for a second.” 

He turned around slowly and turned his visor to Luke who shrugged in response. So the Mandalorian slowly made his way to stand next to Luke’s chair. 

“You’re Grogu’s dad, right?”

The Mandalorian nodded. 

“Luke, you never told me that he was a Mandalorian?” Earning herself a raised eyebrow from the man in question. He didn’t seem to catch on even after Leia gave him a meaningful look. 

She sighed. “A Mandalorian, who can fight. So Han can look after-”

“Oh, oh , I get it.”

She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. She turned back to the Mandalorian who looked at her through that inexpressive visor. 

“You are a skilled fighter?” It felt like she was almost insulting the Mandalorian by asking such a question. Fighting and the Mandalorian culture seemed to go very hand in hand for most parts, but she had to make sure.

“Weapons are part of my religion.” A modulated voice answered.

“Right...” She replied being a bit taken aback by the strong response. “And you’re not imperial?”

The question made Luke roll his eyes at her, maybe a silly question when the literal poster boy for the rebellion was right next to him. If he really was imperial, he would have made his move a long time ago. Not to mention that Luke had met him on a rescue mission to save his kid from the Empire. 

He shook his head.

Leia nodded at Luke again. “Then it’s settled.”

The Mandalorian darted his visor between the two of them. “What is settled?”

“You will go with Luke on a mission to an Imperial base while my husband watches the kids.” She turned to her husband who was looking at his holopad on the sofa. “That’s fine with you right, Han?”

Her husband was clearly not paying attention so she threw a stuffed animal at his head. 

“Huh?” He grumbled in reply. 

She sighed. “You can look after the kids while Grogu’s dad goes with Luke instead?”

He nodded slowly and then opened his eyes wide. “Grogu’s dad? That gremlin frog has a dad?” He then seemed to have caught sight of the holo and let out a yelp making him drop his pad, but then sighed in relief. “I thought you were someone else for a minute.”

The Mandalorian merely looked at him and Leia would have to admit he sure knew how to seem intimidating. Leia would almost have bought it if she hadn’t seen him shuffle awkwardly into the room only a few minutes ago. 

Then the realization that he had just insulted his child seemed to hit Han and she could hear him swallow. “I meant uh, your very nice and polite son.”

The Mandalorian stayed silent, his visor revealing nothing. 

Luke seemed to almost squirm under the sudden tension, so he put a hand on the other man’s arm as if to hold him back. “Okay, good that we sorted that out,” He rambled quickly. “Bye.”

The holo disappeared.

They sat in silence for a few seconds. The living room was a lot darker without the blue light from the call. But she could still make out the pale face of her husband paired with his widened eyes. 

She could barely suppress a snigger. 

“What?” He asked, looking offended at the noise. Something that only made her laugh harder.

“Sorry, it’s just-” She started as she managed to collect herself. “you, calling a Mandalorian’s child a gremlin, right to his face.”

That caused Han’s lip to twitch and soon they were both laughing in the darkness of their living room.

Luke ended the call with fumbling movements. The time he had spent in Mando’s presence had made him better at reading the man’s mood, but still, the Beskar shell was hard to see through. Which is why he didn’t take any chances, even though he had a hunch that there might be a smirk underneath that helmet. 

His hand was still on Mando’s forearm, right in the space between his armor.

He removed it quickly. 

“Are you sure that you’re up for it?” Luke asked. 

Mando gave a stiff nod. “Yeah, why not?”

He wondered if Mando was as restless as he often was. If he sometimes missed the action, the rush of adrenalin.

Luke caught sight of a stain of sauce on the side of his helmet. It must have spilled from a bubbling pot, and he felt a sudden urge to reach out and clean it with the sleeve of his shirt. He kept his hand still in his lap. “That was my sister, by the way.”

He turned his T-visor to meet his eyes directly. “I like her,” He admitted. Luke had learned to trust his words, he seemed candid in all he did. “ –her husband on the other hand…”

Luke sniggered. “Han is a good friend.”

Mando hummed, un-convinced. 

They went silent, not something rare in the present company. Luke used to believe that silences should always be filled. They were synonymous with unpleasant moments filled with nervousness and unease. But the warm silences he shared with Mando were starting to make him question his previous conviction. 

He felt his eyes drawn to the stain on his helmet again, the red making a stark contrast against the otherwise spotless silver. He reached out and gently wiped it away with his glove. He felt his pulse quicken for reasons he couldn’t place and Mando kept completely and utterly still. 

“I’m sorry for locking myself away,” Luke said, his hand still on the side of his helmet, right next to the slopes in the cheeks. 

Din tilted his helmet at him again. Luke got the feeling he was studying him. “You’re allowed to be upset,” was all he replied. 

The plain-spoken way he said it made Luke wonder how anyone could be so honest all the time. It felt like his hand was burning on the beskar, he knew he should pull away but something kept him unable to move as if transfixed. 

The moment was broken by the loud beeping of R2 barging into the room. 

Luke hastily removed his hand and felt his face heat up. “Yes, yes we’re coming,” He managed to croak out. 

As they walked the narrow hallway to the kitchen, Luke’s eyes were fixed on the floor, careful to avert the other man’s eyes. 

In the kitchen the children were waiting on them, the red-colored stew had been carefully put into bowls that were steaming on their spots on the table. 

Luke took his usual place right across from Saak. At the sight of it all, he felt his heart grow a few sizes, feeling a sudden rush of affection for all of them, as they all sent worried but caring looks towards him. He felt lighter. 

His stomach let out a deep grumble at the sight of his bowl. He was curious to test the food that smelled so pleasantly that his mouth started to water. 

He brought the spoon to his mouth and –

Suddenly his mouth was on fire, he coughed and coughed and quickly downed a whole glass of water. 

He looked at Mando who shrugged his shoulders, looking kind of bashful at the moment. “I didn’t use all the spice packets.”

Luke put down the glass again, his tongue was still hurting. “You did say Mandalorian food would be too spicy for us.”

He thought he almost heard a chuckle in response.

Chapter Text

The Tingilaar stew ended up being only for the consumption of the Mandalorian in the house. It wasn’t like Din complained, he had missed that type of food that made your nose run, and tongue feel like it was on fire. But he too remembers the shock of having his first meal in the covert. How he had gone through a whole bottle of milk to try to ease the burning pain in his mouth and on his tongue. 

Din didn’t think he had tasted anything properly seasoned before that. One was very lucky if they managed to get their hands on salt on Tatooine. To think that Luke most likely spent the rest of his childhood and teenage years stuck with that horrid cuisine made Din shudder. He hadn’t known what he was missing. 

In time Din had gotten so used to the spiciness that he had completely lost the ability to determine what level the average person could tolerate. They agreed that if he was to do the stew again he would have Luke supervise the seasoning. 

But until that time Din was happily munching the rest of the portions that the others couldn’t finish. 

Something that he was doing while looking out of the window, watching Luke teaching the children how to levitate rocks. It was hard to see at such a distance but it did seem like the lesson frustrated all of the children, because Din could only see a lone stone hovering over the ground, one belonging to the teacher. 

It seemed odd to Din that Grogu would struggle with the task since he had seen him lift a mudhorn on his own. It had never been much more apparent that there seemed to be a great misalignment between his actual abilities and the ones he exhibited on the command of others. 

He should be scared to lean closer to the window to catch a better view, all it would take would be one of them looking up and they would catch a glance at his helmetless face. He took his chances.

Luke didn’t seem deterred by the lack of progress of his students but continued to gently instruct them, probably mentioning something about really feeling the force and all that. The usual stuff Din caught hearing during the lessons he sat in. His entire face lit up as he smiled at Cendra when she managed to lift the stone a few inches off the ground.

It didn’t take long until all of the children had managed the same thing, and they sat still, eyes closed as they concentrated, their hair swaying gently in the light breeze. That was when an even more of a garbage ship than the Razor Crest had been landed on the landing pad. The stones plumped back on the ground in an instant, laying forgotten as the kids leaped up and started to run towards the source. 

He watched as Luke scooped Grogu into his arms and followed them, although his pace was much slower. The ramp to the ship opened and out walked the man Din recognized from the Holo in hand with a small dark-haired boy. 

The man greeted Luke happily, swinging an arm around him in a quick hug. The children quickly dragged the smaller boy with them, introducing them to a game of theirs that they often played. Din had partaken once or twice when their pleas had got the best of him. He had never gotten the hang of the rules, he doubted even they themselves understood them. What he had gathered was that there was a whole lot of running around, even if the objective seemed to change every two minutes. 

Din felt strange watching them from afar so he donned his helmet, taking the bowl with him to dump into the kitchen sink on his way outside. 

It didn’t take more than a few steps from setting his foot in the sun until he too got a greeting of sorts.

“Hey, bucket-head!” the man shouted from the ship. 

Din was not unfamiliar with this type of person. He could easily see it in the tilt of his hips, the tone of his voice. The ones that would try any trick to make him show some kind of reaction. He would not give him the satisfaction. 

So instead he calmly walked the short distance to where they were standing and looked blankly at the man. Hoping to make him somewhat uneasy. 

Luke, seemingly sensing the tension, was quick to intervene. “So this is Mando, Grogu’s father.” He gestured to Din. “-and this is my good friend Han Solo.”

The name sounded vaguely familiar, like something he had heard in hushed whispers, in some cantina somewhere during his travels. But he had a hard time placing when and where, until it finally clicked into place. “The smuggler.”

The man – Han – held his chin up, a cocky smile making an appearance across his features. “That’s right, the one and only.”

Luke gave him a look that made the man cough. “Retired, that is.” He turned to the children that were happily running around the grass, giggles erupting every here and there when they managed to catch their breaths. “You happen to have some caf? I need something to match these kids' energy.”

They walked inside the kitchen. Din put it upon himself to turn on the caf-machine, taking out two cups from the cupboard and placing them in front of the two friends at the kitchen table. 

If Din didn’t know better he would have pegged the two as brothers. Not because of their physical resemblance, but because of their easy-going banter and teasing. It made him miss Paz, even if the last time they talked had ended with a knife to his throat. 

He was pulled from his thoughts by a shrill beeping. 

The caf was ready, so he took the pot and put it on the table while seating himself next to Luke. 

That seemed to make the both of them ditch their joking manner and Luke once again slipped on his serious Jedi persona. 

“What can you tell us?” Luke asked as he put his hands around the steaming cup.

Solo had opted for pouring sugar in his caf, a questionable amount that made Din’s teeth ache. He shifted in his seat, pulling a hand through his hair. “I think Leia told you most of it. The Senate can’t get themselves involved, it’s way too risky if the Imps caught wind of the Republic interfering.”

“ – and because I don’t work within the scope of the new republic, I am the obvious choice.” Luke moved the cup to his lips but then put it down again. “But why were you to join? I wouldn’t exactly call you an independent party anymore.” 

Solo held his hands out in front of him. “Look, I didn’t say it was a fool-proof plan.” He turned to Din and slapped his shoulder. “Worked out great with bucket-head over here.”

Din ignored him. “What do you want us to do?”

Solo leaned forward, putting his weight on his elbows, lowering his voice even though there was no one there who could overhear them. “There are strange things going on in there. Try to stay low and get as much information on what they are up to as possible.”

Din had made his way into two imperial bases in a short amount of time. One might even call him a veteran. To be honest he had been a bit surprised how easy it had been. He could only hope they had the same luck this time. 

The tense mood was interrupted by laughter from outside the window. The kids were running around chasing each other. Din noted the older ones slowing the pace for the two youngest cases. He watched Grogu almost squealing with glee as Saak was chasing after him, hands almost gracing his back. 

He would do anything to protect him from the hands of the Empire. 

It wasn’t long after the mugs of caf had been emptied that Luke and Mando were standing by the launchpad again. Luke had been worried about leaving them alone with Han. Not because he doubted Han’s abilities but rather that the kids themselves would feel some kind of abandonment. 

But the worry had been unfounded. 

He couldn’t sense any worry emitted from the two older kids. Seeming thoroughly distracted by the arrival of Ben. From Grogu on the other hand he could sense a wave of sadness through the force. But he didn’t worry about it because accompanied by it was a feeling of pride and understanding.

Luke had first had problems with wrapping his head around Grogu’s age when he first heard it. His small frame and infant-like manners made them hard to connect. But Luke could see it in the way he handled the force. How attuned he was to the emotional manners of others. 

His father on the other hand was like reading a blank wall. It was only occasionally that Luke might catch a snippet of his mood. First, Luke had thought it was just his lack of attuning to the force that caused it. But he remembered Ben’s words ‘The force is the energy field created by all living things’ and he strongly doubted that Mando was dead. It most likely had something to do with that beskar armor that covered him head to toe. 

He caught a warm feeling from Mando. He turned and watched as he pocketed a small silver ball. The same ball he had watched Grogu play with many times. He had given his father a parting gift. 

The thought made Luke smile. 

It was the second time Luke had set his foot inside of Mando’s ship. From the outside, it looked like a piece of junk. Probably something pre-empire that was way past its expiry date. But the inside on the other hand seemed to have gotten a renovation, maybe the money hadn’t been enough to restore the outside to the same standard. The inside smelled new and the leather on the seats squeaked as you sat down.

Luke didn’t demand to get to steer the ship this time. He was quite happy with just sitting on the chair and watching the galaxy swish by. It turned out that Mando wasn’t in that much of a chatting mood either and they spent most of the journey in silence.

They arrived approximately two hours after departure. The swamp-filled planet made it impossible to land any closer to the base than a few hour’s journey on foot. The surface brought memories back to his training days on Dagobah, the same humidity that made you drenched in sweat in mere minutes no matter what you did. However, this planet seemed to lack the mist that had made navigation especially tricky in that place. No, there was no trouble with seeing where you were going. 

So he and Mando walked at a calm pace towards the coordinates they had been given. Luke was thankful for choosing against putting on his black boots before going, they would be smattered by mud stains that would be a pain to get rid of. 

Luke grimaced at the sight of the bottom of Mando’s cloak touching the boggy ground, being turned from black into brown. But Mando paid it no mind. He seemed unbothered by most things. Something that made Luke refrain from voicing his own complaints about the heat and uncomfortable walking conditions. 

He wondered how he could stay upright with all that armor and clothes that covered him. Luke was no stranger to heat, he had grown up on Tatooine after all, but that was a different kind of heat. The scorching, dry weather, usually accompanied by a desert wind. Not like this humid and still air, where your sweat did nothing to cool you down. Luke had removed his tunic and tied it across his waist, leaving him only in a tank-top, but he nevertheless felt almost ready to faint if he had to walk another mile. 

Thankfully he didn’t have to. They soon found a good spot to stop for the day. It was getting dark and they didn’t fancy plunging into bodies of water that he couldn’t see. So instead they sat down on the piece of ground that was the only dry patch they had seen on their journey so far. 

It was rather snug, their thighs brushing against each other as they both leaned back on the thick tree trunk behind them. 

Luke ruffled through his bag, taking out the water bottle from which he gulped down the lukewarm water. He held the bottle out for Mando to take but he held his hand up to decline. That made Luke frown but he continued to ruffle through the bag and found two ration bars. Holding the other in front of Mando, but he declined again. 

“Aren’t you hungry?” Luke asked. It had been long since breakfast and walking hours in humid heat was enough to make anyone absolutely famished. 

Mando angled his visor at him. “I am.”

Luke’s frown deepened. “Then, why aren’t you eating?”

He kept his visor facing him but kept silent. Something clicked into place in Luke’s mind. “Oh, right…Your helmet.”

He suddenly felt incredibly stupid. He also couldn’t help but wonder how many times Mando has had to go hungry and thirsty for long periods of time because of his creed. The bars and bottle in front of him started to feel like taunts towards the other man who was unable to partake. Opening up the food in front of him felt borderline disrespectful. 

On the other hand, he couldn’t deny the gnawing pang of hunger that had made itself persistent in his stomach. He wondered…

“What if I turn around? Would you be able to eat then?”

Mando seemed taken aback by his question. The finger he had earlier been drumming on armored thigh stopped. 

The silence stretched on making Luke a tad anxious, almost regretting his words. Perhaps it was a disrespectful thing to ask, to even propose the possibility of the other man removing his helmet. He was just about to open his mouth to apologize when Mando beat him to it.

“That…would be acceptable.” He spoke slowly almost like he was thinking slower than he could talk. 

Luke nodded fervently, putting the other bar in Mando's outstretched hand. He then swiftly turned around so he was leaning against the tree with his side instead of his back. 

He heard a gentle hiss from behind him and Luke mentally braced himself to for the first time feel the other man properly in the force. 

But that time never came. He heard him putting the helmet down, but he still felt nothing from Mando. 

How odd. 

Could someone be so unattuned to the workings of the force that it wasn’t flowing through them? Like someone had been forgotten, left from the touch of the thing uniting every other living being. It seemed unfathomable. 

His stomach let out a loud grumble and he quickly tore open the portion bar. He wondered how anything so flavorless and bland could taste so amazing. He quickly devoured the bar in a few bites. He hoped the food was as satisfactory to the man behind him. 

“Bet this makes you miss that spicy stew back home?”

Mando hummed. “A bit, but I’m not picky.”

His voice sounded softer without the helmet. More velvety and smooth. 

“But maybe Han will have had a taste of it.”

Mando let out a chuckle. A sound that made Luke's inside feel warm. “Let’s hope so.” His voice was edged with micheaviousness. 

“Hey now, don’t be mean to Han. He is a good friend.”

Mando huffed. “I don’t trust smugglers.”

That made Luke raise his eyebrow even if he knew the other man couldn’t see it. “Yet I should trust a bounty hunter.”

Mando didn’t reply right away. “Fair point.” 

It wasn’t long after that, that the Mandalorian tapped him on the shoulder, his helmet again secured on his head. 

It had taken some persuading to make Mando agree to take the first sleeping shift. But Luke was wide awake despite his tired legs, someway along that line he had managed to get him to agree with a huff and then slump back against the tree bark. 

It didn’t take long for his breathing to slow down, and get deeper. Something that had surprised him early in their acquaintance had been how easy it seemed for Mando to fall asleep anywhere. He had lost count of how many times he had caught him gently snoring in the wooden chair on the front porch. He had even found him asleep standing once, leaning across the doorframe, having most likely fallen asleep watching Grogu napping on the bed. 

But on the other hand, it was perhaps not so strange with mind the times he had bumped into him in the kitchen at night. He wondered if his dreams kept him awake as well. He figured it made sense for the man to try to catch up on the lack of sleep at any given opportunity. 

He felt Mando shift in his sleep, making his way closer until their sides were flushed together. It should be uncomfortable, the added body heat to the already warm weather but he found that he strangely didn’t mind. The beskar was digging into his skin and was layered with condensation from the humid air. The absentmindedly slid his finger on the wet surface of his vambrace. 

It was strange in a way how the armored man had nestled his way into Luke’s heart. His quiet and steady demeanor but surprisingly dry-witted at times, managing to draw laughter from Luke when he least expected it. He often wondered how anyone could be so sincere in a Galaxy that seemed to rob most people of their honor and trust.

Mando let out a loud snore and Luke found himself smiling at the sound.

Chapter Text

It was easy to fall into step behind the Mandalorian, he seemed to always keep his pace steady, never too fast as to make them both tired, but just right for this type of distance. 

Perhaps it wasn’t so strange. He had been a bounty-hunter after all or perhaps he still was, Luke wasn’t sure. 

The unfortunate thing about walking was that it kept your mind painfully unoccupied. Leaving unwarranted thoughts to enter freely. He tried his best not to think about how he had woken up with his head resting on Mando’s shoulder. It made his face heat up and he was thankful that he was walking behind the other man, hidden from view.

Luckily, Luke didn’t have to dwell in his embarrassment for too long. Because soon they reached a clearing where they could see the base on a hill looming in the distance. 

The mud got more slippery as they walked, and almost all of Luke’s boots sunk into it whenever he took a step, making a disgusting squeaking sound as he pulled it out. Not only that, the trees got thicker, which was good for keeping them out of enemy sight, but bad for navigation. 

Luke struggled not to laugh as he watched Mando struggle with pulling his foot out of the mud, almost losing his boot in the process. He heard him sigh loudly. Luke took him by the elbow and pulled him forward. “Come on.”

As soon as they reached the hill Luke realized this was going to be a problem. The hill was steep and also slicked with clay. The Imps most likely never had to go out of the base, landing their ships on the launchpads on the platform. 

Oh, well they had to get up some way or another.

Luke took a large leap getting him a third of the height until he slipped on the surface, gliding all the way down. 

He stood up quickly again and tried not to think about how the mud was seeping through his clothes. He looked at Mando who shook his head. 

He watched as Mando fired up his jetpack, shooting up to the sky towards the platform until Luke lost sight of him. What he saw instead was two stormtroopers being thrown off, rolling down the hill. Soon after, Mando landed in front of Luke’s feet. 

“Now you’re just showing off.”

Mando grabbed his waist. “Hold on tight.” That was the only warning he got before he fired up his jetpack again. 

Luke let out a huff in surprise and then quickly circled his arms around the Mandalorian's neck, as Luke felt the rush of air around him. They landed smoothly on the platform on the shaded side of the base. Luke was fast to get away from Mandos' hold as soon as he had his feet on the ground, trying not to think about those strong arms wrapped around him. 

Now was not the time to be distracted. “I am one with the force and the force is with me,” he whispered to himself like a mantra. 

He felt a calm wash over him. 

They were alone for now, no one had noticed the fallen stormtroopers and they would like to keep it that way. 

That was when a loud noise made them look up.

Above them a fleet of ships rose into the air, blocking the scorching sun; casting large shadows momentarily before they rose too high. He couldn’t help but wonder why so many of them left, was the base being evacuated, and in that case, why?

Luke turned to Mando who had a hand on the side of his helmet. “This corridor is empty.” 

Mando walked towards the door and strapped a blinking explosive device on its door and then directed Luke towards the other side of the corner. Luke could feel the vibration in the wall.  

When they came back a large hole was in the door's previous place. “So much for being discreet,” Luke mumbled. 

Mando only shrugged. “There can't be that many left.”

“I hope you're right.”

“It’s not like they can aim anyway.” A comment that made Luke snigger. 

They entered the corridor that was empty just like Mando had said. It was eerily quiet, the only sound being his own steps. He frowned. Right, Mando was walking without a sound. Luke lightened his steps, he was supposed to be the Jedi after all. 

It was strange, as they walked through the base, how they didn’t encounter anyone. Questions kept making their way to the front of his mind. Had all of them already left? Has all the information been wiped? Had they been too late?

He tried not to give in to his worry but by the looks of how Mando’s hand flexed by his side, he figured the same thing crossed his mind as well. 

As they took a right turn, Luke felt the hair on the back of his neck stand out. An uncomfortable feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. He gripped Mando’s wrist guiding them towards the source. 

He wondered what had happened here that had made this place feel so…dark. How something could make your blood turn to ice. He wondered, but he also dreaded finding out.

As they went past the corner, they both found out where some of the stormtroopers had gone. At the end of the corridor stood six of them, three on either side of the door they were guarding.

They both were quick to go back round. He watched Mando grip his blaster tighter and Luke lightened his lightsaber. They both nodded at each other before they both turned around the corner again. 

The stormtroopers fired, but just as Mando had said they were all foul shots. It barely took any effort to redirect their blasts and his partner was quick to shoot them all square in the chest, making them fall down on the floor in a disheveled pile of white armor. 

They walked towards the door that for some reason was unlocked. Security was apparently not a priority here, Luke found himself thinking. 

The room they entered made the hairs on his neck stand out. He shuddered but kept his hold on the lightsaber, its green light illuminating their way. 

A woman was scrambling to pack a bag. Her eyes went wide at the sight of them and were quick to raise her hands behind her head. 

“I- Wha-” She opened her mouth but seemed utterly unable to form any words with it. 

Mando didn’t seem to have any patience for her stutter. Instead, he was quick to pull her by her lab-coat holding a vibro knife to her throat. 

He didn’t say anything, but it wasn’t hard to sense that cold and burning anger that seemed to radiate from him. For the first time since they had met Luke could see why he was such a good bounty hunter. Being able to threaten anyone until they quivered in fear. 

Luke on the other hand knew a much more reliable way to get the information they wanted.

“You will tell us where to find all the information about the operation you have been working on here,” he said calmly. He rarely used his powers this way, it felt like an abuse of power to make people obey his wishes for his own gain. But these were special circumstances and he found that this was probably a lot quicker and less painful than what Mando had in mind. 

She pointed behind them, her finger trembling. “Data-stick over there. Through the red door.”

Mando looked at him, a slight tilt in his helmet.

“Jedi tricks,” Luke whispered.

Luke went in the direction she had pointed in. Making his way through rows of abandoned experiments, deep blue substances in large beakers, a pipette laying on the bench, liquid still dripping from its tip.  

He went through the door that led him into a new room, it was cramped, only one computer and a chair could fit, so it didn’t take long for Luke to find the data-stick she must have referred to. This was almost going too smoothly, he thought as he exited the room. 

It was just as that thought crossed his mind that he saw it. A stormtrooper approaching Mando from behind, and firing his blaster. Luke was just about to call out in warning, but he wasn’t quick enough to get the words out. 

To his astonishment the Mandalorian managed to block the shot with his vambrace, making it rebound and hit the stormtrooper instead. He fell to the ground, dead. 

Luke didn’t understand how he could have seen the stormtrooper from his position, nevermind having the reflexes to quickly deter the shot. He must have some kind of motion sensor installed in his helmet, he reasoned. 

However, the momentary loss of attention on the woman gave her the time to reach for his blaster.

“Long live the Empire,” her last words before shooting herself in the head. 

Luke couldn’t do much more than stare. 

None of them said anything, as they left her on the floor walking further into the lab, taking the door on the other side of her. The cold and haunting feeling was more prominent than ever, sending chills down his spine. 

It was the only warning he got as to what they would find on the other side of the door. 

Din remembered the first time he saw a dead body. He had been in a speeder with his aunt when they had caught sight of some object lying abandoned in the Dune sea. When they got closer it got clearer that it wasn't something but rather someone, lying face down on the ground, clothes flapping dramatically in the desert wind. He had watched in apprehension as his aunt had approached the person, rolling them to their back. The sight that they faced had haunted Din’s nightmares many times after. The face that had been burned by the heat of the sand, skin marred with green discoloration and covered with blisters seemed to have etched its way onto his retina. The same way he was sure that this sight would as well. 

Propped on an operating table was a boy. He couldn’t have been older than ten…when he was alive. His skin cool to the touch, his face deathly pale. It was like his whole body had been drained of blood, and maybe it had judging by the amount of deep red liquid in the bags around him. His eyes were open, face scrunched into an expression of pure agony. 

Din reached out and closed his eyelids, hiding the haunted look in them forever. 

They left soon after. Din carried the lifeless boy in his arms. The darkness of his hair in contrast to the beskar of his pauldron. He tried not to think how similar the weight felt to Saak’s as he carried him to shore all those days ago. 

They buried him next to a lake. It was beautiful there. White flowers decorating the lake bank. The sunlight from the dusk shining through the mist over the waters. 

He wondered how many kids had met the same fate. If Grogu’s would have been the same. They sat there for a long time. Mourning a kid whose name they didn’t know. 

Mourning a kid that never got the chance to grow up. 

They walked towards the ship, the same way they had taken this morning. It was spent in silence, but not the usual comfortable and warm silences they often shared, no this one was different. Like the air had gone out of them both, left them alone with thoughts they were too tired to properly comprehend. 

When they arrived at the same spot they had slept the day before, the darkness had already engulfed them. The moon behind them cast shadows on the ground, long and distorted. 

Din found he had no appetite, and neither did Luke.

Luke broke the silence. “How many kids have they taken?” The sound of his voice felt loud in the eerie quietness of the forest.

Din stayed silent, twiddling a stick between his fingers. 

Luke pushed his legs up to his chest, putting his face in his hands as he let out a puff of air. “He was force-sensitive, I felt it.” He brought out the data-stick from his pocket, holding it in front of his face. “I don’t know if I can bear finding out how many suffered the same way.”

He looked up at Din, behind his eyes was a turmoil of emotion. Frustration mixed with grief and fear all simmering in his irises, lit up only by the white light of the moon overhead.

“They must be protected,” Din said. “But you don’t have to do it all on your own. People can help you.” The I can help you went unsaid. 

Luke gave him a broken smile and reached out to touch his forearm. Din couldn’t help but flinch at the contact. 

Luke looked at him in alarm. “You’re hurt.”

Din shrugged. “It’s just a blaster graze.” 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Luke sounded genuinely concerned, 

“Adrenalin kept the pain at bay.” Neglecting to say how wounds like this barely bothered him anymore. How the only pain that registered was that of the causerator as he was burning the wound closed. Neglecting to say how the dull ache just provided him with something to concentrate on, keeping his thoughts from wandering. 

“Hold on, I think I have a bacta patch.” Luke started to empty his bag of its contents in his search.

“I’m fine, you don’t need to waste bacta on this.” Din meant it. The wound had stopped bleeding a long time ago, having only hit his most external veins. 

It was hard to see the expression on Luke’s face, in the harsh shadows of the full moon, “Won’t risk you getting an infection. You don’t know what bacteria live in these swamps.” His tone was light. 

He turned fully back to Din, who sighed. He recognized when he lost an argument, sensing that there was no point in wasting his energy to disagree. 

Din took off his vambrace and rolled up his sleeve, resisting the urge to hiss out in pain when he tugged at the fabric that had stuck to the coagulated blood.

It looked worse than it was. The dry blood around his arm had turned into a rusty brown. “I thought you said stormtroopers couldn’t aim if their life depended on it,” Luke said his face didn’t reveal anything, he merely assessed the injury and then retrieved his water bottle and a clean rag from his bag. 

Din barely managed to suppress a wince as the wet material was wiped around the wound. “Lucky shot,” he managed to croak out. 

Luke was efficient yet gentle as he applied the bacta patch to his skin, his grip steady, holding Din’s arm in place. He felt his own breath catch. Perhaps it was the calmness of the forest or the emotional toll of the day that made him melt at the other man’s touch. 

It was embarrassing, so Din quickly composed himself with the clearing of his throat. He removed his arm from Luke’s hand, muttering a quiet ‘thank you’. 

Luke didn’t notice that Mando was awake at first. The other man had volunteered to take the first shift, proclaiming that it was only fair that Luke got to sleep first since they had done the opposite the day before. 

Mando was completely still when he slept, only his heavy breathing gave it away. He seemed to have forgone his usual snoring, a detail that never failed to make Luke laugh, even though the noise should have annoyed him. 

But no, Mando stayed silent in his slumber and Luke kept watching as the early morning sun rose over the horizon. Its beams barely meant any difference to the temperature, it had stayed uncomfortably hot during the night. Luke observed as the sunlight was reflected on the beskar surface of Mando’s armor. Luke wondered if he ever thought about painting it, he hoped not. The pure silver suited him. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Mando said. A sound that startled Luke so much that he almost swallowed his tongue.

Luke let out a breath, heat rising to his cheeks. His gaze must have gotten stuck on him while he was lost in his thoughts. “You scared me.”

Mando tilted his helmet at him. There was a way he was holding his body that radiated amusement to Luke. It surprised him how proficient he had gotten at reading the other man’s mood during his stay. A simple tenseness in his shoulders and angling in the hips were enough to give his emotions away.

Mando shook his head and then rolled his shoulders and Luke thought he heard a faint crack from the movement. 

He heard another crack, but this time Mando had been silent. 

He watched as the armored man froze, and then quickly turned to the direction of the source, blaster out and ready in less than a second. 

Luke on the other hand felt no need to prepare for a fight. He could feel their presence in his mind, unthreatening and scared. Luke motioned for Mando to lower his blaster. Mando tilted his helmet again, in a way that Luke had come to know as confusion. 

Luke rolled his eyes. “Trust me.”

Mando sighed but nevertheless put his blaster away.

The bushes moved. Then a green foot appeared, followed by a small twi’lek girl, as she struggled to make her way through the thick branches as they got stuck in her clothes. 

Luke heard Mando let out a breath. 

The girl in front of them was wearing the same white jumpsuit as the boy they had found at the base. Although this barely counted as white anymore, a beige-gray would probably better describe it. Mud stains all over the legs and branches of the thickest parts of the forest must have tugged on her clothes often, giving the jumpsuit a smattering of holes unevenly distributed over the fabric. 

She didn’t look surprised to have encountered them. She did however look shy, looking anywhere except his eyes as her palms rubbed the fabric on her thighs. But she also looked determined, her chin raised and jaw clenched.

Luke tried to look as unthreatening as possible, giving the girl a comforting smile. He was just about to say hello and offer his name when she spoke. 

“Do you have food?” She blurted out and Luke could sense the desperateness in her words even if she tried to hide it. 

Luke dug through his bag and threw a ration bar in the ground between them. He felt a flicker in the force, a wash of relief as the girl slowly scooted forward, keeping her eyes on them the whole time. 

They watched as she opened the ration bar and devoured it at a shocking rate, like someone who hadn’t had food in weeks. And who knew, maybe she hadn’t, going by her sharp elbows and sunken cheeks. 

After she finished she brushed a few crumbs that had got stuck around her mouth with the back of her hand. 

Luke wondered how attuned she was to her powers or if she even knew what they were. He tried to open his mind a bit to her, to make her know that they had no ill intentions.

“I’m Luke”, he said, smiling kindly at her. “What’s your name?”

She surveyed both of them, her eyes studying them with caution. He guessed it made sense for her to hesitate, but she was still just a child, desperate for help. Luke wondered how long she had been here, how she managed to escape. 

She seemed to have concluded to trust them. “Gida’ven.” She turned her eyes to the armored man next to him. To Luke’s surprise, none of the weapons seemed to deter her, instead, she seemed intrigued. Perhaps she had heard the stories about his people. It seemed that way judging by the curiousness simmering in her eyes. 

“Mando,” he said.

Luke had often wondered why he never gave his name. Perhaps it was for the same reason he never showed his face: for his creed. Luke never asked him about it and he never planned to, if he wanted his name to stay private he would let him. It didn’t mean that Luke never wondered how the syllables of his name would feel on his tongue. 

If the name, or rather lack of it, surprised Gida’ven, she didn’t show. Just nodded slowly. It was like she tried to hold off the exhaustion but didn’t succeed very well. Her hand reached up to rub one eye. 

They needed to get her out of there, away from this planet, back to safety. She was quick to agree with that proposal, but her legs were utterly exhausted so she agreed to ride on Luke’s back. 

Mando looked like he was to volunteer himself to the task, but seemed to have thought better of it. Perhaps he realized the beskar armor would not be the most comfortable surface.  

It felt like an eternity until they reached the ship. Gida’ven had fallen asleep on the way. Luke had tried not to think how light she was for her height. They were lucky to have found her when they did. He dreaded to think what would have happened to her otherwise, wandering around a deserted planet. Only a pack of animals lurking in the forest to keep her company. 

He put her in one of the bunks in the ship, being careful not to jostle her awake. He didn’t need to worry, her sleep seemed deep. 

When he got back to the cargo hold Mando had already put the ship into hyperspace. He was seated by the table looking at the data stick that he had pulled out of Luke’s bag lying in the middle of the table’s surface.

Luke took a seat next to him, propping his elbow on the table and chin in hand, eyes not moving from the object on it. The meaning of it was heavy. It held invaluable information about what they had witnessed the day before. But Luke didn’t feel curious anymore. He felt afraid. 

How had he missed something as big as this happening under his nose? He had identified himself as the last of the Jedi for many years now, feeling alone, the only one left of their people. But he knew that wasn’t true. There were people out there, kids out there targeted for their powers, used for some intention only the Empire knew. They were his people too. 

None of them made a move to look at it. It was like they both had decided to wait to look at its contents after they had landed back home. 

So Luke watched as Mando unclasped his shin guards, keeping his hands busy with removing the now dried dirt that coated them. 

He closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind. It should be soothing to listen to the gentle scrubbing from the man beside him, a shift of fabric as he moved his arm back and forth. And it was, for a while. Until his thoughts flooded into his conscience, like a dam breaking. 

He understood why the Jedi sought to keep their emotions from interfering, from making them take harsh decisions. To stay objective and logical in times of crisis. But there were times when Luke was unable to keep his emotions from slipping through. Times were they penetrated his skull, settling in his mind, like a parasite, igniting his fury and feeding his worry. Times like today, when both emotional and physical exhaustion wore him down, mixed with the anxiety over what else they would uncover. He was only human after all. 

He opened his eyes again, blinking as he was taking in the harsh overhead lighting. 

“No luck?” Mando said.

“No,” Luke replied, the defeat imminent in his voice. His fingers tapped at the table’s surface, unable to keep his hands still until he realized how annoying the sounds must be, and retreated them into his lap. 

“Me neither.” At first, Luke didn’t understand what Mando was implying until he noticed the imprecise way of his movements as he cleaned the beskar surface. He realized that the task had been Mando’s meditation in a way. Something to keep him preoccupied, to keep his mind distracted.

Luke watched as Mando put down a half-finished pauldron, one side gleaming, while the other was lacking its usual shine. But Mando didn’t give up in his attempt for a distraction. He just sighed and then grasped the cloth again, continuing to polish the beskar surface until it was shiny enough to work as a mirror. It was satisfying to watch the dirt and grime scrubbed away and it was all he could focus on for a while. Watching Mando work, even if his movements were not as methodical as usual. 

But it couldn’t distract him for long, his mind seemed determined to wander to the events that had passed. He couldn’t stop thinking about how the curly hair, dark eyes, the slope of the nose of the boy they had buried tickled something in the back of his head. He didn’t realize why until now. How much alike he looked to someone he had once known. 

Luke felt a hand on his wrist, jolting him from his thoughts. “Are you –” Mando began to ask then seemed to retract his question, it was apparent that none of them were fine. “You’re trembling”, he said instead.

And he had a slight tremor in his shoulders. Perhaps it was from the sudden cold of outer space, after being so used to the heat. Or perhaps it was the utter exhaustion that seemed to have made its way into his very bones. Nonetheless, he felt Mando put his arm around his shoulders, drawing him in. Luke felt himself sag at the contact.

“A credit for your thoughts”, Mando said, the old expression making Luke scoff, he sounded like a grandmother. 

“You seem to have realized something distressing,” He continued when Luke didn’t answer. 

Luke let out a loud breath and let his head rest on Mando’s pauldron, the motion elicited no embarrassment like they had the day before. 

“It’s just the boy we found. He reminded me of someone.”

He contemplated if he should tell Mando the tale. It happened a long time ago. An old story from his childhood that had stayed with him, like carrying a scar through the years. It wouldn’t do any good to re-open it. But something made the words easily flow from his mouth. 

“I had this friend when I was a kid. He wasn’t only a friend but he was my best friend,” He began. It hadn’t been a long portion of his childhood that they knew each other, but it had been enough to leave a lasting impression. He treasured that time dearly, keeping the moments they shared close to his heart. “His family had to move, but we kept in contact, we wrote to each other constantly.”

Luke fell quiet for a few moments, contemplating how he should continue the story. He often found himself thinking back about what happened next. How he wished that it ended differently. That he in some way had a way to change the fallout even if he knew that living in the past was no way to live. It helped no one. But still, he wondered.

He cleared his throat. “I stole my uncle’s speeder without permission one day and he punished me by taking my communication devices away for a few weeks.” He always felt like hitting himself when he thought about how he didn't message Din to warn that he wouldn’t be able to reply. How he wished he could let him know before–

He shook himself out of that train of thought. He swallowed hard, trying to remove the lump that had made itself into his throat. When he spoke again, his voice wavered, weaker than it had been before.

“I remember when I got my data-pad back, he had written something very private, something that begged a quick response. And it looked like I completely ignored him after that confession.” He remembered how fast his heart was beating as he struggled to write a reply with shaky fingers. He also remembered hearing his aunt call for him to come to the kitchen. How she showed the news article on the holo-net about how Din’s home had been attacked. How it felt like the world was crashing down on him. 

He let his fingers thread to his hair and took a large breath. His eyes fixed on the gleaming armor on the table in front of him. 

“He had died before he got my response, in a separatist attack. Died thinking I hated him.”

He felt Mando tense against him. 

“I never did know why they had to move, but I can’t help but wonder if they were running from the Empire too.”

Mando stayed silent and Luke shook his head. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this.”

He turned his visor facing Luke, and for the first time in days, he found that he couldn’t read his body language.

Mando moved his head, looking like he was about to speak when a sudden noise echoed through the ship. Gida’ven must have awoken. Luke went to check on her, leaving Mando alone at the table.

Chapter Text

Din watched as Luke walked away, leaving him alone at the table. 

It was like his mind was running a thousand miles a second but also staying completely still, both at the same time. Leaving him unable to come up with a single coherent thought.

The uncleaned armor lay forgotten in front of him and his hand was grasping the rag so hard it almost hurt.

He had never thought about it from Luke’s perspective before. He had thought that he had ended their friendship with that unanswered message. He never considered that Luke had found out what happened to his parents. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Of course, they would have found out some way. News traveled slowly on Tatooine but he knew that his aunt would have gotten news about what happened soon enough, having contacts on Aq Vetina. 

Kriff, his aunt. And Biggs. Did they think he was dead too? All those times he had been on Tatooine, tempted to take a speeder to their farm. Just to check, just to know how they were doing. He never had. 

What a mess he had made. 

He dunked his helmet on the wall behind him, a thud echoing from the impact. He should have been honest with Luke from the start. But how could he have? Why submit himself to that awkwardness? He didn’t know if Luke would even care, all it would do would have made things stiff between them. He didn’t know that Luke still thought about that, that he had spent the rest of his time thinking that Din had died. 

He had to tell him. 

A thought that followed them as they landed. As he gathered Grogu in arms, cradling his head against his shoulder, sighing in relief. 

Din had never been a morning person. If he got up early it was most likely done out of necessity other than free will. So he was surprised when he found himself wide awake at six in the morning. He tossed and turned, as he tried desperately for sleep to take him. He had no luck.

Perhaps it was the fact how strange it felt to sleep in a bed again, having slept on the ground the two previous nights. Or perhaps it was the guilt that was weighing his conscience, an ugly and painful reminder that had festered in the front of his mind. 

He gave up, and tossed the blanket aside, then remembered that Grogu was sleeping next to him and carefully removed the blanket from his face and gently tucked him in. 

His armor was arranged on the desk, some parts glimmering while others were matte, as he never finished his polishing yesterday. He put it on slowly, watching his son snoring in his blankets as he tightened the clasps and lastly put on the helmet, turning the room from a dark purple into a dim gray. 

What he expected to find as he entered the kitchen was perhaps the dishes from yesterday piled up in the sink, the drawings that the kids had made before bed left on the kitchen table. It made Din’s inside feel warm just to think about the green blob and the gray blob that Grogu had drawn, even if Luke had to translate what they were meant to represent. 

What he had not expected as he entered the kitchen early in the morning was to have company. Not that it would be that strange, Luke was after all an early riser, and children sometimes had a knack for waking early on days where you yourself had a desperate desire to sleep in. 

But the person at the kitchen table was not anyone he had ever met before. Not even that scruffy-looking smuggler. No, before him sat a dark-haired woman, eyeing him with great interest. It was hard to tell from her sitting down, but she didn’t look like a particularly tall person, but there was something in her eyes that showed a fierceness and personality far bigger than what her frame should be able to contain. It was the woman from the holo, Luke’s sister. 

It would be hard to guess from just her appearance that they were related. Her eyes were brown whereas his were sky-blue. Her hair was dark whereas his didn’t seem to have made up its mind whether it was blonde or brown and could easily change depending on lightning. But no matter the fact that their features didn’t look much alike, there was something in the way they held themselves, something in their eyes. Like stubbornness and an air of competence that connected them. 

When she caught sight of him, she didn’t look surprised. Her lip curled and she put back the cup of caf on the table, leaning across the table, as she peered at him over her datapad. 

She was a senator, that was one of the few facts he knew about her, something Luke had been quick to say. Din didn’t know much about politics or how to deal with core-people so he thought that maybe if he was quick to fill up his cup of caf and leave, he wouldn’t have to talk to her.  

Perhaps too much wishful thinking because as soon as he finished filling his cup, she motioned him to sit down. Din didn’t much want to be rude so he did, the backrest digging into his spine as he leaned back in the chair. 

“Nice to finally meet you, Mando,” She said and Din had a hard time telling if she was being sincere or if it was just one of those things that high-ranking people said to be polite. 

It occurred perhaps a bit late that she was expecting a response, he blamed it on the time of the day. “Likewise…” He responded slowly.

She pressed her lips together, and Din was surprised to see her oddly amused. “You have no idea who I am, do you?”

“Luke’s sister? A senator?” He responded.

She smiled. “Luke told you that I assume?”

“Well, yes.” Din felt strangely caught off guard, feeling uncomfortable about how easily she could read him. He assumed such people-skills probably came from her job, having to be able to tell what those politicians were actually meaning with their words. Din had only had the misfortunes having crossed paths with one once or twice during his life, encounters that had left him completely confused about their intentions. 

Din struggled with knowing what to say, he was a complete stranger when it came to small talk. 

“I heard some rumors about a new Mand’alor. Maybe you know something about that?” She asked him. 

Din froze, fearing that he would give something away if he were to speak. He would take any other subject to talk about other than that. He could speak about the weather, converse about their hobbies, about their favorite colors. Anything other than this.

He didn’t know that the news of the Darksaber had traveled to the senators of the Republic. For the second time within the span of hours, he felt like a complete idiot. How could he be so naive? Of course the Republic would stick their nose into this. He had never wished to be drawn into this. He was no leader. 

He hadn’t even looked at the Darksaber since that fateful day on the Imperial Cruiser. All he wanted was to get rid of it. He didn’t know what to do with it, how to reclaim a planet that had turned to glass, a planet he had never set foot on. How he just wished that Bo-Katan had taken it when he offered it to her, how much easier it would be. Instead, he was trapped with a responsibility he had no intention of fulfilling and one he didn’t know how to get out of. 

To his astonishment, the woman who had no problem reading him before must have misinterpreted his panic as something else, because she just shrugged. “It was worth a shot. You Mandalorians are always so secretive.”

Din’s mouth felt dry, he didn’t know if he would be able to speak even if he wanted to. Desperately wished to drink the caf, to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth. He swallowed thickly. 

“I had a look at what was on the data-stick”, she said, changing the subject. Her tone had changed, there was nothing warm about it anymore. “I’m just waiting for Luke to get here before we talk, he will be here any minute.”

That made Din wonder if she too had the force, they were twins after all. He didn’t know if force-powers were something genetic, but it did seem plausible. Or maybe she had just heard his footsteps on the floor above. Din knew how one could learn to identify people based on things like that like the sounds they made walking down the stairs. He had once, with his tribe. 

When Luke made his way into the kitchen, Din was alarmed at how tired he looked. His shirt was rumpled, dark shadows underneath his eyes and hair a complete mess. He was so used to Luke caring a lot about his appearance, always wearing clean and well-fitted clothes, his hair combed neatly, that the change caught Din off guard. 

“There was a lot of information on that datastick,” She said once Luke had sat down next to Din. “More information than one could go through in just a few hours, but I think I gathered the main parts.” 

The way she was speaking sounded rehearsed, monotone like she was afraid of giving in to emotion. “They are after the midi-chlorians, and extract them from their cells and then grow them in cultures.” She sighed and smoothed out a wrinkle on her forehead. “They then proceeded to inject the…subject with the increased concentration of midi-chlorians into his bloodstream. What they didn’t seem to have counted on was that midi-chlorians are only ever present inside a person's cells. The immune system interpreted this as cellular injury and triggered an immune response”. 

Din looked at Luke who furrowed his brow. He guessed he wasn’t the only one with limited biology education. 

“The immune response got so strong that it…killed him.” 

She lapsed into silence, and then cleared her throat and looked her brother in the eye. “They wish to make a force-sensitive army, and then be able to make their powers stronger.”

It shouldn’t be surprising. Din thought he had anticipated it in some way, it was a very likely scenario but something he wished to be proven wrong about so much that he hadn’t properly understood it yet. 

A force-sensitive army. 

Leia didn’t seem to be able to properly hold back her emotions anymore when she looked at Luke. Luke himself had stiffened, shoulders high and arms wrapped around himself. He didn’t look surprised, just tired and defeated. 

Din felt the familiar feeling of guilt gnawing at him from the inside. To think that he had played a role in this child abuse that the Empire had elicited, that he had been ready to turn a child in just to suffer for their way to power. 

He had never seen himself as a political person. Those things matter little in the outer rim, where most people did what they had to do to survive. It had never affected him, at least he had not had the time to notice it. 

How that had changed. 

He looked at Luke and knew that even though he shouldn’t be alone at carrying the burden of the protection of an entire culture, he couldn’t help to feel strangely proud. Luke never quivered from what he felt as his responsibilities. He was too caring for that. 

That was how a leader should be. Kind and true. 

Din found himself standing by the launch pad, something he seemed to have done a lot in recent days. He watched as Leia gave Luke a bone-crushing hug, kissing him on the cheek as they parted. 

Solo had already entered the ship carrying a sleeping toddler inside. Ben was utterly exhausted after playing with Saak and Cendra for so long. 

They were taking Gida’ven with them. She had to be checked at a Medcenter, much to the girl's protests. None of them truly knew what horrors she had to endure back at the imperial lab, nor did anyone know what the time she had spent roaming around in the forest had done to her. The little time he had spent with her, he had gathered a few things about her and that was that she was terribly stubborn, almost worse than Grogu on doing what she was told, which was saying something.

She did, however, give in after a long argument. Entering the ship with a huff and a roll of her eyes. 

Din caught sight of Cendra, her eyes trailing after the other girl. He had noticed that she seemed completely fascinated with her, even though she was nervous when confronted with the disrespect Gida’ven seemed to have towards Luke’s so-called house rules. She had only been awake for a few hours, but one of the first things Din had seen was her trying to sneak a few of the cookies from the highest shelf. Cendra had been watching her from the floor, apprehensiveness written all over her face. 

The sight had almost made Din laugh. It brought back memories of Tatooine. How Luke had been the one always looking for trouble when Din was standing anxiously on the sidelines, desperately not wanting them to get into trouble. 

Which reminded him of the fact that had burned at the pit of his stomach the whole day. He had to tell Luke. It felt impossible to keep this from him any longer. But that didn’t stop the nausea that seemed to get to him every time he thought about starting the conversation. 

He had no idea how Luke would react. Would he be angry about him keeping his identity from him this whole time? Would he be upset that he never contacted him after the day of the attack? So many questions were roaming in his head that he had problems keeping his thoughts straight. It was however one thought that was resilient, the only thought that had been constant on his mind since yesterday.

He had to tell him.  

Which was exactly what he was aiming to do after a game of cards with Saak and Cendra. He hadn’t known whether he should let them win to make them happy or not. Losing was good for building character. It ended with the decision being made for him, apparently, he was not in his best shape today. Entirely too distracted to keep up with the series of cards put in the pile in the middle of the kitchen table. So distracted that a nine-year-old easily beat him. 

He let the kids entertain themselves by watching cartoons on Luke’s Holopad as he himself decided to go search for Luke. His heart hammering in his chest. 

He spotted a figure outside of the window in the garden, where Luke had planted all sorts of things. Ranging from vegetables to the strangest of plants, and flowers in colors he had never seen before. 

Din couldn’t stop himself from chuckling as he caught sight of Luke's attire. Apparently, gardening required a very special and familiar outfit. 

Luke seemed to have heard Din as he momentarily stopped pulling out weeds and gave him a sour look. ”What?”

Din just shrugged. ”I didn’t say anything.”

Luke merely glanced at his poncho and then turned back to work. ”I’ll have you know that this is high fashion back on Tatooine.”

”I’m sure,” Din responded even though he didn’t remember seeing anyone other than Luke in one.  

At his answer, Luke looked at him with his eyes squinted and lips pressed together. He then proceeded with aiming a weed at Din’s visor. 

Din instinctively blocked it with his hand causing it to fly directly into a much smaller person’s face. 

”Kriff, Grogu I am so sorry.” Din frantically started to remove the dirt that had gotten into his face, he was just about to get rid of some dust on his clothes when he noticed that Grogu was wearing something new.  

Din raised his head slowly. Now it was his turn to give Luke a sour look, not that Luke could actually see his face but he hoped the message got across either way. 

Luke responded with a shit-eating grin, that should have made him annoyed but somehow looked so endearing paired with the dirt smears across his face, and sweaty hair that made his hair curl at the edges that all his irritation dissipated. Especially when Grogu babbled to him, seeming to want him to comment on his new clothes. 

”Yeah, yeah. You look really cute, kid.”

Grogu almost squealed in joy and extended his arms at him. Din dutifully picked him up and positioned him comfortably on his forearm, and Grogu grabbed his finger to hold like he always did.

Din briefly looked up and caught sight of Luke observing them. His face bore a strange expression, one that Din couldn’t read, paired with pink cheeks, most likely from the hot weather. 

Din frowned. ”What?”

Luke shook his head. ”Nothing.”

A smile made its way onto his lips, pulling his cheeks upwards and making wrinkles around his eyes. The sight made Din’s heart stutter and it was like the intention he had with looking for Luke dissipated. 

He could always tell him tomorrow.

Chapter Text

It was all Luke’s fault. 

Grogu refused to wear anything other than the poncho. Din had to admit that he looked adorable in it as he waddled around obviously very pleased with his look. But it was in desperate need of a wash, having spilled his breakfast porridge all over it. The toddler himself was determined to try any tactic he could to prevent this. It didn’t matter that Din explained that he would get it back. Grogu had refused. Luke was the one who got them into this mess, so it was his problem to solve.

So it was with heavy steps that Din walked to the door of Luke's bedroom and gave it a light knock. For a moment it was silent and Din was just about to assume that Luke was somewhere else when he heard a grunt from the other side of the wooden door.

”Luke? Are you okay?”

He only got a grunt in reply again.

”I’m coming in, alright?” Din tried to keep away the franticness from his voice. 

Luke muttered a muffled yes and that was all the encouragement Din needed to slowly push the door open. The room was dark, the only light source was a sliver of sunlight that came through the edge of the window that the dark curtain didn’t cover. 

Din walked up to the window and removed the rest of the curtain, allowing him to spot the figure splayed out on the bed in the right-hand corner. 

Luke’s arm was limply hanging outside of the edge of the bed, but the rest of his body was snuggly wrapped in the blanket. His bangs were plastered on his forehead, and his cheeks flushed. 

As Din approached him, he quickly yanked off his glove and put his bare hand on Luke's damp forehead. It was burning hot, just as he expected. 

It seemed like the universe was working against him. He had spent the whole evening trying to come up with what to say. He had even written it down on a piece of flimsi. He had planned to tell him today, but Luke was in no state to hear it.

He slept through the rest of the day.

And the next, and the next one. 

Din was getting worried. If the fever didn’t go down soon he would have to take him to a Medcenter. 

He tried to distract himself from the worry that was plaguing his mind, by spending his time with the kids. The droid made him even more on edge, its beeping sounds almost making his head hurt. 

He desperately craved something, anything to ease his restlessness. 

Trying to entertain the kids was harder than he thought it would be, and for the second time during his stay here, he saw them worried about their teacher. None of them wanted to play cards, and none of them wanted to help him cook. None of them wanted to play that elaborate tag game that they loved. Not even the cookies on the top shelf in the kitchen were enough to raise their spirits. 

Din was out of his depth. He had never spent much time around kids. The children in his covert had never been his responsibility and even if he was not opposed to hanging out with them he had been far too busy trying to provide for the covert. 

He was watching Saak’s eyes filled with wonder as they followed Din’s hands as he cleaned his blaster. Which got him thinking…Maybe it was time to fulfill the thing the boy couldn’t stop asking him about.

Maybe he should teach them to fight. 

His head was pounding, and his throat felt as coarse as the sand on Tatooine, but worst of all was the freezing cold that made him shiver despite the many covers wrapped around him. 

Luke didn’t know how long that was going on, time seemed to move strangely. Once he opened his eyes it was pitch black, and in the blink of an eye, the room seemed completely bathed in morning light. Sometimes he was alone, other times he felt a steady hand on his forehead, and a glass of water was pressed in front of his mouth. Every swallow made his throat ache. 

But then he woke up and his throbbing headache was gone. His throat was still sore. Muscles still ached. But he could think again, more than just drift in and out of consciousness with days feeling like a blur.

He felt like he was bathing in a pool of his own sweat, the covers damp and his clothes soaked. It had been a while since he had been that sick. His hands struggled with untangling him from his blankets, kicking them off his body. He almost felt too weak to stand, his legs heavy as he dragged his feet across the floor and into the fresher.  

He wasted no time pulling off his clothes, tossing them in the corner as he stepped into the sonic shower. He had never bothered to install a shower with water. It was something within him as a Tatooine native that made his body repulsed by the thought of them. He didn’t think there was anything that justified wasting that amount of water. But now he almost wished to have one, just to feel the warm water soothing his aching muscles. 

He sat on his bed for a long time after his shower, trying to find the energy to go and find the others. When he finally did the room was bathing in orange light, the sun almost settling beneath the treetops. 

He found them outside. It was an interesting sight, being faced with Mando instructing Saak and Cendra how to aim their knuckles, holding a pillow in front of them to punch into.

Grogu was the only one who noticed him, standing up from his spot in the grass, waddling up to him with a smile on his face. For a while, Luke sat on the bench on the porch, Grogu in his lap. He let his hand run through the dewy hairs on Grogu’s head, observing as Mando corrected Saak’s stance, pulling his back foot wider to give him more balance.

It was Cendra who saw him next, stopping mid-punch to point at him. Mando turned around and his shoulders relaxed. The kids were quick to run up to him. Saak seemed determined to make up for hours he had been asleep to tell him how worried they had all been, including all kinds of details of their days that he had missed out on. Like how Grogu had gone missing while they were picking berries in the garden, only to be found a few minutes later, passed out in the strawberry bush with red fruit smears all around his mouth.

 After having finished his story, one told at record speed he proceeded with taking Grogu from Luke’s lap. He twirled him around, something that made Grogu giggle, before setting him down on the floorboards of the porch. 

“Show him, Grogu,” He then said, something that seemed to mean something to Grogu by the way his ears twitched.

Grogu’s eyes were wide, his gaze flickering between his onlookers. When his eyes landed on Mando, his father gave him a nod. That seems to be the only encouragement he needed to pull one clawed hand into a fist and pump it forward into the air. 

He then looked at Luke, his ears lowering as if fearing rejection. Luke’s hands erupt in applause that the others are quick to follow with. Soon Grogu was giggling, his small teeth out on display for all to see. 

After Grogu’s demonstration, the other kids are quick with showing Luke their new skills. Luke had to admit that he was impressed. Having only practiced a few hours they manage to land some pretty solid punches, but Luke imagines that having a Mandalorian as a teacher must have something to do with it. 

It didn’t take long for Saak and Cendra to slump back down on the bench next to him, seeming utterly exhausted. Which reminded Luke about how close it was to their bedtime. Today there seemed to be no objections to them getting to bed, both of them walking inside the house with their shoulders slumped. 

Mando picked up Grogu, that was when Luke noticed a stain on the kid’s poncho, something beige, most likely breakfast porridge.

“His clothes are dirty,” Luke said.

Mando turned his helmet to face him. “I know, he refuses to wear anything else.”

Luke smiled. He had found it adorable how fast he had taken a liking to the new addition to his wardrobe. “Maybe I’ll just have to make him another one.”

Mando just scoffed and went after them inside the house. Helping them get to bed.

Luke stayed in his seat on the porch, watching the leaves on the trees glimmer in the evening glow. Orange like a forest fire. 

The sky turned to pink, then to deep purple, fading and fading until there was just the dark blue abyss, constellations smattered all over it. They were different than they were on Tatooine, where he had spent so much of his time looking up. Memorizing the stars of the systems he wished to visit. He sometimes regretted how he never cherished what he had right in front of him. 

The evening wind was sending goosebumps up Luke's arms and he tucked the blanket closer around him. It was such a relief to have fresh air in his lungs again that he found himself unable to go inside just yet. He was far too mesmerized by the sound of the wind in the leaves and the earthy smell of the outdoors. 

He heard the faint sound of the door opening. Mando stepped outside and sat down next to Luke on the bench. 

Luke could sense immediately that something was off. His fingers were twitching in his lap. He could see the outline of his Adam's apple move up and down underneath his cowl as he swallowed. 

“I–” he started.

“What is it?” Luke asked when he didn’t continue. 

“I need to tell you something.”

Those words made Luke’s head roam with possible scenarios and none of them were good. Was it something terrible that had happened during the time he was sleeping? Had Leia been in contact again, with new details about what they had uncovered at the imperial base? His heartbeat was rapid behind his ribcage.

“I never told you my name.”

Oh, that tiny detail. Luke felt himself relax. He had almost forgotten that Mando was not his real name. He had assumed that he would never hear it. But Luke couldn’t deny the curiousness that was blooming in his chest. He wondered what had made him change his mind? Was it all this time he had spent here that made him more comfortable with–

“It’s Din. Din Djarin.”

–sharing his name with them. 

Wait…what? 

It took a few seconds for the implications to sink in. For a while, it was like his mind was totally blank but at the same time feeling the stutter of panic like when a sudden desert wind gets caught in your hat, carrying it across the sandbanks. 

Din Djarin. 

That was a name he never expected to hear again and least of all from the shining Mandalorian he had in front of him. The man who was staying at his house. The man who was a father to his smallest student. The man who had shown nothing but patience and kindness towards him, if not a tiny bit of awkwardness. Who always spoke his mind, but never in a cruel way. Who was quiet, but when he spoke his words were always sincere. 

When he put it out like that it did make a lot of sense. The description he made was like a brother to the one he would make to his childhood friend. The friend who he thought had died.

“I’m sorry. I should have told you from the start.” Mando— no Din’s voice said, but he sounded far away. Luke’s pulse was still throbbing in his ears. “It’s just that I didn’t know what to say. I understand if you hate me.”

Luke frowned. Hate? He was shocked, yes. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, but at the same time felt the thrumming of happiness in his veins. But resentful? No.

His was as dry as the Dune Sea and it was odd in a way how reversed their roles were at this moment. How he was the one who couldn’t find his words and Din was the one blabbering in front of him. He could sense the apprehensiveness and anxiety in him. He didn’t know how to ease his friends' fears when his mouth was betraying him so he did it how Din always did. With his actions. 

He stopped the string of words by flinging his arms around his friend. Drawing him in, not caring about the hard beskar surface that was pressed towards his chest, almost bruising. That seemed to smoother Din’s line of thought. 

He held him close. Almost cradling the back of his helmet. He loosened his hold slightly, keeping him at an arm's length, looking into that dark visor of his. 

To think that inside that armor were the same dark eyes he used to know so well. An adult size version of the boy with bright red clothes and chubby cheeks. The boy he thought had never grown up. 

Which begged the question. 

“What happened on Aq Vetina? I thought no one survived.”

Din’s shoulders hiked up. “The Mandalorians saved me. They raised me as one of their own.”

“and your parents?”

He shook his head. 

“I’m sorry,” Luke said. 

“Thank you.”

They lapsed into silence again. His heart seemed to finally calm down in his chest, the initial rush of adrenalin had disappeared. He wondered how things had been for Din after his parents death. Had he been just as alone and lost as Luke had felt after his aunt and uncle got killed? Had the Mandalorians taken good care of him? There were many questions he had about the gap from their last goodbye to present time. He wanted to hear all about it.

A delirious laugh made its way out of Luke’s throat. “I can’t believe it’s you. That you have stayed here all this time and you never said a thing. How did you manage to never let it slip?”

“I didn’t think you still thought about me. I also didn’t know that you thought I had died. I had assumed that you didn’t want to be friends anymore after…well– you know,” Din said, scratching his neck. 

Luke rolled his eyes. “You honestly thought I would end a friendship just because you had a crush on me?”

“I wouldn’t call it that,” Din mumbled, obviously embarrassed. Luke would bet all his credits on that he was beet-red under that helmet. 

Luke laughed. “Yeah right, you do know that I read that message, right? Honestly didn’t know you had it in you to write such romantic things,” He teased. 

“Oh, shut up,” Din said and gave his shoulder a playful push. 

Something that only made Luke’s smile wider. He was sure he was looking like a madman. 

Din spoke again. “I did think about you as well. Sometimes when I had bounties on Tatooine I wanted to go past your farm to check on you.”

Luke’s smile slipped away. He thought of the fire. The smoke still felt suffocating, stinging his eyes in his memories just as it had in real life. The only warning he had got before he had found his aunt and uncle. Well, what was left of them at least. “I’m glad you didn’t. You wouldn’t have found much.”

“What happened?”

“The Empire.”

“Your aunt and uncle?”

Luke shook his head.

“I’m sorry,” he said. Mirroring Luke’s previous words.

“Thank you.”

The silence of the night settled in. Only the sounds of the wind as it whipped back and forth could be heard. The warm light from the window was reflected in Din’s beskar, making it look golden. 

“How did you become a Jedi?” Din asked. He sounded confused but also very intrigued, making Luke wonder for how long that question had brewed in his mind. It made sense, he supposed. No one would guess that a farm boy from Tatooine would end up being the last of an ancient order. 

“It’s a long story. It would take longer than until dawn to tell.”

Din just shrugged. “I don’t mind.”

Luke found that he believed him. He had planned to tell Mando the story before he found out that he and Din were the same person. He had just never found the right time. But now he had time. 

So he told him about Ben, the man who had lived so close to them all those years. He told him about meeting Han and saving Leia. About reuniting with Biggs in the rebellion, how he had died before Luke had taken the final shot that had destroyed the first death star. 

He told him about his training with Yoda. But when he came to tell the story about Darth Vader, about how he was his father, he found himself unable to continue. His throat seemed to close in upon itself. 

“Luke, it’s okay,” Din said as he put a gloved hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I want to, I just–”

“–Can’t find the words?”

Luke nodded. 

“Then tell me once you have found them.” 

Luke felt warm inside, and for the first time in days, it had nothing to do with his fever. He took Din’s arm and linked it with his and leaned his cheek on his pauldron. 

“Do you know how my aunt is doing?” Din asked. The worry was evident in his voice despite the modulator. 

Of course, he was worried about her. Luke had noticed how he had tensed when he had told him about his cousin's fate. He had always thought they had had a strange dynamic, Din and Biggs. Biggs was always the positive force sometimes to a fault, together with Din who was way too realistic for his age. They had made an interesting pair. Biggs' mother had been just like him, just as charismatic and outgoing. 

“She still lives on the same farm. Biggs' death was hard on her.”

Luke thought he heard Din swallow. “I want to go see her.” He twiddled his thumbs in his lap. “Do you want to come with me?”

He knew that it logically made sense for him to ask. Having a Mandalorian in full beskar armor was sure to elicit fear in anyone if they came to your home unannounced. Having Luke with him would make things a whole lot easier. Especially if Din was looking to avoid being hit with the broom that his aunt always had handy in case of intruders. 

At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel touched by the request. That Din would trust him enough to take him with him, to want to have him by his side. 

“Of course,” He said. 

Din took his hand and they sat there for a long time. The cold night air in their lungs and stars above until neither of them could keep their eyes open and went inside to their beds. 

Two days later Din found new clothes for Grogu on his bed. 

The fabric was bright red.

Chapter Text

Tatooine stared back at them. They sat in the cockpit looking at the planet's pale beige surface that reflected the light of the twin suns. 

Dry, desolated, and…utterly dead.

Din thought back on the first time he had set his eyes on the dust-covered surface. He had been a kid so used to the color green, used to fresh water around him that just the sight of Tatooine alone in the pitch-black space had made him scrunch his nose in distaste. He had wondered why anyone would ever choose to live there. But in time he had grown to appreciate the people who could handle the hostile environment. The Tuskens who had lived there for generations, having the skills to persevere through the deadly sandstorms, who had the knowledge on how to find water on a scorched surface that was almost cracked, like the dry lips of someone dying from thirst. He admired the Tatooine farmers who fought to extract what little moisture there was from the air. Resilient and resourceful. 

He turned to Luke. His face was lit only by the controls and the planet outside. It left his face with a glowing beige hue. The ends of his hair almost turned orange from the red control buttons. 

It puzzled Din how much had changed from that late evening on the porch. And how much had stayed the same. Sure, Luke seemed less shy to ask about his past, seeming to want nothing more than to learn all the details that had happened since that last hug outside of Din’s aunt’s farm. He wasn’t used to anyone asking so many questions about him, and even less used to answering them. But Din found that he wanted to. He was happy to share, but he found that his mouth sometimes betrayed him, his tongue struggling to form the right words. It was frustrating. 

Even though some things had changed, they were still the same people. They hadn’t reverted to their ten-year-old selves and started playing tag with each other outside. They still had the same routines, Luke doing the cooking and Din doing the dishes. Din washing the clothes and Luke hanging them up to dry. 

But he had to admit staring down at Tatooine, the planet where they shared so many memories from, sitting next to each other was a strange experience. It didn’t matter how many times he had been on the planet since he had been a kid. He hadn’t truly returned. 

He was ready now. 

Nira Darklighter-Djarin sat by her kitchen table. The old lamp above was her only light source. It was bright, too bright. She had talked to herself to have it changed to something softer, kinder for her aging eyes. 

The chair opposite her was empty– all of the chairs were. But it was no different from other mornings, she supposed. But sometimes it felt like they were taunting her, reminding her of everything she had lost, and the guilt started to pool in her gut. 

She remembered her childhood in clear detail. Her mother who always scowled at her for speaking out of turn. Her father who liked writing bad poems that he always inflicted on the rest of his family members. Her annoying little brother, Aden, who always begged for her attention.

She remembered the old lady that lived next door. She had frail hands, but a kind smile that made her eyes crinkle. Nira used to pick flowers every day on the way home from school for her. Flowers in the deepest of blue picked too far up on the stem, clenched tightly in the sweaty palm of a kid who could barely spell her name. The flowers were, nonetheless, happily accepted by the kind lady, who always put them in the yellow vase on her window sill. 

Eventually, Nira stopped picking flowers for her. Sometimes when she walked by her house she would see the empty vase in her window and feel a bang of guilt nestling into her stomach. She often thought that maybe she should start picking flowers for her neighbor again. But she was scared to knock on her door, worried that her intrusion wouldn’t be welcomed. Fears so stupid and irrational. How she wished she had fought against them. 

The old lady died soon after. It was the irrational reasoning of a child, somehow thinking that if she had just given her the flowers, if she had visited the old lady, maybe she wouldn’t have died.

They had her funeral in the forest. Nira picked flowers for her one last time, putting them on the casket. 

When her brother picked the same deep blue flowers holding them out for her to take, she always accepted them. Even if the sight of them awakened the regret that seemed to have made a home behind her sternum. 

Aden always seemed to have a new song he wanted to show her. She never really understood where the songs came from, no one had ever heard them before and she greatly suspected that he had made them up himself. Not that he ever admitted to it. She figured he might have been inspired by the poems that their father always wrote. 

Every day from school he would hum some new melody. It had annoyed her at the time. How she missed it now. 

She had not been the nicest sister to him growing up. She used to threaten to dip him into the toilet and claim she was a witch that had possessed his sister's body as soon as they turned off the lights at bedtime. None of which was appreciated by Aden, but she figured teasing him was part of her duty as the older sibling. But many years later it was still her that he had come to in a crisis. He had told her everything in detail, how they needed somewhere to hide and Nira did not hesitate for a minute to open her home to her brother and his family. 

It had been the first time she had met her sister-in-law and nephew. Din looked a lot like his father had at that age, with wavy hair, a round face, and big brown eyes. However, his eyes were more serious and determined than her brother’s had ever been. He was an interesting kid, it seemed like his mind was older than his body, wanting nothing more than to listen to her read the old novels from her attic. Novels about war, loyalty, and courage. Novels that were not really age-appropriate, and she had suspected most of the content went over his head. It did not. 

Her sister-in-law seemed to radiate warmth. Nira could see why Aden liked her. She was calm and quick-witted, and she could see how her brother looked at her, eyes soft when she said something particularly clever. 

She had suggested for them to go to Aq Vetina. She had thought they would be safe. But she was the reason they had all been buried in ash. 

The guilt this time was heavier, weighing on her mind like a stone, pushing on her conscience. She had hoped to never feel this way again. But she would– one more time. 

It was one last person she had lost. One whose chair opposite her was now empty. Her son. Her Biggs. 

She remembered holding him in her arms the first time. How tiny his hands had been, how soft his skin was. She remembered his first smile. It had been after many sleepless nights of Biggs screaming and Nira had felt completely and utterly exhausted. Her head felt like it was splitting open, her limbs heavy. And there it was, his mouth tugging upwards at its corners.

It was like he never had stopped smiling after that. It was like having a third sun, adding to twin suns. Although his light was never scorching and overbearing. 

She was proud of the man he had turned into. Someone who stood up for what they believed in. Maybe it had been selfish to think that maybe, maybe if she could have changed his mind about the rebellion. To think that the chair in front of her would be occupied.

There was a hollow ache in her stomach. So she sat there, with the first beams of the morning outside, with an empty vase in her window, an empty chair in front of her, her novels in her bookcase, humming on her brother's old tunes. 

That was when something metallic caught her attention outside her window. 

Someone wearing silver armor was coming toward her home. 

Din would never pass on an opportunity to have his ship repaired by Peli Motto. Even if there were only some minor issues with it. Even if his current ship was not the razor crest, and was still unnamed and probably always would be, he thought it was important to ensure that everything was up to standard. You wouldn’t want to be stranded somewhere just because you hadn’t gotten the regular repairs, and Din thought that Peli was a good choice for that task. It definitely had nothing to do with him missing her snarky remarks and brash personality, not at all. 

Remarks he was quickly met by as soon as he stepped out from the shadow and into the scorching sunlight. He had almost forgotten how overbearing the heat was, it was like standing next to a forge, that was how intense the beams were. He was sure his armor would soon be warm enough to burn anyone who touched their bare hands on him, not that anyone ever did.

“You traded one pile of junk for another?” Peli asked, peering at his ship with skepticism, and really, that would be the first thing he had expected her to comment on. 

But something that did surprise him, and was made apparent as soon as Luke stepped down the ramp into the harsh sunlight, was that he didn’t have to introduce the two of them. Apparently Luke had met her multiple times when fetching parts for his uncle during his teen years, long after Din and his family had left. 

Din sometimes wondered what his life would have been like if they had stayed on Tatooine. Would he have accompanied Luke to Mos Eisley to fetch the parts? Would he also become acquainted with Peli a lot earlier in his life than he had been? But staying hadn’t seemed like an option at their departure. Din had never understood why they had to leave, perhaps it was too complicated for a child to understand or maybe the memories had slipped from him.

“Where’s the green thing?” Peli asked, forcing Din to the present. “He's still with you I hope.” Her voice was lower, sounding more of a threat.

It was Luke who answered. “He’s with a friend.” 

“You come all this way and you don’t have the kid with you? Why do you think I keep letting you back here?” Peli said her words would sound accusing to most people but Din had learned to differentiate the softer tone behind the words. Her way of speaking often sounded harsh but was never said out of malice. 

Din had thought about bringing Grogu with him, ever since they had been reunited he had a hard time leaving him behind. But on the other hand, the way the little kid had smiled when he saw the Wookie, Chewbacca he had been told his name was, made Din believe he would be alright. Although he feared that Chewbacca would have to deal with a lot of pulling on his fur, by tiny green clawed hands. 

“Next time,” He said instead. 

They moved into the shaded area of the hangar. Luke sat down on one of the crates while Peli seemed to try to find something among the mess of parts that was strayed across the floor. Din remained standing, arms at his sides that felt strangely empty, so used to having the weight of a child in one arm. He sighed. He could barely be away from Grogu for a few hours without his mind wandering back to him. 

“Hey, don’t just stand there!” Peli shouted at her droids. “There is work to do.” She gestured widely at the ship and then shook her head and sighed. 

As the droids passed by Din’s side, all of them uttered disapproving sounding beeps. 

“Don’t know why I keep those around,” Peli said again but Din could still hear the fond tone of her voice. 

He had never understood how people could become so attached to droids. Like the way Luke seemed to view R2 as a family member like it was a living thing. On the other hand, Din had begun to understand it with IG-11. 

Din cleared his throat. “Do you happen to have some more speeder bikes that we could rent?”

Peli put her hands on her hips and laughed. “After what you did with the last ones?”

Din could see Luke looking at him curiously in his peripheral vision. “Won’t happen again.”

Peli sighed. “Alright, but only because of Skywalker here, he always was good with a speeder I heard”. She let out a shout of triumph as she picked up some old wrench that seemed to be what she was looking for. “-and you have to promise to bring the kid with you next time,” she said as she pointed the wrench at him as a threat. 

“Where are you going anyway? Off to kill another krayt dragon?” She asked. 

“Krayt dragon?” Luke whispered, looking flabbergasted.

“Later,” Din mumbled, but it was already too late because Peli had caught his whisper. 

“Yeah, Mando helped the village of Mos Pelgo get rid of the krayt dragon there. They told me he let it swallow in before blowing it up from the inside. Total lunatic if you ask me.”

“Huh”, was all that came out of Luke's mouth, but the look he gave Din made him flush underneath his helmet.

Three hours later Din found himself holding on for dear life at the back of a speeder bike. Peli had only managed to find one bike, so Luke had decided to be the one to drive. Something that proved to be a mistake. Luke was a notorious speed junkie, who laughed maniacally as he sped through the canyons. After a particularly sharp turn, Din had to cling onto Luke’s waist to not fall off. He tried to persuade himself that the quickening of his heartbeat had to do with the speed and not the close proximity to his friend. That was something that he had to unpack later.

It wasn’t a vast distance from Mos Eisley to the homestead of his Aunt, only a few hours. But the time they had spent in the bar in Mos Eisley sitting in the corner booth waiting for Peli to alert them when she had found speeders for them, had postponed their journey. Making the evening paint the sky orange, one sundown and then the other. The temperature dropped drastically from a blazing heat into a brisk chill. Darkness enveloped them and they decided that it was probably best to stop to sleep. Din doubted that his aunt would appreciate an unsolicited visit in the middle of the night. No, it was probably safest to wait until the morning light, it would most likely make her feel less threatened.

They found a cave to sleep in, leaving them less exposed in the night. That was enough for them to decide that none of them needed to take a watch. The cave was big enough to bring the speeder inside and they quickly decided that they could put it just inside the entrance to block the path. In that way, they would have enough time to wake up in case of intruders. 

It didn’t take long for Luke to fall asleep, his gentle breathing carrying across the cave. Din found himself mesmerized by how the moonlight that made its way inside from the entrance, lit up the side of his face. 

He didn’t know how he should feel about seeing his aunt for the first time in many years. He wondered if she still thought about him. If he wasn’t alone in the mourning of his parents. If she would accept him for the person he had grown into. 

Would she be angry for him not contacting her, for leaving her to believe that he had died all those years ago along with his parents? He felt the familiar hollow feeling of guilt start to gnaw at his insides. He didn’t even know why he had never come back, or maybe he did. He was a coward, it was as simple as that. Scared of facing his past. 

He had to be brave. 

The ration bar was unusually dry in his mouth the next morning. It seemed to stick easily in the top of his mouth, being hard to swallow down.  

He put it back in the packet and put it into his pocket to store for later and propped his helmet back in its place. 

The hissing sound of the reseal of his helmet must have alerted Luke because when he turned around he found a pair of watchful blue eyes fixed on his visor. 

“Not hungry?” Luke asked. Even in the dim morning light, Din could see the crumbs around grazing the edge of his mouth, ration bar in hand. 

Din shook his head and then shifted so his back was leaning on the soft incline of the pile of sand behind him. 

The night in his helmet had left his neck sore. It was funny how he always used to spend his nights with it on but how the short time he had spent at Luke’s place had somehow changed that, making him so used to the comfort of sleeping without his constricting armor. Armor that was starting to feel heavier and heavier with every day that went past. 

He had never in his life complained about what the creed entailed. He had worn the armor with pride, never even had an itch of wanting to remove his helmet. That was before the child, before having anyone he wanted to share his face with, and he couldn’t help but feel a brewing of resentment in the pit of his stomach against the teaching he had grown up loving. As soon as he finished the thought he felt a flash of shame. He should be grateful for the people that had saved his life, the people who had raised him, fed him, and loved him. He sighed, he didn’t know what to believe anymore. 

The remaining part of the ride went by fast and it didn’t take long until he was suddenly standing outside of the door to his aunt’s homestead. Luke had agreed to let him steer the bike on the promise of getting to drive all the way back. Din found himself agreeing to those terms that in hindsight would seem very unfair. But at the moment Din didn’t really care, all he wanted was to have something to focus on, like the steering of the speeder, to prevent his mind from wandering too much.

He gave the door three firm knocks and turned to look at Luke who gave him a reassuring smile. “It will be fine,” Luke said and gave his shoulder a squeeze, which did little to remove the tension there. His heart was beating wildly in his chest, like a bat trapped in a cage.

He heard footsteps approaching on the other side of the door, the sound of the lock unclicking and the door handle pushed down. The door opened a smidge and revealed a familiar face. 

Her dark curls had turned to gray over the years and Din could see wrinkles around her eyes and on her forehead that he hadn’t seen before. But her eyes were still the same, even if they now looked at him with apprehensiveness, that quickly turned into delight as she caught sight of the person next to him. 

“Luke”, she said as she pulled him in for a hug, putting her hand lightly on the back of his head as she drew him in. How Din missed her hugs. “It’s been so long.”

“Well, yes sorry about that,” Luke responded as he looked down at the ground in shame. 

“None of that now,” Nira said and caressed his cheek. That was when she eyed Din again. “Luke, who is this?” 

Well, wasn’t that the question? 

“It’s probably easier to explain inside.”

They moved into the living room. Not much had changed over the years. It was still the same horrid yellow carpet and squeaky armchairs. 

Nira re-emerged from the kitchen, holding a tray with cups of what smelled like caf. Well, the crappy kind that was all that you could get your hands on in the desert. 

She put the tray down on the coffee table and took a seat in one of the armchairs. 

She reached from one of the cups, cradling it in between the palms of her hands blowing gently to make it cool quicker. She motioned for them to do the same, something that Luke did but Din’s hands remained in his lap. 

She raised an eyebrow at him. He remembered that on Tatooine it was considered rude to decline such an offer so he had not made the best second first impression. 

Luke must have caught her disapproving look because he cleared his throat before he aimed to explain. “His creed forbids him to remove his helmet.” 

That was an easy way to put it. 

She hummed, thoughtfully. Stirring her cup with her spoon, the metal making a clinking sound against the porcelain cup. 

His aunt had been around. He knew that much. Had traveled all over the galaxy until finally settling down on Tatooine of all places. Love made you do strange things, he supposed. Falling in love with some moisture farmer was apparently enough to leave that lifestyle behind. Said moisture farmer had proved to be a good for nothing scumbag who had left his pregnant wife behind for some woman he had met at the market in Mos Eisley. At least he had left her with the farm. 

Nonetheless, she had often told her stories about her travels, some of the sights he had even seen himself later in his life. So she knew more of the galaxy than the average Tatooine farmer. However, he wondered how far that extended to Mandalorian culture and if so if she knew about the customs of his tribe. After all, he had found out that not all Mandalorians followed the same creed.

Her watchful eyes were fixed on him, traveling from his helmet and scanning the armor. “You’re a Mandalorian,” she said this more as a statement than a question but Din found himself answering anyway.

“Yes.”

“Well,” she took a sip of her cup. “What are you doing here, Mandalorian?”

Din shifted in his seat.

“Are you looking for someone?” She said the words quietly as for him to better catch her meaning. 

She seemed to know enough about Mandalorians to have heard their reputation as bounty hunters. 

“No”, he rushed to respond and his answer seemed to relax her. “Or not in that sense anyway.”

This piqued her interest again. “Who are you looking for then? Is it that man always hanging out around Tosche station? I never did like him, always giving weird looks, smelling awfu–”

“No,” Din interrupted, knowing how easily his aunt could get carried away as soon as she started talking. “No, I’m looking for you.”

“Me?” She asked, her face scrunching up in confusion. “I'm just a regular moisture farmer, what do you want with me?”

She turned to Luke wide-eyed, seeming to wait for him to explain. 

Din sighed, if he hadn’t been wearing his helmet he would have rubbed his eyes. It was probably easiest to just blurt it out, there was not really an easy way to say it. 

“Nira,” He began. She seemed taken aback at the sound of her name from the person she believed to be a total stranger. “I never died on Aq Vetina, the Mandalorians saved me.”

She stared at him, her gaze intense but skeptical. 

“I’m your nephew, Din.”

She continued to look at him frozen, her eyebrows furrowed and for a while, there was only silence in the room, except for the rhythmic clicking noise of the chronometer on the wall. 

Until the silence was broken by the sound of shrill laughter. Laughter that lacked humor in it but was nevertheless unmistakably laughter. Out of all the responses from his aunt this had not been one of them. “No, you’re not.”

Din looked at Luke who looked just as unsure about what to do as Din felt. “I am.”

She leaned forward into the chair towards Luke. “He made you believe this?” she said quietly, almost whispering as if Din would not hear her. 

“I can prove it,” Din blurted out, looking desperately around the room to come up with something that would work as evidence for his identity. His eyes landed on the pale blue vase in the corner propped on a chest of drawers. 

He walked up to it in a few decisive steps, turning the vase around, exposing the broken piece that seemed to have been glued back. He hoped she remembered. Remembered the night he had accidentally knocked it down in the dark on the way to the bathroom. His fears were unfounded because when he turned around he saw the look in her eyes. Having transformed from the sharp and almost condescending into a soft and utterly broken expression. Her caf threatened to spill over the edge of her cup. 

She leaped up from her chair and almost tackled him into a hug. One that lasted for a long time but still not enough. When she pulled back Din noticed the dampness in her eyes. 

He opened his mouth to apologize, to let out the stream of thoughts that plagued him. To let her know how sorry he was, how he would understand if she was angry and if she wanted nothing to do with him. But just as he was about to speak, his aunt beat him to it. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, her words sounding tormented, ones of utter despair. 

Wait, what? He was the one who should apologize, he who had led her to believe he was dead for many years, not her. His mind felt completely blank, and he couldn’t do much else than stare down at her. 

“Why?”

At Din’s blunt question all she did was let out a pained sob, clutching at him again. Her hands dug into his back, just beneath his armor. 

“I’m so sorry”, she repeated, her face buried in his chest plate. 

That did nothing to ease the confusion that was brewing in his mind.

Chapter Text

They moved into the kitchen once Nira had collected herself. The sun was getting bright outside, no need for the harsh overhead lamp that Din remembered from his childhood. 

Din sat on the opposite side of the table, while Luke brought her a glass of water. She muttered her thanks as she took a sip. 

Water glasses were smaller on Tatooine, something that Din had been quick to notice his first day there when he had just been looking for stuff to complain about. When he had still been in denial over the fact that he most likely would never go home again. 

Din noticed how Luke was hovering by his side, seeming unsure if he should stay for the conversation between aunt and nephew. That was until Din decided to put him out of his misery, yanking at his arm so he sat down in the seat next to him. 

Nira put the glass back down as she wiped the side of her mouth with the back of her hand. “I don’t know where to start.”

Din fought back the obvious answer of ‘the beginning’ and instead tried to come up with something concrete. Something he had wondered about for a long time. “Why did we come here?”

Her eyes flickered between his visor and the top of his helmet as if she was scared to meet his gaze, even if she could not see his eyes. 

She took a large breath. “Your mum was smart. She noticed a pattern that no one else did. How kids started to disappear all over town. It wasn’t enough kids for it to make big headlines or for anyone to raise their eyebrows. It wasn’t uncommon for kids to disappear after all. Usually just kids running away from home and coming back the next day when they realize their mistake. But your mum was having none of it. She started her own investigation and realized that it seemed like the authorities seemed to want the disappearances to stay quiet. Odd, she thought.”

Her hand trailed up her water glass seeming to find comfort in having something to do with her hands. “Your dad tried to get her to let it go. He didn’t want her to get in trouble. It was a good thing she didn’t listen to him. I don’t know how she did it, but somehow she managed to get into some top secret files, files documenting the kids with information dated right before their disappearance. All of them scored high on a marker that they had been tested for during the standard health check-up in school.”

His heart dropped. “Their M-count,” Din muttered. He met Luke’s eyes for a brief second and saw a flash of anger in them. Somehow it seemed like everything led back to the same thing.

Nira looked taken aback. “Well, yes.”

“Go on.”

She cleared her throat and continued. “She quickly deleted all the recent files, hoping to spare the recent kids from being discovered. But deep down she knew that they most likely had spare ones or other ways to keep track of the kids.”

Luke leaned forward, making the chair crack. “So that was why they came here, because she had wiped their server? But why would they bother hunting her when the damage was already done.” 

“Because it wasn’t the only thing she discovered. She found a name she recognized, marked with a high M-count–” Nira’s eyes flickered between Din and Luke until finally landing on Din. “-and that name was yours.”

Luke stared at Din while at loss for words. He suddenly felt like he understood Nira’s urge to laugh in the face of unexpected news. Din was force-sensitive? It didn’t make sense at all. Din was still like an empty space in the matter that made up the force. He still hadn’t figured out the reason for it, having accepted that he would never understand it properly. The force works in mysterious ways, it was said. But still, Luke couldn’t believe that the reason behind it was that Din himself had powers. It seemed utterly counterproductive. 

But while a lot of things spoke against it, like the absence of a force signal and how he was about as good at reading people as a drunk bantha, there still were some signs that Luke had not realized until now. It made sense how easy they had bonded to each other as kids, how they didn’t need to talk to understand each other. Luke didn’t pay much attention to it at the time, but how could he? It wasn’t like he himself knew what the force was at the time. It also explained how Din seemed to sometimes get a sudden and sharp awareness of danger. How he managed to block blasters without even seeing them. Luke had written it off as some fancy tech in his armor, but now it all made a lot more sense. 

“Me?” Luke heard Din croak out, the words seemed to be forced out from the back of his throat. Judging by the way his fingers twitched, he was just as surprised by the revelation as Luke was.  

Nira looked at her nephew and nodded somberly. 

Luke could hear Din swallow thickly. “But– I can’t do anything like that. I can’t lift things with my mind, or, or–.”

That made Nira’s lip twitch. “Have you ever even tried?”

Din stuttered. “I think I would have noticed by now.”

Nira sighed. “It brings me to the next part of the story, about why you had to leave.”

Luke pressed his thigh against Din’s, trying to give some type of comfort. 

They listened while Nira recounted the events that had taken place in this house nearly twenty years ago. How she had heard rumors about kids being taken on other planets, about how the desert of Tatooine might not be as safe as they had thought. How there would always be the possibility of them finding Din if they checked his blood again. They most likely already had a bounty on him. They needed him as safe as possible, something that Nira thought she knew how to achieve – or at least someone she knew, an old friend from her travels. 

A woman who was trained in the force, hiding in plain sight all those years. Someone who seemed to know how to disguise someone's force-signal. To mask their powers to the outside world. A woman who lived far away in Aq vetina and held the promise of removing Din’s parents' biggest fear, of making their son less of a target in an already turbulent time. 

And they had taken that chance. Moved all over the galaxy to seek the help of this woman. And they had gotten that help resulting in Din turning into a blank space in the force. 

Luke turned to Din who was perfectly still as if he was carved from stone. Luke almost feared he had stopped breathing altogether until a harsh intake of air erupted from his modulator. “ I– sorry, I need to think.”

Luke watched him leave the kitchen and Luke saw Nira’s eyes fixed on Din’s back as he left. She looked broken inside. 

The darkness engulfed the hallway where Din stood fixed looking at the door to the room where Luke was sleeping. His head was pounding from all the things that had happened during the day. It should be easy for him to fall asleep with a mind in such a desperate need for rest. But it was not, his brain was determined to keep thinking, all the conversations repeating themselves as a blow to the back of his skull, making him wide awake underneath the sheets. 

There had been snippets from his childhood that he hadn’t understood. He never knew why his mother insisted on him going to this woman’s meditating sessions every day. He had thought it to be a tedious thing at the time, but his parents seemed happy about it which made Din agree to it. 

He couldn’t help but feel unfairly treated by his aunt and parents. Why had they never told him? Always so cryptic about the circumstances around why they had to leave. Din felt like it was only fair for them to tell that the reason was him. He deserved to know. At the same time, he understood their reasoning; they most likely wanted to protect him the best way they could, by hiding it even from himself. 

All those thoughts roamed through his head, which was how he found himself wandering around the eerily quiet house. The dunes outside the windows glowed a soft white from moonlight, in sharp contrast with the deep blue of the sky. The peaceful quiet was a small relief to his pounding headache, making the muscles around his temples release some tension. 

He should probably start moving now, he thought. He didn’t know what it was that made him want to talk to Luke so desperately. He had all afternoon to do so. But it was like his mind cleared when the suns had set, making everything much clearer in the absence of the harsh sunlight.  

He was just about to turn around, to go back to the room he was staying in when the door he had been staring at for some time suddenly swung open. 

When Luke caught sight of him he seemed to almost recoil, nearly dropping the glass of water he had in his hand. He recovered quickly, letting out a quiet chuckle that managed to sound loud in the peaceful darkness. “You nearly scared me to death.”

Din shrugged apologetically.

Luke raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing out here?”

“You mean besides scaring you to death?” Din muttered.

Luke huffed. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Something like that.”

Luke seemed to catch something in his tone that Din hadn’t even meant to reveal because his smile faded being replaced with something more empathetic. “Do you want to talk for a bit?”

He opened the door wider, revealing the bed and the old carpet that had sand stuck in it that was probably never going to be fully removed. 

That was how Din found himself propped up on the other side of the bed, his feet bare but still in his full armor. He found himself unable to remove it when sleeping in a new place. It used to be his safety, his armor. The way to hide from the world that time and again had proved to be such a cold and terrible place. 

“I guess we now know why you keep making me jump,” Luke said alluding to the fact that Din lacked a force signal.

They were quiet for a moment, both of them seeming lost in their thoughts. Thoughts about how Luke wasn’t the only one in the room with force abilities…or used to have at least. 

“Do you want them back?” Luke asked, making Din turn his head to face him. It was hard to make out his features in the darkness, but somehow his eyes seemed to shine with an openness that was just Luke. 

“I don’t know.” Honestly Din didn’t. He had lived for so long not knowing that something was missing from making him whole, having adapted to this new way. “I don’t think it’s wise.”

“What makes you think that?”

“You’ve told me how important it is for Jedi to let go of things, to not give in to anger and strong emotions.” He thought about the death of his parents, the sounds of bombs exploding and the sight of droids still haunted his nightmares making him wake up in cold sweat. How just the thought of Moff Gideon with Grogu made his blood boil, igniting a wave of animalistic anger in him that he didn’t even know he had. How the sight of Grogu chewing on his mythosaur necklace still made Din’s heart clench painfully at the reminder that the rest of the people with that necklace were gone. “I don’t think I’m capable of that.”

“I don’t think I’m either,” Luke said somberly, surprising Din. 

“What do you mean?”

Luke let out a sigh. “I don’t think I’m the right person to carry on the Jedi teachings. They used to have so many rules. ‘Don’t get married, don’t have a family, don't do this, and don’t do that.’ I just don’t understand all of it and I feel like I’m tainting a legacy that I have no real understanding of. I was not trained as a young child. I had a very short time to get the most basic training before my Master died. I just want to honor them but at the same time there is so much I don’t agree with. But who am I to question their teachings, as someone that never properly learned it.”

“So you feel torn between the old Jedi way and your own?”

Luke seemed to ponder on his words for a beat until he nodded slowly. 

It was strange how different their lives had become even if they both had once been farmer kids on this dusty planet. How Luke had grown up to become a Jedi with extraordinary powers. How Din had become a Mandalorian, the ancient enemy of the Jedi. How different their beliefs and challenges should be. How interesting it was how Din was now sitting in the room his parents used to sleep in, next to the boy who used to be his best friend, feeling like his own questions and troubles were voiced by the man next to him. 

Din swallowed thickly before he began. “I used to love this helmet, you know.” When he started to speak Luke looked at him quickly, seeming caught off guard. “It was a great honor to wear it, to swear the creed in front of the elders of my tribe. A symbol of dedication and faithfulness. I was so proud that day.” His voice trailed off to something sadder. 

“I was always told that removing one's helmet in front of someone else was the same as death. That it would be like removing one's soul. That it was a sin, that would expel you from the tribe, that you would no longer be a Mandalorian.” 

Din cleared his throat. 

“But when I removed it for Grogu…It was like nothing. Nothing happened. I didn’t feel less whole or less a Mandalorian for it. I just felt guilty. But not for my actions. No, I felt guilty for feeling ashamed over something so simple as showing my kid my face.” His voice wavered. “–and I hate that I still do.” 

Din found himself unable to face Luke, to look into those clear blue eyes that he knew so well. Instead, they were quiet for a moment, taking in the darkness of the room, moonlight from the window that lit up the stone floor in the left-side corner, turning it from pale beige into bone-white. 

That was until Din felt a touch on his forearm, right above his vambrace near his elbow. When he didn’t respond another hand was placed on the side of his helmet turning his head to face Luke.

And what he found when he locked eyes with Luke was unexpected.

His eyes were so open and honest that Din almost had trouble looking at them. A rawness poured out of them, a vulnerability seeping through those blue irises reaching the very strings of Din’s heart. Eyes that seemed to whisper ‘I understand’ and ‘you’re not alone’ at the same time.

The hole in the center of his chest didn’t feel so hollow anymore. 

They fell asleep like that next to each other on the bed. Din fully armored on top of the covers. The thought of going back to the deathly quiet room seemed unthinkable now that he could hear the quiet breathing of the man next to him.

He was a solitary man; had always defined himself as such. Preferred to be alone, wasn’t bothered by quietness, liked it even. Now he didn’t know if it was true anymore. It was as if having a taste of company seemed to ignite something within him, something that didn’t want to burn out. 

He stayed in bed after he woke up watching the back of Luke’s head back-lit by the golden morning light. His hair shimmered around his head like a halo. 

It tugged something within him, an urge to reach out and flatten those wispy fine hairs that made a terrific bedhead. 

But somehow that was crossing a line, going past something that he had barely been willing to admit to himself. Something he can’t have. Even if Luke felt the same, even if his heart also seemed to skip a beat as he walked into a room, if he too wanted nothing more than to hear his thoughts, to put his hand in his. No Luke had enough to deal with on his own, an inner turmoil, confused by his own faith and beliefs. He didn’t need Din to confuse him further, making it harder for him to make rational decisions. 

No, that was something that Luke needed to figure out himself. Din wouldn’t add any more to his already overwhelming plate of problems. 

Which was how he found himself again in the quiet hallway. It was something about Tatooine that just seemed oddly peaceful even though it wasn’t the kindest of planets. The wind could be so strong that it nearly knocked you over, the sun so scorching hot that you sometimes wondered if your blood was on fire. But perhaps it was the ruthlessness of nature that made you respect it more, to trigger that calm admiring feeling in your chest. 

Those thoughts made him move outside, to watch as the wind pushed the sand around before the sun was too hot. 

It surprised him that his aunt had the same thought. She was sitting on the stairs outside staring somberly out over the desert. 

If she was as surprised by his presence she didn’t show it. 

“Sorry about storming out like that yesterday,” he said as he took a seat next to her. The stone was already warm even though the first sun had just barely passed the horizon. 

“You seem to say that a lot,” Nira said, her eyes still looking out in the distance. 

“What?”

“Sorry.”

Din resisted apologizing again even if it most likely would lighten the situation a bit. Maybe make the corner of her mouth twitch just a little. 

Ironically what he really wanted to say, ever since revealing his identity to Luke was to ask her forgiveness. It can’t have been easy to lose her only child, left on a farm without any family, and Din had never thought about it like that. His mind had been completely caught up in his own problems. His own grief about his parents, his duty towards his tribe, his bounties. 

He had barely spared her a thought. 

He opened his mouth to do so when Nira cut him off. “Don’t.”

Din’s eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. “I haven’t even said anything.”

“You were about to apologize for not visiting me, not telling me you were alive.” She turned to face him. “-and I say that you don’t have to.”

Din was taken aback by how easily she could read him, without even seeing his face. People had always told him he had expressive body language, most likely something he had adopted to make up for the lack of facial expressions. But this was beyond that. This was merely looking at him and knowing his mind. 

“Din–” she said, interrupting his line of thought. 

Hearing his name uttered out loud brought a soft thrill to his heart. The novelty of it was strange, but not unwelcome. 

It made him feel seen.

“-I understand.”

Din tilted his helmet. “You do?”

She nodded somberly. “Guilt. I know what that can do to a person and I wish nothing other than for you to be free from it.” She sounded tortured, her voice strained. “So please listen to me when I say that you are forgiven.”

Din could do little else than stare at her, his always joyful aunt on the brink of tears. 

She sniffled. “It’s me that should apologize. If I hadn’t told your parents about Aq Vetina you never would have left…and maybe they would still be here.”

It suddenly was clear to Din. The tortured looks that his aunt had given him ever since she found out who he was. The hurt behind her eyes seemed to be more than just the grief of the loss of family. It was the guilt that had been building up over the years, almost consuming her. 

He took hold gently of her shoulders, turning her fully to face him. “Then listen to me when I say that you are forgiven too.”

She still seemed to have trouble looking into his visor, his words just seeming to bounce off her. 

He sighed. “You can’t live on ‘what ifs’, you don’t know what would have happened. Maybe they would have found us, and all of us had gotten killed if we hadn’t left, or maybe not. We can’t know that.” He took a deep breath. tightening his hold on her shoulders. “But you need to know that I have never blamed you and I never will.”

They both stared at each other for a moment, she was finally looking at his visor. He felt a sudden kinship with the woman in front of him that he had known so many years ago.

He was gripped by a sudden urge for her to see him, to look into his eyes – the same color as hers – and find the same comfort in them as he felt in hers.

He reached up, placed his gloved hands on the metal planes on the side of his helmet, and took a deep breath. He slowly pushed upwards, and seeing the light more clearly without the gray tint of his visor was almost blinding, his eyes needing a second to adjust. 

Then brown eyes met his. The same deep warm color as his father’s. She blinked at him and then scooted closer, bringing her hand up to gently caress his stubbled cheek. 

She laughed softly and smiled at him through teary eyes. “You look so much like him.” 

Din didn’t need any explanation about who she alluded to. It was the same person that they had lost that day eighteen years ago, the one that had brought them together. 

“I thought you didn’t take it off.”

“I don’t.” Then Din thought about the number of times he had shown his face to Grogu recently. “Usually”, he added. 

She seemed transfixed by his face but for some reason, Din didn’t feel uncomfortable with her stare. 

“I make an exception for my family,” he said, making her smile at him. He smiled back. 

Then her expression turned serious again. “Did they take good care of you, the Mandalorians?”

He nodded.

“Then I will pray my thanks to them every day.”

Chapter Text

Din watched as Grogu’s upper lip wobbled at each breath, a gentle snore interrupting the quietness of the bedroom. 

The trip back from Tatooine had gone by in a blur. The goodbye to his aunt had been tearful but also hopeful. He had promised to keep in touch and visit soon again and it was a promise he was planning to keep.

Luke also seemed lost in his thoughts on the way back and more times than once he found him watching him with a strange look on his face. Din didn’t know what to make of it. Despite the strange looks, it was like something had changed around them after that nightly conversation. A quiet understanding that made both of the lighter around each other, and more at ease. 

Din tugged the cover higher up, just underneath his son’s chin. He wondered how it was possible to miss someone so much. Someone who he hadn’t even known existed not long ago, before that bounty. But now it seemed unfathomable to think that there had been such a time.

How much he had changed since then.

If he had told Din that he would remove his helmet willingly for two people he would most likely punch them– or worse. 

It had surprised Din as well that he did so for his aunt. He hadn’t planned it but somehow he had felt a gentle tug, a sudden want. And after, a thrilling feeling of freedom and control. 

He could choose his own way.

However, it didn’t come unaccompanied with a flare of fear and guilt, of tainting the pure belief of his people. He shook his head. No, he was his own person, with his own beliefs, his own life, his own name. 

But he also knew that showing his face to an adult was different somehow. He often had trouble understanding Grogu’s age; it seemed hard to translate it into human years. He sometimes seemed to hold wisdom far greater than his small body should be able to contain to just in the next second swallow a frog despite Din’s desperate pleas. 

It was no less significant to show his face to Grogu but for some reason, he knew that he would never judge him. Just stare at him with his wide eyes filled with child-like wonder. 

But this was the first time he had shown his face to someone for the first time fully freely. Not to find the coordinates to save his kid. Not with the pressure of lack of time the one time he had thought that he and Grogu might not see each other for a very long long time – if ever at all. 

He slept soundly that night.

Din woke the next morning desperately trying to cling to the sheets as he slid over the edge of the bed.

His spine collided with the stone floor, sending sharp shots of pain across his back.

His mind turned from foggy into complete clearness within a few milliseconds, leaping up from the floor to surveil his surroundings. Heart beating wildly in his chest. 

Dark room, large window, faint sound of the forest moving to the rhythm of the wind. 

The small shape of his son sleeping so close to the edge of the bed that there hadn’t been enough space for his father. 

Din almost laughed. 

How could someone so small take up so much space?

He glanced at the chronometer on the wall. It was early, but not too early to get up. He kissed the top of Grogu’s head before donning his helmet and leaving to meet the morning air. 

He had started to take frequent morning walks since staying here. It was something about the crisp morning chill that soothed him. Peaceful. 

The mountain was submerged by the fog, making it appear mysterious as it rose towards the violet sky. He figured his legs could use the exercise that the incline would entail. 

Din savored the quietness as he made his way up. Only the faint sound of a lonely bird interrupted it. Until something else caught his attention. 

A rushing sound, one of running water. He walked closer to it, rounding a large rock that obscured the path. 

He came to a halt.

Crystal-clear water traveled down the gray stone into a lake that looked about as wide as Din’s bedroom. It was easy to see the bottom but hard to determine its depth. The gray sky made the water look shimmering in a silver color that was strangely alluring. 

He took off his glove and reached into the water. 

Ice-cold, just as he figured. He had once found a hot water spring once on Navarro with its volcanic activity. This planet had none of that nature, just ice-cold water from the glacier on the top of the mountain. 

He took off his helmet, placed it by his feet, and took a deep breath, letting that fresh morning air fill his lungs. 

He wondered what the armorer would think of him now. Knowing that he had gone against the creed more than once. Disappointed he guessed, angry maybe. 

There was one way for Mandalorians to get rid of their sins according to his tribe's belief. Something that was spoken in hushed whispers sometimes in the covert, as a horror story told between foundlings. Of bathing in the waters beneath the mines of Mandalore.

The mines were all destroyed, everyone knew that. There is no way to redeem a remorseful Mandalorian. 

But Din wasn’t looking for redemption anymore.

He pulled at the zipper of his flight suit, pulled off his cowl, and chucked off his boots, all until he was standing there in nothing other than his underwear. The chill air made goosebumps appear all across his skin. He took a step into the water, and the surface reached the middle of his stomach. 

The cold water burned him. His skin went numb. He closed his eyes listening only to the sound of the water trickling down the stone wall, and dove into the freezing water. 

Din could be downright stupid sometimes, Luke thought as he followed footprints in the mud.

He had woken to the sharp desperate cries of Grogu. It was like they were cutting through his eardrums being able to penetrate his skull. That had made Luke throw away his covers and rush to their room.

The door was open; Din never left it open. 

Grogu was sitting alone on the bed, sobbing, grabbing at the covers like they would provide any comfort.

It hadn’t taken long for Luke to put one and one together. Din’s early morning walks and Grogu waking up not finding his father there when he knew he should be back now. 

There only seemed to be one way to stop Grogu’s bawling; to find his father. A task that was easier said than done with one that was so difficult to feel in the force. 

Thankfully, the night rain had left the ground soft. Easy to see the path that said man had taken. Of course, it had to be up the mountain. He sighed, his hamstrings burning from the steep incline. 

Grogu stopped sobbing after a few minutes of walking. His cries seemed to have tired him out quickly, making him limp in Luke's arm. His breathing evened out. 

Din was going to get a good scolding after this, leaving his kid in a time like this. Just he wait. 

He saw the footprints rounding the large rock on the left of the path and knew immediately where he had gone. To the waterfall with the icy water.  

He rounded the edge of the rock, the worst swears of Tatooine on the tip of his tongue when the sight in front of him made him come to an abrupt stop. 

His heart stuttered in his chest, and the words melted away.

He thought he would find Din sitting and watching the scenery, maybe dipping a hand in the clear water.

What he saw instead were naked shoulders, and dark hair dripping water across the muscles of his back that shifted as he moved. 

Luke quickly turned away. His heart was hammering in his chest. His face felt hot. 

“I– sorry I didn’t mean to–”,  he stuttered out in his panic.  

To his surprise, he heard a laugh behind him. 

He frowned, the anger almost flickering on again. “Is this funny to you?”

He heard water ripple. 

“Maybe,” Din replied, his voice shaking slightly, alluding to the temperature that he had just been immersed in. 

“Are you insane, swimming in that water? It’s barely above freezing point.”

At that Din let out a delirious laugh, one that almost made Luke question his sanity. He didn’t give another reply but Luke could hear a zipper being pulled and the whooshing sound that his helmet made whenever he took it on or off.

“You can turn around.” 

Luke did as he said and blinked at the fact that Din had seemed to forgo his usual full attire of armor. Instead just wearing his flight suit, helmet, and what looked like a completely soaked cloak. Luke suspected it had been used as a towel. 

His arms were crossed as if he could hug himself warm, looking as if he was shaking in the crisp morning breeze. It almost made Luke laugh. 

“Cold?” he asked. 

“Can’t feel my face or my–” he stopped.

“Balls?” Luke asked.

Din laughed and Luke could help but let out one as well, almost forgetting that he was supposed to be angry. 

They walked back to the house at a fast pace. Din seemed determined to get back inside as quickly as possible, probably going to need to light the fireplace. He also had weirdly jittery energy around him, and Luke couldn’t deny the curiosity that blossomed in his chest about what type of euphoric moment that Din had just experienced.

“You can’t just leave Grogu like that. He thought you didn’t make it back home when he woke up without you,” Luke said. 

Din grabbed the sleeping kid from Luke’s arms, the body heat probably did wonders for his own shivering form. Din didn’t say much at all, just caressed Grogu’s cheek pensively. “You’re right.”

Luke frowned. It was hard to stay mad at someone who took everything you said to heart. 

Grogu then opened his eyes and let out a shrill sound of glee, pressing his small body into his father's chest. Din laughed again and Luke fought against the smile that quickly formed across his face. 

Din didn’t come with them as they went outside for their morning meditation session like he usually did. 

He was probably still trying to get some heat back into his body. Luke wouldn’t admit that maybe, just maybe he missed having the other man sitting on the sidelines, just occasionally feeling a faint flicker in the force from his direction. 

He truly was a mystery and Luke wondered how that woman on Aq Vetina had done it. How did one hide from the force? And if one could, how do you reverse it? Can you? Should you?

Luke continued with the lesson which consisted of the kids using the force to build towers out of pebbles. It practiced their control and patience. The latter proved to be especially difficult to Saak who had let out a frustrated shout as his tower tilted over at the fifth stone the third time in a row. 

That led to Luke having to have a long discussion with him about the importance of not letting anger get in the way of progress. 

Soon enough Luke heard the front door open and out emerged a now completely dry and armored Din. He did however wear a blanket instead of his usual cape that Luke assumed was still hanging to dry. 

He couldn’t help but blush as he felt his eyes on him as he continued his lesson. Where did that come from?

Luke had to admit that recently tended to feel flustered around the other man. Nervous flutters in the pit of his stomach. He was scared that the feelings of respect and admiration he had for Din had deepened, turning into something that he was scared to even voice to himself. 

And even worse than that, he was quite certain that the other man felt something similar. Of, course Din was wearing a helmet that should make such feelings harder to decipher. But it was how his touches seemed to linger, the way that Luke could hear his smile in his voice, the small things he did that gave him away. 

But he could never give Din what he wanted. 
Luke could never have that. 

When the lesson was over Luke joined Din on the porch, while the kids played on the lawn. 

“You know, back on Tatooine I was always the best at racing.” He smiled, lost in the memories of speeding through the canyons and the rush of adrenalin in his veins. 

Din turned to face him, looking confused at the strange start of a conversation. 

Luke sighed. “The point I’m trying to make is that there was a reason why I had the quickest reflexes, able to make the most daring turns in my speeder. That was the force that helped me even if I didn’t know it back then there were always signs.”

Grogu let out a bubbling laugh as Cendra put him on her shoulders as they ran, trying to catch Saak. 

“I just–” Luke was unsure of what he was trying to ask. “It’s like at times I can’t feel you in the force at all, other times just a subtle presence and very rarely I feel you in complete clarity.” Luke scratched his cheek. “She said that that woman managed to hide your abilities, it seems to me that she didn’t succeed completely like your powers are threatening to crack through the surface.”

Din stayed still, his helmet, as ever, being impossible to read. However, the way he leaned forward and the angle of his helmet told Luke that the other man was intrigued by the topic at hand. 

“You know back on the Imperial base, just when I had retrieved the data stick a stormtrooper ambushed you from behind. You blocked his shots without even facing him, how did you do that?”

Din leaned back against the house's stone wall. “I don’t know.”

The answer was what Luke expected. Of course, Din had never thought about it that way. He had never known any difference so how would he know that what he did was something out of the ordinary?

“I wonder what she did to you,” Luke said.

“You could find out.”

Luke raised an eyebrow.

“That thing you did to look into our memories, could you use that to find out what happened?”

Luke sighed. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. It’s not a method for recovering lost memories. If you can’t remember what she did all it would be is provide the same fuzzy details that you have of the memory.”

Din huffed. “That’s too bad. Isn’t there some way of doing that? Recovering lost memories?”

“If there is, I’m not the right person to ask, and unfortunately there’s only me left to ask.” He gave a sad smile and at the same time felt annoying for bringing it up for what felt like the thousandth time. But at the same time, it was a simple fact. He just wished he could state it without the small lump in his throat making it hard to swallow.

Din gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Rain started pouring down making the kids shriek in surprise, one after the other sprinting past them inside giggling. Not caring at all about the mess that their muddy feet made on the floor. Grogu was the last one.  His short legs made it hard to keep up with the others, waddling forward the best he could.  

Luke and Din remained seated. The rain made a smattering noise as it fell on the porch’s roof above them. 

“What happened to the Jedi?”

Din’s voice was gentle as he asked, or as gentle as possible with his modulator. It seemed like a question that had brewed in his mind for some time but never had the opportunity to ask. 

How did one begin to explain the politics that had taken place so many years ago? How Palpatine had managed to manipulate everything for his own gain? Nonetheless to Din who knew about as much about politics as a desert rat. He decided to keep it simple. 

“My father did.”

Din tilted his helmet. 

Luke gave a loop-sided humorless smile, his veins felt like they were filled with venom. “You know the father I always talked about, who they told me was dead.” 

He kept his eyes fixed on the wooden beam in front of him. “Turned out he wasn’t so dead after all. He had just fallen to the dark side of the force.”

Luke tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. The anger he had felt at his aunt and uncle for not telling him the truth mixed with the anger for the tragedy that had happened to his father. How someone who just wanted to protect their wife had been led down the path of evil.

He noticed how his hand started trembling in his lap and grasped the fabric of his tunic to try and keep it still. 

“He was a Jedi too, you know, but he didn’t keep the no attachment rule. He married in secret, and the emperor used his attachment to her to manipulate him to the dark side. He was the one who led the assault on the Jedi temple on Coruscant that killed so many of our people…even younglings,” Luke heard his voice wavering and took off his glove showing off his prosthetic before he lost his nerve. “--and he did this.”

Din physically recoiled at that. Mandalorians were known for prioritizing family, and how they took care of their young ones. Din was most likely horrified that someone could slaughter children and hurt their own son that way. 

“My father wasn’t always evil. He had been a good man. That’s what the force can do to you if you are not careful. You have to keep away from attachments that could lead you to be tempted to the dark side.”

Luke trailed off, his hand still rubbing at his wrist. A nervous habit that had developed over the years. 

He felt the leather of Din’s glove grip his flesh hand, stopping his movements. “I’m sorry, Luke.”

Sincerity was pooling from Din’s words. If anyone knew how much Luke had grown up idolizing his father, talking nonstop about the stories uncle Owen had told him about him it would be Din who was the only one who put up with Luke’s constant blabbering at that age. 

Children’s laughter interrupted the heavy silence that had settled over them, making both of them turn around to peek inside the window.

All three children laughed as they watched a holo that R2 was projecting for them. Cendra’s was a melodic giggle accompanied by occasional snorts. Saak’s an erupting belly laugh. Grogu’s a bubbling laugh that makes your insides warm. 

Luke’s stomach was filled with warm affection for all three of them as he watched their small faces be lit by the blue light of the holo-video. 

He heard Din move beside him, springing up from his seat like he had been shot. So fast that Luke was almost startled. 

“I need to show you something.”

Chapter Text

The rain had almost subsided; having changed from a skyfall into a drizzle. It was more like a mist that was almost invisible but managed to make you drenched in seconds. 

Luke watched as Din made his way towards the ship with long strides that Luke struggled to keep up with. The earth was soft from the rain making the mud splash with each step. 

If Luke tried to deny that he was intrigued by the urgency in Din’s steps and the determined way he opened his weapon stash, he would be lying.

It wasn’t the first time that Luke had seen the other man’s weapon collection but it was hard not to be amazed by how many of them he had. Especially considering that Din had mentioned that his old ship had been blown up, meaning that he hadn’t had a long time to add to it. 

Luke had come to the conclusion that it was just the way Mandalorians were. Weapons were like food to them. 

Luke sat down on a crate close to where the ramp was going down. His flesh hand gripping its wooden edge. He heard a drawer being opened and closed. A door being slammed shut. Footsteps and the sight of someone sitting down next to him in his peripheral vision. 

Luke turned to look at what Din had brought with him. 

His heart skipped a beat.

A lightsaber.

He had however never seen one that looked quite like this. The handle was not round and shiny, but more oblong and rough in texture. 

Luke raised a hand and looked up to get permission to take it into his hands. Din just nodded, holding the weapon closer to Luke. He reached out and nothing could have prepared him for what he felt when his palm made contact with the cool metal.

It was eerie, the sound in his head, the way that the saber seemed to call out to him. Like a choir of whispers, ancient but present. Like ghosts. Banging on the door to his consciousness, trying to bury themselves in the depths of his mind. It was almost too much, almost making him drop it. 

Then he ignited it.

And he had expected a blue, green, or red color to bath them in. Any color at all would be less shocking than what he saw. Because what he saw was just– darkness. 

Nothing at all. 

It was like its blade had made a hole in the fabric of space and time. Just a pitch-black hole that pushed the light to the side making the edges appear blinding white. 

“It’s called the Darksaber”, Din said and Luke couldn’t have come up with a more fitting name himself. 

“Where did you get it?” Luke asked while wetting his lips, not sure what he should say.

Luke heard Din let out a large breath, his chest deflating.

“I won it from Moff Gideon that day of the Cruiser.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Won?”

“I didn’t know what it was. I never meant to–” Din stopped himself and took a breath. “It's just that the Darksaber had more history to Mandalorians than I was ever told.”

Luke got the sense that Din tried to hide something. “What type of history?” 

“Whoever wields it has the right to the Mandalorian throne.”

A beat of silence. 

“You’re the king?” Luke asked weakly. 

“What?” Din exclaimed. “No, no it’s just that whoever has it has historically had the option to–

“You’re the king of kriffing Mandalore.”

“Luke, please,” Din pleaded.

“I’m just– sorry but this is the wildest thing I heard.”

Din crossed his arms. “Really Luke? You found out your dad was Darth Vader and your mother was the Queen of Naboo. This is hardly–”

Luke shook his head, still feeling like someone had punched him hard in the face. “No this– It is definitely up there.”

Din tilted his helmet. 

Luke ignored him, he just turned off the blade and gave it back to Din, not sparing it another glance. His gaze was too busy staring at the visor of his friend.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Din didn’t answer, seeming lost in his thoughts as he watched the weapon in his hands. But he didn’t have to, the hesitant way his fingers traveled across the horizontal ridges made Luke guess his answer. 

“You don’t want it, do you?” 

His voice was barely louder than a whisper. “No.”

“Oh.” Luke felt guilt wash over him for not having more tact in the face of Din’s confession. Perhaps he should have guessed that Din would not be thrilled to have accidentally become the ruler of a ruined planet. From what he had told Luke he seemed to have spent most of his life alone. Still part of his tribe but never in any sort of position of power. So hearing that he might be a bit reluctant in the face of being a king should not be surprising. 

“–or I mean…I don’t know anymore.”

That piqued Luke’s interest. 

Din sighed. “I hated it when I got it. I’m no leader, I can barely get Grogu to brush his teeth. I know nothing about politics or that world. Could you imagine me at those meetings Leia went on about when she was here?”

That did bring a funny picture in his mind when he tried to picture it. Din, as blunt as a child, among those senators. 

“But?” Luke asked.

“I– I don't know. I just watched the kids in there, so carefree and– happy and I just feel like I have an opportunity to try to make other kids' lives a tiny bit easier. Wouldn’t it be selfish of me not?”

Luke thought about the cold brown-haired boy they had buried by a lake near the imperial base. About the timid things that Cendra and Saak had been the first time he had met them. About the green toddler that had been brought around the whole galaxy just to hide him from harm. 

The galaxy was not a kind place for a child.

He was sure that these thoughts were mirrored by the man next to him and his chest felt warm with affection for him. “And you say you’re not a good person.”

“I’m not.”

Luke let out a snort. “Whatever you say, your royal highness.”

Din angled his helmet in a way that made Luke sure that he was rolling his eyes at him.

“What? You’re a king.”

“No, I’m not.”

It was Luke’s turn to roll his eyes. “Oh, please–”

“It’s called Mand’alor actually.”

That made Luke burst out laughing. 

The next few days went by in a blur. The two adults helped each other with the number of chores needing to be done around the house and took turns in looking out for the kids. 

Not any different than usual. But it felt different now that both of them knew what was hiding in the back of a drawer at Din’s ship.

And both of them knew that if Din ever planned to take up on those thoughts he was harboring, he would have to leave. 

You could not rule over a planet remotely, no matter how much you wanted to. 

So Luke treasured those normal and domestic moments more than anything, now that he knew that they would not last forever. 

When Din told him one evening, two weeks after he had shown Luke the Darksaber, that he was going to visit his aunt on Tatooine, he was surprised at how deeply and ugly the fear in his stomach had settled. How afraid he felt that Din might never come back, that he would decide that this was it.

But Din had promised he would be back in a week and Luke held onto that promise as he watched as Din’s ship soared up towards the sky in the chilly evening air. No matter how painful it felt to watch him leave. 

Do not get attached. That had been his motto the whole time and this was how he was behaving. Being selfish. Wishing that he could have him to himself when Din could be out in the world making it a better place. 

He swallowed down his feelings and picked up a bleary-eyed Saak that had insisted on saying goodbye. He had whined all day about it being unfair that Grogu had been allowed to go with him when he and Cendra had been left behind. 

Luke mostly tried to ignore the complaints. Perhaps he should have told Saak not to give in to such feelings of jealousy as it was not Jedi-like, but at the moment he didn’t feel like he was the one to demand such things.

So instead he just took Cendra's hand, taking them both to their respective beds in their shared room.  

Later, when he lay alone in his bed in the dark, he closed his eyes and desperately tried to empty his mind of those ugly and selfish desires that lived in his heart. 

When the seventh day after Din and Grogu’s departure had passed, Luke began to fear for the worst. Maybe his irrational fear that their goodbye had been their last had been right after all. That Din had finally realized that he could not spend the rest of his life rotting away on a remote planet. 

On the ninth day, Luke was getting worried. Luke had assumed that Din would have called if his plans had changed. The fear that something had happened that had prevented him from doing so festered in Luke’s mind. Perhaps he was just a bit late, he hoped. 

It was almost like Cendra and Saak could sense his anxiety and tried to distract him by making decorations for the upcoming holidays. They even persuaded him to invite his friends to join their celebrations in two weeks. 

On the 14th day, Luke was getting angry. If Din had decided to leave for good Luke thought that he at least deserved to know. Instead of being left alone in his worries. Meditating seemed to do nothing good. That stupid helmeted man still appeared in his thoughts. Plaguing him day and night. 

It was on the 15th day that Luke saw the ship land and a silver-clad man walk down the ramp. Luke felt his rage be re-ignited all over and again and set off in determined strides towards the man. 

“You’re a week late!”

Luke watched as Din raised his helmet towards him and then held up a finger in front of his helmet, nodding at the sleeping toddler in his arms. 

Luke proceeded to whisper, even if there was still the same venom in his words. “You didn't come back here for eight days and you didn’t even bother to call?”

He walked closer to Din jabbing a finger into his shoulder. “I thought you had left for good or maybe– maybe even died.”

Din didn’t reply and Luke was almost about to start to go off at him again when Din swayed as he was looking down at Luke from his higher position on the ramp. 

Luke reached out to steady him, worry overtaking him and all his anger melted away in a second.
                                                                                                                                            
“Woah, are you alright?”

Din grunted in reply and that was the only answer Luke needed.

He reached out and pulled the taller man’s arm over his shoulder and led him into the house, past the kitchen, and onto the couch in the living room in front of the fireplace. Then he reached down to pick up Grogu, tiptoed up the stairs, and put him into his bed. 

He took a quick detour to the bathroom to pick up a med-pack before hurrying back downstairs.

Din was still lying on the couch, his frame barely fitting between the armrests. 

Luke took a stool and sat down next to him. “Where are you hurt?”

Din took one hand and gestured to a place in his hip that his armor didn’t cover. His flight suit was ripped there and Luke reached out to get a better look. 

The skin was angry red and swollen around a large wound but it was like the skin around it had been burnt, closing it. 

Luke looked up at Din’s visor. “You cauterized it?”

“Stopped the bleeding.”

Luke sighed. “--and gave yourself an infection,” Luke said under his breath. “Didn’t you have any bacta?”

Din only grunted again and Luke assumed that meant no. “It’s just a scratch.” 

Luke forced himself not to roll his eyes. “Anywhere else?”

Din stayed silent and Luke almost feared that he had passed out until he answered hesitantly. “I–I don’t know”.

Luke didn’t like that answer at all. It could only mean that Din was aching all over so that he couldn’t even tell where he was hurt. 

“Okay, let's get you out of this armor.”

It was a joint effort to get all of the clasps open and pull the armor off. Luke was unfamiliar with how it worked and Din’s hands were unusually uncoordinated, which did nothing to ease the deep fear in Luke’s stomach. 

When Din was finally free from all the silver beskar, Luke moved to gently open the zipper to his flight suit, dreading that he would find even more injuries.

And he did. But most of them were faded scars from wounds that had happened long ago on the places where his armor didn’t cover. Like the one long white scar on the side of his ribcage. His chest was however filled with newly formed bruises, deep purple in color. It looked painful but they would heal. 

Luke inspected an especially blue region on the lower left side of his ribcage. It looked like a rib might be broken. 

He took out a bottle of bacta and smeared some across the infected wound. Din’s breathing picked up, clearly, the infected area hurt from the touch. 

Luke continued with putting bacta on the bruises of his chest, trying to be careful not to press too deeply into the sore areas. 

When he was done he sat back down, looking at Din's visor. “What happened?”

Din let out a string of sentences that didn’t make any sense. Luke thought he heard him mention Boba Fett in the explanation and wrote it off as the delirious talk of a wounded and tired man. 

“Okay,” He just said instead. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Din seemed to succumb to his exhaustion in a matter of minutes. His breathing evened out. 

Luke grabbed a blanket that had been thrown across the backseat and pulled it over Din’s shoulders. 

He felt the relief wash over him, the relief that Din was going to be alright. The relief that he was here with him, alive and breathing. 

It was at that moment Luke knew that it was useless to try to get rid of Din from his heart when he had dug himself in so deep.

Chapter Text

Din groaned.

His head felt like it had been run over by a Bantha. Honestly, that would not be far from the truth. He had his helmet in between that rancor's teeth after all. 

He was just about to pull the blanket over his head and catch some more sleep when he heard a giggle close to his ear.

Din opened his eyes slowly, his heart almost jumped out of his chest when he saw Cendra with an almost maniac smile just a few centimeters from Din’s helmet. 

Din almost swore but stopped himself at the last minute. “What is it?”

Cendra smiled harder, making her look even more like a lunatic. “I knew you were awake.”

“Well, thanks to you.”

Cendra ignored his snarky comment and managed to sit down on the small space between Din’s side and the edge of the couch. She leaned down towards him again. “Do you know what day it is today?” She whispered. 

“Your birthday?” Din guessed. 

Cendra laughed. “No, silly. It’s the day before Life day.”

Right. Din had almost forgotten that tradition. It hadn’t been on his priorities to celebrate it the last couple of years or ever really since he was a kid. He remembered that there used to be a small celebration at the covert. They didn’t have any presents, resources were too scarce for that. But they did have their traditions. The songs they used to sing, the food they used to eat.

He did vaguely remember his father giving him a pair of boots one time. He had lost them of course, buried in the ash all those years ago. Not that they would fit him anymore anyway. 

He tried to sit up, letting out a groan when his head started throbbing. 

Cendra’s expression turned from one of glee to one filled with concern in a matter of seconds. “Are you alright? Luke said you were hurt.”

“I’m fine.”

Cendra gave him an unimpressed look that reminded Din of Luke’s sister. 

“I will be, anyway,” Din corrected himself. “Where is Luke anyway?”

“I think he’s outside with Saak and Grogu. Do you want me to get him?” Cendra rose from her seat moving quickly towards the door.

“No!” Cendra looked at him in surprise at his strong reaction. “No, that's fine I mean.”

She moved slowly back to her seat and gave him a strange look. Din knew that Luke wouldn’t hesitate to start interrogating him about the events he had been through. Somehow, he knew that Luke would not be happy about him having gotten involved in the fight against the criminal spice trade of Tatooine no matter how noble the cause was.

It was strange to have someone worrying about you.

“Have you wished for something special for Life day?” He asked, hoping to distract the girl from the previous subject. 

Cendra looked down at her hands. “Oh, I don’t know.”

Din smiled. “Come on, you can tell me.”

Cendra looked at him and then back at her hands that she wrung in her lap. “It’s stupid, but when I was a kid we always used to have this bonfire every Life day. It was always so pretty in the dark.” She had a wistful look on her face, looking like she had just been transported back in time. 

“You want a bonfire?”

“Yes.”

Din understood. Nothing had been the same for her since her village had been attacked. No more swimming in the ocean, no more hugs from her grandparents, no more bonfires at christmas. She sought comfort in the things she knew, like how Din had turned to cook Tiingilar when he missed his tribe. 

The moment was interrupted by Luke barging through the door carrying Grogu in one arm. Din knew that Grogu must have spilled his guts, the little tattletale.

Luke seemed to be struggling to find his words so he simply pointed at Din. “Boba Fett?”

Even though Din knew what Luke meant, he couldn’t help himself. “No, I’m Din.”

Despite Luke’s not-so-silent interruption, it wasn’t until after the evening had started to set that they had the opportunity to properly talk about what had happened. 

Luke had been busy preparing for the next day's festivities wanting everything to be perfect for the kids' first life day in their new home. So he spent his day cooking and trying to clean as much as he could. He washed bed sheets for his upcoming house guests that were arriving in the morning, even if he knew that they would probably insist on sleeping on the Millenium Falcon. 

Luke had noted that Din had spent most of the day sleeping or occasionally socializing with the kids. He seemed to be in better shape than he had been yesterday but Luke was still worried. He couldn’t check the man for head injuries and he worried that he had gotten himself a serious concussion. 

Still, Din had insisted that he was fine and Luke had been surprised to see him go out on a walk toward the forest after the kids had gone to bed. 

Luke grabbed a cloak and burst out the door to follow him. 

There was a chilly wind outside that pulled at Luke's clothes and gave him goosebumps across his skin. He pulled his cloak tighter around himself and picked up his pace.

When he finally caught up with Din he was carrying a large stack of branches, having changed his direction back to the house. 

“What are you doing?” Luke asked, wondering what Din was doing collecting firewood in the dark with only the moonlight to see. 

“Making a bonfire,” Din answered shortly.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” 

“I’m fine,” Din murmured and threw the branches at the lawn when they got closer to the house again. 

Luke snorted. “Like hell you are, you came back here yesterday looking like you were on the brink of collapsing.”

Din didn’t answer, just continued picking up branches on their way. 

“You know that Grogu showed me everything. The fight with the syndicates at Mos Eisley,” Luke’s voice was getting louder. “Why didn’t you call me? I could have helped.”

“I don’t know,” Din said as he threw the second batch of branches down on the ground. 

Luke pursed his lips. Sometimes having a conversation with Din was like pulling teeth. 

Din began moving towards the trail again, and Luke stared at his shoulders with venom in his eyes. 

Luke stormed after him. “Din, I thought you had left for good!”

“Why would you think that?”

“ Why would I think that?”  Luke imitated. “You just told me about your plans about the dark saber and then you don’t come back for two weeks without telling me. What was I supposed to think?”

Din peered behind him, seemingly surprised by Luke’s confession, and his fast strides slowed down. 

“I didn’t realize,” He said slowly in that painfully sincere voice that somehow made it impossible to stay mad at him. 

Din had stopped in his tracks now, the wind had picked up again pulling at the leaves of the trees. Both of them looked up at the tree branches as they swung back and forth occasionally letting the moonlight shine in between the branches. 

Din turned to look at him. “I won’t leave without telling you. I promise.”

Luke wondered if Din was also thinking about the promise he had given all those years ago when they had just been boys. The promise of never leaving the other behind, the one that Din had broken.

Din spoke up again. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it.”

Luke felt like the air had been beaten out of his lungs and his ears got a rush of warmth.  Pretty.

Din looked like he was about to reach out and touch him but restrained himself at the last second. Luke wished that he would be brave enough to grab his hand and pull it to his cheek.

“Sorry,” said Din and cleared his throat, turning around and moving deeper into the forest. 

Luke stared at him dazed for a moment until his senses kicked in again and he jogged to catch up with him. 

“Why are you making a bonfire anyway?”

“Cendra wanted one,” He answered simply. 

Luke smiled at him, feeling like his heart was about to burst. 

And that had been that. Somehow Din always managed to change his fiery anger into a deep sense of affection. Calming the storm in his heart. Who needed the force to calm your emotions when you had Din Djarin?

He sighed. He was really truly utterly screwed. 

When Leia had been invited by her brother to join him at his home during the holidays, she had expected to have a relaxing time. Days not having to worry about her over-energetic kid being lonely or bored, enjoying Luke’s cooking, and having the opportunity to have some rare alone time with him. 

Not to say that it wasn’t filled with those things too, but somehow relaxing had not been a word to describe her stay. 

It was all Luke's and that Mandalorian's fault. 

It had been a while since Leia had seen them together but observing them now was frustrating enough to give her a headache. 

She had seen how they playfully teased each other, the unnecessarily touching, the longing looks Luke sent him. Her husband seemed totally oblivious to the change that had happened between Luke and Mando. However, when Luke passed the salt to Mando without either party having to say a word, she made eye contact with Chewbacca and knew he was thinking the same thing. 

The whole thing made her want to grab her brother by the ear and persuade him to put this pining to an end. 

So she did just that. Dragging him from the bench on the porch into the kitchen, slamming the door shut behind them.  

“Ow, what in the hell are you doing?” Luke yelped, rubbing his now red ear, staring at her like she had gone mad. 

“This stops now!” She said with her mouth pursed, not bothering to keep her volume down since the rest was outside, playing underneath the star-speckled sky. 

Luke kept staring at her. “What are you talking about?”

“You and Mando and this little dance that you are doing around each other.”

Leia watched as Luke's cheeks deepened in color as he realized what she was insinuating. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Luke said and then promptly started cleaning the dishes that had piled up after lunch.

Leia almost laughed. “You’re not fooling me, Luke.”

He ignored her. His back was turned to her and she watched as he ferociously scrubbed at a serving spoon. 

She sighed. “Luke, what is it? It is obvious that he likes you and that you like him, or maybe even love him.” 

Clank . Luke had dropped the spoon onto the floor as he was drying it. 

“Why don’t you put the both of you out of your misery?”

Luke gave her a sour look as he bent down to pick up the spoon. 

He turned around again, his hands gripping the edge of the sink. “And that turned out so well for dad.”

For a moment Leia just stared at the back of his head. So that was what this was about. 

Luke was still living with the guilt and fear of their father's path. For someone so insistent on letting go of strong emotions he was still drowning in his fears.

“You are not our father Luke.”

“It’s dangerous to be that conceited.” 

Leia sighed and moved to wrap her hand around one of Luke’s tense shoulders. Luke’s eyes were downcasted, refusing to meet Leia’s. “Don’t you ever think that maybe the Jedi’s downfall was their restrictiveness? The way that father felt so lonely in his fears over our mother’s prophesied death that he turned to a sith for help rather than his own people?”

Luke finally met her eyes and Leia could feel the turmoil behind them. The conflict between all different views, the loneliness of having to decide for himself, the weariness of the burden. The way his shoulder seemed to slouch and his eyes no longer sparkled.

She thought that maybe it was all too much for one man to bear. 

And for the first time in her life, Leia pitied him. 

“Luke, I know this isn’t easy for you. But sometimes I think that you forget that you're allowed to be happy.”

Leia looked out the window and saw the armored man. “–And this pining look–” She said and pointed between Luke and Mando. “–really doesn’t suit you.”

“I’m not pining.” Luke protested but nonetheless, his gaze seemed to be glued on the other man, his whole face lightening up as he watched him help Cendra light the Bonfire. The sparkle was back and his eyes and it was like he couldn’t help forming a smile.

Leia rolled her eyes. “Yeah okay and I’m a Bantha.”

Luke would rather die than admit that what Leia had said had gotten under his skin. Maybe that was a tad dramatic but it was like some unspoken role to never let your sibling know that maybe they had a point. 

Or maybe Leia was totally off the mark about this whole thing. It wasn’t like she knew much about the Jedi either, but Luke had to admit that she was wise. Probably had always been. He could picture her as a precocious child, always one step ahead of the grown-ups around her whereas Luke had always been more of a child at heart.

And now more than ever he felt like a kid just wishing the adults to give him the answers to his questions.  

It had been a good evening, they had been eating good food, and Chewie had brought some games that the kids had largely enjoyed even if Luke had caught Saak cheating several times. Han had cracked even more jokes than usual and Luke could have sworn he heard Din laugh a few times.

A good night.

The highlight had been after they had lightened the bonfire and Din’s armor had shined golden in the light from the flames. Even more captivating than usual. He had never wished more than in that moment that the rules about attachments didn’t exist. 

He felt a jolt of guilt go through him at the thought as he had just uttered blasphemy. 

But nonetheless Luke couldn’t let those streams of thoughts go. 

This was how he found himself in the middle of the night sitting on the wooden floor in his bedroom, calling out through the force, desperate and pleading for anyone to answer.

They had never answered him, the force ghosts. He had never seen any of them since that evening on Endor. Luke had to admit that it hurt, hurt to be abandoned with this responsibility without anyone to guide him. 

He called out in the force again. This time more calm and collected, reaching out into time and space. He took a breath in and out and centered himself. The feeling of the cold and hard floor disappeared from his mind. No longer hearing the faint sound of the wind outside. 

It was just him and the force.

And still— nothing. 

He opened his eyes again, his pupils adjusting to the darkness of the room. Disappointment pooled in his stomach. But then a flicker of hope as he saw something move in his periphery. His heart beating violently in his chest until he realized, embarrassingly, that all he had seen was his reflection in the mirror. 

Just him alone in that room. Just him left to decide. 

He had to make his own way. 

Chapter Text

They were taunting him. 

All of them were, Luke decided, as he sat with his arms crossed and scowling on the steps to the porch. 

It was the way that Han and Leia were hanging over each other on the porch bench giving each other looks so sweet that Luke wanted to throw up. 

It wasn’t like Din made matters any better, sitting cross-legged in the grass and giving Grogu a twirl. Cendra had decided to learn to play the flute and had through trial and error learned to more or less play in the right key. Saak had taken the initiative to teach Ben to dance in rhythm. Grogu had then decided that he wanted to join. 

It was harder for the toddler with the shortest legs. He struggled to keep up with the two other boys and had instead been content with receiving some help from his dad. 

Luke’s heart clenched painfully in his chest. At the same time, he heard small chuckles from Leia and Han’s direction. He spun his head around and caught a glance at Leia as she leaned on Han’s shoulder gently tracing his palm. 

He felt his scowl deepen.

He turned back just as Grogu let out a delighted squeal as Din lifted him up in the air. Luke felt his face relaxing again, the frown being replaced with a soft smile.
 
Grogu squirmed in Din’s grasp, after having caught sight of a butterfly. Din had put him down with a chuckle as the kid began his chase. 

Luke felt his smile slip away. His heart ached with longing. 

Luke had never had any trouble with keeping away from forming romantic attachments. He had never understood when his peers from the rebellion seemed to find new people to catch their eye as soon as the last one left.

No, Luke had always been more of a loner. He was fine being on his own and had never truly wished for that to change. Well, until now. 

He looked outside the window as the water trickled down the stream, and the birds flew over the tree branches. The office that he was sitting in was getting significantly darker every minute at the same time as the sky turned pink. The same sky that the Millennium Falcon had just flown by.

The table's surface was hard beneath him. He did not know why he had made a habit of sitting on it. Perhaps it was that slightly childish urge within him that made him do it. Nonetheless, it was a strangely freeing feeling, like he was doing something forbidden. Even if he was almost thirty and did not have any uncles and aunts around to scold him. 

The door creaked behind him and he watched as Din sat down next to him. The table swayed slightly. Not because the table couldn’t take the weight of two men but because one of the legs was shorter than the others, something Luke hadn’t bothered to fix. 

“Are the kids asleep?” Luke asked. 

Din nodded, and the movement made Luke notice the brown liquid stain on his cuirass. No doubt from the chocolate milk that Din sometimes spoiled the kids with. Din seemed to have caught what Luke was looking at and quickly wiped the evidence away with his cape. 

Sometimes Luke wondered how they had gotten here. A battled-weathered rebel and a skilled bounty hunter, both somehow made a home in this old stone house. Filling their days with laundry and spoiling the kids with chocolate milk. 

It made Luke wonder how long ago it had been since Din had stayed in one place and if he was happy with this new way of life. One much less intense than his previous one. He wondered if Din would get bored.

Surprisingly he found calm at the prospect of Din leaving. He didn’t feel any possessive feelings about him, most of all he wanted him to be happy. Although that didn’t mean that Luke wouldn’t be sad…But somehow he knew that it wouldn’t break him. 

It couldn’t be bad to act on feeling like that. Feelings like that couldn’t come from the dark side.

He watched the rosy gleam of Din’s armor, and he felt the urge to reach out and touch it. To feel the cool, smooth beskar underneath his fingers, but his hand remained stiff by his sides. 

“Did you tell them that story about the Krayt dragon?” Luke asked before he did something stupid. 

Din shook his head. “I think they have gotten tired of that one, I told them a new one, one I was told on Tatooine.”

“Not the one about the womp-rats getting lost in the desert, I hope.” A story that Luke vividly remembered hating as a kid. Luke knew that the tale was meant to teach kids to never go too far without water, but that didn’t make it any less boring.
 
Din chuckled. “I remember that one! Maybe I should use that one next time, they’ll fall asleep right away.” Then he turned his visor to Luke. “No, this one was a bit more exciting than an animal digging for water. Do you remember that man who lived not too far away from us? The one that was a bit of a hermit that your uncle always told us to stay away from?”

Luke could feel his heart beating in his chest. “Ben?”

“Yes, Ben, I think he was called.”

“You knew him?”

Din shrugged. “I came by his house sometimes after he saved your life that time.” He turned his helmet to face him. “You know when you tried to take back the water that Jabba’s henchmen had stolen?” 

Luke remembered it faintly. How they had taken the water calling it a water tax. No one believed that the water was actually for something useful. Some even said that Jabba used it to bathe in. Leia had told him years later that he reeked like a rotten corpse so Luke doubted that rumor had been true. 

Nevertheless, he remembered the anger at the injustice that he felt and how he foolishly thought that he would be able to get the water back. He had dragged Din with him even though he was a lot more skeptical of his plan. It hadn’t gone so well after all after passing out from a push from one of the henchmen. 

 “Ben was the one that helped me get you home.”

That was news to Luke. He had always assumed that Din had been the one to drag him home one way or another. But to think that Ben had looked after him all those years…

It was hard to think about.

Din continued. “I knocked on his door a while after the incident to thank him. I don’t think he liked me at first. I bet he thought that I was a bad influence…that was until he realized that it was you who was behind all those stupid ideas.” He chuckled.

Luke smiled too. 

“I used to visit him sometimes. I think I thought he was lonely. I used to bring some cookies with me that I had stolen from my aunt and he used to tell me stories. He told the best stories. A lot of them were about a knight called Obi-wan.”

Luke felt his body turn cold. Ben had told Din about his adventures as a Jedi, even if Din himself had not made the connection between Luke and Ben’s past. Luke knew that Ben had kept his distance from Luke all of his childhood for a good reason. 

He wondered if telling Din was his way to make sure that Luke would somehow get the stories. That he somehow knew that what he told Din would one day reach Luke. That they belonged by each other's side.  

It was like Ben was somehow talking to him through the force.

Maybe he was reading too much into this, but Luke couldn’t take it as something else than a sign. 

It was while sitting on that table in the study in the dim light of the dawn that made Din’s armor shine rose-gold, that Luke made a decision. 

Luke had a harder time following through with his plan than he would have expected. As soon as he made up his mind he was sure that he would simply walk up to Din, confess all the thoughts that had been harboring in his mind and that would be all. 

It, however, hadn’t been that easy. Every time that Luke had gathered the courage something would distract them. Maybe a kid demanding attention, or a pot on the stove almost boiling over. Maybe Luke should have taken this as a sign that the Force did not approve of this mission of his. Leia would surely have smacked him on the head for such a remark and would have pointed out that all of these “distractions” were merely excuses for his own cowardice. 

She would probably be right.

Somehow fighting the Empire seemed easier than confessing your feelings to the one he loves.

God, he was pathetic.

Then it just happened one night.

One starry night after the kids had gone to bed. When the air was slightly humid and the grass filled with dew. The only light source was a yellow lamp that was on the outside of the house facade and the moon overhead.

Luke had aimed to teach Din how to use the Dark saber. To say the least, it hadn’t started in the best way. Din seemed unused to the light weight of the saber, his movements too forceful to be graceful with such a weapon. Luke was just happy that he had avoided cutting a limb off in the process. 

“God, you're hopeless,” Luke said, smiling as he quickly maneuvered Din’s saber away from him. 

Din laughed and it wasn’t his usual chuckle, but a carefree laugh. One that he only let out when he truly was at peace. 

Luke just shook his head, ignoring the way Din’s laugh made his stomach flutter. 

Din tried to use his distraction to lunge forward at him. Luke stepped away quickly and gave Din a light push with the force. Enough to make his unprepared opponent fall over on his back.

“Hey, that’s cheating!”

Luke just shrugged. “Maybe so.”

Din started laughing again and Luke reached out his arm to help him up on his feet. Something that Din did not let him do, having instead opted to drag him down with him. 

Luke’s chin collided with Din’s shoulder, something that should have hurt more than it did. 

“I probably deserved that,” Luke said as he rolled to his back beside Din who just responded with an agreeing sound. 

They grew quiet after that, but none of them made any effort to get up. Both of them looked up at the star-lit sky. Their sides pressed to each other in a way that made Luke very aware of how his heartbeat pounded in his chest. 

That was the last drop for Luke, the thing that made him turn to his side and press his forehead to Din’s. 

Luke held his breath and watched as Din grew rigid beside him. For a few seconds, he didn’t say anything and Luke was just about to open his mouth and apologize when Din finally responded. 

“Did you mean that?” He nearly whispered. 

“I– yes.”

Luke had once asked him about the significance of that gesture. The one of gentle tapping of foreheads that he sometimes saw him do with Grogu. 

“It’s a way for Mandalorians to show affection when wearing helmets. We do it to family members or–”

“With partners?”

“Well yes.”

“It’s how you kiss?”

Din had nodded, seeming embarrassed at the turn of the topic. Something that he always seemed to be as soon as romance was brought up. Luke found it endearing.

Din sat up and Luke did the same. Then Din gently placed his forehead on Luke’s again, his gloved hand gently cradling the back of his head. Luke’s heartbeat picked up, feeling the tension of the moment, relaxing in Din’s grip. 

While being so close to Din he could hear him breathing. When Din had just arrived, it was sometimes easy to forget that it was a living, breathing, human behind his beskar. His movements were always so precise, so calculated, his speech so straightforward, and his tone of voice modulated by his helmet. His consciousness hidden from the force.

But now Luke could feel him. His hand reached up and cupped the side of his throat. His hands reached under his cowl. His skin was warm, and his pulse beat wildly beneath his fingertips. He felt his affection for Din flow in the force hoping that it reached him.

He heard Din chuckle quietly. Then his forehead left Luke’s.

“I want to show you something.”

Luke felt a tinge of disappointment at the loss of contact, something that was quickly replaced by a blooming curiousness. 

He turned and looked at Din expectantly. The other man’s gaze however seemed transfixed by the stars above them.

Luke took his hand something that seemed to shake Din out of his thoughts. He smiled at him encouragingly. 

“Luke, I–” he began and then seemed to struggle to find his words.

Luke squeezed his hand trying to reassure him but Din stayed quiet.

“Oh, kriff it,” he then said and then, to Luke’s shock, reached up and proceeded to lift the helmet off his head. 

Luke reached out in panic to grab Din’s hands and yank them down. “You don’t have to do that”.

Din angled his helmet. “I want to. I thought about it for a while and I really want to.”

Luke slowly put down his hands and felt a wash of shame come over him. He had no right to control Din's choice in this. He just didn’t want him to do anything in the heat of the moment, something he would regret later. 

“Sorry.”

Din reached up again and Luke felt the thrill of anticipation in the air as his hands were lifted higher and higher. He sucked in a breath. 

Once the helmet was off he had to take a moment to just take it all in. His wavy hair was just like Luke remembered it. But he had a mustache now, something that somehow made Luke smile when thinking about the fact that no one could see it but him. What Luke looked at longest was his eyes. The softest eyes that Luke had ever seen. 

“I can see why you wear that helmet now,” Luke said without thinking.

A flicker of hurt crossed Din’s eyes and Luke realized his mistake. 

“No, that sounded wrong. I just meant that your face, it looks…kind.”

Din still looked confused.

“Doesn’t fit your whole tough bounty hunter look,” Luke said with a laugh. 

Din rolled his eyes and the gesture almost made Luke laugh again. Just being able to finally see those expressions that Din hid behind that visor made him giddy with happiness. 

Luke raised a hand towards his face. “Can I?”

Din nodded and Luke laid his palm gently on his cheek and Din closed his eyes at the contact. Then he slowly let his forehead rest on his. 

Din let out a breath and opened his eyes meeting Lukes. He had heard people say that eyes were the windows to one’s soul. He had never really understood it. Not until now. Every expression that crossed those eyes belonged to someone he loved.

His chest felt full. 

“I love you.” The words were out of his mouth before he even finished the thought in his mind. An impulsive confession but a true one. He swallowed nervously. 

He looked back up at Din’s dark eyes. There was something vulnerable across his face, looking at Luke like he was something precious. 

He didn’t respond though, but being a man who showed his heart through his actions rather than words, proceeded with letting his hand gently trace Luke’s face. 

Din’s gaze flickered to his lips for a moment too long and Luke gave him a nod. His heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest and bounce into the forest. 

It was a gentle kiss. A timid one and yet it bared so much emotion that Luke almost felt his eyes water. It was filled with longing, of relief and as cliché as it sounded it felt like coming home. 

“You need your family”, The Armorer had once told him. It was during that time that his face was still bare and the boots on his feet were a gift from his parents. 

He had not understood her. His thoughts had moved to a place of panic where screams filled the air and his parents lay buried underneath the dust.

It had taken a few years for the message to sink in and maybe it wasn’t until he saw those helmets piled up that he had truly understood what he had lost. 

But this time he wouldn’t be as slow to realize what was right in front of him. Grogu was sleeping soundly on Luke’s lap as he was rocked back and forth. Luke’s eyes crinkled in amusement as Grogu let out an especially loud snore. Saak and Cendra were collecting frogs in the high grass. Din just hoped they let them free before Grogu woke up. 

He knew that he had to figure out what to do with the Darksaber and he still looked for his tribe but not as desperately and obsessively as he once had. He had come to peace with the fact that he might never reunite with them, because they had taught him the valuable lesson; That family can be found.