Chapter Text
Had I not seen the Sun
I could have borne the shade
But Light a newer Wilderness
My Wilderness has made—
-Emily Dickinson
“Listen, kid, this is just for the day. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to go again.”
“But the boots feel weird!”
Din sighs as he stares at the toddler in front of him.
“I know. But do you think I’d make you do something that’s no fun?”
Grogu stares back at him with furrowed brows. “You make me brush my teeth.”
Despite trying to remain stern, a laugh forces itself out of Din’s throat. “Yeah, but skiing isn’t as bad as brushing your teeth, trust me.”
“Promise?”
Din smiles and zips Grogu’s coat. “Promise. Now, where’s your helmet? I’ll put mine on, too, we can match.”
Grogu manages to put on his bright green helmet by himself. Din kneels down to close the strap under his chin. Grogu shakes his head from left to right experimentally, then leans forward to bump his helmet to Din’s silver one.
“Alright, let’s go,” he says, suddenly sounding bossier than it should be possible for a three-year-old to sound.
Din huffs another laugh.
They lock the small cabin that will be their home for the winter, collect their skis from the shed in the back and slowly make their way over to the base station of the cable car. Din carries their equipment as Grogu toddles along, slowly but surely figuring out how to walk in his new ski boots.
Din grins to himself under his scarf. It’s nice to return to the place he has spent almost every winter ever since he was a teenager at. It is even nicer to be able to introduce it to his son.
It takes them ten minutes to get to the station instead of Din’s usual five, but Grogu is still happy at the end of their little trek so Din considers the first challenge of the day down as completed.
The next challenge (the cable car) is conquered easily. Grogu hops into the small four-seater gondola without Din’s help and spends the ride up the mountain glued to the plastic window, staring at the white landscape below them.
When they get out at the top of the lift, they are welcomed by the sun and the first proper snow of the season and beautifully prepared pistes as far as the eye can see. The snow is powdery and Grogu laughs as he drags his boots through it, steadily making his way towards the foot of the baby hill where the beginner class is supposed to meet.
Din sticks his own skis in the snow and looks up to take in the scenery for a moment. The ski resort is structured like most ski resorts – the cable car takes everyone up from the village in the valley to the resort’s central point, the baby hill and the restaurant. From there, a network of ski lifts distributes skiers all over the surrounding snow-covered mountains.
Din inhales the cold morning air, watches as his breath turns into puffy clouds that whirl upwards into the clear blue sky. His eyes get stuck on the vast white mountaintops surrounding him for a second and when he looks back down, someone wearing the distinctive red ski suit all ski teachers wear is walking towards Grogu and him.
The sight of the colour reminds Din to be grateful that ski patrol doesn’t have to adhere to the same dress code and he can just wear his preferred black-and-grey colour scheme on the job. There had been a year where Greef tried to implement a matching bright orange uniform for ski patrol but was quickly forced to pull the proposal back as most of the team – Din included – threatened to quit if they had to wear something as outlandish.
“Hi there!” The newcomer’s voice is chirpy as he greets them. “I’m Luke, I’m your instructor for the next week. And who might you be?”
Grogu stares, fascinated as the figure clad in red pulls of a helmet to reveal a mess of blonde hair and a grin that is brighter than the sun. Din hasn’t seen him before, which means he must’ve joined this or last season.
(He stares, too. He’s glad that his goggles and scarf obscure his face.)
“This is Grogu,” he hears himself say.
The man – Luke – crouches down to Grogu’s height. “Hi, Grogu. I love your ski suit! It makes you look like a little frog.”
Grogu giggles and wiggles around to show off the green ski suit that matches his green helmet and green gloves.
“Alright, then,” Luke says as he moves to stand back up, eyes moving on to Din’s helmet. “Pickup time is at three. Grogu, can you carry your own skis from here onwards?”
Grogu nods and turns to Din, who lays his tiny skis across his son’s tiny extended arms.
He swallows. “Be good,” he says. Grogu nods. “I’ll see you later.”
Grogu nods again. “See you later,” he chirps and toddles over to Luke.
Luke raises a hand in a wave. “Bye, then,” he says and leads Grogu over to a group of kids already waiting.
Din watches them leave and blinks away a few tears. This is ridiculous, he’ll see Grogu again in a few hours, it’s just for the day, for kriff’s sake. He shakes his head, takes a deep breath to steady himself, then heads towards the back of the ski lift where their cramped team room is located.
He finds Fett, Fennec, Cara and Cobb already inside. They all look up when he enters, Cara and Cobb grinning widely at him.
“Hi, guys,” Din says to the room at large.
“Din Djarin, back again. Long time, no see.” Fett nods at Din and Din nods back in acknowledgement.
“Now where’s that infamous new son of yours that you abandoned us for last year, huh?” Cobb asks from where he’s thrown across the shitty old sofa, his ski boots dangling over the armrest. “Do you know how hard it was to find a replacement for you?”
“He’s learning to ski,” Din says, ignoring the rest. He hadn’t returned to the ski resort last winter, too busy finalising Grogu’s adoption and overly careful as not to upend the still fragile routines the two of them had established together.
When Greef Kargo, the ski resort’s manager, com’d him a few months ago to ask if he would return this winter, Din told him he wasn’t sure how to return while also making sure Grogu was taken care of properly. Greef’s holoprojection smiled and promised to figure it out. If all else fails, he said, he can come hang out in my office.
“Do you think he’s ready to ski?” Fennec’s question jolts Din out of his musings.
Cobb pipes up, “well, not if he’s learning it from you.”
“What, and you’re the expert teacher? Remember that kid that fell of the ski lift when –”
“Hey, that wasn’t –”
Cobb and Fennec fall into their old debate about whose teaching methods are the worst. Like Din, most of the other members of ski patrol started out as skiing instructors, to varying degrees of success. It has become great ribbing material over the years they’ve worked together at the resort and Din lets the familiar banter wash over him. It’s good to be back.
Once all the familiar arguments are hashed out, Cobb turns towards him again. “So, who’s your son with?”
He shrugs, downplaying his first impression of his son’s skiing instructor. “New guy. Luke, I think?”
Fennec whistles. “Nice. He was here last year, too. Really good with the kids, wouldn’t worry about him.”
A wolfish smirk spreads across Cobb’s face. “He’s also real nice.”
Cara snorts. “You just like him ‘cause he has a cute ass in that ski suit, don’t lie.”
Cobb shrugs. “And what about it. Din, don’t you think he’s really pretty?”
Din is glad the helmet hides his blush.
Thankfully, Greef Kargo chooses that moment to enter the team room.
He claps his hands together. “Alright, team, welcome back for another season. Djarin, good to see you again.”
Din nods at him.
As Greef hands out their radio sets, he continues, “now, the shifts are on the board as usual. Djarin, you’re always doing nine to three as requested, so you can pick up that kid of yours from the ski course, but on Thursdays you’re doing the last piste sweep”
Din frows. “What about Grogu?”
“Don’t worry, Luke has agreed to watch your kid during that time after lessons. You met Luke already?”
Din tilts his head in confirmation.
“Perfect. Now get out there and do your jobs.”
Getting back on skis after almost two years is like riding a bike – or, in Din’s case, easier, because he never actually learned how to ride a bike. He spends the morning patrolling the right side of the ski resort with Cara. Because it’s still the start of the season, skiers are sparse and the only incident they have is a teen who fell off a chairlift. They check him over but he isn’t hurt, so they let him go again.
Cara races him down some pistes and a few technically-unauthorised shortcuts and the rush of the adrenaline is almost enough to make him ignore the Grogu-shaped hole in his heart.
Around midday, the team congregates in the team room to switch off. Fennec and Koska, who were on hut duty, take over Fett and Cobb’s left half of the resort while they, in turn, take over the right half. Cara and Din take off their helmets and jackets and resign themselves to an afternoon of hut duty. At least Kuiil from the restaurant’s kitchen has prepared them each a bowl of stew which they warm up in the old dingy microwave in the corner of the team room.
Their shift is as boring as expected. No one calls with an emergency, no one gets stuck on a lift, nothing is broken yet because every technical element of the resort has just come out of pre-season maintenance. They spend the hours playing cards and catching up. Around three, Din starts gathering his things, putting his helmet back on his head and pulling on his gloves.
Cara says, “listen, I have the late shift today but I could pop by for dinner somewhen this week? I miss my two favourite guys.”
“Sure, tomorrow? Grogu’s probably gonna be knocked out today.” Din zips his jacket up.
“Sounds good. Alright then, see you in the morning. Say hi to Luke from me.” She winks at him.
Din flips her off.
Her laughter follows him out of the hut.
Din goes to the meeting point where all the ski classes end for the day. There’s a big group of kids taking off their skis and chatting amongst themselves. Din spots Grogu’s bright helmet at the back and makes his way over there.
When he gets closer, Grogu spots him and starts waving, jumping up and down as well as he can with his ski boots. His ski goggles slip from his helmet down to his eyes from the movement
“Hey, buir! I only fell three times! And we learnt how to do a pizza with our skis so we don’t go too fast! And Mister Luke says I did really well! And I wasn’t even scared when we went on the conveyor belt lift, only a little bit! And,”
Din laughs and crouches down. “Slow down, buddy! Breathe.” Grogu takes a deep breath like him and Din have been practicing for when he gets overexcited. “Alright, now tell me; did you have fun?”
Grogu’s eyes are still hidden behind his goggles but his grin is wide and toothy as he exclaims, “I had all the fun!”
“All the fun? That sounds great.”
There’s a soft laugh behind him and Din turns to find Luke looking at them, eyes twinkling.
(Din feels breathless for a moment.)
“Hi,” he says.
“Grogu did really well today,” Luke says. “He’ll be a pro in no time.”
“Sounds like you guys had fun.”
“Yeah. You’ve got a great kid.”
Din doesn’t know what to do but nod in agreement. “Alright,” he says, “I guess we’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bright and early!” Luke chirps and moves on to the next parent who came to collect their child.
Din turns to Grogu again, pushing his son’s goggles up to his helmet. “Come on, kid. You can tell me all about your day on the way home.”
(Grogu falls asleep earlier than usual, knocked out from spending the day outdoors on skis. Din follows close behind. He dreams of sunshine smiles reflecting on snow crystals.)