Chapter Text
“First rule: Never point it at yourself or anyone else. Second rule: Never ignite it out of fear, anger or hate. Always ground yourself first and act out of compassion. And third rule: Keep the power on low when practising. You can adjust it from this screw.”
Skywalker brought the small, silvery hilt closer to Grogu and showed him the screw. Din had an urge to spring between them, tell Skywalker that his baby was too small for handling any weapons, especially magical laser swords. But he held it back and stayed put where he was sitting on the floor a few paces away.
Skywalker had allowed him to come along with Grogu when he had asked, back on Gideon’s cruiser when the Jedi had showed up to save them. And Din had dropped the Darksaber on the floor and followed him without looking back, without waiting for Bo-Katan to demand any kind of ritual duel. Who knows, maybe Koska had given her a good fight for the saber and one of them was the Queen of the Mandalorians now. Din could not bring himself to care.
What he cared about was that Skywalker had let him follow out of trust for Din – trust that he would not hold his foundling back from becoming what he was born to be. The least Din wanted to do was to reward that trust with mistrust in Skywalker’s abilities to train Grogu and keep him safe.
Sure enough, the Jedi did not ignite the lightsaber next to Grogu’s face but pulled it carefully back to a safe distance, then demonstrated how the short, green laser blade glowed in its highest-powered setting. He started gradually turning the screw, and the glow turned fainter, until he could demonstrate how he sliced it through his own left hand without anything happening, just green light passing over the skin. Din was already ready to sigh with relief, but Skywalker turned the power lower still.
“First, let’s get you comfortable with handling it at the lowest power.”
The screw clicked into its lowest setting, and almost nothing was left of the laser, only a faint beam that produced a tiny green spot on the wall when the Jedi directed it across the room. He twirled the hilt in his hand, made the spot dance on the wall, and Din could no longer just watch it. Before his brain could fully catch up, his limbs were already moving, and he was up and running to the wall, lunging forward to throw his hands on the green spot.
Except that the spot was no longer there. Skywalker had moved it a little to the side. As soon as Din’s eyes found it through his visor, he threw his body to its direction, hands on where the green fleck of light had been before the Jedi moved it again. This time, before Din could catch it, it switched off. He whipped around to face Skywalker and Grogu, thankful for his helmet that hid his disappointment. Both the grown up and the little Jedi were staring at him with their mouths agape.
“You… You’re a tooka hybrid!” Skywalker gasped.
“I’m NOT.”
“No other humanoid would so convulsively chase a laser beam.”
There was no point insisting otherwise. They knew now. His stupid, primal instinct had given him away. Now it might be just a question of time before a word would start going around the Outer Rim: the best bounty hunter in the parsec could be distracted at any moment by projecting a spot of laser on the nearest wall, or made to give up a fight in favour of purring by shoving a bunch of tookanip under his helmet.
Like reading his concerned thoughts aloud, Skywalker said: “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
“Thank you.”
“And I won’t do that again if you don’t want me to.” He bounced the low-powered lightsaber hilt in his hand to signify what he meant.
“Please do”, Din said aloud by accident.
Skywalker flashed an excited smile, then turned on the green beam again, this time pointed so high on the wall that Din had to jump to reach it. Except that when he did, the spot had already shifted away, so close to the floor that Din lunged down on his side to chase it. After a few more moves, Skywalker passed the lightsaber to Grogu, and he started his first lesson with the weapon by drawing his own patterns on the wall for Din to chase.
By the end of it, Din was out of breath, heart thrumming with effort and nameless happiness. He threw himself down on the floor on his back in exhaustion, and Grogu immediately toddled to him, snuggled into a comfortable position on his chestplate. He rested his right hand on Grogu’s back, relished in the closeness of the little being.
Through a haze, Din realised that he was openly purring. His whole armour was reverberating with it, and he had no energy left to hold back. But he couldn't care less. Not when Grogu cooed so adorably in enjoyment of the vibration. Soon, Skywalker was next to them, too, and asked:
“Can I join?”
Din’s purring paused for a while as he thought. Would it be appropriate? Or should they keep their relationship more distant and professional? After all, Skywalker was a professional Jedi supposed to train Grogu. And he was, according to the Armorer’s words, an enemy sorcerer.
But he had also just laid down his Jedi guard to play with Din, play to Din’s heart’s content. And after a game, Din tended to crave for cuddles like water after a day on Tatooine. Especially now that it had been so many years since the last time anyone played with him, the craving seemed to be back with vengeance. So what else would Din say but:
“Sure.” He moved his left arm to the side to free a perfect space for Luke under it. The Jedi settled there, agile body flush against Din’s side. But he kept raising and lowering his head, looking for a comfortable spot on Din’s shoulder and failing miserably.
“You’re, ummm, a bit hard”, Skywalker observed.
“I’m sorry.” Din’s heart sank. Probably the Jedi would want to go away now. When he had just started to feel warm and comfortable by Din’s side. But instead of getting up, he only said:
“No problem.” He reached his hand to the direction of the living quarters, and soon, a lone pillow floated through the doorway and into his waiting hand. He positioned the pillow over Din’s pauldron and the corner of his chestplate and tried again, head now settled on the softness shielding him from the beskar. His left hand he laid on the side of Din’s chest so that Grogu could take a hold of his pinkie finger.
After a moment of self-conscious hesitation, Din risked wrapping his left arm around Skywalker and squeezing him just a tad closer. He responded with such a pleased sigh that Din went straight back to purring. And they all relaxed into a heap of shared vibration and comfort.
- - - s - - -
Din nearly squealed in distress when Skywalker told him that he would have to travel away for a few days. In a short time, he had grown used to the daily games and cuddles he had missed for such a long time. In his covert, he used to have plenty of partners to spar with, but sparring was different. It was useful for skills and fitness and enjoyable for the human part of him. But it failed to fully cater to his tooka cravings.
Bounty hunting had somewhat helped over the years. At least it involved the action of hunting and the satisfaction of a catch. But what always came after was a lonely journey with a cold slab of carbonite, an impersonal meeting with a client for the payment, and that was it. No cuddles. Ever. It was only now that the tooka side of him felt fully satiated - for the first time since his childhood really, thanks to Grogu and Skywalker.
But even more than physically missing his new friend, Din felt sick with worry that something would happen to this man that Grogu’s future was so dependent on. No, not just that. Skywalker was so incredibly kind to them both. Din – liked him. And now Skywalker was saying that he absolutely had to go to infiltrate an Imperial remnant base – alone.
“I’ll come with you”, Din said, but the Jedi only shook his head.
“You have to stay with Grogu. It would be too dangerous to take him along.”
“Just don’t go alone.”
“This mission relies on stealth. The fewer people, the easier to stay hidden. I’ll be back very soon, and I’ll bring something for you both, ok?”
Grogu cooed in delight, but Din was not as easily soothed by the promise of a gift. He had run out of arguments, though, so all he could say was:
“Goodbye, Skywalker. Take care of yourself.”
“Please, call me Luke.”
“That doesn’t help much if you don’t come back.”
“I will. And while I’m away, you can think about me as Luke.”
Din tilted his head in consideration. The thought gave him at least a hint of a soothing feeling. “Thank you, I will.”
“Good bye.” Luke shook his hand, patted Grogu’s head and turned to leave.
“Luke?” The name tasted sweet on Din’s tongue, and Luke’s reaction to it was a beaming smile as he turned back once more.
“Yes?”
“While you’re away, you can think about me as Din.”
“I’ll be happy to. Thank you, Din.”
Din resisted the urge to ask Luke to repeat that. Luke made his name sound so cherished, appreciated, melodic… Instead, he reminded himself of what else he should say:
“Just don’t call me that in public, please.”
“I swear I won’t. Goodbye, Din. See you soon.” With that, he turned away, climbed to his X-wing and took off.
The following days Din spent in distress, being edgy with Grogu and not quite able to focus on anything. Grogu still played and cuddled with him daily, which was a bit of a relief. But it was not quite the same as having the other, larger body close, with so much more weight and warmth. Luke’s body. Luke’s weight. Luke’s warmth. Luke. Luke. Repeating the name in his head, picturing the radiant smile, the sky-blue eyes, the golden halo of hair – that was Din’s anchor to staying sane.
On their fifth day without Luke, Din was having another argument with Grogu, trying to get him to clean up his room. That was when they finally, finally heard the low hum of an X-wing’s reverse thrusters.
In an instant, both of them forgot about the argument. The order of Grogu’s room became a completely insignificant matter, as they both raced outside, Din running at full speed, Grogu taking Force-assisted leaps by his side. As a result, they were out of the door and next to Luke’s ship exactly at the same time, right as Luke opened the canopy to climb out.
But he did not quite look the same as when he left. His smile was strained, breathing shallow, and despite how hard he tried to hide it, he was clearly favouring his left side. Instinctively, Din turned on his infrared vision, ready to scan Luke’s body for injuries. He found a fleck of darker orange signal on Luke’s right ribs, and worry flashed over him.
“Are you hurt?”
“Just a bruise.”
Technically, Din knew that he should have listened to Luke. Should have at least asked for permission before storming forward, pushing Luke’s cape to the side and lifting his shirt up to have a look himself.
But before his brain could catch up, he had already done it. He was holding handfuls of the hem of Luke’s shirt, peeled up to reveal his ribs, along with his shapely abs. Though at the moment, Din had no eyes for anything else but the giant bruise on the right side. When he turned the infrared vision off, he could see how deep purple its actual colour was.
“Who did this?” Those were all the words Din could master before his voice regressed into plain, primal tooka hissing.
“It’s ok now, Din. They’re arrested. I’m ok.”
Still, all Din could do was stare at the bruise and hiss. His helmet and armour felt tight as the hair on his ears and tail stood up, claiming more space than they usually did when stuffed in.
“Won’t you at least check out what I brought you?” Luke gently coaxed Din’s hands off his shirt and turned to rummage the contents of his starfighter’s trunk. Out of it, he produced the most beautiful bouquet of flowers Din had ever seen. They came in all the colours of the rainbow and a fragrant cocktail of smells. But the best thing about it Din noticed only when Luke handed it over to him to take a closer look at the green leaves between the flowers: the bouquet was generously garnished with tookanip.
Civilised words left Din again. He could not even manage a thank you, too busy to extract a leaf and stuff it into his collar so that he could smell the cosy, comforting scent right inside his helmet. But Luke probably understood the purrs and the content meows, judging from the way how fondly he smiled at Din.
Next, Luke pulled out of the trunk a large round balloon. It was shimmering in mesmerising shades of orange and blue like a frog egg in water. Grogu’s eyes went wide as Luke handed it to him.
Grogu marvelled at the gift, scanned it up and down, made the balloon dance in the air by pulling on the string. In the next moment, though, he got too excited. He pulled the balloon downwards and watched how the sunlight danced on the colourful pattern, too focused to notice that he no longer had a grip of the string.
There it went, the beautiful balloon up up up to the heights of the atmosphere, never to be seen again. Grogu’s lower lip quivered, and next the tears came, wet and abundant all over his cheeks. Luke squatted down and patted the kid’s shoulder.
“You know what, buddy? I might have guessed that that might happen. So I may have brought you another one, too. Do you know how to be more careful with it now?”
Grogu stopped crying and nodded eagerly. Luke stood up to dig out another, similar balloon. This time, he tied the string into a knot around Grogu’s wrist, and the little one resumed playing with it with renewed happiness.
Din swallowed thickly. “Thank you, Luke. You wouldn’t have had to.”
Luke shrugged. “Of course I had to. I care about you. Now, how have you been? Anything you need?”
“You need to rest.”
“I’m fine. Seriously, if there’s anything you want I can…”
Din refused to listen to Luke dodging the subject any longer. “Grogu?” he prompted in his most menacing tone and pointed towards the academy house.
Grogu understood immediately what Din meant. Letting the balloon dangle loosely from his wrist, Grogu focused both his hands towards Luke and squinted his eyes in concentration.
“No, Grogu, wait…” Luke tried, but too late. His feet were already leaving the ground, and a flick of Grogu’s fingers sent him floating all the way into the stone building and into his own bed.
Only later, when Din was watching Luke’s sleeping form after making sure that he had eaten, got his bruise treated with bacta and (most certainly) not got out of bed for anything else but using the ‘fresher – only then did Din realise that he was in love.
- - - s - - -
The next time Din got as distressed was when Grogu got sick. At first, he thought that it would be an ordinary kids’ flu that would heal quickly on its own. But days passed, and Grogu kept coughing and his nose running, and his heat signature stayed bright orange, refusing to go back to its normal yellow shade. Any of the human or tooka drugs that Luke and Din had at hand had no effect on him.
The flowers and tookanip that Luke had brought from his mission had dried and the scent faded out already, so Din had nothing to sooth himself with. Even cuddles did not help, because he kept restlessly squirming around. And Luke was tense, too, using most of his time staring into distance deep in thought.
“I’ll go get something for him”, Luke finally said.
“Where? What are you getting?”
Luke sighed, looked at Grogu, then out at his starfighter, then back at the sick child. “This is far-fetched, but it’s all I can think of. There’s a plant I remember my old master using. It had an anti-inflammatory effect on his species. He was – like him.”
He nodded towards Grogu and Din understood.
“But I’ve only seen it on Dagobah. If I go now, I’ll be back by nightfall.”
“Is it dangerous?” Din was almost sure that he could not handle Luke risking his life again at the same time as he was already afraid of losing Grogu.
“Dagobah? No, it’s uninhabited by sentients nowadays. Only swamp. I’ll take Artoo. He’ll complain but he’ll be fine, and the plant is in his memory for sure.”
Reluctantly, Din agreed to the plan, as he had nothing better to suggest, and there was a chance that they were already short of time. So Luke left with his astromech, and like he had estimated, he was back in the evening, clothes stinking of swamp but holding a bundle of herbs victoriously in his hand.
They brewed a tea with the supposedly healing plant and coaxed Grogu to drink it. He only obeyed after Luke had nearly saturated the warm liquid with sugar, but finally, the whole cup was gone and the child had fallen asleep.
“Then we wait”, Luke said.
“Right.” Din could wait. He could be patient. Of course, any medicine would take its time to work. But he just could not wait sitting down. Instead, he kept pacing back and forth, nearly carving a path on the floor.
Luke followed Din’s nervous movement with his eyes for a while, sitting on the bed next to Grogu. Then, he held out his arms in invitation.
“Come here, will you?”
Din huffed in frustration but did sit down next to Luke, let himself be wrapped in the strength of Luke’s arms. His breathing gradually steadied as Luke held calmly onto him. But it was not enough to trigger any purrs, not until Luke reached a hand to the back of his neck, fingertips hovering right under the edge of his helmet.
“May I?” Luke asked cautiously, touching Din’s neck only lightly, ready to pull his hand away. But Din tilted his head back to give Luke better access and said:
“Please.”
Slowly, Luke’s fingers found their way deeper into the space under the back of Din’s helmet, until he found what he was looking for – Din’s ears, and especially, the delicious spot where they connected to his head. A rumbling purr escaped Din when Luke’s fingertips caressed the length of his ears in the confined space, then dug into the space right behind his left ear. Din leaned into the touch, let his body melt against Luke who kept rubbing his magic into his scalp.
Coherent thoughts left his mind, and when Luke slipped his hand away from under his helmet and coaxed him to lay down to sleep next to Grogu, he did not resist, only closed his eyes and let quiet purrs lull him to sleep.
The mysterious herb worked. Next morning, Grogu was still tired and sniffling, but his skin was less pale and a much more vibrant shade of green. Even his fever had gone down a notch. Unable to contain his joy, Din took off his helmet so that he could kiss Grogu on the forehead.
For good measure, he took off his gloves and the rest of his armour, even let his tail free so that he could hug the child into a soft embrace and caress his ear with the tip of his furry tail.
Luke was not yet up, so Din brewed Grogu a new dose of sugary herb tea by himself and settled next to him on the bed for breakfast. What he had not expected was Luke waking up in the middle of it and rushing right in.
“Good morning, how’s the little… Oops…” He choked on his words at the sight of Din without the helmet. In a flash, he pinched his eyes closed, covered them and turned around for good measure. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have… Sorry. I just so much wanted to know. And I didn’t think… I…”
“Luke”, Din cut him off, set his plate down and walked up to the Jedi, laid a hand on his shoulder. “Luke, stop, it’s ok. He’s better. You saved him. And I – I want you to look. I really want you to.”
“Are you sure? I thought, like, the helmet is very important, isn’t it?”
“It is. But it’s different with you. You healed my foundling. You possibly saved his life. It’s like you’re my clan. You’ve earned my full trust – all of me.”
He squeezed Luke’s shoulder, and finally, the understanding seemed to sink in, and the Jedi relaxed, let go of his eyes and turned around. He instantly lit up in a contagious smile.
“So very cute”, Luke said, traced gentle fingertips along Din’s jaw, lingering a little longer at the patch where beard refused to grow, eyes wide in awe. Then, his fingers trailed further into Din’s hair, until he was caressing his ear just like last night. Only now, his ears were free from the confines of the helmet, sticking out to the sides and perking up at the attention.
Din mirrored the gesture, caressed Luke’s human ear, then cupped his cheek. “You’re very cute, too. So many times when I’ve been close to you, and you’ve made me purr, I’ve thought that I kind of, really want to kiss you.”
“Well, now you can.”
Din did not have to be told twice. He leaned in to press his lips on Luke’s – fumbling and without finesse, without much of an idea of what he was doing, honestly. But Luke kissed back so perfectly that it fixed everything, tilted his head so that they fit together like two hemispheres of a tropical planet.
Luke’s hand found that spot behind Din’s ear again, and he rubbed into it and kissed him at the same time, pressed his body close to melt into the vibration of Din’s purrs. Din wrapped his tail around Luke’s leg, and that was all he needed, this maximum closeness with Luke held the whole galaxy for him.
When Luke tried to back away, Din only held on tighter. With a chuckle, Luke stayed and rested his forehead on Din’s.
“Do you do this with everyone who saves your kid’s life?”
“No”, Din admitted. “I’ve only been looking for an excuse to do this with you.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to do it, with or without excuse.”
Oh. Without excuse… Din realised that he had possibly wasted a lot of time by not doing this earlier. But there was only one way to fix it. Persistently, he captured Luke’s lips in another kiss.