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Din never thought himself domestic. Huge shocker, he knew. Between his (now) son, and past military career (and the bullshit that came along with it. Seriously, who forgot to tell him how awful his mental state would be?) he never really had the time to consider settling down. He'd tried, once, but that ended in a divorce, split custody, and a very confused baby.
So, yeah. Being domestic wasn't really his thing.
And judging by the sudden halt of the car, followed by an alarming series of clicks, he guessed being a mechanic wasn't either.
Din pulled the wheel to leave the road, turning on hazards and pulling into a small ditch- there was already a thick layer of snow, and he internally cursed the fact that he was definitely going to miss the flight he'd booked, and then there'd be a huge shitstorm over trying to keep Grogu past his allotted visitation and ugh, it would suck.
Grabbing his coat that was probably older than anything else he knew, Din hopped out of the car, making sure the heat ran as Grogu slept in the back seat, before popping open the hood.
Now, he didn't have much experience in car maintenance- he was a veteran, not mechanic, but he assumed seeing smoke coming out of the engine was not the best thing ever- especially not in the middle of fuck nowhere, Texas. Unless he managed to miss the ' Welcome to Colorado!' sign while driving, and he was even more fucked than he previously thought.
A quick round of swears and stomping around the car for a moment, and Din was back in the front seat, warming up his previously numb fingers. His phone sat in the cup holder, average, boring case, and Din managed to use half-pinprickly fingers to pull up his GPS, finding the nearest town- a small place called Mos Pelgo.
He’d call a tow service, but what’s he supposed to do with a rental car if it breaks down anyways? Take it back ?
He barely knew where he was, had a passed out kid in the back, who’d never seen snow, an ex who wanted their kid back before Christmas, and a broken car. He wanted to scream, but then he wouldn’t have a sleeping kid, he’d have an awake kid, who’d probably start bouncing around the car, asking where they were.
So, he was fucked.
There were no phone numbers under the businesses he could see on Google Maps, and the town looked absolutely tiny. He seriously doubted that there were any mechanic shops in the town (and honestly, with the like… five buildings that the GPS showed, it was really more of a village.)
Din lightly banged his hands on the steering wheel, groaning, because of course this would happen to him. Of course, nothing good could happen and he shouldn’t have traveled with Grogu, even if the kid had really enjoyed being somewhere new, and he had a ton of luggage and he-
A beaten, rusty red truck pulled up next to him.
Well, if this guy was some fucking serial killer, then he picked the wrong person and wrong day to mess with Din.
The truck’s window rolled down, and the man inside motioned for Din to do the same. Fine. Whatever, he needed the help.
Truck-guy had sunglasses on, which was pretty bullshit considering the fact it was snowing, and, oh yeah, nighttime. Small town people were weird as hell, whatever. Mr. Truck had a red scarf on, and Din wasn’t sure, but his hair looked pretty light. Older than he was, for sure.
“Need some help there, stranger?”
Oh.
Oh wow. Truck-guy had a nice voice.
Din coughed a bit, “Uhhhh. Yeah. Car broke down. Should be in Austin right now,” Then, just in case this guy was a serial killer, he decided to add on, “Have a flight to catch. Family’s expecting us.”
The other guy laughed, “Well, you’re off by about 6 hours. How soon’s this flight?”
Shit.
“... 9 hours off. Austin International. Fuck.”
Truck-guy looked like he was about to say something, but, because Din’s luck ran dry every single day of his life, Grogu woke up and instantly started crying. The kid had always hated the car seat he was in; and today he must’ve been even more upset, pulling at the straps that kept him from falling out.
“God, sorry, let me just-” Din turned around, briefly seeing Truck-guy’s face flash a half-smile. Grogu’s ever-large eyes were squished shut, tiny fists waving around, mouth opened in a shriek that seemed too big for the boy’s body.
Din dug around in the duffel sat in his passanger seat, “Ah, ah,
shhhhh, mijo-
here, uh…” He managed to find one of the small stuffed frogs that Grogu always loved- the ones with the small bits of weight to them. The kid took it from him, staring blankly at the bead-eyes of the stuffed animal, but thankfully, going quiet.
When Din turned back to the window, Truck-guy was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, and Din absentmindedly noticed that his nails were painted. He still had a lazy grin.
“Trouble in paradise, huh? Never had any kiddos ‘a my own, but did plenty’a watchin’ ‘round town. You need a ride?”
And Truck-guy must’ve seen the hesitation painted on Din’s face, because he continued on, “No pressure, don’t worry, got a lady in the area who’s got a real talent with fixin’ stuff. Always tell ‘er she should go somewhere better. Stubborn kid. I can call ‘er up… pro’lly will either way, that your normal car or a rental?”
“Uhhhhhh…” That was a lot of information, “No, it’s… I’d love a ride but… I don’t even know your name and- and you said Austin was what, 5 hours? I couldn’t make some stranger drive that far its… unreasonable…”
Truck-guy laughed again, and the way his head threw back and nose scrunched was… honestly pretty cute. Din knew it wasn’t the time, but he found himself smiling back.
“Actually, I said it was 6. Name’s Cobb. Vanth, if ya wanna be fancy. There. Not strangers anymore, are we?”
“I guess… still, that’s a lot to ask of you.”
Truck-guy, sorry, Cobb shrugged, eyes still hidden behind his shaded lenses, “Don’t have much goin’ on ‘round here. Friend’s takin’ care of my inn to ‘give me a break’- er, well, she put it… more aggressively, but you’ve got a kid in the car, and I don’t think I can repeat that. Anywho, it’s not a big deal. Don’t got much more to do.”
And that was that, Din introduced himself and Grogu who was (thank god) behaving decently, hell, he even showed off the small frog he was holding to Cobb, who acted like it was the most interesting thing in the whole world. Din found himself smiling more than he thought he would.
Cobb turned out to be absolutely
gorgeous.
Drop dead, could be a
model
gorgeous. Maybe it was the way him being there meant that Din
wouldn’t
miss his flight, or maybe it was watching him haul luggage to the backseat of his truck, Grogu rolling around in the snow beside him, but Din found himself feeling lighter than he had in ages.
By the time they got on the road, it was hard to believe that Cobb wasn’t an old friend after all. He reminded Din of one of the recruits he saw ages ago- before retiring. All sharp teeth, sharp looks, and an air of confidence.
Grogu had passed out again, poor kid wore himself out in the snow, and Din was left in the passenger seat next to Cobb, soft folksy music crackling out of the old speakers in Cobb’s truck (one he’d had since undergrad, he talked about the damn thing like it was his baby. Din found it weirdly sweet.)
Then an hour passed, and another, and another.
Cobb shed his sunglasses at some point, bright, hazel eyes catching Din’s gaze. His mouth went dry.
Din found himself fiddling with the old pair of dog-tags he’d never had the strength to fully leave behind, deep in thought. Was this really alright? Cobb said he’d make sure the rental was returned, that he’d called up the mechanic in town to take care of it, and it was no big deal, but really, it was, wasn’t it?
The soft scraping of metal cut through the comfortable silence as Din fiddled with a flat tag on the chain around his neck. It clinked against another one. It felt like the engravings were carved into his mind.
Djarin. Din K. 173-52-9795. B Pos. Agnostic.
It hurt to think about.
“You on leave?”
Of course Cobb noticed. The man was more perceptive than Din ever wished to be.
“Uh… no. Retired.” Din didn’t even realize his hands were shaking until he looked down.
Cobb nodded, “Tried to enlist when I was young. Got kicked ‘cuz I got’a limp. Kinda glad I did, no offense. When they started talkin’ ‘bout all it’s like after, y’know, makes ya wonder why they let kids do that kinda thing.”
Din stayed silent.
There was a shrug from Cobb, he adjusted the scarf around his neck. “But y’know. Just thinkin’ out loud. We’re comin’ up close, anyways. An hour or two more. You can sleep if ya want. Personally, flyin’ low energy is probably the closest thing we got on this Earth to hell.”
And wasn’t that one of the best ideas Din had ever heard. It was easy to sleep. Cobb was humming, Grogu’s breath was deep in the backseat, and he babbled every now and then. It was sweet.
For a brief moment, Din thought he might be able to learn to live like this again. Maybe. He’d exchange numbers with Cobb. Come visit. When it was warmer, of course. Yeah, that’d be nice. He could properly see Mos Pelgo.
He felt like he’d barely even closed his eyes when they reached the airport.