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English
Series:
Part 7 of The Adventures of Baby™ and Mr. Dad
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Published:
2023-01-18
Updated:
2023-03-09
Words:
1,564
Chapters:
2/?
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41
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198
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lost and found

Summary:

Din should have bought Grogu warm clothes earlier, but he had never gotten around to mustering up the courage. Investing in clothes meant investing in a future, and up until recently, he hadn’t even entertained the hope that there could be a future together for them.

If only his Tribe could be a part of that future.

But no, he had broken the Creed. In their eyes, he was a Mandalorian no more.

There was nothing he could do about his abandonment except move on—just like before.

Based on #8: "Shopping for new clothes" & #40: "Grogu wants his own cape" from my series prompt list. Thanks for the suggestion, @desertbeskar!

Notes:

Wow, I am so glad to be back! I've missed you all. It's been a rough several months and ngl it's still rough but I wanted to get at least something out for this series, since you've been so patient.

So I'll be honest, I haven't finished this fic yet. I think I'm pretty close to being done, though. I'm hoping that posting this first chapter will give me the motivation (and pressure) to finally complete this once and for all. As of right now, the total word count is around 4.5k. I think for future fics, I'm going to try to keep the word count shorter. While it's fun to write longer, multi-chapter stories, part of me worries about disappointing anyone if they were hoping their prompt would get a long fic but it turns out that it's super short. I know I'm not supposed to care about that because these are called "prompts" and not "requests" for a reason, but I just wanted to share my line of thinking with you all. Lol you can see where my Din gets his over-thinking tendencies from.

Anyways, this fic is set after TBOBF but before Din starts looking for Mandalore to redeem himself. Here, he doesn't yet have hope that he even can be redeemed. But we'll get to that ;) Also, even though he feels guilt about taking his helmet off, here he is fine with being helmetless around Grogu bc they're practically family now. The thing about not taking the helmet off is for non-family in my book :)

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

By the time Din emerged from the ‘fresher, the mirror was fully fogged up but he still felt cold. Maybe it was due to the fact that his usual 7-minute shower wasn’t long enough for the steaming water to fully seep into his soul, or maybe it was because the rough stone walls of the inn didn’t do much to keep out the chill of the winds that whipped around the neighboring mountains and buffeted the city. With enough of that kind of aerial erosion, it was no wonder that Ptaerandil was dug into the side of a cliff—its locals probably hadn’t even needed to do much work to create those winding pathways and caves that they used for residences and businesses.

Shivering, he quickly tugged on his undersuit. He missed Nevarro’s dry heat. Inevitably, his thoughts turned to the Covert. To the Armorer. To the Creed. He sighed and ran a hand over his face. This was not the time to mope. There was nothing he could do about his disownment except move on, just like before. He was practically a professional at abandonment at this point.

Still…

At least Grogu had returned to him.

The thought put a small smile on his face. Giving his damp hair one last vigorous rub with the towel, he walked into the room to find an unusual lump under his cape on the bed alongside the armor he had placed there so carefully. “Hmm,” he said, picking up the cuirass and slipping it over his head, “I wonder where Grogu could have gone.”

The lump shifted.

He attached the pauldrons and vambraces and sat heavily on the bed, letting his weight sink hard into the mattress. “Well, he's not in this room, I guess.”

The cape quivered with a muffled giggle.

Next were the tassets and cuisses, then the shin guards and boots. “I wonder if he already left to get breakfast.” He leaned back and rested his weight on his palms. “Hope he brings back something for me to eat.”

There was a louder giggle this time with more shifting under the cape. 

“Huh, I don’t recall hiding any armor under my cape.” His finger poked what was probably a little rear end. “What’s this?”

The lump let out a squeal of laughter and scooted out of reach.

He smiled and picked up the helmet, but paused, thinking. Then he reached over and, aiming carefully, caught the wriggling lump under the helmet, like a bug in a cup.

For a moment, all was quiet and still.

And then the helmet let out an inquisitive “Buuu?”

He scooped up his captive, flipping the helmet over. “Found you!”

Grogu squealed again and flailed his arms, a wide smile on his face. “Bu!!”

Din chuckled and took him out. “You think you’re the sneakiest womp rat in the galaxy, don’t you?” He lifted him up to eye level and glared playfully.

The baby just beamed back at him and grabbed his nose hard with the little claws.

“Ow! Sore loser.” He set him down on the bed.

Grogu promptly dove back under the cape and popped back up again with the fabric draped over his big ears. He waved his arms, making the cape swish, and then hugged it around himself with a satisfied coo.

Ah, no wonder he had been hiding under the cape—he had been cold too. “Sorry about that, buddy,” Din said, taking him in his arms, cape and all. “Let’s go right now and get you some warm clothes.”

“Meh!”

“Right. Food first.”

Chapter 2

Notes:

I wanted to finish this before S3 came out but oh well. I'm still postponing watching it until I'm done with this fic, as a motivator. Except rn I'm obsessed with LoZ, so I don't really mind not watching it, haha. Working on this fic is slow going. I appreciate your patience!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

After Din had the worst caf he had ever tasted and Grogu had his fill of breakfast, Din walked down the streets, peering into the shops and lifting Grogu’s carrier bag up so the baby could make his own observations and provide babbled input on the colorful window displays. They hadn’t yet found a clothing store for children. Would they even have anything like that in this touristy area?

Grogu’s face wasn’t too flushed from the cold air, but he kept pulling the cape closer around himself and snuggling deeper into the satchel.

Din should have bought him warm clothes earlier, but he had never gotten around to mustering up the courage. Investing in clothes meant investing in a future, and up until recently, he hadn’t even entertained the hope that there could be a future together for them.

He allowed himself a small smile under the helmet as he watched Grogu wave back at a passing Cerean couple. The kid was so cute. That wasn’t the kind of word Din usually used, but Grogu was a living exception for him.

His smile faded. If only the Armorer had thought the same. If she had understood even a bit of what Grogu meant to him, maybe she wouldn’t have cut him off so quickly. They were practically family. Didn’t that mean anything? It wasn’t fair; why did Din have to always trade one family for another?

But maybe he was being greedy. Even now, after being disowned, he still went around wearing his armor and calling himself a Mandalorian and then taking his helmet off when it was just him and Grogu. Part of him felt guilty for that. And then he felt guilty even more, because it was only a part. Ugh, he didn’t know what to do. Life had been so much easier when following the Creed without question. But he couldn’t go back to that now. Never again.

“Hey, Mando,” a female voice called, “you look a little lost. Need directions?”

“No, thank you,” he replied automatically, moving onto the next store window, “just looking.” Wait a second—he knew that voice. He whipped his head around.

There she was, leaning by the service window of the beverage stall, looking every inch of the marshal she was:

“Cara Dune,” he said incredulously. “What are you doing here?”

Cara shrugged. “Just getting my daily fix.”

The window slid open and an employee popped out with a steaming cup. “Here you go!”

“Thanks.” She took it and breathed in contentedly. “This is exactly what I needed.”

“Ptaerandil is known for its ore, not its caf.”

“And what if I said I came all the way here from Nevarro just for this?” She raised her eyebrows and took a sip.

“Then I’d say you have terrible taste in caf.” He tried to keep the smile out of his voice.

She grinned. “It’s good to see you again, Mando.”

He gave a nod.

Grogu suddenly stood up in his bag and exclaimed, “Kah!”, evidently wanting to be included. He waved at her.

Cara did a double take. “You—He’s here?! Mando, he’s back with you?!”

“Looks like it.”

She set her cup down on the windowsill and scooped him up. “Hey, little guy, how have you been? I’ve missed seeing you around. It just hasn’t been the same.” She gave him a scratch behind the ear.

“But for me it’s just ‘you look lost’,” he muttered under his breath. Unfortunately, his vocoder picked it up.

She smirked. “Jealous?”

His face burned.

Grogu laughed. He had discovered the fringe on Cara’s scarf and seemed absolutely delighted with how it fluttered in the wind.

“I thought you ‘don’t do the baby thing’,” he said gruffly.

Cara smiled down at Grogu and used the end of her scarf to tickle his cheek. “This one’s the exception, I guess.”

At least he wasn’t the only one who thought that.

“So,” she said, “I take it you’re not here for the caf?” Her head tipped towards the beverage stall.

“Another kind of fuel, and repairs for the N-1. Among other things.” Like trying to distract himself.

“Wait, N-1? As in an N-1 starfighter?” She let out a whistle. “And here I thought you had already changed so much.”

“Different ship, same me.”

“Are you the same, though?” Her voice had a teasing tone, but her gaze seemed to penetrate straight through his visor—like he wasn’t wearing it.

He looked away.

“I’m just saying,” she backpedaled, “fatherhood is a… a good look. It suits you.”

His eyes remained fixed on somewhere across the street. “…Thanks.”

She couldn’t possibly know what had transpired a month ago on Glavis Ringworld, how the entire galaxy came crashing down around him on that space station with just two little incriminating words: I have. She didn’t even know what his last actions on Moff Gideon’s light cruiser meant to the Tribe. But she knew what they meant to him. And even that was already too much.

“I can take him back,” he said abruptly, reaching into her arms for Grogu. “We should get going.”

“Oh, okay then.” She relinquished the child with furrowed brows. “That was quick.”

“Yeah, well, we have errands to do before we head off.” He tucked him in the bag and rearranged the cape snugly around him.

Grogu grinned and pulled the fabric over his head.

“Well, you can’t leave before lunch. I know a place here that serves killer battered fisciv.”

“You know I don’t—”

“I know you don’t, but the kid does. You can’t just give him ration bars.”

“I don’t give him just ration bars.”

“Then let’s meet here at noon. Don’t be late.” Cara picked up her cup and lifted it to him in a dismissive toast. “See you then.”

Din sighed.

Notes:

Don't forget to sub to this fic to get notifications for the next chapter :)

Also, without sharing spoilers, can anyone tell me their thoughts on season 3? I wanna know if it's as good as the first two, or if I need to prepare myself for disappointment. I'm off Tumblr for Lent so I haven't heard any reviews yet

Notes:

thanks for reading! comments and kudos give me motivation to write :')

also, if you want to see more of these, check out my series notes and suggest a prompt from the list!

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