Chapter Text
“I… hate asking this of you,” starts Mando as soon as he steps out of his ship.
Luke is about to remark something back, something about how it’s nice to see him too, but he notices the way Mando shifts uncomfortably where he stands and decides to hold his tongue for once. Instead, he nods at Mando to continue with whatever he was about to say, offering to hold Grogu in the process. He keeps his eyes steadily on Mando’s helmet, patiently waiting as the man seems to struggle with his words. Grogu climbs onto Luke’s shoulder.
“Will you marry me?” is the last thing Luke expects to hear come from the shiny helmet. He opens his mouth, but no words come out, and Mando stands frozen in place. “…I mean. Fake marry me. For— both our benefits. I’ve thought it through.”
Luke continues to stare at him wide-eyed, heat rising to his face, before he clears his throat, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. When he opens his eyes, he tries to ignore how his ears still burn, and tilts his head.
“Would you like to elaborate more on the walk back?” He offers an arm to the Mandalorian, who jerkily nods and turns to walk side-by-side with Luke. (Luke notes how he rejected the offered arm.)
“I’m sorry for springing that on you. Since becoming Mand’alor, I’ve been getting an influx of marriage proposals. It’s, um… tiring. I figured you were strong and they would respect my spouse as long as they were a formidable fighter. Which you are.” Mando pauses to take a grounding breath. It seems a bit ridiculous to Luke, but he’s rather flattered that Mando first chose him, so he considers it for a moment. Mando seems to take his extended silence as a hard no, so he rushes to continue. Luke hopes his amusement isn’t obvious. “And, uh. I know Jedi aren’t supposed to have attachments and all but I figure being married to the rightful ruler of Mandalore could be beneficial, since Jedi and Mandalorians have a past.” Mando punctuates this with a light shrug, so Luke thinks the proposal over for a few moments. He adamantly does not think of the sad, handsome face he’d seen all those months ago, prior to his initial failure to train Grogu, and instead weighs the actual pros and cons of what has just been suggested.
The plan doesn’t seem bad. Mando is a good guy, and his reasoning is solid. He’s able to take care of himself, so Luke won’t have to worry about him as much, he’s quite handsome, and Luke would think so whether he’d seen his face or not, so there aren’t many cons to it. Not to mention the whole teaching his son thing. It does seem like it’d be beneficial, and Luke is not just saying that so he can experience being called Mando’s husband for however long the arrangement lasts.
“Alright,” Luke agrees, shrugging one shoulder, watching out of the corner of his eye for the Mandalorian’s reaction. He doesn’t expect Mando to stop walking to let out a dejected breath from under his helmet. Grogu makes a cooing noise from where he sits on Luke’s shoulder.
“Sorry, I knew I sh— did you say yes?” Though Luke can’t see the face the other man is making, the tone of his voice is enough to make Luke laugh out loud.
“Yes, Mando, I will pretend to marry you.” He offers a smile, continuing the walk back to his home. Mando lingers in the same spot before what Luke said seems to click in his head.
“Um. Din,” Mando mutters as he catches up. Luke sends him a questioning look, moving a few of the branches that stand in their way with the Force. “My name. It’s Din Djarin. I figured you should know it if we’re… married.”
Luke’s smile grows, and Grogu giggles from his spot, making grabby hands toward Mando— Din, so Luke hands him back to his dad.
“Din.” Luke tests it out, not missing the way Din draws in a sharp breath at the sound of his name. “Nice to officially meet you, Din Djarin. I’m Luke Skywalker.” Din nods, and Luke is pretty sure he already knew his name, but he doesn’t comment on it.
“You too, Luke.”
Once they get to Luke’s house, he puts tea on for Din and himself. He decides to give Grogu something more sweet. As the water boils, he sits at the table with the other two.
“I think we need to discuss this more in-depth. Do Mandalorians have specific ceremonies for marriage? Or like… jewellery?” Din shakes his head.
“No, but we have a clan signet. I’m sure we could have something forged for you. Did Jedis?” Luke sends a hard look in Din’s direction. “Right. No attachments. Sorry.” Luke shrugs him off, collecting the boiling pot from its spot over the stove, mixing the tea in cups and handing one over to Din. He nods his thanks and Luke leaves the room briefly so his guest can drink with his son.
In Luke’s bedroom, R2 storms (rolls) up to him and beeps something about being pissed Luke decided to get hitched without telling him, which causes Luke to laugh. He explains Din’s idea to the droid, figuring him knowing about it wouldn’t affect much. R2 makes a few noises that Luke has come to know as laughter, but the moment is interrupted by the clank of armor and the clearing of a throat. Luke turns around, toward where Din stands in the doorway with Grogu in his arms. Din shifts on his feet.
“Sorry to interrupt. Just wanted to let you know I was finished.” Nodding briefly once again, Din turns back into the kitchen, and R2 laughs at him, beeping about how “fucking awkward” he is. Smacking R2 on the head, Luke huffs out a breath of amusement, telling him to behave before he rejoins the Mandalorian and his son. Din sits up a bit straighter when Luke reenters the room with a serene smile.
“Shall we continue discussing our arrangement?”
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They end up deciding that they’ve been dating for a while but only married for a few months. They’d hit it off after Luke's initial failure to train Grogu, who ended up leaving alone on a ship with R2, and they got a drink once it was resolved. One thing led to another and they eventually started dating and, eventually, got married. They kept it a secret because of political dealings and the past between the Mandalorians and Jedis, but with the current relative peacefulness they decided together that they can be public about it.
Luke sits by a lake now, tired from training and talking, meditating on his agreement to Din’s idea. He pays no head to the presences he feels behind him, of his Masters and father, until—
“If you don’t mind my saying, that was so lame.” Ben’s voice causes Luke to flinch out of his focused meditation. He glares at the older man.
“Were you listening the whole time?” Luke whispers heatedly. Ben grins down at him.
“All of us were.” Luke groans in annoyance and runs a hand over his face.
“You guys are the worst. I want better ghosts.” Ben laughs goodheartedly, and Luke swears he can see his father and Master Yoda smiling behind him, but the sound of a twig cracking brings Luke’s focus back to his surroundings. He has his lightsaber out in an instant, cursing himself for not sensing a presence prior to hearing it. He retracts and lowers his lightsaber when he realizes it’s only Din and thinks he hears Ben laughing more.
The Mandalorian looks around, probably scanning his surroundings with his helmet, before his gaze(?) stops on Luke’s sitting form.
“Were you… talking to someone?” Din’s voice is puzzled, but it’s obvious to Luke that he won’t understand what the hell a Force ghost is yet, so he shakes his head no.
“Just talking out loud to myself. Did you put Grogu to bed?” Din nods. Luke closes his eyes. “Would you like to sit with me?” Din doesn’t respond, but Luke feels him settle a few feet away, feels the tension spilling off of him through the Force. He doesn’t mention it. They sit in silence for a while, only the sounds of nature and their breathing disturbing the quiet of the evening. Luke takes the opportunity to meditate more, hoping Din won’t be freaked out by him practicing using the Force. All he gets out of Din is a sound of wonder.
They stay like that for a while longer, Luke moving things with the Force and Din watching in silence, before Luke feels satisfied with his training and drops everything. He opens his eyes again to find Din’s helmet turned to him, tilted to the side. All the tension that had been in his body seems to be gone. Luke figures he should wait until the next day to ask more about the fake marriage. He watches Din fidget with a few pieces of grass.
“Do you have family?” Comes quietly from him. Luke smiles softly, glancing at the lake in front of them.
“I have a twin sister named Leia. I never really knew my parents, and the family I lived with before the rebellion got killed by stormtroopers. That’s, uh, actually why I joined the rebellion and became a Jedi. What about you?”
Luke turns back to watch him, and Din is silent for a few moments, hands pausing around the pieces of grass, before he rips them in half.
“My blood family got killed when I was young. I was saved by the Tribe, but I didn’t have a… a clan again until Grogu.” Din shrugs as Luke nods solemnly, trying to sort through all the emotions rolling off Din, before the man abruptly stands. He seems just as startled with himself as Luke is, and seems to decide offering a hand to Luke is how he should amend it. Luke takes it gratefully, letting Din help pull him to his feet, though they both know he could have gotten up on his own. Luke silently starts walking back toward his house, understanding the end of the conversation. Din follows closely behind. By the time they part to go to their respective beds, it’s already midnight. Din pauses for a moment before they depart. “It was, uh. Nice talking to you, Luke. Thank you for helping me.” Luke can’t help the grin that appears on his face.
“It was nice talking with you too. And it’s really no problem, this arrangement will be beneficial to us both. See you tomorrow, Din.” Din hesitantly nods and waves a goodbye, beginning the short walk back to his small ship. Luke watches him the whole way.