Chapter Text
Leia’s blue, translucent holoprojection makes vivid arm gestures as she imitates the senators who opposed her motion today. Eventually, though, she sighs and waves her hand dismissively.
“Enough about that. I don’t want to bore you with more politics. How was your day?”
“Fine”, Luke says with a shrug. The truth is that nothing much has happened. He has spent the day going through old scriptures, meditating and working in his garden - rather monotonous and lonely work, but hey, what would you expect as a Jedi?
Leia shifts to lean on her elbow, though, and flashes a mysterious smile. “Are you free next weekend?”
“Yeah…”
“Would you like to come over? We’re planning to order something nice for dinner and make cocktails.”
“Just you and Han?”
“Well…” From the tone of her voice, Luke can already hear where this is going, before she even says it: “We’re inviting someone else, too. Han’s old friend from the underworld.”
Luke drops his head in his hands with a sigh. Sounds like this is about to be the umpteenth time his sister is fixing him up.
“Leia, I don’t…”
“Come on, hear me out!”
“No, I already know what you’re going to say: this guy is just my type, I should check him out, get to know him, maybe ask him out if I like him, blah blah blah. Leia, I’ve told you I’m content by myself. I’m not looking for…”
“Luke, just hear me out, will you? This is different. This man is a scoundrel, a low-life. You definitely must not ask him out. You hear me? I don’t want you to date him. We’re only inviting him because he’s an old friend of Han’s and they want to catch up.”
“Errr, really?”
“Exactly. And it would make me really happy to catch up with you, too. I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.” Luke has to genuinely admit that. They comm almost every rotation and meet in person ever so often, but several weeks have already passed since the last time, so he is starting to feel the absence of Leia in his bones, even in the Force around him.
“So will you be there?”
“I’ll be there”, Luke says with a lightened heart. A genuine smile bubbles up to his face. He is already looking forward to seeing his sister again, for once without the pressure of her expecting him to flirt with somebody new at the same time.
- - - s - - -
When the doorbell rings, Luke is relieved to see no awkward hustling from Leia. She only casually asks C-3PO to open the door and bring the guest in. Once the newcomer enters the living room, Luke’s eyes widen in surprise: Han’s friend is a Mandalorian, all covered in silvery beskar armour.
“Mando! Good to see you.” Han gives his friend’s hand an enthusiastic shake, and his gaze drops to the pouch hanging from the Mandalorian’s shoulder and housing a little being that looks a bit like Master Yoda may have looked like as a baby. “I've heard you’re a father now.”
“A guardian”, Mando corrects. “I haven’t formally adopted him.”
Han shrugs. “Well, I don’t see what’s the difference. How old is the little guy?”
“51 years.”
“51! And how long is he expected to live? Is he always going to stay this ugly or do they grow out of it?”
“Han!” Leia elbows Han’s side hard.
“No offence.” Han lifts his hands in a grand, surrendering gesture. “Just asking out of curiosity.”
Mando stares at Han in silence, helmet showing no expression. The kid in his pouch only looks around himself curiously. After one more elbow from Leia, Han shifts the subject:
“Anyway, this is my fiancée, Senator Leia Organa. Though you may know her better as the Huttslayer."
"Huttslayer? It's truly an honour to meet you in person." Mando shakes Leia's hand, and she flashes him a flattered smile.
"And this is her brother Luke Skywalker. He's a Jedi.”
“Nice to meet you”, Mando says simply as he offers his hand to Luke.
There is something about the combination of Mando’s voice, the mysterious look of his black, T-shaped visor, and the touch of his gloved hand, that stirs Luke’s insides in an intriguing way. But he reminds himself about what they deliberately discussed with Leia: Mando is here only to catch up with Han. He is a scoundrel who Luke has no pressure to flirt with - who Luke should definitely NOT flirt with.
But if Luke should definitely not flirt with Mando, why does he feel more and more drawn to him as the evening goes on, like a sandfly to a vaporator? Mando never takes his helmet off, not even to eat, so he only sips cocktails through a straw and lets his kid do the eating. And the mystery of not seeing his face only adds to the spell.
Mando talks little and jokes even more sparingly, but each of his jokes sounds like the funniest thing Luke can imagine. That combined with a couple of cocktails has him soon laughing his heart out. He is seated next to Leia and opposite to Han, leaving Mando at the furthest point from him diagonally on the other side of the table. But Luke drifts into leaning over nonetheless, hanging on to his every word. Mando has fascinating stories about his travels and experiences with bounty hunting and parenting, whenever one of those can be coaxed out of him.
And don’t even get Luke started on Mando’s kid! He makes a point of saying aloud several times that Han has got things terribly wrong, and in truth, the little being is adorable. Besides, his Force presence is remarkably strong. If Luke could only spend a little more time with them, maybe test out if the kid can also wield the Force…
But the dinner and cocktails are over way too soon, and Mando says in his deep, magical-toned voice: “Thank you. We’ve got to get going.”
Leia and Han thank him in many words, and C-3PO sees him to the door and out. And just like they talked in advance with Leia, Luke should just let him go now. But he can’t. Not when he is already missing his presence right after his armoured figure has disappeared. So he pretends to go to use the ‘fresher and sneaks out after the man.
“Mando!” Luke manages to catch his attention right before he can board his ship. “I… It was very nice meeting you.”
“Very nice meeting you, too, Luke.”
They stand for a while in awkward silence, switching weight from foot to foot, not finding anything more to say but still reluctant to part ways. Finally, Luke stirs up his courage and says:
“I’d like to see you again.”
His heart thrums wildly for the few seconds it takes for the Mandalorian to answer:
“I’d like it, too.” He digs out a datachip from a pocket on his belt and hands it to Luke. “My personal code is there. Let me know when is a good time for you.”
“Thank you.” Luke stores the datachip in his pocket like the treasure it is. “I’ll comm you.”
With that, Luke returns inside, trying to hold back a blissed out smile and hide the fact that his hand keeps drifting to his pocket to stroke the precious datachip. After one more cocktail, he wishes Han and Leia good night and heads for his own ship.
Little does he know that right after he is gone, Leia picks up her comm, dials a familiar code and says:
“Hey Amilyn! That reverse psychology you talked about… It really works!”