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For the first nineteen years of his life, Luke had no idea what the three words written on his forearm meant.
“Are you Jedi?”
He asked himself, What is a “Jedi”? Is it some sort of inside joke between my future spouse and I? Or is it something that will be invented in the future? He wonders if he really is a Jedi and just doesn’t know what it means yet. Considering his soulmate seemed to think he was, they are either very confused or very perceptive to know things that Luke doesn’t. All that Luke knows at this point is that, he’s been waiting to hear those words said to him his entire life.
“Are you Jedi?”
………...
The next three years of his life are a total blur. Luke finds out he has something called “force sensitivity”, a father who used to be a powerful Jedi Knight, an old neighbor who is also a Jedi Knight, and that he's considered the “last hope” for the galaxy in their fight against the Empire. He meets the smuggler Han Solo and his wookie copilot, Chewbacca. He meets the Princess of Alderaan, Leia. His old neighbor Ben (who’s real name apparently is actually Obi-Wan), dies in an all out duel against Darth Vader. He blows up the death star, but doesn't get Vader. He spends three years on the Ice planet Hoth with the rebellion. Now, he currently resides in a swamp on Dagobah, with an old green man who talks only in riddles, and spends a few moments looking down at his arm, finally starting to make sense of the words written on it.
Luke hesitantly asks, “Master Yoda, am I a Jedi?”
Yoda crinkles his nose at this question, as if it was stupid to ask, but Luke doesn't regret it. After all, he’s been in this fight for three years now and still can’t figure whether he’s a Jedi or not.
“Not yet.” Replied Yoda. “One thing remains, Vader… You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a full Jedi you will be. And confront him you will, sooner or later.”
Luke nods in response and glances down at his arm again. He thinks silently to himself:
Not yet, my love. But I will be. Eventually.
…………….
Luke begins to notice a pattern in his life when his next year is a bit of a blur as well. Yoda is gone, so is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker, who Luke had already thought was dead for most of his life but only turned out to be the creature he feared most in all the galaxy: Darth Vader. The emperor is gone. He blew up the Death Star (again), and on top of all the other familial secrets he’s found out in the past few years, discovers that Leia is actually his long lost twin sister. Luke thanks the stars that she did not ask him if he was a Jedi when they first met, because that would have made the discovery that they were related a whole lot worse than it already was.
As the ewoks celebrate their victory against the empire all around them, Luke looks down at his arm again. According to what Yoda told him what felt like decades ago, he is now a Jedi. He confronted his father, brought him back to the light, and somehow managed to survive. He only wished that Anakin had the same luxury that he did. To comfort himself only slightly, he thinks:
Yes my love. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.
…………..
It’s been five years since the end of their war against the empire. Leia, now a powerful senator for the New Republic, offers Luke a place to stay over the weekend.
“It’ll be a lot of fun, plus, Ben has been dying to see his cool Uncle Luke again!” Luke smiles. He thinks back to shortly after he met Leia, noticing that she had the words Maybe you’d like it back in your cell, Your Highness inscribed on her arm.
Luke only laughs when he realized a few days later that this was exactly when Han said to her when they first met. Words dripping with sarcasm, not really intended to mean anything, are the words that made Leia realize she was going to marry the hot-headed smuggler that suddenly appeared in front of her on the death star.
Oh to know what that feels like… Luke thought to himself.
As Luke traveled across the galaxy post-Empire defeat, he became progressively more confused about the words printed on his arm. He was practically a household name, with nearly everyone in the galaxy knowing Luke as “The Jedi” or, more specifically, “The Savior of the New Republic”.
Oh my stars, my future husband is totally oblivious, isn't he?
In a way, Luke is almost flattered that someone out there is going to love him for something other than his force sensitivity, or the fact that he blew up both death stars and killed the emperor on his way out.
And Luke very quickly became sure that he was going to have a husband and not a wife. While he had been attracted to women in the past, he had never fallen for them the way he did men. Yes, Luke knew for sure that somewhere out in the galaxy, his himbo husband was just waiting for him to come find him.
“Luke, are you even listening to me?”
Luke snaps out of his fantasy and suddenly remembers that he was still talking to Leia.
“Er, yes, I’m still listening.” He lies.
“Alright then, I better be seeing you this weekend. And I don’t want another ‘But the galaxy needs me, Leia’ excuse like you pulled last time!”
She hangs up her holo call and Luke continues to fly across the stars in his X-Wing. He’s come a long way from being a farm hand on Tatooine, that’s for sure. R2 beeps at him, from his little compartment in the back. “What’s up, R2?” Luke asks, pulling over at the nearest planet he could stop at.
As they land, R2 beeps furiously about something that Luke doesn’t quite understand, until it hits him; he can feel it through the force.
P lease help, Mr. Jedi. My Dad is in trouble.
A few weeks prior, a young padawan had used the seeing stone to reach out to him and Luke agreed to train him. His name was Grogu, and he was of the same species as Luke’s former Jedi master, Yoda. Grogu’s father desperately wanted to find a Jedi to come train his son in the ways of the force, and Luke agreed. After all, talent without training is worth nothing; he had learned that while he was a young padawan himself. He reaches out to the child through the force once again.
Grogu, where are you?
Bad place. Moff Gideon tried to hurt me. But Dad stopped him. He’s the best.
Luke almost smiled at how sweetly Grogu spoke of his father. He only wished that he had that type of relationship with his own father, but right now, he had to focus. Luke sets the X-Wing's coordinates to the nearest imperial cruiser. He could sense Grogu on that ship, and was ready to do anything to protect him.
…………
Din Djarin watches intently as this man, a Jedi, apparently, crushes the Dark Troopers using nothing but his laser sword and the force.
That’s kinda hot, he thinks to himself, but he quickly lets the thought pass away. After all, how much can he love a man who is going to take his child away from him?
………….
Luke has finished with the Dark Troopers, leaving nothing but giant piles of metal in his wake. He walks into the next room where he sees a group of people. At the center of it, he sees Grogu, sitting next to a Mandalorian. Luke quickly realizes that this is the child’s father, and not another Yoda as he had been expecting.
Wow.
Luke takes a deep breath in and slowly takes off his hood. He stands there for a moment, silently allowing the group to take in his presence. Finally, the Mandalorian speaks up:
“Are you Jedi?”
Luke is stunned. Shocked. Flabbergasted. He feels like he is about to pass out. “I am.” He manages to spit out, not quite as confidently as he would have liked.
This was it. The moment he met his soulmate.
And it was the greatest feeling that Luke had ever felt.
Luke had briefly forgotten about Grogu’s presence, being so content with the Mandalorian father who was about to change his life forever. However, when he looked down at Grogu, he realized what he had to do.
“Come little one.”
Luke holds out his hand, but the little one stays by his father. “He does not wish to go with you.” The Mandalorian answers in his wonderfully deep voice.
Oh stars, even with the helmet on he’s the hottest man I’ve ever met.
Luke takes a moment to gather himself before explaining it to the Mandalorian. “He needs your permission.” Luke rambles on, letting his brain go on autopilot with the speech he had prepared for Grogu’s father, but how was he supposed to know that this man was going to be his soulmate?
“I will give my life to protect the child.” Luke says. A wave of relief washes over the Mandalorian; Luke is grateful to feel that.
Finally, the armored man picks up his child and speaks only to him for a moment. “Go on now, he’s one of your kind.” He says sadly, sounding like he's about to cry. “I will see you again, I promise.”
Luke is heartbroken for him. And then, just like that, the Mandalorian reaches up and takes off his helmet, to show his son his actual face for the very first time.
Luke can feel the love and affection the two have for each other as they look into each other’s eyes for the first and last time. I can’t let this happen, Luke thinks to himself, I can not separate this man from his child.
“Come with us.” He says, and the helmet-less Mando simply stares at him.
“What?”
“I would never wish to separate a father from his child. He is obviously very attached to you. You should come with us and keep him company.”
The Brown-eyed man in front of him is stunned. “I thought that wasn’t allowed. Ahsoka Tano told me that she could not train him because of our bond.”
Luke shakes his head, partially stunned that his soulmate knows who Ahsoka Tano is, yet had never heard of him. “That was the old Jedi way, but there’s not many of us left anymore. I am trying to rebuild. Create a better and safer environment for our padawans. You may come with us, but only if you wish to.”
The brown eyed man looks down at his tiny son, who is shaking excitedly. He seems very pleased by the idea of not having to leave his Dad all alone, which Luke finds adorable. Finally, Mando looks up.
“I accept.” He says. He puts his helmet back on and walks out with Luke and R2. He doesn’t even turn around to say goodbye to his friends.
He doesn’t have too. He already knows that he’s walking out with the love of his life.
…………..
Now having been on Yavin IV for three weeks, Din takes off his armor for the first time. He is all alone, in the small bedroom that he shares with his son. The kid- Grogu , Din suddenly remembers, still being surprised by his own sons name- is off training with Luke. Din looks down at his forearm and sees the words “I am” printed on it in small text. He had heard it been said to him so many times before, but when Luke said it, Din knew something was different. It was the moment all the breath left his body and he felt like he was floating on cloud nine.
I am, he said. Two little words, so simple. That was when Din knew, this was the man he was meant to be with.
And, for the first time in his hectic life, everything was going to be alright.