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Meditating on top of the rock by the watery field was reassuring, how he could feel the Force traverse the air and his mind free from all worries.
It felt lonelier without the steady presence of his husband beside him or the constant coos coming from his son.
He supposes the New Republic has been keeping them busy with all those criminals.
An air of laughter around him when his husband announces that he would be trying to bring The Twins back their nephew from imprisonment.
Just one more mission and he would be back in Luke's arms as Grogu runs around, terrorizing frogs.
Nothing can go wrong, right?
Oh how wrong he was.
The lightsaber spun through the air.
Luke reached out with the Force, guiding its path without touching it, letting it circle him in smooth, controlled arcs.
Around him, the temple grounds were quiet. Wind stirred through leaves.
Peace.
The Force flowed around him, familiar as breath. Then it lurched. His lightsaber dropped from the air.
Luke's eyes snapped open.
Something had pulled at him. Hard, neither danger nor dark. But ─ a cry? It was small, terrified and..
"Grogu." His pulse quickened. The name escaped his mouth before he could stop it.
He closed his eyes again, reaching outward. The galaxy stretched before him in countless threads of light, impossible to follow all at once.
But one thread found him. A frantic tug full of fear, confusion, and.. desperation.
Not words. Grogu rarely used words, ever. The child only ever used feelings to communicate.
The emotion hit him so sharply that Luke inhaled through clenched teeth. The child was reaching for him.
Across stars.
Across impossible distance.
Not intentionally, perhaps. More instinct than thought. The way a frightened child ─ his child ─ calls whom they trust without realizing they're doing it.
Luke steadied himself, sinking deeper into the connection.
The Force trembled around him. Again came that desperate pull. This time it carried the wrath of urgency and fear.
Has something gone wrong with the mission?
Luke's hand tightened at his side, curled into a ball of fist.
The message lasted only a moment before fading, like a stone disappearing beneath dark water.
Silence returned to the temple. The wind rustled the trees as the Force settled.
But Luke remained perfectly still. Mind working out what had just happened.
Because Grogu had reached for him.
And whatever had frightened the child enough to send that cry through the Force was happening right now.
By now, if anything happened, Din would immediately contact him. But if Grogu is the one contacting him, then..
Din is in trouble.
Oh stars.
The moment his X-wing landed, he rushed out before it could properly anchor. He follows the guide of the Force to his family.
"Blerr!" His head snapped towards the familiar sound coming from his child.
He sprints like the time he carried Grogu around the bamboo forest, leaving no care towards the muddy terrain.
Coming across multiple remnants of parts that seemed to have come from machinery could only leave many undeserving thoughts in Luke.
He could only hope he wasn’t too late.
By the time he had reached them, only a small hill of mud welcomed him, Grogu who rushed toward his leg, along with leaves that covered.. a shiny light?
Beskar.
"Din?" He pulled out a part of his leg, dragging him out.
By the stars, does the view frighten him. His husband, head-to-toe in beskar, yet a bruising that seemed to have been slashed open right by his chest.
Poison.
Luke snapped his head down to Grogu, his widened eyes that mirrored the moon, shining as tears threatened to fall from his face.
"Grogu─ oh, what happened? Who did this to him?" Luke’s voice trembled with anger, no one could ever make his child cry and husband in pain.
As Luke knelt down, Grogu’s claws wrapped around his thumb as he showed Luke his memories. Images of The Twins came through.
Those stupid Hutts.
I’m sure they wouldn't mind another Huttslayer.
"Have you fed him a cure yet?" Luke leaned against the small shelter Grogu had made for Din, brushing off any dust on his beskar armour.
Grogu nodded as he curled up against his hip, quiet coos as he settled himself in.
Luke clicked his tongue, surely it wouldn’t take the cure this long─ unless.. "How long has it been..?"
The claws of the child tapped against his thigh thrice.
Three days.
Three days of Grogu being alone with nothing but the unconscious body of his father. Surviving in the wilderness with no one to help.
Kriff.
Luke inhaled sharply, trying his hardest to keep his composure for the child.
"Well─ I suppose we can.. make a bigger shelter, huh? The X-wing doesn’t have enough room for us all." Luke gets up as Grogu does too, together they make a decently large enough space.
A similar design to the one Grogu had done, just larger ─ enough to fit the three of them lying down.
As the night begins to come around, Luke crawls into the space with Grogu behind him, curling up against his husband.
A heavy sigh escaped him, staring up at the motionless body beside him, had he been awake ─ his arm would already be around Luke.
Luke’s crying. He knows it because Grogu is tapping his claws against his cheeks. He’s trying his best to muffle it as he swipes hard at his eyes.
"He’s going to be okay. I─I need him to be okay," Luke mumbled as Grogu curled up against him once more.
He’ll make sure of it. Luke isn’t planning to be a widow anytime soon.
Morning comes as Grogu is already awake, using his makeshift cane to travel across the forest to find the river he has been drinking out of.
This time, Luke is behind him, carefully making his way to follow the child. He may have already lost one of his family, he can’t risk losing the only one left.
As they sat down to drink water, Luke could only watch Grogu taking sips before refilling the bottle up for ─ what he could assume is ─ Din.
Stars, he still has hope.
Luke’s lips begin to tremble as he flicks the tears falling from the corner of his eye away, he needs to keep it together for Grogu.
"Grogu," The child perked up at his name, "I’m.. very proud of you."
Grogu’s head tilted downwards as Luke sensed with the Force an air of sadness and a slight glimmer of determination ─ that was slowly fading away.
"I.. I don’t think he made it."
A tear slipped down his cheek.
Then another.
He blinked, but it only made more fall.
His chest felt tight, each breath catching somewhere behind his ribs. He pressed a hand against his mouth as if he could physically hold the grief inside, but it kept escaping anyway.
Grogu coos quietly as he climbs up Luke’s back and hugs his shoulder tightly.
The Force no longer sensed determination in both of them.
As night began to fall again. Luke had checked his pulse so many times he’d lost count.
Each time it felt weaker.
Each time he told himself he wasn't imagining it.
There was nothing left to do. The two of them could only wait.
Waiting, hoping and watching someone they cared about slip further away with every passing hour.
Luke lowered his head.
His shoulders trembled once.
Twice.
A quiet, broken sound escaped him before he could stop it. Tears dripped from his jaw into the dirt.
For all his training, his years of learning acceptance and peace, grief still found the same vulnerable places inside him.
And sitting there beneath the trees, exhausted and frightened and so terribly afraid of what the morning might bring, Luke let himself cry.
He has to make a decision tomorrow. Whether to keep waiting or bring his body back to the temple and bury it there.
Luke knows it’s the latter but he still has hope. He refused to let this be how their little family ends, not to the stupid Hutts.
So that night, Luke wrapped his arms around Din ─ with Grogu sandwiched between the two. He tries to stay awake to salvage this moment.
Because this may as well be the last time he could ever hold Din this close.
Luke woke with his arm around an empty space.
For a moment, he didn't understand.
The memory of the night before was still heavy in his mind ─ Din cold and unmoving beside him, Luke holding him close as exhaustion finally dragged him to sleep.
Slowly, he reached across the space beside him.
Nothing.
His eyes snapped open.
The shelter was empty, not a single trace of either of them left behind.
Din and Grogu were gone.
Kriff.
Luke sat up so fast he hit his head on the low ceiling.
"Din? Grogu?" He almost couldn’t recognize his own voice, trembling in fear.
When nobody answered, panic rose in his chest.
Kriff, how could he let this happen? First his husband’s body is gone and now his child is gone too.
He didn’t feel anything from the Force, any sense of struggle or danger, not even Grogu trying to communicate with him.
"─is The Way."
That voice─ oh stars.
Luke crawls out of the space within a millisecond, scrambling to stand up as he almost trips over a rock.
There he was.
"Din."
"Luke?"
Heavy footsteps swept over the muddy terrain as Luke lunged towards Din’s slightly open arms.
He sobbed, quiet but harsh as Din’s hand snaked around to plant itself over his neck.
"Y─You’re alive.." Luke mumbled against his shoulders, the warmth that he has longed for many days finally returning. "I thought you were─"
"Cyar’ika."
Luke sucked in a breath, he missed the nicknames that Din always used for him ─ reserved for him.
"I’m here," Din lifts his chin up, making eye contact with the visor, "We’re okay."
"But─" Din takes his hand, plants it against his chest.
Thump, thump, thump.
Luke finally relaxes as he hears the heartbeat, he lets out a sigh of relief as he curls up against Din again.
"How did you even get here?" Din wraps his other arm around Luke’s waist.
Luke chuckled as he swiped his tears away, "Grogu called through the Force."
Grogu coos and uses the Force to launch himself, landing on Luke’s head and crawling to settle between the two of them.
The Clan of three stood there, quietly as they finally became whole.
"He has done a lot to take care of you before I came."
"I can tell." Din nudged Grogu with his helmet, "I’m grateful, kid, really."
Luke has everything he could ever want. His husband, alive and well, and their child between them.
He couldn’t ask for anything more.
The unlikely pair of Mandalorian and Jedi snuggled against each other by the makeshift fire as their child stood by the side near a small pond, terrorizing the population of frogs.
An eventful blow of the Hutt Palace in Nal Hutta leaves Din exhausted from the adrenaline left behind.
Luke took no shame in taking care of his husband, tracing all the scars left by the mission. Grateful that fate has stood by their side once more.
"I really thought you were dead," Luke stroked his thumb across Din’s bare hand. "That I would be left alone to raise Grogu."
Din remains quiet by his side, Luke’s sure that ─ he, too, thought he was dead. Thanks to their child that he made it, otherwise..
"Me too." Din wrapped his arm around Luke’s neck as the latter did the same.
Luke sighed fondly as he moved his gaze to Grogu, a frog floating to reach its impending doom.
Grogu’s mouth.
He chuckled to himself as he thought about it, before he lifted his hand up and ─ with the Force ─ moved the frog out of the entrance of Grogu’s mouth.
Upon not feeling the taste of the frog, Grogu turns, pouting towards his parents.
"You’ve had enough frogs, save some of that bottomless pit of yours for dinner." Din backed Luke up.
Grogu coos quietly as he sat down by the pond, immensely staring at the body of water.
Din knows his son well, too well, that he’s sulking. Potentially trying to win their hearts over to let him get what he wants.
It’s sorta working. Din admitted before he sighed and left the comfortable position. "Come on, dinner time."
He takes Grogu away from the pond, just as the soup finishes boiling. Luke serves them evenly into three bowls, the smaller bowl overfilling.
The family of three gathers for a dinner for the first time in months, sharing stories between the two adults as the child coos and babbles in between.
As night settles, Luke curls up against Din on the makeshift bed. Finally feeling the warmth rather than the cold temperature in his husband.
They definitely need to get a new cabin.
As Din took off his helmet for the night, Luke leaned up to kiss him. Din sighs against it as Luke pulls away not long after.
"I love you."
"I love you too, cyar’ika."