#shining devotion

“Luke, come see this.”

Luke hasn’t gotten very far. In fact, he watched Mando the entire time, pretending to examine some panels near the wall on the opposite side of the hangar. He walks over to the Mandalorian’s position and looks at the floor.

“This floor moves,” says the Mandalorian. “There’s something underneath it.”

Luke’s eyes widen. He scans the ground and sure enough, under all the dirt and debris, there’s a long line stretching from the back of the hangar to the front. Luke bends down and traces the line along where the Mandalorian did.

“What’s under there?”

“I’m not sure. Can we get it open?”

Luke stands up and looks back over his shoulder at the panel that he was pretending to look at earlier. He strides over to it quickly, his heart thudding in anticipation. Once he reaches the panel, he tries every button he possibly can, but the floor doesn’t budge. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy-- someone would have done it already.

The Mandalorian is scanning the walls next to where Luke fusses over the panel, his fingers running along the seams of the wall.

Luke gulps at the sight of the Mandalorian’s gloved fingers running over the smooth surface.

Despite his best efforts over the last few weeks to repress his feelings for the Mandalorian, his feelings have only grown stronger. He knows that Mando has to leave eventually. There’s a whole planet counting on him, after all.

Luke feels the familiar pang of guilt at his selfishness of wanting Mando to stay there, but he knows that it isn’t possible. He’s just going to have to enjoy the time that they have now-- however short that time might be.

Just then, the Mandalorian moves some vines to the side and knocks loudly on the wall.

Hollow.

He takes a step back, tucking Grogu behind him in the sling before punching into the wall. Luke takes a step towards him, his eyes wide as he peers into the compartment that the Mandalorian just discovered. There’s a single button, cracked, but still glowing. Luke and Mando look at each other once before the Mandalorian hits the button.

The floor below them shutters and the entire building quakes with the effort as the two halves of the floor begin to slowly slide open. Luke and Mando step forward as they watch the gaping hole appear before their eyes. Dust pours from the ceiling and Luke swears he sees some new cracks forming all around the room. Once the doors are completely open, the two men walk back to the edge of the hole and peer into the abyss below.

Except it’s not an abyss, it’s a ship. A big ship.

Luke’s jaw drops and his heart thuds. They did it. They found a ship. Luke looks over at the Mandalorian. His hands are opening and closing and his helmet stays trained on the ship below.

“That’s a VCX-100,” he says.

Luke can hear the excitement in his voice, however slight it might sound to the untrained ear.

“How are we going to get it out of there?” Mando asks, scanning again for a solution.

“I think I can help with that. Go stand next to the button. Press it when I say so.”

The Mandalorian seems skeptical for a second but walks over to stand next to the button and waits for Luke’s orders.

Luke stands next to the hole and closes his eyes, taking a few long, deep breaths and shaking out his hands slightly. He draws on his connection to the Force and focuses his thoughts on the ship below him.

He puts his hands out and starts to lift.

The amount of concentration it takes for him to lift the ship is exponential. Luke feels himself faulter slightly about halfway up, but he recovers quickly. The ship hovers just above the ground as Luke yells “Now!” to the Mandalorian behind him. Mando slams his fist on the button and the doors begin to close achingly slow. Luke screams as he continues to hold the ship in the air before dropping it onto the platform as the doors finally slide closed. The hangar rumbles slightly as the ship thuds to the floor.

Luke breathes heavily, resting his hands on his knees and slowly wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead before turning around to face the Mandalorian who is already walking towards him. Mando stops for a second and looks at Luke, awestruck. Luke smiles at him winningly.

Suddenly, Mando is closing the distance between them rapidly, one hand on the bottom of his helmet. Once he reaches Luke, he places his other hand on the back of Luke’s head and lifts his helmet to kiss him fiercely.

Luke is so startled that he trips backwards into the ship. The Mandalorian keeps him from slamming his head into it by holding the back of his neck.

After he recovers, Luke tries to latch his lips back onto the Mandalorian’s, but just like that, Mando pulls away from him just as fast as he approached him, his helmet returning to its usual position.

“Mando, I-- “

“We should go. The kid needs dinner,” interrupts the Mandalorian, turning away from Luke.

As if on cue, Grogu pops his head out from the sling and starts making distressed sounds that Luke knows means the little womp rat is hungry.

Luke nods even though the Mandalorian still has his back turned to him. He touches his lips deafly, still feeling the remnants of the Mandalorian’s kiss there.

Luke’s mind is racing, and his heart is galloping right behind it. What just happened? Luke feels a little lightheaded, but whether that be from raising the ship or the events that transpired afterwards, he can’t tell.

He gathers his strength and with a big sigh, Luke follows the Mandalorian who is now waiting at the back of the hangar waiting for the lift. The lift beeps dully as Luke takes another look at the ship he raised from the depths of the hangar and rubs the back of his neck with his hand as he steps onto the lift.

-

They walk in silence all the way home, Mando staying a short distance in front of him.

All the while, Luke is trying to rebuild the puzzle that is the Mandalorian back in his head. Has he really been that oblivious this whole time? Was the kiss a fluke? Why did the Mandalorian take off his helmet?

On the trek back, there are many times that Luke opens his mouth to say something to the Mandalorian, but always ultimately decides to stay silent. If Mando doesn’t want to talk about it, then neither does he.

But also, it’s just so incredibly frustrating. Just when Luke thinks he’s got him figured out, something new comes around that surprises him. The mystery of the Mandalorian seems to be a never-ending train of questions with no answers. Or more accurately, there are answers, the Mandalorian just isn’t so willing to give them up.

By the time they get back, Yavin Prime is dimming overhead meaning nightfall is quickly approaching. Without a word, Mando slips into Luke’s hut, most likely to get food for Grogu who whined all the way back.

Luke hesitates to go into the hut. He’s not sure that he can face Mando right now. Instead, he sits down in what has become one of his most favorite spots in the galaxy: a log. It’s the log that sits in front of the fire pit, its twin sitting in parallel just across the collection of ashes and charred wood.

Almost every night, Luke and Mando sit here across from each other, usually in easy silence. Sometimes Mando will get Luke onto the topic of the war, and they trade stories of their past adventures. Other times, they’ll discuss the limited information that Leia has provided for them thus far.

Luke grabs the tube of fire paste sitting nearby, groaning slightly at its dismal contents. They’ve been hurting for supplies for a while. Luke’s been putting it off for as long as he can, knowing that the New Republic is busy still being built and he doesn’t want to bother Leia. Not when he knows that he can make it work on his own.

Part of him wishes he could talk to her about Mando and their brief kiss, but he’s not sure there’s much to tell. Plus, it’s probably the middle of the night on Coruscant and she will have turned in for the night.

Luke manages to get a small fire started and has just started warming his hands when he hears the Mandalorian rustle the curtain that hangs in front of the entrance of his hut. Luke doesn’t look up, opting to stare into the shifting flames of the fire.

He thinks that the Mandalorian is going to head back into his own hut, but instead he sits down on the log across from Luke, Grogu munching on his snack in the Mandalorian’s lap. Luke keeps his eyes trained on the fire, not sure of what to do next.

The Mandalorian speaks first.

“I’m going to go back tomorrow to look at the ship. See what all needs to be repaired. Looks like it’s going to need a hell of a lot of work.”

Luke finally looks up at the Mandalorian. Okay. So they aren’t talking about the kiss. Got it.

“You should take Artoo,” says Luke, “He can be very helpful.”

“I don’t like droids.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Luke deadpans.

Mando sighs. “I’ll take the droid.”

Luke feels a small smile creep onto his face. “His name is Artoo.”

The Mandalorian leans to the side, his left forearm resting on his knee, his right hand on his thigh. Grogu is making slurping noises as he gulps down the rest of his food.

“Could you tell me more about Mandalorian culture?” asks Luke, desperately wanting answers but not wanting to address the Bantha in the room.

The Mandalorian shifts a little, seeming hesitant.

“Like what?”

“Like what’s the significance of your armor?”

Mando’s grip tightens slightly on his thigh.

“The Beskar has been passed down through many generations of Mandalorians. It represents the years of combat that my people have been through. Our history lives on through it.”

“And your helmet? Why do some Mandalorians leave them on while others take them off?”

“Mandalorian is a creed, not a race. When I was a young boy, I vowed to never take it off. In my clan, that is what we did to survive. We did not tell our names, and we only went above the surface one at a time. Other Mandalorians live by a different creed. They have different experiences. Most of them think that my clan’s ways are outdated. No longer relevant to the galaxy we live in.”

“But you don’t?”

“Our anonymity is how we survived. It’s an important part of who we are as a clan. Whether or not the rest of my people want to honor that, it is their choice.”

Luke thinks back to the day that they met. Din’s teary eyes and disheveled hair, looking at Grogu like he was his everything.

“That night—” Luke starts, “the night I came to get Grogu, why did you take off your helmet if you made a creed not to? If anonymity is so important to your traditions, why would you break them?”

The Mandalorian looks down at the little green creature in his arms, his big eyes closing and opening, fighting sleep. He swipes a gloved hand under his chin, wiping off the crumbs there.

“I wanted my son to see me. What I really look like. We had been through so much together and I didn’t know if I was ever going to see him again,” says the Mandalorian as Grogu’s tiny fist wraps around one of his fingers. “When I lost him to the Empire, I realized that there was nothing I wouldn’t do for him.”

Luke once again recalls that night. How sad Mando looked, the love that he could feel between the two of them.

Sadness washes over Luke. How hard it must have been for Mando to give up the one that he loved most, just so that the kid could be trained as a Jedi.

The conversation fades out and the three sit in silence for the rest of the night.

Luke still feels a bit on edge about the whole situation between them, but he feels that, even though almost nothing between them is resolved, that a key part of the Mandalorian has clicked into place.

The Mandalorian is staring at the fire, patiently waiting for Grogu to give in to his drowsiness.

Luke wonders what he’s thinking.

For the millionth time that night, Luke opens his mouth to say something to address the situation, but just as he does, the Mandalorian stands up from the fire, cradling Grogu with one hand. He steps around the fire, heading towards his hut.

“Goodnight, Mando,” Luke calls as he always does.

The Mandalorian stops in his tracks, deciding something.

“Din,” he says, almost too quiet for Luke to hear. “My name is Din Djarin.”

Luke is taken aback. “Din… Djarin?”

The Mandalorian nods once.

“Goodnight then… Din.”

“Goodnight, Luke.”