#soft din

Even as his mind works, Din’s absent focus stays on you in the shadow of the rock face, sitting with the child he assumes is the force-sensitive. For some reason, he thought the child would be smaller, but he looks to be halfway to adulthood by his height. Definitely not gonna fit on the speeder with both of you. “The mechanic. Peli Motto. She’s unharmed?”

“Fine for now. They’re keeping her under lockdown but they’re not torturing her.”

“Good,” he huffs with a sardonic laugh. If Peli has guards set on her, then they’re the ones who are probably begging for release right about now. Tapping a few buttons on his vambrace and checking his nav for coordinates and distances, he calculates the time it will take to pack up, get to the drop off, and arrive at the Palace. Of course there will be a pit stop to refuel the speeder, get in a midday meal, exchange pleasantries, ask for favors….

“This would be a whole lot easier if she’d come out to us.”

“Wouldn’t it though. No dice, Mando. Boss hailed back–Bo won’t open herself up to attack. Insists on meeting at the Palace.” Her black eyes glitter behind the open slice of her helmet. “If you want to get in some target practice, we could stash your partner and the quarry somewhere in town and take down the garrison, grab the ship and go. Avoid her completely. Could be fun.”

“It’s only dragging this scenario out. She’s not going to let this go. She’ll just follow us somewhere else; somewhere I don’t have options.”

“I suppose the boss wouldn’t like me disobeying an order either. Ah well,” she sighs back onto her elbows, “buys your friend a little vacation, hm?”

Dank farrik. You’re not going to like this.

To be honest, he doesn’t either.

“You didn’t catch the name of her companion? And it’s not Koska?”

Laying back onto the sun-warmed rock and closing her eyes as her head lands in the cradle of her hands, Fennec hums in thought. “No, it sounds like Koska might be leading the garrison at the docking bay. The Mando that came with Bo Katan definitely isn’t her.”

“Hmm. First light then. I appreciate your help.”

Stretching out like a cat, content to take in the morning suns after a cold evening in the desert, Fennec has nowhere to go and nothing to do as long as Din isn’t following her back to the Palace. “Patience is a virtue. Bo Katan can use the lesson.”

________________

PART 2: YOU

“That’s good, Uli-ah. Now can you do both stones at once? Try to swap their positions.”

Taking refuge in the shadows by the cliff face and sitting in the sand across from the Tusken foundling, you watch as two pieces of desert shale lift from their positions by the boy’s knees, come together in the air and bump only a little awkwardly before passing at nose level. One of them drops and breaks while the other makes its way to its new spot.

It’s hard.

“Yes, it is, and you almost did it. That’s actually very very good. You must practice often.”

No. I’m not allowed. It frightens the mothers. I make things dance for the other kids sometimes if the mothers can’t see.

“You keep bringing up ‘the mothers.’ Is one of them yours?”

They all are.

“The children are raised by the clan.”

Drawing his knees up and under his chin, Uli-ah hugs himself in tight, burying his face, becoming a little desert-colored ball. It’s not that he goes silent as much as he shows you ideas, images, emotions, everything you need to understand that he is not assigned to one family like the other children are. Uli-ah does not answer to one set of parents or any one mother or father in particular. He is protected by everyone but advocated for by nobody. He learns as part of a group, but is never given wisdom as passed down from parent to child.

He is alone in a crowd.

It’s a wonder that the child hasn’t grown to be dispondend or wild, surprising that he’s quiet and respectful. But it isn’t that he’s neglected or uncared for. Din’s words from the night before begin to stir. The Tuskens aren’t like Mandalorians. He’ll never be paired and never asked to join the fire. He will never truly be one of them.

“How old are you, Uli-ah? How long have you lived among the clan?”

He doesn’t lift his head, his fingers only dig into the cloth of his leg coverings.

Five years I think. There have been five water cycles.

Only five? This tall, gangly, capable child? The answer slams into you and before you can control your surprise it rebounds on him, his hands balling up in fists as yet another adult finds him strange and unusual.

“Hey, hey, hey, friend,” reaching over to his shaking shoulder and laying a warm hand upon it, “it’s okay. That’s a good answer. You’ve learned so much in your young life, I’m only surprised you’re not a little older. You’re very smart and talented for your age.”

The touch, your tone, your praise causes him to bring his head slowly up, his helmet shielding his expression, but his sinking shoulders telling you all you need to know.

“I know some other younglings like you, with abilities like yours. They go to a school for people like us. I could take you to them if that’s what you’d like. But you’d have to leave your home behind. Everything will be new. It’s a long way from here.”

I don’t know what a school is.

“It’s a place where you learn. A training place where someone teaches you how to master your skills. Would you like that?”

Stillness. You can sense a little turmoil, all his thoughts tumbling around without a good tried-and-true way to organize them. This is why the Jedi used to take them as babies; it’s a lot to ask any child. Too young in their development and they’re bonded to their family. Old enough to make the decision and it may be too late to hone their abilities. Five though. Five is so young for such a big decision.

I...would like that. Except….

Uli-ah’s helmet spans slowly, taking in the camp, the sands, the wavering heat at the horizon…

Is it…hotter there? It’s so hot here. Sometimes I can’t breathe.

Is that what he’s worried about? “It’s warm there, but there’s water. Green things. Trees. I suppose you’ve never seen trees. They’re hard to explain–”

I remember trees.

Something about this violently shifts your heart. To be so young and still have fleeting memories of a different place, perhaps a home he once knew….and you find yourself putting your arms around the young force-sensitive, taking no offense to the fact that he does not have any experience of how to embrace you back. ________________

“Well? What did you find out, Captain?”

The midday Tusken meal is taken in the privacy of their tents and that means bringing two bowls of black melon gruel back to your campsite. Din’s made a makeshift lean-to out of your blankets and the speeder–a place to have a little shelter from the high suns and to remove your helmets for the meal–and you hand the bowls off under a flap so that you can crouch and crawl through to the snug space, taking a seat knee to knee with him in the cooler patch of shaded desert.

The surprise is that his helmet already rests in the sand by his hip. His jaw is set, his eye determined. He holds the bowls patiently, waiting as you remove your own bucket.

Something tells you you’re not going to like what he has to say.

“Bo Katan Kryze is here on Tatooine. She’s holed up in the local tradelord’s palace with some of her followers and she has others posted at our docking bay with the Crest in custody.”

“Peli–” you start, but he shakes his head, handing your bowl over.

“She’s okay. They’re just not letting her leave the terminal.”

Suddenly, you couldn’t be less hungry. “Why is Kryze here? For you?”

“Mmyeah,” he says, smacking his lips and squinting after a sip of the bitter broth. “Technically, she’s probably here for the Darksaber. Been tracking us for a while.”

“I thought you told her you weren’t going to fight her.”

“I’m not. But I have to go. She’s causing trouble until I get there. I’m not going to inconvenience my friends over this. I’ve got to go and deal with it.”

There a quick spike of bitterness in your gut from something other than the melon gruel. But you don’t need to feel anything from him to sense his irritation as a valley forms between his eyebrows and he downs more of the broth.

Joining him in your silent meal, watching him as he keeps his eyes on the bowl, you know him too well. There’s something he’s not telling you; it’s best to just keep sipping until he gains the courage. It takes longer than you expect and it’s not until he puts down the empty bowl that he meets your eyes. “You’re not coming with me.”

“What? You’re just going to leave me here? Din, the Darksaber–”

“No,” is what he says, but what he means is Quiet. Let me speak. “The kid you’re talking to. Tell me what’s happening there first.”

Damn. You can sense your Mandalorian is begging you with his whole being to cooperate, and the last thing you want is a fight. “You’re right. He’ll never be one of them. They’ve adopted him into their numbers but not into a family. He’s got an astounding amount of ability and talent for his age...and that’s another thing. He says he’s only five.”

“What?” Shock washes over him in a mirror of your own. “Huh. So. Not human then.”

“No. Being so tall, I thought maybe Kaminoan, but too many fingers. Maybe Weequay. Possibly Wookiee, but I can’t imagine living under all that covering and fur besides. Although he did say it was too hot here…” Stay on topic. “He’s open to going to Luke’s school.”

He sighs. His eyes close and squeeze. The news is expected, but not favored.

“That means we’re back on the clock,” he grumbles as he locks his gaze to yours again. “So it’s my job to make sure you’re both safe. I’m not leaving you here with the Tuskens and I’m not bringing the kid into a palace crawling with power hungry Mandalorians. We’re taking a detour to a mining settlement. I have a friend there. Maybe he can give you two a place to stay for a night or more.”

“Din, why–”

“Speeder won’t carry us all, so Fennec’s gonna help us out. We head out at first light. I’ve already spoken to the elders about that pearl–”

“Wait. You need me with you. That saber–”

“Senaar’ika.” Din doesn’t speak Mando’a often. His whisper stills your tongue. “I’ve spoken to the elders about the pearl. They have an imperfect one they’re prepared to trade if you’re willing to build a saber for them.” When you blink incredulously he explains, “I showed them the Darksaber and what it can do. They can use it for cutting. For defense. It makes glass from the sand and lights fires. It would be a valuable tool for them. I know…” he swallows, “I know it’s an insult to your order. To make a lightsaber for…base reasons…”

It’s risky, putting such a powerful weapon in the hands of those not trained to use it. They could badly harm someone. Or wield it to embolden an attack on innocents. But perhaps you could temper it, shorten the blade, make sure it can’t be used to cause too much harm….

“I’ll do it.” It’s a rough trade, but it will do. And you’re glad to see that he nods, relieved, quick to take up your offer. “Depending on the size of the pearl, a shard of it could power many lightsabers. And I’m happy to make something that’s useful to them.”

“Good. Then while you’re doing that, I’ll negotiate for the child.” He holds up a hand when you open your mouth to protest. “I know. But the women of this clan don’t have final say and you’re not allowed to talk with the men. Trust me. I know what they need to hear.”

If the burn in your cheeks didn’t signal frustration as he takes the lead away from you, then your frown most certainly does. But he’s right. He’s right about everything. Except…

“I don’t want you to leave me behind in the mining settlement. I know you can wield that saber, Din, but my being with you will boost your power with it. It feeds so highly on your emotions. Having someone you love nearby can only help…”

“I understand,” he says, softly. He’s already replacing his helmet, readying himself to go retrieve the pearl so you can get to work. “But you don’t have to be standing next to me to be the one thing I can’t stop thinking about, Little Bird.”

And he slips out of the makeshift shelter, leaving you with cold broth and a pounding heart. ________________

The pearl is about the size of Din’s fist, definitely from a young krayt, and it takes you a little time to figure out how to fracture it without wasting any. Your own lightsaber is up to the task to hew a sliver of it away and you’re able to ascertain that even this small portion holds enough force energy to power a short blade. It will be more unstable than your own kyber, but less mercurial than the Darksaber; a fine beginner’s blade if not a tad loud.

The new utility saber is a good tool, sturdy, powerful. You’re adjusting the final resonance when Din rounds the speeder bike. He’s been gone a good part of the day and the suns sit on his shoulders, winking off his armor, causing you to squint up at him even through your visor to ask, “Well? How’d it go?”

Settling into one hip, his hands come up to rest on his belt and he juts the chin of his helmet at the weapon in your hand. “You got enough to make another one?”

“That’s their offer?”

“That’s their offer.”

Now it’s your turn to sigh as you lock in the final calibrations, your neck and shoulders aching from working half the afternoon on a blanket in the baking sands. “Yeah. More than enough parts. Time though, that’s another issue. I just,” one last twist of the mico-spanner, a click as the final panel fits into place, you toss the finished hilt to him, “I can’t believe that a little boy is worth the same amount to them as a dragon’s gut rock.”

Din catches the piece, ignites the blade, turns it, twists it through the air to hear its low feral howling, then hits the power switch, dimming its vibrating emerald light. “Well, not even as much. Pearl cost us one of these and the rest of our water.” When you make a face he adds, “We should be fine until we reach Mos Pelgo. We can get more there.”

“The water’s not the detail I’m unhappy about.”

Taking a quiet assessment of the mess in front of you–the scattered scrap metal and bits of pearl, the wires and tools and sand, always so much sand–the realization that you’ll have to start all over again and work into the evening is suddenly exhausting.

Even if he's not a force-user, you can see that Din picks up on this and you close your eyes as he moves around and takes a seat on the blanket behind you. After removing your pauldrons, his gloved fingers work into your shoulders and neck, deliciously limbering you, stretching out all the constriction, smoothing down all the coils. Even if it is more military restoration than it is gentle relaxation, it’s what he knows, his way of giving care.

A water bladder lands in your lap. “You haven’t been drinking.”

He’s right. And you take a long draw as his hands pull and prod your muscles, untangling the mess you’ve made of them, letting him heal you and do his bit to protect you from as much hurt as he can.

It isn’t the touch you truly long for–his gloves and your flight suit keep his fingertips from gliding over your skin, your helmets prevent his lips from kissing the back of your neck, beskar and leather cover the chest you so badly would like to sink back into. The way he has twisted your fingers in his own, or dragged his nose behind your ear, or leveraged your thigh with one of his own… It seems a sin that you are being given the gift of his touch and his care and yet, greedy and selfish, you would wish for more.

But perhaps you’re not the only selfish one here. His hands finally flatten out, firm kneading becomes gentle soothing, palms eventually sliding down to cradle your elbows as the ting of his helmet meets the back of your own, and you feel the broad frame behind you slowly fill with air and expel it in a fashion that, had it carried sound, may have been a soft whine.

How gracefully your hearts dance together. How far you’ve both traveled to meet here in this place.

“You should take a break; get up and move around.” Flaying himself from you, Din stands and holds out a gentle hand, beckoning. “Come on. I’d like to meet the kid.”

________________

Uli-ah works with a few of the other children, almost completely swallowed in bantha fur as they hold up one of the beast’s feet while a herder inspects it. Once that foot has been deemed healthy, the children race to the next foot, jostling and braying laughter as they vie for space to help pick up the next paw while the bantha merely shifts its weight and chews its cud.

Din sits by your side in the hot sand, waiting quietly while the children and the herder finish their task, and then Uli-ah runs your way, ending in a skid on his knees as he comes to a stop almost in your lap.

The elders say I’m going away with you.

“That’s right. We will be leaving at first light tomorrow. Are you ready for an adventure?”

The child bounces on his knees, braying his own kind of laughter, not quite Tusken, but certainly not human.

“I guess that’s a yes,” you laugh, then point to Din. “This is our Captain. He’ll be with us. He flies the ship and protects us.”

The bouncing stops then, and Uli-ah makes a half move, as if he’s going to hide from the Mandalorian behind you, except that Din’s hands cut through the air as he speaks.

“I’ll make sure. You’re safe.”

There’s a slow, renewed interest from Uli-ah as he realizes that he can communicate with this stranger and he raises his own hands into gesture.

You can speak with your hands.

Din chuckles, signs back. “Yes. I’ve talked with your people. For a long time.”

There’s a wave of relief that comes over the boy, some kind of calm knowledge that “his people” are changing, that you and Din will be his people soon.

Then his hands clap and flutter excitedly–

I’m going to go to school!!!!

–before he tosses himself backward onto the sand in a moment of youthful glee.

You don’t know what lifts your heart more, this display of joy, or the sound of Din’s quiet laughter–light and welcoming and calm–coming through the comm.

In the morning every mother in the clan will touch the child’s head as they pass by him in a line. All the men will gather in a group and shout a message of farewell before turning back to their herd. But on the back of the speeder, it is you that Uli-ah will hold tightly. And even before that, it is Din who will help him get situated on the seat, check him over to make sure he’s secure, pat him kindly on the back, and tell him there’s nothing to fear.

Your Mandalorian’s come to understand that there are some who can see through the beskar to the good man underneath. And you can see he’s starting to believe it himself.

Some beliefs, it seems, can take a long time to crack. But belief can also nourish a man in the desert and show a warrior that his milder moments can house another form of strength.

Ahsoka really did choose well for you. And the Darksaber chose well for itself.

________________

It’s taking all of your concentration to keep the speeder bike at a steady velocity as you whip through the canyon. What you wouldn’t do for a cup of caf.

The second saber build had gone smoother than the first since you had duplicates of many of the same pieces and were able to put something together more easily, but you’d still worked past twilight and then there was packing up the speeder and joining the group for evening meal….

After that, you’d lain awake, curled into Din, listening to his shallow breathing, trying to come up with a valid argument for going with him, each excuse a play more desperate than the one before it. You actually entertained the thought of removing the kyber from the Darksaber while he slept--your most clever plan yet. Except for the fact that the weapon was entirely sealed and getting into it would cause more damage than your honor would let you make.

He’s the Mand’alor. The High Leader. Whether he likes it or not, if he won’t fight or let anyone best him, then he must take up the mantle. If the Mandalorians are gathering, he can’t fail to steer their ship. There’s so much he has to learn about the weapon. Also so much he has to learn about asking for assistance. You think there has to be someone who can tell him this, make him understand how much his level head and moral compass and loyalty to his people are needed. Someone who can teach him to wield the instrument of his leadership….

But your hour of denial is over. Because there is someone.

It’s you.

But who are you to him? You are not his advisor. Not a member of his sect. Not even his…for lack of a better word…queen….

“Used the wrong word. Called you my queen instead of woman. I tried to correct myself and they asked me who you ruled over.”

“Ah. And you said, ‘just me.’”

“Yep.’”

“What did I say about burning out the repulsors, Little Bird?” Din’s voice cuts through your thoughts into your earpiece, bringing your focus back to the task at hand, and you ease off on the throttle so Fennec’s speeder can catch up to yours.

From the moment the suns broke the horizon, Uli-ah has been attached to you–literally refusing to loosen his clutch of your flight suit–the realization sinking in that he’s leaving behind everything he’s ever known and keeping close to the best constant he has. So it only made sense that he’d ride with you, and Din would pair with Fennec.

She’s an intimidating one, Fennec Shand. Din mentioned that she’d been an assassin for hire in the Imperial days, that he’s never known anyone who can beat her skill or match her tenacity. And you believe him; she has eyes like a lothcat and a body like a loaded pulse rifle, always watching, seemingly always ready to strike. But there’s a sparkle to her too, an allure that draws you in like bait for the snare.

He’s known her longer than you. The bond between them is strong. A bond between friends, between warriors. You can sense his high regard for her. He’s holding onto her waist so nonchalantly…

Well this is a new feeling. You shake it off and find a constructive distraction.

“How are you doing back there, padawan?”

This is fun! It goes so fast! What’s a padawan?

“It’s an old word. It means you are in training to be a master of the powers you have. The old word for those powers was ‘force,’ and they called the masters Jedi.”

You are Jedi?

“Well. Something like that.” Leaning the speeder around a curve in the canyon, you similarly bend the subject. “You’re going to join other kids like you. I can’t wait for you to meet Shiari and Grogu. They’re gonna be so happy to have a new friend.”

It would be easy to miss it over the whine of the speeder bike–a soft sigh. You keep forgetting that the comm is open. And any mention of Grogu is always bittersweet for Din.

He misses the little one so much. It’s evident that he’s happy that Grogu’s safe and learning, that he’s where things are best for him. But it still twists your heart. Din went from being alone to being a father at hyper warp–taking to it like a Gungan to water–and something about that makes you smile.

Grogu’s ability to charm the mighty warrior. Din’s sleeping heart opening for him, blooming like a hundred-year codaflower in Grogu’s warm spring. Except for the danger of his lifestyle, Din makes a good father. Any kid would be lucky to have him. Even beyond your feelings for him, his devotion makes it an honor to be serving the mission with him.

“Little Bird.”

Oops. “Sorry. Just wanna get there, I guess,” your excuse is accompanied  by the return to a manageable speed. Again.

“We’ll be hitting Mos Pelgo soon. Don’t tear up the town on your way in.”

“Telling me what not to do only tests my willful streak, Your Highness.”

“I’m aware.” There’s a low warning in his voice, but also a smirk. “I’m willing to make it an order if that’s the motivation you need.”

Slowly swiveling your visor in his direction, you watch as he does the same to you. A playful tease.

“You. Wouldn’t. Dare.”

And without turning away, you punch the throttle, defiantly taking the lead, Uli-ah roaring in excitement behind you even as he holds on for dear life. ________________

Mos Pelgo is a quiet settlement, barely big enough to be called anything other than an outpost. Moisture farms flicker in and out of the distance through the waves of heat in a constellation surrounding a one-street center, a short line of earthen structures topped in domes and rods, connected by a boardwalk lifted off the dusty path. The few dust-coated people out and about stop and stare as you coast by, involuntarily shrinking back away from the path. Not that you can blame them. They seem peaceful and it’s not surprising that they might be startled by a band of armored strangers coming in, a Tusken in their mix. Din mentioned that the townsfolk might be wary of Tuskens, but assured that his friend Cobb would vouch for the kid.

What he didn’t tell you is that once they saw his armor, they would lift their hands in a friendly wave. It seems they know him here.

Pulling up outside a cantina, the four of you peel yourselves from your seats with varying degrees of stretching and sighing, your spine aching to be upright and your feet thankful for a chance to be on solid ground. Din and Fennec head up the stairs and you start to follow, but there’s a tug at your elbow.

Is this the school?

“Not yet. We have to travel a long long way, but the Captain has to do a job first and he can’t protect us for the next couple of days. We’re going to stay here with a friend where it’s safe.”

If a Tusken mask can look baleful, Uli-ah achieves it with a long, slow look up and down the settlement path.

“Hey. I promised you a school and you’re going to get one. We might not get there for a while, but you’ll be with me the whole way and guess what.”

You’ll teach me?

“You bet I will. I told you you were smart. You wanna go inside and see if our new friend is there?”

Yes.

Steps are a new concept and Uli-ah takes a cautious step up, and up again, bringing one foot up to meet the other before continuing onto the next. At the top, he considers the short flight of two whole stairs, then steps back down and down. Then he takes the steps one at a time, up and down. Once he runs up a third time you catch him around the shoulders before he can give it another go and give him a playful jostle, guiding him inside as he squeezes his fists in victorious joy.

After the glare of the desert, it’s comparatively dark in the cantina, so you instinctively pull off your helmet.

This is your first mistake.

And sets off a chain of events.

Uli-ah, not accustomed to your helmetless face, stops behind you in the entryway.

Mother, you’re–

He shrieks.

It’s unsafe, mother!

Before you can course correct–calm him or apologize for shifting culture so quickly or even take the time to correct his default of name for you–the Weequay behind the counter reacts fiercely to the the child, pointing and shouting–

“Out! We don’t want trouble here! We have a pact! Out!”

“No, wait–” Din turns sharply to the barkeep, but the damage has been done and the child bolts awkwardly from the cantina out into the light, smashing his shoulder against the port frame as he goes and wailing his way down the boardwalk.

You make a quick gesture to Din as you follow–it’s okay, I’ll get him–and leave your Mandalorian to locating his friend.

By the time you get eyes on him, Uli-ah’s a couple of buildings away–poor boy must be so confused right now–when a tall, old man steps out from one of them, seemingly summoned by the commotion, and the two collide, the boy falling off the boardwalk into the dust, then trying to scramble backward, all heels and palms and elbows.

The man’s good natured, going after the boy and trying to help him up, but it only scares him more. “Whoa there. Hey. Hey there, kid, it’s alright. I’m not tryin’ to hurt you.” Once he gets the boy up and starts dusting him off, Uli-ah struggles to break free, but the man easily holds him, kneeling down to the kid’s level to keep from being a threat. “Hey hey hey. It’s okay. You lost son? Where’s your tribe?”

“I’m so sorry. He’s under my care.” As you converge with them and take Uli-ah’s hand, the child turns and slams into you, hiding his face in your side, holding on with shaking hands. “It’s okay, padawan. Nothing’s gonna happen to you if you stick with me, okay?”

Your second mistake was assuming the man is elderly on account of his grey hair and beard, but when you hold a hand out to help him up, you’re greeted by lively dark eyes and a particularly wry and charming grin. Oh yes, he takes your hand, but puts no weight on it as he stands, only holds it firmly, a handshake that is warm but…unending.

“Ma’am,” he says respectfully, but with a rather rakish sparkle to it, and you catch sight of the stripes on his belt. A Republic Ranger. A welcome sight out here for you, but might cause problems for Din. “You and your friend are new faces around here. I’m the marshal. How can I assist you?”

“I’m, ah, I’m,” stars, that’s some smile. ”I’m here with my partner and his associate. We’re looking for a friend of his. There was a misunderstanding at the cantina and my charge here got a little scared.”

“Well, let’s go see if we can sort this out. If I might escort you…” Instead of releasing your hand, he draws it smoothly under and around his forearm, and in your shock–a little bemused, a little offended–your final mistake is allowing it. And so in this manner, you arrive back at the Cantina, arm in arm with the marshal, pulling Uli-ah along by the hand.

“There he is,” the Weequay nods to your trio as two helmets turn.

“Heard there was a misunderstanding in here with this pretty lady and the young one, is that the way of things, Weequay?”

“Yes, Marshal, my misunderstanding. Won’t happen again.”

The marshal, nodding, turns his attention to Din and Fennec. “Welcome back, Mando. These two belong to you?”

Ah. So you’ve run into the man Din was looking for. All should be well, but something feels off. Din stands still, squared to the three of you, feet in a wide, stable stance. His answer is taking a long time to come. If you didn’t know better, you’d think he was in confrontation mode, as if he was going to have to make a tactical move at any second. It’s easy to assume for a moment that perhaps these two aren’t as friendly as you were led to believe.

But the assumption and the tension break as the Mandalorian steps forward to the marshal, each clasping the others’ forearm in a brotherly handshake, “Vanth” and “Mando” exchanged with nods, and a bonus smile on Cobb’s part. Friends indeed then.

Stretching out with your feelings though, there’s an anomaly rolling around in Din, something faintly protective. Something that’s bitten off by his terse, “Yes. These two are mine.”

When the marshal drops your hand and swaggers loose and lanky over to a nearby table, it’s only then that Din’s muscles relax, that he shifts slowly to one hip, that his hand leaves off the habitual hover near his blaster and hooks itself into his belt.

It’s all you can do not to gape.

You’ve never seen Din jealous before.

But that seems to be melting swiftly as he takes a seat by his friend. Cobb Vanth orders a full round from the proprietor, and leans forward over the table, grinning a whole galaxy full of teeth in the mirror of Din’s visor and declares, “Sure would like to know what skugbunny you followed to find yourself all the way out here again.”

________________

Fennec stands in the light, her svelte figure like a knife stuck in the sand, finding less commotion outside where she can send a communique to her boss. You can hardly blame her; Cobb is a loud talker and Uli-ah has found distraction in a pair of sabacc dice which he throws over and over, clattering across the table as he plays a game he’s making up on the spot, cheating against himself every once in a while with a subtle force push of a die, although you’re the only one who notices.

After his economical explanation to Cobb, Din passes his glass to you, something he does often now in public places, allowing you to drink what he cannot. “What I’m looking for is shelter for my partner and her charge here. Refills on supplies. Fuel. I’m willing to pay.”

“So what’s the favor then?” The marshal squints, taking a swig of his spotchka.

“I want no harm to come to these two,” Din says, tilting his helmet in your direction. “I’m bound to protect them, but I need to go take care of something. Should be back within a day.”

“So you’re looking for a security detail,” he says, finishing the cup. “You got it. No problem. I’ll look after them personally.” A cheeky wink punctuates the offer.

That odd twinge rises in Din again, like smoke from a too hot fire, and you lay a hand on his knee under the table. “Uli-ah and I won’t cause you any trouble, marshal. This seems like a peaceful place you keep here. We should be able to manage alright.”

Cobb misinterprets your polite decline of babysitting as an act of humble courtesy. “It’s no trouble at all, ma’am. We don’t have any public lodgings here in Freetown, but I’ve got a room. It’s yours. Nowhere safer.”

There’s nothing to say that wouldn’t seem rude.

“That’s…very generous. The boy and I are grateful for a place to stay.”

“Right then,” Cobb slaps his hand on the table, using it to push him up off his chair. “I’ll go scare up some water reserves for your journey.”

There’s silence at the table when he leaves, broken only by the rattle of dice on its surface as Uli-ah tries over and over again to break his top score. Din stares off after the marshal, but hesitates to follow. Something’s on his mind.

You wager a guess.

“Din. We’ll be okay. There’s nothing to be jealous of.”

“I’m not…jealous.”

You squeeze his knee. “This could all be avoided if you let us come with you–”

“No.” He finally draws in a long breath, exhales, and turns the visor to you. “I want you safe. You’ll stay here. That’s an order.”

“An…order?”

“We’re on the job and I call the shots when it comes to your safety.”

“Yes, but–”

There’s movement outside at the speeders, a woody thud and scrape as a water camtono is deposited and then picked up from the boardwalk.

He doesn’t let you finish, standing and holding out a hand to help you up. “I’ve got to get the supplies packed in.”

Something’s turned off in him. The courtesy’s there, but he’s doing his best to control his emotions....

To hide them from you.

“Come on, Uli-ah. We’ll see the Captain off and then we’re going to stay with Marshal Vanth for a couple of days, okay?” By the time you tear the youngling away from his new toys, the corner of Din’s cape is disappearing out the door.

Kriff. This is bad. Something’s wrong and he can’t leave like this. He can’t take this uncertainty with him.

Taking a seat on a crate while they prep Fennec’s speeder, you just stay out of the way and observe. Cobb chatters cheerfully at the assassin, bringing out supplies from the storehouse, exchanging old tarps for new, handing over a fuel hose. But Din keeps out of the conversation, silently busies himself with a last minute tune up of the vehicle.

He’s removed his packs from Fennec’s bike–both to facilitate a more strategic repack and to access a panel behind one of the side compartments–and they sit propped up against the boardwalk nearby.

That’s it.

There’s something you need to do.

Sidling over to his packs and reaching out with your feelings, you search for the thrum of kyber. There it is. It’s easy to locate the Darksaber and extract it from the pack. You place it in your lap, covering it with the end of your tunic.

Uli-ah’s found some whomp rats living under the boardwalk and you watch as he plays with them, running to one side when they do, and trying to beat them to the other side when they change course.

After a short while, Din closes up the hatches and reattaches the spanner to its flank seating. Then he makes his way over to you, silently retrieves his packs, and returns to the speeder, taking a long time tying them down.

It’s only when everything’s ready to go and there’s nothing more to keep him away, he comes back and lays a hand on your cheek. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Leaning into his hand and trapping it with one of your own, you hold up the Darksaber with the other. “You need to concentrate, Din.” His short, frustrated sigh only pushes your resolve further. “You’re not the only one with a duty of care, mister. This blade is tricky and you need all the help you can get.”

“I’ll be okay, Little Bird.”

“Not if you leave in the state you’re in. I know you’re not angry at me, but you’re uncomfortable leaving me here and you can’t leave like that. This weapon,” you whisper urgently, pressing the hilt into his palm, “won't listen to you unless your feelings are sharp. You’ll need its emotional boost to tap its whole potential and gain mastery over it. I can’t send you off like this. I won’t. I need you to know you have nothing to worry about.”

He’s silent for a moment, choosing his words. “I’m not worried. Not about you.”

He means it, you can hear it, but he’s still not content with leaving you. It’s not just another man finding you attractive, there’s something in him that’s warring. Not quite fear, something closer to insecurity, confusion…

...and you realize that he hasn’t grappled with feelings like this before.

Then it’s time. Set him up for success.

You’ll do anything to help him, to protect him.

To ensure he uses this weapon with love.

This won’t be difficult.

On the contrary, it’s the easiest decision you’ve ever made.

Placing one hand over his on the saber, and the other on his breastplate right above his heart, you look him calm in the eye and pour all your confidence and affection into the words–

“Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde.”

________________

PART 3: DIN

The way you bravely face challenges. How you deftly handle your weapon. The way you inject a sense of playfulness into his orbit, your entry into his world a lively ignition to what feels like a whole new epoch in his life.

Life before your arrival, and life after. Not many have affected him like this. Changed his mind and heart like this. He can only think of one other.

But this connection is different from the bond he shares with Grogu. This one is unique, it comforts and calms him, makes him feel worthy as a man and a Mandalorian, meets him as an equal and captures his wonder in ways he wouldn’t have anticipated.

You never cease to amaze him. Even now.

He has witnessed Mandalorian courtships out of the periphery of his everyday life, seemingly never taking much notice, believing it was never meant for him.

But he did take note. Secretly. Resigned. He noticed those who grew up together and took their time. He noticed couples that seemed to range from rivals to friends to bonded in the matter of days. There didn’t seem to be a pattern, no guidelines on the right way to find your partner, or how long it might take to declare a joining.

With you… he doesn’t know what you might expect from him. Din doesn’t quite understand your old creed–the rejection of attachments–how tightly you hold it and how much of it you’ve already broken for him.

Because he loves you. In a way that’s perplexing. Your love came to him, and his to you, meeting in the middle of the battlefield. But there was no skirmish, no treaties, just a foregoing of pretense, and open arms.

Simple. Beautiful. Like everything you do.

Perhaps he felt like he was betraying that simplicity–that openness, that trust–when Vanth rounded the doorway wearing you and your new foundling on his arm. It wasn’t as simple as jealousy and a twist of the heart, but the hot flash of possession that flamed behind the beskar, growling from deep within him.

Attachment.

Mine.

While he was grateful and happy to claim you as his own as far as you gave yourself, to protect you and serve you, to meet your affection with his own, he had no right to chain you to him, to claim you so thoroughly that you could not be free in order to flourish. He would never ask you to form an attachment that would fracture your faith.

He didn’t and doesn’t think for a moment that you have any interest in Vanth. Or anyone but himself.

But the flash of emotion was dangerous. Selfish. Not the kind of love you deserve.

And yet, you still accept it. You perceive it because you know him. And you accept it.

And now you’re speaking words that are not only true…they’ve been true from the beginning of this whole damn venture.

“Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde.” You repeat the words, only a little worry sneaking into your voice now because he hasn’t answered you, hasn’t spoken…dank farrik, how long has he been standing here in shock?

How long has he believed he would never receive those words?

All that’s necessary is a repetition.

It’s only words.

But it’s everything.

Which is what he’s always wanted to give you.

So he makes the exchange. Quietly. Simply. Sincerely.

"We are one when together, we are one when parted, we will share all, we will raise warriors."

And he can feel it. He can feel the love and concern you have for him. He can feel your trust. It pushes into him like a warm wave, flowing through all the way back to the beginning. The throughline of that first night he walked you home–I’ll be your armor–to the moment when he outfitted you with some of your own, to now as you use your whole self to send him off with armor more resilient than beskar and a reminder when he wields the saber just who gave him that gift.

Clutching your hand at his chest, he squeezes tightly as the wave washes back through him, gritting his teeth behind the visor, the emotions silently taking their toll.

To everyone else, the armor says he is a stoic warrior, his silence is his strength.

But standing here, now, in front of you, he might as well be unmasked, might as well be naked and screaming; he knows your heart can sense the riot in his, even if you can’t see his face.

There’s quiet on the street. Uli-ah’s stopped playing with the womp rats and stands staring from a distance. Fennec and Vanth are waiting for him at the speeder. And yet, he can’t seem to move, can’t seem to leave you.

So you lay hands on his helmet and pull him closer, gently tapping your forehead against the cold metal. “Go. The sooner you go, the sooner you come back to me.” ________________

They’ve lost a little time, but by the position of the suns, they should still make the palace by nightfall.

“So Fett’s taken over the crime syndicate?”

“Not quite,” Fennec shouts over the roar of her speeder and the rush of the wind. “Boba’s interested in striking a deal with Madame Garza in Mos Espa. Going to set up protections. Territories. Wants to undo some wrongs he’s made in the past.”

That’s noble. He’s an odd man, Fett. Unpredictable. But there’s no reason Din can see for saying it out loud, and so he reserves his words, focuses instead on the shifting sands.

“That was a tense parting with your partner back there,” Fennec pokes, taking advantage of the silence.

“Yeah. Riduurok.”

“Is that serious?”

“From what I’ve been told, it can be.”

Fennec deftly maneuvers the speeder around a small minefield of rocky outcroppings before turning her head over her shoulder and side-eyeing him curiously through the slit in her helmet, “From what you’ve been told–?”

“I don’t know,” Din says, his vocoder barely audible over the slur of the world going by, not caring much who hears it other than himself, “I’ve never heard anyone else actually speak those words. There aren’t usually witnesses at a Mandalorian wedding.” ________________

Everyone hated you. “She’s evil!” they would all scream. Regardless if it was to your face or behind your back you sensed their hate for you radiating off them. I’m not evil. You would tell yourself as a child, but as you grew you started to believe what everyone said, because it wasn’t just kids from the school you went to that said it, but it was that guy who owned the cantina, that Jedi you accidentally bumped into on Yavin 4, and that bounty hunter you had to work with once. Everyone said it. But it all came to a point when you became what everyone said you were. Shot everyone glares, killed bounties that could’ve been kept alive, sliced anyone who dared to argue with you on the spot…. But that all changed when the Mandalorian and his adorable son came into your life of darkness. He pulled you out of the dark shell you hid yourself in and exposed the sad little girl whose childhood was taken away from her, of course in a good way. As time went by you began to trust the Mandalorian with your secrets, even the ones you didn’t want to admit to yourself. Like your childhood, how the sith raised you up until you were 14 years of age, how Darth Maul trained you how to use your sabers, how you ran away from that life and practically raised yourself.  You told him everything but he…. Treat you differently. Like you were some special flower, and if he loosened his grip on you,  you would fly away with the wind. He treated you like you were normal, and you loved it. You felt selfish in a way, wanting to keep him all to yourself but you tried your best not to let it show. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cantina was bustling with life. Tables were crowded with many species with Twi’lek’s and some humans putting on a small performance. You and Din decided to lay low for a while… Omera and Winta gladly offered to take care of Grogu, whilst you two had some alone time. You ordered some soup and Din of course ordered nothing, just enjoying the scenery before him. Everyone was so loud here, on the Crest it was quite quiet, you weren’t used to such surroundings. You felt eyes on you. It made you nervous in a way. Why was everyone glancing at you? Shouldn’t the attention be on the Mandalorian, their rarer than just a typical female woman right? Murmurs and whispers spread like a wildfire. Din could see how you became uncomfortable…. Maybe he’ll just take the soup and go when it came. “She’s a sith!” you overheard someone say. Your chest became heavy, words forming and then dying on your tongue, Din had helped you control your temper and how you acted to certain things but you WERE NOT a sith. At least not anymore, sure you have the force and you still have your lightsaber, but that life wasn’t yours anymore. “She’s going to kill us all!” Another maiden whisper-yells. That’s it.  Within a blink of an eye you’ve got every person in the cantina up against the wall. Your lightsaber was ignited. Angry fumes hissed as red flames danced in the air. Your outstretched hand (which held everyone with the force) closed, forming a fist out of anger. Everyone screamed, terrified. “I am not a sith! Not anymore! Why is it so hard for anyone to understand that!” You shout, any thought of Din leaving your mind. A leather hand wraps around your closed fist and tugs gently at it. Immediately you drop everyone to the floor and swing with your saber at Din’s head. When you realise it was only Din, you stop your saber mid-air. Din could hear the hiss of your saber next to his ears, but he wasn’t afraid, he knew you could sense his fear and that would only upset you more. “Mesh’la it’s ok if they think you're a sith, but giving in to your anger, like then, is only going to scare them more, why do you need everyone to believe you, when I do?” He asks, voice like honey, despite the fact that it was modulated. “I… I’m sorry…. I can’t help it.” you say with a frown, tears threatening to fall any minute. “Come on, let’s get out of here, we can eat in the Crest, yeah?” Din states. “Yeah.” you nod sadly. With that Din collects the soup, which arrived shortly after your outrage. Before he walks out he shrugs at the still shocked customers and says “She’s - uh…. Just passionate, and with that makes his way out. 

He had been understandably shy the first time, but now he moved his lips on yours softly but ardently, his tongue seeking yours within your mouth and his hands massaging the flesh at your hips, a hum of gratification escaping him. The feeling of his kisses was electric, your lips tingling every time he brushed them with his. He moved closer to you up the ramp of the ship and when he pressed his body to yours you could feel the pulse of his erection against your stomach. Without warning he lifted you from the ground and you wrapped your legs around his waist as he moved you backward within the ship, and entered the bedroom where he deposited you gently on the bed and rested his weight on his arms either side of your head, never once breaking his contact with your lips. You snaked your arms around his back, holding him tight to you and with your legs still wrapped around him began to move your hips gently against him, the feeling of his stiffness against your clit incredible even through the layers of clothes between you. He finally broke the kiss and his eyes opened to yours, looking down on you with love and desire. With his hands smoothing your hair, he kissed your chin, your cheeks, your forehead, your nose and finally your lips again. He gave a half smile as his eyes rested on your face. His smile was beautiful too and when you reached up to touch his cheek and it deepened, you caught a glimpse of a dimple. It made you give an answering grin, stupidly drunk on the love of him.

"You...find me pleasing to look at, mesh'la?" he asked haltingly.

"You're beautiful, Din." He smiled even wider and your heart felt like it physically expanded with how loveable you found him. "Were you worried that I wouldn't?"

"I was. I thought maybe I should cut my hair or shave, but I've never bothered about those things before except when they began to annoy me. I didn't know how to make myself nice-looking for you." He broke eye contact, looking shyly down.

"I never cared how you looked under there. I loved you for you. But now I see you, I feel even more fortunate than I did before. You are perfect exactly how you are, and I can't believe you've denied the galaxy all these years." You smiled as you lightly teased him, and moved your hands up to stroke his own hair back from his face. It was so soft and the ends of his curls wound their way around the tips of your fingers a little. As you brushed your fingers through his waves, a spicy and peppery smell wafted down to you, and you breathed in his scent. Din moved his head ever so slightly against your fingers and his eyes closed in pure delight. His cock twitched hard against your clit and the sensation sent a gasp tumbling from your lips.

"That feels amazing," he mumbled with his eyes still closed. "How can something so simple feel so good?" His face seemed exceptionally expressive to your eyes, though whether that was because you were used to the blank sheet of the beskar, or because he had never had to learn to regulate his expressions, or even because of the unique situation you were both currently in, you couldn't tell. Lifting your face to his you kissed him once more, his moustache softly pressing against your upper lip, opening your mouth when you felt the tip of his tongue graze your bottom lip. He slid it over you, grazing your teeth and feeling every part before softly, gently, biting on your bottom lip, increasing the pressure slightly when you sighed with pleasure into his mouth and your fingers curled into his hair more firmly. His cock was throbbing insistently against you now and you wanted to feel him inside you more than anything. As he soothed his gentle nibbles by sucking on your lip, you brought your hands down to the bare skin between where his undershirt had ridden up and his trousers began, and moved his shirt up his body. He took the hint, kneeling up and all but ripping it from him before dropping back to your lips again, as if he would never get enough of the sensations he found there. You dropped your hands to the fastenings at his trousers and undid him, his cock springing free and pressing against you and moved to undo your own fastenings. He broke off kissing you and stroked your cheek instead. "Will you let me do what I need to do tonight?" he asked in a husky voice.

"And what is that?" you asked with a false coyness to your voice whilst raising your eyebrow at him. He ran his hands down your neck and began undoing the buttons of your shirt as he responded with a smiling tone.

"I have waited so long for this, mesh'la. I need to taste every part of you. I need to give you pleasure with my mouth. I need to see the look in your eyes as I make you come with my tongue." He had unbuttoned your shirt and now pulled down the vest you wore underneath, exposing your breasts to him. "I need to do every little thing I have dreamed of all these years. Will you let me?" His mouth hovered just above the peak of your hardened nipple and as his deep brown eyes met yours they were full of mischievous sparkle and coquetry. In response you pushed his head down and as his mouth met your breast you both let out a groan. Your clit was throbbing madly against the fabric of your trousers and you could feel your wetness already soaking your underwear. Din sucked gently at your nipple, pulling off slowly with a small popping sound and then making ever decreasing circles with the tip of his tongue over your areola until he brushed over your nipple again, making your hips buck into him and making him groan when you rubbed yourself against his cock once more. His hand was at your other breast, stroking his thumb in broad strokes over it and kneading the flesh. He felt so good. His tongue on your skin was already overwhelming and the new spicy scent of his hair mingling with his familiar musk and leather smell was making you beautifully dizzy. The shaft of his cock was positioned perfectly between your legs and the friction of it mixed with his attention to your breasts was starting to make you prickle with heat inside. Din kissed a path across your chest to your other nipple, where he began licking and sucking with just as much fervour as he had the first, his fingers coming to play with the glistening nub he had abandoned. Your breath was coming faster, and you grasped a little more firmly at the locks between your fingers as you felt the sparks building within you. He grazed his teeth over your nipple, his tongue lapping it in their wake and suddenly heat flooded you and you pushed your head more firmly into the mattress as you came. Din didn't stop his attentiveness to your nipples and as you came down from your high and looked down you realised he was looking up at you. You giggled slightly, both at the look in his eyes and the sudden sensitive ticklishness of your breasts. He hummed pensively as he kissed your chest one last time and rested his face in one hand while keeping the other on your breast, never taking his eyes off you. You continued to stroke his hair with one hand, and moved the other to trace the outline of the muscles in his arm. You had only just noticed that he had quite a few scars on his chest now, as well as his arms, scattered across the once unblemished expanses of his skin. You put your hand on his shoulder and made to roll him over, intending on making good on your promise to yourself and kissing every single one, but he resisted you. "No, mesh'la. I will not deny myself of you any longer," he growled.

He pressed his lips to yours once more, hungrily this time and with more force and kissed his way sinuously down your body, stopping to gently nip and lap at each nipple again. When he reached the end of the bed he lowered himself down to his knees and pulled your boots and trousers off, massaging your inner thighs with his large, calloused hands. He bit his way softly up the inside of your left thigh until he reached the soaked fabric of your underwear where he sighed and placed a small kiss before he nibbled his way down your right thigh. Your nerves felt like they were being stimulated all at once, like there was fire inside your skin but it was so good. The soft bristles of his moustache tickled your delicate skin in the most delectable way and it awoke a tingling feeling at the base of your spine. He licked small stripes back up your thigh which made you shiver, and as he did so he pulled your underwear down and moved it away.

When he reached your mound he kissed the hair on top and his dark eyes raked your body, full of craving for you. He brought his eyes back to your entrance and hesitated for a moment. You sat up, resting your weight on your elbows the better to see him. He closed his eyes and brought his mouth to you, licking a slow, firm, wide stripe from your slit all the way up to your clit. Your hips moved sinuously with the path of his tongue and you drew in a shaky breath. He looked up at you again, a slight questioning look in his eyes. You nodded eagerly at him to carry on and he focused on what he was doing once more. He lapped at your clit, gently but with increasingly swift strokes and your breathing became panting with how overwhelming the sensation suddenly was. Your head rolled back and your chest heaved with the intense pleasure. This was nothing like you had experienced before and you didn't know whether it was due to your feelings for Din or how focused he was on you and your pleasure alone, but your head was swimming almost instantly. He dropped his tongue and pushed it into you as far as he could, desperate to taste as much of you as possible. As he did so, his nose began to brush over your clit and you found you were approaching your second orgasm almost embarrassingly quickly. He pressed his mouth and tongue even deeper into you, burrowing between your thighs. His nose rubbed itself more insistently against your clit and you heard yourself whine breathlessly as sparks began to fly through your body. He grabbed the sides of your thighs to pull you down as he pushed his face into you and he gently shook his head, his tongue dancing inside you. A white hot flame coursed through you and you cried his name out as you came. You felt him groaning into you as you did and his fingers gripped your thighs. He moved his tongue from inside you back to your clit and moved it in tight circles there, while snaking one hand back up your body to grope at your breast and roll your nipple between his finger and thumb. You came again, harder than the first time and suddenly felt two of his fingers push themselves inside of you as you panted curses to the room. He began lapping at your clit. It was becoming sensitive but the flame inside you wasn't dissipating, in fact it was spreading and coursing hot through your veins. You felt totally untethered, you didn't even know where you were anymore. All you knew was Din's tongue and fingers on your body. He pushed his fingers up and curled them expertly, hitting the spot you yourself could never reach and releasing another wave of pleasure through you. By this time you were keening wordlessly, your fingers had somehow become entangled in Din's hair again without you even realising it. Din began to suckle on your clit and move his tongue over it at the same time, while he added a third finger to you and pinched your nipple a little more harshly. Your body had begun to quiver with over-sensitivity and the overwhelming pleasure he was giving you, your thighs were trembling around his face, yet still the fire within you wasn't quite extinguished. You looked down at him and his soft, beautiful eyes were looking back up at you full of a blazing love. Seeing him between your thighs like that, along with the divine twisting of his tongue over your clit was enough to coax another orgasm from you. Your voice was hoarse with the cries you had unleashed and tears were pricking your eyes. You pulled at his hair gently to halt his ministrations and he stopped, with visible reluctance. You collapsed back on the mattress, breathless and slowly coming back to the world around you. You could feel that you had completely soaked the sheets beneath you with your come.

You felt the mattress sink slightly, and Din came into view above you, looking down at you with unbridled desire. He lay next to you, with his head cradled on his hand again, using his other hand to stroke soft circles on your stomach. You still didn't trust yourself to speak yet, but you hoped he understood how he had made you feel. You wanted him inside of you, to hold him as close as you possibly could. You turned onto your side toward him and leaned up to kiss him. You could taste yourself on his lips and in his mouth, and while he seemed to have wiped his mouth of your juices before he got back on to the bed, his moustache was still wet with you. It was intoxicating to taste yourself like this on him, and despite feeling wrung out you felt another jolt of desire. As you kissed him you ran your hand down his chest and stomach, feeling the scar tissue that littered him there too, until you came to his cock. To your surprise he was only half hard and you gave a tiny frown of puzzlement. You began to run your fingers up and down his length but his body skittered slightly and you stopped. You broke the kiss but didn't move too far from his lips.

"Are you ok?" you murmured and Din gave a short laugh and there was a slight edge of embarrassment to his reply

"I'm fine. You just need to give me a moment." You drew back from him a little and cocked an eyebrow at him. He used his free hand to sit on your hip and rub circles on your belly again. "I erm...couldn't help it. When you came and I tasted you. It was..." his eyes stared into the distance. "It was incredible" he finished. "I lost control." You looked down at him and could see the spatters of himself over his trousers. Smiling, you pushed his shoulder again and this time he let you, so that you were propped up over him.

"It was incredible," you agreed. "I've never...its never been that way before."

"It was good?" he asked, almost shyly.

"Couldn't you tell?!" you joked. "It was amazing, you're amazing. And I'm so lucky to have you with me again." As you spoke, you leaned down and kissed him again, that same electrical thrill passing through your lips when they touched his. When you broke the kiss you began to kiss over the rest of his face - the greying stubble at his cheeks, the crease between his eyes, all the way down the curve of his nose. You even kissed the sides of his moustache before bringing your lips back to his where he opened his mouth hungrily to receive you. Your hand traced a path over the hardened muscle of his chest and stomach, stroking the trail of hair that led down from his belly button. It was slightly sticky with his cum you noticed, and you used two fingers to track some of it down to the base of his cock and down his shaft. He sighed a breathy little moan into your mouth as you took him in your hand and began to slowly pump him up and down. You kissed a path from his lips, along the scruff of his jawline, to his ear where you nibbled his lobe gently, eliciting another moan from his mouth, and a throb from his cock. "I want you in my mouth, Din," you whispered in to his ear. "I want to taste you," You nuzzled his stubble before drawing yourself up again. As you trailed your tongue down his neck and chest, you wondered how he would look when he came and the anticipation made you shiver and your clit twinge. You left the bed and knelt in front of him as you continued to pump him. Now you also rolled your tongue in swirls around his tip before slowly enveloping the head of his cock with your mouth and gently sucking your way down. He rolled his hips up slightly to meet you and you could taste the saltiness of him in your mouth. You set a slow and methodical pace, not wanting to overwhelm him so soon after he had already come, but also wanting to tease him slightly. You looked up toward his face, his eyes were still closed and he wore an expression of pure bliss. Smiling around his cock, you increased your pace slightly, taking him deeper and feeling as you did so that the tip of him was brushing against the back of your throat. You could feel him begin to expand with every movement you made down his shaft and just as you felt the tip of him begin to throb, he stopped you with a hand to your face. You raised your head from him questioningly and he caught your hand and pulled you gently back up and on to the bed.

"I need to be inside you, mesh'la," he whispered as he kicked his boots off and pulled the last of his clothes away. He pulled your leg across his waist to straddle him, resting his big hands on your thighs, and you positioned him against you and slid down him slowly, watching the different expressions flit across his face. It was a magnificent picture. His eyes were closed and the little furrow above his eyes was deeply creased with his slight frown. His head was somewhat tilted back and pressed into the mattress. His mouth had fallen open slightly, and was a little downturned, and his breaths were coming faster. You had made his hair even messier when you had clutched at it, and parts of it were quite wild around his head. You felt every inch of him along your walls and as you settled on him fully, you put your hands on his chest to brace yourself. You tensed around him, squeezing him slightly and he gave a little groan, the noise sparking furious arousal within you. Rolling your hips, your own breaths began to come a little faster and a little shorter. His hands ran over your thighs, up your belly, over your breasts and back, as if he were trying to touch every inch of you. His fingers left trails of fire in their wake and you moved a little faster on him, chasing the sparks that were beginning to light in your abdomen. He sucked on his finger and used it to flick across your nipple, the thumb of his other hand coming down to rub your clit as you felt his cock beginning to thicken once more inside of you. Feeling the tendrils of pleasure coursing through you, you felt like you wanted him even closer. You moved your hands to his own and took them, pulling him upwards into a sitting position where he wrapped one arm tightly around your back, bracing himself with the other. From this position he could roll his hips in tandem with yours, hitting you deeply inside, your clit rubbing against his pelvis. You wrapped your arms around his broad shoulders and ghosted your nose down his own until your lips came together, the searing pleasure building at your core mixing with the tingling of your lips and the feel of his tongue against your own. His kisses were intense, he nipped at your bottom lip, causing you to tense more at your core as the mild strands of pain mixed with your intense gratification. Your nipples grazed against his chest and the fire ignited within you. As the waves of your pleasure washed over you, he broke the kiss to look at you and you gazed into the tenderness and beauty of his eyes as you came undone, tensing and fluttering around him as you whispered his name breathlessly. He increased the pace of his own thrusting, his brow furrowed in concentration, his mouth open and breathing heavily, and you felt a second, smaller stirring emerge in you as his cock throbbed deep inside you with his own pulsating release, and his eyes shone with ecstasy and love as he poured himself into you. You leaned your head into his shoulder and kissed his neck as he came down from his high, his skin flushed and the tendons standing stark. He brought his other arm around you, holding you as tight to him as he could without hurting you. Raising your head to him once more, you touched his forehead with your own and you could see his beautiful smile shining up at you.

"You know, all those times I touched my helmet to your forehead I was kissing you?" he said in a low and shaky voice, still breathless with exertion. "I don't know why it feels important for you to know that right now, but it does." As he was speaking, your own smile had become wider and your heart gave a little quiver within you. You had wondered why he did that. You had imagined it was just to get as close to you as he could, but the real reason was even better. "And I want to teach you some more Mando'a," he offered in hushed tones. "Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum." You repeated the phrase back to him thoughtfully, as he continued to smile broadly in between peppering your cheeks and nose with small kisses.

"Well 'Kar'tayl' sounds a little like 'kar'ta' which is 'heart', 'Ni' is 'I' and 'gar' is 'your', but I don't know the other word at all. What does it mean?"

"The literal translation is "I know you forever", but it means "I love you"." He kissed you deeply, not giving you a chance to reply to him. "I do, cyar'ika. I love you too."

You had no idea how long you sat there, intertwined with each other. It didn't matter. It was the happiest you had ever been. Eventually, Din lay back and you followed him down, still straddling him with his cock inside you, your cheek resting on his shoulder and your face turned to him. He seemed to think that a moment when his lips weren't touching you was a moment wasted and right now, you were inclined to agree. He hardened again while still within you, as he stroked your skin and kneaded your flesh and then he flipped you over so he was on top of you, holding you around your behind and up to him by your hips, so he could drive into you with the intensity that he wanted. And he wanted you. As gentle as he had been before, now he was powerful and pounding, fucking into you with all the appetite of the time you had spent apart. Your nails left red marks down his thighs as you came and he had only been three strokes behind you before he let go and you felt the powerful spray of him inside you as he collapsed, sweating on your chest, and you stroked the hair away from his face. He gave you barely any time to recover before he took himself from you, the sight of you mingled on his cock seeming to gratify him even further. He knelt between your legs again and lapped at you, tasting the mingling of your release and using his tongue and hands to bring you to orgasm yet again, your body convulsing and your voice becoming hoarse with the devastating force of it. As he stood, you saw he was hard again and pleasuring himself. Instead you shakily moved to the edge of the bed and took him in your mouth, pushing him in as far back as he would go in order to see his eyes widen in surprise and delight and desire. When he came down your throat, you realised you were somehow aroused and wet yet again. And so the night progressed back and forth, the giving and receiving of pleasure until you were both exhausted, yet blissful. As he gathered you in his arms and you rested your head on his chest you had whispered to him.

"Welcome home, kar'ta."

You awoke slightly disoriented. Your room seemed slightly unfamiliar somehow and as you came to you realised it was because you were on the wrong side of the bed. Din was behind and curled around you, tiny snores emanating from him and one of his arms casually draped over you. You sighed with deepest contentment. This was how it was going to be. Forever. You were never letting him go again. A tiny prickling of your conscience asked "What about Luke and the Order? Giving up on them so soon?" You ignored the pang and instead gently moved Din's arm from around you. He didn't stir. Last night seemed to have taken its toll. You smirked to yourself as you felt the delicious soreness and throbbing of your pussy. You weren't done yet. Moving cautiously and quietly, you slipped beneath the bedclothes. Taking Din's soft cock in your mouth, you sucked insistently on it, moving back and forth over his length, a little longer each time as he slowly unfurled into your mouth. You pushed the coverlet up to see if he was awake. He was not, but his breathing was slightly shallower and the little crease between his eyes was deeper. Smiling to yourself you carried on, holding his thigh gently and using it to brace yourself to move up and down his shaft, which was becoming stiffer and more lengthy with every passing moment. All at once you heard a soft groaning noise and a hand came down to stroke your hair with fingers made clumsy by sleep. His cock pulsated in your mouth as his mind started to catch up with his body and you worked your mouth slowly but firmly all the way down him, your tongue massaging the veins of his underside and your hand coming around to cup and gently handle him until you felt him hit the back of your throat. You dipped your head a little more and took him further, your muscles contracting around him as you gagged. You heard him moan aloud then and felt the cool air on your head as he lifted the blanket from you. You looked up at him with wide eyes, continuing to move shallowly as you swallowed the head of his cock. "F-fuuuck, mesh'la. I can't....oh maker....oh fuck," he whispered in a strangled voice as he took in the sight. You felt him pulsate again and the force of it made you choke around his girth. You were slick between the thighs yourself. The feel of him stretching your mouth and the power you had to make him mewl for you was an intoxicating mix. You redoubled your efforts, pulling him slowly out of you and looking him in the eye as you ran your tongue over his tip, then plunging him back in as far as you could. His hips began to roll in time with you and you could feel he was close by the thickening of his length and the way he wound your hair tight around his fingers. You ran your fingernails firmly down his back, over his rear and down his thigh and that was enough. Suddenly he let out a choked moan and you ran your fingers back to cradle him again, feeling him tense and draw up into himself as his cum pumped down your throat. You lifted yourself off him as he was coming, so that as the last spurts were leaving him, you had his head in your mouth and were swirling your tongue over him, feeling him dribble on to you. He was breathless and sweating as you sucked him clean and he disentangled himself from your hair and helped you move back up the bed to face him. "Maker, what did I do to deserve you?" he whispered, his chest still rising and falling heavily as he tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear and went to kiss your nose. You caught the kiss on your lips and opened your mouth to him. Before last night he had never tasted himself in your mouth, but he seemed to enjoy it. He sighed heavily as he licked into your mouth, massaging your tongue with his own and gently sucking your bottom lip.

"Morning," you murmured against his lips. "Do you want me to make some caf? I've got some-" By way of reply, Din held on to your waist and lifted you on to him as he turned on his back so you were straddling his stomach.

"Not caf," he said, a wicked gleam in his eye. "Something else." He raised you up so your weight was on your knees then shuffled down the bed a little, giving your rear a gentle smack to get you moving up him. You took the hint and came to rest with your thighs either side of his head.

"I don't want to suffocate you," you said jokily. "So-" Apparently you weren't going to be allowed to finish sentences today. Din instantly raised his head and began to feast on you like a starving man. The shock of having him start without warning made you give a little exclamation and he hummed into you with delight as he tasted you. He brought your clit into his mouth and suckled on it while mumbling against you in stunted bursts. "Want...to...suffocate.....drown....me....in....you." The combination of the rough and fast way his tongue was moving over your clit, mixed with his desire to feel even more of you made you tremble. He held on to your hips as you relaxed down on him, coming to rest with his tongue moving a stripe up and down between your clit and your pussy, his moustache tickling you and the vibration of his pleasured groans moving through you. He had strayed here many times last night, as if he kept wanting to remind himself how you tasted. You had not complained. For someone who had never used his mouth in this way, he certainly seemed to know what he was doing, and the enthusiasm with which he applied himself to his heavenly task added to your pleasure. Even so, he seemed to have discovered even more appetite for you this morning and he sucked and licked at you with a staggering intensity, and was groaning and muttering to himself as your core began to tighten and coil within you. You couldn't hear most of what he said, just jumbled phrases about how sweet you tasted and how much he loved being between your legs. He shook his face while buried in you and you couldn't help it, you lifted up a little from him, the pleasure of his nose bumping your clit and his tongue roving over you briefly becoming too overwhelming, but he wrapped his big arms around your hips and held you down on him so you couldn't move yourself away from his kisses upon you. You could feel your clit throbbing and his face becoming wetter beneath you, the sound of him lapping and sucking what was leaking from you obscenely loud. He let your hips go and tapped at your thigh to signal you to move from his face. Nervous that you were hurting him, you moved up, but he grabbed the meat of your thigh to slow you. Instead he moved his mouth back on to your clit, marking tiny circles around it with his tongue while he pushed two fingers inside of you, making you cry aloud with this blissful invasion. He pumped his fingers in and out of you a few times and you could feel the coil within you grow tighter and hotter. But then he took them from you and you looked down at his eyes beneath you, with a little involuntary whine at your abandonment. He swapped hands and now put three fingers inside, resuming his pumping as before. You felt him start to shake slightly beneath you and turned your head to look behind you, where you were greeted with the delicious sight of him using your slick to stroke himself. He must have been hard again almost as soon as you sat on his face, the top of his cock was already red and glistening and he was pumping himself furiously in time to what he was doing to you. You turned back to look at his eyes once more and the expression of mingled lust and mischief was too much. As his fingers curled up inside you, you screamed aloud - a mix of his name and breathy curses as you clamped down around his fingers and you flooded his face. He continued to suck at your clit, his breaths deep and loud now and you pushed through to another orgasm with a moaning wail. Now your hips were rolling, you were riding his face with your head thrown back in pure ecstasy and you couldn't tell where one peak ended and another began, it all felt glorious. You felt his shaking subside slightly and then jets of his hot cum were flung up your back, ropes and ropes of them, as he growled the muffled vocalisations of his release into you and the feel of him spattering across your skin, along with his licking of you pushed you through one final time, your cries now not much more than choked whimpers and your skin tingling all over.

Thighs shaking, you lifted yourself from him and moved to one side, kneeling beside him. He looked spectacular. His morning hair was all over the place anyway, but it was sticking up like mad with the friction from the pillow and the force of him shaking his face in your pussy. He was drenched from nose to chin in your wetness, and even as he wiped it from his face and licked his palm clean, you could see lingering wetness in his facial hair. His smile was as wide as you had ever seen and his eyes glittered darkly with both satiety and the undertones of desire again. "You look amazing, mesh'la," he grinned, echoing your thoughts. You were pretty sure you were covered in sweat and possibly spit and definitely cum and you could see some of your own hair stuck out at mad angles in the periphery of your vision.

"So do you," you giggled at him as you ran your fingers through his hair, in a futile attempt to make it lie flatter. He massaged your thigh gently with his hand.

"When we lived here before, we obviously never tried this but uh...do you think we could both fit in the shower? You eyed him with comical wariness.

"You ready to go again Djarin?! I don't even think my legs will work right now, let alone anything else!"

"I can always carry you In there," he said cocking an eyebrow at you and smirking. "Seriously, its not so much that, I just want to experience all the things I never got to with you before. Showers and sharing a meal properly and...well all the things we've just been doing. Everything. All of it."

Turned out you could just about fit the two of you in the shower, if you didn't close the door. Din had cleaned himself off your back and massaged your weary muscles after he did so, the tension that had built in you over the past few months streaming out of you and washing away with the water. He hadn't been able to resist massaging your breasts as well, pretending he was merely soaping them before trailing your nipples across his palms and delighting in the moans he elicited from you and the way you leaned back against his broad chest. Before he had been able to go any further, you had stopped him. Ever since you had stroked your fingers through his hair, there was something you had wanted to do. You told him to turn around and then had reached up to massage his scalp under the warmth of the cascading water. He had mirrored your earlier actions, moaning and leaning back against you to allow you better access to his head. You had washed his hair, the lather of the soap running down the taut skin of his neck and back, running down his buttocks and legs and you had completely understood his earlier urges when you found yourself reaching around to caress him. His cock had been stiff and ready and he made no attempt to stop you as you stroked him to his release, holding him tight against you with your breasts pushed against his back as he shuddered and moaned your name as he came in your hand. As he got to his knees and took your nipple in his mouth, his fingers finding your clit and rubbing your slick all over, you found yourself briefly wondering what time it was outside, and if you would ever leave the ship again. Then you had looked down into his eyes as his face was nestled into your breasts and all other thoughts apart from him had fled.

By the time you eventually got dressed and emerged onto the beach, it was late afternoon and the heat of the sun had warmed the air and sand very pleasantly. The desire to have some food had finally overwhelmed everything else and Din had started a fire on the beach to allow you to cook a haunch of spiced meat that you had bought from the marketplace. In the meantime you set up a small camp on the beach, moving some crates and blankets outside to use as makeshift chairs. You shared some mixed fruits and berries while you waited for your meal to cook, and he seemed to delight in the taste of them, far more than you ever remembered him doing so before.

Your curiosity got the better of you as you asked, "Does it feel okay? To be without the helmet?" His face had become pensive and he had chewed more slowly as he considered his answer.

"It does and it doesn't. When I'm with you, that's all that matters to me," he smiled blissfully as he said this, but then his smile faded slightly as he continued. "When I think about the real world, outside of here...I don't know. According to my Creed I am no longer Mandalorian. But I still feel the same as I did before, just a little more guilty. And when I met Bo-Katan and the others - according to my Creed, they are not Mandalorian either. But they are warriors. They have fought for Mandalore in a way that I never have. As far as I can see, they adhere to the Resol'nare. Who am I to say that they are not Mandalorian because they do not cover their faces, especially now I have uncovered mine." He sighed. "Bo-Katan once called the Watch a cult. Religious zealots. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps it is time for me to rethink who I am." By this time he was staring, unseeing, into the flames of the fire. You touched his arm gently to bring him back to the moment.

"I understand. Perhaps more completely than you know." He turned to you in puzzlement. "We are more alike than we seem at first. The old Order fell because it was too rigid, too prideful, too full of pomp and not enough of real life. Luke and I, what we are trying to build is different. We want to make our students understand that our choices are important, more than the rituals you follow or the words you say. If you feel you are still Mandalorian and you make choices that align yourself with that, could that be enough for you?" He pondered again a moment, the clouds of his chocolate curls ruffling in the breeze as his dark eyes looked far out to the ocean.

"I don't know," he said finally. "But you are not the first person I have shown my face to. There was a moment, almost a year ago where I was very badly injured. A droid saved me." He laughed aloud at your incredulous look. "Yes, I let a droid get that close. And more, I let it take my helmet off. It rationalised to me that it was not a living thing, and that without its intervention I would die. And so I could live with it. Then when Grogu was kidnapped by Moff Gideon and I was trying to get him back, not only did I have to wear the armour of one of their chakaar troopers, but I had to remove even that covering in order to get what I needed. I was in a room full of Imps, and with one man that I now consider at least somewhat honourable. The Imps who saw me are dead. The man swore he would never say anything. I justified what I did to myself. I had to protect my child. But the shame of it." He shook his head. You linked your arm with his and squeezed his hand, silently encouraging him to go on. "Then, when the Jedi took him..." He faltered, then shuffled closer to you on the crates and put his head on your shoulder. You kissed his head, drinking in the peppery scent of his hair and stroked his arm, waiting for him to continue. When he did so, he was quiet but his tone was clear and strong. "Grogu wanted to see my face. I let him. By that time, that was the only justification I needed. Maybe I'd been moving away from my Creed for longer than I had thought. He touched my face. He was the first being to do so since the Watch first rescued me." A slightly defensive note crept into his voice. "I didn't feel bad about it. Not nearly as bad as I should. There was guilt but little else." He raised his head to look at you and he stroked your cheek. "It's partly why I was so ready to show you myself, mesh'la. That and..." He stopped again and there was a strange look in his eyes, part apprehension and part eagerness. He seemed to come to a decision and he kissed you on the forehead as he murmured, "Wait here for a moment." He took his arm from yours and went back into the dark interior of the ship.

The sun was low in the sky now and the light flowed golden and luxuriant and syrupy across the ripples of the ocean, leaving glittering trails in its wake. The air was still warm and the light breeze brought the smell of the roasted meat and spices mixed with the scent of the wood you were burning to your nose. You looked out across the water and wondered what Din had planned. You were glad he was opening up to you about his Creed and his changing relationship to it, and that you had been able to have at least a vague understanding of what it was like to have the pillars of what you believed swept out from underneath you, though of course you could never truly understand what he was specifically going through. As someone who had fought to balance what they believed to be right with the reality of their daily life, you empathised with his struggle and hoped you could help him through the days to come.

Din emerged from the ship with his canvas bag and moved to sit with you. The sun was behind his head again, giving him a halo of chestnut around his dark curls. He took your hands in his and looked deeply into your eyes. "Mesh'la I-" he stopped abruptly and hesitated, his eyes searching your face for...what? You couldn't tell. You squeezed his hands in encouragement and smiled at him. He swallowed and continued. "I don't really know how to ask this. I never rehearsed any kind of speech and our backgrounds are so different and I don't even know if this is something you can or want to do." Your confusion must have shown on your face because he sighed and shifted in his seat. "Let's go back to the start," he said. "Do you remember that first night on Naboo?"

You smiled at the memory of the chase through the narrow streets and the fierce tenderness of his lovemaking that night. "Of course. That was one of the best nights of my life."

"It was the best night of mine," he agreed. "Until last night," he added, with a degree of satisfaction. "That night, I had meant to take my helmet off with you. To be with you fully. And when the time came I could not make myself do it. I thought I was ready, but I was too much of a coward to go through with it. And...I wanted to give you this." He brought a small knife sheath made from soft leather from his bag. You looked at him curiously as you took it. When you opened it, the beauty of the weapon inside astounded you. The handle was fashioned in metal, but it was not like anything you had ever seen. It was a dull silver but when you moved it under the light, shades of greens and blues and purples flashed at you. it looked like the smooth plumage of a bird and as you held it in your hand, it seemed to fit as if it had always meant to be there. The blade was pure beskar, you could see that at a glance. The rippling silver added to the elegance of the weapon overall and you felt overwhelmed by both the beauty of the gift and that he had kept it these long years to give to you, as well as the care he must have taken to maintain it for all that time. There must have been times when he had been desperate for credits and something like this would make enough to tide anyone over for a while. You looked at him in astonishment and gratitude.

"Din, I-. This is so beautiful. Thank you so much. I can't believe you kept this for me all these years."

"No," he was saying as he shook his head. "This isn't just a gift. I want it to be a symbol between us. A promise." He took your face in his hand and brushed his thumb over your cheek, the flames of the fire dancing in the darkness of his eyes. "I never want us to be parted again, cyar'ika. I could not bear it. And I want to ask you to be my riduur." Your eyes widened and your mouth fell open in shock. He was proposing to you. With a blade. It seemed like such a typically Mandalorian thing, even though this particular situation was unprecedented in so many ways. Had there ever been a marriage between a Mandalorian and a Jedi? Could Jedi even marry now that you were one of the ones making the rules? Your mind was racing and you forced your breath and your thoughts to slow. None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was the man in front of you. You wanted him, forever. You wanted him as your riduur. A smile slowly spread across your shocked expression, and you saw the joy and relief in his eyes. Had he actually thought you would say no? You would have said yes to him that night on Naboo, as you were saying yes now, and you told him as much. You held his face and ran your thumb over the scrub of his beard.

"I want you. For always. Ni...ka...kar'tayl gar...darasuum." He smiled his beautiful dimpled smile at your halting recollection of the Mando'a and gathered you into his arms, your forehead resting against his cheek and his hand stroking your hair.

"I love you too, cyar'ika."

That night you had lost yourselves in each other. It was simplicity itself, and yet the intensity with which you connected was different from how you had ever felt before. Din was so gentle and so slow, his calloused fingers and soft lips brushing lightly over every inch of your skin, his tongue on you and in you. When he pushed himself inside you, his eyes never left yours and they were filled with desire and devotion. Every roll of his hips was like an affirmation of love, every kiss a promise that he would be forever by your side and when you came, you came together, your bodies and voices and souls mingling in the night.

The next few days had a beautiful and hazy dream-like quality to them. Everything seemed touched with colour and light, and laughter and love fell easily from your eyes and the lips of you both. The galaxy and all its ugliness and obligations fell away from you. Nothing existed except the two of you and the space you shared. It couldn't last. It never does. You had been lazing on the beach, watching the waves roll in contentedly. Din was sitting with his back to the crates and you were in between his legs and leaning back on to his broad chest, his arms around your waist and the back of your head resting on his shoulder. He spoke hesitantly next to your ear.

"I hate to bring this up. I mean, I really hate to bring this up. But don't we need to think about leaving here? For the food situation if nothing else." You sighed. You had been thinking the same thing, but speaking it made it real.

"We can live off fish," you said, semi jokingly. "Or whatever else they have in that sea. I can drink recycled water forever, no matter how disgusting it eventually tastes. I don't know about you, but I'd say we have everything we need right here." You allowed a smile and a gently sarcastic tone to enter your voice.

"Mmmm," he hummed, kissing the side of your face. "I'd agree, except there's a few other things we need that we need to go offworld for."

"Grogu," you affirmed. "I have so many questions about him. He is your child and part of your clan, so does that mean he is Mandalorian now? When we marry, then am I part of that clan too? Would I be his mother? How will his identity as a Jedi sit with his identity as Mandalorian? Is he-" You stopped your onslaught at the feeling of Din's chest vibrating with soft laughter at your back, and he held you even tighter to him.

"Maker, mesh'la, your mind - I swear it runs faster than a kaadu with its shebs alight. I don't even know the answers to half of these questions. We do need to talk about Grogu, yes. But before that I want us to be wed. The Mandalorian custom is simple. Four lines of Mando'a that we speak together. That is all. But I wondered for you...if there were any customs you adhere to that you want to include too? It's why I gave you the knife. There is no such thing as betrothal for Mandalorians. But I understand that for many cultures it is the done thing to give a token. I just wanted to give you something more practical than jewellery." You smiled broadly at that last sentence and turned to Din to capture his lips with yours. It was exactly the sort of thing he would do. As your lips parted you sighed sadly and looked back out over the rippling waves.

"I don't know the particular customs of where I came from. I came to the Temple when I was two years old. I don't remember my life beforehand. I could look them up, but I don't think they would mean as much to me as the Mandalorian way of doing things. Can I even join in your customs as a non-Mandalorian? Do I have to become Mandalorian somehow before we marry, is there some ritual or-" Your words were interrupted by Din turning your face to his and kissing you once more.

"You're doing it again," he teased.

"I know," you sighed. "Sorry. Its just I can't think of an incidence when a Mandalorian married a Jedi. You know we're supposed to hate each other, right? Given our history?"

"Nope. Don't know, don't care. As long as you're with me."

"Are you sure? Its a great story, its got Sith Lords and exploding planets and lots of different Mand'alors involved. It was one of my favourite things to read about in the Archives."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Seriously. Maybe if I have trouble sleeping one night you can tell me then," he teased.

"Din, we both know that if you have trouble sleeping then talking is going to be the last thing we do to fix it!" You smiled as you felt his cock stir a little at your back at your words. "But seriously..." you hesitated. "Jedi aren't supposed to marry. We were actively told not to marry when the old Order was around. And now...now I don't know. I told you that Luke and I are trying to build a new way of doing things. Maybe marriage could be a part of that." You sighed. "I need to talk with Luke about all of this. It's possible that we will need to visit the Academy. But I'm worried about bringing you there. Grogu's attachments are dangerous for him and for all of us. If he sees you again so soon after being parted from you, would it be too much for him?" You turned back to Din. "Or for you, for that matter?" He kissed your nose.

"Don't worry about me mesh'la. As long as I have you by my side, I can face anything." When he spoke again, his voice had an edge of steel. "You know I would never let anything happen to Grogu. If you feel he would be...harmed by my presence, then I will not come with you to the Academy. I would rather not see him than have him be put in any danger." You nodded. Then a slow smile crept across your face.

"Although I can't wait to see the two of you together. I can't imagine you as a father." Din chuckled a little and pressed a kiss to your neck.

"It didn't come naturally to me. But I love him dearly and would do anything for him. I think that's enough, for now at least." You sighed again. The feeling of your carefree days was slipping from your mind and your responsibilities were reasserting themselves.

"I'll contact Luke. We'll see what he says." You said quietly. "If I have to leave the Order, then that's what I'll do." Din took his arms from around you and gently manoeuvred you so you were turned more fully toward him.

"I do not ask you to give up your Code and your way of life for me. I understand how it would feel if someone asked me to do that for them. I know we are joined, mesh'la, in mind and body and spirit. I do not need the ritual to make it true."

"But you asked me, so its important to you. And I want to. It's important to me. And if it means choosing then I choose you, Din." He gazed into your eyes then, his brow slightly furrowed, and you saw a sort of awed look emerge. "What is it?" you asked.

"There have not been many times in my life when I have been chosen for me. I am chosen by others for my skills and abilities as a hunter or a warrior. But so few people look beyond the beskar and choose the man within. It makes me feel...strange. But a good kind of strange." His smile spread over his face like the sunrise, his dimple winking at you. You took his face in your hands and kissed him deeply. Your beautiful Mandalorian.

"I'll go and send the message now," you sighed, reluctantly removing yourself from Din's embrace. "I don't know how long it will take to receive a reply." The Academy was not a million light years away from your current position but due to the necessity of secrecy, you would have to bounce the message over several networks to try to mask its point of origin as far as possible. You could try to contact Luke through the Force but your abilities with telepathy had proven to be patchy at best and you suspected it would be impossible to reach him over such a distance. As you climbed the ladder to the cockpit, you found that you still weren't entirely sure what you were going to say. The message would need to be concise but also you couldn't make too many specific references in case it was intercepted. You took your courage in both hands and breathed deeply to calm yourself as you set up to record.

"Luke, I have found the one I sought. He is the same person that you met when you took the child. Things have changed and I need to speak with you about many matters. I want to bring him along when I return, but I don't want the child's progress interrupted. Tell me what you believe is the best course. I can be with you within a week. I hope you are all well." Your tone and words sounded stilted and strange to your own ears, but you knew Luke would understand the need for a certain amount of discretion. As you sent the communication out among the stars, you found yourself warming to the idea of Din striding around the Academy with Grogu cooing in his arms. A bizarre, but not disagreeable clashing of your worlds.

That night as you lay with your arms encircling Din from behind, you dreamed for the first time in a very long time. Your robes were long and made of the blackness of space, stars shining within the void surrounding you. The landscape was barren, dark, cursed and you moved through it like a shadow. Abruptly, the ground began to shake and open up in front of you, a colossal river of bubbling, oozing lava was now barring your path. Turning aside from it, your way was barred by a solid and immovable figure garbed in a suit of beskar that was transformed into half obsidian, half pure inferno by the reflection of the lava. You moved one way, the figure mirrored you. You moved the other and still he kept pace. You stepped backward and he stepped forward. Suddenly you could see a bridge over the river of fire. Tiny, rickety, crumbling. You moved backward over it and still the figure came for you. It was too unsound to take the weight of you both and you tumbled, falling into the abyss. You jerked and awoke to a complete blackness, your heart pounding and your mouth dry. Sitting up, the faint grey outline of a doorway began to take hazy shape in front of you. You had to get out of here. You didn't know why, could only feel the panicky certainty that you had to escape. Now. Struggling to your feet, you could hear blaster fire coming closer to your position. As you approached the door, you tripped and almost fell over. It was the body of a woman, her eyes staring sightlessly directly at you, her body riddled with blaster bolt burns. She had died to protect you and now you had to leave her here. As you moved your attention back to the exit, a figure filled it. A shape of undulating black smoke and red light, his breath hollow and rasping through his helmet, and as his hand reached out and your throat began to close you screamed...

And awoke fully to your room, struggling to move to a sitting position. Your piercing scream was translated to a feeble whimper in the real world, your heart pounding fit to burst, breathing hard, and sweat pouring from you. Feeling a hand creep up on your shoulder, you wrenched away and turned toward the intrusion, ready to fight for your life. It took a second for you to recognise Din, his hair tousled with sleep, his face wearing an expression of concern and alarm. "It's me, its ok, it's just me," he murmured to you. Relief flooded you, that it was just a dream, that he was here, that you hadn't hurt him in your nightmares. He shuffled closer to you and you threw your arms around him to hold him close. He stroked your hair and whispered soothing words. "It was just a dream. I'm here. You're ok." The tendrils of panic and sorrow that the dream had awoken in you would not be so easily dismissed but you wanted to try. You kissed a frantic path from his neck to his jaw to his lips, pressing yourself against him with feverish desire. He took your face in his hands and broke apart from your lips, resting his forehead against yours. "You know I always want you, mesh'la. I just need to know you're ok."

"I will be," you whispered. "This will help." He resumed kissing you, passionately and deeply as you reached between you for his cock, which was already stirring. He moaned into your mouth as you made contact with him, his hips moving toward you instinctively to seek more of your touch. His hands strayed to your front, massaging and squeezing your breasts and running the pads of his thumbs over your nipples until they were hard and aching. You felt your clit begin to throb between your legs and your slick start to seep from you. Pushing him back on to the bed, you straddled him and pushed yourself down on his now full length with an exhalation of pleasure and slight burning at the stretch of him within your walls, taking delight in the way he arched his back and neck in the feel of you holding him so tightly. As you reached his base, you leaned forward to kiss him intensely, your hands stroking his face and running through his hair. "Don't be gentle," you murmured against his lips and you were rewarded with a twitch of his cock inside of you. You moved halfway to sitting, bracing your hands against the tautness of his chest and beginning to roll your hips, riding him with a smooth and steady pace. Every time you moved off and on the base of his cock, you could feel him open you up a little more, even as he widened within you. His head was hitting and then sliding over your spot with every movement and it wasn't long before it awoke the glimmering of release within you. He leant up himself. taking your nipple in his mouth and circling his tongue all around it before sucking on it hard and then returning to flick it with the tip. He gave the same treatment to the other breast before laying back down and resuming rubbing his thumbs over them and rolling them between his fingers, this time with his saliva to lubricate them. You sat up more fully, and whined at the feeling of him filling you more completely as you increased your pace on him, the joyous sparks within you flying through your body and mind. You moved his hands slowly down your body from your breasts to your hips and he understood immediately, placing his feet flat on the mattress, bracing himself against it and then thrusting hard into you, in time with your own movements. Your eyes closed and your head threw back with the feeling of him pounding into your spot, again and again. Picking up where his hands had left off, you pinched your nipples between your thumb and forefinger and felt his large thumb snake down to the knot between your legs, swiping over it with the perfect friction and intensity. You could feel that his own release was close, his cock was thickening inside you deliciously, making his thrusts ever more intense and complete. He gave a strangled gasp and you looked down to see a blossom of sweat breaking out across his chest and his eyes feasting on where your bodies met, the sight of him plunging into you while he played with your clit starting to make him lose his control. It was enough to make you lose yours and you moaned loudly, wordlessly as you felt yourself tense around him, pulsating around his shaft as he too let go and spilled himself inside you with a low grunt of pleasure and exertion. You collapsed breathlessly on his chest briefly, before lifting yourself off and dropping down on your front by his side, his seed leaking hotly from you on to your thighs, and making you shiver as it slid around your sensitive clit. He moved you on to your side, so that his arm was around you and your head lay on his chest and he kissed the top of your head. Your hand drew lazy circles on his stomach as you fell back into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

Lai slipped in from time to time to make sure Jon was taking his medications and to offer them tea and food. Versa had spotted the small child peeking in the door watching them a few times, but Lai had shoo’ed her back out when she made her exit.

“So, you’re a dad,” Versa said, sipping her tea.

“Yeah. She’s only three, but she’s got a lot of her namesake in her.” Versa looked at him puzzled for a moment before he chuckled. “She’s named Versa. For the aunt I wasn’t sure she’d ever get to meet.”

Versa’s cheeks flushed and her eyes fell to her lap. I have a niece. And we have the same name. Cataloging information like that felt strange in her mind, but with the amount she was trying to absorb, it felt like the only way to keep herself from being overwhelmed. Jon watched her over the edge of his cup as he took another sip before setting it on the nightstand and folding his hands across his chest.

“I hear you have a friend with you. A Mandalorian if the beskar is any indication.”

She looked at him. “You already know who it is, Jon.”

“He stuck with the Mandalorians then.”

“Yeah. I tried to get him to go with me when I left, but he was determined to stay. I couldn’t change his mind.”

Jon cocked his head. “See, that surprises me. He followed you everywhere when you were kids. You two were practically joined at the hip.”

Versa stared into her mug and gave a small shrug. “He had his path, and I had mine.”

He smirked at her. “I’m glad you two found each other again. Last I’d heard, you were working alone.”

“I was. Actually, he was given the bounty for me by the guy that I got in deep shit with, and he was the one who brought me in.”

Jon tipped his head back and laughed loudly, and Versa nudged his feet next to her. “What?”

Her brother grinned at her. “Of course he caught you. He’s been chasing you since you were both kids. You were inseparable, and he was in love with you.”

Versa’s cheeks flushed again, a deeper shade of red now. Jon leaned forward. “I see the feeling was mutual. Or perhaps still is.”

She gave him a light shove. “We may have…reconnected a bit.”

“Oh, is that what you’re calling it now?”

“Your child may be right outside the door eavesdropping. Behave.”

Jon leaned back against the headboard, smiling widely. “Honestly, I am very happy you found each other. It made me sad to think of you out wandering the galaxy by yourself.”

“You did it just as long as I did.”

“Yeah, but I’m your big brother, and I worry about you.”

They sat in silence for several minutes as Jon picked up his tea again and drank.

“So, you love him?”

“Jon, really?”

“It’s an honest question.”

She looked at him before nodding her head slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“And does he love you?”

Versa smiled. “Says he does.”

“Well, if there’s anything I know about Din, it’s that he means what he says. Unless he’s lying about who shoved him out of the ashsap tree.”

“Hey! He started it!”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s what you told yourself after he covered for you.”

They both fell into a fit of laughter at the memory. Versa wiped at her eyes. “Why didn’t you sell me out? You could have easily gotten me in trouble over that.”

“Well, you’d just given me the stuffed voorpak, so you’d bought yourself some older sibling good will.”

She giggled again. “Yeah, how the kriff did that thing survive all these years, by the way? I saw it out in the living room.”

Jon’s laughter quieted. “You really don’t remember that day, do you?”

Versa’s gut tightened. “I don’t remember much before the attack that day. It wasn’t a very remarkable day until…well, until it was.”

He nodded slowly. “That makes sense. Well, that morning, you were sad I was leaving. You knew I’d be gone a few weeks, so you came up to me and insisted I take the voorpak you’d made for good luck. You wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. So, I had it with me when I went off world.” He ran his thumb along the edge of his mug. “You were right. It was lucky. And I kept him with me ever since. Only seemed right to give him to Vee when she was born.”

“Vee?”

“Yeah. Just seems to fit.”

She nodded. “It does.” Jon’s eyes were fluttering a bit and his shoulders were sagging. Versa could tell he was fighting to stay awake, the mug in his fingers starting to slip. She stood, gently taking the mug from his hand and pulling the duvet cover further up his chest. “You should get some rest.”

“But you’re here.”

“And I’ll be here tomorrow. Your wife has kindly invited us to stay here, and I plan on being here as long as…as long as I can.” The unspoken finality sunk in between them, hanging in the air. Jon nodded, reaching up to pull her into a hug, and she leaned down, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Versa quietly made her way out of the room and down the hall with both of the empty tea mugs. When she reached the living room, she paused, leaning against the entryway doorframe. Din was sitting on the floor with all of his armor removed except for his helmet, legs splayed wide around a set of blocks. Vee was squatting in the middle of the chaos, carefully placing a pyramid-shaped block on a perilously stacked tower that she’d constructed. Din was working on what appeared to be some sort of outer wall around the haphazard castle they were building together.

“Gotta make it high,” Vee stated matter-of-factly. “Otherwise bad guys will be able to climb over it.”

“Well, we certainly can’t have that,” Din replied. Versa covered her mouth to stifle a giggle, but Din still turned at the sound, watching her. She held his gaze for a few moments before moving on to the kitchen.

Lai was cooking dinner as Versa placed the empty cups near the sink. “Can I help you with anything?” Lai smiled back at her.

“I’m actually almost done. Your friend out there was very helpful.”

Versa snorted. “Really? He told me he doesn’t cook.”

Lai giggled. “Oh, I didn’t let him cook anything, but he seemed to know his way around a knife, so I let him chop vegetables. Just had to make sure he used a normal knife and not the vibroblade he had tucked into his belt.”

The two women chuckled again and Versa leaned against the counter, watching as Lai put the finishing touches on the stew she was working on. “I can tell he cares for you very deeply,” she said quietly.

Versa met her eyes. “Did Jon ever talk about a boy we grew up with named Din?”

Lai’s eyes widened slightly. “That’s him?”

Versa nodded. “One and the same.”

Her sister-in-law smiled at her. “Yes, I’ve heard of the infamous Din Djarin who relentlessly pursued Jon’s sister, even if she never seemed to notice.”

Versa shrugged. “What can I say? I didn’t think he’d see me that way, and plus we were kids. Love and marriage wasn’t exactly high on the list of things I worried about.”

Lai dropped some herbs into the pot she was hovering over, stirring the stew with a wooden spoon. “Perhaps. But Jon always hoped that you two escaped together. He knew that if you were Din, then you’d be safe. Apparently, he was quite protective of you.”

“That much hasn’t changed.”

“Something has though,” Lai said, giving her a knowing look.

Versa looked down, picking at the edge of her shirt. “It has. We finally just kind of found each other after dancing around one another all of our lives. It’s so strange to say out loud, but it’s as if we always were going to find each other, no matter how much our lives led us in different directions. I always seemed to find him, no matter how much I tried to stay away, and then when he found me recently, it felt as if everything had finally aligned like it was supposed to.”

Lai set down the spoon and turned to look at her. “Sounds fated.”

Versa laughed. “I don’t buy into things being fated much. He’s just always been…there.”

The Pantoran slid over next to Versa, giving her shoulder a nudge. “The universe can be cruel sometimes, but I’ve always believed there’s some thread that pulls you in the direction you are supposed to be going. It may be tangled and wound around some places that don’t make sense, leading you in a path that’s winding, but you always get where you’re meant to be. I think there’s a thread between the two of you, and it’s just finally pulled taut, and it led you both here.”

Versa thought for a moment. “Don’t know how much I believe in soul mates.”

Lai laughed softly. “I didn’t either until I found your brother, and he and I don’t have near the history you and Din do. You two…fit. Somehow. It was jarring to find a Mandalorian on my doorstep, but the two of you just seem to make sense. I can’t explain it.”

Din suddenly appeared around the corner, Vee perched on his shoulders, screaming with glee. Versa felt a warm sensation creeping through her stomach at the sight, and she whispered quietly under her breath. “Neither can I.”

----

After dinner, Versa volunteered to clean up the dishes while Lai put Vee to bed. Din had sat patiently through dinner, answering all of Vee’s questions about his helmet, much to Lai’s chagrin.

“Do you take it off to sleep?”

“Sometimes.”

“Vee, stop pestering him.”

“How do you see?”

“Through my visor.”

“Do you ever eat?”

“When I’m not around people.”

“Vee!”

The little girl had clearly had more questions to ask, but decided to save them for later, settling instead on just watching Din carefully throughout the meal.

As Versa dried the last of the bowls and placed them on the counter to be put away, she felt a presence behind her. Din’s bare hands snaked around her waist, and she felt the cool metal of his helmet rest against her shoulder and neck.

“This is oddly domestic.”

“Oh yeah? You like seeing me in a home doing…normal things?” she asked teasingly.

“Is it weird if I say ‘yes’?”

She sighed. “No. This has been incredible. It just feels right, like I haven’t been away from him for decades. Lai is wonderful, and I feel like I’ve known her all of my life. She’s just so easy to talk to. And Vee is…I don’t even know where to begin.”

He looked over his shoulder to make sure the hall was empty before turning back to her and lifting his helmet up just enough to place a kiss against her neck. Versa turned quickly, catching his lips in hers, and she felt him smile against her mouth. The sound of a door closing behind them made Din pull away, slipping his helmet back down over the lower half of his face.

Lai stepped into the kitchen. “Versa, I’ve made up your old room for you two to sleep in if that’s alright.”

“That’s perfect, Lai. Thank you.”

The Pantoran smiled at them. “I’m going to bed. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to wake us.”

“Good night.”

Versa laid the dishrag on the counter to dry before turning and leaning against it. Din let his hands rest on her hips. “Something’s wrong.”

“I can’t believe we’re here. After so many years, I can’t believe we found him, and I spent all day talking to him, and it’s everything I’d hoped for him. A home, a wife, a kid. It almost feels perfect, but…”

Din wrapped his arms around her as he saw the tears in her eyes. “Treasure every moment you have with him, Vers. We don’t know how long he has. You being here may help him.” She nodded against his chest, her fingers tangling in the back of his shirt as she gripped him tightly.

He suddenly pulled back from her, and Versa looked up at him, startled. “Come with me,” he said, slipping his fingers into hers. Versa followed him willingly as he led her out the front door of the house.

“Din, it’s late. What are we doing?”

“Just trust me.”

He led her down empty streets, the only illumination coming from the windows of the dwellings they passed and the moon that was just cresting the horizon. Din wove in between buildings and alleys, and Versa almost had to jog to keep up with him. Memories tugged at her mind, trying to help her recognize the surroundings that had changed just enough to no longer be familiar to her. Din appeared to have no such problem as he confidently led her forward until they finally stepped through a gap in a hedge and were suddenly surrounded by greenery.

Versa gasped. The gardens had hardly changed at all. It felt as though she and Din had stepped back in time to when they were children, sprinting through the trees decorated with small lights that hung over the walkway, twinkling in the night like stars. The brook they’d tossed stones into wove next to the path with vibrant flowers and ferns lining the way.

Din had slowed, allowing her to take her surroundings in as they continued walking. He led her deeper into the gardens, the path taking them away from the settlement.

“Din, how-“

“Lai told me that the gardens were largely untouched in the attack, so when people started settling here again, they decided to keep the gardens the same as a way to honor the original Aq Vetina settlement. He made one more turn and led her into a small clearing. The light strings softly illuminated the edge, and Din led her towards the ashsap tree in the center of it. The tree had endured the attack, standing taller than she remembered, its roots reaching out to twist among the flowers that surrounded it. The branches cast long shadows that rippled across the grass, and a soft breeze whispered through its leaves as Din led her to its base before turning and facing her.

It was so quiet, only the sound of their breathing and the rustling of the leaves disturbing the silence. Din released her hands, reaching up and removing his helmet before gently placing it on the ground. He held out his hand, and Versa slid her palm into it, stepping closer as he slipped his other arm around her waist.

“Do you remember this place?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper as he pressed his cheek to hers.

“Of course,” she replied. “How could I forget the first place I got kissed?”

“Din, are you sure? You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I got dared, and I’m not backing down.”

“Fen was just being a womp rat. You can just tell him you kissed me.”

The young boy hesitated. “Do…do you not want to kiss me?”

She looked at him carefully. There was something in his eyes that she couldn’t quite interpret. She shrugged. “I’m not going to back down from a dare either.”

A smile slowly spread across his face. “Alright. C’mere.”

Versa flushed at the memory, a soft giggle escaping her lips. “I definitely wanted to kiss you then, just so you know.” She tucked her face against his shoulder, inhaling the smell of his skin and the gardens surrounding them. Din slipped his fingers under chin, raising her face to meet his eyes. They sparkled in the soft light, and he brushed a stray hair out of her face.

“And now?” he asked quietly.

She smiled, repeating his own words on Naboo back at him. “You already know.”

Din gently cupped her jaw, his lips parting slightly as he leaned down to place a gentle kiss to her mouth. Versa’s hands drifted up around him, one hand tangling in his brown curls while the other slid around his waist, pulling him to her. It was delicate but firm, familiar and yet still so new for the both of them.

After several minutes, they parted, their foreheads resting against one another. Din’s fingers danced across her cheek as she stared into his eyes, the same eyes that she’d looked into that night so many years ago. Here was the man that had she had always carried with her, even when they’d been apart, and now, he was the person that had believed in her and helped her find Jon.

“How was my hand placement this time?” he asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

“Much improved,” she giggled. He pulled her to his chest, one of his hands stroking the back of her hair as she felt him press his nose against her neck.

“To better memories,” he said quietly.

She turned and pressed her lips to his again before whispering in his ear. “Thank you.”