Chapter Text
Luke Lars (alone and to himself, known as Luke Skywalker) is a great deal of many things.
Nephew to Owen and Beru Lars, moisture farmer on the scorching planet named Tatooine, and riduur to Din Djarin of Mandalore.
Those around him see too-wide baby blue eyes, sunshine blonde hair, a carefree smile and believe he’s experienced few hardships in his twenty-one cycles. While it was true that he hadn’t experienced the true lows of life on the planet, Luke knew that his relatives were not his parents from a young age, heard the tale of his father being a free slave and corrupting himself with the spice trade that resulted in his death before he could count to ten with his fingers, and then was consequently sent out to fix a bit of machinery after asking his uncle for the story. The droids, equipment, anything that had to deal with ensuring the survival of their livelihood was known before he was even enrolled in the Empire mandated schooling.
The sand people and jawas could be bartered with, but the environment could not be.
Life wasn’t all bad on the planet. Luke found his joy in repairing his own speederbike that he often snuck out to ride around the wastes. Friends like Biggs were found in Anchorhead and the surrounding farms and Luke was not a stranger to broken bones acquired in their adventures. Life went on and the gangly preteen grew into the Skywalker name. The stars above were only options to where he could go and the Imperial Academy became his focus early; it was for all the young boys of Tatooine who sought to escape.
Womprats became his victims as he worked to better his aim with the scrappy farm rifle and the time that wasn’t worked on the farm or repairing his bike were spent making the rifle better in any aspects he could with the scrap laying around. Soon, he got the fire rate higher and got some of the jerk out of the rifle when it shot. Beru always listened with an open ear when Luke began chattering on about his latest upgrade, while even Owen gave him gruff praise.
“Good job, but that better not have cut into your work time.”
Still, Luke spent many nights gazing at the stars wondering what was out there for him. Biggs soon left for the Academy along with any other young person that found themselves born on the boring planet. And no matter how many times Luke worked to repair the machinery or how many hours he spent making sure everything was going right, the harvest seasons seemed to only grow worse.
So too did he prospects to leave the planet.
His anger was taken out on the unfortunate womprats that made it across his path and Luke worked the speederbike to do things he didn’t think were possible. Soon, he could fire a shot directly where it needed to land, know something was about to fall before it did, know when storms were on their way, numerous things he shouldn’t have known. It always seemed that luck was on his side, in all the wrong areas.
Still, the young man could not take himself away from the farm for his own selfish reasons. True, Luke had probably spent more nights than he would want to admit crying into his pillow at the loss of freedom, but in the morning, when he saw the stress lines on his aunt and uncle’s faces, he knew he could not leave them.
Luke reaches nineteen cycles of age when the first exciting thing in his life happens. It’s one of those days he can do no more on the farm, and a trip to Anchorhead had alerted him to a skirmish on the outskirts of the Dune Sea. Supposedly a bounty hunter was capturing someone for the Hutts and Luke saw no reason for why he couldn’t lay on a dune far away and watch the action through his scope. The speederbike takes to the sands with no issue and Luke easily finds himself nearing smoking rubble only an hour later. He stops the bike with enough distance to not be seen and easily spots the few discarded bodies lying around a burning ship.
The repairs on his bike weren’t good enough to get him here in time, it seems. Luke is about ready to call it when the suns rays catch something several hundred meters to his left. When he switchs to his binoc, he doesn’t have to work hard to see the outline of a human shaped form sprawled across the wastes. The binocs’s highlight the form in dangerous red, emphasizing that while the figure is alive, the heat might soon change that.
Aunt Beru always told him that you always gave a stranger a helping hand.
Uncle Owen scoffed and said that would get you killed in an instant.
Luke’s mind only conjured what exciting image he may be about to come across.
Without giving it another thought of warning, the young man kicks the bike back into motion and hurries to close the distance between him and rays of light that continue to bounce off of whatever the human was wearing. Who wore that much armor in the desert?
The young man stops the bike close enough that he can hop back on and leave if he needs to, but quickly shoots off to stoop by the figure.
Luke was right, the human is covered from head to toe in terribly heavy armor that must not have a heat regulator in it, or something.
“Hello? Can you hear me?”
When the body doesn’t even budge, Luke waves a hand in front of the visor. Still nothing. It’s only due to experience that Luke is calmly able to run back to the bike to pull a waterskin out before he drops down next to the figure. Helmet first, as the young man needed to ensure the person’s brain wasn’t melted.
His fingers are barely to the back of the helm when he feels a blaster shoved against his ribs.
Kriff, he forgot to take their weapons.
“What…” There’s barely a hint of a voice through the vocoder on the helmet, lending to his parched state, but Luke is able to at least figure that there is a man under the armor.
“You’re having a heat stroke-you have too much armor on. Let me help you, I have water.” Luke rushes out, if only to get the blaster off of him. His hands have pull away from the helm completely and open in surrender.
Thankfully, the man must use all of his energy on this as the blaster falls to the sand and his head lolls back. After a moment of no response, Luke continues his course of action and is barely able to lift the helmet past the stranger’s lips to allow some of the water in. Most of it splashes over what little face is revealed (he has a mustache like Biggs, Luke thinks and almost laughs), but enough water makes it down his throat. He would like to remove it fully, but whenever he tries to slip it further, the body underneath him begins to shake. Instead, Luke goes down to his legs to remove the shin and thigh plating. Only a few more pieces of the man’s chest plate can be taken off. Luke finds himself with random bits of armor strone about, and a still unconscious human below him. Getting him back to the farm would be too much of a risk, time wise, and they’re running short on that.
Luke decides on giving him more water, which seems to do the trick as the water quickly begins to choke the man and he coughs himself awake. A hand weakly grasps for the blaster.
“Please don’t shoot me! Again, you’re having a heat stroke.”
The visor of the man’s helmet slowly moves and trains itself on Luke’s face. The only sounds for a moment are the winds softly push sand across the waste and a mudhorn roars from the distance.
The visor does not move.
“Did you remove my helmet?”
Inside, Luke wants to yell about that being his only concern, but Aunt Beru has forced manners into him and something tells him the helmet is something of importance to the man.
“Just enough to get you some water. It was that, or letting you die. I might not know you, but I wouldn’t just let that happen.” Luke shrugs.
“You could have. Just left me to die.” The vocoder masks the man’s voice, but the soft undercurrent is still there.
“That’s not what we do here. If you want, the farm I live on is a little bit away. You can rest up there.”
The helmet finally moves, as the man shakes it side to side.
“You don’t even know me.”
Luke rolls his eyes, because manners can only go on for so long, and points at the man, “You’re the bounty hunter I heard about in Anchorhead? How ‘bout you tell me what went on here and I’ll decide.”
The armored man tries to glance at the wreckage far away from them, but can barely move from his prone position.
“Not much to say. I was hired to capture someone, dead or alive. There were problems. They’re dead and I’m not.”
A man of few words it seems. Luke motions to his speederbike.
“Alright, then. Ready to go?”
The man sighs, “You aren’t going to leave me alone, are you.”
“Nope.”
Luke pops the ‘p’ and scoops down to get his arms under the man’s armpits to pull him up. While Luke isn’t a stranger to hard work, the man certainly has a bit more weight than Luke’s own and the blonde struggles to help him fully upright. Once he makes sure the armored man is able to hold himself up, Luke moves the bike closer before easing the man onto the back. It’ll certainly be a tight fit, but they’ll manage. The blonde quickly grabs the pieces of armor that are littered around the sand before putting them in a compartment on the bike.
“Got some polish on the farm, we’ll get those right back to what they were.”
The man gives no response and Luke takes that as the go ahead to rev the engine and begin their slow route back. With two people crowding the bike, Luke has to take the easier routes that only add a little bit of time and makes sure the man holds on to the water skin for the duration of the trip. The farm glimmers into view as the Twins are setting, casting a beautiful hue across the homestead.
Aunt Beru is confused, but happily accepts their guest in. Uncle Owen is, thankfully, still out tinkering with something.
More water is offered to the man who gives them the name ‘Mando’, but not much else.
He offers to leave after only thirty minutes of rest, but thankfully Aunt Beru admonishes him before Luke can say anything. The man seems to settle down at the logic of entering the desert at night.
Uncle Owen barks a ‘who are you’ at Mando and halfheartedly gripes that they don’t have enough water to spare before he offers the armored man dinner. Luke learns for the first time of a different race and their beliefs. That Mando is a Mandalorian from the planet of Mandalore that is stars away from Luke’s own. They are a race that holds rigid to their creeds and beliefs, of which one of them is not to remove their helmet outside of clan.
Luke does feel genuinely apologetic as he offers a small ‘sorry’ to the Mandalore.
“You saved my life. In that in itself is an oath. I do not blame you.”
Still the Mandalore seems rigid when he says it. The young man can only hope that he will see this man more so that he may be able to truly apologize.
After dinner, Mando allows Luke to take him to see the stars. With Luke’s Imperial education, he is only able to guess the few closet stars to them, yet the Mandalore is able to expand on so many more. Savareen held a crime syndicate called the Crimson Dawn while Trask was a planet of oceans home to farming communities. The idea that there were entire planets made of water seemed incomprehensible to the boy who had only known Tatooine. As the armored man continued to point towards stars in the sky, Luke found he never wanted this time to end.
Joyous moments were hard to find on Tatooine and did not last when they occurred.
The Mandalorian was gone by morning and the blond-haired man never knew if he would see Mando again.
Luke soon began spending most of his spare time in Anchorhead, his efforts coming to fruition two months later. The silver helm was easy to spot through the crowd and the young man easily made his way through to approach the landing pads.
When he is sure that the Mandalorian’s visor rested on him, Luke pushes his way to stand closer to the armored man.
“Hope you’re better equipped for the suns this time, or you might not have a good looking blond to rescue you.”
The Mandalorian offers a sigh in response, but does not shift when Luke begins following at his side.
Over the span of a few cycles, Luke’s world expands to contain so much new information on the galaxy; Mandalore is a planet also on the outer rim, but across the galaxy. It was glassed by the Empire not long ago and is uninhabitable for those that called it home. Aq Vetina is just as far, also incurring the wrath of large forces-this to be the droid Separatists. Nevarro is a beautiful planet that many look past due to the landscape of volcanoes, but the environment was not like anything Luke had ever heard of.
Luke also learns a great deal about the Mandalorian. His oath is was his way of life, something that gave him purpose to drive him through countless dangers. All for the good of his covert. His rigidness towards his view on his oath also expanded to his other world views. Once Din (he gave his name to Luke on a starry night) made up his mind, it was like trying to wrangle a dewback into its corral; if he didn’t want to, it would not be done. Luke was never allowed on the Mandalore’s bounties, which was boring but fine. Mando would never take him up in his ship, which was a travesty. Even from the early days of meeting, Mando always held the staunch view that Luke belonged on Tatooine.
This feeling never changed and seemed to become only worse once they grew closer. Riding out to the dunes to take shots at womprats turned from a fun activity to let out some steam, to Din reminding Luke a target trying to kill him wouldn’t be so easy to get a hit on. Excuses for bounties changed from Luke being a liability to the Mandalorian not being able to concentrate on the objective. Flights on the Junker went from Luke messing with some parts and ruining the ship to your aunt and uncle would kill me. That last one was fair, as Owen always seemed to be holding the rifle in his lap for repairs whenever the Mandalorian visited the homestead-better not give the man another reason to despise Mando. Aunt Beru was something fierce when she used the wooden spoon, too.
As time wore on, Luke prided himself on actually following the Mandalorian’s orders. The people of Anchorhead saw him as some poor farm boy and didn’t think his observational skills too keen, but he noticed everything. While once the Mandalorian’s voice had been hard when he waved off Luke’s insistence on aiding him, the man now stumbled over his words and spoke with a softer connotation. Phrases in the language of Mando’a slipped into conversation.
“It’s too dangerous, meshla.”
“I couldn’t let something happen to you, cyar'ika.”
Luke was a long shot form a linguist, but even the young man could surmise what the words entailed.
Affection.
The want to preserve their bond.
For a short amount of time, it felt as if they were on a knife’s edge-seeing who would be the first to make the tumble. Luke continued to badger the man with his presence and the man’s beskar exterior slowly started to melt away. The young man was never one for patience and gave hints of his own.
Japor snippets were small trinkets usually crafted by the children of the sands to give to each other as tokens. Some for luck, most for promises of love. While the planet did not suffer the amounts of slavery it once had, the attitude towards taking what little you could have say in still held on. The snippet was the one thing most people of Tatooine could give freely; present to the one they wished to share their life with and pray to the suns that fate allowed it to happen.
Luke presented one to Din at the landing pad when he left for one of his trips; Luke had spent the better part of two weeks working on the engravings. The young man had chosen sun bleached bone for the japor itself, and the engraved lines struck out beautifully with the dark paint that Luke had worked in the lines. Tied to a leather band, the japor actually looked well done, if Luke said so himself.
There was no shakiness to his hands, nor tremor in his voice as he held it out to Din.
“Here’s something to remember me by.”
The Mandalorian is half turned toward his ship to begin flight procedures, but he slowly turns and trains his visor on the young man’s hand. The sounds of the market continue around them for a moment as Luke waits in silence while the armored man inspecst the object in his hand. Leather gloves eventually reach out to his bare ones.
“This is…for me?” The Mandalorian delicately takes the band from him and holds the snippet in his own hand as he continues to stare down at it.
“What is it?”
Luke obviously knew Mando would be curious and ask the question, but his face still takes on a warm glow that has nothing to do with the Suns.
“It’s called a japor snippet. It’s a local tradition…given mostly for good luck to those we’re close with.”
“Mostly?”
Luke licks his lips and juggles in his mind what the right words would be to say. The farm boy has watched the Mandalorian for a cycle now, and knew his habits like the back of his hand. Or, atleast, he like to think he did. What if he were wrong on his assumptions that Din held something towards Luke? The Mandalorian’s presence was cherished and the possibility of ruining that was daunting.
Luke couldn’t be afraid of anything.
“We also give them as symbols of…strong affection. I hope that it gives you lots of luck because I don’t know what I’d do if your ship never returned. It occurred to me I might never know if something happened to you while you were out on a bounty. I just…enjoy being with you a lot, Din. I wanted you to have something to think of me when you’re away. And for you to have a reason to return to Tatooine.”
Now that it’s finally out, a relief rises from Luke’s shoulders he didn’t know he held. The Mandalorian still hold on to the necklace and the farm boy gives him as much time as he needs. Just having the words out feels enough.
Finally, Din’s visor rises from where it was trained on the snippet and looks at Luke.
“Cyar'ika. I have nothing to give you in return.”
If it weren’t for the helmet in the way, Luke had a few ideas, but only smiles. Instead, the young man focuses on the Mandalorian’s words.
“Come back then and teach me more of your language. I don’t know that one.”
Din nods before seeming to stop to think of what to do next- he slowly takes a step forward and lowers his helm until it rests against Luke’s forehead.
“I’ll go ahead and give you a piece of my culture; this is a keldabe kiss or mirshmure'cya…it is also used to show strong affection.”
The Mandalorian’s words are low so that they are only shared between the two of them and each word is filled with such strong adoration, Luke finds himself blinking his eyes furiously just to see the man standing before him. The japor snippet now hangs around Din’s neck and the red paint on his chestplate shines from behind the white clay.
“I will not forget this, Luke. I will return to you again. This is the way.”
Luke nods against the beskar helmet and repeats the words back with as much vigor with the Creed.
“This is the way.”
Din finally takes a step back and nods before turning to make his way towards his ship. He disappears into the craft before his frame reappears in the cockpit of the modified light freighter. The starship lets out a series of whines and groans as the Mandalorian goes through the startup sequence, Luke straying his gaze for a moment. It isn’t into Din rests in the pilot seat that their eyes meet one last time before the ship begins to rise into the air with the roar of its engines and disappears into the sky not long after.
The usual noise of the market fills the air after Din departs yet Luke still feels the wave of loneliness that quickly overtakes him.
This isn’t the first time Din has left, Luke can only remind himself, and it won’t be the last.
The droids appear during one of Din’s particularly long stretches of being off planet. Luke’s busying sulking in his room when he hears his uncle call for him from outside and he groans as he rushes down the stairs. The Sandcrawler is a familiar sight as well as the Jawas, but the old Artoo unit and sparkling Threepio droid ring alarm bells in Luke’s mind-something new he believes his time with the Mandalorian has instilled in him. Artoo Detoo, especially, seems to be something to wary of with the image being hidden away from Luke before he can really take in the features of the young woman on the holoimage.
The droid also insists Luke is not his owner and that Kenobi (somehow connected to Ben) is. So Luke tries to win him over by taking the tracker off, because how far can Artoo roll away?
Miles, it turns out.
By morning, Luke feels like he’s on the verge of jumping out of his skin in anticipation of finding the droid and incurring his uncle’s rightfully given wrath, pushing the gold droid into the vehicle with more force than probably necessary. They’re off instantly and Luke grips his binocs to his face as he desperately searches for the white and blue paint. Just as Luke had assumed, the droid was working its way through the narrow cliffs in territory belonging to the sand people. Din’s drilled into him that Luke is oblivious to his surroundings so Luke instantly snatches the rifle when they stop the vehicle a few paces from Artoo.
Threepio warns them of the thermal readings Artoo is able to pick up on and Luke grabs an extra ammo pouch before he talks the droids into following him to a cliff. He’s taking the precautions that Din has drilled into him, so why can’t he have a bit of fun in looking to see what the sand people were up to?
The bantha’s are nearly abandoned which should have been his first sign of danger, yet Luke ignores it and shrieks when the metal mask appears in front of his binocs. He is able to throw himself back in time to miss the next strike of the sand person’s stick and rolls himself to the side to miss the second. He is not so lucky with the third and takes the blunt end of the staff against his head.
Luke’s last though is that Din’s is going to kill him.
Thankfully, he awakes to Ben Kenobi hovering over him. The man has remained much of a mystery most of Luke’s life, appearing at the homestead when the Lars’ were lacking for food or to trade something with Owen. It’s not a surprise that he is Obi-Wan Kenobi nor that he was actually alive (Uncle Owen always got that weird look on his face when he lied about things), but it is astonishing that Kenobi does not claim Artoo as his own. Luke had never seen a droid so dedicated to their master and it had seem bent on endangering itself to find the older man.
All of this is forgotten when the return to Ben’s home. Luke had always known the line about his father being a spice trader was crud, but to hear he was a Jedi Knight in the Clone Wars? It feels too good to be true. Luke feels his emotions roil as the older man tells him of his father; that he was a remarkable warrior that was born to fly anything he could get his hands on, that he was a good friend. Luke wishes desperately in that moment that he could have met his father atleast once in his life. Connect with the man he seemed to gain so many of his traits from. Would he be proud of Luke choices in life? That Luke had remained on the moisture farm to aid his family instead of leaving for the academy? Would he accept the man Luke had said his vows with? Luke likes to think his father would have been happy with it all.
Although the lighstaber is great, especially as it was once his father’s, the young man learns the fate of his father. A padawan of Kenobi’s, Darth Vader, had betrayed the Jedi order and aided the Empire in the slaying of the remaining Jedi- Luke’s father being one of them. Here the young man learns of the force, that it is a part of all living things, that his father once controlled it, and that Luke may someday as well.
“You must train in the force if you are to come to Alderaan with me.” There’s a twinkle in Ben’s eye and the excitement of the day finally crashes into Luke.
Sure, his father roamed the stars and took part in fighting against the Empire, but Luke has his aunt and uncle to think of. The seasons have been rough as it is, and with Luke gone, they would be ruined. Not to mention that Din would be arriving back to Tatooine any day now. Luke wasn’t just going to leave the planet without him.
“Look I have a family to take care of; I can’t just run off and leave them.”
Ben tries to say it’s his Uncle Owen talking, but really the Mandalorian creed runs through Luke; clan is everything.
It would be against their Way for Luke to abandon the moisture farm.
Whatever this force is, it feels like its working against him as they pull the vehicle up to the Sand Crawler. Even Luke can tell the Sand people did not attack the jawas, but it takes Ben’s words for him to realize that Stormtroopers may have been the cause. Ignoring the rest of Ben’s warning, Luke races back to the speeder and drives as fast as he can back towards his home. The plumes of smoke are visible miles away and he can feel the panic mounting as he continues to scan the homestead. Luke jumps out without bothering to cut the engine and immediately calls out for his aunt and uncle. There’s pit in his gut when he does not hear a response and his worries are confirmed when he spots the two bodies by the entrance to the homestead.
He had always dreamed of being out in the stars and to be away from the homestead, but not because of this. Luke was supposed to help his relatives get the farm back to running then leave with Din to explore the galaxy, Luke coming home often to tell his aunt and uncle of his adventures. Owen would tell him he was endangering himself, but how could he not be proud of Luke accomplishing his aspirations? Aunt Beru would have made sure they were fed and taken care of on their return journeys and would have loved any children Din and him would eventually adopt into their clan.
Luke stands in shock as all those possibilities melt into the sands.
The Empire taking his dreams, his family, his father away from him seemingly in one single day.
Luke has told Din on numerous occasions that he can defend himself, that he is more than capable of taking his place by the Mandalorian’s side. Maybe, with training in the force, Din will see that Luke is an equal.
Taking one last glance at the moisture farm, Luke turns and reenters the vehicle to make his way back to Kenobi. When they reach Mos Eisley, Luke will send a message to Din letting him know to find him on Alderaan and either the man will receive the message in time, or Luke will have a great story to tell on their reunion. He tells Ben of his Mandalorian or, at least, that he knows of someone that he trusts to give them a ship. The Junker will have a hard time fitting three people and two droids, but Luke would much rather take that option over a stranger’s ship.
“We do not have the luxury of time, Luke. We will have to find a ship immediately in Mos Eisley.”
The loss of possibly not seeing the Mandalorian before this adventure shoots through Luke, but he understands how important their task is. They travel in the speeder through the night, with Kenobi eventually having to take over. Luke is able to catch a few hours of sleep, but nightmares plague him. He wakes each time from the dreams yet as soon as he slips back into rest, the images return. Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen dying on the farm and then Din taking their place. The young man finally decides to stay awake for the rest of their journey.
They make it to Mos Eisley by morning and enter some shady cantina. Luke’s been into the one’s in Anchorhead, but that was a food market compared to this one. The farm boy finds some of the bar patrons taking issue with him and narrowly avoids a fight by Ben stepping in before the older man ushers him to a booth in the back. A human male waits them, a cocky grin resting on his face. The entire time, Luke’s instincts scream for him to insist to Ben that they should wait for safer passage from Din, especially when the credit amount is raised, but the older man serenely deals with the situation.
“I understand you wish to wait, but this is of the utmost importance.”
Ben ushers him as they sell his speeder. Far below market value, but it seems like Luke doesn’t have an option. Once the credits are acquired, they make their way to the docking bay on Mos Eisley. The area around it is crowded and Luke’s skin crawls at the number of Stormtroopers patrolling the streets. Ben had gotten them out of the previous encounter, but the young man doesn’t want to test it again. Kenobi pushes his hood up as they make their way through the market and before long the group find themselves in a series of twisting halls. Maybe its because the path they take seems grand, but Luke is a little surprised when they go around the corner and see the freight ship. Sure, Luke could count himself as a ship snob (by watching the ships leaving Anchorhead, he had decided an ST-70 assault ship would be the best for their adventures), but the freighter before them had certainly seen better days. Han even looked like he was digging into a panel on the underside of the ship to repair it.
“What a piece of junk!” Luke scoffs as he steps closer to the ship.
Han whips his head away from the panel and glares daggers at the farm boy.
“She'll make point five beyond the speed of light. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've added some special modifications myself.” The man puffs in pride, but quickly scows al them.
“We're a little rushed so if you can hurry aboard we’ll get out of here.”
Luke rolls his eyes as he exchanges a look with Ben before motioning for the droids to make their way up the ramp.
Luke would never call Din’s ship a junker again, that was for sure.
The group makes their way to the eating area of the ship and take their places in the seats Ben immediately turning towards Luke.
“Now tell me, Luke. Why are you so insistent on waiting for this person?” There’s something in Ben’s eyes that’s like he can read the young man’s mind and Luke awkwardly avoids his gaze. They have not kept their vows a secret, with much of Anchorhead aware of their status- still didn’t stop them from calling him ‘Wormie’. While Din’s face was something only allowed with clan, their relationship was not, but to tell the older man still made Luke uncomfortable. Maybe it was because of his ties to his father, Luke didn’t know.
“Oh, I just trust him. We’ve had each other’s backs a few times and I know he would help with this.”
Ben continues to stare at him and Luke squirms in his seat, but after some time the older man turns back forward to scan their surroundings. The silence does not last long as Han rushes through the room towards the cockpit.
“We got bounty hunters and Storm troopers! Who are you people?”
Bounty hunters?
Luke shoots up in his seat, but lurches forward as the ship begins to shake from takeoff. Ben grabs his arm to steady him and soon directs him towards the cockpit as well.
“Let us see what the commotion is about.”
When they enter, Han is frantically flipping switches and smashing buttons while his partner, a tall humanoid shaped creature covered in fur (Luke thinks they are Wookies but has never seen one) does the same while growling.
“I know, I know, I’m hurrying Chewie!” Han zeroes in on a console, but suddenly whips around with his blaster trained past Luke, his partner doing the same with a crossbow. Luke spins around and the breath is instantly knocked out of him.
In the entrance of the cockpit stands a Mandalorian in gorgeous red armor and vibrant beskar helmet, his blaster aimed towards Han.
His Mandalorian.
For a moment, Luke feels the emotions of the day hit him once more and he wishes for nothing more than to rush forward and entangle himself in Din’s embrace. Maybe he would be able to forget about the moisture farm, pretend the day hadn’t occurred and that they would soon be returning to home. If not that, then Din would know how to handle the situation. Unlike Luke, he was calm and collected in times of crisis and was always ready with a plan. Luke found himself realizing he had no plans for what they would do after Alderaan. Sure, he would train with Ben, but would he join the Resistance? It all seemed so daunting without his riduur by his side.
Luke pushes at Ben’s arm that is pinned against his chest.
“Ben, let me through! This is who I was telling you about, someone I trusted with a ship of his own!” Luke rushes out as he pushes forward. When Luke looks at Ben, he does not see the kind man he had encountered earlier, but a stone face that analyzes the Mandalorian’s every move. The blue lightsaber is gripped in his hand. As if Din would ever harm him.
Ben finally returns the saber to his belt and stands tall.
“An explanation would be appreciated.”
As if Luke’s word wasn’t enough. The young man works to get Kenobi to understand, but the older man interrupts him. Ben wants to hear what the Mandalorian has to say.
And Din does. The Mandalorian doesn’t need to verbalize that he would do anything for Luke, as the young man has already known this for so long. Their vows and the japor snippet says all that needs to be said.
Whatever else was going to be said is cut short by Han kicking them out of the cockpit while beams of light shoot past them. Luke instantly reaches out for Din’s hand as the ship rocks, his leather gloves closing around Luke’s wrist. It’s a minor touch, but it’s been so long since they’ve last seen each other that the younger man instantly feels the fire that ignited under his skin. For a second, his troubles are forgotten and everything feels right again in the galaxy as he is reunited with his riduur.
Din’s visor hovers only a few inches from Luke’s face and he wishes nothing more than to press their foreheads together in that moment. He knows it’s not the time.
The ship continues to rock as they rush back to their seats and Luke immediately straps in. The Mandalorian must have magnetized his boots as he continues to stand a wary distance away from the droids. At first, Ben follows in behind and makes his way towards Din to ask him to speak in private.
Luke almost laughs out loud as he doesn’t have to be a mind reader to know Din’s thoughts. The Mandalorians, or atleast especially Din, were not fond of secrets and believed all to be shared with their spouse. Mhi me'dinui an.
“Alright. Tell me. What is that small being you carry with you?”
Din instantly has the blaster out again, but Luke could care less about that as excitement rushes through him. What bounty had the Mandalorian come across?
It takes the Mandalorian looking at Luke before he sighs and pulls his cloak away from his side. In a strap that must have been made from Din’s cloak rests a tiny green being with eyes almost as large as his ears. There were many species that traveled through Tatooine, but Luke has never seen such a being, especially one as adorable as this one. The tiny being seems to recognize Kenobi as he happily beats against Din’s chest plate and points at the Jedi. Is that how he knows Ben?
Ben moves forward and looks the child over as he seems to be swept away by his memories.
“By the force…It has been some time since I’ve last seen you, Grogu.”
Grogu. It somehow fits the little green womprat.
Luke makes his way towards Din and the child, and watches as the Mandalorian’s body finally relaxes. The cloth keeps the child secure and protected against his chest plate, yet Din still keeps a gauntleted arm around his body. While the Mandalorian may be oblivious to it, his body language already read that he was willing to fight to ensure the safety of Grogu.
The outside world is forgotten as Luke curls his arm around Din’s and they gaze down at the child who stares back in wonder.