Chapter Text
10.
This was a great idea, Luke thought as he looked over his students enjoying themselves in the open field. Three of them were engaged in a game of Force Tag while one of the older ones along with Grogu were exploring the nearby shallow pond. Well, Grogu was probably looking for an unsuspecting frog as a late-day snack, knowing him.
“Luke.” Din said from behind him.
This was a terrible idea, Luke thought, fighting to suppress the nerves in him that threatened to surface.
He slowly turned around to face the Mandalorian, who shifted his weight from one foot to the other, the helmet seeming to avoid Luke’s gaze.
“Can we talk?”
And there it was. The first time either of them had initiated a conversation with the other two days after the incident.
Luke was fighting every bone in his body that wanted to unleash a storm of questions on the man, but managed to maintain composed as he inclined his head in a simple nod and turned to signal to his assistant that he wouldn’t be watching the children for a while.
She gave him a thumbs up from her side and made a shooing gesture.
Luke was somewhat offended. Had they been that obvious?
Focus.
Din turned to make eye contact with Grogu as the two of them started walking, making sure the child saw that both of them would be heading off out of sight for a while. Grogu blinked and raised a claw in farewell and went back to splashing in the pond.
Din’s heart warmed at the sight of Grogu being so at peace with where he was, before Luke’s familiar blonde hair came into sight and his heart went back to trying to beat its way out of both his chest and armour.
It had been two days since he had woken from being almost-dead to the sight of a squealing Grogu on his chest and a blindfolded Luke snoozing soundly in a chair beside him. Two days since Luke had cut him off when he had tried to explain himself and had walked out of the room, closing the door between them.
He had tried to get Luke alone to say something but the timing had never been right or he had lost the nerve to say anything in its entirety.
Luke hadn’t uttered a word to him and they had carried on with their own respective duties after Din had felt well enough after a day.
They walked side by side towards the treeline, out of the students’ eyeline.
Luke felt the sudden urge to throw up.
Of course he had been angry with the other man for getting that badly injured without even bothering to call for backup or assistance, but Luke also hadn’t wanted to jump to conclusions just like that. He had regretted cutting Din off like that when he had woken up, but he had been upset and hurt and couldn’t get the image of Din covered in blood and collapsing to the ground out of his mind.
After two days had passed without anything from Din, Luke had thought that Din believed he wasn’t owed an explanation for whatever the fuck had happened out there, so he was prepared to accept the fact that they were just going to pretend like nothing had happened.
They had come to the edge of the treeline and Luke turned to face Din.
Here goes nothing.
“You wanted to talk?” Luke asked, folding his arms across his chest.
Din opened his mouth and faltered slightly, feeling stupid. “Are you mad?”
Wha- The nerve.
“I am not mad.” Luke snapped, defensively.
Din visibly flinched and Luke immediately regretted his entire existence.
“I’m not mad,” he tried again, arms falling uselessly to his sides.
“You are.”
Well, now he was.
“If you brought me out here to gaslight me-”
This was already going wrong, Din thought, panicking slightly.
“I’m sorry,” he cut in. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner.”
Luke had paused mid-sentence, mouth comically open, finger still in the air.
“I owe you an explanation,” Din said.
“You don’t owe me anything,” Luke grumbled.
“I do,” Din insisted, taking a step closer to Luke. “You deserve to know what happened. I-”
“You could have died,” Luke mumbled, so soft Din almost didn’t hear.
“You could have died,” he repeated in shock, slightly louder. “And you still care about me knowing what happened.”
“I- You said you were worried.” Din was confused. Was he doing this right?
“Of course I was worried!” Luke exploded. “You could have died! You almost died! I- We could have lost you!”
“They were tracking the child!”
Silence immediately fell between them.
“What?”
“They were tracking the child. They had a tracking fob, they could have found this place, they could have found you.”
“I thought we had gotten them all.” Luke said quietly, staring at the mud on his boots.
“He was- the hunter was smart. He wasn’t like the others.” Din said.
“That explains the-”
“Yeah.”
Why you almost died.
The leaves of the trees rustled in the wind, the setting sun filtering through the trees and Din watched silently as the light clung onto Luke’s lashes.
“Where is he now?” Luke asked.
“Dead.” Din’s voice was clear through the moderator.
Some part of Luke sighed in relief. The dead leaves at his feet had nothing to say about this.
“We’ll leave.”
Luke’s head immediately snapped up.
“What?”
“I’ll take Grogu away, we’ll leave. Away from here so they won’t be able to find you and the others. It’s the only way.” Din said.
This made sense, Din thought. They were tracking Grogu, and if Grogu was here, that means they would find the school. They would find the students, they would find the Jedi, they would find Luke. They were at risk. If they left, they would never find this place.
And if that meant leaving here, leaving Luke…well, it would be worth it. Grogu would understand.
Luke was staring at him like he had grown another head.
“What?” He repeated again.
“If we leave-”
“I get that!” Luke was shouting now. “I mean-!”
This was ridiculous. Luke couldn’t believe it. How dare he. How dare he not talk to him for two days and bring him out here, just to tell him that he and Grogu would be leaving, after all the time they had spent together.
“You can’t just leave.” He felt like a child again.
“This is the way.”
“Don’t you dare ‘This is the way’ your way out of this, Din Djarin.” Luke snapped, as he crossed the distance to be right in front of the other man. He had to tilt his head up slightly to stare straight into Din’s visor but Luke is stubborn and he refused to accept that this is what they had come to. That this was the only way.
“Grogu loves it here. He tells me that everyday. He tells me he always can’t wait for you to come home. Did-” Luke sucked in a breath and looked away, the intital anger fading into something like despair.
“Did you not think of this place as a home?”
What a stupid question, Luke thought. Of course Din didn’t think this place to be anything like that, he only came here to visit his son, not to spend time with him, or to purposefully have meals with him and the other children, or to tell them stories-
“Luke.”
Luke can’t muster the strength to turn his gaze back.
“Luke,” the voice repeats, a gloved hand coming to rest gently under his chin, guiding him as he comes to face Din again.
“This is my home,” Din told him, earnestly. “You made this a home and welcomed me and Grogu in so warmly. I know how much Grogu loves this place, and I know how much I loved returning here to see him. To see the others. To see you.”
You are my home, Luke, Din thought but didn’t say. There was no need for him to know that.
Luke’s eyes were shining. Or maybe that was just the sunlight.
“That’s why I have to protect it.” Din finished.
Oh, those eyes got angry real fast.
“By leaving?” Luke tore away from Din and took steps back.
Too close. Luke was too close to all of this.
“So you’re just going to leave? You’re going to leave us and fuck knows when you’ll be back?”
No way Din got to have this. He couldn’t just waltz into Luke’s life like this and leave. Luke wouldn’t allow it.
“It’s the only way.”
“You never thought that you leaving would impact the rest of us?” Luke was almost shouting again but he couldn’t help it.
How could he not know? After all this time? Was he just being dumb on purpose?
The helmet tilted in that same way whenever its wearer was confused about something.
“Grogu, I understand. The others would miss him,” Din said slowly, as if he was still trying to understand what Luke was yelling across the galaxy at him about. “But you keep saying ‘you’.”
“Grogu’s not just my student! I love my students like they’re my own because I believe that love is important for younglings their age to grow up with, which many of them don’t have! But you-!” Luke wanted to tear his hair out. How was this happening now?
“There’s nothing about me, Luke.” Din said.
ARGH.
“I love you.” Luke whispered.
Din froze.
Maybe he had heard wrong.
“What?” His voice coming out huskier than he had intended.
“I love you.” Luke repeated, sounding more shocked than the last time.
He still wasn’t looking at Din.
“I love the way you listen to Grogu, and how you understand him so well, even if he can’t talk to you. I love how you care for others and how you are when you’re with your friends. I love how you spend time with the other younglings even though you don’t have to. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but you’re here, you’re here with Grogu and there has to be another way.”
Din wanted Luke to look at him.
“Luke.”
Luke lifted his gaze and opened his eyes to find Din standing in front of him, having taken the steps necessary to close the distance between the two of them.
He felt Din’s gloved fingers coming up to rest at the nape of his neck, and he felt when they stopped, Din’s visor never leaving Luke’s face, as if asking Luke for some kind of permission.
Luke didn’t know what he was going to do but he trusted Din with his life and it didn’t feel like he was about to snap his neck for quite literally putting his heart out on his sleeve, so he closed his eyes and inclined his head forward slightly.
He felt the cool, hard beskar of Din’s helmet against his forehead and felt unexplainable relief wash over him. He leaned into the touch and felt Din’s fingers resting gently against the back of his neck, taking comfort in the fact that Din was here, with him.
“ Ni kar’tayl gar darasuum,” Din murmued into the space between them.
“What does that mean?” Luke breathed.
Din smiled under the helmet even though Luke couldn’t see it, but he knew that the man could probably sense it anyway.
“It means ‘I love you’.”
Luke let out a breathy laugh and Din loved him so much.
After they had separated, Luke breathed a shaky sigh and asked, “And what was that?”
“Keldabe kiss. It’s-” If Din blushed, well, no one could see. “It’s how Mandalorians kiss.”
Luke visibly blanched. He could feel the blood rushing embarrassingly fast to his cheeks as he stuttered out, “That was a kiss??”
Din immediately faltered and started to apolgise but Luke quickly interrupted him with, “No! No, it was- I liked it.”
And because Luke was suicidial, he said, “By any chance…would I be able to show you how Jedi kiss?”
Smooth, Skywalker, real smooth. The love of his life had just kissed him in his own way and that was what came out of his mouth.
If only the others could see him now.
Din coughed and looked off to the side. “That… We would have to get married first.”
Well.
If Luke’s face wasn’t aflame before, it was now.
“Stay.” He found himself saying.
Din turned his gaze back to him and Luke reached out his bare hand to rest on the side of his helmet.
“Stay.” He said again. “Let them come. We’ll fight them off. We will protect Grogu and the school.”
He wouldn’t let Din and Grogu go off on their own again. He couldn’t. They belonged here now.
Din continued to stare into Luke’s eyes in silence as he reached out a hand of his own and brushed his thumb gently along Luke’s cheek.
His home.
Din nodded and leaned his head forward slightly as Luke closed his eyes, a gentle smile on his face.
“We’ll stay.”