Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

”Luke, sweetheart, are you alright?”

Luke flinched and tore his gaze away from his plate where he’d been pushing around the cooked peas with his spoon. His eyes met those of his mother; large, brown, filled with worry and fixed on him from the left end of the dinner table. Blushing, Luke realized most of the eyes in the room were now resting on him: his twin sister Leia sitting right next to him, his uncle Ben, who she'd been talking to just until that point, his aunt Ahsoka as well as his father at the other end of the table.
Swallowing, he answered hoarsely:

”Yeah ‘m fine, why?”

Padme Amidala-Skywalker didn’t look satisfied with her son’s answer and reached over to put her hand over his.

”You’ve barely eaten anything. Are you getting sick?”

”Hopefully not”, Anakin commented dryly, raising an eyebrow over the rim of his wineglass. “The school year’s about to start soon, we don’t want you going around infecting the children, do we? You might kill them all.”

”Anakin”, Ben sneered warningly. Luke bit the inside of his cheek to hold back the snappy comeback he longed to throw at his father. He was well aware of his disapproval of his career of choice. If it had been up to him, Luke would have stayed in his squadron at the airforce and never left to become an elementary school teacher. Pointedly ignoring him, he answered his mother:

”I’m fine, really, it’s just…”

”Just what? Sweetie, you know you can tell us anything.”

That’s debatable, thought Luke, taking in a deep breath to steel himself for the heated debate he was, no doubt, about to start with his revelation. Right when he was about to speak up, aunt Ahsoka chimed in:

”Don’t push him Padme. If he doesn’t want to talk about it, you shouldn’t guilt trip him.”

Luke threw a gratefull look her way and she winked in response. He shrugged:
”It’s alright, I want to tell you, I just-… I don’t think you’re gonna like hearing it.”

”Oh, now that’s a promising start”, said Anakin, put down his glass and leaned forward in his chair, now paying his undivided attention to the conversation. “What is it, you’ve got someone new and are afraid to introduce him? He can’t be much worse than the guy Leia dragged in”, he added with a nod in Leia’s direction. Luke’s sister pulled a sour face.

”Father, Han and I have been married for two years, you should be over it by now.”

Ahsoka cackled and Ben hid his grin behind his glass. Padme didn’t smile, at least not openly. The twinkle in her eyes betrayed her hidden amusement, without them ever turning away from Luke. Her laser sharp focus on whatever she deemed important at the moment was the trait Luke feared most about his mother, though it certainly came quite in handy to her in her profession as a senator.

”So, Luke, what is it you want to speak to us about?”, she asked gently and squeezed his hand reassuringly. Luke drew in another deep breath before finally answering:

”I thought about… like dad said, the school year’s about to start again soon and I was thinking maybe… I would like to move out permanently and live in my house in Yavin.”

The silence settling around the table following those words was so deafening, one could have heard a pin drop. Luke squeezed his eyes shut in expectation of the explosion about to commence and his father did not disappoint.

”You want WHAT?!”

Anakin had jumped up and thrown down his napkin, staring at Luke like he’d lost his mind. Luke held his gaze while his heart hammered in his chest nervously.

”You’ve heard me”, he said, voice firmer than he’d feared it would be. “I think it’s time. Leia’s moved out fully already, why can’t I?”

“Because-“, Anakin began, sounding like he was about to go on one of his dreaded rants, but was stopped by Ben reaching out and roughly pulling him back down on his chair.

”Now wait a second, Anakin, I think Luke is right. He’s a grown man after all, he’s entitled to the independence he wishes for.”

”But-“

”Yeah, let the kid move out if he wants to”, said Ahsoka and leaned back in her chair nonchalantly while balancing her glass between to fingers. “You can’t loom over him like a hawk all his life, he’ll need to spread his wings and fly on his own one day anyway. It’s better if he learns early while still having you around as a backup.”

”Do you think you can persuade me better if you use a flying metaphor?”, Anakin asked darkly, looking gravely from one friend to the other. “This is none of you two’s business anyway!”

”But it’s mine”, Padme joined in, sending a stern look at her husband from across the table. Anakin met it, his eyebrows knitting even closer together than they had before anyway. “Not you too! I thought we agreed to always be on each other’s side when it came to the kids!”

”Only if it’s a reasonable stance to take”, retorted his wife simply. “Don’t think I want to see our son leave any more than you do, honey, but Ben and Ahsoka are right. Luke is an adult and should be allowed to leave home if he wishes to. We can’t keep him here forever, not if it isn’t what he wants too.”

Anakin opened his mouth, no doubt to keep arguing, but Luke didn’t hear the rest of the discussion. He quickly grabbed his half full plate and left the dining room for the kitchen.
After throwing his by now cold dinner into the bin and rinsing the plate in the shiny polished sink, he leaned against the counter with a sigh, closed his eyes and let the welcoming silence of the room wash over his exhausted mind.

”You okay?”

For the second time that evening, Luke flinched at that question being directed at him unexpectedly.

”Oh, hey Leia.”

He smiled at his twin sister who’d appeared in the light falling into the dimly lit room from the hallway before joining him in the abandoned kitchen. Leaning next to him against the counter, her eyes, so similar to their mother’s, scanned him with underlying concern.

”Where did that back there come from anyway?”, she asked with a nod towards the door they’d come in through. Luke shrugged one shoulder again.

”Have been thinking about it for a while actually. I guessed the new school year would be as good an opportunity as any.”

“There’s never a good opportunity to drop something like this on him”, Leia reminded him glumly. Luke chuckled without much humour.

”That is definitely true.”

They both knew all too well the lengths their father’s overprotection and separation anxiety could go to. It had been their uncle Ben one day sharing its origins with them. While pregnant with the twins, their mother had fallen deathly ill and the birth had to be initiated prematurely to save all three of their lives. Luke and Leia had spent their first four months on this earth in incubators, attached to breathing tubes and heart monitors. Luke didn’t fault his father for feeling overprotective of his wife as well as both his kids after going through that, but that didn’t make dealing with him any easier. Leia moving in with her then fiancé Han had been a matter of lots of yelling, fighting and crying. As his comments at the table had proven, Anakin still hadn’t quite made his peace with the fact, even years after the wedding.

”I’m always on your side, you know that, but-“, Leia interrupted herself, hesitating. Luke looked at her from the side.

”But what?”

”I don’t mean to offend you, but you were never forced to live on a budget before. Do you really think you can keep the house all by yourself and on your salary alone?”

Luke paused, chewing on his lower lip. That issue had given him headaches in the past as well. His income as a teacher really wasn’t large and while the house belonged to him, the area he lived in wasn’t exactly cheap. There was one solution he’d thought of, though he was afraid his sister would laugh at him for it.

”I do have those vacant rooms up in my attic and lots of room left in the garage”, he said slowly. “I could look for a tenant…”

He held his breath at the silence that followed and released it with relief when Leia hummed in contemplation. At least she didn’t think the idea ridiculous and reckless, as their father no doubt would.

”Not a bad thought. You know I have some useful contacts, I could help you advertise it cheaply.”

”You’d do that for me?”, Luke asked, astonished. Leia grinned and held out her hand, pinky stretched out at him.

”Hey, that’s what twins are for, right?”

Luke smirked as he hooked his pinky with hers.

Chapter Text

“Thank you for your interest. I will call you when I’ve decided. Goodbye.”

Luke puffed his cheeks on a tired sigh after closing the door on what had felt like the fiftieth applicant for his empty attic rooms he’d interviewed that day. Maybe he was cursed, he contemplated gloomily as he made his way back towards his little kitchen table where he conducted the interviews. Sinking back down on his chair, he stared emptily at his laptop screen before putting a cross behind another name on his excel sheet. Scrolling up and down the document, he took in the depressing number of crosses.

Everyone who’d showed up today had had some issue or another, either with the rooms being too small, or too expensive, or too few, or too narrow, or too dark or not facing in the right direction, or there being too many stairs to climb, or the fact that they’d have to share the kitchen with him, or the house being too far away from the next train station or the nearest convenience store; and if they had no issue with the rooms, it was Luke who had an issue with them. One guy had ogled Luke the whole time and suggestively licked his lips while acting as if inspecting the rooms and in the end asked him if he was seeing anyone, to which Luke had politely escorted him to the front door. A woman in a fuzzy maroon jumper that emitted an odd odour had asked him if he minded ferrets. Another man, wearing an artfully painted, eye watering jacket had listened intently to Luke’s descriptions of the living arrangements while solemnly nodding his head, only to ask if he could fetch the drum set he kept in the back of his car to test the acoustics of the laundry room. A different woman hadn’t let the little pride flag magnet on his fridge out of her narrow eyes and had, at the end of the interview, asked if he was interested in salvation for his immortal soul. The man Luke had accompanied out the door just now hadn’t even stepped one foot through the door before his eyes had landed on his cat, Artoo, sleeping peacefully on the couch, and told him that if he wanted him to rent the rooms, ‘the critter would have to be put in a cage’.

This had taken up until late into the afternoon, the golden light painting long shadows onto the kitchen walls, and Luke massaged the bridge of his nose between two fingers before snatching his phone off the table to text Leia.

I don’t think I can do this anymore, I’m exhausted, I haven’t found anyone who wasn’t totally crazy, he typed, adding a tired looking emoji.

Leyley: Did you speak to everyone already?

Luke sneaked a glance at his excel spreadsheet.
Almost, I have one guy left. He should arrive in a few minutes, but what are the odds that this one will be a slam dunk?

Leyley: Just don’t give up now that you’ve almost made it. If this really fails, you can still come up with something else for some extra cash, don’t worry.

Luke huffed before putting the phone back down. Leia was right, of course, as she most often was – always, she would have told him and either smirked or poked a finger against his forehead – but he’d really needed to hear it from someone other than himself. He’d started the interview process for a roommate hoping to make quick work of it and finding the perfect match among the first few applicants. The further he was forced to move down the list, the more disheartened he got and the more his father’s doubtful words about the whole endeavour kept haunting him.

The bright ringing of the doorbell tore Luke away from his thoughts and brought him back to the issue at hand. On the couch, Artoo sleepily lifted his head and meowed. Clearing his throat, Luke quickly stood from his chair and hurried to the front door while calling out: “Coming!”

Putting a hand on the doorhandle, he breathed in to steel himself. Last one for the day, here goes nothing.

“Hello, my name’s Luke Skywalker, nice to meet y-“

The by now overused greeting phrase died on his lips as Luke’s eyes met those of the last applicant. Large, brown irises over a striking, hooked nose in the middle of a ruggishly handsome face greeted him, framed by wind swept, brown locks.

The man was taller than Luke, his shoulders so wide they nearly filled out the whole doorframe and clad in a well worn, brown leather jacket that brought out his eyes perfectly. The most remarkable thing about the stranger however, other than his breathtakingly good looks, was the grey and black baby carrier strapped to his front, out of which peeked just the tip of a bright green, knitted hat with frog ears. The child inside had to be exceptionally tiny if all that could be seen from it was the very top of his head.

”Hi”, the stranger said and his deep, raspy voice gave Luke pleasant chills. Sticking out his hand, the man added: “My name’s Din Djarin, I’m here about the empty rooms you advertised.”

Luke suddenly became painfully aware that he’d been staring at the handsome stranger – open-mouthed no less – for quite a while now and scrambled to collect his wits back together to breathlessly answer:

”Yes, rooms, right.” He reached out to grasp at the other’s hand and briefly shake it. The other’s palm was warm, his grip was pleasantly firm and Luke was both very glad and very disappointed when the contact had to end again. “How do you Luke, my name’s do.”

GOD FUCKING DAMN IT, SKYWALKER YOU USELESS BIG GAY DISASTER!

A brief, amused smile flashed over the other’s attractive features and Luke felt like melting on the spot. If out of embarrassment or attraction was anyone’s guess. Stepping aside, he abashedly mumbled:
”Please come in.”

While he led the man – Din Djarin, he’d said, right? – through the hallway to the kitchen, he noticed him taking in his surroundings with efficient yet subtle keenness. Luke hid another pleasant shiver with a cough as he slipped into his chair at the kitchen table.

Refusing an applicant for liking them too much would be a first, right?, he pondered while Din Djarin sank down into the chair opposite his, very careful not to jostle the baby in its carrier. There was a brief, awkward silence while Luke hastily ordered the papers on his table and clicked around on his laptop to reopen the right programs. All of a sudden, his head snapped up, eyes growing wide.

”Oh, can I offer you anything? Coffee, tea or anything for-…” His eyes had wandered down towards the tiny baby strapped to the man’s chest before he could chide himself stupid. What could he even have offered a child that young anyway!? The little guy could consume nothing but milk!

Suddenly, it occurred to Luke that the child had to have a mother too. Where was she? Why did the father come alone? Was he aware of how limited the space he was applying for would be? The size and number of the rooms had been stated in the advertisements, but some of the others had been surprised by them. Luke started to feel anxious if this was about to work out at all. Not because he’d have to come up with another way to make money if it didn’t, that he’d totally forgotten about by now. All he worried about now was if things were to work out with this man in particular.

”We don’t need anything”, Din Djarin answered easily. “Thank you though. And thank you for having me- us, and so late in the day too. I couldn’t make it earlier, I hope you don’t mind.”

”Not at all”, Luke replied distractedly, finally done reorganising himself and able to turn his full attention towards his visitor. “I have to ask though-…”

He interrupted himself at ruffling noise coming from below and he and Din Djarin surprisedly cast their eyes towards the floor. Artoo had, unnoticed by them, left his spot on the couch, made his way into the kitchen and was now walking around Din Djarin’s legs, nuzzling up his face against the man’s shin. With a smirk, Djarin put one hand on the baby carrier to keep it stable and reached the other out to gently stroke the cat’s ears.

”I’m sorry, you were saying?”, he said after a short while, brown eyes skipping back up to curiously look at Luke.

“Yes, uhm-“, Luke began, once again quite distracted by the endearing display and tearing his eyes away. “I was wondering… your kid-…”

Djarin sat up straight again, his face gone blank. Luke almost physically shrank away under that sharp look.

”Yes, what about him?”, the man asked with a defensive undertone.

”Nothing’s wrong, don’t worry, I just want us to be on the same page upfront”, Luke assured quickly.

”If it’s a problem that I have a kid-“

”Oh no no no no, nothing of the sort! But you see, there’s only two free rooms and a bathroom and none of the rooms are very big and-“

”We don’t need much space”, Djarin responded with a shrug. “At least not yet. I might look for something bigger when Grogu’s older. Right now, all I need is a permanent home for us.”

”Grogu, is that his name?”, Luke asked curiously and with a smile towards the little guy. “It’s quite unusual, how did you come up with it?”

”I didn’t.”

”Oh, so his mother picked it?”

”No… maybe, I don’t know.”

Luke was confused, but it was clear to him that the personal questions made the man in front of him uncomfortable, so he decided to quickly move on. They talked a bit about the rooms themselves, the exact price, cold and warm, and the living arrangements. Throughout their conversation, Luke gathered that Din had lived in his car for a while, that he still currently didn’t have a permanent residence, but was sleeping on a colleague’s couch. Those were the only personal details his mysterious opposite was willing to share for the moment.

After the talk, which went over smoothly, Luke led Din up the stairs to the attic rooms.

“If you want…”, he said timidly and with a look towards the baby, which hadn’t made one sound the entire time and was, from the looks of it, still sleeping soundly, “you could uhm, I don’t know, put him to sleep in my room, while we go upstairs?”

It was probably a stupid suggestion coming from a complete stranger, and Luke wasn’t at all surprised when Din pointedly declined while putting a protective hand over the carrier.

To get to the attic, they had to climb a two-parted set of stairs which were tugged away into a windowless corner of the house and led up to a narrow door. It opened into an equally narrow, square-shaped hallway. The first door to the right hand led to a very small bathroom. Even so, on top of the essentials it included a bathtub that doubled as a shower, which took up the little space’s entire back wall and was separated from it with a teal plastic curtain.

The door right opposite the entrance led into the master bedroom. The only thing making it the master bedroom was its comparatively larger size. It featured a metal framed, queen sized bed, which had been there as long as Luke remembered; an equally old, but still fully functional TV and a plain dresser.

The final room they looked at was the one on the left, led to by a door on a wall that stood askew to the entrance. The space behind it was tiny and looked even smaller thanks to an old, dusty, empty bookshelf and a demolished, cushioned chair. The room was tugged right into the corner of the roof and therefore had roof slopes on two sides. There was only one window, a little skylight, on the slanting wall opposite the door.

When Luke had pictured taking in a tenant, he thought this space could be used as office space, since the bedroom hardly left any opportunity for that. Now that he watched Din step in and take the space in thoughtfully, it was clear to him what he was picturing. This was to be the nursery, and truly, Luke couldn’t imagine a better use for it. He himself already contemplated in which corner to put a crip or where the room left space for a changing table.

”If you want-“, he began, shyly shutting his mouth when Din’s head snapped around right away to look at him. “Uhm- my, my mom probably has some of our old baby stuff still tugged away somewhere. She’d have thrown it away by now but my dad’s a bit sentimental about this kinda stuff. I’m sure he’d part with it though if I tell him I’m gifting it to someone who actually needs it. There’s at least one crip and a changing table among it, if I recall correctly. They’re likely pretty gaudy 90’s fashion, I hope you don’t mind that. If you’re still looking for this kinda stuff, you could use some of them to furnish this room.”

There was a twitch in Din’s handsome face, something like surprise momentarily slackening his stiff expression and brightening his eyes. Then, the next second, it was gone again.

”If you decide to give me the rooms that is?”, he said, his tone aiming at light but with a noticeable tightness underneath.

”The rooms are yours, if you want them”, Luke stated without ado. “They’ve been yours since you got here. I’ve interviewed a ton of people all day and wouldn’t want any of them as a tenant, other than you.”

The surprise was now open and evident on Din’s face, though it quickly made space again to show his gratitude.

“That’s… thank you. I really can’t thank you enough. For the furniture too, that would be a great help.”

”Great”, breathed Luke and reached out a hand towards Din with a timid smile. Din shook it with a first, true smile of his own.
“It’s a deal then.”

Chapter Text

„Aw shit!“

With a gritted out curse, Luke dropped his phone back on the nightstand and jumped out of bed. In the chair standing in the corner by the window, Artoo sleepily raised his head, blinking at his hasty owner and no doubt thinking he‘d gone mad from the way he dashed out of the covers as if stung by a bee, before going back to sleep like he‘d never been interrupted.

Luke ripped open his closet and grabbed the first items of clothing that vaguely said ‚business casual‘ before running off again towards the en-suite. After taking what was probably the shortest shower of his life, he struggled into the clothes and stuck his toothbrush between his teeth for about ten seconds before spitting most of the toothpaste into the sink and running off again.

“Bye Artoo, be a good boy!“, he yelled before drawing his bedroom door shut. Artoo barely twitched an ear in response.
Oversleeping and running late on the first day of the new school year was just Luke‘s luck. It had only been by little more than half an hour, but that half hour would no doubt come biting him in the ass on his way to work. On his first workday of the semester, Luke would have preferred to take his time and enjoy the morning before leaving the house, but that was off the table if he wanted to catch the train with which he‘d still be somewhat on time.

Stumbling down the stairs he contemplated what food he had available to quickly wolf down so he could pack his bag and double check that he hadn‘t forgotten anything, to then stop dead in his tracks at the foot of the stairs upon seeing light falling into the hallway from the kitchen.

Oh… right.

His new living situation was still fresh enough to have Luke forget it at times. And to have him and Din still be a little awkward around each other. Biting his lip, Luke closed in on the ajar kitchen door, slower and more considerate than before. Careful not to make too much noise, he pushed it open and took a peek inside.

Din was standing at the stove with his back towards Luke, only wearing jeans and a white tank top, bare toes curling on the cold kitchen floor. He was holding Grogu in the crook of his left arm while with the right, he was stirring a wooden spoon through what was most likely milk formula inside a pot on the stovetop. Grogu was cushioned between his neck and shoulder, the tiny baby‘s bare head peeking above his father‘s muscular back just enough so that Luke caught a glimpse of his wispy, ash-blond hair. Din was slightly rocking him back and forth while humming quietly and stirring the spoon in time with the rhythm.

Luke wasn‘t quite sure if the noise about to leave his throat was a coo or something even more embarrassing and he wasn‘t about to risk it. Clearing his throat to not startle his tenant, he fully pushed the door open and stepped inside the room. Din didn‘t react to this, nor did he show any indication that he was startled by Luke‘s appearance. Luke had already noticed that Din had crazy acute senses and therefore wasn‘t bewildered by it. If anything, he found it pretty attractive, but that was neither here nor there.

“Good morning“, Luke greeted him and crossed the room to open the fridge.

„Mornin‘“, Din mumbled back, barely bothering to interrupt his humming. „Your fridge’s not draining properly. I‘ve made some toast, if you want one.“

“Oh…“ Luke turned to look at the toaster, one slice of bread, just the right side of burnt, still sticking out the top of it. „Thanks.“

He moved to grab and spread some butter and jam on it while Din‘s continuous humming and Grogu‘s ever present little baby noises provided a soothing background, making Luke nearly forget the hurry he‘d been in just a few seconds ago. It was true, him and Din were still a bit awkward around each other, but these mornings together was something Luke found he had no trouble getting used to.

“You‘re up quite early“, he commented as soon as he scarfed down his breakfast and washed the drops of jam off his hands. Din only hummed noncommittedly in response. „Did the little guy wake you?“

“Yeah, but it was about time for me anyway“, replied the other man while shrugging his free shoulder. He gave Luke a quick side-glance. „First day back today?“

“Yes!“, answered Luke immediately and then blushed at his overeager response. It was a rarity to have Din take the initiative during a conversation and he wasn‘t going to drop the opportunity if he could help it. To hell with his alarm clock, why did he have to run late today of all days!? „Yeah, today‘s the first day back to school and…“, he glanced at his watch and cringed, „I need to leave in a few minutes or I‘ll be late.“

Din only nodded his head in response, then turned to pour the warm milk in Grogu‘s bottle, effectively putting their conversation to an end. Luke stood there for a moment, unsure, mentally as well as physically swaying back and forth between saying something else or leaving immediately as he knew he should.

“Have a good day“, he choked out and quickly left the kitchen. While he was packing his bag, he chided himself through gritted teeth. Dang it, he wasn‘t a rampant, horny teenager anymore, he should be able to talk to his – stupidly attractive – tenant without getting so nervous. If Leia or aunt Ahsoka got even the slightest idea of how he‘d acted back there, he‘d never hear the end of it.

Luke‘s first day back at work sure was interesting. The first two hours or so he found it hard to concentrate on his classes, thinking about Din and wondering what it would be like to get back home and have someone be there waiting for him. Of course it turned out he‘d forgotten his notes for two of his classes while packing. Annoyed with himself and his preoccupied mind, he simply had his students do some first-day-back ‚introductory‘ games and promised himself that he would start from now on to pack his bag every evening in preparation for the next day, while fully knowing this good resolution would maybe last two weeks at most.

Thankfully, his lack of focus didn‘t last the entire day. When midday rolled around, he was able to pull himself back together and dedicate himself to his work again. During his lunch break, Leia called.

„And, how‘s the first day back going?“

„Fine so far“, Luke replied mechanically while pressing the phone to his ear with his shoulder, rifling through the notes for his next class with one hand and stirring a spoon through his coffee with the other.

„We haven‘t even talked about him yet, but how‘s that roommate of yours treating you so far?“

„He‘s my tenant, not my roommate“, Luke corrected her pointedly. „It‘s going well, I guess, we‘re still getting used to each other.“

“You said he has a kid, right? Mother was so excited our old baby stuff would be put to some good use, it almost felt like a broad hint at Han and I.“

“Yeah, his foster son, though he’s going through the adoption process right now, about one to two months old I would guess.“

“Damn, and he‘s raising him all by himself?“

„He told me he has a lot of irons in the fire that could take on babysitting while he‘s at work at the garage. He‘s taken a bit of time off for the move.“

„That‘s not quite what I was getting at.“

For the lack of a physically present twin sister he could scrutinize, Luke squinted into thin air.
“What‘s that supposed to mean?“

„Really, Luke, and here I thought you had brains. I‘m asking you if the hot dad living in your attic is single.“

Since Luke wasn‘t entirely alone in the faculty lounge, he had to bite back on the loud groan threatening to escape him.

“Le-ia“, he warned her, purposefully dragging every vocal in her name. „Don‘t get started on this, okay?“

„Why? Is he that unattractive?“

„No.“

The response had come out of him way too abrupt and decisive and Luke closed his eyes in expectation of the response it would inevitably prompt from his sister.

„Aaaaah, I see how it is“, she said and Luke could practically hear her shit-eating grin through the phone. He sighed dourly.

„Leia, please don‘t.“

„So what, he‘s a hottie, where‘s the problem?“

„Never said there was a problem.“

„And yet I can tell there‘s something up with you. Twin telepathy and all.“

„More like projection. Ever since Biggs and I broke up, you and Ahsoka have been trying to hook me up with every guy in my proximity that could string more than two sentences together.“

„Nah, my standards aren‘t that high.“

„You haven‘t even seen Din yet once!“

„Which can be easily remedied. What would you say, I pick you up from school today and give you a ride home? Then I can take a good look at my future brother in law myself.“

„I hate you.“

“Aw, love you too, Wormy! Have a good day, see you later!“

Luke would have rather drunk bleach straight from the bottle than admit this to his sister, but he was secretly very excited for her to meet Din. He‘d wondered what she would think of him from the moment he first met the guy. The dark look he gave in response to her beaming face as her little red car – ‚Lola’, as she affectionately referred to it – pulled into the school parking lot that afternoon, was therefore mostly for show.

“Don‘t start“, he warned her with a pointed look as he climbed in and buckled the seatbelt.

“I didn’t say anything!“, Leia protested without even bothering to wipe the annoying look off her face.

She let out a low whistle when she pulled into his driveway some time later, looking at the shiny silver car parked in the other spot in front of the garage.

“Is that his?“

Luke, who‘d already done his fair share of admiring the car himself, nodded his head.
“Yeah, 1988 Razor Crest. He told me he practically built it himself from scratch.“

“Ooooh, father‘s going to LOVE him! You‘ve got to introduce them as soon as he and mother return from their cruise vacation.“

Luke decided to ignore that comment and slipped out of the car.
“Be careful not to make too much noise in the hallway, the baby might be asleep“, he warned her over his shoulder as he unlocked his front door.

“What, do you take me for a barbarian or something?“

“Leia.“

“Alright alright, I‘ll be as meek as a mouse, you won‘t even know I‘m there.“

“Somehow I doubt that very much“, he sighed but still opened the door to let her in first. The house laid empty and quiet in front of them.

“Now, where did you hide him?“, asked Leia in a subdued tone, eyes twinkling at her brother. Luke gave her a warning look as he dropped his briefcase by the door and slipped out of his jacket.

“He might be upstairs. I will not call him down so you can ogle him, just so we‘re clear.“

“I‘m not going to ogle him! You said I could meet him!“

“I said no such-“
Before Luke could end his angry retort, he was interrupted by a small clinking noise coming from the kitchen. The turning of Leia‘s head told him she‘d heard it as well and before he could stop her, she‘d already crossed the hallway and opened the door. After a brief moment of silence, during which she‘d taken in whatever was in there, she turned her head to grin at Luke even more broadly than before, her eyes seeming to say ‘You need to see this!‘. Oh oh.

Luke came rushing over right as his sister fully slipped into the room, taking in whatever it was she had seen over her shoulder.
Somebody had taken all the food out of his fridge, spread it over the kitchen floor and moved the appliance halfway through the room. The noises Leia and he had heard came from behind the fridge; somebody was clearly tinkering around behind it.

„Uh… Din?“, Luke asked hesitantly.

„Yeah“, said the well-known voice and Din‘s serious, handsome face appeared from behind the fridge. He stood up, wiping his hands on a kitchen towel as he made his way through the room. „I‘m sorry, I meant to get this done and have the mess cleaned up before you got home“, he said with a gesture towards the food scattered all over the floor and the moved fridge, as if what he said was meant to be an explanation for the state of it all. „I didn‘t expect you back so early.“

“My sister drove me home“, said Luke, his voice flat and his gaze locked more on Din than the disarrayed state of his kitchen. Then, he suddenly seemed to recollect himself and said hastily while gesturing at Leia: „I‘m sorry, this is my twin sister Leia. Leia, this is my tenant Din.“

Leia shook Din‘s outstretched hand, visibly amused, though Luke also noticed the way in which she intently scanned the man in front of her. He felt both annoyed and curious as to her thoughts of him. Her eyes flickered between Din and the food on the floor, which swayed Luke‘s attention towards that direction too.

“Uhm…“, he said intelligently, gesturing at the mess. „May I ask what exactly you were doing here just now?“

Din moved to glance in the direction he was pointing. When he turned back around, Luke was surprised to see a faint hint of a blush on his cheeks.

“Your fridge was leaking“, he said, like it explained everything. Luke‘s mouth opened and closed on unsaid words, as he had no idea what to reply to that information. Leia looked from one of them to the other, visibly trying to hold back laughter.

“Yes… so it does, I guess…“, Luke said after a short, but painfully awkward silence. Din shrugged.

“I fixed it.“

“You-… what?“

“I fixed it.“

Luke frowned and went to look at the fridge, stepping over the food spread on the floor to open it. The drain at the back, which had, in fact, been leaking for the past couple of months, no matter how well he‘d cleaned it, was empty and so pristine, it almost made the old fridge look freshly bought. Luke turned to gape at his tenant.

“But… why- how-… what?“

“It was a defective cable joint that caused it“, Din explained calmly. „I fixed it. It shouldn‘t cause you any more issues now.“

That wasn‘t quite the response Luke had been looking for, but he was saved from needing to stammer out something else anyway as the baby phone, which Din had put on the kitchen counter, made itself noticeable with a shrill, tinny wail. Din looked at it, alarmed, then down at the mess he‘d left on the floor and back to Luke.

“I‘m sorry“, he repeated, looking truly mortified. „I really meant to clean it up before you came-“

“That‘s- that‘s okay, no big deal. Go and take care of him, I‘ll clean it up.“

Din made an unwitting motion, a hesitant step of his foot towards the door before his uncertain gaze met Luke‘s again, as if his instincts as a father were fighting a heavy battle with his good manners.
“You‘re really sure?“

Luke nodded, forcing himself to look as decisive as possible.
“I am. Go.“

With two last nods, a grateful one at Luke, then a parting one at Leia, he left the room with a few large strides. Leia waited with saying anything until they‘d heard his quick steps disappear up the staircase, not letting the spot where he‘d slipped through the door out of her keen eyes the entire time.

“Well…“, she interrupted the charged silence he‘d left behind, and the sound made Luke flinch as if she‘d clapped her hands right at his face. „That sure was… something.“

Luke didn‘t look at her as he made quick work to put the food on the floor back into the fridge. He only addressed her again when he attempted to put it back into its proper place.
“Can you help me with this?“

She did and together they moved it back into the slot between the wall and the counter.

They didn‘t speak a word about what had happened until Luke had accompanied her back to the entrance door, where she turned around to ask him:
“You didn‘t ask him to do this, did you?“

He wordlessly shook his head. Leia snorted out loud, looking over towards the staircase where Din had gone upstairs earlier.“That man sure is a marvel. And not hard on the eyes either.“

“Leia“, Luke warned her again, feeling a headache building behind his forehead.

“What?“

“Don‘t ‚what?‘ me, you know what you‘re doing! Din‘s my tenant and you‘re being inappropriate.“

“Oh, don‘t tell me you wouldn‘t like getting ‚inappropriate‘ with him!“

“I‘m not going to answer that.“

“Which is as good as a ‚yes‘.“ She grinned. „And if it‘s anything to you, you have my wholehearted blessing.“

“It doesn‘t“, Luke deadpanned, which they both knew was a lie. „You‘re totally off anyway. I‘m pretty sure Din doesn‘t even remotely like me that way. You‘ve seen yourself how distant he acts around me.“

Leia stared at him for a prolonged moment, then burst into laughter. She laughed so hard, she doubled over and had to support herself with a hand on Luke‘s lower arm.

“Oh Luke, for someone as smart as you, you can be so dense.“ She lightly patted his cheek before leaving through the door, still giggling to herself. He looked after her, frowning with confusion.

Chapter Text

„Agh… ¡joder!“

Din groaned and rolled over the floor onto his side. His left hand, the one that wasn‘t currently being squished between his body and the box ring floor, came up to inspect his jaw, where he felt pain throb in time with his elevated heartbeat.

“You‘re unfocused.“

He turned to glare up at his opponent. Paz Visla still had his bulky arms raised in a stance that allowed both defense and attack, the austere look in his eyes seeming to reprimand Din for slackening.

„Yeah, might have something to do with you hitting me“, retorted Din dryly as he struggled back up onto his knees.

“Before that, bonehead.“ Despite his harsh words, Paz reached out, offering Din a hand to help him up. Din lightly swatted it away, got back up on his feet by himself, and reverted back into the same stance as Paz, his head ducked and balled fists raised up to his face. He swung out one arm. Paz dodged it easily and threw a well-aimed blow at his chest, sending Din flying back against the brink of the box ring, wheezing as the hit had straight punched the air out of him. Paz stood over him, looking frustrated.
“What‘s gotten into you? You‘re more agile and faster than me, normally you would have put up a better fight.“

“It‘s nothing“, Din evaded and went to attack Paz again. Once again, the other effortlessly evaded all of his hits before bringing him to his knees with three simple blows and put him into a headlock.

“It‘s not the kid“, said Paz behind Din’s ear, huffing a little from the effort of keeping him locked in in spite of his struggles. „If anything, your fighting has improved since you got him. It‘s something else. Or someone?“

With a grunt, Din abruptly pulled himself out of the other’s muscled grip, ducked to the ground and swept a leg at his feet to knock him down on his ass. This time it was Paz’s turn to wheeze as the air was knocked out of his lungs. Before he could attempt to get up again, Din had put a foot on his chest, pinning him down.

“Happy?“, he asked, bitter and out of breath. After a bit of struggling, Paz went limp underneath him to signal his surrender. Two or three people outside the box ring clapped, as the two friends‘ fight had drawn in some onlookers. Din pulled his foot off of Paz again and reached out a hand to help him sit up before turning to walk towards his gym bag in the ring‘s corner, out of which he pulled a water bottle and his phone.

“Did you tell him?“

Din didn‘t bother to look up from his phone when he sensed Paz leaning onto the box-ring next to him, scrutinising him from the side.
“Tell who what?“, he asked back snappishly. He knew that playing dumb would never get the other to drop the subject, but the quiet irritation radiating off of him at his response was almost just as good.

“The Skywalker boy“, Paz retorted flatly. „Did you tell him what your job here used to be, when you moved into his house?“

„There was no need for that.“

“No need, huh?“, Paz repeated, eyebrows shooting up into his hairline.

“Since I don‘t work for Mandalore anymore, I didn‘t feel it was important.“

“You really think you can just quit in this line of work? Go about your life without the past ever catching up with you again?“

“What‘s it to you anyway?“, Din snarled. „You thought my change of career was a mistake anyway. Why do you care if I tell him the truth?“

“I don‘t.“ Paz took a step back, eying him. „But believe it or not, I do care about you and your kid. You‘re risking your residence, if this is revealed to him another way. And you know that you can‘t keep the boy if you don‘t have a secure place to live.“

“Thanks for reminding me.“ Din‘s voice was as much filled with sarcasm as his straightforward way of talking allowed. He crouched down to put his things back into his bag and swung it over his shoulder as he got up again, looking expectantly at his friend. „Anything else you‘d like to warn me about?“

Paz held his gaze, looking displeased, then let out an annoyed grunt.
“Fine, do it your way then, I did what I could. Just do yourself a favour and don‘t get too attached to Skywalker. Or at least not more than you already are, for your own good.”

Din narrowed his eyes at him. ”What’s that supposed to mean?”

Paz looked at him as if he was being deliberately slow-witted, a look which Din had gotten a lot from him growing up in the orphanage. The look was usually followed with an exasperated snort and head shake and this time was no exception.
”You’re a hopeless, sappy dumbass, do you know that? Have you seen the way your whole face softens whenever the guy is mentioned? It’s kinda gross, honestly.”

Din made a motion to move away but was stopped by Paz closing a hand around his arm.

”I’m not done yet.”

”But I am”, snapped Din. “Leave me alone, I don’t need your alleged concern.”

”That’s what you might think, but I don’t think you’re actually realizing how thin the ice really is you are treading on. And I’m not just talking about the guild.” Paz sighed. “Let’s assume Skywalker accepted you along with your baggage, what do you think his family will say if they find out? And with their connections, they will find out as soon as they know you’ve associated yourself with him. This whole arrangement is a time bomb about to detonate at a moment’s notice.”

”Done now?”

Without waiting for an answer, Din pulled himself out of Paz’s grip with a jerk of his arm and stormed out of the gym, not bothering to turn around again. Paz looked after him, concern filling his eyes.

Luke wasn’t there when Din returned from picking up Grogu after the gym. The tiny baby had fallen asleep on the car ride back and was still slumbering peacefully in his carrier when his foster father dropped the keys by the door and slipped out of his leather jacket. His gaze fell onto the big, round, grey cat that was lounging on the corner of the couch and peeking past the open living room door. Artoo was blinking back at him and Grogu curiously.

”Hey there”, said Din softly, picked up the carrier and strolled over to lightly scratch behind the cat’s ears. Artoo closed his eyes, seeming to enjoy the attention, and stretched his neck into the touch. “You wouldn’t know where Luke is, would you?”, Din carried on to whisper. Artoo purred appreciatively instead of answering, then decided he’d had enough and drew his head back before jumping off the couch and disappearing into another part of the house.
”Yeah, didn’t think so”, Din mumbled to himself, then, with a look at the sleeping baby, quickly made his way towards the stairs.

It was high time to get Grogu out of the carrier and into bed, and for himself to get into a shower. He didn’t have time to wash himself after the gym before he needed to pick up the kid from I.G. – a former colleague of Din‘s, who had now found his calling as a professional baby sitter and was rather meticulous about time slots – and he felt rather gross. He just hoped Grogu would stay asleep long enough so that he could actually enjoy the shower without having to cut it short.

Reaching the little nursery, he gingerly took Grogu out of the carrier and painstakingly changed him into his little pyjamas, thankfully without waking him.

”There you go, buddy”, he whispered as he carefully lowered the child down into his little crib. Grogu babbled a little in his sleep but didn’t stir otherwise. Din looked at him for a long moment with a blank expression.

An outside observer might question if he even liked who he was looking at, if he was able to bear the heartwarming sight of this innocent, sleeping baby without fawning or cooing over it. Din wasn’t the type of person however to wear his heart on his sleeve or even his face. Maybe it had been losing his own parents so early in life to a gang shooting or the long time after that he’d spent in foster care, being handed from one lonely, uncaring household to the next, that had taught him to keep his emotions tugged away deeply, reluctant to let them show.

Be it as it may, he loved this little boy, with all his damaged, bleeding heart; loved him with a fierce intensity that, with him being so entirely unused to parental feelings, sometimes scared himself, and he would fight tooth and nail, until his very last breath, against anyone who dared coming between them. He reached out a hand to slightly smooth over the soft material of Grogu’s little onesie, before straightening out of his crouched position and quickly leaving the darkened room, drawing the door shut. He didn’t bother tiptoeing or anything, as his walk was naturally pretty much noiseless – a holdover from the old days.

He went into the bedroom, pulling at his jumper to struggle it over his head and dumping it into the basket on top of the rest of his dirty laundry. He vaguely wondered where Luke was. It was the weekend, so the younger man most likely wasn’t at work, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about going out either that morning.

The next moment, Din was annoyed at himself for letting his thoughts drift towards his landlord so naturally, after the argument he had with Paz today.

He couldn’t help it. Luke… preoccupied him, for the lack of a better word. Whenever he wasn’t thinking about Grogu – which, to be fair, wasn’t very often these days – he was wondering about Luke. The young man was rather different from anyone else Din knew, though in what way exactly, he couldn’t quite tell. Maybe it was the fact that he’d rented out these rooms to them so unquestioningly, with so much determination, as if fate had made that decision for him.

He was kind of a strange fellow, that much was for sure. Din didn’t have the feeling he got him quite figured out yet, and in some odd way, he liked that. He was used, by his previous line of work, to see through people immediately and recognise them for what they were and what they wanted from him. Not so much with Luke. From the little time they’d spent together until know, Din gathered he could be nervous and timid and other times twirly and playful, he could be moody and quiet as well as outgoing and bubbly. His many faces seemed to change on a whim, and even so, he was never unfriendly. He gave Din both the feeling of never knowing what to expect, while also somehow being reliable, an interesting combination for his current state of living.

The distant sound of the front door opening and closing, as well as Luke’s voice cheerfully talking with Artoo made Din snap out of his thoughts. He realised with a grumpy huff that he had been standing there like an idiot, staring into nothing, probably for minutes on end, thinking about his landlord while he had meant to undress and take a shower. Pulling the white tank top over his head and letting it join his jumper in the laundry basket, he promised to himself not to uselessly ponder around so much anymore and waste precious time while the baby was asleep. Making the most of every minute he had to himself while Grogu was this small and dependent was a lesson he’d learned fairly early on into his new life as a working single father, and which had been reiterated to him over and over again by every piece of advice he’d gotten his hands on since, which had been quite a lot.

”You’d want to rest while he’s resting”, Cassian had told him with a crooked smile that had a certain melancholic humor to it and spoke of countless sleepless nights followed by caffeinated mornings. He and Din had lived at the same foster home for a while until Cass had ended up being adopted, and he’d been one of the very few people from that time that Din had actually, willingly kept in contact with. A fact he was now insanely thankful for, as Cassian was also one of the rather slim number of parents he knew and had been able to give advice where and when Din needed it most desperately. Sure, he had Bix and wasn’t a single parent, like Omera, but he was a father with a troubled past, who needed to overcome a lot in order to be the best parent for his kid, and related to Din a lot more in that way than Omera ever could, as willing and able to help him out as she might be otherwise. Cass‘s son had recently started primary school, while Winta, Omera’s daughter, had entered third grade this fall. Din knew they would have loved to help him out way beyond the good tips on childcare they were able to give, but he’d refused not entirely out of pride. While they all managed to make end’s meet just fine, they weren’t wealthy either and what little they had, they devoted entirely to their children, which Din now understood better than ever. It was best the way it was now, with him earning his own money in this new, marginally more honest way and with his own roof over his head. Well, sort of his own roof.

As if the thought had summoned him, following a brief knock the door to Din’s room was opened and Luke stepped in.

”Hey Din, I-“ The young man cut himself off abruptly and when Din turned, he found that his landlord was looking at him wide-eyed, his cheeks flushed a bright pink. “I-I-I’m so sorry, I should have knocked- I mean I did knock, but I shouldn’t have bared in- I mean barged in like this- sorry!”

Luke had closed the door and fled down the stairs before Din could even get a word in. For a short moment, he was a little confused as to what had caused the younger man to get so flustered, until he realized that he was still in the process of undressing for the shower and had been standing in the middle of his room the whole time without a shirt on. Shaking his head over his own dawdling, he snatched some fresh change of clothes out of his dresser and disappeared into the bathroom.

“Shhh shhhh, it’s okay buddy, it’s okay, don’t cry, I’m here, I’m here”, Din repeated for what felt like the millionth time that night. His eyes burnt from unshed, frustrated tears, as well as the need to sleep. He blinked both away as he kept bouncing his right side up and down mechanically while his left hand struggled to screw the lid onto a bottle of baby formula.

Grogu wouldn’t stop crying. Hadn’t for the past two hours. Din had fed him, changed him, cleaned him, rocked him in his arms, nothing had helped. They were on the second bottle of formula and he was starting to lose all hope. Pressing one unshaved cheek against the tiny, flushed head resting against his shoulder, he whispered into fine baby hair:

”What is it, buddy? What do you need? I’ll get you anything you want, I’ll do anything for you, just, please stop crying.”

Grogu, of course, neither understood, nor listened to him and kept his shrill wailing on without interruption. Din let out something of a sob himself when he failed another attempt at closing the bottle and decided to give up on it altogether, opting to simply walk up and down the little kitchen while lightly patting the baby’s back, hoping against all hope that it would serve to finally calm him down.

”I know, I know”, he mumbled against the top of Grogu’s head, not bothering anymore to hold back his own tears. They filled his eyes and dripped down his cheeks in large droplets.

He couldn’t even remember the last time he actually cried, though he assumed he’d have to have been around eight or nine. He recalled that he’d been in an orphanage at the time and assumed it had had something to do with another kid. There had been this one older boy who’d been especially cruel to him, but he couldn’t recall his name for the life of him, not that it mattered. That had been before he’d met Paz at another group home, who‘d then become somewhat of his protective older brother. Back then, Din had hated the kid who’d bullied him, but when he had become a bounty hunter, he was almost grateful he’d quite literally punched the need to cry for his mother out of him. Today, Din’s feelings towards him were a little more complex. He wondered what the kid’s story had been and if the need to torture the younger children at the orphanage had stemmed from his own frustrations about not getting adopted. Din briefly wondered what had become of him, if he’d been adopted after he himself had left the orphanage and for a split second he tried picturing him as an adult, maybe in an office job, still terrorizing and tormenting others, only now in a slightly more respectable and mature way.

His thoughts were quickly pulled back to the crying child in his arms though. Grogu screamed uninterruptedly against his shoulder, where a damp spot had formed out of tears, snot and drool. Din closed his eyes, feeling more tears escape him, as he did his best to keep the rest of his sanity together.

”I’m sorry”, he told the baby in his arms with a choked up voice. “I’m sorry, I suck so badly at this. I’m sorry I’m all that you have. I know I’m doing a terrible job, but I’m trying… I thought the good will would be enough when I found you. I thought I could figure it out as I go. Dios, I’m such a shitty dad.”

“Din?”

Din whipped his head around, eyes wide, and found that Luke was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, fair hair tousled, wearing pyjamas and blinking sleepily against the ceiling light.

”Oh”, said Din intelligently. “What are you doing here?” He wouldn’t have bothered to cover the fact he’d been crying from Luke, had he even remembered. His head was filled with other thoughts, primarily of the distressed child in his arms. A distant part of his him though, the one that wasn’t short-circuiting because of sleep deprivation and parental panic, feared his landlord’s reaction to getting so rudely awakened by a wailing baby. He almost feared Luke would tell him to immediately pack his things and get the hell out of here, when Luke spoke up again, his voice still rough with sleep:

”I woke up and heard Grogu was crying and I got worried. Do you need help?”

”No”, Din answered automatically. Then, fearing to upset the other more than he already had to be, he added: “No, thank you Luke, you can go back to sleep, I can handle it.”

”You sure?”, asked Luke with a questioning look at the open bottle of formula on the counter.

”Yes, I’m sure”, Din replied firmly while propping the wailing baby a bit higher up his shoulder. “Good night.”

Despite his words, Luke stepped further into the room, not leaving the two of them out of his sight.

”It’s Monday tomorrow, you need your sleep for work”, Din kept on arguing, even as Luke took the open bottle and its lid off the counter. He tried screwing it on, but struggled to do so, frowning down at the two pieces. “The other way around”, instructed Din quietly. “You need to fully put it on and then screw it against the clock.”

”Ah, right”, said Luke and grinned when he managed to close the bottle. Handing it to Din, he wondered: “How do you even do that with one hand.”

”I don’t”, Din replied, too tired to keep fighting Luke’s continued presence, and offered the bottle to Grogu. The baby kept crying on for another second but then, miraculously, interrupted himself long enough to latch onto the rubber teat. Din could have sobbed again out loud out of sheer relief, happily bouncing the child in his arms as it continued to drink. He turned to Luke again. ”Thank you”, he said, his voice strained with fatigue and unshed tears, but Luke was already moving about again, bustling through the kitchen and apparently intent on preparing two cups of tea.

”Is camomile alright with you?”, was the next thing he said to Din after taking out two mugs, filling the kettle and bringing it to a boil, holding up a box of teabags with a contemplative expression. “It’s the only ones I have left, I’m afraid, I meant to fetch more at the store, but-“

”Camomile’s fine, but you really don’t need to-“

”Oh, just shut up”, said Luke, decisively but with an underlying smile. Din did as he was told as he watched him brew the tea, not having the energy to protest further anyway.
”I can take over Grogu for you when it’s cooled down a little so you can drink”, said Luke when it was done, carefully taking up his own mug. Then, as if he remembered something, he added: “Or I could carry it into the living room for you, so you can put Grogu onto your lap while you drink it. I know you don’t really like other people holding him.”

Din paused, stunned. Luke was apparently a lot more observant than he’d given him credit for.
”That’s alright, thank you”, he simply shrugged. The two of them sat down at the kitchen table and for a while, comfortable silence settled over them. Luke, unsurprisingly, was the first to break it:

“I don’t think you’re a shitty dad.”

Din flinched at the reminder of the words he’d spoken in his stressed state of mind, mere minutes ago. Clearing his throat and without looking at Luke, he awkwardly replied:

”Uh, yeah, thank you.”

”No, I mean it.” Luke sounded as if it was important to him that Din truly understood him. Leaning forward in his chair, he looked at Din until he raised his head to meet his gaze. The look in the other’s clear, blue eyes surprised him. He’d never seen him look so… mature, he was tempted to say. Not that he’d thought of Luke as particularly immature, but Din found it was the first time he recognised the other as possibly as experienced at life as he was. He realized that up until this point he had, if somewhat unconsciously, thought of him as some spoiled child living off of his parents’ money, without knowing what true struggle even was. Now he knew that was at least partially untrue.

”Yes, thank you, Luke.”

They fell quiet again and Grogu peacefully finished eating. He didn’t start crying again, thank God, and Din used the time while burping him to quickly chug down his own drink. It was still hot enough to char his throat, but he welcomed the sensation that had the advantage of banishing the tightness from before. After finishing, he stood up, Luke quickly following suit.

”I should get him to bed”, Din said, nodding down at Grogu who was now crashing from his tantrum and eating and had shut his eyes, resting against his father’s shoulder.

”Of course”, said Luke, a little breathlessly and nodded his head.

”Thanks again, Luke.”

”Don’t mention it.”

”No, I mean it.”

Luke huffed out a laugh at his own words being echoed back at him. He moved to turn back to his own room, when Din calling out made him pause.

”Luke.”
He turned, looking up at Din expectantly.
”… Good night.”

A complicated expression crossed Luke’s face like a shadow, but then he smiled as if it never been there at all.
”Good night, Din.”
And with that, he drew the door shut.

Chapter Text

“Hey Brown Eyes, can you come here for a sec?”

Din raised his head with surprise and propped his safety goggles up his forehead, instinctively turning off his welder. Across from him, on the other side of the red cabriolet they were currently working on, Miggs Mayfeld copied his movements, both of them looking towards the office adjacent to the little garage. Peli Motto was leaning out of the doorway, one hand on the handle, and looking at Din expectantly.

Miggs, who was still wearing his goggles, turned to smirk at Din.
”Ooooh, someone’s in trouble!”, he drawled as Peli slipped back into her office. Din huffed and pulled off his thick work gloves to throw one in Miggs’ direction. His coworker dodged it with a cackle.

When he entered the office, Peli wasn’t sitting at her cluttered work desk, but instead standing in the corner behind it and fiddling with the coffee maker.

”What is it, boss?”, he asked as he drew the door shut behind himself.

”Told you to quit calling me that, Djarin”, Peli snapped without much heat and turned around, holding up one steaming mug in each hand. “Just thought we should celebrate your comeback after the little hiatus. Sit down, take a doughnut.”
She nodded at the ancient swivel chair on the other side of her desk and the halfway opened, pale pink paper box laying in front of it on the tabletop.

“Huh, thanks”, said Din and curiously approached the box. It was from a local bakery and only contained two remaining doughnuts, one of which – a white powdered one filled with red jam – already had a bite taken out of it. Din picked one covered with dark chocolate frosting – Peli hated dark chocolate – and reached to receive his mug from her before sinking down into the chair. There was comfortable silence between them for a while as they sipped their coffees and munched on their doughnuts, faint noises from the workshop reaching them through the office door. From the fleeting glances she sneakily threw in his direction the entire time, Din couldn’t shake the feeling that his boss – which she very much was, despite her protestations – wanted to tell him something but for some reason just wouldn’t.

After a little while, Peli downed the rest of her coffee and let out a long, satisfied sigh before slumping back into her chair. She wordlessly looked at Din for a prolonged moment before speaking up again:

”Gotta say, t’s been pretty quiet without you here, Djarin. Or Grogu, for that matter. When you told me you were going to adopt him and asked me to watch him while you were at work until you found a babysitter, I thought ‘great, now he’s fully gone coo coo’. And here I am, missing the little bugger.”

She pulled a grimace, buffering her almost heartfelt confession with a healthy dose of humor and melodrama, just as he was used to from her. The thoughtful look on her face after dropping the mask though spoke of genuine melancholy and loneliness. Din smiled.

”You know you can come to visit and see him any time, right?”

”Yeah, but it’s not really the same.” She sighed gravely, then went right back to her usual, flippant self. “Not that I’m not happy that you got your own place and a real babysitter. Kuiil’s been pretty grouchy about being thrown out of bed in the middle of the night by a whining baby.”

Din chuckled, smiling fondly at the thought of his former colleague at the garage whose couch he‘d been crashing on right after unexpectedly taking in a newborn. Kuiil had finally gone into retirement during his move to Yavin.

”What’s the new place like, by the way?”, Peli went on with casual curiosity. “This landlord-slash-roommate of yours treating you right?”

He narrowed his eyes on her. She didn’t return his look, opting to fiddle with the empty doughnut container instead. Aha, so it seemed he’d found the true motivation behind this little get together. For all her good qualities, Peli had the bad habit of being nosier than what could be good for her. He would have rather quit the conversation at this point than cater to her appetite for gossip, but he knew that refusing to answer her questions would only nourish her illusions of mystery around the private lives of public figures, as well as amping up her interest in the topic.

“It’s alright”, he answered, deciding to only respond to the first question. “Rooms are a bit small, but that was expected for the price point. I’ll look for something bigger when Grogu gets older and I’ve saved up some more money.”

”When you told me you’d move in with a Skywalker”, said Peli and Din realized he might just as well not have said anything at all. “I almost didn’t believe you. It’s like living with a celebrity.”

He scoffed.
”Hardly.”

”Isn’t his mom a governor or something?”

”A senator. And that doesn’t automatically make him famous.”

“She and her daughter are on TV a lot though.”

”So?”

”So, what’s it like living with him? Did you get to meet any of his fancy friends yet?”

”I did meet his sister once, but all in all, he’s living pretty withdrawn. I know he’s still in contact with some of his old airforce friends, but other than that, he’s not exactly throwing a huge party every week, if that’s what you were thinking.”

He’d long grown tired of being questioned this way and was itching to get back to work. He almost feared – though he knew it was unlikely – that Peli would grill him about revealing his past as a bounty hunter to Luke, the same way Paz had. What he decidedly hadn’t expected was the next thing coming out of her mouth.

”And do you think he’s cute?”

Din blinked at her owlishly. ”Err, pardon?”

Now it was Peli‘s turn to scoff.
”Don’t act dumber than you are, Djarin, I know you swing both ways, so you should be able to tell.”

“I will definitely not give you his phone number, if that’s what you were hoping for.”

”Not for me, silly”, she scoffed and pointed a finger at him. He stared at her, for a second at a total loss for words.

”You‘re kidding”, he said as soon as he regained his speech.

”Oh I’m dead serious. You have a kid now, after all, you’ve already gone halfway domestic, why not fully commit to it? And it’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen you with anyone. Just go for it, it’d be good for you.”

Din jumped out of his chair as if it had burned him. ”I’m going back to work now”, he said decisively. “Thanks for the doughnut.”

“You’re welcome, and think about what I told you!”, she called after him as he practically stormed out of the room.

Luke had been lounging on the couch and grading his students’ homework on his laptop when Din returned after picking Grogu up from daycare. Artoo, who was sleeping rolled up at Luke‘s feet, lifted his head with a sleepy purr when the door to the living room got opened, blinked his eyes once, twice and then dropped his jaw over a giant cat yawn. Luke looked up at the disruption and gave a greeting smile.

Din was still in the grey overall he wore for work, loosely holding onto the handle of Grogu‘s car seat with his right hand and his keys in his left. There still was a smear of grease on his cheek and his broad shoulders were drooping suspiciously.

„Hello there. How was the first day back to business?“, Luke asked cheerily, speaking at a low volume in case Grogu had fallen asleep on the car ride.

“Hey“, Din huffed, even more monosyllabic than usual. He kept staring at Luke unwaveringly, his face flushed, thick eyebrows knitted and his brown eyes looking strangely distant.

“Anything wrong?“, asked Luke with a frown and started fidgeting around self-consciously. „Is there something on my face?“

His words seemed to snap Din out of whatever thoughts he‘d been lost in. He flinched and slightly shook his head like to get water out of his ears, before grumbling:

“No, sor-“
His sentence was cut short by Grogu loudly announcing his displeasure at waking up from out of the car seat still dangling off his father‘s arm. Slightly alarmed, Din lifted it up onto a side table.

“Hey, it‘s alright, buddy“, he mumbled as he unbuckled the tiny, whining baby. Grogu‘s face was already flushed a bright red and covered with tears beneath his fuzzy, white wool hat. „There you go…“

Din lifted the small child out of the carrier and lowered him onto his shoulder, slightly bouncing him up and down. His large, calloused hands handled the little baby with such care and tenderness that it warmed Luke‘s heart to watch. Meanwhile Grogu had broken out into an outright screaming fit and when Din turned around again, desperately patting his foster son‘s onesie-clad back, he looked at a complete loss.

“I-I need to go feed and change him“, he muttered awkwardly, eyes skipping towards the kitchen door. Without a moment‘s hesitation, Luke jumped up from the couch.

“Like hell you are, you need to take a break!“, he rushed out as he rapidly approached Din and stretched out his hands in an offer to take the baby from him. His tenant made an instinctive move, turning his shoulder towards Luke to put himself between his open arms and Grogu, but seemed to catch himself about halfway. He looked hesitant, contemplative. Luke, at first a little put off by the other’s defensive gesture, did his best to put on his most reassuring smile. „It‘ll be fine, I promise. I‘m not totally inexperienced around infants, I used to babysit while I was in Highschool. I admit, none of the kids I took care of were as young as Grogu, but I‘ve been around you long enough now to be able to watch him for an hour or two. You could relax a little after your workday and maybe take a shower. No offense, but you really need one.“

He grinned and crinkled up his nose as if to drive home his point. Din still looked at him with the same unmoved, unreadable expression, not moving for another long moment. Then, slowly but surely, he moved the shoulder he‘d propped Grogu onto around again to bring the child into view.

„You‘ll have to feed him. And maybe get him changed if I‘m not done by then.“

“I know“, Luke nodded, hands held up to receive the whimpering baby, but Din still didn‘t hand him over.

“You remember where everything is?“, he questioned anxiously. „His bottles, the formula? Diapers and clothes to change are in the upper and middle drawer in the little dresser in the nursery, the wipes are-“

“I know“, Luke pressed and stepped even closer, reaching his hands towards Grogu even more insistently. „I remember where everything is, you can trust me. And if I really don‘t find something, I‘ll just ask you, I promise. Everything will be fine.“

Another prolonged moment of silence.

“… Okay.“

Finally, Din reached out his arms and handed Grogu over to Luke, who accepted him with apt concentration and care. The boy was even lighter than Luke had expected going by his small frame. His wailing seemed to grow a bit louder and shriller as he was removed from his foster father‘s hold and lowered onto Luke‘s shoulder.

“Promise you‘ll come get me if anything‘s wrong“, Din emphasized, eyes fixed on Grogu‘s little face and his body moving towards the attic stairs only tentatively.

“I promise“, replied Luke, fondly rolling his eyes, but only internally. „There‘s no need to worry, just enjoy your time off.“

„Okay“, Din repeated, only backing towards the stairs in small intervals and never letting his son out of his eyes. Luke had to hold back a chuckle.

“Go!“, he urged the other gently and made a shooing motion. Din nodded his head and at last turned to face the stairs, but hesitated again when he‘d sat one foot onto it. He turned around to look at Luke.

“Thank you.“

“Don‘t mention it. Just go and take your shower.“

Din wasted no more time and climbed the staircase with swift steps. Luke looked after him until he was out of sight, before making his own way towards the kitchen, gently bouncing the crying child in his arms. Artoo jumped off the couch and silently followed after them.

“Awww, there there, little guy“, Luke cooed on his way through the hallway and caressed the distressed kid‘s back with soothing circle motions in an attempt to calm him. While warming the baby formula on the stove, he kept swaying in place and humming random melodies through closed lips, as he had seen Din do at times. It seemed to work, as Grogu‘s wails kept getting quieter and quieter until they were reduced to small whines and hiccups. His sops finally stopped altogether when he was offered the readied bottle of warm milk, as he latched onto it almost immediately and started to drink with rapid sips, his little hands coming up to clutch it like it was going to disappear if he didn‘t.

“There you go, good boy“, Luke praised, beaming down at the drinking child in his arms. It was the first time he was able to look at Grogu this up close. Din had made it clear, if not through words then definitely through actions and gestures, how much he disliked strangers or people too unfamiliar coming close to his foster son and Luke had always respected that boundary. He was all the more grateful that the other man trusted him enough now to allow him to take care of his kid, even if it was just for an hour. Now, looking at the small child, Luke couldn‘t help but curiously take in every detail.

He had to admit, had he not known that Grogu and Din weren‘t biologically related, he probably wouldn‘t have guessed it. The shock of wispy blonde, nearly white hair on Grogu‘s head would have been a hint. His eyes though, which were shut most of the time, but now that he was drinking were opened to bleary slits, were of such a mesmerizing dark brown, that they bore a striking resemblance to those of the man upstairs. Other than that, Grogu seemed a perfectly normal infant, the downy soft skin of his plump little face red from crying and screaming, his tiny hands with impossibly small white finger nails clutching at the milk bottle.

The only remarkable thing about him was how incredibly tiny he was. Luke had seen a handful of babies up close throughout his lifetime, including some newborns, and none of them had been as small as Grogu. He wondered if he had been a premature baby too, like him and Leia, and what had happened to his mother. Had she died while giving birth? How had he ended up with Din?

A little hiccup coming from Grogu brought Luke back to reality. He smiled, seeing as the bottle was already half empty and the baby was still going strong. He bounced him up a little.

“Good job, buddy!“

After that, they fell into silence again, which was only interrupted by Grogu‘s small drinking noises and the occasional meow from Artoo. Luke looked down at the boy in his arms, once again lost in his thoughts. Grogu had fully opened his eyes now, returning his gaze in the eerie, all-knowing and -seeing way only infants could.

“You‘re so tiny“, Luke mumbled and touched one little hand clutching at the bottle with his finger. The tip of his pointer finger nearly covered the entire back of Grogu‘s hand. His tiny fingers flexed at the touch. “No wonder your dad‘s so worried about you all the time“, he mused and started pacing around the kitchen absentmindedly. Artoo followed along with his steps, bushy tail raised and swaying back and forth like a flag in the wind. “I know what that feels like.“

He came to a halt by the window. Grogu‘s tiny face was bathed in the autumn sun‘s faint, milky light falling in. His eyes were about to fall shut again as he drank up the last bits in the bottle.

„Though I guess it‘s not so bad when you‘re a baby huh? You‘re really lucky to have him in your corner, you know. It‘s easy to tell how much he loves you.“
He caressed a knuckle over Grogu‘s cheek.
„I suppose it‘s kind of a dad‘s job to worry about his kids, isn‘t it? After all, there’s a lot to worry about when they‘re as small as you. Do you think they sometimes forget that kids grow up? That even when you’re an adult, they still see you as being this small?“

“Luke?“

Luke‘s head snapped up, his eyes meeting Din‘s, who was standing in the doorway. He‘d changed into a white shirt and sweatpants and his hair was still wet and slicked back from the shower, which made him look unfairly good. That, plus the odd feeling of being caught in something – even though he wasn‘t quite sure what – made Luke ogle him wide-eyed and wordlessly for a long moment. With a headshake, he came back to his senses, cleared his throat and quickly approached Din to hand Grogu over to him. Din readily accepted the charge, taking over the bottle from Luke with skillful, studied movements. Grogu only kept eating for a few more seconds before detaching from the almost empty bottle and letting out a happy gurgle.

“Good boy“, Din praised softly and went to the sink to let the bottle soak. „Thanks again, Luke“, he said after turning back around. He‘d grabbed a kitchen towel and had Grogu propped up on his shoulder, gently patting his little back. Luke forcefully shook himself out of his stupor to make a deflective gesture.

„Like I said, don‘t mention it, it was a pleasure. If you would like to take another break in the future, I can look after him again.“
Din paused, looking surprised.

“Are you sure?“, he asked hesitantly. „I know you have a lot to do-“

“Yes, Din, I‘m sure“, Luke interrupted with a comforting smile.

”Hey mom, how’s your cruise?”

“Sadly not worth the money, hon, but let's not talk about that right now. How are you doing? How‘s the school year been going so far? And how are you getting along with that tenant of yours? I‘ve been so incredibly curious, and Leia couldn‘t answer a lot of my questions when I talked to her about it the other day.“

Luke removed the phone from his ear for a second to let out a huff, half annoyed half amused, before returning to the conversation with his mother. Of course her and Leia had talked about this already. His sister must have given their mother a hint about what she thought was going on between him and Din, going by the way she‘d brought him up apropos of nothing. Shaking his head to himself, he made a point to sound as disinterested as possible when he replied:

“School year‘s been going well, thank you. The tenant‘s been very affable so far, so no complaints there. I‘m probably going to have to take Artoo to the vet next week though, so that‘ll be a hassle.“

He could hear from his mother‘s hesitant answer that his reply didn‘t satisfy her curiosity at all and had to grin to himself. No doubt her and Leia would discuss this extensively next time they talked to each other on the phone.

“Mom, could I talk to dad too for a second?“, he said quickly when his mother was about to hang up at the end of their talk.

“Oh… yes, of course, sweetheart. You’ll just need to wait for a bit, I‘ll go look for him.“

There was a brief silence during which all Luke heard was a faint hustle at the other end of the line. He waited patiently with the phone pressed to his ear, until he was met with the voice of his father:
“Yes, Luke?“

„Dad, hi! Sorry for the trouble, did I interrupt you with something?“

„Nah, don‘t worry. There‘s really not much to do on this damn boat, so I mostly hang out at the bar. How are you doing? That tenant of yours giving you grief? Do I need to let some heads roll?“

Luke had to chuckle about his father‘s ridiculousness and also about how every conversation he‘d recently had seemed to somehow circle back to Din.

„No no, everything‘s fine at my end, no need to worry. That‘s not what I wanted to talk to you about.“

„But there is something specific, no? Spill, what is it?“

Luke took in a deep breath before continuing: “Dad, you know I‘m an adult now, right?“

„What? Of course I know that.“

„Really? Because the way you treat me and Leia sometimes makes me think you still see us as the premature babies we were when we were born.“

At this, Anakin let out an objecting grumble.
„Is this still about the move, Luke? I gave you my permission, didn‘t I?“

„That‘s the thing though, I didn‘t need your permission, dad. I wanted your blessing, yes, but the question of whether or not I‘d be allowed to leave was never up to you.“ He took in another deep breath to calm his fluttering nerves. „I think that I-… I think that I get now how you felt back then, when Leia and I were born. How afraid you must have been to lose us and mom. I know you‘re only so protective because of how much you love us and I appreciate your concern. But it‘s been 26 years since then, and I‘m not a baby anymore.“

There was a long beat of silence at the other end.

“I know you‘re not a baby anymore but-… you‘re right, sometimes it‘s hard to remind myself of that. You and Leia were so small back then. I remember seeing you in the incubators, strapped to all these machines. I still know exactly the first time I held you in my arms, I thought I was going to break you, you looked so tiny and fragile. I promised myself back then that I would never let anything bad happen to you or your sister.“

„You can‘t stop bad things from ever happening, dad. It‘s enough to be there when they do.“

„Is it though? It doesn‘t feel like enough.“

Luke heard a sniff at the other end and surprisedly realized that he‘d started tearing up himself.

„I love you, dad“, he said with a wobbly smile, which he heard echoed in his father‘s answer.

„I love you too, son.“

Chapter Text

Ca. Three months later:

„Heeeeeere comes the airplane, whooooosh!“

Puffing his cheeks, Luke made an engine sound with his mouth and moved the little plastic spoon through the air with his hand. He felt a little foolish and when he looked at Grogu‘s unimpressed, if not slightly confused face in the high chair in front of him, he supposed he was looking rather foolish too. From the way the baby whined and turned its head away from the spoon when he brought it near its mouth, it became clear that pretending a spoonful of carrot purée was an airplane wouldn’t get them very far. Down at their feet, Artoo meowed as if to voice his own opinion on his owner’s silly, futile attempts at feeding the baby. With a dejected sigh, Luke dropped the spoon back into the little glass.

“Okay, no airplanes then, uh…“

He scratched his chin, trying to scrape back up his babysitter knowledge and think of something else that could get a small child to eat its dinner, but came up empty.

“Let‘s try the pea one again, okay?“, he suggested while already standing up to fetch it from the cupboard. He knew that Din had had some success with the pea purée in the past and while he‘d hoped to be able to tell his tenant when he came home that he‘d gotten Grogu to try a new flavor, getting him to at least eat a little solid food was good enough in his book.

Fall had come to an end before Luke had quite known what hit him and they were rapidly closing in on Lifeday and Newcycle. As the weeks of the four of them living together had turned into months, their routine became more and more established. Whenever he wasn‘t busy with work, Luke would do something to ease Din‘s load, like picking up Grogu from daycare, changing him, cleaning him, feeding him and watching him until Din returned from his shift at the garage. To Luke‘s dismay, Din still looked uncomfortable and shut down whenever he came home and noticed that Luke had already finished most of the tedious aspects of childcare and that he himself was free to spend the rest of the evening until bedtime with his child without having to worry about anything. While his words expressed his gratitude, his eyes told Luke a different story.

He had hoped they were beyond this already, but apparently not. Apparently, Din had been fine with the odd, scattered act of attentive politeness, but was less pleased about the fact that Luke was determined to make a habit out of them. Luke wasn‘t about to let that dissuade him from going on like this however. He knew Din needed help and knew that Din knew it too, even if he was too proud to admit it. He saw it in the way the other‘s shoulders drooped when he came home from the garage, exhausted and half asleep already, even if he pulled himself back together as soon as he saw his son.

Luke had found the glass of bright green purée and returned to the high chair, just as the distant sound of a car pulling into the driveway outside reached them from the window.

“There‘s your dad!“, said Luke to his charge with slightly exaggerated excitement. It seemed superfluous though, as Grogu had already perked up, huge brown eyes fixed on the window from which they could see the silver car come to a halt. When Din exited the vehicle, Grogu started wriggling around in his chair so much, he almost knocked the bowl in front of him over, and made grabby hands in the window‘s direction.

“Ah! Uah-ah!“, he cried, opening and closing his little fists as if he wanted to snatch his father through the glass.

“Easy, Champ!“, tried Luke, precautionally putting the bowl away. „We wouldn‘t wanna make a mess, would we?“

“Bwahhh! Uaaah ahhh!“, Grogu repeated, still stretching out his short arms, even though Din had already disappeared from view.

“You know what would make your dad happy when he gets here?“, Luke asked, a sudden thought lighting up his face. „If you ate some of the food. I‘m sure he would like that, aren‘t you?“

He knew bribing Grogu like this was largely futile, as the baby hardly even understood what he was saying, and yet when he brought the spoon close to him again, the kid opened its mouth and took a large bite full of purée without a fuss. Granted, it was the pea purée which he liked anyway, but still. Luke smiled and perked up a bit along with the eating child and curious cat when they heard the front door open and closing.

“Awabbaah!“, Grogu babbled animatedly and some of the purée spilled out of his mouth, dripping down his chin and onto his froggie bib. Luke did his best to keep him calm and focused on eating, and therefore couldn’t turn his head when the kitchen door was opened behind his back. Din didn‘t say a word when he stepped into the room, but Luke was used to his quiet manner by now.

“Welcome back!“, he said cheerily over his shoulder.

“Aaaah-ahh!“, Grogu cried, reaching towards his father, the spoon missing his mouth and hitting his cheek from his fussing and squirming. Din came around from behind Luke and bent down to drop a kiss on top of the baby‘s head. His appearance caused a surge of worry and sympathy within Luke. He looked haggard, and yet when he turned back around, it looked like he wanted to take the spoon and the glass of purée from his hands to continue feeding his child himself. Luke turned in his seat, holding both out of reach.

“Don‘t even think about it! You go and sit down for a bit, I can handle feeding him and you can take care of him the rest of the evening, you heard me?“

Even though Din‘s eyes looked like they were about to fall shut any second, there was a defiant fire within them, as they stayed locked with Luke‘s. Luke could be just as stubborn however, not budging from his stance with the glass and spoon out of reach. Ultimately, Din cut their staring contest short with a snort and turned away, grumbling something of the effect of „have it your way“ and with a last caress of Grogu‘s head was out the door again.

It took a good bit of persuasion to get Grogu to settle down enough again to focus on eating, but finally they had emptied the little glass and Luke rinsed it quickly in the sink before throwing it into the bin and started cleaning the rests of the purée off Grogu‘s face with a moist washcloth.

That was how Din found them when he returned, freshly showered and changed into comfortable clothes, and wordlessly took the cloth from Luke to handle the rest himself. Luke didn‘t protest this time and instead turned to clean some of the small mess feeding the child had made.

“Rough day?“, he asked his tenant over his shoulder. Din only grumbled something unintelligible, which confirmed Luke‘s question even more clearly than a simple ‘yes‘ could have.

“How about a movie after you‘ve put him to bed?“, he asked, his voice calm and casual, though his heart was beating up his throat. He hadn‘t yet dared to suggest a shared activity for them to do together. Up until now, things like these had only ever occurred organically, when they happened to be in the same place at the same time. A handful of times – six times to be exact, but who was counting, definitely not Luke – Din had wandered into the living room, while Luke had been watching a movie and had accepted Luke‘s invitation to join him instead of walking out immediately. Even then, he‘d only ever stayed for about half an hour maximum before excusing himself and walking off again. If Luke hadn‘t known better, he would have thought Din was avoiding being alone with him for too long, but that was probably just him being paranoid.

Plucking up his courage, Luke turned to risk a glance at Din. He started when he found the other man looking back at him with an unexpectedly serious expression. Their gazes stayed locked as Din worked his jaw over thoughts he did not express loudly. Then:

“Okay.“

Luke blinked.
“Wh- really?“

His tenant only shrugged one shoulder, averting his eyes. Luke felt like he might faint.

“O- okay. I mean yeah, cool, uh-… any- any particular wishes?“

Din still didn‘t look at him when he answered: “Nah, your pick.“

“Okay.“

He watched silently as Din picked Grogu out of the high-chair and carried him out of the room. Then he punched the air.

Heck, yeah!

„What do you think, Artoo?“

Luke had asked that question already. Several times. Still, he looked at his cat, which was dozing away in a chair next to the couch, letting its tail swing back and forth over the edge of its sleeping place. He held the remote up indecisively, throwing helpless glances between his pet and the Netflix homescreen pulled up on the TV.

“Horror or sci-fi? Or do you think he prefers comedy? Or maybe a romcom- no, definitely not a romcom!“

He let himself fall back into the couch with a huff. Picking out dinner had already been stressful enough, but having to decide on a movie to watch with his tenant-not-roommate-potential-gay-crush now felt downright herculean. It didn‘t help that the best he got from Din when he asked him for his opinion was a shrug and a mumbled „you decide“.

He‘d ended up ordering a pizza as his safest bet, but the question of what movie to pick still gnawed on him.

“I’ll have to ask him again“, he decided loudly, tossing the remote into one corner of the couch and jumping up. „I just tell him, I can‘t choose and I want his opinion“, he told himself, not even pretending to be talking with Artoo anymore, as he headed towards the staircase that led up to the second floor.

It was dark in the little hallway of his attic rooms when he entered. The door to the master bedroom was cracked open and faint, orange light from the streetlights outside poured through from it, which told Luke his tenant probably wasn‘t in there. Naturally, he turned his attention towards the nursery. That door wasn‘t closed either, but there was soft, red light coming from behind it, and now that he listened more closely, Luke could hear the sound of a hushed voice humming gently.

Grown curious, he pushed the door aside enough to take a peek inside.

Din, with his back towards the door, was leaning over the changing table and singing a soft tune as he changed Grogu‘s diaper. The five-month-old was already too sleepy to properly keep his eyes open and when Din picked him up from the table with a muttered „there you go, buddy“ and put him onto his shoulder, the lights were out almost instantly, big brown eyes falling shut and tiny hands fisting into his father‘s shirt.

Din rocked back and forth a little as he made his way towards Grogu‘s crib, still singing his little tune. It seemed to be a Spanish lullaby Luke was unfamiliar with, but soaked in all the more. Din wasn‘t a terribly skilled singer, but he had a nice voice, deep and husky and smooth, sending shivers down Luke‘s spine as it carried over to the nursery door where he was standing and listening, mesmerized. Din had his cheek pressed against the top of Grogu‘s head, kissing it before gingerly lowering him down into the crib and spreading his fluffy little blanket over him.

“Sleep tight, kid“, he told him, smoothing a hand over the blanket before getting off the floor again. When he turned around to leave, his eyes first widened and then narrowed as they landed on Luke, still standing frozen in the doorway. „What are you doing here?“

Luke blinked at the less than polite question and took an unsteady step backwards, feeling a little caught.

“I-I-…“, he stammered. „I‘m sorry, I-…“

Din had crossed the small room with one large stride and drawn the door shut behind himself before Luke could finish his sentence.

“Yes?“, he prompted his landlord, his tone a bit more polite, now that they weren‘t in danger of waking up the baby.

“I-I just- I couldn‘t decide on a movie and wanted to know if you had any ideas“, Luke pressed out, feeling more and more ridiculous, especially at seeing Din’s responding frown. He shook his head. „I‘m sorry, I shouldn‘t have walked in on you like this.“
Din shrugged one shoulder.

“It‘s your house, you can go wherever you want“, he said plainly. He didn‘t sound upset, but his words made Luke feel even more shitty.

“No, you pay for these rooms, you‘re entitled to your privacy when you‘re in here. I‘m sorry for not respecting that enough.“

“It‘s not that big of a deal“, said Din, sounding almost annoyed that he kept going on about it.

“It is to me“, Luke said firmly. Din held his gaze, his expression dispassionate and unreadable. Then, without another word, he moved away, stepping towards the stairs.

„Let‘s go watch that movie“, he said over his shoulder when he was already halfway down. Luke scrambled to catch up.

They ended up settling on Dune Part 1. Not because Din finally told Luke what he would like to watch but because Luke was sick of waffling about with his insecurities and it felt like as good a choice as any.

If Luke had hoped to get Din to put aside his own reservations and loose up a little while settled down with him on the couch, his hopes would have been disappointed. Din sat in the couch’s corner opposite of Luke‘s, arms crossed and eyes glued to the TV screen and didn‘t seem at all intent on starting a conversation. As it was, Luke hadn‘t had any expectations for the evening at all, much less finding his stoic tenant to be in a chatty mood. Having Din be in the same room with him for this long without Grogu there as an excuse was already a victory.

With his head full of thoughts about Din, Luke barely remembered to actually watch the movie, even though his own eyes were on the screen most of the time. He couldn‘t help but wonder why their relationship wasn‘t progressing. It had been several months since the man and his child had moved in with him after all and yet they were hardly beyond awkward politeness, and not for a lack of trying on Luke‘s end. Din still held him at arm‘s length. Maybe that was all he wanted. He did tell Luke that he would be looking for somewhere bigger to live when Grogu was a little older. Maybe he didn‘t see the point in getting close to Luke when they would ultimately part ways anyway. Luke was surprised at how much that thought hurt him. Not only because he was attracted to Din and longed for them to be closer, but also because of Grogu. In the short period of time he‘d known them, the two of them had wormed themselves inside his heart, to the point he couldn‘t imagine living without them anymore.

He threw a timid, sideways glance at Din‘s handsome profile, imagining this man leaving Yavin and not seeing or hearing from him again. He doubted he‘d ever really forget about him or his son, and would more likely always ask himself what could have been if he had not been such a coward.

Maybe he could at least make Din like him enough so they could keep up loose contact, like an odd text message here or there to check in how they were doing. He threw him another fleeting glance, then softly cleared his throat before tentatively speaking up:
„That was a nice song you sang to Grogu back there. Where‘d you get it from?“

Din‘s head turned towards him, looking surprised Luke would speak to him at all. The stare of his intense eyes wasn’t impolite but still scrutinizing and Luke put in some effort to not shrink in on himself under it. After regarding him silently for a long moment, Din turned forwards again, simply shrugging one shoulder.

“Dunno“, was all he mumbled in response. Luke suppressed a dissatisfied huff. Maker, this man‘s certainly making it hard to befriend him. It seemed like a little more effort was needed here. Forcing himself to smile, Luke persisted:

“It was Spanish, if I’m not wrong. Did your mother maybe sing it to you?“

Luke immediately realized the mistake he‘d made by inferring such a thing. Din‘s physical reaction to the question, though subtle even by his standards, spoke more than a thousand words could have. His face slackened for a second then seemed to turn into sharp stone, dark eyebrows knitting together closely, the corners of his mouth tightening as the muscles around his jaw shifted like he was grinding his teeth together. Luke swallowed harshly, wringing his hands in his lap as he waited for the other to blow up at him. The explosion of rage he‘d expected didn‘t come to pass however, though what actually followed seemed almost worse.

„My parents died when I was six“, Din mumbled bluntly into the silence that had stretched out between them uncomfortably, not even relieved by the still running movie. Luke opened his mouth, looking for something to say and snapped it shut again when he came up empty.

“I-I‘m so sorry“, he croaked after a while. It felt pathetically insufficient. Why can‘t I ever say the right thing when talking to him!?, he yelled inwardly, mentally smacking himself against the forehead. Din only shrugged one shoulder, though he still pointedly looked away from Luke.

“S‘not your fault.“

“N-no, I know, I mean I‘m sorry for being insensitive.“

“You couldn‘t have known.“

They were quiet for a while and as he steeped in the mortifying feeling of his immense embarrassment, Luke relented to the fact that there was no way for him to salvage his relationship with Din now, that they would spend the rest of the night in complete silence and that his tenant would hate him forever – or at least until he‘d moved out and disappeared from his life – when Din unexpectedly speaking up made him jump.

“A friend of mine taught it to me. The song I mean“, he said. Luke looked at him from the side, still timid but pleasantly surprised.

“Oh?“, he responded because he couldn’t come up with anything better. He hoped it would be enough to get Din to speak up again and thankfully, it was. Clearing his throat, Din continued to talk, and while he still wasn‘t meeting Luke’s eyes, his voice was soft and betrayed no anger towards the other.

“He sang it to his own son a lot, when he was little. He thought it‘d be helpful for me to know in case I ever needed to calm Grogu down.“

“I didn‘t know you had friends with kids“, said Luke, more and more intrigued. Din nodded and huffed out a sarcastic chuckle.

„I wouldn‘t have survived the first few weeks with Grogu if I hadn‘t.“

“I‘ve been wondering-“ Luke cut himself off, chewing on his lower lip. Was it safe to be curious at this point, or was it better not to pry? The words had already left his mouth however and, finally turning towards him, Din asked:

“Yes?“

“I-I‘ve just been asking myself for a while how it came to be that you adopted Grogu. I know it‘s none of my business and you don‘t need to tell me if you don‘t want to, but-“

“It‘s… quite a long story“, Din replied, eyes wandering off into the distance, his words shutting Luke up immediately. „And not a very nice one at that. I would rather forget about a lot of the details. I was… hired by somebody to go to this house and when I got there…“
He trailed off, looking down at his hands in contemplation, as if unsure how to proceed.

“Hired?“, Luke asked. „You mean as a mechanic?“

Din shook his head. “No, back then I worked as a… personal trainer for a gym.“

“Oh“, Luke said again. He‘d learned more about Din‘s life in these past short minutes than in months of living with him and he eagerly soaked up everything he was hearing.

“Yes. I did work for hire back then. I got an offer to go to this house, I got there… I found the front door cracked open and the whole place in disarray. I don‘t know what happened to the parents, but I found Grogu lying in a crip, sleeping or passed out from hunger. I brought him to the hospital and-…“

“And you decided then to take him in?“, Luke prompted softly. Din took in a deep, quivering breath.

“I had to. I‘d spent my own childhood as an orphan in the foster system, I knew how bad it could be. When I saw Grogu, I found I wouldn‘t be able to live with myself if I let the same thing happen to him. I quit the job at the gym and started working at my friend‘s garage. Better working hours, you know. But I needed a fixed residence to legally adopt Grogu and I didn‘t have a place to stay. That‘s when I saw your ad for the rooms.“

“I‘m glad you did“, said Luke and without thinking he reached out a hand to put it over Din‘s. They both looked down in surprise at their joint hands and little to Luke‘s shock, Din quickly drew his away again. More surprisingly though, he didn‘t look angry. Instead he smiled a little when he looked up at Luke.

“Yeah, me too.“

“Really?“, asked Luke, a little incredulous. Din blinked.

“Yes. Is that so hard to believe?“

“I-it‘s just-… I got the impression you don’t like me very much and-…“ The rest of the sentence died on his tongue when he was met with the grave look on Din‘s face.

“Luke, listen-“

“No, I‘m sorry, I shouldn‘t have said that, you don‘t owe me-“

“Yes, I do.“ Din leaned forwards, catching Luke‘s gaze. „You deserve me to speak to you openly after everything you did for Grogu. You‘ve been nothing but patient and kind to us and I know that I‘ve-… I know I‘m not very good at showing my appreciation to others. I‘m sorry if I gave you the feeling that-… I don’t dislike you. I just don‘t think us growing too close would be a good idea.“

Luke’s eyes widened with surprise.
“Why not?“

Din sighed, dragging a hand over his face. He suddenly looked very tired.

“I tend to ruin most of my relationships sooner or later. The few friends I have outside of work are from my childhood and we only get to see each other once every few months.“ He looked up at Luke, still with that grave expression on his face that made Luke swallow around a lump forming in his throat. „You‘re a good guy, Luke, and I wish you nothing but the best. I don‘t mean to offend you, but I need these rooms, for Grogu‘s sake. I will not put the roof over my child‘s head at risk for anything. So I think it‘s best if we keep things as they are, okay?”

Luke felt tears burning in his eyes and stubbornly blinked them away as he nodded.
”Okay.”