Chapter Text
Din turns around once more and follows his own tracks leisurely across the forest floor. He glances up at the moon, then back at the child and the Jedi, then back at the moon again. Then, Ahsoka’s sudden movement draws his attention.
She has turned to look straight at Din, gaze boring into him intently. Once more, her eyes flick back to the child, and she quirks an eyebrow. As if she had just got a silent confirmation to something she asked, she straightens her back and gestures Din to come to her. When she pats on a patch of moss on her left, Din takes the prompt and sits down.
“Is he speaking? Do you understand him?” he asks immediately, eager to find some form of a window at last into what is going on in the strange child’s mind.
“In a way”, Ahsoka says, curious eyes now scanning Din from head to toe. “He just told me… Never mind. Can I, just a little…?”
She does not finish her request aloud, only inches closer, so that she is sitting right beside Din, and leans her head on his shoulder. Her left lekku falls along his back and horns scrape the side of his helmet.
Din tenses up in alarm, but Ahsoka only takes in a long breath and lets out a quiet, pleased sigh. That calms Din down, too, but does nothing to ease his confusion about the situation.
“Oh, yes…” Ahsoka takes another long, peaceful, indulgent breath. “It’s just like he described.”
Din looks at Grogu, who only blinks as usual. Then, he gets up and toddles to Din, too, settling on his other side to lean similarly on his waist.
Since Ahsoka shows no sign of explaining her behaviour, only nuzzles the side of her head more thoroughly against his pauldron, Din decides to return to what they were talking about before she started whatever this is.
“So how do you understand him?”
“Grogu and I can feel each other’s thoughts.” Ahsoka speaks in a calm, almost sleepy voice, slightly slurred from pressing her cheek against beskar.
“Grogu?”
The child perks up and coos cheerfully.
“Grogu”, Din says again and receives the same reaction. Yes, that definitely is his name, and using it makes his own heart flutter with joy.
Din closes his eyes for a moment. Being snuggled between a very calm adult Jedi and a very happy little one feels surprisingly good - the most pleasant he has felt in a while. But soon, he reminds himself that he came here for a purpose.
“Can you train him? To be a Jedi?”
Ahsoka sighs, seemingly unwilling to say anything. When Din presses on by repeating the question, she reluctantly lifts her head and backs away. The shape of the mudhorn signet is imprinted on her cheek, almost comically aligned with the white pattern in her orange skin. But her face is serious as she looks straight at Din’s visor and says:
“No.”
“What? Why not?”
“I’ve felt how he thinks about you. He’s formed a strong attachment to you. I’m afraid it makes him vulnerable, and I wouldn’t know how to protect him.”
“All the more reason to train him.”
Ahsoka’s gaze drifts to the child still leaning against Din’s side. “There is one possibility. Go to the planet Tython. You will find the ancient ruins of a temple that has a strong connection to the Force. Place Grogu on the seeing stone on the top of the mountain.”
“And then?”
“Then Grogu may choose his path. If he reaches out through the Force, there’s a chance a Jedi may sense his presence and come searching for him. Then again, there aren’t many Jedi left.”
“Thank you.” Din stands up, picks up Grogu in his arms and sets out towards the ship. But the little one protests by wiggling his body and babbling insistently.
“He’s asking if I can come along”, Ahsoka translates.
Din considers for a while in silence. When looking for the ruins of a Jedi temple, a Jedi could be handy to have around. Besides, there is something calming about her presence, and it is pretty obvious that the feeling is mutual, even though Din still cannot imagine why.
“Would you like to?” he asks.
Ahsoka smiles and nods, and Din gestures her to follow him. On the ship, once they are in hyperspace towards Tython, she again sneaks close enough to cuddle her head against Din’s shoulder.
- - - s - - -
They cannot land on top of the mountain, so they leave the ship in the valley below and fly up to the temple ruins, Din and Grogu by jetpack, Ahsoka by leaping from rock to rock. On the top, they find a smooth, round stone, decorated by runes, in the midst of a circle of old stone pillars.
“Well, I guess this is it”, Din says. “Does this look Jedi to you?”
Ahsoka’s cheeks pucker like she is holding back a laugh. She nods and gestures at the stone, and Din takes the hint and sets Grogu down on it.
“This is the seeing stone, are you seeing anything?” Din asks him, but Grogu only coos and reaches for a blue butterfly flying past him.
Din tilts his head at Ahsoka, but she only backs away and turns around, eyes on the valley stretching far below them. Din follows her example and leaves the little one to his own devices.
Once he does that, something finally happens: the stone lights up into a blue, translucent column that rises up all the way to the sky. Grogu sits in the middle of it, eyes closed and mouth curled in concentration. It lasts for a minute or two. Then, the blue column disappears and Grogu falls flat on the stone, fast asleep as usual after using his powers.
“Then what?” Din asks.
“Then we wait”, Ahsoka says and sits down, back against the stone, and pats the space next to her.
Din picks up Grogu and settles down next to Ahsoka with the little Jedi in his lap, soon also the head of the adult one finding its place against his shoulder. Ahsoka and Grogu’s breathing is so steady that Din finds himself almost falling asleep.
He is shaken fully awake at the sight and sound of a ship approaching.
“How do we know it’s a Jedi who comes searching for him?” he asks on the verge of a sudden panic.
“We don’t”, Ashoka admits.
In a split second, they are both up, Din with Grogu tucked in the crook of one arm and blaster drawn in the other hand, Ahsoka with two white laser swords ablaze. They approach the intruding ship carefully, taking cover behind the rocks.
They see how the ship lands, its boarding ramp opens and out walks a cloaked and hooded figure. As it draws closer, they can make out flashes of orange clothing beneath the cloak.
When it is close enough that hiding is of no use any longer, Din steps out to the path, blaster aimed at the intruder and asks: “Are you a Jedi?”
“I am”, he responds, pulls back his hood and reveals a human head with blue eyes and black hair gleaming with a tinge of blue in the sunlight. Ahsoka steps beside Din, turns off her blades and flashes a smile of recognition.
“Ezra!”
“Ahsoka?” The Jedi that Ahsoka calls Ezra takes a step forward, but instead of meeting him halfway, she only moves closer to Din.
“Ezra, you’ve got to experience this.“
“Nice to see you, too, Ahsoka.” Ezra smirks as Ahsoka presses herself against Din’s side and drops her head on his shoulder.
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll catch up, just come here first.” Her voice turns again to its calmer, lazier note, and to Din’s further confusion, Ezra seems to take her word for it and bluntly approaches Din’s other side. Instinctively, Din recoils and pulls Grogu’s sleeping body closer to his chest to protect him. But Ezra opens his palms to show that he carries no weapons and makes his way close enough to lean his head on Din’s free shoulder.
His reaction is similar to Ahsoka’s: a relieved sigh, deepening breath and relaxing body.
“Uhhh, you’re right”, he mumbles and reaches his arms around Din, too. Ahsoka mirrors his gesture, so that they are eventually hugging each other with Din and Grogu left in between.
They are still holding each other when the next ship arrives. Ahsoka and Ezra do not even want to bother preparing for a fight, only murmur something vague about two Jedi and a Mandalorian being easily able to defeat whatever comes out of that ship.
It turns out to be another figure cloaked from head to toe. But this one moves more slowly, back hunched, leaning on a cane and limping one side like it was not only old but also gravely injured at some point of its life. Once it reaches them and pushes back its hood, it turns out to be an old Kel Dor, skin faded to pale orange and deeply wrinkled.
“Master?” Ahsoka perks up, and the newcomer tilts his head fondly at her.
“Ezra, Mando, this is Jedi Master Plo Koon”, Ahsoka introduces. “Master, how did you survive? How…?”
“That can wait”, Ezra says. “Master is clearly tired. Here, please, there’s space for you.” He switches himself to hug Din from the back, bluntly moving Din’s cloak aside so that he can fit his head over Din’s jetpack to rest on his backplate.
The old Jedi Master takes up the shoulder freed up by Ezra and huffs a content sigh when his head meets beskar. In a peacefully rumbling voice, he starts telling an unbelievable story about how he made an emergency landing with a half-blown-up ship and survived on an inhabitable planet for a local year that lasted at least five standard ones.
He is still describing the long process of building a pressurised pod by melting salt crystals together, when another ship drops from hyperspace in the higher atmosphere and floats down to the valley. Din tenses up when he recognises a New Republic starfighter. But he relaxes again when considering that being surrounded by Jedi may mean that at least New Republic officials should have no immediate reason to attack him.
It no longer surprises Din that the pilot of this ship is covered in a black cloak, too. Coming closer, he lifts one bare and one gloved hand to take off his hood. He is human, blue eyes and sandy blond hair, with a gentle dimple on his chin. None of the Jedi show a clear sign of recognising him, but Ahsoka does clench Din a bit tighter, like something about his appearance still strikes her. Even Grogu wakes up in Din’s arms and wiggles himself into a position where he can comfortably lean on Din’s chest and watch the newcomer.
“Are you a Jedi, too?” Din asks.
“I am. My name is Luke Skywalker.”
Ahsoka clings to Din tighter again, but Plo Koon says calmly: “In that case, you will like this.”
“What is it?” Luke asks.
“It’s the beskar”, Ezra explains. “Makes the Force go quiet.”
“Yes, all the whispers from the Dark Side and the Light, all the patterns and swirls and visions and noise, all other people's emotions, all gone.” Ahsoka rubs her horns against Din’s helmet.
“I don’t understand how it works. The alloy must form some kind of a singularity", Plo Koon speculates. "Had this been known at the time of the Jedi-Mandalorian wars, the fighting would have been over very quickly. Any Jedi would have surrendered if only knowing about this kind of possibility.”
Plo Koon shifts his head towards the back of Din’s shoulder so that Luke has proper space to hug him from the front. Careful not to crush Grogu, Luke positions his head against the side of Din’s chest and is immediately overtaken by the same state of serene calm as the other Jedi. Visibly relaxed, he wraps his arms around the others and leans closer.
Grogu coos in delight, surrounded by beskar and his own kind. And Din finds his heart filling with deep happiness to see the little one this content. That is only amplified by the soothing feeling of being so close to people who project this much peace into their surroundings.
But eventually, the sun starts setting and Grogu yawning again, and Din remembers that the child has not really slept but only recovered from an exertion.
“I need to take the kid to the ship to sleep. Can we discuss tomorrow if one of you can train him?”
Reluctantly, the Jedi let go of him, nod in understanding and wish them good night. But Grogu disagrees with an outburst of protesting babble.
“He’s asking if we can all sleep with you”, Ahsoka translates.
Din sighs and rolls his eyes under his helmet but does ask: “Would you like to?”
All the four Jedi nod eagerly, and Din gestures them to follow.
There is no point even trying to fit in his bed, so he decides that it is best for them all to just spread their cloaks over the cockpit floor. He lays down on his back on the modest padding with Grogu curled up on his chestplate. Ahsoka snuggles her head into the space between his pauldron and helmet. Ezra hugs Din’s leg. Luke cuddles under his arm. And Plo Koon finds a spot beside Din using his shoulder as a pillow.
As they all sniffle in peaceful sleep like a flock of grown-up, magical babies, Din decides that he will have to find the Armorer and talk with her about the possibility to forge beskar headbands for Jedi, because he cannot sleep like this every night. But for once, being surrounded by this much closeness, serenity and love is surprisingly comfortable. He falls into the deepest sleep he has had in years.