Chapter Text
Luke is in the midst of pouring over another discovery document when he hears the front door to the office open and close.
This wouldn’t normally be an extraordinary occurrence, except that yet again, Luke is working late, and the building’s cleaning staff have already come and gone.
Luke glances at his watch to confirm the time, and stands from his desk, on high alert.
It’s also not unusual for his colleagues to also be workaholics, however.
He wouldn’t say that they’re in a dangerous line of work, per se, but it wouldn’t be the first time one of the shitbag companies his environmental law firm were taking to court tried something nefarious to get them to back off the case.
He slinks out of his office, carefully closing the door behind him, and silently walks down the hall past the bank of paralegal desks.
The kitchenette light is on, though, and Luke exhales marginally.
If it really was corporate espionage or something similar, he doubts they’d be fixing themselves a coffee mid-scheme. He pastes on a smile as he heads over, intent on gently berating this co-worker who’s come in so late.
He’s beaten to it.
“Skywalker?” Mando asks, derisively, looking him up and down, “-what the hell are you still doing here?”
Well. Not gently. To be fair, they don’t pay Mando, who’s one of their investigators, to be gentle when digging up dirt on slimy corporations.
Still, if he wasn’t so fucking good at his job, Luke thinks that his general anti-social tendencies wouldn’t be as tolerated as they are.
“Learning to play the zither, Mando, what do you think?”
Mando rolls his eyes as he stirs the cup of instant coffee, leaning against the counter.
“Skywalker, you’re not going to win your cases by working yourself to death. Do you have any idea what time it is?”
Luke bristles.
“I’m not the one with a 7 year old waiting up for him,” Luke deflects, “-and you’re here too, may I remind you.”
Mando’s brow goes up. Luke narrows his eyes. That usually only happens when he’s made a connection about something that Luke has missed. It’s very annoying.
“My seven year old happens to be with a sitter and fully aware I would be late as I was scheduled for a stakeout.” Mando says, evenly, putting a hand in his pocket as he sips at the mug, “-what’s your excuse now?”
“Why the hell do you care about my working hours?” Luke deflects, again, crossing his arms.
“Because being tired is conducive to sloppy mistakes, Skywalker. You’re not doing anyone any good staying up this late by yourself.”
“Fuck off, Din.” Luke snips.
Din prefers being called Mando, for reasons unknown to everyone, but everyone goes along with it, because they’re not assholes.
Luke calls him Din when he’s the one being an asshole to call him out about it; because sometimes Luke gets the sense that Din is genuinely unaware when he is.
This time though, Luke says Din a tad vindictively.
“Alright, fine.” Din says, with a shrug, “-last time I try and support your wellbeing.”
Luke immediately deflates.
“Mando, I’m sorry, I-”
“Fucking knew it.” Din says, smirking around his mug.
“Knew what?” Luke asks, suddenly less contrite.
“Something's eating at you and you’re overworking yourself.” He looks smug. “-You're only mean when you're fucking tired.” He raises that goddamn brow again. “- Sloppy, Skywalker.”
Luke doesn’t know what’s worse. The fact that he’s right or that Din’s investigative abilities seem to be able to apply to him as well.
“C’mon, Skywalker.” Din says, rinsing out the mug and putting it in the sink. “-Go get your shit and let me drive you home.”
Fuck. Luke must look like crap.
“Alright.” Luke sighs, “-you win.”
“I always do.” Din hums and Luke flips him off behind his back. He’s not proud of it.
He gathers his laptop and papers and piles into Din’s beater (they pay him enough for him to get a better car, but Din insists this one blends in better) and smiles at the crayons inhabiting one of the cup holders.
“Nice colour pallet, Djarin.” Luke muses, looking at the various shades of green.
“Kid’s got a great eye.” Din hums, as the streetlights pass in a blur, “-he’s going for his next belt soon.”
“That’s exciting.” Luke grins, trying not to sound too smug. Din’s moustache twitches up anyway.
Din’s aforementioned 7 year old, Grogu, was having difficulty with one of his Judo forms. Luke, who could have gone to the Olympics for Judo if it wasn’t for his wrist injury, was more than happy to help him when Din offhandedly griped about Grogu’s instructors being too hard on him. And although Luke agreed with the sentiment- Judo at that age should really just be about fostering a love for it- he now happily spends an afternoon every now and then with Din’s precocious kid helping him out.
Luke is suddenly reminded of his earlier observation that Din is not gentle. The exception to that rule, (and many others, Luke has learned) is when Din’s around his son.
“I’d be happy to teach you too.” Luke needles, “-it’s never too late to pick up a new skill.”
“I don’t need a bunch of rules to know how to fight, Skywalker.” Din needles back, and Luke grins to himself. “- although if I have to draw a circle around the next asshole trying to intimidate a witness in order to fight him, might be able to subdue him with laughter instead and get Kenobi off my back for ‘unnecessary violence’.”
“Ok, for one,” Luke laughs, “-you should know by now that tatamis are square. And don’t listen to Ben. You should hear some of the stuff he got up to with Greenpeace in the ‘70s.” Luke hums, “- but what I’m also hearing is that if they had a ‘bar room brawling’ class for seven year olds, Grogu would be taking that instead of Judo.”
“More practical.” Din hums “-though I could just teach him that myself.”
Luke laughs brightly, and continues chortling even as Din pulls up beside his apartment building.
“Say hi to him for me, will you?”
“Of course.”
Luke takes a deep breath.
“Thanks, Mando.”
“Anytime, Skywalker.” He says and Luke hums, and closes the car door behind him.
-
“I cannot believe you are going to this.”
Luke doesn’t know how she does it, but Leia has the ability to project just as much disdain over the phone as she would if she was right there beside you, pinning you down with one of her trademark glares.
“You’re the one telling me I need to go out more,” Luke says, as he makes dinner for himself, eying the phone laying on the counter.
Artoo looks in it’s direction ruefully and then back at Luke, seemingly agreeing with her.
Luke wants to know why his twin sister and his dog have teamed up against him.
“This is not the type of event I had in mind.” She says, evenly and Luke sighs loud enough that the speakerphone picks up on it.
“Luke Skywalker!”
“I already said yes, Leia.”
“So. Cancel.”
Sometimes Luke envies the way she moves through life.
“I don’t have an excuse.”
“Make one up.”
“I’m not that creative.”
“Tell them you forgot you made plans with the hot guy at your office and then go and make plans with the hot guy at your office for real.”
Luke groans.
“What hot guy?” He deflects, though he knows who she means.
“The one with the moustache and the cute kid.”
“Leia, for the last time, Mando and I are…” Luke trails off. Are they even friends? Like, Luke would say he's friends with Grogu, in the way one can be friends with a 7 year old when one is in their early thirties. But with Din? They're friendly colleagues, at least. Luke does a mental review of all the people Din actually talks to in the office, and for how long each conversation lasts. Hmm. Maybe by Din’s standards, he is friends with Luke.
That… is more gratifying than Luke expected it to be, if he’s being honest.
“- just friends.” He says, smiling to himself a bit.
“Then you need to do something about that, don’t you?”
“Leia.” Luke sighs, not keen on having this argument again either. Even if Din gave off the vibe he was romantically inclined in any way whatsoever, Luke’s fairly certain that he would not be Din’s type.
Whether or not Din is Luke’s type is moot seeing as Luke has sworn off dating until he gets over… well, everything.
“Look, Leia, it’ll be fine. I’ve known Biggs my whole life-”
“Don’t fucking remind me,” she says, darkly. “-Are any of your other friends from high school going to be there?”
“Uh, no.” Luke admits, “-just me.”
“For fuck’s sake, Skywalker-”
“Leia. You know me. I never back down from a fight.”
“And you’re admitting it?” She says, “it’s a fight?”
“You and I are fighting right now.”
“You know that’s not what I meant, Luke!”
“My point still stands.”
“-And you call me stubborn,” she mutters.
Luke grins in victory.
-
He tries to hold onto that victory, later, as he circulates through the glittering Engagement party holding a champagne glass.
He really thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, and that he’d be able to handle it, but.
After the fifth person balks and then turns to their companion to whisper about him, Luke starts coming to the conclusion that maybe this is going to be harder than he thought it would.
Biggs and Gol are right in the middle of the room, holding court, obviously, hand in hand with matching rings and grins.
He’s happy for them. He’s happy for them.
He sighs, having not quite convinced himself yet, but he’ll get there. And he wants to be happy for them, so.
One plus of this whole situation though is that people haven’t had the guts to come up and talk to him, which for once, is perfectly fine with him.
Well, everyone except Biggs’ family, but those conversations were easy. They were awkward, sure, but he’s known them all for too long for it to actually make much of a difference.
So, he’s actually mostly at peace with the whole thing, until he over hears a waiter stop another one.
“Don’t bring that bottle out yet,” He says, “-that’s for the toast after the speeches.”
Fuck.
Luke fucking forgot about that.
Suddenly acutely aware that he will not be able to stomach said speeches, he ditches his glass on a table and makes a beeline out onto the restaurant’s terrace, intent on hiding away until they’re over.
Then in a few hours, this’ll be all over and he’ll be one step further on his journey to put this whole thing-
“Skywalker?” Asks an incredulous voice behind him and Luke nearly laughs as he places it.
Just what he fucking needs.
“Mando.” He says, turning around, taking Din’s flabbergasted face in.
He’s… not wearing his usual uniform of a grey polo shirt and black slacks.
He’s dressed up for once, and not in the cheap suit he wears on the rare occasion he has to go to court.
He’s wearing a red button down tucked into silver-grey dress pants, and has slicked back his curls.
A silver chain glints against his exposed (he has two buttons undone, which is very unlike him) chest.
Luke thinks this is supremely unfair, given everything else he’s dealing with at the moment.
“- What are you doing here?” Luke asks, resigned to his fate.
“Could ask you the same thing.” Din counters, crossing his arms.
“I asked first.”
Din purses his lips, sighing long sufferingly.
“I am here,” he says, tightly, “-because the Withers invited my Uncle, and since my Uncle has fucked off to Florida, I have been sent in his stead, despite the fact that I have explained to him that I would rather be literally anywhere else on this planet instead.”
Luke blinks, suddenly intrigued by the fact that Gol’s family knows Boba somehow. He knows better than to ask Din about it, though.
“So what you’re saying is,” Luke hums, “-Boba has something on you to make you do his dirty work.”
“Shut it, Skywalker.” Din says.
Luke laughs, even more intrigued about what Boba could possibly have on Din.
“So?” Din prods and Luke sighs.
“I grew up with Biggs.” Luke says, finally, deciding on how best to answer Din’s question.
Din rolls his eyes.
“I don't mean that. I know you're friends with the entire galaxy. Why the hell are you, Mr. Congeniality, out here by yourself?”
Luke inhales, and apparently takes too long to answer because that damn eyebrow of Din’s shoots up.
“Don’t tell me you’re avoiding someone?”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“You get along with everyone. Can't fucking believe there's someone you can't stand.”
“I guess I do manage to somehow be civil with you.” Luke muses, trying to stall.
“My point exactly.”
Luke sighs.
“It's a long story. Didn't think you were the type to be interested in gossip.”
Din rolls his eyes.
“You’re the one who tells me I need to make conversation.”
“Yeah, with new hires and interns so you don't scare the crap out of them when you lurk around the office.”
“How do I think I get my Intel?”
Luke grins and laughs.
“Now you look like yourself.” Din hums and Luke blanches.
“What?”
“Just not used to you being so gloomy. It's weird.”
Luke rolls his eyes.
“Must look super upset if you can pick up on it.”
Din gestures as to say his point is made.
Luke sighs and looks away.
“Bet I can guess why you're so upset,” Din says, lightly, and Luke is grateful he’s decided not to press.
“Please, Mr. I-hate-socialising-and-social-niceties-and-social-cues-of-any-kind. Go ahead.”
“You're pissed off your childhood friend is marrying such an absolute dick bag.”
Luke startles; but chokes out a laugh, wiping some tears out of the corner of his eye as the moustache twitches.
“I'm right, aren't I?”
“Gol’s family invited you-”
“Boba.”
“- to his Engagement party at which you’re getting free food and booze and you're disparaging him?”
“Yes. I don't want to be here.”
“What did he do to you?”
“Just be a dickwad,” Din says distastefully, and Luke snorts.
“Boba did some work for their family, eons ago. Apparently kept up the business relationship, that’s why he was invited. I happened to still be working for him at the time.”
Must've been when Boba decided to pivot to being a contractor, Luke muses. He can't imagine Gol’s Dad needing a fucking bounty hunter.
“-asshole acts like he's some fuckin’ Lord of the Manor when we were working together, stuck his nose down at my guys, acted like he knew shit; Just be a fucking shit stain of a human being.”
“Jeez, Mando.” Luke says, “-Tell me how you really feel.”
“You asked.”
Luke hums.
“Can't believe he convinced someone to marry him.” Din continues, “-even the money can't be worth putting up with him.”
“What a thing to say at his engagement party.” Luke marvels. He’s not enjoying this tirade of Din’s. He’s not.
“What, you're gonna tell me you don't agree?”
“Well, considering I used to be engaged to him,” Luke says, without thinking, “-don't think I'm a particularly unbiased source.”
Din is silent for a long moment and Luke suddenly realises what he’s just said. Shit.
“What.”
Somehow the cold, incredulous, single syllable is worse than all of Leia's condescending rage.
Luke sighs and looks down at the ground.
“You broke up with the guy and he moves on with your old friend? Fucking hell, he's worse than I thought.”
Luke really doesn’t know how to answer that without explaining the whole sorry situation.
Din takes another look at Luke’s face and balks.
“Don't tell me he broke up with you.”
He sounds so disbelieving at the idea that Luke has to laugh.
“No. I broke it off,” Luke laughs, lightly, trying to sound as if he’s long since brushed it under the rug, “-when I found them in bed together.”
He doesn’t know why he’s told Din that last bit, seeing as Din probably would’ve just come to the conclusion that Luke finally saw the light and broke up with him. But it’s becoming clear to him that he’s not as Zen about this whole thing as he hoped.
Din is silent for a long time again.
“What the fuck.”
“Why are you so angry?” Luke asks, “-pretty vindicating for you, I’d think.”
“In what fuckin’ way?” Din says, lowly.
And he looks angry. Like, just as angry as he gets when he finds out that a company is poisoning a water table that feeds into a public school.
“Well, that he's a, how did you put it? Shit rag?”
“Why are you here?” Din asks flatly, crossing his arms.
“I-”
“Luke. Why the actual hell are you here? They betrayed you in the worst possible way and you're… celebrating their engagement?”
“I loved them both very much once. I chose to forgive them.”
“Why.”
“I know you're big on grudges, Mando, but some of us let things go.”
“Yeah, save your fucking hippy shit, Luke. I'm big on fucking loyalty. And to you of all people!”
“-Of all people?”
“Luke. You sue evil corporations for a living-”
“It's important for me to know that you know ‘evil’ is not a technical legal term-”
“-and you walk little old ladies across the street in your spare time.”
“You saw me do that once. And what does that have to do with-”
“It just makes it even fucking worse! Which shouldn't be even fucking possible! You’re telling me you don’t fucking hate their guts-”
“I let go of hatred as a rule.” Luke says, primly.
Din levels him a look.
“So why are you here then?”
“I told you-”
“No, again. Out here? If you’re so fucking forgiving?”
Luke looks away.
“Why don't you just leave this stupid fucking party?”
“Why don't you?”
“I was in the process of doing so when I ran into you!”
“It's been fine.” Luke says, but Din doesn’t look particularly convinced.
“-I just. Couldn't stomach the speeches. Figured I'd hide out here ‘till they're over and I can't get dragged into one.”
That’s a humiliation even he wouldn’t be able to take on the chin. Them highlighting how they fucking met; thank Luke for ‘all his support over the years’ or some shit. As far as Luke knows they’ve never publicly admitted to the cheating, but of course everyone knows what happened. The worst thing about it is that he wouldn’t put it past Gol, as it'd be just another way to make himself look better.
“For fuck's sake, Skywalker, just leave!”
“No.”
“Why not?! You showed up, showed face, whatever your goddamn goal was-”
“It's-” Luke shrugs. “-Being the bigger person.”
“You already are by not cutting them off! Try again.”
Din looks at him, again with a raised brow; a clear challenge. Luke frowns at him, feeling the anger and hurt he’d been doing such a good job of repackaging start to unravel.
“It… feels like giving up.” Luke admits, finally. “There. Are you happy now? I'm fucking dragging myself to this and sitting through the fucking sympathetic glances and the constant reminder that two of the people I loved and trusted most in the entire world fucking shredded everything I thought I fucking knew about them and myself because this is what I always do, Din!”
Luke throws his hands up.
“I’m always the bigger person, I'm always forgiving, I always let go of shit because if I'm not….” Luke sighs, “-it festers and turns me into someone I don't want to be. And they obviously knew that about me when they decided to have their fucking affair and if I don't fucking laugh and smile and publicly forgive them then it fucking feels like they fucking won, Din! It feels like they fucking succeeded in turning me into everything I do not want to be and I won't let them!”
Din blinks at him while he heaves.
The moustache twitches up.
“So you'll be the bigger person if it kills you?”
“Shut up.” Luke says, but will admit, feels marginally better.
Din goes to say something, but then the dark eyes flash at something over Luke's shoulder.
“Shit. Don't look, now, Luke.”
“What?”
“Looks like they are going to drag you in for that speech after all. Wither and his mother and your friend-”
“Biggs.” Luke says, glumly, even though he’s slightly amused. Apparently “Welcome to the Engagement Party of Gol Wither and Biggs Darklighter” being plastered everywhere is not enough for Din to remember Biggs’ name.
“- they have you in their sights and they're heading right to the doors.”
“Fuck.” Luke sighs, as Din purses his lips.
Din looks at him squarely.
“Punch me later.”
“What?”
“Punch me later,” he says,
“Why would I-” Luke begins as he hears the doors to the terrace open, a millisecond before Din leans down and presses his lips to Luke’s own.
“Luke there you- oh.”
Luke registers Gol’s mother saying it, but doesn't really process it, as he's still reeling from the pressure of Din’s kiss.
The entire Engagement party simply ceases to exist, and all Luke can hear and feel is static.
Din pulls away after another second, and Luke gapes at him. The moustache twitches and he quirks a brow up… before taking Luke's hand.
“Shit.” Din says, lightly, as he turns to look at the others. “-uh, I mean. Sorry.”
“Sorry?” Gol's mother laughs. It's her put upon socialite laugh. Luke would be miffed at the reminder he knows her so well, but he's still in shock.
“We, uh, didn't want to steal anyone's thunder.” Din says, lightly.
Luke blinks at him again, and suddenly everything comes crashing in on him and he puts two and two together, realising what the hell's going on.
He's going to fucking kill him.
Luke huffs and turns around to tell them to ignore him, this is Din’s idea of a dumb joke, even as Din's grip on his hand tightens as Luke tries to pull it away.
That is, until, he sees the look on Biggs and Gol’s faces.
He may be the bigger person, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be petty about it.
Against his better judgement, he leans into Din's arm.
He can feel the smugness radiating off him, the asshole.
“What's up?” He asks, squeezing Din's hand hard.
“We're starting the speeches soon,” Mrs.Wither says, “-just… wondering where you were.”
Din hums so only Luke can hear him. Luke fights to keep the pleasant smile on his face. He’s never hated being right so much in his life.
“Oh, ok. Sorry for keeping you waiting,” Luke says, brightly. “-Uh, guess the cat's out of the bag.”
Din’s pleased hum is starting to get very annoying.
“You're together?” Biggs questions.
“Yeah.” Luke says.
“How do you even know eachother? Why didn't you tell me, Luke?”
Din bristles beside him.
“We work together.” Luke says, smiling up at Din, but narrowing his eyes. Din gets the message. “-It's kinda… well, we wanted to, uh, wait before we went to HR. Been keeping it on the DL.” Luke turns back to them. “-But that's enough about… us. Sorry, we're keeping your guests waiting.”
Gol looks like he wants to murder Din. Din looks incredibly smug about it.
It does make it better, Luke thinks, incredibly annoyed.
They’re corralled back into the room for the speeches, which turn out to be fine. Luke can tell that they did have a bit about him planned in it, but can tell Gol decides to scrap it when he looks down at his paper, at Luke and then Din, and turns the page over.
“Can we leave now?” Din hums against Luke’s ear, after the sixth member of Biggs’ family has come up to them asking to be properly introduced.
Luke can’t help but notice that Gol’s family- his ex-future-family-in-law, have steered clear of him the entire time.
Maybe he should be more offended by that, but. He's a bit preoccupied at the moment. With each passing second Luke is coming to terms with the fact that Din kissed him. Like, kissed him, kissed him. Luke can still feel Din on his lips, feel Din’s rough hand gently caressing his jaw; Luke shakes himself out of it to think about the other half of this nonsense.
They've just told people they're together. At first, Luke figured that maybe it wasn't so ludicrous, it might be nice to have someone in his corner. But then more and more people started coming up to them, asking questions, and Luke realises the full scope of the lie they’re going to have to tell.
“Oh, I finally asked him out after he gave my son some Judo lessons-” Din said, doing a remarkably good impression of Cass when he’s trying to weasel out of something.
Oh god. Cass. What are they going to tell- fuck. Literally everyone Luke knows.
“When do you have the sitter ‘till?” Luke asks, ostensibly with a grin, but through his teeth as he leans into Din, ignoring the smell of his aftershave.
Din has the decency to wince.
“Uh. whenever.”
“We have to make a stop at my place first.”
Din blinks but then the moustache twitches.
“Now, now, Skywalker-”
“Can it, Djarin.” Luke hisses, and Din does what he’s told.
-
Luke sits in silent fury the entire car ride back to his place. He figured he'd be too drunk to drive back, not too furious to.
Din seems to know better than to say anything as he drives.
Din parks wordlessly and follows Luke up to his apartment, and Artoo skids into the entranceway, happily, but then grumbles a bit when he notices Din.
“Good boy, Artoo.” Luke mutters as Din closes the door behind him.
Luke takes a deep breath and spins around, intent on tearing Din a new one; but Din seems properly contrite, which takes the wind out of his sails.
Luke drags a hand down his face instead.
“What the actual hell were you thinking, Djarin?”
“Ok, look.” Din says, “-I didn't have time to ask you properly or I would have. But. I just figured this is to our mutual benefit so-”
“And just how,” Luke asks, incredulous, “-is this to your benefit?”
“Well, the look on that shitstain’s face was pretty great, for starters,” Din says and it's like Gol cheated on Din instead of Luke, with how much satisfaction he seemingly gets from this whole thing, “-and now I’ll get Boba off my back about getting a plus one for the wedding.”
Luke looks at him incredulously.
“How is fake dating your co-worker easier than telling Boba Fett to fuck off about your personal life?”
“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer, Skywalker.”
Luke sighs again.
“Yeah, ok, I’ll give you that.” He crosses his arms. “-but you know this is a ridiculous thing to do!”
“So is going to the wedding of your ex-fiance and the guy who he cheated on you with who happens to be a childhood friend.”
“What does that matter to you?! ”
“Why doesn’t it matter to you?”
Luke drags a hand down his face.
“You realise we’re going to have to lie to like, everyone.”
“You’re a lawyer.”
Luke ignores that.
“So, what is the plan here, then? We’re just going to pretend to date?”
“Thought that was obvious.”
“The wedding isn't until September!”
“So?”
“What if you want to date someone for real between now and then!” Luke asks, wildly.
“I won’t.” Din says, immediately and Luke rolls his eyes. Clearly being stubborn; there’s no way he can actually know that for certain.
“Look, I appreciate the thought,” Luke says, trying to reason his way out of this, “- but there’s also the fact that if I’ve happily moved on, well, it lets them off the hook!”
“Thought you said you forgive them.” Din says, crossing his arms, “-and that you don’t like being subjected to people’s sympathetic glances. You can’t have it both ways, Skywalker.”
Luke drops down in a chair.
“Thought I was the one who went to law school.” He mutters, with a sigh. “-And it’s not like I can say no now, anyway. Everyone probably fucking knows already. Surprised Leia hasn't called me yet.”
“Look, Luke,” Din says, seriously, and Luke looks up at him, “- if you really… hate the idea, just say I was being a shit disturber and you didn't want to make things awkward at the party. Or I made a pass at you and you were trying to spare me the embarrassment.”
Luke huffs as he lets everything wash over him, and Din looks at him with those big brown eyes of his.
“Except,” Luke sighs, resigned, “You're fucking right.”
“What?” Din asks, and is unable to hide the way aforementioned big brown eyes light up.
“You’re right, this-” Luke gestures between them, “-makes the idea of enduring the whole thing more bearable.”
Luke thinks about all the upcoming stuff, the various dinners, all of the other ‘wedding events’ which aren’t official events but somehow are and the goddamn wedding itsself and considers enduring those by himself or…. Enduring them with Din.
“Look. We need to talk about this later, ok?” Luke sighs, “-set some… ground rules. I’m too fucking tired to think right now.”
“First thing tomorrow.” Din says, moustache twitching.
“Don't you and Grogu usually hang out Saturday mornings?” Luke asks
“Yeah, but right now it mostly consists of me watching him climb all over a jungle gym at the park and tire himself out. You can meet us there. It’s not like he won’t be happy to see you, either.”
“Ok.” Luke sighs, and the moustache twitches before Din stands.
The low light in Luke’s apartment glints off that damn silver chain.
“Goodnight, Luke.”
“Wait, Din.”
“What?”
“Thank you.” Luke says, genuinely, “-Even if… it was fucking insane. Thanks.”
Din looks at him for a long moment before the moustache twitches up.
“Anytime, Skywalker.”
-
When Luke wakes up the next morning, and starts his morning meditation, he can almost pretend last night didn’t happen.
His phone notifications are suspiciously empty, and as he transfers out of the crane pose, it lights up with a text from Din, sharing his location.
Luke huffs.
So it wasn’t a dream.
Well, technically… if he dreamed about Din kissing him last night after going to bed… it’s just him trying to process a frankly ridicuolous turn of events. That’s all.
And he hasn’t even been kissed in a long time! Luke reassures himself with this sentiment, as he walks out of the dog-friendly cafe with Artoo.
“That’s it, Artoo.” Luke says, as they make their way over to the park, “-It’s just that I… haven’t been kissed in awhile so it was… jarring, that’s all.”
Luke does not think about what Din’s beard felt like against his skin as Din looks up and waves when Grogu spots them.
“Hi Luke!! Hi Artoo!!” Grogu says, not out of breath even after sprinting a good 20 yards over to him, “-watch this!”
He immediately sprints away, then, after flashing a toothless grin at them and climbing back on the jungle gym.
Luke snorts as he sits down beside Din on the park bench, handing him a coffee as Grogu hangs upside down from some monkey bars. Artoo settles down beside the bench after huffing at Din.
“Thanks, Skywalker.” Din says, and Luke is relieved to find that he’s back to being dressed in his usual uniform, complete with silver lensed aviators. “-You didn’t need to buy me a coffee.”
“You didn’t need to kiss me in front of my ex, ex-mother in law and ex-best friend.” Luke says.
“Best friend?” Din repeats and Luke thinks he hasn’t sighed this much in a very long time.
“Yes.” Luke says and rips the bandage off, “-sometimes I think he did this to me because he was pissed off I was going to get Leia to be my best person rather than him.”
“I honestly don't know what else to say to you, Skywalker.” Din says, shaking his head as he waves back at Grogu, who's now perched at the top of the slide.
“Well. We need to agree to some ground rules.” Luke says, “-how this is all going to work.”
“Are you going to bill me for drawing up the contract?” Din needles,
Luke glares at him.
“No. We can't have any evidence of… this.” Luke levels a look at him. “You know we're going to have to lie to everyone, right? I don't want to get caught up trying to remember who knows the truth and who doesn't. Can you do that?”
“Can you?” Din counters, “-your sister won't be able to tell?”
Luke purses his lips and does not say Leia already thinks they should be together.
“-she has her hands full with my nephew,” Luke says, “-she’s distracted.”
“Hmm.” Din says, and then seemingly thinks of something and snorts.
“What?”
“Are you prepared for everyone at the office to think we're together?” Din’s moustache is up as he asks this.
Luke groans.
“Why is that funny to you? This was your idea!”
“I know, I’m fine with it. Just looking forward to you getting read the riot act by Kenobi, that's all.”
Luke huffs, and since he's been avoiding thinking about Ben’s reaction to all this, he keeps avoiding it.
“Me? He's going to read it to you too!”
“I'm used it.” Din hums, “-not going to lie, it's going to be pretty satisfying watching the golden child get it for once.”
“Golden child!” Luke repeats, incredulous, thinking of all the times during the course of his life Ben has berated him about one thing or another, “-as if!”
“Buir! Luke! Artoo!”
Din and Luke wave back at Grogu, perched on some other peak of the jungle gym.
“Maybe you should have put him in gymnastics instead of Judo.”
“Skywalker.” Din says, flatly, “- have you met him?”
Luke laughs and gets what Din means. Now that he thinks about it, Grogu and gymnastics feel like a combination that is best uncombined.
“So.” Din says, after a moment spent in companionable silence as Grogu continues tearing around the jungle gym, “-lying to everyone? Is that your only rule?”
“-and you can't date anyone else.”
“-I already told you-”
“-or-” Luke winces and prays he doesn't turn red, “-hook up with anyone.”
“Oh.” Din says.
Neither of them are looking at anywhere in particular.
“If anyone saw you… I mean, it would look real shitty if it seemed like you cheated on me too.”
“I would never -”
“I'm not saying you would for real, Mando!” Luke says holding out his hands, “I’m just saying… I would like to not be humiliated twice.”
“So you were humiliated.” Din says, crossing his arms.
“I never said I wasn't.” Luke says, testily, “-I said I forgave them for it.”
“Which I still don’t understand-”
“You don’t need to understand, Mando!” Luke says, “-just like I don’t understand why you’d rather fake date your colleague than find a plus one on your own!”
Din looks at him evenly.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
Luke is too busy glaring at Din to register a little green tornado barreling toward them until 2 seconds before he makes impact; and that’s mostly due to Artoo’s warning woof.
“Hey, careful, kid!” Din says, hostility immediately melting away as he shoves his unfinished coffee at Luke and catches the kid before there’s coffee all over everything.
“Did you see, did you see?” Grogu asks, excitedly.
“Sure did, kid.” Din says.
“Great form, Grogu.” Luke says, “- hey, did you know that at the Olympics they sort of have monkey bars too-”
“Where do you want to go for lunch, kid?” Din says quickly, shooting a glare at Luke from behind the sunglasses, “-Luke’s offered to take us.”
“I have, have I?” Luke laughs, and you know what, he deserved that.
“Well we have to go somewhere Artoo can go too.” Grogu says, wiggling away from Din and leaning down to pat him.
Artoo licks across his face and Grogu laughs.
“We can get take out, then.” Luke hums,
“I can show you what I made in school!” Grogu grins.
“Nice.” Luke says, “I’m excited.”
“Uh, so, time to go?” Din asks, looking down at his watch.
“One more swing!” Grogu exclaims, and then darts off again.
“What a kid.” Luke hums, “-what about a trampoline?”
“Skywalker.” Din says, evenly, “If I hear that word from your lips again I’ll-”
“I’m sorry to come up to you like this-”
Din and Luke lean away from eachother and look up at the middle-aged woman.
Luke groans internally, preparing to defend Din from whatever parenting tip she’s probably going to give him-
“-But I had to tell you that you make such a lovely couple.” She says, clasping her hands together.
Luke feels himself turn beet red.
“-And with your son? What an adorable family.”
Luke’s fairly certain he stops breathing.
“Thank you.” Din says, “-that’s very kind of you to say.”
“Have a lovely day!” she grins.
Luke rounds on Din when she’s out of earshot.
“What?” Din interrupts, with a knowing brow, before Luke can even get a word out, “-you said we had to lie to everyone.”
Luke is going to get Grogu a trampoline for Christmas.
-
In spite of… everything, Luke finds he’s in a good mood when he and Artoo get back to his apartment after lunch.
Grogu had a million and one things to show Luke, taking his hand as he dragged him around Din’s place, from drawings on the fridge to spelling bee certificates to his Ninja Turtles to the Lego he was working on.
On more than one occasion Din stood up to try and re-direct him, but Luke waved him off.
“Why are you watching me like that in my own place?” Luke overheard Din ask Artoo, exasperated, and Luke disguised his laugh as a cough while Grogu showed him the latest in a series of books he was reading.
But Luke’s home now, and sighs. Not only does he have chores to do, there’s two cases he really should be trying to get some more work done on, so there’s plenty of things to distract him from the memory of Din kissing him.
Luke’s phone rings, and he answers it blindly, trying to decide what task can be pushed the longest.
“Luke Skywalker.”
“God, is that how you answer the phone at the office?” Leia’s voice says, and Luke’s heart stops. “-Don't do that to me again, you sound… just don’t.”
“Leia!” Luke says, trying to keep the terror out of his tone, “-uh, what’s up?”
“Han’s taken Ben out to go fishing with Chewie.” She sighs, “- so I figured I’d give you a call while I wait to find out if it’s a disaster or not.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Luke says, evenly, as Artoo sits on Luke’s feet.
He senses the stress.
“-I think Ben will be able to handle it.”
“Yeah,” Leia says, “-yeah, hopefully. So, how’re you?”
“How… am I?”
“Skywalker, please.” Leia huffs, “-How was the party? As fucking awkward as I told you it’d be?”
“Uh, no.” Luke says, on edge. She must know. Like, the Organas are in the same rich people social circle as the Withers. “-No, it was, fine, I guess. None of Gol’s family really spoke to me, though.”
Leia snorts.
“Of course they wouldn’t.”
“Biggs’ family was nice.”
“Yeah, because they don’t want to face Owen’s wrath.”
Luke laughs.
“So none of your old friends talked to you either?”
Luke assumes she’s referring to all of the friends that only stayed in touch with Gol rather than him after the breakup. Well, they were mostly Gol’s friends to begin with, Luke will admit. He also heard from Leia that most of them are of the opinion that Gol just replaced “one hick with another.” So. He’s not particularly mourning their loss.
“It was fine, Leia, I obviously survived-”
“Well, glad you had back-up.” She says, and Luke freezes, “-I’m feeling much better about the whole thing now. How old’s his son again? Do you think he’d get along with Ben? I would also like to meet him properly.”
Luke exhales.
“Yourarentmadiliedtoyou?” Luke says quickly, all one word. He knew it.
“Skywalker, please.” Leia scoffs, “-I could tell you were,”
Luke huffs.
“-and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why, until I heard about last night.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, had I known for certain before the engagement party I definitely would have shoved it in those assholes' faces before your expertly executed reveal.” Leia hums. “-I'm so proud of you.”
Luke is not surprised she somehow got the play-by-play. Well, Breha runs in the same social circles as Gol’s Mom, so.
“It was his idea,” Luke admits. Leia laughs, giddy. “I like him already” she says, “-especially because he annoys Kenobi.” She hums, “-I suppose that’s the other reason why you haven’t told anyone yet.”
“Yeah, it’s going to be… complicated.” Luke frowns, “-you’ve spoken to Ben about him?”
“Of course.” Leia says, “-I worry about you, you know. To be honest, I was so confused as to why you didn’t work yourself to death after what those shitstains did to you-” she hums, “-but then when I found out about this little office romance of yours-”
“Office romance?” Luke repeats,
“Well what else would you call it?”
“We… we were friends first.” Luke stutters, “-we haven’t been… I’m still getting used to it.”
Leia hums thoughtfully.
“You really like him,” Leia says, “-I’ve never seen you be so cautious about something before.”
Okay so what the fuck is this conversation? Luke feels like he’s living in the Twilight Zone.
“Well, he, uh. His kid’s involved.” Luke decides on, finally.
“Hmm,” Leia says, then makes a disgusted noise.
“What?” Luke bristles, Grogu’s a great kid! What the hell was that for-
“I don’t believe it.” She says, “-they’ve managed to catch a fish.”
“That’s great!” Luke laughs, calming down, also relieved at the different topic.
“Skywalker, I’m going to have to figure out how to cook the damn thing!”
Luke chortles.
“Didn’t you used to go fishing with Owen?”
“Nope.” Luke says, brightly, “-not once.” He hums, “-good luck.”
“Fuck off, Skywalker.” She says, before she hangs up.
Luke is torn between being absolutely delighted by the idea of Leia cooking a fish that Han and Ben caught, and completely bewildered about her being so certain that him and Din are together for real. And that he’s been lying to her about it. And that she’s spoken to Ben about it!
“For fuck’s sake.” Luke sighs, dragging his hands down his face. Why hasn’t Ben already talked to him about it? God, has he talked to Din?
Luke is struck by the horrible thought that maybe Din thinks Luke has been spreading around the idea that they’re secretly dating and saw a chance for them to fake it and give Luke an out? Or something?
But that seems so out of character for Din, Luke reassures himself. Confrontations are Din’s specialty. But then again, Luke would never have expected that Din would fake date a colleague to spare them some embarrassment, either.
Luke sighs and leans his head back on his couch.
Wait. Din has consistently tried to do stuff for Luke to pay him back for the Judo lessons for Grogu, and Luke has so far managed to dodge repayment of any kind. Maybe that’s why he’s been so insistent on this scheme; he thinks he’s paying Luke back.
That makes the most sense out of anything, Luke decides, somewhat relieved as he gets up and starts in on his chores.
He’s still not looking forward to Monday.
-
Luke gets off the subway carrying his briefcase and sighs as he looks up at the office building.
Each step is incredibly heavy, and as he scans his keycard and hits his floor, someone else steps into the elevator with him.
Luke recognises the aftershave, as it’s been replaying in his dreams the past few nights.
Din doesn’t even say anything as Luke looks up at him, though the moustache twitches as he stands in front of Luke as the elevator doors close behind him.
The floors flash on the consol as they look at eachother.
“Hope you’re not expecting a good morning, kiss.” Luke says, primly and Din snorts and moves to stand beside him.
“That's unprofessional, Skywalker.”
They walk in together and thankfully are the first ones in, as usual.
Luke drops his briefcase in his office before putting the coffee on in the breakroom, and Din is just… there .
Why is this so awkward? It’s not like… they’ve never been this awkward before. Like, they’ve kissed. Luke reddens at the memory.
Thankfully, a distraction tumbles in.
“Coffee? Thank fuck. Happy fucking Monday, Skywalker. Mando.”
“Andor.”
“Hey Cass.” Luke grins and looks behind him. “Hi Brasso.”
“Good morning, Luke.” The large paralegal says, affably. “-How was your weekend?”
Luke immediately looks over at Din, who raises a brow, sipping his coffee.
Amateur Din mouths at him and Luke narrows his eyes but then turns back to Brasso.
“Uh. Fine. How are the kids?” Luke says, quickly, and Brasso starts in on a tale and Luke exhales, as the rest of the office crams into the small breakroom, until Ben is the last to arrive.
“Good morning, everyone.” He says, “-let’s begin, shall we? Cases in progress first.”
Thankfully, their Monday all-hands is shorter than normal, and Luke exhales, looking forward to-
“Oh, Luke.” Ben says, amiably, “-can we have a word, please?”
The entire room stops and looks at him.
Din inhales sharply as his moustache twitches.
It takes everything Luke has to not flip him off.
“Oh, that’s quite enough, everyone.” Ben tsks, “- it’s just some minor housekeeping, get to work please.”
“Minor” Luke murmurs to Din, as he walks by him. Din huffs.
Luke closes the door behind him as Ben sits at his desk, looking faintly amused.
“Well,” he says, finally, “-I suppose I should be grateful that you both aren’t working on any cases together at the moment.”
Luke groans and drops down into the chair opposite Ben, feeling like he’s been called into the principal’s office.
“How long have you known?” He decides to ask, thinking about the bizarre conversation with Leia.
“For certain?” Ben muses, “-not until yesterday when after asking me how to properly gut a fish, Leia told me that under no circumstances am I going to and I quote ‘mess this up for you and ruin it when she’s been trying to get you to admit your feelings for such a long time.’”
Luke huffs and crosses his arms.
“-And not for certain?”
“Well, Leia and I have discussed, your, uh, friendship previously-”
Luke scoffs.
“-I perhaps thought there might be something there, however, you weren’t ready after… everything.”
“I’m glad I’m such a source of entertainment.” Luke huffs.
“-She is very concerned about you, you know.”
“You and Leia could just ask me about stuff.”
“Yes, but we both know you well enough to know you might just tell us what you think we want to hear.”
Luke rubs his eyes.
“Well.” He says, “-that’s the godfather bit out of the way. What does my boss have to say about… this.”
“Well, what is ‘this’ precisely?” Ben asks, sounding amused, “-I am fully aware that you young people today don’t ‘date’ in the strictest sense of the word… maybe you’re talking, or simply ‘hooking up’, or perhaps this is a ‘situationship’-”
“Jyn showing you tiktok is perhaps the worst thing she has ever done.” Luke says flatly before he huffs. “-Uh, you know Din’s not-”
“Din? Well, this is serious.”
Luke reddens and looks down at his hands.
“Din is a… serious person.” Luke continues, “-and we have Grogu to think about-”
“We?”
Luke looks at the ceiling to avoid getting riled up by the peanut gallery comments.
“-So yes. We are in a serious romantic relationship.”
“Very matter-of-fact, Luke, that’s very good for our notes.”
“You’re taking notes on this?”
“Has to be documented.” Ben hums and Luke wishes he could roll his eyes.
“-well. I'm happy to inform you that since neither of you are on any cases together and have no seniority links to each other, it is above board.”
“I would never do anything below board.” Luke says, and Ben gives him a look, seeing as they both know that’s a big fat lie.
“-Though I expect you both to continue to be professional during working hours.”
“Of course.” Luke sighs. “-Am I dismissed?”
“Luke.” Ben says, softly. “-I am happy for you, you know. Mando is a good man.”
“Then why are you so nitpicky with him?” Luke asks, before he thinks about it.
“Well, Luke, that’s precisely why.” Ben muses. “-And I worry about you too.”
“You both should tell me about it, next time.” Luke says, as he stands. “-Rather than gossiping amongst yourselves.”
“Where would be the fun in that?” Ben asks, “-would you send Mando in?”
“Behave yourself, please.” Luke says,
“-I am your boss.” Ben reminds him,
“-When you do the godfather bit.” Luke amends, and closes the door behind him, and everyone goes back to pretending they weren’t watching the door.
Luke rolls his eyes, but steels himself, and walks over to the office Din shares with Fennec.
The door’s open but he knocks anyway.
Din looks up; Fennec’s not in. Must be out on a case already.
“Your turn to be read the riot act.” Luke sighs and Din snorts as he stands. “-Remember, this was your idea.”
“I remember.” Din says, with a small smile, and Luke watches the line of his shoulders as he walks over to Ben’s office, before shaking his head to himself and going to sit at his own desk, and do his damn job.
-
I suppose we should take lunch together to debrief
Luke looks at the message from Din that’s popped up on their intra-office messaging system and sighs.
Very forward of you, Djarin he writes back, and winces when he remembers that this is a company system.
Ben’s warning to stay professional at work rings in his ears, and he never fucking considered that he wouldn’t be heeding it especially because there’s actually nothing unprofessional going on!
Din, apparently, is smarter than him because Luke’s phone lights up next.
Well, it’s not like I’ve been forward with anything else
Luke snorts in spite of himself, but then exhales as he’s reminded of the feel of Din’s lips.
He needs to get a fucking grip.
At noon exactly, Din is outside his office, holding a brown paper bag with stickers on it and Luke smiles before pulling out his own, resolutely ignoring the stares of everyone else as they head out.
The small parkette is about a block away, and Luke sighs as he sits down on a bench, Din humming as he settles down beside him.
“How was the riot act?” Luke asks, finally.
“Fine.” Din hums, “- though I suppose it means we won’t ever work the same case again, which is annoying.”
Luke blinks at this.
“Why?”
“Because we worked well together, Skywalker.” Din says, like it’s obvious, “-or did you not think so?”
Luke grins brilliantly and can tell Din rolls his eyes behind the aviators.
“A compliment?” Luke needles, “-from Din Djarin? Well, that’s my professional career made.”
“Oh, fuck off, Skywalker.” Din says, between bites of his sandwich, “-just because you’re one of the most competent attorneys in the office doesn’t mean that much. It’s not a high bar.”
Luke chortles.
“I’m going to tell Cass you said that.”
“Please do.”
Luke hums to himself, pleased, but then remembers.
“How was the godfather bit, then?” He asks, with a slight wince.
“Fine.” Din says, and Luke looks at him, askance, not entirely believing him. “-just reminded me of the, er, various associates he has if I hurt you.”
Luke groans.
“It wasn’t bad, Luke. Honest.” He tilts his head, “-was it for you?”
Luke debates telling him about how seemingly everyone in his life already thought they were together, and decides that’s a terrible idea.
“Well, no.”
“Hmm. Well, I mean, compared to the shitstain you were with previously, how can I be anything but a clear upgrade?”
Luke snorts.
“I, uh, told Ben we were, um. Serious. By the way. Thought he’d, ah, take it better.”
“I gathered.” Din says, sounding amused,
“I suppose we need to figure out our backstory.” Luke says, “-get on the same page about this.”
“What backstory?” Din says, “-we obviously met at work, grew closer when you helped Grogu out. Tried to fight it for so long. Finally gave into our feelings one night working late.”
Din says this so blasé, it takes a few seconds for Luke to catch up.
“Din Djarin.” Luke says, as his stomach twists, “-Don't tell me you’re a romantic.”
“I'm not.” Din says, dryly, “-but Fennec’s idea of fun on a stakeout is recounting every single romcom she's ever watched to me the entire time, so I’m familiar with the common themes.”
Luke hums.
“So that's how you came up with the fake dating thing?”
Din shrugs.
“-Bolt of inspiration I guess.” He hums, “- did I ever enjoy the look on that motherfucker’s face.”
Din sounds like a broken record at this point, but. Luke can’t help but agree.
“That was good.”
“I guess we should get to know eachother better,” Din muses, “- if we’re going to have to sell serious to your ex-family and ex-friends over this whole thing.”
Luke looks up.
“Like how? I’m an open book.”
Din looks at him over the rim of his aviators.
“Yeah right, Skywalker. I never know what you’re thinking.”
“Could say the same about you.”
“Think it’s in my job description to keep things close to the chest.”
“Hmm. What do you want to know?”
Din raises a brow.
“-About me, I mean. Kinda surprised you need me to tell you, thought you’re supposed to be good at finding things out on your own.”
Din ignores the needle as he hums.
“Well. I’d like to know how your family works, for starters,” He blanches. “Sorry, Luke, I didn’t mean it like-“
“No, no.” Luke laughs, “- It's a fair question. You met Leia briefly at our Christmas party last year, right?”
Din nods.
“We’re twins,” Luke grins, “-our parents died when we were young-“
“I’m sorry.”
Luke shrugs.
“In addition to Ben, we had two sets of godparents. Our Aunt and Uncle on my Dad’s side, my Mom’s close family friends on the other. We were already very close with them; they told us to choose who we wanted to live with.”
“What?” Din asks, sounding flabbergasted.
“I know it sounds odd, but it was the right choice,” Luke hums, “Leia and I are very different in a lot of ways. I chose to live with our Aunt and Uncle out on a farm-”
“That explains so much.”
“-and Leia decided to live with our Mom’s friends here in the big city. They adopted her; that’s why she has a different last name than me.”
“Did you guys see each other much?”
“Sort of.” Luke says, “- we kept in touch pretty frequently until we were teens and Leia started to do every extracurricular known to man.” Luke shakes his head, “- but after law school I moved to the city and articled at the same firm as her. Then we went back to being joined at the hip.”
Din’s silent for a moment, and Luke’s not sure if he can sense that Luke is protesting just a little too much to be believable.
The Leia in his memory is different from the Leia he’s gotten to know again, and he suspects she feels the same way about him. Neither of them have talked about it, especially not after her chaotic courtship with Han, and his extremely lucky love life.
“Why doesn’t Leia work here too?” Din asks instead of calling him out, “-if she’s also a lawyer?”
“Oh it would be a disaster.” Luke grins. “-Her and Ben would be at eachother’s throats all the time.”
“But she named her son after him.”
Luke blinks at the fact that Din remembered. Well, he does talk about Ben in relation to Grogu, he supposes. Luke holds out his hands.
“Family.” Luke shrugs, “-What about you? How does yours work?”
“Mine?” Din asks, and Luke can tell he doesn’t particularly want to talk about it; his shoulders somehow get a defensive line to them. Don’t ask Luke how he’s noticed this. So he changes to a subject he knows Din will want to talk about.
“You adopted Grogu, right? How did you decide on that?”
“I didn’t.” Din says, with a grin. “He did. I was after a guy when Boba still had his bounty hunter firm.” Din hums, “-Went to his last known address, staked out his house.”
Luke doesn’t think he’s ever seen Din’s grin bigger than it is now, as he recounts this.
“... the kid was 3? Kept managing to escape from the group home he was in; happened to be right across the street from the scumbag’s house.” Din shakes his head. “Like, he got into my car. At 3.” Din smiles, “-nothing they could do to stop him . He managed it a few times before I clued into what was going on. He chose me, I guess.”
Luke can feel himself grinning ear to ear to mirror the one on Din’s face.
“That was my last bounty.” Din says. “-Boba decided to get into contracting then. I didn't particularly like it, no thanks to your shitty ex. Then Cody referred me to Kenobi, you know the rest.”
Luke is sort of surprised they haven't really talked about this before, even in spite of all the people they somehow have in common. But he supposes neither of them are the most forthcoming of people.
“Luke, Mando, there you are!”
Luke freezes, and looks up at Cass, holding… a tray of coffees.
“These are for you. Don’t worry, I asked Jyn how you guys take them.”
“Uh, thanks Cass.” Luke says, bewildered as he takes a paper cup. This is from the nice artisanal coffee shop, even. He looks up at Cass with a frown. “-what do you want?”
“Skywalker!” Cass says, doing a very good impression of being offended, “-I’m hurt you think so lowly of me.”
“So you’re just giving us these out of the inherent goodness of your heart?” Din says, amused, even as he sips at his.
“Yes, Mando,” Cass says, “I am. So happy you recognized my magnamity.” He hums, “-after all, I needed to share my winnings with the people who got them for me.”
“Winnings?” Luke says, “-what winnings?”
“All the money I made from the office pool of when you guys would finally get together.” Cass grins, “-thanks very much.”
“The office pool for what?!" Luke repeats, incensed.
Din starts laughing. Luke spins around to glare at him.
“Would’ve preferred a percentage of the cash, Andor.” He snorts, “-but I suppose you could’ve been accused of rigging it.”
“What,” Luke says, “-the actual fuck -“
“Mando,” Cass says, “- I cannot believe you’re the one being reasonable about this.”
“Being reasonable!” Luke says, “how fucking long-“
“Nothing we can do about it now.” Din shrugs.
“Was Ben in on it?” Luke asks, aghast.
“Of course not,” Cass says, and Luke exhales, “-he said he had to be able to claim plausible deniability, workplace pools are technically illegal.”
Luke buries his face in his hands.
-
Thankfully, Din is apparently unphased by the entire office betting on when they were going to get together. When, Luke thinks, faintly ill. Not if.
“People have nothing better to do, Skywalker.” he’d reasoned, “-and I talk to you, and I don’t talk to anyone else, really. Not a huge conclusion to jump to, I guess, if you lack imagination.”
“Because I spend time with your kid!” Luke said, and Din gestured to indicate his point was made for him.
Luke left the office on time for once, too fucking bewildered about the whole thing.
Like, it’s... good, he supposes. No one in the office is treating them any different. There’s just an air of ‘good, finally’.
Luke hasn’t got the guts to ask how long the bet has been going on.
He is in the midst of pouring some kibble for Artoo when his phone rings.
“Uh, hey Biggs.” He answers with some surprise.
Artoo looks up from his bowl and grumbles a bit.
Luke frowns at him.
“What’s up? Did you have a nice time at your party? The venue was lovely.”
“Yeah of course I did,” Biggs laughs, “-Luke, I’m calling about you.”
“What about me?”
“This new man of yours.” Biggs says incredulously. “I want to hear all about it! His name is Mando? You work together? Gol says he’s a bit of a hardass, but you know Gol says that about everyone.”
Luke thinks Biggs has got some kind of nerve calling him up to gossip like everything’s fine. Sure, they still spoke enough that Luke warranted an invitation to his fucking wedding, but they aren’t buddy-buddy anymore, for obvious reasons.
“Uh, there’s not much to tell, really.” Luke says, and rattles off the spiel that he and Din have agreed on.
“Luke, that’s adorable.” Biggs hums, “-we should go on a double date,” he enthuses, “-all get to know each other before the wedding.”
“Uh-“
“You’ll bring him to our bachelor party, won’t you?”
“Um, I don’t know-“ Luke says, slowly, not aware he was invited to said bachelor party, “-he has his kid to think about-“
“Oh, well, it’s far in enough in advance he can get a sitter,” Biggs says dismissively, “-we’re going down to Florida. Going to send you all the details this week.”
Luke mutes his phone so he can groan aloud. Maybe he should have listened to Leia and politely declined.
“-but anyway,” Biggs continues, “- we should all have dinner soon-“
“Ah, pretty busy at the moment,” Luke says, “-you know, cases and stuff.”
“Don’t I ever.” Biggs sighs “-glad you have someone now that understands.”
Luke bristles.
You just work too much, Luke. Gol had said, Biggs was just keeping me company and then-
“Well.” Luke says, crisply, “- we should have a night off in a week or two. I’ll let you know.”
“Fabulous.” Biggs says, “-Gol’ll be so pleased.”
Fabulous. Luke thinks, derisively.
“I’m really, glad, Luke.” Biggs says, quietly, “-that we can be friends again. I’ve missed you.”
And there goes the guilt.
The Leia that sits on his shoulder screams at him that it’s not his fault, don’t fucking fall for it.
“I’m looking forward to catching up.” Luke says, hoping that’s neutral enough.
“It’ll certainly nice to have someone who knows what it’s like,” Biggs muses,
“Knows what what’s like?” Luke asks.
“Dealing with all the Wither stuff.” Biggs laughs.
Luke breathes through his nose.
“Oh, sorry Biggs,” Luke says, “-Ben’s on the other line, I-“
“No worries,” he says, with a sigh, “-talk to you later, Luke.”
Luke hangs up and wants to hurl the phone across the room.
Artoo nudges him, then, and looks pointedly at his leash.
“Good idea, buddy.” Luke sighs, and pockets the phone instead.
-
“They’re claiming negligence?” Luke asks Cass incredulously, as they head to lunch.
“I know,” Cass snorts, as he opens the fridge.
“Didn’t Brasso just get a load of discovery when they fuckin-“
“Willful negligence.” Cass laughs and Luke shakes his head.
“How come you always get the easy cases?”
“What can I say, can spot a shortcut a mile away.”
Luke reaches in to pull his lunch out of the fridge after Cass pulls his and Jyn’s out. Luke spots Grogu’s writing on a bag in the back.
“Jyn and I are going to go to that nice park near that coffee place she likes,” he begins, the ‘that I don't’ left unsaid. Luke would wonder how they've been married so long, but it's obvious when you spend any time around them. “-you coming with?”
“Ah, no.” Luke says, “-looks like Mando forgot his, going to go drop it off if he's not actively chasing someone.”
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
“Andor.” Luke tsks.
“What? No judgement here, Skywalker-”
Luke shakes his head and doesn't pay him any more mind.
He knocks on the window of Din's car after he walks the block and a bit from the subway; the leaves are just starting to come out; the bright fresh green glinting in the early afternoon light.
“Thanks Skywalker.” Din says as Luke slides into the passenger seat, “-I'm fuckin exhausted. Totally forgot.”
“Don't worry about it.” Luke says, “-you alright?”
“Oh fine. Kid was just up in the middle of the night.”
“He ok?”
“Yeah, just wired.”
Luke hums.
“I hear trampolines are really good for tiring-”
“Oh, fuck off.” Din gripes, and Luke snorts.
They eat their lunch in companionable silence, as Luke joins Din in watching to see if someone comes out of a door.
Riveting stuff.
“So,” Luke says, balling up the parchment paper, “-Biggs called me last night.”
“Oh?” Din says, imbuing an impressive amount of disdain into a single word, “- was the gift you got them not good enough?”
“Biggs doesn't care about shit like that,” Luke sighs, “-he thinks we should go on a double date.”
Din starts laughing.
“I’m being serious.”
“I know you are,” Din is grinning. “Sure, I’d love to.”
“Will you behave yourself?”
“‘Course I will.” Din keeps grinning and Luke has the notion that his idea of behaving and Din's are wildly different.
“Would you testify to that in a court of law?”
“Plead the fifth.”
“That’s not- nevermind.” Luke rolls his eyes.
“Do you wanna come over later?” Din asks, suddenly and Luke blinks.
“Hmm?”
“Come watch a movie with me and Grogu, he’s been asking to see you.” Din winces, “- Uncle Boba may have let it slip that you’re my boyfriend.”
Luke huffs.
“Is that ok with you?”
“Well it is what it is now.” Din says, after a beat too long, in Luke's opinion.
“Is he happy about it?”
“Over the moon.”
“Guess I’m flattered.”
“You should be.”
“So it worked for you, then?”
“What did?”
Luke looks at him flatly
“Getting Boba off your back about getting a date.”
“Oh, right.” Din huffs, “-yeah. Sort of.”
“Sort of? What, he doesn't approve of me? Can't really blame him for that, to be honest.”
“No, no. He approves of you fine.” Din hums, “-now I’m hearing about bringing you down to meet everyone.”
“I wouldn't mind.” Luke says, “-be glad to.”
“That's nice of you.” Din says, evenly. “Doesn't mean I'm not putting it off until I absolutely have to.”
“What, do you think I'll embarrass you?”
“No. I know they’ll embarrass me.”
Luke laughs.
“So he does have something on you.”
“Fuck off, Skywalker.” Din says, cheerfully. He pauses. “-can I ask?”
“Ask what?”
“What happened between Boba and-”
“No.” Luke says, immediately. “-if Boba hasn't told you then you're not hearing it from me.”
“You didn't even let me-”
“What happened between him and Han?”
“It's weird hearing him referred to as Han rather than ‘ Solo’.”
Luke hums.
“Sorry.”
“We're dating, though. Aren't you supposed to not keep secrets from-”
“Nice try, Djarin.” Luke says, “-again, Boba hasn't told you, so.”
“Would you confirm events if I managed to get him to tell me?”
“Of course.” Luke says, “-would have to tell Han’s side of it.”
Din laughs to himself.
“So?”
“So what?”
“Are you coming over tonight?”
Luke hums.
“Guess it will be a good opportunity.”
“For what?”
“Get to know you more.”
“I already took care of that, remember?"
“No, like, regular stuff.”
“Regular stuff?”
“Like how you take your coffee, what time you get up. I dunno, your favourite candy bar.”
“Two cream and two sugars, 5:00AM, Snickers.”
“You don’t take your coffee with-“ Luke begins, but cuts himself off as he realises. “-wait.”
“I pay attention, Skywalker.”
“Now I feel like an asshole.” Luke sighs, “-how the hell did you know about the Snickers?”
“I have seen you eat a candy bar a grand total of two times.” Din says, “-both times it was a Snickers. I made an educated guess.”
“Why Ben pays you the big bucks I suppose.”
“Excuse you, most-billed-hours-in-the-firm-5-years-running.” Dins snorts, “-but yeah, exactly.” He hums, “Don’t look so discouraged. You know how I take my coffee-“
“Black.”
“- I get up at 6:30, Grogu gets up at 7. I don’t really have a favourite candy bar, but I always get a Kitkat so I can easily give Grogu half. Kid's too young to have a preference on chocolate yet.”
“Hmm.” Luke sighs. “-but see what I mean? I need to catch up apparently.”
“Don't worry.” Din snorts, “I’m not complicated.”
Luke scoffs.
“What's that supposed to mean?” Din asks, sounding offended.
“Ok, Mr. Dark and Mysterious. Not complicated.”
“I'm not.” Din huffs, “-and I can't tell if that was a compliment or not.”
“It wasn't. Just an observation.”
“I'm not mysterious.”
“You don't talk to anyone.”
“I talk to you-”
“Present company excluded, of course.”
“Well, no one asks me anything.”
Luke will give him that.
“Well, I’ll ask you a proper 20 questions after dinner. Write up a report, share my findings.”
Din rolls his eyes behind the aviators.
Luke glances at the time on the clock.
“I better get back. Good luck with your guy.”
“I’ll text you about dinner later.”
“Dinner and a movie.” Luke repeats. “Wow.”
“Almost like we're dating.” Din says, with a smirk.
Luke throws the balled up parchment at him.
-
Luke is incredibly disappointed to find out that Din can cook. And he's good at it too. Din makes dinner as Grogu finds more things to show Luke, and explains the lore of the movie they're going to watch after dinner. Apparently it's a continuation from a show. He's already seen it 5 times.
“You must enjoy it a lot.” Luke says lightly, and manages not to laugh as Din’s shoulders hunch.
Turns out it's cute, as far as kids movies go, but then again, Luke hasn't been subjected to it multiple times already. Grogu also, for some reason, expects Luke to help with his bedtime routine, in spite of Din saying that actually no, he doesn't have to, kid.
Luke agrees anyway and does not melt as Din reads to him.
“You're giving into him too much already.” Din sighs, dropping down on the couch beside Luke, once they're reasonably sure Grogu is in bed for good now.
“Of course I am,” Luke says, “-seeing as he's a perfect angel who has done nothing wrong in his life, ever.”
Din sighs, but he's smiling.
“-not surprised he has everyone wrapped around his finger.” Luke hums, “-he's a great kid.”
“I know.” Din hums, but then eyes him. “-so, what? Where's your 20 questions?”
“Ok.” Luke says, and pulls out his phone, “-I made a list.”
The moustache twitches.
“Ok, Skywalker, hit me.” He tilts his head, “-you're answering these too, aren't you?”
“Thought you didn't need me to help you find things out.”
“I'm off the clock.”
“Hmm.” Luke looks up at him with a smirk. “-favourite movie? Aside from the one we just watched, obviously.”
“A Fist Full of Dollars.”
“More than-”
“Yes, more than the Good, the Bad, the Ugly. ” Din sighs, long suffering, “-what about you?”
“Hidden Fortress.” Luke grins
“Very film school of you.”
Luke snorts.
“Favourite colour?”
“Blue.” Din says, after a slight hesitation.
“Interesting.” Luke grins, “-mine’s green.”
“Like the kid.”
“He's got great taste.” Luke shrugs, “-favourite song?”
“Nowhere Man. ”
“Cheerful,” Luke hums, though has no other comment because it makes a sort of sense, “-mine's the Beatles too. I've Got A Feeling.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Good choice, that's all.”
Luke doesn't necessarily believe him but continues on.
“Favourite karaoke song,” Luke grins and Din snorts.
“Do I look like I sing karaoke?”
“No,” Luke hums, “-but it was worth a shot.”
“What's yours? I know you must love karaoke.”
Luke laughs brightly, but then winces and glances back to Grogu's room.
“Don't worry.” Din sighs, “- he can sleep through anything. Including his alarm most days.”
Luke hums.
“Leia and I will do a Spice Girls song if we're going out together.” Luke hums, “- we haven't gone out in awhile. You know how busy life is with a kid.”
“What about solo performances, Skywalker?”
“Depends on my mood.” Luke grins and Din laughs lightly.
“Uh,” Luke says tearing his gaze away from Din’s smile, “- any tattoos?”
Din blinks.
“Yeah.”
“What, really?”
“Yeah.” Din snorts, before pulling off his sweatshirt.
Luke feels himself redden, but sighs in relief as Din has a t-shirt on underneath. He pushes up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo on his shoulder.
“A rhino skull?” Luke asks, trying to identify it.
“Mmm. Close. It’s a mudhorn skull.”
“A what?”
“They don’t exist,” Din says, moustache twitching, “- they’re Grogu’s favourite creature from his favourite book series. We read them all together.”
Luke looks at him, flatly.
“Din Djarin.” He says, borderline angry, “-that is the most adorable thing anyone has ever said to me.” He shakes his head, “-oh my god.”
Din snorts as he pulls his sweater back on.
“Why do you sound so angry about it?”
“-because if I ever have kids in the future, I’ll think I’m doing an ok job as a parent, and then I’ll remember that you got a tattoo of your child’s favourite mythical creature.”
“It’s not a competition, Skywalker.” Din muses and Luke rolls his eyes.
“-what about you? No tattoos?”
“None.” Luke sighs, thinking about everything he’s leant about Din. “-You know I think we've spoken more in the past two days than we normally do in 2 weeks?”
“We're dating.”
Luke rolls his eyes again and knocks into him.
“Why are you so sure you won't date anyone else?” Luke blurts, cursing himself internally, not really any of his-
“Not interested.” Din replies, easily, just as quickly as before.
“What?” Luke asks, and he must look appropriately confused because Din elaborates.
“I’m always busy with the kid. Work. Don't have time to… meet random people and see if I like them or not.” Din huffs, “-I also don't like meeting people in general.”
Luke laughs.
“What about a partner? Marriage? Do you want that?”
“If it happens it happens.” Din says, finally. “Not particularly fussed on making it happen.”
“What if you need to make it happen? Don't tell me you're a believer in fate.” Luke asks, incredulously.
“I have to believe in something.” Din shrugs.
“Maybe you are a romantic.”
“Don’t make me laugh, Skywalker.” Din snorts, but then eyes him. “- What about you?”
“What?”
“Have you uh, tried to date again after...?” Din blanches. “Sorry, don't answer if-“
“No, no. I have. Sort of. Leia's tried to set me up.” Luke purses his lips trying to figure out how to best explain how he feels about the whole thing. “-It just… doesn't seem worth it most days.”
“Worth it?” Din questions and Luke sighs.
“If they had come to me…” Luke begins, and Din stills beside him, “- and said that they fell in love and were sorry… I would have stepped aside. I still would have been fucking devastated but at least I would have felt like they fucking respected me.”
Luke runs a hand through his hair.
“I guess I.... There’s always this underlying feeling, now. That it's not worth it. Being so vulnerable with someone and then have them shove it back in my face, I don’t really know. Hard to trust again, I guess.”
Din is silent for a moment.
“You said to me you're not letting them win,” he says, “-Sounds to me like you are. If you’re letting them dictate how you feel about other people.”
Luke huffs.
“Well, I'm trusting you with this harebrained scheme aren't I?”
For the record, Din looks entirely too self satisfied.
-
“You do recognize the irony, right?” Din asks, as he slides into the passenger seat of Luke’s car.
He’s wearing a hunter green long sleeved polo, and has styled his curls back. Luke sighs internally.
“Irony of what?” Luke asks, pulling away from Din’s apartment building, still a bit miffed that he wasn’t allowed to say hello to Grogu.
We’d be late Din said, since you can’t say no to him
“You being an environmental lawyer and you drive this gas guzzler.”
He says ‘gas guzzler’ reverently as he looks around the interior of Luke's ‘77 Chevelle.
“Look, I try and make up for it by only taking it out on special occasions. I take the subway whenever I can.”
“I’m not judging,” Din insists, “-just highlighting the irony.”
Luke raises a brow as Din runs a hand along the dash.
“Should I let you two be alone later?”
“Skywalker, please.” Din says, offended, “-I’m a gentleman. I’d never ditch my date for someone else.”
Luke hums as he drives to the restaurant Biggs suggested for them all to get together at. It’s one step below ‘needing a jacket’, so fairly casual compared to what Gol used to take him to. Truthfully, Luke doesn’t miss fine dining whatsoever.
“Had you spoken to him since?” Din asks, suddenly, and Luke realises that he should probably give him the Coles notes of how everything went down. “-before the party?”
“-finding them together you mean?” Luke asks wryly and Din nods.
“Yeah.” Luke sighs, “-I uh, found them together, and immediately… just spun around and retreated to Leia’s.”
“Luke, you don’t have to-“
“You should know this, Din.” Luke snorts, “-unless you don’t want to hear about it.”
“I shouldn’t hear about it because it’s just going to make me angry right before I need to be on my best behaviour.” Din sighs, “-But I do want to know.”
Luke sort of wonders why, but doesn’t ask.
“Yeah, well. I let Leia and Han handle them while I basically just… hid in their guest room for 3 days. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t… totally surprised.”
“What?”
“I knew them both better than anyone. I could tell that… something was up, but I was in the middle of a big case, so just pushed it away while I focused on that.”
“Fucking hell.”
“Gol wanted to talk after, I did not, but we met at a park by Leia’s place so I could give him the ring back.”
“What, you couldn’t‘ve FedExed it?”
“Leia supervised from a distance,” Luke grins, “-and I… sort of wanted to hear him out.”
“What?”
“I just wanted to hear how he’d justified it to himself.” Luke shrugs, “-seeing as he’d managed to send me a certified letter at the office saying he didn’t want to call the wedding off.”
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
“Anyway, I told him fat chance.”
“So remind me why you’re still in touch?” Din says, lowly. Luke swallows.
“Biggs got in touch about 6 months later, wanting to apologise. Saying he didn’t want to throw away 20 years of friendship.”
“Maybe he should’ve thought of that before he fucked your fiance.”
“You’d think.” Luke hums, “-but to him, it was… he and Gol fell in love in spite of me, and they’re very sorry they hurt me, etc. etc.”
“But Wither didn’t want to call off the fucking wedding.”
“Biggs has explained that to himself by saying Gol was just trying to do the right thing.” Luke hums, “-but that’s when I realised that Gol is going to hurt Biggs one day just as badly as he hurt me, so. I’ll be here for Biggs when he does.”
“Darklighter is an adult who made his own decisions, Luke.” Din says, “I think he’s even more of a fucking asshole than Wither is.”
“Yeah, well.” Luke sighs “-the way I saw it at the time was I could lose a fiance and 20 years of friendship, or I could just lose a fiance.”
“At the time?”
Luke gives him an unimpressed look.
“Din, I already told you-“
“Alright, alright.” Din sighs. “-but it seems to me like Darklighter is getting everything he wanted with no consequences.”
“He does have to be engaged to Gol, though.” Luke hums, ”-and wear that fucking ugly ring.”
“He gave Darklighter your ring?!”
“It’s a family ring, calm down.” Luke says, “-and I hated it, so. No loss, really.”
“There’s so many things I want to say to you right now.” Din says, evenly, “-but I’m just going to work myself up.”
“Please be civil,” Luke says, pouting a little, giving Din what Leia calls his ‘Aw, Shucks’ face.
Din exhales as he looks away, and Luke smirks to himself a bit as he pulls up to the valet.
“A valet.” Din says, evenly, “-typical.”
Luke walks up to the host stand, and Din huffs when the reservation is under ‘Wither’ even though Biggs booked it.
Din immediately opens the menu when he sits down; they're the first to arrive, obviously.
Luke asks for a couple pitchers of water for the table, flat and sparkling, and eyes Din as he reads. He looks displeased.
“-I know it's expensive,” Luke says, quickly, “-I’ll-”
“As if you will.” Din says, “-and I don't care about the price, Skywalker. I care because I can already tell that I could get way better food for way cheaper.”
“Probably.” Luke agrees, relaxing a bit.
That lasts all of 0.2 seconds because Biggs and Gol walk in.
Luke tries very hard to hide his wince.
“Is he wearing a cape?” Din asks, incredulously, as he takes in Gol’s ensemble.
“It's a cape blazer.” Luke sighs as Biggs waves merrily. “- please -”
“Luke!” Biggs greets, pulling him into a hug.
Luke can feel Din’s looming presence behind him.
“Hello, Biggs.” Luke says,
“Mando!” Biggs greets, then, holding out a hand to shake, “-so nice to meet you properly!”
“Hi.” Din says, holding out his hand after Luke steps on his foot.
“-it’s not my fault we haven't met properly though,” Biggs jokes, “-you were too busy shoving your tongue down my best friend’s throat.”
Han is Luke's best friend, thank you very much, he thinks, tiredly and of course, Din clocks it.
“Mando.” Gol says, finally, “-so nice to see you again.”
“Likewise.” Din says.
It's incredibly apparent that neither of them mean it in any way whatsoever.
“Luke.” Gol says, turning to him then, completely softening as he takes both of Luke's hands.
Din puts a hand on Luke's shoulder.
For fuck's sake, Luke thinks to himself.
“You look well.”
“So do you.” Luke says, pulling away from the both of them, “-I'm starving.”
It starts going… fine.
It's very easy to get Biggs and Gol to talk about themselves. They're building a house at the moment.
“Why we decided to do that and plan a wedding at the same time is beyond me!” Biggs jokes.
Only Gol laughs.
“So, Mando.” Gol says, evenly and Luke is on alert.
Also extremely grossed out that he still has a knee jerk response to hearing that tone of his.
“-you came to our engagement party as an emissary of Boba’s,” he says stirring his drink, “-but apparently you work with Luke now, what gives?”
“I still do some consulting for Boba.” Din says, “-and he thought it would be better to send me than regrets.”
“I wonder.” Gol laughs and Luke huffs.
“Well you’d be coming with Luke anyway!” Biggs pipes up, with a laugh.
“So what do you do for Kenobi, then?” Gol continues, “-can't imagine you're a lawyer too.”
Luke is about the ask what the hell that's supposed to mean, but Din doesn't seem phased.
“No. I'm an investigator for the firm.”
“Ah. Of course.”
“Oh that’s good.” Biggs laughs and Luke raises a brow at him, “-as we all know, two lawyers together is just a recipe for disaster.”
Luke’s honestly too shocked for his mouth to drop open.
“-I think that's enough about work.” Biggs adds, “-what do you do for fun, Mando?”
“Chase my kid around.” Din says, lightly. Luke can't help but notice that Din can't stop himself from lighting up whenever he mentions Grogu, even in the midst of a stand-off with Luke's shitty ex.
Luke smiles into his glass.
“Oh, well that makes much more sense.” Gol says, “-a single father? Luke, look at you, being so efficient.”
“What?” it’s Biggs who turns to Gol, then.
“Biggs, you know he's always wanted kids.” Gol says, waving a hand, “- Mando here’s giving him a headstart.”
Din inhales sharply, and Luke's glad someone's amused.
“That is how we started hanging out more, actually.” Din says, amusement dripping off him, “-he was helping my kid with some Judo lessons.”
“See, Biggs? I was right.”
“Well.” Biggs says, “- I certainly hope you two get some time to do things on your own, one of my colleagues was complaining that they hadn't seen a movie in theatres that wasn't a cartoon for what felt like years.”
Din hums.
“Well, not in theatres.” Din says, “-but we watched Anna Karenina recently. I enjoyed it.”
Luke does not bury his face in his hands, but it's a near thing.
-
“How long had you been keeping that Anna Karenina joke in your back pocket?” Luke sighs as he drives Din back to his apartment.
The rest of the meal was… well, it happened, Luke supposes.
“Too long, I’ll admit.” Din laughs, but then eyes him, “-surprised you're not more mad about it, to be honest.”
“Welp.” Luke sighs, “-seeing as you fuckin’ ignored every shitty thing Gol said the whole fucking time, I can let you have an adultery joke.”
Luke could not fucking believe some of the passive aggressive shit about Din Gol was spouting- but then again, maybe he could. So much so, that Luke was the one getting angry.
“He should've just called me a blue collar nobody straight out, “ Din hums, “-save himself some breath.”
“-he has a lot of it.” Luke mutters.
“How the hell did you even meet him?”
“He’s a junior partner at the same firm as Leia and I articled at.”
Din huffs.
“There are other places to meet people, Skywalker.”
“Oh yeah, Mr. Loves-to-Socialise? Like where?”
“So I hear.” Din concedes, but then gets a judgey line to his shoulders. Luke can just tell, alright?
“What.”
“He was a partner and started dating one of the articling students?”
“No.” Luke sighs, “- not that he wouldn't’ve. He… pursued me but I told him to wait until after I finished. And he did.”
“So you knew him all that time and still went out with him? What did you even fuckin’ see in the guy-”
“He's very nice when he wants to be,” Luke sighs, “- and I don't know. He kept his promise to wait till I was done, he wined and dined me, he and Leia had mutual friends; he even defended me a few times, when they stuck their noses up at me… I was charmed.”
“I just don't get-”
“Don't get what, Din?” Luke snips, “- that I could ignore so many fuckin’ red flags? That I wasn't able to see that he only wanted to be with me so he could have a connection to the Organas? That I liked his attention enough that I let all the little jabs from his family and friends roll off my back? I'm fully aware I was a stupid, naive little farm boy, Din, you don't have to point it out like everyone else.”
“I'm sorry, Luke.” Din says, quietly, “- I didn't mean it like that. And for the record, I don't think you're stupid or naive; none of what he did to you was your fault, fresh off the farm or not.”
Luke exhales.
“Well, I think I was.”
“Luke-”
“Willfully ignorant, at least.”
“Trying to see the good in someone isn't stupid, Luke.”
The corner of Luke's mouth ticks up.
“Din Djarin. That sounds like hippy shit.”
Din laughs.
“Yeah, well. That's what I get for spending so much time with you.”
“Hmm.” Luke sighs. “-but it did seem to good to be true, a lot of the time.”
“Luke-”
“Especially when I was working so much and we barely saw each other; and he didn't complain once. Couldn't believe my luck I found someone so understanding.”
“A lie by omission is still a lie.” Din says, “-if he was pissed off he never saw you he should have told you or broken up with you.”
“Yeah, but to him I still had my uses…. And so did Biggs, I guess.”
“Luke-”
“I know, I know.” Luke huffs, “-he's a piece of shit.”
“Why do you have to be friends with them again?” Din asks, seriously. “-Why do you have to do all of this? You can still forgive them but not have them in your life.”
“I told you. I still care about Biggs. And anyway,” Luke says, not wanting to talk about this anymore, “- It's getting Boba off your back.”
“I know. But Luke, it's. I can tell it's hard for you.”
“If I don't face them head on….” Luke sighs, miffed Din isn't letting this go, “-I need to prove to myself I can let go.”
“There's gotta be an easier way than subjecting yourself to this.” Din says, “-Why don't you, I don't know, take leave from the firm and go backpacking or something?”
“What, you tryna get out of this now?” Luke asks, lightly,
“Of course not.”
“Because it wouldn't be fair.” Luke says, “- that I have to give up my life as I knew it because of what they did.”
“So you’re too stubborn, then.”
“If you didn't know that by now, Djarin…”
Din laughs as Luke finally pulls up beside Don’s apartment building.
“Why did you do this?” Luke blurts, as he considers everything. Din couldn't’ve realised what he was getting himself into when he kissed him. But that begs the question, what did he think he was getting into? “-at the time, I mean.”
“I told you-”
“Din.” Luke says, “- you're seriously telling me that in the milliseconds between when you saw them looking for me and then when they walked through the doors, you thought to yourself, ‘oh I know. It's much more logical to fake date someone to get my uncle off my back, than to actually find a date on my own’?”
Din purses his lips, but squares his shoulders.
“I was thinking,” he says, “-that I wasn't going to let them hurt you anymore.”
Luke hears the click of the door mechanism as his eyes dart down to Din's lips.
“Goodnight, Luke.” Din says, stepping out of the car. “-thanks for the live dinner theatre.”
As he watches Din walk up to his apartment and go through the door, Luke only has one thought.
He just wanted to kiss him. For real.
Fuck.