Chapter Text
"Buir," Grogu asks, on a bright September morning, nary a cloud in the sky. The leaves haven't even begun to change colour yet, which is why Din's blindsided by the second half of his query. "-Why don't we celebrate Christmas?"
"Uh-" Din says, unprepared for the question. He's not even awake yet, but all the years he's spent with Grogu should've prepared him to expect the unexpected.
‘I grew up in a cult that didn't celebrate holidays so I didn't even think of doing it' is the actual answer, though Din's not going to say that to Grogu. And, well, cult is perhaps a strong word. Din's foster family belonged to a religious group whose beliefs precluded celebrating holidays, is perhaps more politically correct.
"I didn't grow up celebrating it, kiddo." Din settles on, finally.
"Oh." Grogu says, "-but we celebrate Thanksgiving and Easter!"
"Uncle Boba invites us over to celebrate Thanksgiving and Easter with him," Din says, even though Grogu probably won't quite understand the nuance of the distinction. "-and you know he goes on an adults only Cruise over Christmas."
‘Uncle Boba' is not Grogu's real Uncle because he's not Din's real brother. Din met him when he was still working construction, and Boba immediately clocked him as another ex-cult adjacent member. They bonded over leaving the fold, as it were, and Boba has been there for Din (as much as he's let him), through the very many changes life has brought him these past few years, Grogu included.
Boba and his partner (Din does not know the exact definition of that and at this point is too afraid to ask), Fennec, go on a cruise together every year over the holidays. Din has never gone, mainly because he can't think of a single thing worse than being trapped on a ship for 10 days. It is also adults only, so Din's not lying about that.
"I signed up for choir this year." Grogu says, then, "-we're doing a Christmas concert."
"Ah."
"So it's not that you don't like Christmas? Like Scrooge?"
"Like Scrooge?" Din says, frowning at the insult, wondering what has actually gotten into Grogu this morning-
"From a Christmas Carol." Grogu says, and Din is the odd combination of comforted and embarrassed.
"No, I don't hate Christmas." Din says, unaware that Scrooge had anything to do with Christmas (he thought it just meant ‘unpleasant old man'), "- I'm looking forward to your concert, kiddo." He adds, trying to be supportive.
"Can we do Christmas then?" Grogu asks, and Din glances in the rearview mirror at the big brown eyes pleading with him in the rearview mirror.
"Sure kid," Din says, "-why not?"
Grogu lights up and bounces up to the school doors when Din drops him off, so.
Din's pretty pleased with himself as he swipes his badge, walking into the towering skyscraper, making a note to look up what the hell celebrating Christmas actually entails. A tree? He thinks? Turkey? Or is that just Thanks-
"Djarin!"
Din immediately loses his train of thought as he draws his lips into a thin line.
"Skywalker." He says, watching as he strides up to him, crisp black suit parting the sea of workers as he makes his way down the hall.
"We've got a 10:00AM."
"Thank you for reminding me of the meeting that I've been preparing non-stop for this whole past week. Are you my secretary now?"
Skywalker snorts.
"You couldn't pay me enough." He says, smirking. "-do you want to go over our game plan first?"
"Can I sit down at my desk first?"
"Sure. I'll even bring you a coffee."
"Skip the arsenic, would you?"
"Please, Mando." Skywalker says, "- I need you in this meeting. I won't poison you until later."
Din huffs and turns away to go to his office, not sure what he's more annoyed at. Skywalker ambushing him as soon as he walks in the door, or the fact that he made Din laugh.
They really shouldn't be working together. Ever since Din started at this firm, it's been like oil and vinegar. It's not even the typical architect vs engineer nonsense, though that is part of it. Din was skeptical, when Kryze (another ex-former almost cultist, Boba has a whole network) told him about the job. A prestigious architecture firm with it's own in-house engineers.
"You're exactly what they're looking for, Mando." She'd said, "-they want someone like you."
"Like me?" Din repeated, suspicious. He could only think of one reason why they'd want him. He'd started on basic construction jobs while he was still a teen. Did an apprenticeship when he aged out of the system. Worked his way up the ladder of a contracting firm, all the way to management, even. All while putting himself through college part time to get his engineering degree.
"-it's very rare to have an engineer with as much hands on construction experience as you do, Mando."
"You mean they want a blue collar nobody to lord over? While all the other engineers are 10 years younger than me with parents who paid for their Ivy League qualifications?"
"You know," Kryze said, "-I thought I was a pessimist until I met you. Tano is trustworthy, Mando. She only cares about your work."
"Hmm."
Obviously, Din did get offered the job, in spite of the fancy name plate. Din will readily admit that he did come in with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, surrounded by designer suits in his own from an outlet somewhere.
However, Kryze was right. Tano didn't bother sizing him up, just threw him into the quagmire, sink or swim, on a flailing project of hers. Din still maintains that it wasn't just him, but nevertheless, when they hit their milestone on time, after being behind schedule for months, Tano raised her champagne glass to him.
"Thank you, Mando," she'd said, "- glad to have you on the team."
"Glad to be here," Din agreed. At the time, he was, as he hadn't met Skywalker yet. Whom, apparently, was quite the globe trotter. Personally supervised international projects, used his vacation days to traipse around the globe.
Din's not one for gossip, but even he sensed the raised brows whenever Skywalker was brought up in the office.
"Heard from Luke lately, Ahsoka?" Teva (one of their senior drafters,) asked, and Din watched as the normally inscrutable Ahsoka Tano had something pass over her face.
"No," she sighed, "-but you know him. Off grid somewhere. He has to be back soon, one of his projects just hit a milestone."
"Who's going to be on-" Teva started saying, but then immediately cut himself off. At the time, Din didn't think much of it. That is, until, Din walked in one morning and Threepio was there waiting for him.
"You're going to be on Mr. Skywalker's project, Mr. Djarin." said Threepio, as organised as he is annoying. "-You have the client meeting on the 12th, you might want to find some time to go over it with him."
"Why am I joining mid-project?" Din asked, flipping through the files, "-what happened to the other engineer?"
"Let me know if you would like some help coordinating a meeting," Threepio said, then. When Din takes a detailed look at the plans, he sees the issue. Skywalker designs impossible buildings. Din has a headache just looking at them. He pulls up the notes the previous structural engineer left, and it seems like a lot of frustration on his part, with Skywalker simply brushing off concerns.
Something must have happened, because every new colleague that talks to him gets a Look when Din mentions what project he's been added to. Skywalker didn't defend himself either, because Din couldn't get a hold of him. Din spent a whole hour crafting an email introducing himself and asking questions about the project, and all he got back was a single line of ‘nice to meet you, will discuss in person'.
First, Skywalker was still on the other side of the globe for a project, then he was busy on a new set of plans, and then he was out of the country again. He advised Din, over email, to ‘just be familiar with the files'.
So Din didn't even fucking meet him in person until 2 minutes before the client walked into the board room.
"Hi," he grinned, and Din took in the razer sharp suit with a frown. Another silver spoon. "-I'm Luke, you must be Mando."
Din nodded as he shook his hand.
"Sorry about not being available, I have a lot on my plate."
"So does everyone else." Din said and Skywalker huffed a bit.
"You're not wrong, listen-"
He was cut off by Threepio bringing the client in. It became clear to Din then, that he wasn't cut out for the client facing part of this.
The client starts with a bunch of comments about ‘how much they love' what the firm's done, but maybe possibly, could they change every single little thing?
Din sits there in horror as all the work done on the project is undone and they started talking about what they want to do instead.
"That's impossible." Din piped up, then, "-that is impossible."
Skywalker shot a look at him.
"Now, we're aware that it could be difficult, but we're prepared to increase the budget-"
"No, you don't understand." Din said, "-what you want is not possible according to the laws of physics."
"Now, I may not be a contractor," the client said, condescendingly.
"He's one of our engineers, actually." Skywalker corrected.
The client looked Din up and down.
"Really. Well, Luke, if you can mock it up and maybe your engineer can do some calculations-"
"He can't change the laws of physics!"
"I know that," the client huffs.
"Do you?" Din asked, and then Skywalker interjected that he's happy to do a mock up, if not just for the exercise.
"Why did you agree to do that work?" Din demanded, as soon as the client was taken out, "-you know it's impossible. And if you don't, I think you're going to have to go back to school, Skywalker."
"I agreed to do that work, Djarin," Skywalker began, crossing his arms, "-because another firm has been sniffing around that client, and probably planted the idea in his head to get him to drop us and go to them."
Din dragged a hand down his face.
"That was information I could have used prior to the meeting."
"I tried to tell you-"
"Maybe if you made some time to talk to me before 30 seconds before the client walked in, you would've succeeded."
"That's true, but I didn't expect to have to remind someone that calling the client an idiot to their face is a bad idea."
"He was going to throw out hours and hours of work!"
"Seeing as I did a lot of said work, I know, Djarin."
"In my experience, which your firm apparently hired me for, clients not respecting you or your work leads to more trouble than it's worth."
"Recently hired you for, which I might remind you." Skywalker said, "-and technically it's your firm now too."
So they didn't get off to a great start.
"I can't believe you pissed off Luke Skywalker," Kryze said, over the phone, "I'm impressed."
"Why?" Din asked, gut churning, "-I piss off a lot of people."
"Well, just in general, most people try not to piss him off because of who he is."
"The firm has like, 20 partners, he's not that-"
"Not because he's a partner, Mando," Kryze said, exasperated. "-His twin sister is Leia Organa."
"Who?"
"Mando. Do not tell me you don't know who the Organas are-"
Din thinks of the skyscrapers he's seen emblazoned with their name.
"But he's not an Organa." Din says, "-and when have you ever known me to give a shit about pedigree, Kryze?"
"He's also Ahsoka's godson."
"That explains it." Din says, then, "-nepotism."
"Unbelievable." Kryze laughed and wished him luck.
Din tried his best, he really did. Took the weekend to cool off, and resolved to be as conciliatory as possible. He didn't last long.
"I just think," Din said, "-that this feature is going to cause more trouble than it's worth-"
"So you can do it then?" Skywalker asked and Din pursed his lips.
Everything was a goddamn tug of war. Everything took three times as long because Din needed to know absolutely everything about a plan when he picked it apart because Skywalker would counter with some miniscule detail Din didn't take into account, no matter how irrelevant.
"You're not listening to me, Skywalker." Din said, frustrated.
"Why should I? They're not your plans." Skywalker retorted and Din pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I am trying to make sure your building doesn't collapse!"
"Which, I may remind you, is your job." Skywalker tilted his head, "-you know I don't think I've ever encountered an engineer blatantly arguing with the lead architect before-"
"No. In your case they just quit." Din snipped, crossing his arms. Skywalker huffed.
"The only reason you're still here is that Ahsoka thinks she owes you for saving her project."
"Well, you're only here because of Tano too, Skywalker, so I think we're even in that regard."
Skywalker's face went blank. He stood.
"Do your job, Mando." He said, icily, "- if you can't. Well. Guess you're proving Ahsoka wrong. And she hates that."
At that point, Din was doing everything out of spite. He finished his draft, and crossed his arms as Skywalker looked it over, daring him to find fault in it.
"It's going to be so fucking expensive." Din said evenly.
"Don't worry, Mando." Skywalker said, "- I'll break it to the client." he paused, "-I know client relations aren't your strong suit."
"No, but apparently making sure nonsensical Penrose looking buildings don't collapse is." he proclaimed, and hightailed it out of there.
Din thinks part of the problem is that both of them are too stubborn to admit when they're wrong. They fell into a sort of stalemate after that; their interactions limited mostly to passive aggressive emails, snipping at eachother when they had to interact.
It all came to a head, though, and Ahsoka found them shouting at each other across a boardroom table. Well, Din was shouting. Skywalker doesn't shout. He doesn't need to.
"Okay, okay." She said, bursting in, "-they can hear you outside."
"I'm not the one yelling." Skywalker shrugged, as if he hadn't just told Din that ‘clearly he has no imagination whatsoever'.
Ashoka dragged a hand down her face.
"I knew you two would be like this."
"What?" Din and Skywalker said at the same time.
"Please." Ashoka said, evenly, "-Mando, I'm moving you off this."
Din was surprised as anyone when he went to argue against it. Didn't he want this? It's just because I put so much time into this already, he thought, reassuring himself.
Ahsoka went over and looked at the drawings.
"-Luke. Really."
"What?"
"Nevermind."
Din got moved to another project, and decided that he was happy. He was! He just felt… bored because he wasn't spending every moment of every day trying to logic out Skywalker's impossible buildings. That's it. He'll get used to the new pace eventually.
Unfortunately, Din's newly acquired peace didn't last long. Skywalker's project stalled, unsurprisingly, and as Din walked by one of the other engineers, wallowing, he decided to try and be friendly (for once).
"What's wrong?" He asked and the man (Din hadn't bothered to learn his name,) looked over his shoulder.
"Hello to you too, Mando."
Din chalked up his misery to the task in front of him.
"What's he got you trying to do now?" Din asked, leaning over to look at the plans, and the engineer immediately started ranting. Din felt himself frown, scanning the schematics.
"Well, first of all, it's upside down." he interrupted, looking at Skywalker's familiar lines.
"What?"
"Move aside." Din sighed, "- I need to call my sitter."
He was called into HR the next day.
The HR rep, Ahsoka and Skywalker were all waiting for him.
"Are you firing me?" Din asked, dryly, "-if so I don't need to sit through this meeting. I'll just go."
"We're not firing you, Mando." Ahsoka sighed, deeply. "-Luke has filed a grievance that in all the years I have spent on this job I have never heard of being filed. Take a seat."
Din sat down, and crossed his arms.
"You did this work." Skywalker said, pulling up the drafts that Din worked on last night. Din huffed.
"So, what? You're accusing me of reverse plagiarism?"
"If you do this work behind my back I will look like an idiot when we're questioned about it and the engineer on the project can't fucking explain it to me or the client."
"You did do it." Ahsoka said then, flabbergasted.
"You thought I was making it up?" Skywalker asked, annoyed.
"It's signed-"
"It looks like his work!"
"Mando, why would you go back onto a project I took you off of?"
Din sighed.
"I walked past the engineer bank last night and-"
"Last night?" Ashoka said, incredulously, "- we've been waiting on this file for two weeks and you finish it in one night?"
"I worked late."
"Force help me." Ashoka sighed. "-Alright. You're back on it, Mando."
Both Din and Skywalker started protesting.
"-You two are grown men. Figure out how to get along like adults."
Din's not sure if they actually have.
Anyway, he blames Skywalker for that distraction from his train of thought on that September day, when he strolls into the office in November and goes to get his coffee, and one of the admin staff starts chatting with him.
"- did Grogu have fun on Halloween?" She asks and Din nods.They do Halloween because in first grade Grogu came home with instructions to wear a costume. Din figured they might as well participate. Also, since he takes Grogu around the neighbourhood, he doesn't need to buy candy or anything, so he didn't even need to figure out how to cut a face into a pumpkin.
"Way too much sugar." Din says.
"I bet he's looking forward to Christmas," she says, "- Grade 2 now, right? They grow up so fast. Don't have many magical years left."
Din feels his blood drop to his feet.
"Uh, Christmas already?"
"Oh, I know, Mando!" she hums, "-starting to think about presents and things now… gotta get Thanksgiving out of the way first, but do you guys host or do you go somewhere for the holidays?"
"Uh. We. Stay in."
"That's a nice way to do it." She hums, "-you'll have time for visiting people when he's older."
"Excuse me." Din says, then, "- I have-" he darts away.
Shit. Fuck. He totally forgot about the Christmas nonsense. What the hell is he going to do? He had no idea he was supposed to start thinking about it now. Perhaps the easiest solution would be to find someone else's Christmas and hijack it, but that would require Din to have family and friends he'd feel comfortable spending an important holiday with. He might not know much about holidays, but he does know that they're… well. People hold them in very high esteem. You don't just go over to just any friend's house for Christmas. The only person he'd feel comfortable going over to spend it with is Boba, but again, Boba is unavailable.
"What's up with you?" Skywalker asks, suddenly beside Din as he steps into the elevator on his way out for the day.
"What do you mean?" Din asks, evenly.
"You didn't add a single scathing comment to the file I sent you today." He shrugs, "-something must be wrong."
"Was working on something else," Din says, evenly, "-wanted a single day without your nonsense."
"You know?" Skywalker hums, after a moment, "-with literally everyone else in the office, you're just anti-social. Not an asshole. Well, usually."
"You're just too grating, Skywalker." Din grits, "-I've told you this before."
"Here I thought I was special." Skywalker says, as the elevator dings. "-Me and my nonsense'll see you tomorrow."
Din drags a hand down his face when he gets into the car.
Grogu spends all of dinner regaling Din with stories of what his friends got up to on Hallowe'en and Din feels like the worst fucking parent on the planet.
How the fuck did he not realise that Grogu would want to celebrate one of the most kid friendly holidays on the planet? What's it been like for Grogu at school having to listen to his friends tell him all about the fun things they did over the break with nothing to tell them in return?
Din supposes he was blinded by the fact that he, personally, could not care less about any holidays, so he doesn't quite understand the desire for all the fuss, which is why he naively thought Grogu would be the same way. He's an idiot.
He starts Googling ‘how to celebrate Christmas' and quickly becomes overwhelmed. Everyone and their uncle has their own traditions. Some do it Christmas Eve. Some do it day of. Sometimes there's turkey, sometimes there's ham. Some have cake, some have cookies. There has to be a tree, but there's also stockings and- Din slumps back in his office chair. The only thing he can think to do is call Boba. But what the hell is he going to say?
"Hey Boba, stop your longstanding tradition because my kid wants to celebrate Christmas and I have no idea what we're doing?"
Din can already hear the beratement.
Thankfully, when he gets into work the next day, Skywalker isn't there to ambush him. But to add insult to injury, the first thing that pops up in his inbox is the invitation to the Annual Company Holiday Party. He managed to claim Grogu was sick the first year he was invited, but couldn't manage to wriggle out of it last year. He clenches his jaw at the memory of the evening, but shakes himself out of it.
After all, he has a bunch of nonsense to go through. He needs another coffee by the time he gets through about half of it.
Somehow, the admin he was talking to earlier is in the kitchen again. Maybe she never left.
"So Luke," she says, and Din has been resolutely ignoring the other person in there and he's not going to stop now, "-are you taking off again right after the party? Have you decided where you're going?"
"No, not yet," Luke says, lightly, ignoring Mando ignore him. "-Thinking Peru, maybe. Haven't booked anything yet though."
"I can't imagine spending Christmas by myself, without my family." Maz sighs, "-I don't know how you do it every year,"
"You know Leia's folks have their big New Year's shindig that I go to, I see her and Han then." Luke says, wishing that he was as good at ignoring Mando as Mando is as good at ignoring him. "-And you know me, I hate sitting still. The break is the one time of year I don't have to worry about work piling up when I take off."
Mando scoffs, but tries to hide it as a cough. Luke's not about to let him away with it.
"So, Mando." Luke says, and watches in satisfaction as his shoulders hunch before he turns around. "-You gonna grace us with your presence at the party again this year? Or are you going to weasel out of it like you did two years ago?"
"My kid was sick." Mando says, evenly.
"Oh I'm sure." Luke grins. "So, are you coming?"
Mando's jaw clenches.
"It's only November, I'm not sure-"
"It comes fast," Luke says, "-haven't thought of an excuse yet?"
"Oh, stop it, Luke." Maz laughs.
"Didn't you enjoy yourself last year?"
"It was nice." Mando says, unenthusiastically, and Luke bristles a bit but makes himself calm down.
"I like that our parties are always so elegant," Maz says, "-glad we're not one of those firms who have wild parties."
"A wild Christmas party?" Mando repeats, looking flabbergasted.
"You know," Luke says, with a smirk, "-people getting drunk, dancing inappropriately, hooking up with their coworkers."
"I agree Maz," Mando says, slowly, "-It's nice we don't have to worry about that here." he stands and goes to leave, but Luke calls out to him as soon as he reaches the threshold.
"Mando."
He stops and turns, annoyed.
"What."
"Can you see me at the end of the day? I have to discuss the Ossus project with you."
"Fine." He says, and walks out.
"Sometimes I wonder," Luke muses, "-how he can have such a cool kid."
Every summer, Ahsoka takes the entire firm out to her beachhouse for the day, inviting everyone for a big BBQ, families encouraged.
Luke spent a good hour playing frisbee on the beach with a few kids, only to be shocked when his favourite of the bunch ran over to Mando when it was time for lunch. Mando brought him into the office now and again, if his sitter fell through and he had to be in on the weekend, and Luke got to see him then. (Just a coincidence they needed to order a ton more paper clips after one of his visits…) Also, the only small talk anyone can coerce out of Mando is talking about his kid. Luke is quite impressed with some of his exploits that don't have to do with office material.
"What do you mean?" Maz asks, "-he's so intense about everything. I'm sure he's just as intense about being a good parent."
Luke, unfortunately, couldn't argue with that.
Mando is right on time at the end of the day. Luke waves through the glass in his office as people leave.
"Skywalker." Mando says, after knocking once.
"Mando."
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yeah. Wanna walk to the projector room?"
"Why didn't you just tell me to meet there?"
"What's the fun in that?" Luke asks and Mando rolls his eyes.
"So," Luke says, as they walk through the winding halls, "-Did you-"
"Get the minutes?"
"Yeah," Luke huffs, "-did-"
"I follow up with legal?"
"Yes." Luke says, flatly. "-Well?"
"Well what?"
"Did the zoning-"
"Yes, everything's submitted."
"What didn't you just say that to begin with?"
"What's the fun in that?" Mando counters and sometimes, Luke really wants to strangle him.
Luke holds the projector room door open for him and somehow, in spite of how broad they are, the shoulders make it through. Luke waits until the door shuts behind them before he opens his mouth, but Mando beats him to it.
"Is this about someone stealing your shit?"
Luke huffs.
"So you do know."
"I know you think I'm an idiot, Skywalker, but don't you think I, of all people, would be able to recognize your cockamamie ideas on public zoning applications?"
"I mean," Luke shrugs, feeling the same way he always does when he considers Mando knowing his work so well, "-it could be just a coincidence."
"Skywalker." Mando says. "-Why haven't you done shit about it?
"I don't know whose stealing, that's why."
"So what are we gonna do?"
"We?" Luke repeats, "-think this is out of your wheelhouse, Mando. Requires some stealth."
"Maybe it requires some fucking action." Mando says, frowning.
"If you say so,"
"Why are you talking to me about this, then? If you don't want me to do anything?" Mando says, frustrated, "-trying to suss out if I'm the one sending your drawings around?"
"No." Luke says, "-I know you're too self righteous to do shit like that. And, what was it that you said? You wanted to be a buffer between my crazy ideas and cranes? You'd want to stop them from getting out."
Mando rolls his eyes.
"So why are we here, then?"
"Needed an excuse." Luke says, gut churning as the big brown eyes turn dark.
"I can't be long." Din says, feeling his throat tighten.
"Not difficult for either of us," Luke shrugs, stepping into Din's space.
Din wraps his arms around his waist once Luke slides his tongue between Din's teeth.
It was a last resort, alright?
Even Luke could tell, after Ahsoka put Din back on Luke's projects, that both of them were trying their hardest to get along. Was able to fucking tell when Din quite literally bit his tongue before starting to argue with Luke over some minutia. For his part, he tried to not believe that Din was ruining the lines of his foyer just because he felt like it.
They didn't explode again, but after one too many close calls, one too many passive aggressive barbs, Luke felt like enough was enough. He was fucking exhausted.
The two of them sat at a boardroom table, late, printed blueprints spread out over the table, practically more red marks than actual plans.
"We can't keep going on like this." Luke said then, taking a swig of the beer that he thought might help them relax, "-We're both going to have a stroke from the fucking tension."
Din looked up at him and laughed. Luke thinks it was the first time he had heard him laugh.
"And what the hell are we supposed to do about it? You heard Tano, Skywalker-"
"I'm not saying we start fighting again." Luke shrugs, "-well. At least here."
"What?" Din asked, incredulously, even though he himself was a hair's breath away from also saying they needed to do something about this, "-start our own fucking fight club or something?"
"Well we could," Luke said, "-or we could start having sex. Less bruises to explain away. Well, less visible bruises, maybe."
Din just stared at him.
"I'm sorry, Skywalker." Din said, slowly, "-I thought I heard you say that you think the two of us should start sleeping together."
"I said that we could, not that I think we should, though out of the two options I think it's the better one."
"How will that-"
"We have to do something about the constant tension." Luke said, exasperated, "-and don't tell me it's all to do with our fucking jobs ‘cause it's not."
Din really wished he could argue. But in spite of his, quite frankly, insane ideas, Skywalker does design beautiful buildings. Din looks at plans and thinks how the fuck did he come up with this?! Sometimes it's annoyed. Sometimes it's awed.
"You…" Din begins and Luke is proud of how off kilter he looks, if he's being honest. "- we can't just… have sex." Din says, finally.
"Why not?" Luke asks, "-I won't tell if you won't. Not like either of us would want anyone else to know, anyway."
"-Logistically." Din said.
"I do have a house."
"No I mean, we can't just… schedule it." Din says, turning increasingly red. Luke can't help but be a bit charmed. "-And we'd have to… want it."
Luke raises a brow before raising his voice a bit.
"Sorry Mando, I didn't realize you were hard of hearing."
"What?"
"I mean, why else would you be looking at my lips all the time, then?" Luke said, incredibly smug, and Din felt his blood boil for two different reasons at the same time.
"I really fucking hate you sometimes." Din said, evenly.
"Likewise." Luke said.
"This is a bad idea for so many reasons." Din shook his head a bit. Unfortunately, he felt himself giving in.
"Why? You afraid I'm going to fall in love with you?" Luke's head tilted, "-Or are you afraid you're gonna fall in love with me?"
Din scoffed.
"No danger of that happening."
"So?" Luke asked, "-what's the issue? We might as well try. Worst that can happen is that it's bad, but it's not like either of us would have any issue pretending it never happened."
"I- am going to regret this." Din said, evenly.
Luke stood up.
"What, now?"
"Why not? You've got your sitter. No one left at the office to see us leave together." Luke pulled out his phone. "I just texted you my address. Help me with these."
So after they put away the drafts, and Din followed Luke's admittedly beautiful car to his admittedly beautiful house, he found himself standing in the doorway, like an idiot.
"What now?" He asked, irritated, "-this was your idea."
"Are you seeing anyone else?" Luke asked, then, stepping closer and Din could smell his cologne.
"No." Din replied. "-Do you think I would be doing this if I was?"
"Even just casually." Luke replied, "-I'm not, so. I just thought that I don't have any-"
"You're not?"
"You sound surprised."
"Figured you'd be a… lover in every port type of person."
"I'm not." Luke said, and Din was surprised to see something sour flit across his face.
"Well, fine. What n-"
Luke grabbed Din's tie and pulled him down to the lips he really had been staring at too much to deny.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, by the time Din had got himself together and kissed down his neck, and Luke had tugged him up to his bed, and their thighs slotted together; Din already knew it wasn't going to be a one time thing.
"Shit, Djarin," Luke gasped, knowing full well that this was his idea in the first place, but incredibly annoyed at the fact that it was already this good. Din's hands were hot on his skin, and Luke found that Din makes love the same way he does everything else. Intensely, singularly focused.
The dogged determination is annoying when he's picking apart Luke's designs for structural flaws. It's something else when he determinedly rolled his hips, or focused on dragging his tongue across every inch of Luke's body.
"Fuck." Luke said, trying to regain some control of the situation, and pushed Din over so he could shimmy down his body and make him lose his mind.
"Skywalker." Din said, feeling as if he were on fire, while Luke swallowed him down. The golden hair is just as soft as it looks, as Din threaded his fingers through it, trying to get some hold over himself. Skywalker apparently knew what he was doing, though, as he slid off him and Din felt his cock throb.
"Still fighting me, Djarin." Luke said, hoarse and annoyed. "-the whole point-"
Din didn't let him finish the sentence, tugging him back up and flipping them back over, pinning Luke underneath his weight, rolling his hips as they're pressed together.
"Fuck." Luke moaned,
"I'm always fighting? You could let me win for once." Din huffed, as he felt the pleasure start to pool at the bottom of his spine.
"I never give up." Luke answered, even as he dug his fingers into the broad back, as he felt the bliss start to overwhelm him, unrelenting.
"Din!" Luke gasped, when it was finally too much, spilling between them, and later Din pretended he didn't hear Luke moaning his name as the euphoria shook through him too.
Din rolled off Luke and stared at the ceiling as they panted together.
"Fuck." Din said, ‘cause there wasn't anything else to say.
"Fuck." Luke agreed.
Since it was obvious they were going to continue this, they decided on two rules.
Tell the other if they decide to start seeing anyone else.
No hooks up at the office.
Rule one was easy enough to follow. Din had no interest in dating, really. Couldn't give you a reason, other than he was uninterested. Luke said something about not having any time. Anyway, it didn't matter. The worst thing about it is that it worked. Din still finds Luke annoying, still gets frustrated with some of the shit he tries to get to stick, but. They're not arguing. Emails aren't as passive aggressive. If either of them are holding onto any frustration, they, well. Work it out. That meant, however, that their second rule was broken very quickly.
"Thought we said no hook ups in the office?" Din said, pressing Luke into the wall in his office, as Luke had his hands in Din's collar. Neither of them really could remember the circumstances as to why, but. Doesn't matter.
"You stop first, then." Luke countered, rutting down onto Din leg, gasping as Din pressed back. Neither of them stopped, and Din had a very uncomfortable drive home.
It looks like he's going to repeat that, as he presses Luke into the wall of the projector room, this time.
"Maybe-" Din says against Luke's lips,
"Maybe what?"
"Uh. We pick this up later."
Luke snorts.
"Why?"
"As much fun as this is now," Din says, running his teeth along Luke's skin, "- it's not when I have to drive home."
"That's an easy fix." Luke shrugs, and drops to his knees.
"Fuck." Din says, tightly, as Luke takes him in his mouth, humming a little.
Din braces himself on the boardroom table, as Luke lightly grazes him with his teeth, still hearing people move around outside the door.
One of Luke's hands is holding his hip, and the other is… fuck, Din can't even think of it.
Luke knows how to pull sounds out of him that Din didn't know he was capable of making, and whenever they involuntarily come out of him, Luke's eyes flash up, smirking around him.
Luke is going to be smug about how fast he's brought Din to the edge, Din knows, but can't fucking bring himself to care, willing to deal with the innuendos later. It's definitely not a good thing that they're doing this, especially not in here. Have the memory of the way Luke's tongue is sending flames licking up Din's spine haunt him while he's trying to concentrate during meetings. Din feels himself jerk and knows he's close.
"Luke." He warns, tersely, trying to give him enough time to- except he fucking swallows around him, obviously. Has to win.
Din comes, hard and fast, gripping the goddamn table in their goddamn office for dear goddamn life.
Luke pulls off him, once he's finished, and Din's right, he's smug as hell.
Din tucks himself back in, and pulls Luke close by the back of his head, kissing him deeply, cutting off whatever smart remark Luke was going to make.
"Your turn" Din says, suddenly taking Luke in his hand.
Luke practically chokes, as Din brackets him back against the wall.
Luke hadn't even noticed Din undo his trousers- too turned on by the thought of Din tasting himself in Luke's mouth. Tasting evidence that Luke's won again.
Except, Din has large hands, rough and calloused from his years in construction. He tugs on Luke, somehow gentle and hard at the same time as they breathe in each other's air; and Luke knows it won't be long until he's spilling over Din's hand.
"Wait." Luke says, desperately, and Din attaches himself to Luke's neck.
"For what?" He says, nosing along Luke's jaw.
"What do you mean for what? Where are we?"
"This was your-"
"You wanna explain to housekeeping-"
"Fine." Din says, and sinks down to take Luke in his mouth.
Luke threads his fingers through the curls as Din swallows him down; it doesn't take very long before the pressure becomes too much and Luke has no other choice but to let go. Din is too good at making Luke feel things. Angry, annoyed, frustrated. Also blissed out, pleasured, euphoric.
"Shit." Luke breathes as Din stands up, starting to right himself, tucking himself back into his pants. Luke does the same, but is glad that he doesn't slick back his hair.
"Well?" Din says, finally, holding his arms out a bit.
"Almost." Luke says, stepping close to fix Din's skewed tie, "-you're the only one who still wears one of these things, you know."
"Grogu buys them for me." Din says, and Luke can feel the chest rumble under his touch.
"‘Bout to get a new one in a month and a bit, I guess." Luke says, taking a step back, letting the dark eyes scrutinise him for a hair out of place.
For some reason, the muscle in Din's jaw twitches.
"Yeah." He says.
"Always wondered how you managed to pick out nice ones." Luke muses, "-but now that I know it's not you picking them out-"
"It's a tie, Skywalker." Din huffs, and good. If he looks annoyed, rather than flushed with pleasure… well. Hopefully no one sees them in any event.
"So?" Luke asks, as they step out into the hall, "- I don't think you have an aesthetic bone in your body."
"You can't mean that, Skywalker." Din says, fake sympathetic. Luke frowns at him.
"Of course I do."
Din leans close.
"-I find you attractive, remember?" he says, lowly. Luke wants to strangle him and drag him back into the projector room at the same time.
"-See you tomorrow."
Luke heads back to his office and pours himself a drink.
-
"Oh, Buir!" Grogu says, at the dinner table, and Din looks up from the soup he made, trying not to think about Luke. "-My concert's on the 8th!"
"Of this month?" Din asks and Grogu rolls his eyes. Din really needs to get him away from the habit.
"No, Buir. December 8th."
"Ok. Did you write it on the calendar?"
"No."
"Wait till after supper." Din says, as Grogu goes to jump up from his chair. Well, at least he's not thinking about Luke anymore.
"We're singing Christmas songs from all over the world!" Grogu enthuses, "-isn't that cool?"
"Definitely." Din says.
"The school's already started to put decorations up," Grogu says, leadingly.
Shit. Din thinks. Decorations.
"-still a bit early, don't you think?" Din says, and watches as Grogu deflates and goes back to his dinner.
"Yeah."
For fuck's sake, Djarin. Din sighs internally.
"Uh, well as long as all your homework's done." Din adds, trying to sound like a responsible parent, "-we can go get some this weekend."
"Really?" Grogu says, beaming,
"Yeah, of course. I promised, didn't I?"
"We're going to have so much fun, Buir!" Grogu enthuses.
Din doesn't self destruct, but it's a near thing.
After Grogu goes to bed, Din Googles Christmas decorations. Again, there's so many options and colours and types he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing.
"Maybe I'll just ask the kid what he wants up," Din says, and resolves to do just that.
"So Kiddo," Din says, over breakfast, "-what kind of decorations do you want? Should make a list before we go."
"And check it twice!"
"Um, yeah. Very organised."
Grogu laughs.
"Just what everyone else has, Buir." He says, and Din is so, so fucked.
He nearly gives in and calls Boba and Fennec. But he's self aware enough to admit that the shame of Boba berating him for being an inadequate father is too much of a barrier. Well, maybe that's a bit harsh on Boba. But what is more likely, and worse is Boba pitying him for not being able to deprogram as well as he has. Din hates that too. Din is also aware that he's too proud to ask any of his friends for help about this, or any of the other parents from Grogu's various activities. Not just for being embarrassed about not knowing the first thing about Christmas, but he also doesn't want anyone butting in on their lives. First it's Christmas, and then what else? Din has already fended off more than one well meaning PTA Mom and he doesn't want to do it again if he doesn't have to.
He sours as he walks into the lobby of their office building, as of course, the workers have just started putting up the building's own decorations.
"-Bah humbug to you too." Luke says, suddenly beside him.
"What?" Din asks.
Luke blinks at him.
"You're scowling at the Christmas decorations, Scrooge." Luke says, as they get into the elevator. "-is that why you don't want to come to the Holiday parties? You hate Christmas? I just thought it was ‘cause you're anti-social."
"I… don't hate Christmas." Din says, evenly, an idea starting to form in his head that he doesn't particularly like. "-Well, what about you? Thought you don't celebrate it anymore."
Sometimes Luke hates that Din has never forgotten anything in his life. It's equally as useful and annoying when they work together. Always annoying when he throws something back in Luke's face.
"When my sister has kids I'll probably start spending it with them," Luke says, "-right now it's just a bunch of us adults. More fun to travel while we're all still child free."
"Why is it so important to have kids?" Din asks, and Luke's immediate thought is that he's needling him, except. He looks genuinely confused.
"Well, Christmas is all about nostalgia." Luke says, "-with no one to pass the traditions on to… kinda going through the motions, don't you think?"
Thankfully, Din is saved from answering that by the elevator door opening.
"Remember we need to-"
"I fucking know, Skywalker." Din says, storming out. Luke watches him go, unsettled. And maybe not just from anger that's not directed at Luke for once.
Luke takes a minute to compose himself once he gets to his desk. Fuck. You'd think after all these years without them it would make it easier. Luke looks at the date on his calendar. Beru'd already have made the Christmas cake he hated so much by now. What he wouldn't give to have another slice of it.
He pulls up the travel site and looks at the prices of the tickets to Peru. Normally, he'd have something booked by now. But for some reason, this year, he can't quite bring himself to do it. But he's not spending it with Leia and her parents, no matter how much Leia lays on the guilt.
"You're not getting anything done thinking about this, Skywalker." Luke hits exit on the browser window and pulls up some CADs, and gets to work.
-
Din has had a lot of stupid ideas in his life, but this one maybe takes the cake. But it's nearly halfway through November and it's almost the weekend. Din has exhausted the rest of his options, and unfortunately, this is the only one left.
He tells Grogu's after school program that he's working a bit late again, and waits until he sees most of the people leave the office.
He gathers himself and shuts his laptop.
Luke looks up from his computer at the knock on his office door, and blinks in surprise when he sees Din there, looking… unsure.
"Can I talk to you?"
"Of course." Luke says, leaning back in his chair as Din closes the door behind him. Din takes a moment before he says anything. He looks extremely pained as he opens his mouth; Luke is immediately on high alert. Din is rarely anything less than self-assured with with anyone, let alone him.
"Luke." He says, looking as if it took every inch of his self discipline to drag out the single syllable of Luke's name, "- I need your help."
"Try saying it like you aren't getting a lobotomy." Luke says, now concerned at what Din could possibly need his help for.
"Grogu wants to celebrate Christmas this year." Din says, evenly. "I've promised him we will. But I don't know the first thing about Christmas."
Whatever Luke was expecting it wasn't that.
"Uh. What?"
"I didn't celebrate Christmas as a kid," Din looks increasingly frantic, "-you said you had ideal Christmases, what am I supposed to do?"
Luke looks at him for a long moment, not only trying to process this incredible information but trying to figure out when he would've told Din about Christmas with… oh wait. Luke remembers now. He sours a bit at the memory.
"I'm sure Grogu…" Luke begins, finally, but then seems to think better of it. "-Well, what does he like?"
Luke has a blank look on his face, which worries Din. It's the same face he has in certain client meetings- no emotion whatsoever. Usually it's followed up after the client's left with a cutting remark, so Luke thinks Din's an idiot. Well, that's not new. In fact, that's why Din's asking him. Skywalker can't think less of him than he already does, so. And they're already keeping a secret.
"I… don't know." Din says, "- he knows all these Christmas things that I didn't, he's doing a Christmas concert at school. He told me he wants decorations ‘like everyone else has'. I don't know what that is! We don't even have any family that I can…"
Luke doesn't think he's ever seen Din look this frazzled.
"Look, I'll do… whatever you want. Please just… help me out."
"Why didn't you celebrate Christmas as a kid?" Luke asks, "-did you celebrate something else?"
"No. My foster family didn't believe in holidays."
"Ah." Luke says, and things suddenly make a bit more sense. He's reminded of Maz's proclamation that Din would be just as intense about being a good parent as he is about everything else. Looks like she was right. Still. it's not like Din's ever done Luke any favours… and there's still that- hmm. Technically Luke swore he wasn't going to think about that anymore. And Grogu is a great kid, who deserves a good Christmas. It's not his fault his father is an asshole.
"It'll be a big job," Luke says, and watches as the shoulders relax. "-You'll need decorations, a meal plan for Christmas Eve and Day. Have to decide if you're sending out Christmas cards, go get presents. I'll have to get you familiar with Christmas music, Christmas specials. I bet there's a bunch he hasn't seen."
"Fine. Great." Din says, not believing this, that Luke's agreeing so easily.
"You'll owe me big time."
"I know."
Luke hums.
"Ok, then."
"Thank you." Din says, "- really, Skywalker. I-"
"Not doing it just for you, either." Luke says, "- doing it for Grogu too."
"Right." Din says and the desperation has turned to bewilderment. "-Well, goodnight."
"Goodnight." Luke says, and watches him leave.
What the hell has he just gotten himself into?