Cobb nodded wordlessly in agreement and followed his partner into the bedroom, allowing him to take the side closest to the wall before slipping into the safe circle of his arms. He smiled at the soft kisses Din was giving the back of his neck and wriggled back against his chest, yawning as the day once again reminded him that it had been long. Too Long.
As he drifted off into unconsciousness, the buzzing of his migraine followed him into his sleep, like the sands of Tatooine whispering voiceless words against his walls in a storm.
Notes: Much fluff followed by a mystery...
Prologue
——————————————————————
You’re sayin’ the Marshall’s missing?
Cobb pulled his speeder to a stop just outside of his home as the last of the suns’s rays were beginning to fade in the sky, rubbing the sand from his cheeks as he pulled the goggles and scarf from his face. He’d spent the whole day delegating between his people and the Tusken tribe they had very specifically made a deal not to start anything with.
Things had come much too close for his liking today.
He’d woken with a knot in his gut, and he’d hoped that it just meant that Din would be returning, as those Bad Feelings always seemed to be a precursor to his arrival, but instead it seemed to be a warning about an idiot trying to pick a fight. He very nearly offered the Tuskens said idiot in recompense for the egregious abuse of their deal, but the moron’s mother would have had a thing or two to say about it. Instead he’d led the young man by the ear back to her door, explained the situation and left him in her capable hands.
As satisfying as it was, knowing that a serious situation had been avoided and that the initiator of the stupidity was going to have ringing ears for the next month at the very least, it had left him exhausted.
So exhausted, in fact, that he hadn’t even noticed the other speeder parked nearby.
He tapped his boots against the wall, brushing the residual sand from his body as he allowed his mind and body to relax; he was looking forward to having a quick mug of soup and sliding into bed. However, as he stepped into his home, he found himself walking into a room filled with the scent of cooking meats.
“You’re home!”
Cobb chuckled, closing the door behind him. “So are you!” he called as he pulled his boots off. “When did you get back?”
“A few hours ago,” Din replied from the kitchen, leaning back from the stove top to smile at him. “Thought you might want some food when you got back.”
Cobb hummed, trudging over to hold Din from behind as he pressed his nose into his neck. “You know I love you, right?”
“Doesn’t make it any less amazing when you say it,” Din replied, pressing a soft kiss to his hairline. “Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum.”
Cobb grinned and kissed at Din’s neck before pulling back with a sigh. “I’ll set the table.”
“Dinner’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
“I’ll get us some drinks too then.”
Din had been coming to Mos Pelgo at least once a month for almost a year now, and in that time his relationship with Cobb had changed. Not that he minded. Being a bachelor was lonely, and though Din wasn’t there all of the time, when he was it was like his life was suddenly filled with light.
He yawned as he set the mugs and cutlery on the table beside the various pieces of equipment and weapons Din had removed from his belt before heading to the kitchen, wincing at the way his ears buzzed. Perhaps he’d made them pop on his ride home. Either way, having Din come up behind him to set the bowls of noodles down made him smile. “Where’d you get this?”
“Bought it off some merchants on Cato Neimoidia,” Din replied, sliding down into his seat as he squeezed Cobb’s arm. “I got the greens there too, but the meat’s local.”
“I thought it smelled like bantha steak,” Cobb said, picking up his fork. “You know you don’t have to put a Tatooine twist on everything when you come here.”
“Considering what happened the first time I brought fish?” Din teased, and Cobb slapped his arm.
“I ain’t never had fish before!” he defended. It was hardly his fault that his body decided to reject the foreign food. At what point would he have ever had the chance to eat something that lived its entire life in water when he’d lived his on a planet that hadn’t seen more than a puddle form on the surface for what had to be hundreds of years?
“Well I’m being careful,” Din said. “The last thing I want is to make you sick.”
Cobb sighed. “Now you’ve done it.”
“Done what?”
“Gone and been all soft and romantic.”
Din grinned and leaned closer. “Is that a problem?”
“Oh, it’s a problem,” Cobb replied, leaning in as well. “It’s a problem ‘cause I’m too tired to do anything about it.”
“Then I guess you’ll just have to make it up to me in the morning.”
Cobb smirked, pressing a quick kiss to Din’s lips. “What’d I do to deserve you?”
“I’ve been asking myself the same thing,” Din replied, and they both sat back to finish their dinner.
It was a comfortable affair, or would have been if it weren’t for the migraine that was steadily starting to build pressure behind his eyes. He really must have been tired for things to be affecting him so much. He managed to get through the meal before it became a serious problem though, and he managed to compliment the chef (and the noodles) before he had to retreat to find the painkillers.
Din, of course, noticed.
“Headache?” he asked, leaning against the frame as Cobb looked at himself in the fresher mirror.
“Migraine,” he replied, knocking back the pills and wincing at the sudden flare in pain as he rubbed at his brow.
Din hummed, and soon his cool hands were making soothing circles against Cobb’s temples. He leaned into it with a moan, the touch alleviating some of the pressure to something more akin to white noise.
“Let’s go to bed.”
Cobb nodded wordlessly in agreement and followed his partner into the bedroom, allowing him to take the side closest to the wall before slipping into the safe circle of his arms. He smiled at the soft kisses Din was giving the back of his neck and wriggled back against his chest, yawning as the day once again reminded him that it had been long. Too long.
As he drifted off into unconsciousness, the buzzing of his migraine followed him into his sleep, like the sands of Tatooine whispering voiceless words against his walls in a storm.
-*-*-
Mornings in Mos Pelgo – Freetown now, as of a few months ago – always felt slow to Din. He was used to waking up with a plan, a place to go, a bounty to hunt, but he didn’t have that when he came to Freetown. He always made sure his business had been taken care of before returning, and so there was no urgent reason to wake.
This morning started out no differently.
He woke slowly, before dawn, aware of the empty space beside him where Cobb had been, and while it wasn’t expected for his first night back, it wasn’t unusual; he knew Cobb suffered from insomnia on occasion, much as he did, so perhaps that was what had happened.
Whatever the case, he pulled himself out of bed and into the fresher, starting his usual morning routine with a quick blast in the sonic before heading out to the kitchen.
Usually, by this point, he would have been greeted by the scent of caf and a bright smile, but the kitchen was just as deserted as the bed had been.
Odd.
Perhaps he’d gone for a walk. The air was still holding onto the chill of the night at this hour, so it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine.
He got the mugs out and started to prepare the caf for when Cobb returned.
A good thirty minutes later, Din was now dressed for the day.
Cobb’s caf had gone cold.
Din couldn’t stop his worry gaining momentum, cascading down like pebbles at the top of an avalanche, and he headed out.
Wherever Cobb had gone he must have done so some time ago, as Din’s helmet wasn’t picking up any traces of his trail. The winds had already swept away the footprints he would have left behind, so Din had to rely on other means.
He found Jo first, walking her route around the town’s perimeter, rifle on her shoulder as she looked out across the dunes.
“The Marshall? No, I haven’t seen him since that incident with the Tuskens. Maybe he went to see Issa about her taking his shifts for the next few days. I know how he gets ‘round you.”
Issa-Or had been setting up her tools to look at one of the vaporators when he found her.
“Vanth’s not with you? Don’t he usually stick with you ‘til at last midday?”
That was far from comforting. He headed over to the cantina next, his hands curling into fists at his sides as he tried to keep himself from making any conclusions.
“Ain’t seen ‘im since before he left, yesterday. Have you asked Jo?”
“Yes,” Din replied, shifting in place as he grasped at the bar. “And Issa. They haven’t seen him either.”
Werlo paused, setting the mug he’d been cleaning down. “You’re sayin’ the Marshall’s missing?”
“I… He might be,” Din replied. “I haven’t found him yet.”
The bartender nodded and stepped out from behind the bar. “I’ll help you look.”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Din tried, but the look Werlo shot him told him he hadn’t been very convincing. He was grateful for the help though, and couldn’t help but feel a little relieved that it was more than just him who was looking now.
Freetown wasn’t a big place; there weren’t many doors to knock on or many corners to look around, so by the time they’d gone from one end of the town to the other, whispers were already starting to spread.
“Do you think he might have taken a Walk?” one of the parents asked as they talked in hushed voices with an Elder.
“You can never predict such things,” the Elder replied, their voice harsh with age and their time living on the planet. They didn’t say no though, and Din hunched his shoulders.
He knew they didn’t think he knew what that meant, what taking a Walk was, but on one of his first visits after losing Grogu, there had been a night where neither he nor Cobb could sleep, and they’d shared stories. Stories about their pasts, about growing up a slave, in a small town, in a cage, underground, fighting for their lives. They told stories about the people who had been important to them, and Cobb talked about the woman he’d come to see as a mother taking a Walk.
There had been no tears, just a sad acceptance. Sometimes the sands just called you, and your mind was too exhausted not to follow.
He couldn’t accept that Cobb would ever be so weak to let it take him away, but with each passing minute his belief wavered more and more.
Where was he?
“Hey, Mando!”
He spun on the spot to find Jo running towards him. “What is it? Did you find anything?”
“Not exactly,” she replied. “He’s speeder’s gone.”
“... What?”
“It’s not where he usually parks it,” she continued. “Did he definitely leave it behind your place?”
“I heard him pull in last night,” Din said. So it didn’t sound like he’d taken a Walk, but why would he take the speeder without telling him? How could he have left so quietly that no one noticed? His speeder was more of an engine with a seat attached than a bike, it wasn’t exactly quiet. He would have had to have pushed it some way before turning the engine on.
“Well it’s not there now.”
Din gave Jo a nod and headed back to the house, looking around the back where their bikes were usually kept and finding that, as Jo had said, there was a space where Cobb’s pride and joy was usually kept.
There had been no sign of Cobb leaving the house before, not even his boots were gone, signs that had made Din start to believe that he may just have gone for a Walk, but people called by the Dune Sea didn’t bring speeders with them. Something must have happened, but what?
None of this was making any sense.
He headed back into the house just as the first of the suns was beginning to rise over the horizon, eager to search for any more signs he might have missed, perhaps to pack some things, clothes for Cobb to change into, the boots he’d left by the door, water and food, and perhaps his own weapons he’d left on–
Din stared at the space on the table.
It was gone. The darksaber was gone.
——————————————————————
Mando’a Translations:
Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum - "I love you."; literally: "I will know you forever."
Where'd they go I wonder...
I might not be confident in building tension yet, but I think I did quite well! Also, is my birfday! Whoop!
“Cobb,” he breathed, quickly passing Grogu into Boba’s arms before running down the hall.
He reached the door just as something hit it from the other side.
“I am a slave here!”
“Cobb!”He worked on the locks as something else hit it, something that made it ring.
“Ni cuy' dar’mav!”
Notes: Oh man, this is one of the chapters I have been waiting to share, and I am SO HAPPY WITH IT! I can't wait to see what you think!
TW for mentions of slavery.
Chapter 5
——————————————————————
Ni cuy' dar’mav!
“Go.”
Din blinked, unsure he’d heard him right. <<What?>>
“Gar copad at haa'taylir te ad’ika. Slanar.”
He barely withheld the shiver that passed through his spine. Cobb had been speaking more and more frequently in Mando’a, and while Din had wondered what it would sound like to hear Cobb speak fluently in his native tongue, knowing that this was not of his own conscious volition made his stomach turn.
He couldn’t let his love see his pain though, knowing he already held guilt for something that was Din’s fault in the first place, and he shook his head.
<<They’ll be here soon enough.>>
Cobb smiled around a wince – no doubt the voices were tormenting him still, as they had been with increasing frequency – and took his hands in his. “You’ve been with me for everythin’; hiibir ibic ca'nara par gar.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone with this,” he said, unable to sign, unwilling to leave his side, but still feeling the pull towards the hanger. Towards Grogu.
“I’ll be fine for an hour or so,” Cobb said, and he leaned close to press a kiss to Din’s lips.
As much as he wanted to believe it, Din knew that it wouldn’t be true, but still the need to see his child was great, and with Cobb giving him permission he couldn’t help but cave. He pressed another kiss to Cobb’s lips before pulling out of reach.
<<I’ll be back in twenty minutes.>>
“Hiibir gar ca'nara,” Cobb said, his voice still cracked and broken from nights screaming out in a tongue not his own.
The guilt Din felt as he pulled his armour and helmet on was enormous, but he knocked on the door to be allowed exit, and as he stepped out of the room he couldn’t help but breathe a deep breath.
He loved Cobb, more than his heart could bear, but being with him while he was suffering so was enormously taxing, and being given the chance to breathe was nice, even if it was only for a few minutes.
Fennec, the one who had warned him of the imminent arrival, stood to the side of the door her arms folded over her chest as she watched Din engage the multiple locks that had been put in place to keep Cobb away from the darksaber.
The voices hadn’t been very pleased about that.
Once the last lock had been engaged, she gave him a short nod and turned around, leading the way towards what had become Din’s last hope in this near hopeless time. It was a longer walk than he expected, and more winding too, but they ended up at the hanger entrance without having said a word to one another.
What was there to be said?
“--you my student,” came a mostly unfamiliar and yet instantly recognisable voice from within as they stepped through the door.
“You afraid I’ll hand him over to the Imperials?” That was definitely Boba.
“You’ve worked for them before.”
“He’s a kid,” Boba replied as Din stepped around Slave 1 to see him standing off against a figure in black beside an X-wing. “More importantly, he’s Mando’s kid.”
The two turned to face them, revealing the Jetii’s blonde hair and a familiar, energetic bundle that squealed happily at the sight of them. Or more specifically, Din, who he reached for with his small, clawed hands.
The Jetii huffed in amusement and set the child down, allowing him to waddle closer and closer until, at last, for the first time in far, far too long, Din was holding him in his arms.
“Hey there kid,” he said, ignoring how his eyes were watering as Grogu’s little fingers grasped at his scarf and the lower edge of his helmet. “Have you been good? You haven’t been eating too many frogs, have you?”
“Bah,” Grogu replied informatively, tapping at Din’s buy’ce until he gave in and lowered his head, allowing Grogu to press his brow against it.
He didn’t think his heart could be so full.
“Wasn’t expecting to see you out here, Mando,” Boba said, no doubt keeping himself from saying Din’s name just to spite the Jetii, though he couldn’t say he didn’t appreciate it.
“I was going to wait,” he admitted, pulling back from his—from Grogu—and pinching very softly at his ear to make him giggle, “but he said I should come.”
Boba hummed. “He did or did They?”
Din glared at him. “I know the difference between my cyar’ika and the spirits of the sword.”
Boba huffed and looked away, but it allowed the Jetii to step forward.
Din had imagined what he would do when he saw the Jetii who had taken his child away mere moments after he had saved him. He’d imagined simply taking Grogu and leaving, punching him in the face, shooting him, stunning him and throwing him in carbonite, but he’d never thought he’d be asking him for help.
“Where is he?” the Jetii asked, his eyes kind, which only made everything feel worse.
“This way,” Fennec said, and once again they were moving through those winding hallways.
Din allowed the Jetii to walk before him, wanting him to get to Cobb first, selfishly wanting to spend more time with the child, but then—
“ Te werda jorhaa'ir haat! ”
“Cobb,” he breathed, quickly passing Grogu into Boba’s arms before running down the hall.
He reached the door just as something hit it from the other side.
“ I am a slave here! ”
“Cobb!”
He worked on the locks as something else hit it, something that made it ring.
“ Ni cuy' dar’mav! ”
Why were these locks so complicated? Din cursed as he stumbled with the last until Fennec appeared at his side, pushing him out of the way to finish.
“Ready?” she asked as she held her weight against the door, which shook once more against whatever had been thrown at it.
Din nodded, and she flung it wide.
-*-*-
The moment Din left the room Cobb let his smile fall, clutching at the mattress as the voices tried to tear him apart from the inside out.
It had been so much worse since that dawn, the voices undoubtedly aware of the imminent arrival of his freedom and trying to gain whatever foothold they could, to find an escape, but now that Din was gone, now that he’d sent him away, they had only doubled their efforts.
Di'kut.
He was keeping you safe.
Mhor.
You sent him away.
Thank you.
Vor entye.
Now we can do as we please.
Cobb gasped as his skin prickled against goosebumps, only for a sharp stabbing pain to pierce his neck, right where his brand had been seared into his flesh.
“No,” he said through gritted teeth.
The voices laughed.
So naive.
You think you can stop us?
The brand burned, like it had on that first day.
Vi cuyir gar jii.
His fingers twitched, and he stared at them.
You will never be free again.
Cobb watched in horror as his hand moved without his consent, and when he tried to stop it he found that the rest of his body was just as unresponsive.
Their laughter echoed through his head as it used him, moved his body and brought him to his feet. It moved him about the room as he felt an unwelcome smile stretch his lips in an uncomfortably wide way.
Do you see now?
“ Vaabir gar haa'taylir? ” it asked with his voice, still the only thing he could hear, trapped in every way behind his own eyes.
What had he done?
Din had deserved some time alone, some time to retreat and relax and recover, and he’d wanted to give him that, but had it been a mistake?
“ You are a mistake. ” It took him around the room, throwing items out of its way, but when that wasn’t enough it flicked his wrist and then… and then the entire bed flew at the wall, crashing into it and falling to the ground in pieces. “ Gar payt gar buir. ”
No, he had no choice. He’d been sold away from her. He didn’t want to leave.
“ Gar vod payt gar. ”
He was still so happy for him. He’d gotten out, left this place they had been born into, become a free man and lived his life.
“ He left you to die. ”
Shut up. He had a life to live out there, a galaxy to explore. Why would he ever come back here? Tatooine was a place of suffering and pain, he didn’t want him here.
A sink that had been a fixture on the fresher wall was torn from it and water sprayed out from the adjoining pipe as the sink itself was obliterated from the force that was used to send it into the wall, much as the bed had been. The pipe twisted and knotted itself like it was little more than string.
“ Useless, unloved, unworthy. ”
Liar.
It laughed again, this time out loud. “ Te werda jorhaa'ir haat! ”
Liar!
It pulled the knot of pipes from the wall and threw them against the door.
“ I am a slave here! ” they cried as they pulled at a final piece of loose piping with his hands until it came free before swinging it at the door as well.
I am free ! You are the one keeping me a slave!
“ Ni cuy' dar’mav! ”
It swung at the door, again and again until, suddenly, it opened.
Cobb panicked; had it managed to get out? Was it free now to cause havoc with him trapped there, watching, unable to do anything?
It brought the pipe up for another swing before Cobb registered why, but suddenly Din was there.
He was there. He was here.
The voices laughed in his face.
“ Kaysh's dar. ”
Din must have said something then because the voices laughed again and brought his hand up.
NO!
His fingers twitched and he felt his face twist in rage as nothing happened, only for Din to take those fingers in hand with a gentle touch, stepping closer as Cobb fought tooth and nail to keep them from winning, from using him to hurt his love.
“ Ne shab'rud'ni ,” it said as another figure stepped into the room, and for a moment he thought it was a hallucination, because it looked an awful lot like—
The stranger approached, both hands held out, one gloved and the other free, with his palms facing towards him. He appeared to be talking, but Cobb wasn’t given the chance to read his lips as the voices snarled at them.
“ Gar borarir ti te aru'e jii, mand'alor? ”
The enemy?
The stranger continued to approach and, to Cobb’s great surprise, he felt the voices shudder in fear.
For the first time in what must have been a week and felt like an eternity, he laughed.
It tried to move away, but now Din was there, holding him in place. How he loved him.
“ Nayc! ” it cried, still trying to retreat, but then those new hands were touching his face and—
A durasteel wall dropped around his thoughts, pushing the voices out, kicking and screaming, and their grip on him slid away until all that was left within those walls was himself.
He gasped as he hung limp in Din’s arms, the world around him quiet, but no longer silent. He could hear the water from the broken tap sprinkling on the tiled floor, he could hear the shuffling of feet in the corridor, he could hear the breath of this familiar stranger and–
“Cobb?”
He choked on a sob as he turned to look up at the face of the man he loved.
“Din,” he said, pulling the helmet down to rest his brow against it. “I can hear you.”
Din’s grip loosened a fraction. “And the voices?”
“Gone.”
This time he heard Din choke, and he was pulled into a tight hug. He held him back as tight as he dared in return, only to find them on their knees as Din’s legs all but gave out beneath him, and there was no chance Cobb’s were going to hold them.
He felt no shame when he cried into Din’s collar.
Moments later though, they were disturbed by a tug at Cobb’s sleeve, and he looked down to find another familiar face.
“Hey there, squirt,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he pulled back enough to allow Grogu to climb onto their collected laps.
The kid looked between them and then, taking a handful of Cobb’s shirt in hand, promptly curled up to take a nap.
“Looks like a pretty good idea,” Cobb said, looking up at Din again. “You’ve got a smart kid.”
“I do,” the Mandalorian agreed, and pressed another kov’nyn to his brow.
Cobb sighed and relaxed into it, only to yawn a moment later. Sleep really did sound good right about now.
“Is there another bed somewhere?” he asked. “I’m afraid they took offence to the last one.”
“There’s one nearby,” Fennec said, her voice pulling his attention away from already dropping off, “but you could still use a dip in the tank.”
Cobb hummed, blinking slowly at her. “Sounds nice.”
Din chuckled. “I’ll be with you when you wake.”
“I know you will,” Cobb said, leaning against him. He blinked a few more times as he curled his arm around Grogu, who snuffled against him and gripped at his thumb as well, and frowned over at the stranger. “I feel like I know you.”
The stranger grinned a strangely familiar grin. “I get that a lot. My name is Luke Skywalker.”
Cobb hummed, smiling to himself. “Funny,” he said as he felt sleep tug him down into its deep, peaceful depths. “I was a… Skywalker… once.”
——————————————————————
*puts on ear defenders in preparation for your screams*
Mando’a Translations:
Gar copad at haa'taylir te ad’ika. Slanar. – You want to see the child. Go.
hiibir ibic ca'nara par gar – take this time for you(rself)
Hiibir gar ca'nara – Take your time
Jetii’s – Jedi’s
buy'ce – helmet; Colloquially: pint, bucket
cyar'ika – darling, beloved, sweetheart
Te werda jorhaa'ir haat! – The shadows speak truth!
Ni cuy' dar’mav! – I’m not free!
di'kut – fool, idiot, useless individual
Mhor – Ours
Vor entye – "Thank you"; literally: "I accept a debt"
Vi cuyir gar jii – We are you now
Vaabir gar haa'taylir? – Do you see?
Gar payt gar buir. – You left your mother.
Gar vod payt gar. – Your brother left you.
Kaysh's dar – He’s gone
Ne shab'rud'ni... – "Don't mess with me..."; extremely strong warning likely to be followed by violence
Gar borarir ti te aru'e jii, mand'alor? – You work with the enemy now, "sole ruler" (leader of the Mandalorians)
nayc – no
kov'nyn – head-butt, Keldabe kiss
