found. | Din Djarin

Seventeen

It's late into the night when I've put the Child to bed and gotten Din some more clothes from the Razor Crest since I've insisted he rest, knowing he's still weak.

"I feel fine," he says from where he sits on the edge of my bed with a blanket draped over him. "I promise."

"Din, you were on the brink of death," I tell him, still emotional. "For a moment I thought-"

He reaches over to take my hand and I trail off. "Here I am, here we all are. Thanks to you."

"And the Child," I say as he pulls me close. "And my father."

He stills. "Your father?"

"Do you believe in ghosts Din?" I ask and he's stunned. "He was the one who told me to go after you and the Child the night we had that fight, said us all meeting was fate." I give him a small smile. "I think he likes you."

Considering his predecessor that's no surprise, but still, it means something to me. That my father knows Din's taken care of me.

Din's still confused and bewildered considering he was on the brink of death not long ago, but lets out a light laugh. "I'm glad."

I stand between his legs and rest my forehead against his, savouring his touch, savouring him. Holding him how I never got to.

"I remember everything," he says to me and we both know what he means. "I don't regret it."

I stroke his beskar cheek. "Neither do I."

He holds me close and both of us know there's no more pretending, but there is one question still on my mind that needs to be answered before I can dare let myself think of what comes next.

"Din," I say resting my hands on his shoulders. "What happened? How did you activate the shield?"

That's when he pulls back. "I didn't? I thought you must have."

And I go cold, if neither of us activated it who did? "What happened out there?"

From his uncomfortable silence it's clear he's been purposefully avoiding that part. "I was about to activate the shield when I heard someone, I went to shoot first and got a knife in the side, then when I went for the flamethrower got knocked clean out."

No stormtrooper could do that, but there is one person on Tatooine who could. "It was him wasn't it?" I ask stiffly and his silence is answer enough.

"Kyra," he says reaching for my hands while I'm already beginning to tremble from anger. "We are safe and in the morning we'll be gone, it doesn't matter now."

And my greatest fear is a reality. My fear that Boba would target someone I love. Someone who would be dead if my father hadn't saved him. And I know that with the placing of the wound Boba meant to kill him.

I won't give him a second chance.

"You're right," I say, wiping my cheeks and resting my forehead against his. "It's been a long day, let's go to bed."

And so I lie down beside him, feeling at home in his arms. But it will never be home until it's safe. Which is why once he's fast asleep I carefully untangle myself from him and pick up my saber.

~

Boba may be the bounty hunter, but tonight he'll be the hunted.

Cold anger burns inside of me as I reach out through the force and sure enough I feel that whisper in the breeze, abut I no longer fear it. I follow it until my home is a distant sight in the distance and I come to the canyons, the only place Boba could be hiding.