A Life Without Meaning

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕋𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕖𝕕𝕪 (𝕀)

Ellia, fresh from the first good night's sleep that she'd had in a long while, slowly made her way up the ladder.

"Grogu?" Din's voice sounded from inside of the cockpit. It was followed by a small response, and then- a laugh. A real, soft laugh coming out from underneath the beskar helmet.

Before Ellia crossed the threshold, she paused briefly in the doorway.

"Grogu?" Din tried again, getting the child's attention. "Give me the ball." he demanded, gently holding out his palm towards him. The child held the small, silver lever-knob tightly in his hands.

In response to Din's order, Grogu only pulled it closer to his side.

"Grogu-" Din tried, a bit more sternly. "Give me the ball. Come on." he beckoned.

Eventually, Grogu yielded, dropping the piece of metal into Din's waiting palm. Who, in turn, held it up in between two of his fingers.

"Okay, here we go." Din huffed, causing Grogu to tilt his head curiously. "You can have it, just like before."

Grogu lifted his hand up, trying to simply reach up towards where Din held it high above his head. Ellia smiled brightly.

"Grogu, come on. You can have it." Din encouraged.

The child then brought up his second hand, his big eyes narrowing in concentration.

"Come on." Din whispered.

Suddenly, snap! The ball shot over and into Grogu's hands, a happy squeal leaving his mouth.

"Dank Ferrik!" Din exclaimed, slapping the side of his leg.

Grogu immediately dropped the ball into his lap, alarmed.

Din spun back around towards him, his hand extended kindly.

"Hey, no. I'm not mad at you." he clarified. "You did good. I just...when the nice lady said you had training, I just..." he paused once more, shaking his head.

In the doorway, Ellia's smile slowly turned sad.

"You're...very special, kid." Din finally stated. "We're gonna find that place you belong and they're gonna take real good care of you." he assured.

Ellia pressed her lips together, finally walking fully into the cockpit.

"You two are adorable." she noted.

Din spun the pilot's chair around a bit quickly to greet her.

"Hey" she said softly, "How'd you sleep?" he asked, giving her his full attention.

Ellia smiled slightly,

"Well, actually. If you can believe it." she joked as she gently ran her fingers across one of Grogu's ears in a greeting before turning to walk over to the empty passengers chair.

Din nodded contently to himself.

Suddenly, the main console gave off a pleasant beep, signaling that they had entered the star system. The Mandalorian spun back around to the controls, transferring them back to manual.

"This is Tython." Din announced. He briefly tilted his head over his right shoulder, "That's where we're gonna try and find you a Jedi. But you have to agree to go with them if they want you to. Understand?" he asked Grogu, who only cooed softly in response.

Din turned back around,

"Plus, I can't train you. You're too powerful. Don't you wanna learn more of that Jedi stuff?" he rambled on, "I agreed to take you back to your own kind, so that's what I need to do...you understand, right?"