Din Djarin/Mando/The Mandalorian: One Shots, Imagines, etc.

Always Have

A/N: requested by MakenaPotter i'm sorry this is kinda depressing

Warnings: violence, swearing, sadness, needles, gore, sadness, death, angst kind of, sAdNeSs,

Word count: 1071

Neither of you really know where they came from. A team of at least ten bounty hunters, which if it had been just the two of you would have been pretty good odds, but unfortunately they're not after you. They're after Grogu, and they managed to catch both you and Din off guard - something that does not occur often - and have got you pinned in a dead end. There's only one way out of this, and that's to blast your way out, something which is pretty hard to do when one of the hunters has a rapid-fire Z-6 rotary blaster cannon which must have been nicked off some poor clone during the Clone Wars.

Grogu himself sits behind you in the bag you usually hid him in, gurgling happily and reaching towards the red flashes of light from your blasters, oblivious to your current predicament. Or pretty certain that his two foster parents are capable of keeping him safe. Luckily, he's hidden from sight by a few crates, because if he wasn't, you know the hunter with the Z-6 would have turned it on him; you've figured out by now that they'll take him in dead or alive.

The thought of your little gremlin's body cold and lifeless fills your heart with fear; it forces your sweaty grip to tighten around your blaster, your vision to narrow down into a tunnel whose end is the next target.

The hunter with the Z-6 turns it on you, and you dive to the side. The blaster bolts pepper the crates behind you, and your heart sinks as you realise what exactly is going to happen a split second before it all does. The force of the bolts will cause the top crate to topple, which will expose the bag with Grogu in it. That bag will immediately be noticed and the hunter with the Z-6 will shoot right through the crate, knowing that you'll go straight to rescue Grogu if he is indeed behind them. And then they'll know where Grogu is and...

Gritting your teeth, you don't think, you just scramble forward, collapsing in front of the bag with Grogu in just as the hunter turns his Z-6 on you. You barely have time to scream Din's name before the hunter pulls the trigger, and you feel searing pain through your stomach before there's the dark hum of the Darksaber. Through hazy eyes you see it scewered through the hunter's chest as Din finishes off the last few hunters before dropping his blaster and skidding to your side.

'No no no no no - ' He gasps. 'Please, please, stay with me - '

Deliriously, you giggle at his words. He seems awfully desperate to keep you alive for someone who only really tends to open up his heart to his fifty year old son, someone who has never shown any more interest in you other than necessary for strictly business reasons. Gathering you in his arms as gently as he can, he bends down and grabs Grogu before hugging you to his chest and sprinting back to the Crest.

Your head bounces against his chest, and you can feel the panicked rise and fall of his chest as you races up the cargo ramp and slides to a halt in the hull, laying you down on the floor and almost tripping over Grogu as he scrambles for the med kit.

'Please,' you hear him say. 'Please, don't go, don't fucking die, I can't - '

He stops talking abruptly, and through your haze of pain, it registers in your brain that he sounds almost like he's crying under his helmet. His breaths are coming out short and shuddery, and if you're not absolutely hallucinating, it looks like his shoulders are shaking. Fumbling with your shirt, he rips it off and grabs the bacta shot in the med kit, fingers trembling as he quickly swipes an anti bacterial wipe over your wounds, freezing when your body seizes up in pain.

There's a prick in your skin, followed by a deep ache that you can barely feel over the pain from the blaster wounds as he administers the bacta shot. He doesn't know if it will work, he might still be too late, and despair catches his pounding heart in a chokehold as you cough blood, eyes rolling back in your head as suddenly, you go limp.

Din freezes. This can't be. He can't have been too late. He can't have been, he ran straight back to the Crest, he - he - he gave you the bacta, why is it not working, why is it not working? He needs you, he needs you alive, can't live without you, won't, he -

A broken sound leaves him, a desperate, choked up howl as he claws at the skin of his wrists, his breath coming out faster and faster as hot trails slip down his cheeks, lost now that you're gone. In that instant, he knows that he loved you, he knows that he always loved you and he's crushed by the fact that he can never tell you, not now, not ever, because you're gone, you're fucking gone -

There's a weak cough, and everything stops. Everything just comes to a halt, and all that he can see is the beauty in the way that your eyelids flutter open, the way that your chest rises and falls with every breath that you take. Lunging forward, he grabs you, holds you to his chest, ignorant of your surprised squawks, just needing to feel the warmth of your skin for himself as he rips his gloves off and clutches at you, gasping as he finds you are indeed alive, realises that this isn't cruel, wishful torment from his brain.

His arms are tight around you as he holds you to his chest again, pressing his body to yours as he sobs, tremors shaking through him as he cups the back of your head, whispering into your ear,

'I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you - '

Your hand comes up and gently touches the part of his helmet over his mouth. Immediately, he falls silent, almost choking on his own words, and you look up at him, tears in your eyes as you grab his hands, twining your fingers with his as you press a kiss to the cheek of his helmet.

'I love you too, Din,' you breathe. 'I always have.'