Archive of Our Own

𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚐𝚘 𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚢 
𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚒𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚜 
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚊𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚔 
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚑 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚊𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 
𝚃𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚖𝚎, 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚖 𝙸 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚗?

𝚆𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍 – 𝙸𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝙳𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚜

"Ika! Ika, don't run away!" Atin laughed, running between the warriors to catch up her dark blue tooka, who had decided to play with her. Axe just shook his head and Koska laughed, pretending to catch the kitten. However, no one wanted to spoil the kid's fun.

The green, living scrubland of Mandalore's underworld was a favourite playground for young Mandalorians, especially the little princess, who had never seen such rich vegetation in her life. She spent a lot of time on the rocky crust of Mandalore and then on the snow-covered planet belonging to the Clan Wren.

"Ba!" Grogu squealed as she ran past him, hardly noticing him. He was perfectly camouflaged in the tall, green grass.

"Hi Grogu!" She laughed and crouched down in front of him. "I'm trying to find my tooka. Can you help me?" She asked and the kid nodded.

Together they ran in the direction in which Ika had run away, but neither could find her with their eyes.

"Ika!" Atin shouted, standing on tiptoe to see better.

"Patu!" Grogu squealed, noticing Din heading towards them. 

The man turned towards them, smiling under his helmet at the sight of his son. He walked towards them and crouched down so that the toddler could easily fall into his arms.

"Hi, little one," he said softly, and Grogu immediately pointed with his hand in the direction where the navy blue tooka had disappeared a moment ago. "What's over there?"

Atinla Runi Kryze was a nine-year-old bright girl who was always everywhere. She loved to watch the work of everyone in the camp, no matter what the person did for a job. However, he could tell that she was most fascinated by the ships and the pilots who controlled them. Din had never met her father personally, but he had heard a few stories... and no doubt Fenn Rau was a great man.

"Sure," he said with a smile. "What is your tooka's name?"

"Ika," she replied softly, not stopping to look around.

"Ika? That's... quite an interesting name."

"Isn't it? 'My dad's tooka was named like that," she explained, and Din smiled.

"Did she like to run away too?"

"I don't know, I never met her," she said. "Maybe..."

"I never met your dad. Can you tell me something about him?" he asked her, giving her his hand. The girl nodded enthusiastically and talked about her dad the whole time they walked forward, looking for the mischievous kitten.

Din smiled and from time to time asked questions about the details. Atin couldn't remember everything, and she answered some of the questions in generalities, but he could hear the purest love in her voice. She loved her father, he was sure of it. She loved him very differently from Bo-Katan, and even though she was only four years old when he died during the Great Purge, her knowledge of him was vast.

"You want to marry my mother, don't you?" She asked suddenly, and Din felt his heart speed up. He stopped and crouched down. He sat Grogu on the ground so that he could focus on the girl for a moment. He grabbed her hands and squeezed them gently.

"I have fallen in love with your mother," he said quietly and calmly. "But if you think we shouldn't get married that's fine. I don't want to hurt your feelings, Atinla."

The girl shook her head quickly.

"She will be happier! I want her to be happy!" She said, looking at him. "She should be... even if daddy's not here..."

Din smiled, wishing she could see it.

"I won't take his place, but maybe... it's enough for me to be by her side, huh?"

Atin nodded, then beamed even more, noticing a tooka napping in the grass.

"Ika!" She ran over to the kitten and picked her up, then started hugging her tightly.

Din giggled quietly, seeing her happy.

✦

Bo-Katan sat in the pilot's chair on the ship that had once belonged to Fenn. The last few days had been difficult for her - balancing the care of Atin and managing a large group of Mandalorians was not the easiest task. However, it seemed that her daughter was getting along well with most of the soldiers, had a good relationship with Grogu and even Din.

Things with Din seemed to get more complicated whenever she thought about it. She didn't think she could still love someone after Fenn's death...

Fenn was her best friend. He was her support. He was her joy and her pain in the ass. He was her lover and her adversary. He disagreed with her more often than he agreed, but he could always argue the point.

He was the best man she could have met on her path.

That was why missing him was so painful as hell.

Every morning she woke up without his warm body beside her. Without the sound of his quiet snoring. Without the distinctive smell of fuel that he was always permeated with.

She missed it all, and at the same time she knew that no one would ever give it back to her and either she would stay in this place, longing for something elusive, or she would move on. With or without a new man.

Bo-Katan sighed quietly and turned on one of the many disks that contained photos and videos she had left. Little things that were reminders of the kind of man Fenn was.

"Atin said he was the one who taught you tricks in the air," Din spoke up quietly, entering the cockpit without warning.

Bo-Katan jumped gently at the sound of his voice and quickly turned off the video of Fenn explaining to her how his ship's engines worked.

Din sat next to her, in the co-pilot's seat, knowing that this seat had always belonged to her.

"He was the best pilot I've ever met..." she whispered, without looking at him. "This ship... he loved it with all his heart," she added with a quiet giggle.

The man leaned against the back of his chair, looking around.

"When Atin was a baby he used to take her on evening flights so she could watch the stars," she said after a short while.

"Is that why she loves flying?" He asked.

"I don't know, maybe." She shrugged her shoulders. "We travelled a lot during the pregnancy. Atin was almost born on this ship," she explained, smiling at this memory. "I heard that you helped to find her tooka yesterday."

Din nodded. "She told me about him," he said. "She told me a lot about him."

Bo-Katan felt bad for hiding all this from Din, but Fenn and the memories associated with him always belonged to her. She couldn't let them go, share a handful from their lives that were too short.

"He loved her." she whispered, feeling tears well up in her eyes.

"He loved you too," Din added quietly.

"Yes," she nodded, biting her lower lip. "We took a wedding vow. Ten years ago."

His body lay numbly in the stone courtyard just outside the Mandalorian palace, which now bore no resemblance to anything belonging to the royal family. Heavy fighting was going on, Bo-Katan's forces began to slowly retreat, Moff Gideon was victorious and going for his prize.

She covered him with her own body, screaming into the commlink that she needed help, transport, anything. She needed a miracle.

"Fenn, look at me," she asked, pressing her hand firmly over his wound, which was too huge for her to stop the bleeding. - Look at me. I will take you to Krownest. Can you imagine Krownest? Atin will surely make a tooka out of snow. That damn tooka. I can't believe I agreed to this...

"Bo," he whispered, pushing her hand away with his remaining strength. "Run away. Take care of her. Love her... for the two of us..."

"Fenn, Fenn, Fenn... hey... I'm here, we'll take care of her together... please..."

She couldn't stop the bleeding, or stop him.

Walls were crumbling to the ground, Mandalorians were dying among the ruins, and someone was dragging her.

She had lost everything.

Fenn... wherever you are...

...come back to us...

Bo-Katan wiped a tear from her cheek.

"Neither I nor Atin can survive another loss," she said in a whisper, then stood up. 

Din grabbed her wrist. She looked at him in surprise.

"My promise doesn't change. I stay by your side, no matter what," he said confidently. "I will never replace him, I won't even try. And I know it's all... it's still too fresh. You need time, Atin is trying to come to terms with it... We're all learning each other all over again... And I know you don't want to break your vows... that's why I won't push."

"Din... you deserve someone... good. Someone who will truly love you..."

"Do you feel anything for me?"

Bo swallowed her tears and nodded.

"Would Fenn want you to move on?"

She nodded again, choking back tears.

He pulled her close and hugged her, feeling her tremble. 

"I will take care of you and your daughter. I will never replace him," he said quietly. "I will never try to replace him. I will stay... whoever you want me to be."

Bo snuggled into him, wanting closeness and love. By Din's side she felt many emotions, but most of all there was warmth and security. 

She wanted to give this at least one chance...