Work Text:
It begins as a feeling. Not even a bad feeling either. Just that something's… not quite normal. It lives in the corner of Din's eye, makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he works. Sends his gut roiling; even more so than the tumultuous ocean does as it moves the rig around, floating out in the middle of absolute nowhere.
"I mean, don't you agree, Mando?" Mayfeld says, as Mando continues working, even as he wrestles with the feeling of unease that he doesn't know where it's come from. Maybe it's just that they're near the end of the shift, and he's dead tired.
"Fuck off, Mayfeld." Din huffs, wiping his brow, "-get back to work."
"Geeze," Mayfeld huffs, "- I was just-"
"Complaining about every thing under the fucking sun as usual," Din says, "- I know."
"Sun? Here? Don't make me laugh, Mando." Miggs says, as he gestures to where they are, deep in the bowels of the rig.
"It's a metaphor, Mayfeld. Ever heard of one? But I guess not if you flunked out of school."
Miggs flips him off, but Din can't bring himself to care.
The blaring claxon of the shift change rings in Din's ears, but he just straightens up, relieved, as he pulls his gloves off.
Their earlier spat hasn't dulled Mayfeld's shine, as it were, and he continues chattering Din's ear off, as they head up to the living quarters.
"I'm headed to the mess, Mando, you coming? Or do you have to go be miserable first?"
"Going to be miserable." Din says, evenly and Miggs rolls his eyes.
"Suit yourself."
Din huffs as he walks though the halls, nodding at the other workers as he goes. He really needs a fucking shower, but there's something he needs to do first.
He heads into the comms room and sighs in relief that there's a bunch of terminals open. He sits down in front of one and pulls on his headset, dialling. He grins as the Skype logo disappears and reveals his son's smiling face.
"Hey, kiddo." Din says, feeling like he can breathe for the first time today, "-how's school been?"
He makes good money on the rig, that's for certain. It's good pay, steady work, even if it's hard. And Din doesn't mind hard work, but he does mind being away from the kid for months at a time, watching him grow via satellite. Each time he takes a posting he thinks it'll be the last one, but the money keeps pulling him back; especially when he can give Grogu a life that he never had.
"Will you be home soon, Buir?" Grogu asks, and Din swallows.
"Yeah, kiddo. Just a few more weeks."
The toothy grin stays behind Din's eyes even after he hangs up.
Din pushes the door to his berth open slowly, and scans the other bunk; empty. He huffs and flips on the light and strips off his shirt in quick succession. He rarely ever sees his bunkmate; convenient, really, that they work opposite shifts. The only issue is that Din barely knows a thing about the man he shares a room with. Din wouldn't say he himself is particularly sentimental, nor would he feel it necessary to decorate his berth to the extent that some of the others do. He's got a photo of him and Grogu and a drawing the kid made him, and even that's more than what his bunk mate has; which is nothing.
The few times he's seen him… it's that feeling again. That something's off. Din doesn't know if it's because he's so quick to grin, working in a place like this, or that he's distinctly out of place. To be perfectly frank, he's too beautiful to be working in a place like this; golden hair, bright blue eyes, easy boyish smile. But even amid all the things people have to say about him, nobody says anything about his work ethic.
"Skywalker's a bit odd." Din commented at mess one time and the table laughed.
"Yeah, he's queer." Malk said and Din rolled his eyes.
"Not what I meant." he said, but dropped it.
Din steps out of the shower now, and heads to dinner, bone tired as he trudges down the hall. He tries to eat by himself, but it never works that way, with Malk, Qin and Burg dropping down beside him.
"Mayfeld said you were a hard ass today," Malk says, amused and Din shrugs.
"I'm always a hard ass." He says, and the rest of them roar with laughter. Din doesn't think it was that funny. He lets them talk over him for a while and suddenly gets that feeling again.
"Hey," he says, "-do you guys feel… have you noticed something weird going on?"
"What, besides every normal fucking day?"
"No." Din huffs, frustrated. "-I just feel like… something's not right."
They all look at eachother.
"You've been on shift for too long, Mando." Malk says.
"Yeah." Qin says, "-you're losing it, brother."
Din huffs. He goes back to his berth, and flops in bed and stares at the ceiling, still restless. The rig sways as he closes his eyes, trying to get some sleep.
"What is wrong with me," he mutters. He briefly debates taking a hand to himself; maybe that'll take some of the edge off. He presses his palm experimentally through his pants and groans a bit, trying to conjure up a fantasy- blue eyes flash at him and he takes his hand away like it's been burned.
"What the fuck, Djarin," he mutters to himself, the guilt overriding the creeping lust; appalled. He shuts his eyes, and after a few long moments, finally falls into a fitful sleep.
-
When Din blearily blinks awake, it takes him a second to make sure what he's seeing is real and not an illicit fantasy.
Skywalker stands by his bed, rolling his shoulders; illuminated by the small light over his bunk. He's shirtless, and Din's eyes travel over the thin silvery scars that wind over his torso. He turns and grins apologetically.
"Sorry, did I wake you?" he asks, and Din wonders how he even knew Din was awake. Did he look in the mirror? That must be it.
"No." Din says, rubbing his eyes, leaning over to flip on the full light. "-No, I usually get up now."
Din's alarm punctuates his statement.
"Impressive." Skywalker grins. Somehow his hair gleams even under the artificial florescent light.
"You off shift already?" Din asks, doing the calculations. Skywalker shrugs.
"Finished early. Sent me off."
"You got in a fight." Din says, eyes drifting down to Skywalker's bandaged hand.
"I did not." Skywalker says, primly, but grins, "-stopped some new guy from getting himself cooked."
Din groans and drags a hand down his face.
"Someone's going to get fucking killed sooner or later if they don't tighten that shit up," Din gripes.
"Tell me about it." Skywalker says, as Din stands and strips off his sleep shirt. Din catches darkening blue eyes looking, but doesn't call him on it. He can't, not after last night.
"Good luck today." Skywalker says, as he heads to the shower.
"Thanks." Din huffs and gets a move on.
He sips at his coffee in the mess and feels it again; the odd notion that something's not right.
When he gets in the elevator that takes them down the rig, he shifts in his steel toe boots; a chill runs through him. He glances at the other workers, no one else seems to be feeling it.
"Maybe I am losing it," he sighs and continues on.
It's actually an uneventful shift, which is nice. He sits down at the table as they break for lunch and Qin and Malk talk around him as usual.
"Can't believe we're fuckin' short again." Malk huffs, "- fuckin' slackers. Be happy when the new cycle guys come in."
"Mayfeld's sick?" Din asks, looking down the table. He didn't think too much of his absence, but now that he mentions it, he doesn't see him, which is odd. No wonder it's been a peaceful shift.
"Who?" Malk asks and Din snorts.
"Just because he doesn't show up for his shift, Malk-"
"I don't know who you're talking about, Mando."
"Mayfeld." Din repeats. "-Bald. Big mouth."
Malk and Qin exchange a look.
"Sorry, Mando. Never on my team."
"Yes he was!" Din says, incredulously, "-Malk, I'm talking about Mayfeld."
"Calm down, Mando," Qin says, "-we can't all know everyone on the rig. Surprised you do-"
"For fuck's sake, this isn't funny." Din snips, "-real mature, the pair of you."
"Mando."
"I'm going to get another coffee." Din stands up and stalks off.
After shift he stalks over to Mayfeld's bunk, muttering under his breath. He'd bet that Mayfeld put the two of them up to it, but. He doesn't even know why he's doing this. He should just ignore them.
Because they were convincing a voice in his head says, they didn't seem like they were lying.
Din knocks on the berth's door and Miggs' bunkmate blinks at him, blearily.
"What the fuck do you want?"
"Is Mayfeld ok?"
"Who?"
Din rolls his eyes.
"Your bunkmate."
"I don't have a bunkmate."
"Hilarious. Can I see him?"
"Are you fucking on some shit? I'm telling you, I don't have a-" Din pushes past him and flips on the light and gapes at the empty bed on the other side of the room.
"Convinced now, asshole?" The man says, "-get the fuck out before I call-"
"I'm sorry." Din says, quickly. "I- I'm sorry."
Din back up quickly and drags a hand down his face, feeling his hands start to shake.
What the fuck.
He beelines toward the comms room and instead of pulling up Skype, he pulls up the personnel directory, scrolling to Mayfeld's name. Mayfeld's photo stares at him through the low resolution screen and Din exhales, not sure if he's relieved or not. He clicks on his shift assignments… he's labeled as a no show.
A no show? Din huffs and pinches the bridge of his nose.
What are you doing, Djarin. He says, trying not to panic. You need to calm down. Come up with a plan.
A plan for what though? Din thinks, as he stares at the ceiling of his bed. A man just vanishes off an oil rig. That's impossible, isn't it?
Maybe I am crazy. Din thinks, Just hallucinated him since I worked with him on other rigs before. In hindsight, the fact that it was more comforting for Din to think himself having a nervous breakdown was the biggest possible red flag. Since the other option is… a man vanished off an oil rig without a trace and no one remembers him.
"You ok today, Mando?" Qin asks, as the elevator trundles down a few levels on their next shift, "-ever find your guy?"
Din tries not to portray how antsy he feels, again shifting his weight from side to side in his steel toe boots.
"Ah, no. I… haven't been sleeping."
"That's shit." Qin says, "-and fucking dangerous, seeing as we're short even more guys today."
Din hesitates before he steps off the elevator.
"Still?"
"Don't fucking know what they were thinking," Qin mutters, "-starting a rotation without a full crew."
Except, Din thinks, feeling himself grow faintly ill. They did start with a full crew.
He knows he should leave well enough alone. That if people really are disaapearing off the rig he should keep his head down, lest he be the next victim. But Din still makes a beeline for the comms room again, and pulls up the personnel list, filtering for all the ‘no shows' for this rotation.
It's… a lot. Din feels his heart racing as he scans the list of names, men he recognizes, even. Din wonders how no one's fucking noticed that all these men are missing, but then realises that most of them work the night shift.
Din exits out of the program and thinks about how he only has a few weeks left.
-
It's like a bolt of lightning wakes him, as Din sits up straight in bed, chest heaving in the middle of the night. Except, he's right in the middle of the rig; and there's no windows.
He feels clammy. Almost as if he has a fever but he's not actually feverish. The feeling of something wrong intensifies, and it's like something's pulling him out of his bed and into the hallway; something hooked around his navel, tugging him out of the safety of his bed. He slides on his shoes and pushes his door open, tentatively. The hallway is empty as it always is between shifts, and the rig sways as Din stalks down the corridor feeling like he's looking for something that's stalking him at the same time.
He doesn't like it but continues on anyway, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, feeling as if he's being dragged toward the elevator.
It's like he's possessed, as he hits the button for the deck, crossing his arms as he hears the storm blowing outside. He knows he's hunting for something, but he doesn't know what.
The red EXIT sign blares as the elevator cage trundles to a halt. He steps slowly down the chamber, the ocean raging just beyond the steel door. He stares at the metal release for a long moment.
He leans his weight against it, and steps out into the storm.
The wind howls and the ocean spray immediately plasters his hair to his foreheads as he faces the elements.
You're fucking crazy, Djarin. He thinks, What are you doing?
He wanders through the equipment, stalking around, goosebumps prickling across his skin.
Something skitters along the chain mesh walkway.
"Hey!" Din calls, voice drowned out by the crash of the waves. "-Hey!"
Din starts running, water dripping down his face and he doesn't know if he's chasing or being chased.
He skids to a stop, gripping the wet railing as he takes in a lone figure, near the edge of the platform.
"Stop!" Din calls, "-what-"
Lightning crashes and illuminates the sky; golden hair glints under the electric light.
Din's stomach twists, panic curling around his peripheral vision.
"Skywalker!" Din calls, "-Don't!"
He turns and looks at Din evenly, before he winks.
He drops off the platform into the swirling ocean below.
"Skywalker!" Din yells, scrambling along the slick walkway, grappling at the railing, trying to get to the edge-
He slips and everything goes black.
-
Din bolts up in bed, gasping as his alarm beeps at him. His heart is beating a million miles a minute as he pushes his hair off his face and finds it's dry. He's dry.
He buries his face in his hands as he heaves.
"You ok there, Mando?"
Din looks up quickly, mouth dropping open as Skywalker raises a brow at him.
Din gets to his feet and stalks over to him; tempted to tuck his thumb into the cleft on Skywalker's chin to see if he's an illusion.
"Skywalker." He says, evenly and Din's standing so close he can feel the heat of him. "You- last night-"
"What?" Skywalker grins, as Din scans the length of him, "-you dreaming about me, Mando?"
He's dry too. Din thinks. He also thinks that he's not at the bottom of the ocean.
"You jumped off the edge of the rig."
"Obviously not," Skywalker hums, "-I mean, too cold for a swim right now."
"I saw-" Din flounders, trying to catch his mind up to the present. It feels like he's still out on the deck.
"You ok, Mando?" Skywalker asks again, head tilting, "-and don't worry. You can dream about me if you want." He shrugs, "-though I'd rather you dreamt about me doing other things than jumping off oil rigs."
Din glances down at his lips and shakes his head taking a step back, blood pumping under his skin.
"I have to go on shift." He huffs.
"Mando, really." Skywalker says, losing his sharp edge, "-are you alright?"
Din takes in the concerned blue eyes, not at all phased by his bunk mate going off the deep end, so to speak.
"Yeah." Din says, suspicion curling in his gut, "- yeah just. I'm fine."
-
Din might not have noticed the lack of personnel before but he notices it now. They used to operate in teams of 4, but Din looks around at all the teams of three.
He goes up to his supervisor.
"What gives, Greef?" He asks, "-teams of 3?"
"Tell me about it, Mando." Greef gripes, "-don't know how we've got anything done this rotation, we're operating with nearly 30% less staff."
"Where is everyone?" Din asks, "-called out?"
Greed huffs.
"Mando, I just said. They only sent us-"
"But we were operating on teams of 4 before-"
"I don't know what rig you've been working on for the past few months, Mando," Greef says, "-but it wasn't this one."
"I'm going crazy," Din mutters to himself as he leaves Greef's office. He gets back to his berth, not hungry, and much to his surprise Skywalker is in there, reading.
"Save another new guy?"
"No." Skywalker says, looking up from his book, "-they've switched shifts around. I'm off right now."
"Hmm." Din says as he rubs his face and flops back in his bunk. He hears Skywalker's book close.
"You feeling any better Mando?"
"Why do you think I'm feeling bad?"
"Is that a real question?"
Din sits up an narrows his eyes.
"You don't know me."
"We've been sharing a room for months."
"I don't know shit about you." Din narrows his eyes and Skywalker rolls his.
"You're on edge, jumpy." Skywalker says, "-before this I would've said that the rig could be tossed around in a tsunami and you'd still be unflappable. Not to mention dreaming about me."
"What, dreaming about you is a sign of being sick?"
Skywalker grins slowly and Din interrupts before he can retort.
"-And I never said I dreamt about you."
"You told me you watched me jump off the rig. You're going to tell me that wasn't a dream?"
"Was it?" Din challenges, evenly and Skywalker's grin dims slightly.
"-how couldn't it be? I'm here now."
They look at eachother.
"I just need to get more sleep." Din huffs and flops back on his bed and turns his back to Skywalker. The hair prickles on the back of his neck.
-
He doesn't see Skywalker for a few days after that. No sign that he also occupies their shared berth, but that's not exactly cause for concern, because that was how they operated before.
Din's so fucking strung out he doesn't know what to focus his anxiety on; the dwindling number of men on the rig or the fact that his bunkmate might have disappeared.
He's not quite sure why he's so anxious about Skywaker disappearing either. It's not like he knows him. But then again, Skywalker disappearing isn't like Mayfeld disappearing. Skywalker disappearing feels like… something deeper. Din can't explain it.
He goes to the comms room again and pulls up the roster- the number of no shows has been steadily increasing. Din's been writing the number down on a piece of paper he keeps on his person; he doesn't know why. Maybe to prove to himself that he's not going crazy, but that's not reassuring. He has no fucking idea what he's going to do with the information either, when it's clear that no one will believe him if they can't even remember a person who they talked to on a daily basis. The one silver lining at the moment is that there hasn't been another disappearance in awhile. He sighs and pulls up Skywalker's profile.
Night shift it says, as Skywalker's blue eyes stare him down. Somehow Din feels worse and better.
-
"Mando, are you listening? Mando!" Malk claps his hands as they trundle up in the elevator and Din blinks and grimaces apologetically.
"Sorry, Malk I-"
"Was out in space, as usual." Malk says, rolling his eyes. "-Mando, what's up with you?"
Just sitting here in abject dread; thinking about what could be disappearing men off an isolated oil rig and cover it's own tracks, Din thinks.
"Ah, still not sleeping."
"You really oughta get that checked out, Mando." Malk says, as they step out of the cage, "-you're going to get yourself killed."
"We're all going to get killed." Din mutters to himself and Malk gives him a funny look but doesn't say anything.
"You're coming to dinner?"
"No." Din sighs, "-not hungry."
Malk rolls his eyes.
Din keeps thinking about it, as he trudges to his bunk. What's the end game here? Best case scenario Din can think of is that this is some kind of experiment; men being carted off in the middle of the night, the others given some kind of drugs that affect memory- and everything will be fine once the rotation ends. Din can't think of a single reason why that would be something people look into, but he's not an academic.
The other option- the option that Din knows in his gut is right, is that someone or something is killing men. Din never believed in the supernatural before this, but what else could cause mass hallucinations? The other option is that Din himself is insane and has conjured all this up in his mind, which. He almost wishes that were the case.
"Maybe there's a gas leak in my room." Din says to himself, suddenly, as he thinks about it, feeling better than he has in weeks. "-That would explain why Skywalker was so blase about my outburst. He's affected too."
Din realises that talking to himself is giving more creedence to the ‘Din has lost his mind' theory.
He almost has a spring in his step as he walks to his bunk, and he resolves to get a gas meter from the tool crib on his next shift.
"Sorry," he says, automatically as he nearly bumps into someone, who doesn't respond as they keep going. He looks back- it's Malk.
"Malk." Din says, and Malk keeps walking. "Hey, Malk!" Din says, chasing after him, the others in the hallways giving him looks as he tries to shoulder through the crowd as he gets back to the main deck.
"Malk!" Din calls, watching him get back into the cage to take him down the rig. "-Malk, what-"
He catches Malk's glance and suddenly feels sick.
That's not Malk Din thinks, as he watches the cage start to descend.
"You need to badge in." One of the administrators says to him as Din starts walking toward the cage, feeling his hands turn cold.
"I-"
"You need to badge in."
"I'm not on shift," Din says, "-but I need-"
"Not on shift? Get the hell out then."
"But-"
"Buddy, Union rules. You want more overtime? Take it up with your super first. Get the fuck out."
"I-"
"I'm going to call security."
"Ok, ok." Din says, raising his hands, shouldering through the other workers who gathered around. He makes a beeline to the mess and his heart is in his throat as he sits down.
"Decided to join us?" Malk says, "-we're almost done, Mando."
"I know." Din says, trying not to shake, "-I know."
-
Din isn't surprised on his next shift when he and Qin start working and Din stands to wipe his face and looks around at the other teams.
"No Malk today?"
"Malk?" Qin asks, "-who's Malk?"
Din closes his eyes briefly before turning back to what he was doing. He works in a daze for the rest of the day; immediately beelining to his supervisor once the shift change claxon blares.
"I need-" he says, trying to figure out how to possibly phrase that he needs time off to pull himself together because he's aware that men are vanishing off this oil rig.
"You're off next shift, Mando." His supervisor says, eying him up and down, "- check in with me after. You look like shit."
Din nods.
He doesn't know what to fucking do. He lays on his bed, fear gripping him. How long before it's him next? If he disappears, will Grogu remember him?
"For fuck's sake, Djarin." He says, angrily, as he sits up, "-pull yourself together. You're better than this, You're getting back to your kid."
He can't sleep so he paces, thinking about what he's going to do. He tries to think what he can use as a weapon. Fuck, can this thing even get hurt by weapons?
The door opens behind him and Din spins around.
Skywalker blinks at him, eying him warily, shift's grime caked across his face.
"Mando." He says, "-you're still here?"
"I'm off shift today."
"Ah." Skywalker says, and starts undoing his jumpsuit. Din eyes the scars that wind down his arm as he ties the top half around his waist, his white tank drenched in sweat.
"How was your shift?" Din blurts and Skywalker's hand pauses as it reaches for the bathroom door.
"Now I know you're not feeling well." Skywalker says, as he turns around and crosses his arms.
"Fuck off." Din huffs, but barrels on, "- have you… noticed that. Um." Din tries to word this as neutral as possible. "-on day shift," Din says, guarded, "-does it seem like there's fewer teams then there were before?"
"Yeah." Skywalker sighs, looking resigned. "- since they're getting picked off one by one."
Din blinks, but is unsurprised by this. He is surprised by the overwhelming relief. Someone believes him.
"How do you know?" Din asks, suddenly suspicious as he realises. Maybe Skywalker's drugging him.
"How do you?" Skywalker counters and Din huffs.
"I can remember the missing men, for starters." Din says, "-and I've seen it."
"You've seen it." Skywalker says, incredulously, eyebrows shooting to his hairline. Din nods, suspicion waning alittle.
"So you agree something is doing this?"
"What other explanation is there? What did it look like?"
"It can disguise itsself. It looked like one of the men it disappeared, which was impossible because I had just seen him 10 minutes before."
"Shit." Skywalker says, dragging a hand down his dirty face.
"I never believed in shit like this before." Din sighs, "-but I can't pretend this isn't happening anymore."
"No one will believe us if-"
"I know." Din snips, "-so we have to stop it."
Skywalker raises a brow and crosses his arms again.
"Didn't peg you for the heroic type, Mando, colour me surprised."
"It's not heroic." Din says, "-I have to get back to my kid."
The corner of Skywalker's mouth ticks up.
"I suppose that's as good reason as any." Skywalker tilts his head. "-You could wait it out. Now that it doesn't have the element of surprise."
"What the hell is it's end game, though?" Din says, "- the new rotation comes and is suddenly faced with half the personnel?" He shakes his head. "-No, it's picking us off one by one. Then we'll be a ghost rig." Din says, "-like the ships they find floating empty." Din squares his shoulders. "-the best defense is a good offense."
"I've been wondering that too." Luke says. "-One or two disappearances, sure. But it's nearly 30% of the crew now. Just… drawing attention to itsself."
"Except only you and I know it's here." Din says, "-maybe that's why it's gone so far." Din narrows his eyes. "-How do we know?"
"Maybe we don't." Skywalker says, "-maybe this is just folie a deux."
Din looks into the big blue eyes and huffs.
"I wish." He says, evenly.
"Me too." Skywalker sighs. "-I'm going to get in the shower, now. And then… maybe we can come up with a plan."
Din nods and watches the door close behind him.
-
"We don't know how it's killing." Din huffs as him and Skywalker decide what the fuck they're going to do. "-We have no fucking clue what we're up against, except that it can… change."
"-And not that I have the upmost faith in our security team," Luke says, "-but it must be able to… cloak cameras like it does memories. I'm pretty sure security would kick up a fuss if they saw someone getting murdered on camera."
"Maybe it works through the camera." Din says and Skywalker sighs.
"We need to get in there."
"Yeah, but how?"
Skywalker's eyes flash up to his.
"Leave that to me." His eyes drag up Din's body, "-you don't strike me as the stealthy type."
"You'd be surprised." Din retorts, immediately, and feels his gut churn as Skywalker's grin curls.
"So I'll get into the security room when you're on your shift," Skywalker says, "-keep an eye out for twins."
"Yeah." Din sighs.
"Do we know who was the last crew member taken?"
"Malk." Din says.
"Do we know where?"
"I saw it go down the cage, but Malk was already in mess by the time he vanished."
"Maybe that's how it works." Skywalker muses, "-wait in place for it's next victim and grabs them when they arrive to their post. Maybe that's how the cameras don't notice."
"I'll check Malk's last station when I'm on shift. See if I notice anything."
"I'll be watching."
"You're so confident you'll get in."
Skywalker grins then, and Din's doubt vanishes; but he doesn't like the unease that replaces it.
-
Din's hands have never been colder, as he heads down to work as the cage shakes around him. He glances up at the security camera in the corner and wonders if Skywalker's already in position. He's not sure how he feels about it, the idea that Skywalker's eyes are on his every move.
"I'm heading out the tool crib," Din says, clapping Qin shoulder once they get to their assignment. "-This is shit."
Qin nods.
"-Hurry up."
Din takes the long way, his head on a swivell as he passes other teams. The noise of the rig bangs inside his hard hat as he walks, nodding at the other men who acknowledge him as he walks by.
There's no one assigned to Malk's last posting and Din clenches his jaw. He walks around the humming machinery, all in working order by the looks of things. It's cold though, despite the hot machinery and Din shivers as he looks around. He's not entirely sure what he's looking for either, which.
Something creaks and Din spins around as the machines continue to hum, his heartbeat pounding inside his skull.
He clenches his jaw as his eyes scan around. Nothing.
"Oi! Mando!"
Din looks up at one of the workers, leaning over the catwalk.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Think I dropped-" Din starts to say, and the worker rolls his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. Get back to it, Mando, we're fucking behind."
Din huffs as his eyes trail back to the ground, catching on the emergency ladder. The Caution sign is dangling from one of the chains keeping it up.
Din goes over to it, swallowing as he takes in the carbiner that clips it in place. It's been broken off- like it was ripped. Din's eyes go the rungs then.
Din has seen a lot of oil in his line of work and he knows the dark liquid that's dried on the rungs is definitely not oil.
He exhales and goes back to his post.
-
"It's fucking strong if it can drag a body up a ladder." Din says, crossing his arms. Skywalker did get into the security room and apparently didn't see any doubles.
"I'll see if I can rewind the footage," Skywalker says, "-see if it caught it."
"I don't have much faith in that." Din says, crisply.
"Me either." Skywalker sighs. "- I guess we won't see eachother for a few days."
"What?"
"I'm back on shift."
"Right."
"I'll leave you a note if I find anything," Skywalker offers and Din nods.
"Stay safe, won't you?'
"You too." Din says.
It's odd, suddenly thinking about Skywalker every day when Din didn't give him a second thought in the past. But now Din's anxious when he gets off shifts, looking for the piece of paper that indicates Skywalker's still alive.
He's taken to scanning the crowd during shift change now, keeping his eyes peeled for the flash of golden hair as he makes his way down the rig.
They meet eachother's gaze amid the other lumbering workers, and Din feels like he can breathe.
Din finds he even dreams about him again. This time, though, it's much different.
Skywalker's sharp grin has softened a tad as he slowly peels off his jumpsuit, stepping closer to Din as the big blue eyes dart up from under his lashes. He spreads his hands across Din's chest, and Din leans down-
Din bolts awake again, heaving, certain parts of his body uncomfortably heavy as his dream replays on a loop.
"What the fuck, Djarin," he mutters, "-dreaming about him again-"
Something cold trickles down the back of his spine as he realises that he's only dreamt about Skywalker once. The other dream. The first dream; that was about… it.
"It tried to get in my head." Din says, aloud to the room, feeling himself start to shake. "It knows I know."
He drags his hands down his face as the door to the berth bursts open.
"For fuck's sake." Skywalker says, heaving and Din looks up. "-shit, Mando, I didn't see you at shift change, I thought-"
"We need to come up with a code system." Din interrupts, swinging his legs out of his bunk. Skywalker's eyes the length of him, and Din is suddenly reminded of his dream where he did the same thing. He clenches his jaw.
"What." Skywalker says, finally, "-why weren't you-"
"I called out," Din runs a hand through his hair. "-I didn't feel like working today." Din says, finally, pretty sure Skywalker already knows why, "-we need a password or something."
"For-?"
"If this thing can shapeshift…" Din says, not sure why he has to explain this. He figured it was obvious.
Skywalker blinks.
"Yeah. I. I guess you're right." The eyes flash up and he raises a brow. "-why don't we just tell eachother something that no one else would know instead of having to remember an arbitrary password?"
Din sighs and crosses his arms, wracking his brain for something that he's never admitted to anyone.
"I nearly gave up my son." he says, tightly and Skywalker blinks.
"What?"
"I had agreed to foster him after I found him… long story. I nearly gave him back to Social Services after our first few months." Din sighs, gut roiling as it always does whenever he remembers. "-It's my greatest shame."
Skywalker blinks at him.
"Ok, first of all," he says, "-I was just thinking something like, you like to wear pink pyjamas when you're at home."
Din snorts, in spite of himself.
"-Now I'm going to have to come up with something equally as vulnerable, thanks, Mando." Skywalker shakes his head. "-But you shouldn't be ashamed." He says, taking a step closer and squeezing Din's bicep. "-You made the right choice in the end. That's all that matters."
Din clenches his fists to keep the temptation to run his thumb along Skywalker's jaw to himself.
"I'm the reason my aunt and uncle are dead." Skywalker says, suddenly, looking away.
Din blinks.
"I didn't kill them," he says, wryly, looking back up at Din. "-But if it wasn't for me." He sighs, "-they wouldn't be dead."
It's only when he takes a step backward that Din realises how close they were; Din can practically taste the lingering musk from his shift. Din blinks at the realisation that he wants to.
"I need a shower." Skywalker says, and Din once again watches the bathroom door close behind him.
-
"That's great, kiddo." Din says, listening as Grogu details his exploits, "-I'm glad you're having fun."
"When are you coming home, Buir?" Grogu asks, eyes big even via satellite.
"Soon, kiddo." Din promises, swallowing, "-just a few more weeks."
He and Skywalker have hit a dead end, so to speak. After the hangs up the call and goes to the roster list Din notes with some relief that the number of no shows is the same as it was yesterday. This is the longest they've gone without a disappearance since Din's started tracking them.
"Maybe it's moved on." Skywalker offers, lying in his bunk as Din tells him.
Din eyes the line of his legs before shrugging off his shirt.
"I wish I was as much of an optimist as you." He says. Maybe Skywalker's earlier admission should be more worrying but if anything, him admitting it has just put Din more at ease. Of course he wants to know the details but knows better then to ask.
"Do you have anyone waiting for you at home?" Din does ask, as he realises that while he might've learned Skywalker's deepest secret he still knows shit about him.
"You asking if I'm single, Mando?"
"I meant family." Din huffs, "-whatever that means for you. You know I have a son."
"Why?"
"I don't know anything about you." Din says, "-even though by all accounts I should be the closed book. But I don't know anything about you."
"You are a closed book."
"You have a lock."
Skywalker snorts.
"I have a sister, apparently." Skywalker purses his lips. "-but I've never met her. I don't stay put anywhere for very long, so."
"I know what that's like." Din says, "-I was that way before I met the kid."
"What were you running from?" Skywalker asks, head tilting.
"I wasn't running from anything." Din says, "-I was looking for something. And I found it, I guess." He narrows his eyes. "-What are you running from, Skywalker?"
"Isn't it obvious?" He asks, "-myself."
Din doesn't know what to say to that.
-
"Bad news." Skywalker says, as Din trudges back into their berth. It was a long hard shift. For obvious reasons, they're extremely behind schedule.
"What?" Din asks, but he can guess.
"We were down another team last night, so I checked-"
"It's started up again." Din says, flatly and Skywalker nods. Din pinches the bridge of his nose.
"So it's back to hitting night shift."
"Seems like it."
"I'm going to switch."
"Huh?"
"I'm going to ask to be transferred to night shift." Din says, "-strength in numbers and all that."
"We won't be on the same crew."
"So? I'll grab a couple walkies."
Skywalker nods.
"Yeah, ok." the eyes flash up, "-at least our sleep schedule'll be aligned now."
The roiling in Din's gut this time is much, much different.
-
Within the first hour on nightshift, Din can tell why whatever it is picked then to strike.
Not only are there less workers (obviously), but there's a sort of eeriness that Din can't quite put his finger on. You'd think it's the same, being down in the bowels of the rig no matter if the sun was out or not. Din is finding that's absolutely not the case.
By the time lunch comes around, Din is just as on edge just as he was when he first realised something was going on.
He lets go of a breath he didn't realise he was holding as he spots Skywalker's golden hair.
"Anything?" he asks, as Din reaches him.
"Other than feeling like I'm going to vibrate out of my skin, no."
Skywalker snorts as they grab their trays and sit down.
Din just moves whatever they've served them around on his plate, finding that he can't bring himself to eat. Whether it's because it's midnight, or because of the lurking doom, he couldn't say.
Skywalker has no such qualms, eating with gusto. Din watches his lips close around his fork.
"What's your kid's name?"
"Huh?" Din asks, dragging his eyes up from Skywalker's mouth.
"Your kid." Skywalker says, said mouth ticking up into a satisfied smirk. Din clenches his jaw. "-what's their name?"
"Why?"
"I'm nosy." Skywalker shrugs, "-and you know. We are hunting a supernatural entity that only we know about. Shouldn't we know eachother alittle more?"
"My kid's not me."
Skywalker snorts.
"Maybe that's why you're unaffected," he says, "-you're too stubborn to be mind controlled."
"What about you then?"
"Pot, kettle." Skywalker shrugs, "-what's your kid's name? You spend so much time talking to them."
Din's eyes narrow.
"How do you know?"
"I've seen you in there." Skywalker shrugs, "-and I pulled the outside comms logs to see if there were any irregularities when I got into security."
"You didn't tell me that."
"Oops." Skywalker says, "-now what-"
"His name is Grogu and he's 8." Din says, crisply. "-Satisfied?"
"No," Skywalker grins, "-what's his favourite thing?"
"What do you mean?"
"Please, Mando. I was going to be a teacher. All kids have a ‘thing.'"
"Frogs." Din says, surprised at the admission. "He loves frogs."
"Nice." Skywalker says.
"Why didn't you-"
"Skywalker!"
Din looks up as he's interrupted by a bunch of workers. They all grin and greet Skywalker heartily. Much different than how the day shift guys view him, Din thinks.
Viewed him, Din realises, morbidly.
"Who's this?"
"My bunkmate, Mando. He just switched to nightshift."
"What the hell?" one of them asks, "-why?"
"‘cause Skywalker and I are best pals." Din says, dryly. He couldn't think of anything else.
The table bursts into laughter then, and Din's surprised that worked.
Skywalker seems… well normal now that he's surrounded by these men. Din feels a bit of guilt at the suspicion he held him under, as he watches him easily laugh and joke.
Why the hell are you so weird about him, Djarin? Din questions until his eyes dart to Skywalker's wide grin and he pushes that realisation down.
"Hey Wes," Skywalker says, suddenly, "-haven't seen Vander today, do you know what's up?"
The man addressed blinks at him.
"Who?"
Din meets Skywalker's eyes across the table.
-
When Din steps out of the cage after shift, he still feels anxious. He gets a couple of odd looks as he waits for Skywalker off to the side, and clenches his fists until he spots him.
"Stalking me?" Skywalker questions as he slides up to him. Din huffs at him as they start to walk toward their berth.
"We agreed we were sticking together."
"No. We agreed that you'd join me on night shift. Nothing about being joined at the hip." Skywalker looks up from under his lashes, "-though I can't say I mind."
Din grinds his teeth.
"Did you see any- where are you going?"
"I need some air," Skywalker says, as he veers off course. Din jogs to catch up. "-you don't have to-"
"Like hell I don't." Din snips. "-if you think I'm facing this thing alone…"
"Hmm." Skywalker says, pushing at a door that Din previously assumed was locked.
"Where the hell are we going?"
"I told you." Skywalker says, as they transition down a long echo-ey hallway. He pushes an exit door open. "-air."
Din has seen the sunrise on a rig before, so maybe he shouldn't be as awed as he is, as the salt air hits their faces as they step out onto the isolated catwalk. But before, he was up on deck, surrounded by people and machinery and work.
Here, a flimsy bar of chain link metal separates him from the open sea, and brilliant colours as far as he can look.
Skywalker inhales deeply and Din glances over at him.
He looks… otherworldly, even with the grime caked on his face. Ethereal as the morning sunrise reflects across impossible blue eyes, illuminates his golden hair.
Din feels uneasy as he looks at him, like he's seeing something he shouldn't.
"Are you hungry?" Skywalker asks and Din has to shake himself out of the trance.
"No."
"Me neither." He gestures at Din to go first- which he needs to, the walkway is single file.
Din somehow breathes easier as they are back inside the rig.
"Did you see anything?" Din asks, again, the vision of Skywalker still burned into his mind.
"No." Skywalker sighs, badging into their room.
"Do you think it's onto us?" Din asks, crossing his arms as Skywalker strips the top of his jumpsuit off.
"If you looked right at it, yeah." he says, "-maybe that's why it stopped for a while."
"I hate this."
"Being hunted at your place of work is unappealing to you?" Skywalker asks, "-I'm shocked, Mando."
Din huffs.
"Did you wanna shower first?" Skywalker asks, then, and somehow the eyes glitter even more than what they did when they were illuminated by the morning light.
"You go ahead." Din says, evenly.
"If you're sure." Skywalker says, and then grins, lip curling over his canine, "-we could always shower together."
Din blinks.
"-you know. Like a locker room."
"I don't think we'll both fit." Din says, struggling to keep his voice even.
"I think we could," Skywalker says, "-we just have to be creative."
"I'm okay to wait." Din says, through clenched teeth.
Skywalker shrugs.
"Suit yourself." The smile ticks up again, "-had to try."
Din buries his face in his hands as the door shuts behind him.
-
It would be just their luck, Din thinks, if the day after he joined the night shift this thing started picking off dayshift workers again.
It's not though, which is obviously not reassuring as Din finds his workload increase each night he and Skywalker are on shift.
Neither he nor Skywalker have seen anything though, which is somehow not reassuring either.
"Maybe it's saving us for last." Din muttered and Skywalker broke into open laughter when they got back to their berth.
He dragged his eyes up Din's body and raised a brow.
"I would."
Din got into the shower first that time.
It's hot in the bowels of the rig, and Din feels the sweat drip down his brow as he stands at the machinery. The guy he's paired with is great- hasn't said a word to him other than anything task related the whole time.
"Pass the-" he says and then pauses.
"The what?"
"Did you hear that?" He asks, looking around and in spite of the heat, Din feels himself pale.
"I think we should stay here-"
"It was from over there!" he says and takes off.
"Shit." Din curses and starts after him as he sprints away before suddenly skidding to a stop. "-what are you-"
The man turns and has a crazed look on his face.
"I heard- I thought I heard-" he says, face whipping around. "What the hell? Hey!"
Din glimpses something move down the end of the row of machinery and feels the dread wash over him.
"I should find Skywalker." He says, aloud, staring after where his crewmate ran to. "Fuck." Din sighs and starts after him. "-Come back!" Din calls, "-let's look together!"
He suddenly realises it's silent, save for the pad of Din's own footfall as he goes in the same direction and Din suddenly also realises he's made a big mistake.
"It's already got him," he says to himself, slowly creeping around the machinery, "-I need to get out of here."
The sick feeling in his stomach is amplified by the goosebumps that seemingly cover every inch of his body. He's hyper aware of his own breath, attuned to the low hum of the machines as he listens for the evil lurking in the shadows.
He maps his route to get back to the cage and continues to creep through the innards of the rig, suddenly colder than he has ever been in his entire life.
I can't tell Skywalker about this he thinks, furitively, head on a swivel as he darts another way, he's going to think I'm more of an idiot than he-
Something wraps around Din's ankle and yanks.
Din's breath is knocked out of him as he hits the ground with a thud. The terror heightens every sense as he kicks and thrashes as he's dragged down along the concrete floor.
He smells the fabric of his coveralls burning as he glances down and sees- well, he can't see it, he thinks, feeling the madness start clawing at his senses.
There's an urge lurking there, to just go limp, let himself go lax, just stop struggling-
"No!" Din grits, tasting blood, "-get the fuck off me!"
Din is still not looking at it, as he struggles, feeling a heady combination of both fight and flight as he kicks at it, feeling his fingernails scratch along the floor.
It's clearly not used to being fought as it's grip loosened a bit; but now it's angry as it creeps further up Din's leg.
Din squints his eyes shut as he grasps onto a piece of machinery, hot pipe just barely scalding his skin as he vainly tries to hold on.
He feels like his fingertips are going to snap off, as he clenches his teeth, straining as he tries to keep his grip on the metal.
His first hand lets go and his remaining shoulder screams at him as it takes the brunt of the pressure.
Din wants to curse and cry out but finds that he can't. He doesn't know if it's this thing doing it to him, or he just can't; not while he concentrates on survival-
Something else wraps around his wrist and Din's eyes fly open, heart stopping for a moment.
"Luke." Din wheezes.
"Ok so now I'm Luke?" He huffs, determined terror written plain across his face, "-let go, Din!"
Din does what he's told and gasps as Luke starts pulling him the other way.
"Give me your other hand!"
Din wonders if this is what the rack felt like, as Luke strains as he pulls.
"Let go of him!" Luke barks, "-give him to me!"
If Din weren't being stretched within an inch of his life he would laugh. He kicks at it again and Luke laughs wildly, dropping to the floor. Din panics, thinking it's going to get them both, but then Luke hooks his arms under Din's armpits and tugs.
"I said let him go." Luke says, low and dangerous and Din feels whatever's holding onto him loosen a bit- until it decides better of it and starts to regrip.
However, this has allowed Luke a split second to let go- and hit it with a wrench.
Din doesn't think he'll ever forget the sound that thing made when it screamed.
"Din, run!" Luke says, dragging Din up to his feet, grabbing his hand to tug him along.
They race through the machinery and Din doesn't dare to look back, heart thudding in his ears as they skid into the cage and Luke slams the door closed.
The cage jerks as it starts to ascend, and Din feels like he's in a fugue state as they rise, stepping out into the floor, busy with the shift change. Din's eyes are on every face as they move through the crowd, trying to categorise each one, afraid that he'll see double. By the time that they get to the edge and out into the mostly empty barracks, Din grabs Luke's hand to sprint to their berth.
He slams the door shut and double locks it, heaving.
"That was close."
Din spins around and grabs Luke again, pinning him against the door.
"What's my-"
"You nearly gave up Grogu." Luke says, testily "-now would you-"
"You saved me." Din says, blues eyes boring into him.
"You could sound less mad about it." Luke says, crisply, "-maybe even a thank you-"
Din drags his bottom lip between his teeth, and Luke sighs as he melts into him, wrapping his arms around Din's shoulders.
He tastes like the coffee they had at lunch and Din feels dizzy. He's not sure if it's Luke's doing or if he's forgotten to breathe.
He pulls back, tipping their foreheads together, panting as he tightens his grip on Luke.
"That's more like it." Luke hums, hands sliding down Din's chest to start undoing his coveralls.
Din doesn't know if the relief at still being alive or the desire is headier, stripping off his tank as Luke drops his own clothes.
Luke's eyes trail across Din's chest and he huffs, stepping back into Din's space. Din pulls him close as his fingers tangle in Din's curls and Din tugs him toward the bed as he kicks off his boots.
When Din pushes him down onto his berth, they're both naked, and Din climbs over him, taking in the sight below.
"I thought we've moved past your staring now," Luke says, grinning as he runs his hands up his body.
Din rolls his eyes before leaning down for a filthy kiss, dragging his tongue out of Luke's mouth so he can press his lips to the scars winding around Luke's body. He maps them out with his hands and lips, Luke gasping whenever Din runs his teeth along hot skin.
"Din," Luke whines, bucking his hips up, "-what're you doing?"
"I want to see you." Din says, evenly, his blood boiling under his skin as Luke's lips part and his tongue darts out.
"- well I want to feel you." Luke retorts, and Din huffs.
"Fine." He says, and crawls back up Luke's body, sinking into a kiss as they become flush.
Luke's hands dig into Din's back as they rut together, Din swallows the pretty sounds he makes as they do their best to meld together.
Din's skin is prickling again, somehow more intense than when he's anxiously on edge. Well, he's still on edge, he thinks, rolling his hips as he chases pleasure this time around. All he can think about, feel, see, smell is Luke.
Din presses his lips just under his jaw, tastiing Luke's pulse as Luke wraps his legs around Din's back. They're in sync, Din thinks.
"Fuck, Din-" Luke whines, bucking his hips. Din just runs his teeth along Luke's skin.
"Luke." Din moans, feeling himself start to shake, ecstacy gaining on him, poised to overtake.
"Shit." Luke gasps, "-Din, I-"
Din pulls back and watches Luke's eyes roll back as he clings onto Din, trembling as the pleasure moves across his face.
"Din-" he moans as he finishes, and suddenly Din is overcome with bliss; feeling like he's suddenly been dunked in it, choking as it overtakes him. He practically collapses into Luke's arms as they rut out the aftershocks and slowly come back to themselves.
They settle into eachother's arms, legs intertwined and Din takes a deep breath, still alive. The silence rings, their slowing breaths and heartbeats the only thing that Din can hear.
"What are you?" He asks, looking down into blue eyes that flash at him, "-that thing should've killed me."
Luke huffs.
"What, this is your pillow talk? Just had what I thought was really good sex and you want to talk about life and death?"
"Luke." Din says, evenly, watching as the eyes that normally have no issue boring into him dart away.
"What, it wasn't good for you-?"
"It was." Din says, and that's an understatement, but not the point right now. "-What are you."
Luke sighs.
"I don't know."
Din frowns.
"I don't." Luke insists. "-different, I guess."
"What can you do?"
"This is going to sound conceited." Luke huffs, and Din can feel him relax alittle, "-I'm stronger and faster than I should be. I can… well. I find people extremely suggestible." He frowns then, looking at Din, annoyed. "-Except for you. Best I could do when that thing lured you out to the deck was make you think you were dreaming."
Din blinks at him. Suddenly things make a bit more sense.
"So you saved my life twice now."
"Who's counting a little thing like that?" Luke grins, resting his chin on Din's chest.
"So you can't influence me…. And it can't either."
"I still think it's because you're too stubborn."
"Is that what you were trying to do? Suggest it let me go?"
"Yeah." Luke says, suddenly muted. "It, uh. It hurt. When I was trying to…" Luke shakes a bit and Din presses his lips to his shoulder.
"What is it?"
"Don't know that either. I've never met… anything like me before."
"Your Aunt and Uncle." Din says, suddenly realising, but winces when he realises he said it aloud.
"Yeah." Luke sighs, "-they raised me. My mother died in childbirth. I don't know anything about my father. I can only assume…"
Din clenches his jaw at the implication, but realises he can't exactly judge.
"-something was looking for me. And they got in the way."
"Can you shapeshift?" Din interjects, partly out of curiosity and partly to change the subject.
"Not that I know of." Luke snorts and then looks at Din from under his lashes again. "-are you done with your 20 questions now? ‘Cause…" he trails off as his fingers spread across Din's chest.
Din flips them over and runs his tongue along the seam of Luke's lips.
-
"You know," Luke says, as they sit down in the mess, "-I never asked how your ankle is."
Din can eat again, for some reason that he's not looking into at the moment.
"My ankle?" Din asks, looking up from his tray, "-what about it?"
Luke looks at him blankly.
"Was there or was there not a supernatural entity wrapped around it and tugging on it hard for like, 10 minutes?"
"A supernatural entity was tugging on my wrists at the same time and they're fine." Din snips, lowly, "-and yeah. It's ok." Din purses his lips as he remembers the bottom of his coveralls, tattered, like something slowly burned through them.
"Remind me to get the same brand of boots that you have next time I need replacements."
"Should we really be talking about this out here?" Din hisses, "-when it could be-"
"It already knows we're onto it," Luke shrugs "-and I'm not suggesting we plan our attack out here."
Din huffs and runs a hand through his hair.
"What should we talk about instead?" Luke muses, "-the other bits of you that this supernatural entity has-"
"Skywalker." Din says flatly, unimpressed.
Luke grins into his soup.
Din figures they actually will plan something when they get back to their berth. And they will start talking, eventually, but only when they're both sweaty and out of breath; not from work this time.
"Fuck!" Luke gasps, rocking down onto Din, eyelids fluttering as he takes. "-yes."
It's tight, in their berth, which means they're as close as possible in every sense of the term.
Luke's hands were insistent as soon as the door closed behind the two of them, and Din raised a brow at him as soon as they had to part for air.
"-Aren't you tired?" Din had asked, even as they shucked their clothes.
Luke's tongue darted out to his bottom lip, licking up the remnants of Din's kiss and Din felt something spark up his spine.
"It was so good last time," Luke said, running his hands up Din's chest, "- I need you-"
Truth be told, Din didn't need any convincing.
Din has his arms wrapped around Luke's torso as he continues to drive himself onto Din, and Din watches as the pleasure writes itsself over Luke's face.
It's so intense, the way Luke keeps eye contact with Din as he fucks himself down.
"Shit." Din grits, suddenly aware of his own pleasure as Luke moans as he bottoms out, big blue eyes boring into Din's. Din will think later that he almost looks in awe of how good it feels, which really should be a boost for Din's ego, but again, he's faced with a lingering thought that something's not quite right. However, at this moment, Din's not thinking about any of that as Luke throws his head back before kissing Din, hard.
"Fuck" he whines, against Din's mouth, "-Din, I'm going to-" he cuts himself off with a strangled moan as he starts shaking in Din's lap. The euphoria contorts his face and Din's vision suddenly whites out as he watches the bliss roll across Luke's entire body. Din's grip tightens as all his other muscles contract and then loosen at once; pleasure rippling through his nervous system for an inordinate amount of time. It's like he and Luke are coming together like a fault line as the tremors overtake them both; Din doesn't want to think about what damage this quake will cause. He slowly comes back to reality, with the aftershocks of euphoria and Luke still wrapped around him.
They untangle and then retangle as Luke settles into the too small bed with him and Din thinks their berths really aren't the right size for this. Din is finding he doesn't care.
"How the fuck are we going to lure it out if it knows we're onto it?" Din asks, fingers tracing along the rough scars on Luke's back.
"Oh, so we're luring it out now?" Luke asks, apparently unphased by Din's sudden change of topic.
"Well, what else are we going to do? Just try to survive ourselves and let it kill the rest of the goddamn rig? Will love to have that conversation when the next cycle starts."
"I meant luring it out is very different than just… hunting it."
"At least we know it can be killed." Din says, thinking about it's roar when Luke hit it with the wrench.
"I don't know what we'd use as bait though," Luke frowns, "-it has no discerning taste that I can-"
"Yes it does." Din says, blood running cold, "-it's gone after me twice now."
"No." Luke says, like he's disagreeing with Din about what to have for dinner. "-I think hunting it-"
"Luke. It makes the most sense. It'll come after me if I'm by myself."
"No it won't because I won't let you." Luke says.
"Your suggesting stuff doesn't work on me, remember?"
"I think me being suggestive worked on you about half an hour ago." Luke says, pointedly and Din rolls his eyes.
"Skywalker, really-"
"No." Luke says, "-this isn't a debate, Din. I'm not risking it. It's not worth it."
"Luke-"
"You're going to risk not getting back to Grogu?"
Din narrows his eyes.
"That's not fair."
"Never said it was."
Din sighs and drops his head back on the pillow.
"What can we do, then?"
"Maybe there's a time it strikes." Luke says, "-maybe if we can get the data of when it got all of it's victims we'll see a pattern."
"And just how are we going to get that?"
"I'll ask the security guys for it."
"But it changed the profiles-"
"So? Nothing is ever really deleted. Their badge data must be somewhere."
"Alright," Din says, resigned, "- we'll try it your way."
Luke grins, lip curling over his canine; his otherworldliness poking through his human facade.
"Knew you'd see the light."
"Hmm." Din says, but leans up for a kiss.
-
Din's not sure why he thought Luke's plan would go any other way, as Luke bursts smugly into their berth, printouts in hand.
"I was right." Luke says, "-it has a feeding cycle."
He slaps the papers down on the small desk in their room and Din gets up to look over his shoulder.
"Tied to the moon." Din says, as he looks at the dates.
"How do you know that?" Luke says, turning to look over his shoulder.
"Astronomy is a close second to frogs."
Luke's face softens and he grins.
"I can't wait to meet him."
Din blinks as Luke turns back to the data.
"I guess it skipped a feeding when it realised you were onto it, because it took two here-" Luke is saying, but Din's not quite listening.
Am I going to introduce my son to my…. Inhuman lover? He thinks, but then quickly comes to the realisation, that yes. He is.
"I can hear your heart racing." Luke says, tightly. "-Forgot to mention."
Din tilts his head slightly, taking in the tense line of Luke's shoulders as he resolutely looks down at the data in front of him.
Din puts a hand on the small of his back.
"I guess you can't read minds, then." Din murmurs, or else you'd know Din thinks. He's… not quite sure when he started feeling like this, but he's faced with the truth of it now, as glittering blue eyes turn to him, guarded.
"No." Luke says, crossing his arms even as Din's hand rests on his hips, "-I can usually get… feelings from people. But not you." Luke huffs, "-I never know what you're thinking."
"Hmm." Din says, and pulls Luke's face to his, kissing him softly. "-I'm thinking that you two are going to get on like a house on fire."
Luke wraps his arms around Din's waist as he grins into the kiss.
-
Din doesn't let his guard down, perse, in between the days leading up to what they think is the next feeding, but he does feel his anxiety start to ratchet up as they inch closer and closer to the date.
"What are we going to occupy ourselves with?" He asks, facetiously, sitting at the small desk in their room, "-once this is over."
He eyes Luke put the crowbars he ‘borrowed' from the tool crib into his closet.
"I can think of a few things." he grins, but Din huffs.
"-we do that already." He reminds him, eyes darting to the hickeys he left on Luke's skin.
"Good point." Luke winks, dropping down onto his bed. "-maybe I'll try and find my sister." he looks over at Din. "-What about you?"
"I'm never stepping foot on an oil rig again." Din says, evenly and Luke huffs. "Going to have to figure out a new career as I've decided I'm not leaving Grogu again."
Din finds that's the scariest part of this whole situation; dying is bad, yes. But Grogu suddenly forgetting him? Or even worse, Grogu thinking that Din abandoned him.
He finds himself shaking, unable to relax, right before what they think will be the day it strikes next. He wonders how on earth he lived like this for weeks.
"You need to sleep." Luke says, finally, sitting up in his bed on the other side of the room. "-I can hear you tossing and turning."
"I'm too wired." Din says, turning his head. He thinks he sees the eyes glitter even in the dark. Luke is sitting on the edge of his bed in an instant, and the eyes are definitely glittering now.
"I bet I can tire you out." He says, smirking, fingers spreading across Din's chest.
Din huffs.
"Might as well try." Din says, sinking back into his pillow as Luke climbs over him.
Luke's hands are hot and steady as they explore his body; and Din does find himself distracted from his anxiety as he arches off the bed, letting Luke have his way with him.
"Fuck, Din." Luke gasps, still sounding like he's in awe, "-you feel so good-"
He sinks in and out of Din slowly, like he's relishing in it. Static sparks across Din's whole body as he clings onto him.
"Shit." Din grits, bucking his hips to meet him, "Luke-"
"You make me feel like-" Luke gasps, before burying his face in Din's neck, and Din can feel him start to lose control.
Like what Din wants to ask, but can't, as they both start dissolving into eachother; euphoria crashing over them as they start to shake apart.
"Oh, Din, I-" Luke gasps, fingers digging into Din's flesh. Din feels like he's being tossed around in a storm, no control over his movements, not as the waves toss him around.
Din's so delirious as they finish, practically together, he can't distinguish whose moans belong to who. Their cries of pleasure quiet into satisfied sighs, and Din drifts into unconsciousness, Luke's limbs curling around his own.
-
"We both know the plan, then?" Din asks, grabbing onto Luke's arm as he reaches for the door to their berth. Luke was right; their activity did tire him out enough he was able to sleep through the rest of their cycle. Luke turns around and huffs at him.
"Din, we've only been over this-"
"I know, I know." Din says. "-Just. Be careful."
"You too." Luke says, leaning up for a quick kiss before they head off.
Luke hands Din the walkie he got the toolcrib to assign to him before he heads to his team.
They nod at eachother before they part.
Ironically, it's an uneventful shift for the most part. Din working as silent as he possible can as he listens for Luke's signal on the walkie, as he prepares to send on himself if it attacks him.
He's deliberately asked for an assignment deep inside the rig, close to the middle shaft; most of them men who've vanished were assigned around there.
He jumps at every noise, freezes whenever his colleague takes a bit too long to answer him.
"What's with you, Mando?"
"Nothing, nothing, just getting cabin fever."
His co-worker snorts.
"Isn't everyone?"
Their lunch break comes and goes and the relief at seeing Luke alright is quickly replaced by the fear of what happens if they don't get it? What if their theory is wrong?
"Maybe it left." Luke murmurs, steel eyes glancing around the room.
"We wouldn't be so lucky."
"I dunno." Luke grins, "-I get pretty lucky all-"
"Skywalker."
Luke hums but then sobers.
"I hope we haven't driven it to desperation yet." He says, "- or else I think we'll find out exactly what it's capable of."
Din sighs.
Luke surreptitiously squeezes his hand before they have to go back to stations.
"I'm taking a piss."
Din looks up from grinding his teeth as he works into his unimpressed co-worker's face.
"Don't have a fucking aneurysm while I'm gone, ok?"
Din snorts and sighs once he's left.
It would be eerie no matter the circumstance, he thinks, being alone in a huge room of machinery, even without a looming supernatural threat. Din looks up and around at the guts of the rig, continuing to churn despite all the loss of life. There's a poem in there somewhere, but Din's not any good at rhyme.
Something clatters.
"Shit." He says, and picks up a crowbar, and runs to the source. His finger hesitates over the button on the walkie- waiting to send the Morse code signal to Luke that it's here. He doesn't want him coming all the way for a false alarm; draw too much attention when they probably only get the one shot.
Din skids to a halt as he looks around; and there's nothing. Not even his own goosebumps.
Din huffs and goes to turn back the way he came; something clatters again.
"You're hiding." Din says, racing deeper into the rig, head on a swivel as he watches for moving shadows, heart racing as he tries to listen and run at the same time.
"Show yourself." Din says, both hands on the crowbar, as he slowly stalks around, "-what, you didn't think I would fight back?"
The machines hum around him, and Din clenches his jaw and goes to hit the walkie;
It buzzes before he can touch it.
"Din!" Luke's voice comes through, garbled, "-Din, the deck, it's got-"
Din feels himself go cold as the walkie fizzles out.
It tricked me Din thinks, cursing himself for being so stupid, it wanted me out of the way. He sprints back through the rig, pulse in his ears.
"Mando, what the fuck-?" He ignores everyone else until he races to the cage, hitting the button to take him to the deck, clenching his fist around the crowbar as he steels himself, ready for a fight.
When he steps out onto the deck; it's deceptively calm. The moonless sky means it's swathed in an eerie light, and Din steps out cautiously, listening.
"Let go of me!!" A man is screaming, and Din takes off. He skids across the metal catwalks, takes two stairs at a time as he runs toward the sound of the struggle.
The salt air hits his face full blast as he comes to a halt on the emptiest part of the deck- the part where the dark ocean is a hair's breadth away from being your final resting place.
"Let go!!"
Din's eyes flash over to a couple figures in the corner- a worker and… Luke?
Din's heart stops, thinking about the last time he saw ‘Luke' out on the deck.
"Let go!!" the manic workers screams, as they inch closer to the edge of the rig.
"No!" Din calls, running toward the struggle, but it's too late.
They topple over the edge, the waves crashing below. Din thinks his ears are ringing.
"Is that it?" Din says, aloud, to the howling wind. "-it survived the drop last time." He says, darkly. Wait, where's-
"Din? Oh thank fuck, Din-"
Din's heart restarts as he spins around and Luke looks at him, anxiously.
"You didn't respond to my walkie, I thought-"
"It lured me into the rig." Din says, taking a step closer, "I-"
He stops dead in his tracks as soon as he's a foot away.
"Din, what is it?"
A certainty falls over Din as he takes Luke in.
"You're not Luke." Din says, tightly, raising the crowbar.
"What? Din." Luke says, eyes widening, "-what are you talking about, it's me."
"Yeah. You. Not Luke."
"Din! It's me, can't you see it's me!" Luke pleads, darting out of Din's reach as he raises the crowbar, stalking closer. "-Din- please, it's taken someone else, we need to find-"
Din stops in his tracks and thinks about the worker and Luke falling off the side of the rig. His pulse flatlines. He lets out a shaky breath, the sight of them toppling over the edge of the rig replaying in his mind. He lowers the crowbar.
"Oh, Din-" Luke says, stepping toward him, "-look, we need to-"
He's cut off as Din whacks the crowbar across his head; a sickening crunch on impact.
Din takes in the fruits of his blow; the blood seeping down Luke's skin is black.
The eyes flash up then, yellow and monstrous.
"See?" Din says, tilting his head, grip tightening on the crowbar as he readies another swing. "You're not Luke."
"You're wrong." It says, tongue darting over it's bottom lip, completely different than how Luke does it, "-He is me." It moves wrong as it circles Din, fingers curled as it hunches, preparing to strike. "-I came for him. To get him back."
Din clenches his jaw.
"Too fucking bad." He spits, as it lunges for him, starting to change. There's a roar in Din's ears as he registers this, some kind of ice trickling through his veins as the horror starts to materialise again, right in front of him. Din rushes forward to meet it, impaling it on the crowbar.
"Fuck!" Din cries, dropping it and darting away as he gets sprayed by something; the small drops of detritus burning into his skin as he watches a half Luke-half monster slowly turn to liquid, seeping across the deck.
Luke's face melts into the goo and Din feels sick as he watches the yellow eyeball get consumed by itself.
"Luke." Din suddenly realises, turning on the spot and sprinting over to the edge of the deck, heart in his throat. He can barely make himself look over the side as he drops to his knees.
"Fucking finally." Luke says, Luke says, sprawled on the emergency netting, the unconscious worker beside him, "- a little help?"
Din exhales in relief, watching Luke's own relief move across his face.
By the time Din manages to get something rigged to pull the two of them back up to the deck, the sun is once again starting to peek over the horizon.
"Din." Luke says, falling into Din's arms as he yanks the harness off himself. Din kisses him with every fibre of his being, idly thinking their unconscious colleague can wait.
"Luke." Din murmurs, tilting their heads together, not sure he's ever felt better in his life.
"It's dead." Luke says, tightly, after another moment. Din nods. "-I felt it."
"It's over." Din says.
"It's over." Luke sighs, grip tightening. Eyes flash up to Din's, bright blue. "-Now I can finally get back in your bed."
"That's your first thought?" Din huffs, amused, something trickling over his skin now that's decidedly not relief, "- we both nearly died and you're thinking about sex?"
"When we're together." Luke says, suddenly serious, "- you… you make me feel like me again." His grip tightens, "- I just want to feel like me again."
It's words come back to Din, then. He is me. I came to take him back.
The thing is, Luke is Din's now.
"In that case," Din murmurs against Luke's lips, pulling him closer, "-happy to be of service."