Chapter Text
1. Leia
Luke is in love.
And Leia doesn’t even need her strong Force bond with her twin to know that.
Luke has always worn his heart on his sleeve, so open and honest with his feelings that Leia could read every single emotion just from his eyes. Setting up his makeshift Jedi Temple and becoming some sort of a Jedi Master didn’t change that at all. Every now and then—meaning, when she’s trying to procrastinate on her work with the New Republic because by God those Senators are idiots and everything takes forever to get done—she looks at those old Jedi texts Luke brought to the temple, all the Jedis pictured with solemn faces, and wonders what exactly went wrong with her brother.
Never mind solemn, it’s hard to find Luke without a smile on his face. Lately, though, it’s become even harder to find him without a damn blush.
Luke is in love, and it’s so painfully obvious that Leia is surprised it isn’t common knowledge at this point. She’s even more surprised that his… “object” of attention seems just as oblivious. It’s as if Luke’s eyes haven’t been following him everywhere ever since he landed on Yavin IV. It’s as if Luke doesn’t use every single excuse to spend time with him and his son, even outside of training hours. It’s as if Luke hasn’t spent more time at the man’s house than his own, so much so that he only goes back to sleep, and that only because he’s at least decent enough not to stay over without explicit permission.
At this point, Leia isn’t sure who’s the idiot—Luke, who cannot gather the courage to ask out someone he’s been in love with for months, or Din, who by the looks of it seems completely unaware of Luke’s pining.
She is sure, however, that there is no way Luke is asking anyone out without a little nudge in the right direction.
Leia lets the Force bond lead him to the clearing behind the temple, spotting Luke from his glimmering blonde hair under the summer sun. He’s sitting on the grass, arms supporting him from behind, watching two figures hunt around the line of trees a bit ahead. Even without the shiny beskar armor, Leia would’ve known who they were.
Instead of greeting Luke, she plops down next to him, glancing at her oblivious twin. “You missed lunch,” she says in an attempt to get his attention.
The fact that Luke jumps shows just how engrossed he was watching Din—normally, he would’ve easily felt Leia come through the force. A blush quickly creeps up his cheeks, and Leia finds herself grinning.
“Lunch?” Luke’s voice is thin when he finally opens his mouth. “What lunch?”
“The lunch. With Han and I. You promised you’d join us yesterday.” She arches a brow. Luke at least has the decency to look embarrassed. He runs a quick hand through his hair, turning his blonde locks into more of a mess than they already were.
“Sorry. I was caught up.”
“With training Grogu?” Leia gestures at the little green womp rat, who’s currently running after a frog in front of his father—Din honestly just seems resigned at his son’s unique taste in food—and then glances at Luke. She is pretty sure his eyes aren’t on Grogu at all, but instead watching Din’s figure.
(Granted, Leia has to admit that Din is hot. Yes, she’s never seen his face—apparently, the helmet is a big thing for the Mandalorians—but it doesn’t matter. With his armor and built, he attracts a lot of eyes around the place. Even beyond that, though, what charms Leia the most is his absolute softness with Grogu, which is a complete opposite of the harsh, strong bounty hunter image he creates at first glance. That man holds the child as if the kid would break at the smallest touch.)
“Uh huh,” Luke hums, absentmindedly wetting his lips. Din is bending down now, picking Grogu up before he plops down into the mud, giving Leia and Luke a good look at his back. The woman chuckles.
“Are you sure? Because it looks like you’re just drooling over Din right now.”
“Uh huh—wait, what?” Luke’s words catch up with him too late. His blue eyes shoot up, staring at Leia widely. “I’m not drooling over anyone.”
“Yeah, right. Is that why your face is red all over?”
“My face is not—” Luke covers his cheeks with his hands and sputters. “I’m not staring at Din. I’m not staring at anything. Just watching Grogu. That’s what I was doing. Making sure he was safe and he was being trained properly and I definitely did not miss lunch because I wanted to spend more time with—with Grogu, I mean! With Grogu.” Leia can easily feel Luke’s panic through the Force bond—that’s a good thing, too, because she completely misses the rest of his words as she bursts into a loud laugh. Luke’s face is a mix of offense and terror as he watches his twin.
His shoulders slump halfway through Leia’s laugh. He turns back to Din, picking at the grass under his legs. The tips of his ears are still red, slightly hidden by his hair. “It’s so obvious, isn’t it?” he whispers, eyes finding Din again. The Mandalorian is sitting with Grogu now, letting the kid tuck flowers around his armor.
Leia’s laugh dies down immediately. She wants to tell Luke that it’s only clear to her because she knows him so well, but she knows even his own students made bets among themselves to see whether the Jedi and the Mandalorian would date or not. She sighs.
“You’re not good at hiding your feelings, Luke,” she says, angling her body towards him. Luke’s shoulders slump. Leia can easily read his thoughts—if it’s that obvious, and Din hasn’t made a move yet, he must not want Luke back, right? Leia tries to offer him an encouraging smile. “But if you ask me, I don’t think he knows.”
“He does.” Luke takes his face in his hands and lets out a frustrated groan. “He must, right? He’s not stupid. He’s really smart actually, you know. And observant. He doesn’t even have a Force bond with Grogu and he reads the kid better than I do. He must know I like him. He just doesn’t care.” Luke’s voice cracks at the end, and Leia’s heart breaks for her twin. She reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder.
“When we love someone, sometimes we don’t see what’s blatantly in front of us.” Luke stays silent, eyes closed. Leia turns to Din, watching him collect the flowers from around his armor and make a small bouquet. It looks like Grogu is pointing their way, more specifically at Luke, and Leia smiles. For a moment, she lets herself think that Grogu is trying to convince his father to give the flowers to Luke and make the first move.
“Just talk to him?” she offers with a shrug. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
“I’ll die,” Luke groans, finally lifting his head. “From embarrassment. I won’t be able to look at him again.”
Leia almost makes a joke about how Luke never sees Din’s face anyway. Almost.