"Finally, vod!" Paz exclaimed, upon Din and Cara's entrance. "Took you long enough."

"What was it you need?"

"We're a man down for the hunt tonight. I was going to ask you to join, but I happened to run into the baar'ur on my way here..." Paz crossed his arms, giving Din a once over, "Bacta didn't work?"

"He didn't give it time to." Cara rolled her eyes.

"Hmm. Rest up. We need you back at full kot," Paz's glance shifted to Cara, and he translated, "full strength."

It was silent a moment, and Din could hear the cogs turning in Paz's head before Paz could himself.

"Can you handle a pulse rifle?" Paz sent a questioning nod in Cara's direction.

"You're joking, right?" Cara raised an eyebrow. After she received no response, "Yes, of course I can."

Paz looked to Din, who confirmed her proficiency with a single nod.

"Alright then," Paz conceded, "Up for a hunt?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

Din spent the remainder of the day entertaining the younger foundlings while Cara, Paz, and the others prepped for the hunt. And he was sour about it. He'd much rather be suiting up with them than be stuck on baby sitting duty. It wasn't even as though he had to do much. Mando'ade children had few restrictions regarding their play. The restrictions they did have could be boiled down into 3 simple rules.

1. Never kill or maim fellow Mando'ade

2. Never purposefully damage the covert or yourself

3. Never expose yourself: do not leave the covert or remove your helmet/covering.

Other than that, anything was up for grabs. Obviously they must be obedient and respectful to their elders, but those situations were handled as needed.

So Din watched the foundlings just enough to ensure they didn't kill themselves or someone else, but other than that, he just sat impatiently at the end of the great room as people bustled about, despising the feeling of uselessness. Despite knowing better, he poked at his ribs to check their tenderness, mildly wishing that he had Grogu's gift and could just heal himself.

Speaking of Grogu...

Din's head popped up, realizing he hadn't heard much out of that particular adiik for awhile.

"Ad'ika?"

A dozen heads popped towards him, wondering why they'd been called.

He'd have to remember he couldn't just call the kid that now. There would be quite a lot of confusion if he did.

"Not you," Din stood and brushed past them. "Where's Grogu?"

The foundlings looked among themselves for the tiny green face, then, realizing it wasn't present, broke into an chatter of where and when he'd been last seen.

Din, meanwhile, was semi-frantically searching high and low for the kid. After scouring the whole of the great room, he was just about to admit defeat and call Paz or Cara for backup when he heard a gurgle off to his far left. Which was really something, considering he'd looked there quite thoroughly already.

"Grogu?"

A coo in response.

They continued their game of Marco-polo, Din calling Grogu's name and hearing a coo in response, until Din realized the adiik had managed to climb into a set of drawers and some how push the drawer shut with himself inside it.

Din opened the drawer, removing the foundling from inside.

"You can't run off like that." he scolded, "It's not safe."

Again, just a confused coo in response.

Din sighed, and set the kid on the ground, watching him toddle back to the other children.

Unfortunately, the other children had thought the whole situation quite amusing. It wasn't long before a game of stealth was in order. Stealth was a game much like hide and seek, only the goal of the game was to see who could get closest to Din without being detected. It was quite the chore, considering Din was moving near constantly, trying to corral the children back into the more easily visible areas of the room.

The foundlings always loved to mess with him. He wasn't around very often, and it was well known that Din was the best in the covert when it came to stealth. This mean the was also one of the best at finding people, so getting past him made for a real challenge.

Had Din been aware the game was going on, he might have played along - but it seemed the foundlings had forgotten to tell him. To him, they were simply running off in all directions and disappearing, only to pop up again in the strangest of places. It wasn't long before frustration sat in, and Din just stopped and paused in the middle of the room, running a hand over his helm. Suddenly he felt a presence behind him that nearly made him jump, and had it not been for his hearing the quiet clink of leather against skin, he might have. He spun, catching the foundling under the arms, holding him tightly, wishing the adiik could see his glare. When he released the foundling, it clicked. He realized he'd been duped, tricked into a game of stealth, just as he and Paz had done to the armorer and the baar'ur all those years ago.

He observed the foundlings with a new perspective now.

Okay... You want competition? You'll get competition.

Soon, through a series of tricks and clever environmental manipulations, Din had the foundlings cornered into the back-right fourth of the room. There was no way for them to get out of it without his knowing, so the foundlings switched tactics to hiding best they could. Din then proceeded to eliminate their possibilities of concealment one by one until the foundlings simply just had to scramble away or around him as he came close. This continued for several minutes before Din realized there were simply too many foundlings and not enough Dins for him to win. This was an issue that couldn't be solved by cleverness alone.

No... he needed a tool.

Din glanced around, searching for the oldest of the foundlings and snatched the wiggling thing by the arm, thereby gaining control of the foundling's shiny new vambrace. The foundlings watched in dismay as he stood along the wall and aimed the vambrace into the corner, firing a few grappling lines at different elevations. Despite their initial confusion, it only took the foundlings a few moments to realize what Din's plan was.

Now he would win.

Din simply grabbed the foundling's vambrace, ropes still attached, holding it tightly enough the foundling couldn't get away. He walked quickly towards the other wall of the room, trapping the foundlings in an increasingly small space. By the time he reached the other wall, the foundlings were all pressed up against it, unable to escape.

Smirking beneath his helmet, Din simply walked along the wall, back to the corner, shoving the foundlings into the center of the ropes, enclosing them in a circle. He pushed the last foundling in, the one who's vambrace he'd commandeered, before cutting the ropes and tying them back to their other end which was thoroughly rooted in the stone walls.

All done. Foundlings contained.

Din settle back down on the stairs, watching with fondness as the foundlings struggled to escape the ropes that bound them, but were pressed so close together that it was impossible to do much wriggling. He let them try. It was good training for them.

Din - 1, foundlings - nada.

Cara, Paz, and another Mandalorian stepped out of the Covert and into blistering darkness of the halls and alleys that led to it. The path was illuminated by the light of Paz's helm just enough that they wouldn't run into a wall.

"Here." The Mandalorian, whom Cara now knew as Thravaa, handed her one of the cloth masks the women had worn in the bathhouse, the type that veiled the eyes.

"What's this for?"

"For you." Paz said, "People have no business where we're going."

"And that relates to this... how?"

"It means if I see eyeballs I'm putting a bullet between 'em," Thravaa shoved the mask at her, "And it'd be a shame if those eyes belonged to you, sweetheart."

Cara had known there were mandalorians that weren't fond of her presence in the covert, and apparently Thravaa was one of them. There weren't many, but Cara found it comforting to know that the ones who wanted nothing to do with her were at least blunt about it. She would rather they spat words dripping with condescension than humming honeyed lies. At least this way, she knew where she stood.

"Fine." She took the mask and pulled it on, wrapping the ties around her face as she'd seen on the children.

A/N: For those of who think Din has been a little OOC through out this, I agree, but it's completely purposeful. In the show, we never get to see him in the Covert much, and when we do, someone is either angry at him or he's severely injured and has just lost most of his people. In this fic, he feels safe. He feels comfortable. Relatively relaxed, because he knows he's got his people backing him. And that's not really something we've seen him be in the show yet. So of course he seems OOC, he spends the majority of the show stressed out and on high alert. In this, you're finally seeing him calm. Well, as calm as can be expected with Grogu and a dozen foundlings antagonizing him. XD

For the darasuum scene, I wasn't satisfied with the way I described things. When he took touched Cara's hand it wasn't a prolonged thing. Just a quick touch of reassurance or a gentle pat. Honestly, had he not had his mask on, I would have just had them make eye contact, but obviously she can't really do that with him. What I was trying to point out with this is that the darasuum is the mando'ade's primary time of emotional connectivity with others - it's the only time they allow themselves to truly grieve, to be emotionally vulnerable, and they support each other through it. I wanted to promote a sense of familial intimacy. There's a sense of unity there during that time that can't really be felt elsewise. I don't know. I might go back and edit that part of the chapter to get it to carry the meaning I want it to. It doesn't quite read how I'd imagined it. Ah, the struggles of a writer.

Also, to the guest reviewer who said they didn't think Din would do something like that random poorly timed tackle: You're right. I don't think he wouldn't do something like that in actual combat, but when he's just playing, I think he'd be willing to budge a bit and be a little sloppy to get the show on the road. He has more than enough ability to control his emotions, the question is: would he choose to if he didn't have to? There would be no real consequences if he didn't this time. Plus, consider his reaction to the jawas when they took apart his ship - pretty impulsive. Even more impulsive when he and Kuiil tried to trade for the parts and Din decided introducing the jawas to his flame thrower was a good idea. The guy has a bit of a temper, even if he doesn't let himself show it often. I think he probably would have been worse about it when he was young, and would have mellowed with time. Being back at the covert where he spent his childhood could have woken that in him a bit. But yeah, I get your point. It does seem to put down his combat skills, and I'll take that into consideration for future chapters.

Sorry for the massively long author's note, but I just felt I had a lot of explaining to do.