Disclaimer: I own nothing but Eva. All recognisable characters, places, etc. belong to their rightful owners and I gain no financial benefits from this.

A/N: This is a one-shot of a series of standalone fics I plan on making of the adventures of Eva and The Child with Din Djarin/The Mandalorian. There will probably be spoilers for pretty much every episode in the long run. This first part only includes spoilers for Season 1 Chapter 5 "The Gunslinger".

I have marked this work as complete but there will be other parts set in this same universe under this same title.

This first part is also posted on my Tumblr-account as a reader-insert fic.

Mando's Lessons to Parenting

Sleep

Summary: He didn't just have one child in his care. He had two. And both of them are refusing to go to sleep. Although the Child might fall asleep before the girl. The real challenge is to get the other one of his charges to sleep.

Or the one where the Mandalorian learns why Eva refuses to go to bed despite almost falling asleep where she is standing.

She was skipping all over the ship.

It was late and the Mandalorian knew for a fact that Eva had not slept the previous night, worrying about him not coming back. Before they had left Tatooine, Peli had told him the girl had kept glancing over the horizon the previous day, hoping to catch a sight of the speeder bikes. She had been utterly devastated when he didn't return after the sunsset.

When Toro Calican had returned without him and had threatened her and the Child's life, Eva had looked like her world had crumbled down - Peli's words. It seemed that during the days on Sorgan, he had only grasped at the attachment Eva had formed to him; maybe he would have to be more considerate in the future and actually tell the girl if he expected to be gone longer than a few hours. The Mandalorian knew Eva worried about the Child - much like he worried about both children -but he hadn't realised she worried about him too. Not before today.

Yet one more thing he learned. It seemed that he learned new things every day these days.

He was startled out of his musings by the Child's happy giggling noises, as Eva ran past his bed, tickling one of his ears as she passed and continued her jumping towards him.

The former guild member let the girl run past him, to the wall of Razor Crest where she took momentum from the metal by kicking herself into a new run from it. When she tried to pass him from his other side this time, he wrapped his arm around the girl's waist, stopping her movement. With ease, he lifted her from the ground and took the couple steps it took to reach her bed.

"No running inside Crest", he said and dropped Eva on the bed. The girl pouted up at him like he would have taken away her most favourite toy or something equally as terrible. The Mandalorian crossed his arms over his chest, turning his helmet-covered head from one child to the other.

He sighed internally, from both relief and desperation for he saw that while the Child now looked curiously at him and the girl, there were also the tell-tale signs of him falling asleep soon. The same signs were on Eva's eyes.

The difference between his children?

Eva was old enough to fight against sleep, and for reasons unknown to him she had decided to do so.

He was no expert in children, despite taking care of two for the past weeks, but even he knew that it was hardly healthy for anyone to stay up what started to be over 36 hours in Eva's case.

When the young teenager jumped up from the bed after a few seconds, the Mandalorian pushed her back to sit. "Stay, Eva."

"I'm not a pet", she huffed and glared at him but remained on the edge of the bed nonetheless. Much to his relief.

The Child's babbling made him turn around and pick him up. It was sort of startling how easy the action has become. Rocking the Child slightly in his arms, the Mandalorian turned back around to face the girl, hoping that she would have lied back on her bed.

No such luck.

Eva was still sitting on the edge of the bed. She was nodding off but was quick to catch herself and he didn't miss the way her fingers curled tightly against her palms.

"Go to sleep, Eva."

The girl stubbornly shook her head.

"I didn't ask", the Mandalorian tried to point out. However, the girl just glared at him, her eyes only softening as her gaze lowered down to the Child in his arms.

"Eva", the Mandalorian said again, trying to make his voice as soft as he could in hopes of making her listen to him. "Time to sleep."

"But I'm not tired."

He decided not to point out the obvious lie and instead turned to lower the Child back on his bed as he had fallen asleep quickly in his arms.

Hmm. He wondered if rocking her in his arms would lull certain stubborn little girls to sleep too. Maybe it would be worth a try if he couldn't get Eva to bed soon.

"He's asleep, it's your turn", he said, now trying to sound stern.

The next words left her mouth so softly that he almost didn't hear them at all. She had hung her head, staring at her feet as she spoke, voice cracking a bit. "I don't want to go to sleep."

"You are safe now."

"I know."

"I'm not good at this, Eva. You have to tell me the reason."

"You were gone."

"What?"

"The last time", she said, voice wavering. "Last time you were gone when we woke up and, and I didn't know where you were. I didn't - I didn't know if you were coming back."

"I-" he began to say only to stop. Something told him that simply saying 'I won't leave you' didn't cover this situation. "I made a mistake", the Mandalorian said instead. Suddenly he pulled the girl against him, surprising both of them.

The embrace felt awkward at first but then Eva relaxed, and shifted so she was partially lying on his lap. The Mandalorian looked down at her. She was still fighting against sleep but not as stubbornly as a few minutes ago.

"Next time I will wake you up before I leave."

"Do you promise?"

The Mandalorian looked down at the girl and found his hand stroking a loose stray of hair behind her ear. "I promise", he said. "Now, sleep."

"Okay, soon, I promise… can we just stay here, like this for a moment? Please, Mando?"

"For a moment", He gave in at her tiny, almost frightened voice, like she would have been afraid he would push her away. Look at him! He really was getting soft!

Eva's hand rose to his shoulder plate. He let her run her fingers over the beskar, inspecting her face carefully. Her eyes kept fluttering closed so he hoped that meant sleep wasn't far.

Her hand stopped at the edge of his chest piece, a frown appearing on her tired face.

Although he wanted nothing more than to see the girl asleep, the Mandalorian couldn't help to ask: "What is it, kid?"

He saw how she hesitated. Thought over how to put what was in her mind into words despite being half asleep already.

"It bothers me that I never see your face", the girl mumbled eventually, followed by a yawn.

Almost like a switch would have been turned off, Eva fell asleep after those words left her lips. The girl was still partly in his lap, and the Mandalorian decided that the best course of action would be to wait a bit before moving her properly on the bed - to ensure she was really asleep.

Listening to the two children's peaceful breathing, the Mandalorian thought over the girl's words. At first, when they had met, Eva had pestered and pestered him to take his helmet off. She had ceased only when he had threatened to drop her to the nearest planet (not that he ever would have done that). He had assumed that she had moved on and accepted the fact that he wasn't taking his helmet off in front of her.

Guess, he had been wrong.

Maybe that was the reason why, after making sure that both the children were actually deep asleep and after tucking Eva properly to sleep, Din Djarin removed his helmet.

"Perhaps someday, little one", he said, a softness creeping to his gaze as he leaned in closer to stroke a strand of hair behind the girl's ear.