…

Din stilled as he heard noises behind him, gripping the child tighter. Footsteps. At least five sets of them. He set the child down gently behind a dumpster raising a finger to his lips. The child stared back dumbly at him.

"Shhhhhh"

He added, for good measure, raising his gun.

The first hit came unexpectedly. The assailant had jumped down from the rooftops, knocking his blaster out of his hand. Arms grabbed around his neck, holding him.

He struggled madly, faintly hearing the child let out a sad little whimper. Luckily it couldn't be heard over the sound of his struggling. Boots scraping the ground, grunting and laboured breathing escaping his regulator.

He screamed as two cattle prods sent electricity searing up his sides. His knees buckled and he lost consciousness for a moment. When he woke up there were fingers fumbling with his belt buckle. He kicked out, missed. He heard laughing.

"Me first"

"No me!"

"Come on I've earned it! Not everyone can get the jump on a Mando! See? I got his blaster!"

Din could hardly see at this point. His skull was numb, and his eyes unfocused. He had gone limp.

They settled him on the floor. His tongue was like cotton in his mouth, and something faintly told him he should stop fighting. That there were too many of them and he would just have to deal with the trauma to get away alive.

But he caught a pair of large frightened eyes peeking out from behind the dumpster opposite… and he couldn't.

Din groaned, stealing himself. He tipped his head back and just breathed. Everywhere the man touched, prodding and groping his was down his chest, was sore, vines of scarring winding across his chest where they had prodded him. He gasped as his helmet was removed, light causing pain to shoot like a drill into his skull.

He would be forgiven for his helmet being removed. This was not being done with his consent. A dirty blue hand fisted in his hair and he moaned at the sensation, akin to pain but more over stimulation and delirium.

"Ye hear that Jared? Little slut wants it!"

"Fuck you, you're not worth one Banthar shite " Din mocked. Spitting into the man's face.

The humanoid scowled, backhanding him viciously. He grasped Din's ankle in one meaty claw and dragged him closer, straddling his hips roughly. The blue man wrapped his claws around Din's neck and squeezed.

After a few minutes of scrabbling, and more laughter, Din passed out. Then came to. His armor had been removed, and a hand was sliding into his suit, roaming around inside.

He cried out when the man's claws dug into where he had been prodded. This only made the man smile however. Piranha like teeth bared and glinting madly.

The fingers curled into his shoulder and grabbed him. Hard. Din screamed.

"Oh I love it when they scream!"

Said the man.

"Maybe I can put that pretty mouth to better use Dornan"

Joined another voice. His eyes focused. It was a human. Large and tall, dark skinned. His voice was deep. He was a lot like Paz in stature, and in the colour of his skin. That was where the similarities ended. He had an evil glint to his eye, and his hands twitched. Like they wanted to grope him.

"Sure. We'll all get our turn, right?"

"Right"

Said the one called Jared.

He felt the bony form rising from His hips, and breathed heavily as the large dark cloaked form approached. He scrambled back against the wall of the alley now. Getting as far away as he could. Which wasn't far.

More sickening laughter. He looked around wildly. Feeling like a cornered Lothcat. He saw the child watching from the shadows with great confusion, head tilting as he watched the scene unfold. Din felt anger in his belly, and cool dread. His child would not witness such an act on his watch! He couldn't… Din had to escape.

A second later and he was being prodded with the cattle prod again. White hot pain exploded in his abdomen and he screamed at the top of his lungs once more. His arms went limp, wrists grabbed roughly and held above his head.

"Looks like we've got you cornered Mando"

Din coughed to cover the small whine he could hear from the child. His calfs (which he only now noticed the left one had large claw Marks and was bleeding profusely) were grasped one by one and pinned above the man's shoulders, essentially folding him in half. The perfect position for... Mando looked away, but the man grasped his Jaw, holding him fast.

"What happened to that smart mouth? Huh, mando?"

Din wanted to cry from exhaustion and stress. Anger boiling up within him. He was not some maiden who would call Paz at the first sign of danger… but he contemplated pressing a finger to the transmission button on his wrist and alerting his lover he needed help. He was utterly cornered and hadn't thought of a… oh yes. That could work.

Din breathed heavily through his nose as his hair was grabbed again. His mouth fell open and the man wasted no time in forcefully invading the smaller man's mouth. Tears leaked from Din's eyes as he was assaulted. Cruel laughter and cat calls filling the alley. Where were the peacekeepers? Useless.

He waited for the disgusting moment where the man's tongue was almost sliding down his throat. Then bit as hard as he could. Hot blood squirted into his mouth and the man screamed, releasing him and tumbling away as if burned.

" E bi mi!...E bi mi!" Screeched the man. Dark voice raised to a high alto. Din scrambled up the wall unsteadily, staggering, wiping the blood away from his mouth with the back of his hand and smearing it across his face in the process. He gagged, trying not to vomit. Blood coated his mouth and teeth, the acrid taste sickening.

One of the man's friends sat the man down and started sorting out the oozing mess of his tongue. Din hadn't severed it completely. Pity.

Din raised his arms sluggishly in fighting stance, as they came towards him, two hanging back with the cattle prods. A third man approached, short and stout, broad chest and a bright red beard. Human.

"Come on little kitten. Don't keep fighting. Looks like you haven't got much juice left anyway"

Said the man in a decidedly Scottish accent. Din made eye contact with the child. He would not understand. He would be afraid, more afraid than seeing his father beaten. This is something no child should see. Din made his decision.

The Mandolorian gathered all his strength, and kicked between the man's legs. He went down heavily. Grasping between his legs and with a loud oof noise.

"That's it!"

Shouted the tall blue man.

"Dessert is cancelled! Get im!"

They all converged, kicking and punching any part of him they could. Din went down just as heavily as the other man, covering his head as savage kicks and viscous punches rained down on him.

After a while the hits subsided. He could see blearily the men helping their friend (the one he had bitten) in his walking, blood splattering the floor where he staggered. All too soon the alley was empty again. The quiet deafening. He could hear his heart hammering in his ears and sharp spots of pain across his body.

Din had just enough energy to drag himself over to the child and put his helmet back on before he passed out…

When he woke again there was blissfully no one there. He looked down at the bundle in his arms. The child must have healed some of his woulds because his head felt better, and the green bundle was fast asleep.

Din placed the child back behind the dumpster and scrambled up. He cried out at the pain in his ankle, nearly going down again. By some miracle he was able to do up his suit and put his chest plate and pauldron back on where it had been removed.

Din curled up behind the dumpster again, cradling the child to his chest and pressing the comm link on his wrist. Paz's bright voice filled the dim alley.

"Hello darling. How goes the shopping? The little tyke steal anything this time?"

"Paz" Din grumbled, static erupting from his regulator as he panted from the excursion of getting up. He groaned loudly as his calf throbbed. Paz's whole voice changed.

"Din! Are you okay!? Where are you? Is the child okay?"

"The child is… the child is, the child is fine"

Blood was seeping through the fabric at his calf steadily, causing a puddle on the floor. Standing up had opened the wound once more. His body shook from shock and exhaustion. From fear at what had just happened and if the men would return.

"Stay. With me, Din!"

"We're… we're on the lower east side… in the alley opposite the red mudhorn"

"I'm coming love. Hang in there"

Paz closed the comm link, no doubt hurrying his way over. Din tilted his head back against the wall and succumbed to the darkness.

"Din. Din!? Wake up!"

Din opened his eyes to stare into honey coloured ones. His lover was lying facing him in their bed, rubbing his hands up and down his arms in a soothing gesture.

"There he is"

Said Paz, smiling gently.

"You're shaking"

Paz frowned. Taking Din's hands in his own and squeezing comfortingly. Din tried not to flinch when Paz pecked his lips chastely, and tilted his chin up… rough hands, hot breath, pain, two frightened eyes watching him from the darkness.

Din's eyes scrunched closed, tears leeking from the corners and body quivering like a leaf. He must have made a noise because Paz held him close to his body, rubbing soothing circles into his back and shushing him like he would do the child.

A gentle hand was in his hair. Din hissed as Paz touched where his hair had been pulled, whining as his lover changed his tactic and smoothed down the dark unruly hair.

"It's okay love. I'm here now. They can't hurt you"

Din sobbed for a while, feeling the stress seep out of his form as he lay in his lover's tender embrace. He gasped as he felt small hands on his face, eyes blinking open to see big baleful eyes. The same eyes that stared right at him as it was happening, watching but not comprehending.

Din smiled crookedly. A smile seemed unnatural on his face right now, but for the child he would. The child chipped at him, picking up a tear with his small hand and staring at it.

"Daddy's okay little one. And they are called tears. They are because I love you so much"

The child let out a little purr, and buried itself in the spot between Paz's back and Din's face, where his neck should be.