Disclaimer: I made the Bo-Din fanart on my profile but otherwise, I own nothing here. I also do not own the lyrics below, they are provided as reference/inspirational material.

Two more Stars

AN: Welcome to my new Bo-Din adventure! I don't know how long this story will be, but remember, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Also, the title was inspired by the following lyrics:

"I would follow you to the end. Take a bullet again and again. And if we should die tonight, there would be two more stars in the sky." - Owl City - Forever and Always. -

Spoiler warning: Season 3 spoilers abound.

Mending

The intense heat roiled all around as that miraculously invisible barrier kept the all-consuming blaze at bay, mere inches from scorching the two Mandalorians plus foundling to cinders.

Only when the inferno died down, the orange-red fire dissipating, did Bo-Katan dare to stand from her protective crouch near Grogu, the child that had just single-handedly saved their lives.

With her helmet having been tossed aside somewhere, she watched in a dazed sort of awe as the exterior of Gideon's base burned, sparks and flames raining down in the crashed cruiser's wake.

Her gaze drifted back down to Grogu as he thumped to sit on the floor, clearly drained. Bo had seen Jedi do some crazy things with the Force in her lifetime, but staving off such a chaotic, hungry element like fire... Well, that was new.

"Din..."

"Yeah?" Din turned to her after he too, stood from his protective crouch.

"Your kid... is amazing."

The man nodded simply. "He is."

As she stared down at the little green foundling, Bo-Katan felt herself sway a little. As her adrenaline suddenly wore off, she became acutely aware of all her injuries. Her right hand felt completely crushed, yet worse still was her stomach wound.

She glanced down to see the waist of her dark flight suit had gone darker with blood; the pain there had dulled, though she had obviously continued to bleed.

"Bo?" Din called with obvious concern, but she couldn't even look at him properly, it taking all her effort to remain standing. "What's wrong?" he asked pointedly and moved to steady her by gripping one arm; her bad arm.

"My hand," she hissed in pain and pulled out of his grasp in order to cradle her injured limb. She offered a grim smile, wavering. "Feels like every bone is in splinters."

Din nodded gravely, then, tentatively, as if not knowing where to touch her without causing more pain, reached an arm behind her shoulders and gripped her left pauldron to steady her. "Sit down, maybe Grogu can help."

Bo nodded back in agreement but couldn't help voicing a few expletives as he helped lower her to the floor, her stomach wound flaring with the movement. "Doesn't seem fair," she muttered grudgingly, trying to distract herself from the pain. "You don't seem injured at all."

"Nothing serious, but my right shoulder will need some bacta soon." Crouched beside her, he held out a hand expectantly and palm up. "Let's see it."

Hesitantly, silently dreading more pain, Bo shifted her throbbing, broken hand into his. With surprising gentleness, he removed her vambrace, then her glove, revealing her mangled hand; it looked as bad as it felt.

Wincing, she gripped her stomach wound with her other hand, causing Din's attention to gravitate to her bloody waist. "That looks more serious."

"It's not that deep," she tried to reassure him through a dizzy spell. "Probably no worse than your shoulder."

Din didn't seem convinced as he started looking around, probably for a medpack. "It's worse." It was more a statement than a retort.

Bo didn't realize Grogu was struggling to crawl into her lap until he whined with concern at the sight of her grievous injury. She helped him get situated with her good arm and the kid put both of his tiny hands on hers, either in sympathy or concentration, or both.

"Ok kid, see what you can do, but don't over do it," Din advised and gently lowered Bo's hand onto her lap, with Grogu still attached like a magnet. "I'll be right back, I have an idea."

Burning debris and cinders continued to rain down around them, though the platform where they were seemed stable enough. Bo still didn't like the idea of getting separated should the base decide to implode, or collapse, but she didn't have the energy to argue with him as he stood and strode away.

She looked down at the sound of Grogu's concerned gurgle. His expression was very troubled as he glanced between her broken hand and her bleeding stomach. "Don't worry kid," she said with a weak smile. "I'll be fine... My hand might never be the same though."

Grogu met her gaze for a brief moment and tipped his head, almost as if he understood her feelings and made a decision. He turned and seemed to focus solely on her hand.

Seconds later, Bo felt an odd mixture of relief and pain. Though it wasn't the stinging, shooting pain from before, instead, it was a sort of good pain, like pulling out a splinter.

Slowly, she could feel her bones mending, felt an immeasurable sense of relief. Then, by the time Din returned, Grogu had slumped against her waist, completely worn out.

She felt a pang of guilt in response and moved to cradle him with her good hand while she winced as she experimentally flexed her injured one. It was impossibly sore, but no longer broken in a million pieces.

"He healed your hand?" Din's question was somewhat incredulous as he knelt beside her again, holding the (torn off) right arm of the IG droid.

Bo raised her chin defiantly, sporting a wry smile despite herself. "If I can't hold a weapon in my right hand, what's the point of living?"

"You won't be living at all if we don't get that bleeding to stop." Din tapped the comm on his vambrace. "Someone bring a transport, Bo-Katan is injured."

A few seconds later, Axe's voice buzzed through the comm. "I copy. Sending a team down in a moment."

"It's not that bad." Bo frowned at his fussing, but was nonetheless thankful for his presence as she blinked against another wave of lightheadedness.

"Says the woman about to pass out." Din fiddled with the IG arm until the bacta nozzle released a small spritz. He seemed to hesitate after producing a knife from his boot. "I'll have to cut your suit-"

"I won't hold it against you," Bo cut him off with a grim smile and held Grogu up and out of the way as a means to distract herself. The kid was dozing in her arm, clearly drained from the day's events. "Navigator, Jedi, medic. What can't you do, kid?"

She was holding him close enough that he was able to reach up and touch her face, giving her a happy little chortle before seeming to pass out.

"I knew he'd over do it." Din sighed in something like dismay, though he didn't seem distracted from his medical task.

Bo felt a light tug on her suit jacket seconds before the soothing spray of bacta on her abdominal wound; perhaps it had been worse than she thought...

"You've lost a lot of blood," Din said. His voice seemed to fade, that, or Bo's hearing was. "But I think you'll be- Bo?"

She absently wondered why he sounded so concerned, but it just didn't seem important with how tired she felt all of sudden. Maybe Grogu's sleepiness had seeped into her somehow.

His silver helmet blurred with the falling red cinders behind him. Although Bo never fully lost consciousness, the events that led to her ultimately sitting on a cot in medical frigate were fuzzy, at best.

"You should get some rest," Din suggested from his own cot nearby. Grogu was sleeping soundly in his pram (Din must have retrieved it from the Gauntlet?) which hovered between them. "That's enough, I'll be fine," he grumbled and waved off the medical droid tending to his right shoulder-blade.

"Very well sir," the droid replied in a somewhat condescending manner. "But I do suggest a follow up treatment-"

"I get it, thanks," Din practically snapped, his patience with the droid evaporating like a thin fog under a desert system's suns. His black T-visor focused back on her. "We've both been assigned to bed rest for at least six hours. You might as well sleep."

"Assigned by who?" Bo wondered, more curious than challenging; sleep was a welcome thought. Despite her exhaustion, she managed an amused smile as she lay down; Din's hostility to any unfamiliar droid somehow providing much needed humor for her.

"The majority," Din replied with a generic gesture. He picked up a datapad and proceeded to study it, as if he had no intention to sleep.

As the day's events, their victory, revolved in her mind, Bo glanced from Din to Grogu and back again. "We really won this time..."

"We did," Din's voice rumbled as it began to fade in her ears again. "We can rest now."

Maybe it was the combination of her fatigue and the medical stims they had given her, but Din's guarding presence coupled with his reassuring words were like an irresistible lullaby. It soothed her into the most peaceful slumber, a deep sleep she hadn't had in a very long time.

The ancient chamber of the living waters was surprisingly quiet as the forty or so Mandalorians filed out solemnly. The day of re-anointing for Din's tribe had come and gone in a flash.

And just as quickly, he had been given a new mandate.

Bo had looked on silently as he adopted his little green gundark officially. The importance of it hadn't really occurred to her until that moment, when Grogu appeared to be on the verge of tears and both Din's and the Armorer's voices had cracked with emotion.

Bo turned to exit with the other spectators, thinking that maybe Din would want a moment alone with his newly adopted son. His voice was quick to contradict her.

"Bo," he spoke softly, catching her before she took her first step towards the exit of the inner chamber. She turned to him and they both waited for the last person to file into the tunnel; the Armorer.

That gold helmet turned to them as she passed, a sense of something rolled off of the matriarch. Curiosity? Amusement? Scrutiny? Bo could only guess.

Once the other woman was out of earshot, Din's visor turned to Bo. "You heard what she said..."

"I did," Bo answered, her voice cracking without permission; the thought of him and the kid leaving made her feel like there was a phantom hand gripping her heart. She thought about removing her helmet but kept it on to mask the wide range of emotions roiling behind her eyes. "You have to go."

Although she now had both tribes (plus the survivors) backing her ideals for rebuilding Mandalore, the thought of this one man and his kid leaving her behind made her feel somehow hollow inside. Having spent the past few months together, she had grown so used to their constant company.

"I'm not leaving forever," Din admitted, hints of an apology in his tone. "I intend to stop by often, between missions."

"You better," Bo told him sharply, though her tone shifted into something more humorous. "You tend to get into trouble when I'm not around. I'll get worried if I don't hear from you often enough."

"That was a special case," Din grumbled in mild annoyance. "You know I'm more capable than that... normally."

Bo crossed her arms to appear dubious, but it was mostly an attempt to hold herself together; she could already feel her heart aching in her throat.

She put on a brave smile and nodded amiably. "Well, if you do get into trouble, don't hesitate to send a signal. I'll have sentry ships in orbit to receive all incoming transmissions until we can get a proper satellite set up."

"I will," Din promised, then mended belatedly, "assuming I get into trouble." They both looked down distractedly when Grogu toddled over to cry up at Bo, clearly upset after realizing what was happening.

Bo had to look away and set her jaw stubbornly. The kid's heartbroken face along with his pitiful whine, it was almost too much.

Rolling her shoulders, she rallied her resolve. She hadn't cried when her sister died, she wouldn't cry now, just because her new companions were leaving for an... unknown amount of time.

Din leaned down and scooped up the fussing child. "Hey, we're not saying goodbye." He turned to Bo and gave a nod of certainty. Idly, she wasn't sure if he was speaking to her or Grogu. "This is our home now, we'll come back to visit often."

"Patu," Grogu squeaked between sniffs, then one of his little three-pronged hands reached out to her. "Bu."

Bo's breath caught in her throat. Was that his attempt at saying her name? She glanced to Din, but he either didn't notice or he pretended not to. She swallowed down her emotions and released a forced chuckle as she raised her good hand to meet that tiny one, dwarfing it in hers. "You keep your dad out of trouble, ok?"

Babbling something incoherent, Grogu nodded and squeezed her hand before they both let go.

Din nodded with finality, choosing not to speak his farewell aloud as he turned to go.

Bo clamped her eyes closed behind her helmet; it hurt too much to watch them leave.

She listened to his footsteps echo and fade down the tunnel in tandem with Grogu's sad whimpering.

Once total silence enveloped her and she was left alone inside the ancient chamber, Bo finally released the pent up breath she had been holding. Her fists had clenched as well, the injured one aching plaintively.

Her gaze wandered over to stare at the Mythosaur plaque. For so long, she had only ever wanted to lead her people back to their former glory. Now though, her heart felt like it was being slowly pulled out of her chest, following after Din and his son like a wayward shadow.

She knew she couldn't be selfish about this though. Din wouldn't abide by her decision to tag along with him when Mandalore, when the newly joined tribes, needed her.

It made sense. It was the right decision. So why did it feel so wrong?

Sighing in defeat, she shook her head and chided herself for getting emotional for no good reason; Din said it himself, they would return soon enough.

All at once, she forced her body and mind to relax and, with no small amount of regret, she let them go.

The painful realization afterward, was that a part of her heart went with them.

AN: The Bo-Din fandom when episode 8 cut out the goodbye scene: ToT... ME: HOLD MY BEER. xD... Anyway, I have a lot planned for this story and I intend to update every Saturday, muse willing. Thanks for reading! Reviews always appreciated. :)