It's a long one. I hope you like it.

Din immediately got to work on Lysa's speeder.

He was certainly not an expert when it came to mechanics, but had worked on the Razorcrest enough through the years to know how to fix the basics.

Using a laser wrench he began to pry apart the panels on the side of the vehicle.

He could sense Lysa nearby watching him work.

Din could tell she was grateful, but what had happened on her doorstep last week was still hanging tense in the air between them.

The pair were both silent for a long few moments before Grogu at their feet gave a sweet coo.

Din, whose eyes automatically travelled to his son, glanced up once more as Lysa smiled at the foundling.

"You want some more fruit?" she asked in a kind voice.

And with that, she moved around the speeder, peering into the basket attached to the back and pulling out a thick slice of bright green waterberry, handling it gently to Grogu.

"You don't have to give him anything else," said Din with a short sigh. "He had three cups of bone broth on Tatooine a few hours ago. He really shouldn't be hungry."

Din shot Grogu a scolding look behind his helmet, which his son conveniently ignored.

Lysa glanced up at Din, swallowing slowly before speaking.

"You've been off planet?" she asked lightly, her eyes roving across his helmet.

Din gave a nod. "Me and Grogu took on a couple of bounties this past week," he said matter-of-factly. "Then we had some trouble with the ship so had to make a pit stop in Tatooine to see a friend."

Grogu chirped in agreement, his mouth stuffed full of fruit.

"So that's what you both do?" said Lysa, her lips twitching up into an interested smirk. "Chase people down and get paid for it?"

Din looked her way.

"It's a little bit more complicated than that…" he said, smirking back behind his mask. "But I guess…yeah…that's what we do."

Lysa continued to smile, shielding her eyes with her hand from the morning sun.

"But at least you get to go out there, see the galaxy…" she said brightly.

Din stood up straight, staring at her for a long moment.

"I thought you'd said you'd travelled," he asked, tilting his head a little as he spoke.

Lysa gave a small shake of her head. "Oh I did, but not like you. Mine wasn't really travelling, it was just moving from place to place, never settling. y'know. I just hitched rides on cargo ships or used a Starliner when we could afford it…. but you get to go anywhere, anytime you want….that's really travelling."

Her eyes were warm and shined with an awe he hadn't seen from her before. She looked sad, like she was yearning for something. Maybe a life long-since lost.

But Din shook himself. Again he needed to remind himself that Lysa had made it clear she didn't want him interfering in her life where Crix was concerned.

He returned his gaze to the panel before him.

"Can you hold this?" Din said suddenly, causing Lysa to look up into his helmeted face.

She gave a nod and moved over to where he was standing.

"I need to get to the compartment behind this," he said, offering her the wrench in his hand. "But I need you to hold it apart for me."

Lysa shifted closer to him, they were only an inch or two apart, standing side by side now.

She grasped the tool carefully, pulling open the panel a little shakily.

"I'm gonna need you to hold it steady," Din uttered in a low voice through his modulator. "Like this-"

And with that he placed his gloved hands over hers and moved her into the correct position.

Now they were just a breath apart, the closest Din had ever been to her.

He was convinced at this close proximity she would be able to hear his heart pounding a drumbeat inside his chest. But she merely looked up at him, her eyes flitting over his helmeted face questioningly.

"Like this?" she asked in an oddly quiet voice.

Din stared up at her, his gaze meeting with hers, causing his stomach to lurch.

"Mmhmm," he uttered, his voice low. " Perfect."

And with that he tore his hands and his gaze away, quickly going back to the task in hand.

He had to stop this.

She was with Crix and she had made it clear how she felt about him. And no matter what Din wanted, he knew that wouldnt change things.

He grabbed a multi-tool from the box on the floor by his feet and got to work on the gasket.

But beside him, still less than a foot away, he felt Lysa's gaze on his helmet.

"The other Mandalorians…" she said after a long moment or two. "They don't cover their faces. When I go to their camp, on the far west of the city, I don't think I see any that wear their helmets all of the time."

She paused.

"D-Do you ever-"

"No," replied Din instantly.

He knew of course what she was asking.

Silence fell over the pair of them, only a coo from Grogu, who was still munching his way through his fruit, breaking through the quiet.

"The ancient way of Mandalore says that it is forbidden for a Mandalorian to remove his or her helmet in front of another living being," Din explained, moving his gaze back to the gasket as he continued to work on it. "I was raised as a foundling on Concordia and my Creed believes in the ancient ways. But some of the others go by different beliefs."

At his side Lysa gave a nod, but her eyes seemed to linger on his beskar-covered face.

"Is that why you and Grogu live alone….away from them?" she asked in a kind voice.

Din glanced her way for a moment, and had to swallow as he took her in at this close proximity. Everything about her seemed to make his heart ache.

Her dark-green eyes. The tiny frown line that seemed to constantly sit between her brows, even when she was smiling. And her lips…so pink and flushed…

Din let out a sudden shallow breath.

Dank Farrik.

He had to stop this.

"There isn't any bad blood between us. But I have Grogu-"

He huffed, turning back to the gasket and giving the multi-tool in his hand a good shove, grunting a little as he did so.

"...I lost my parents when I was a child and was raised as a foundling by my Creed," Din continued. "For years its only been me and my ship-"

He gave another hard swallow, pausing for a moment.

"...when I found Grogu…I knew that a child like him would need a steady place to grow up. A place where he wouldn't have to live in fear. Somewhere he could just be a kid."

Finally Din looked up to Lysa who was staring at him with a sad sort of frown between her perfect brows, her now-glassy eyes flitting over his helmet as though trying to search his face.

"I understand that," she said in a quiet voice, and for a moment, although she didn't know it, her eyes met with Din's. And he could see in her that same worry, that same sadness as he had seen at her doorway over a week ago.

Din internally cursed Crix. But what more could he do? He had tried to convince her to tell him the truth but she obviously hadn't wanted to.

Din gave another irritated grunt as she shoved his entire weight onto the tool in his hand but he just couldn't seem to get the angle right.

"I'm gonna need you to lift up the plate a little more" he said soberly, reaching over and using his gloved hand to guide Lysa's own digits carefully into position. "Can you take the weight?"

"I think so," she said through gritted teeth, pushing against the panel and holding it up.

Hovering his hand over hers for a second, wanting to make sure Lysa could bare the load, Din hurriedly removed his gloved appendage, breaking the contact between them before getting to work.

Now he could just about reach the loosened gasket and washer, getting quickly to work on a swift repair that he hoped would see Lysa through another five thousand or so miles.

They were both quiet for a few moments, as Grogu sat on the floor beside the pair, picking at the fruit rind. It was not an uncomfortable silence but Lysa was eventually the first to speak.

"So what have you got against Jawas?" she asked conversationally.

Din gave a frown, looking at her only to see that she was smirking back at him, her eyebrows raised in a teasing look.

"Nothing," he said in a low voice. "But I know that if they get a chance your speeder would be broken up in minutes."

Lysa gave a small laugh. "You sound like you're talking from experience," she commented, readjusting her position as she held up the weight of the panel.

"My old ship," muttered Din. "I left it for a couple of days and they stripped it clean. Even took the vac tube."

At his words Lysa gave another laugh, her entire face brightening. And behind his mask, Din couldn't help his lips twitch up into a matching smile.

"Well I've delivered to them twice a week for the past year and I've never had any problems," she uttered in a teasing voice. "Maybe it's just you they took a dislike to."

Din gave a smirk behind his beskar. "Different Jawas, different planet," he swiped back.

"Hmmmm, whatever you say, Din Djarin," she replied with a wrinkle of her nose, as Grogu gurgled happily at their feet, watching the two adults chime back and forth to one another.

Din threw her one more look before tightening the final bolt on the gasket.

"There," he huffed, taking a step back. "You want to try and start her up."

At once Lysa looked delighted but she grinned, cocking an eyebrow at Din suddenly.

"Her?" she asked teasingly.

Din gave an easy tut.

"It's just an expression," he muttered in a faux-warning tone, as Lysa smirked, lowered the panel and moving around Din, handing the laser wrench to him as she passed.

She leaned over the beaten up old landspeeder, and turned over the engine, as Din re-welded the panel easily with the other end of the laser.

The engine chugged a little, then chugged some more, before, to Din's relief, the vehicle burst into life.

At the sound, Lysa's smile widened delightedly and she immediately turned to Din.

"Thank you," she said breathlessly, shaking her head and taking a step back from the speeder. "I honestly don't know what I'd have done without your help."

Din couldn't help but smile himself, at her expression of relief and gratitude.

"I'm sure your buddies the Jawas would have come to your rescue eventually," he commented in a playful tone….well, playful for Din at least through his modulator.

Lysa shot him a jovial, cautionary look, a warm smile still playing on her lips as she tilted her head gently.

Grogu, obviously growing bored, ditched the long-since nibbled rind and waddled over to his father. At once Din obliged, lifting up Grogu into his arms.

All was silent for a long moment before Lysa finally opened her mouth to speak. Suddenly a hint of something that Din couldn't quite put his finger on, playing across her features as he watched her.

And in an instant, everything seemed to change.

The lighthearted moment disappearing, leaving only a quiet sort of grief in its wake.

"What happened the other day…w-when you came to my door…" Lysa said suddenly, her green eyes suddenly filled with something sad, something wholly sincere. "...I really am sorry….I shouldn't have sent you away like I did-"

Lysa gave a shake of her head, her long, honey-coloured hair dancing behind her in the warm desert breeze.

And for a moment she opened her mouth to say something else, but quickly changed her mind, her gaze falling to the floor.

Din stared at her for a long moment, a longing which he had never quite felt in his life, pressing at his heart like the blade of a knife.

And before he could stop himself Din took a step toward her, coming to stop just a couple of inches away.

His heart was now thudding inside his beskar armour.

His breath caught inside his throat.

There was something he wanted to say. Something he needed to say.

But at the last second he stopped himself…

"I'd like it if you could resume your deliveries with us," the tall Mandalorian instead said, in a low voice. "Seeing as I fixed your speeder."

At his words, Lysa stared up at him, blinking a couple of times before her face broke into the most perfect smile.

An elation Din didn't think he had ever seen on her, sliding it's way over her pretty features.

She gave a nod.

"Of course," she replied happily.

And with that, Lysa reached up, cupping Grogu's tiny cheek with her palm for a moment….before letting her hand slide down over Din's forearm, lingering there for a long couple of seconds, before she finally let it fall once more to her side.

Turning, she moved over to the still-chugging landspeeder, grasping up her visor and hopping into the vehicle with ease.

She threw Din and Grogu a final look.

"Tomorrow then," she said in a happy voice, giving a nod before pulling the helmet down onto her head.

Din said nothing but nodded back, and watched as she reversed the now-working speeder a little, before circling it around and pulling slowly away.

For a moment or two Din watched her go, before Grogu in his grasp gave a loud chirp, pressing his tiny green hand to the place on Din's arm Lysa had touched mere seconds ago.

At this, the Mandalorian looked down at his son and gave a heavy sigh.

"I know, buddy" Din uttered gently, feeling the weight of his internal conflict sit heavy on his armoured shoulders. "I like her too."

Thanks to MsRosePetal for reviewing.

Thanks to all who have read so far. Let me know if you'd like me to continue at all. It's not a very popular fic, so I'm not sure where I should end it really.

Thanks for reading. Please review!