It probably wasn't a good sign that he was more nervous for the first day of school than his kid was.
Grogu couldn't seem to care less, staring out the window at the unfamiliar neighborhood as it passed by out the window. The past hour spent getting him ready had passed uneventfully, stretching Din's nerves as he braced for the meltdown he could almost see coming when Grogu realized his dad wouldn't be staying with him. Thanks to a restructuring of the school district over the summer the grade school he was now enrolled in was only a few blocks from Peli's shop, but the relative closeness wouldn't make a bit of difference if he couldn't get his son to understand that the separation was only temporary and that the adults at the school weren't to be feared.
He pulled into the first parking spot he came to, sitting and observing the outside of the school for a moment as students trickled through the doors, most hand-in-hand with parents or older siblings while others piled off the bus parked in front. Parents had been invited to walk their children in on the first day to meet the teachers, and Din had made sure they were early so he could do so, especially since he'd been stuck at the doctor's office for a flare-up of an injury from years before on the day of the open house back in June. He'd only hesitated for a second to call in a favor to Greef and his myriad connections for background checks on the entire staff; all came back clean, with only a handful of parking tickets among them. Call him overbearing or paranoid, but after everything Grogu had been through he wasn't going to risk his son's safety by leaving him with people he had no information about.
He heard Grogu fussing with the buckles on his booster seat, then suddenly he was leaning over the console in between the front seats, tugging on Din's sleeve. "C'mon, Papa; let's go."
"Okay, buddy. I'm coming." He handed the kid his backpack and matching lunchbox then unlocked the door and climbed out. Grogu appeared at his side the second he stepped onto the sidewalk, his hand slipping into Din's, and together they made the short trip inside. The hallways were about as crowded as he expected, full of both children and adults, but thankfully for Grogu's sake the mix of voices wasn't completely overwhelming. The layout of the building seemed pretty straightforward- the gymnasium and lunch room at one end then a long hallway with the library and offices on one side and classrooms on the other and at the end- and it didn't take long for them to find the preschool room.
The room was wide-open and bright, with clusters of small desks on one side and an assortment of toys and craft supplies on the other. About ten kids were already inside, most gathered around a red-headed woman who was hanging a multicolored suncatcher in the window. The small pieces of colored glass hung from a thin silver bar and caught the early morning sunlight to splash across the carpet in a transparent rainbow. Grogu tugged on Din's hand in a silent entreaty to join the group, but Din held him back with a quiet "just a minute" as the other adult in the room, a blond haired man, noticed them and approached with a welcoming smile.
"Good morning. I'm Luke Skywalker." He extended a hand which Din took guardedly, subtly giving the other man an assessing look. Medium build, a few inches shorter than himself with no visible tattoos or piercings, and dressed in a respectable green polo and black pants. The hand he offered felt slightly stiff and a bit too smooth to be natural; Din suddenly remembered from the background check that the other man had lost his right hand due to injuries from a car accident and now wore a prosthetic.
"Din Djarin." He dropped Skywalker's grasp to lay a reassuring hand on his son's back. "And this is Grogu."
"Hello there." The teacher dropped to one knee to put himself on eye-level with the kid and repeated the gesture of offering a handshake, which Grogu accepted tentatively after an encouraging nod from Din. "I'm Mr. Skywalker; I look forward to being your teacher this year." He pointed over his shoulder to the row of hooks mounted in the wall, several with small backpacks and lunch boxes already hanging on them. "Why don't you go hang up your bag, and then you can help Miss Jade and I get ready for the day? We have a special activity planned for this afternoon."
Grogu nodded enthusiastically, and Skywalker pushed to his feet, stepping away to allow Din some space with his son. Din stooped down and pulled the kid into a hug. "I'll be back in a little while. Be good for Mr. Skywalker, okay?"
"'Kay." The word was muffled against his collar but Din heard it loud and clear. Grogu pulled back a bit. "Love you."
"I love you too, pal." He pressed his forehead against Grogu's for a second before releasing him and watching as he scampered away to hang up his bag, a strange feeling of loss opening up in his chest. It's just for a few hours, he reminded himself. No one's taking him away from you.
"He'll be just fine," the teacher piped up, as if he could read Din's mind. He sent the man a questioning look and received a knowing smile in return. "Every parent is nervous when they drop their kid off for the first day. You have my word- we'll take good care of him."
Something about the care in Skywalker's words and the honest, guileless expression on his face helped ease Din's anxiety a bit. He prided himself on being exceptionally good at reading people- and always followed his gut when the internal warnings began to sound- and everything about the teacher read of safety and compassion. He felt a bit of tension release from his shoulders. "Thanks. I'll be back this afternoon to pick him up." They shared one last handshake before he caught Grogu's eye, giving him a little wave then stepping out of the room.
The crowd in the hall had thickened as the start of the school day approached, and Din was halfway to the office to verify that they had the correct emergency contact information when he suddenly collided with someone emerging from one of the other classrooms. On instinct his hands shot up to offer a steadying grasp on the poor soul he'd almost bowled over.
"Oh, excuse me!"
"I'm sorry, I didn't-" They both spoke at the same time then broke off their respective apologies with an awkward chuckle, but further words fled Din when he found himself staring down into a pair of fathomless brown eyes, so dark and deep they were almost black. The corners crinkled as the woman they belonged to smiled shyly, her thick, dark lashes sweeping against her cheeks for a beat as she glanced down then met his gaze again. Suddenly aware he was still holding onto her shoulders- her bare shoulders, thanks to her sleeveless blue-green sundress- he quickly released her, stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets and fighting the heat climbing up his neck toward his ears. "Are you alright?"
She nodded her head, long, satiny strands of black hair falling over her shoulder with the movement. "Yes; no harm done." Dank farrick. Even her voice was as smooth as silk.
He silently cursed his own awkwardness. "Good. Sorry again." Unsure of what else to say but certain that his face was now on fire, he nodded to her and brushed past her, retreating from the situation. A minute later, as he waited for the secretary to pull up Grogu's record he caught a glimpse out the window of the woman as she pushed through the front doors of the school, a breeze stirring the teal fabric of her dress around her ankles. Turning his gaze from her retreating form he resisted the urge to huff out a long breath and tried to focus instead on the information the secretary was reciting to him.
-0-
"The alternator belt is backwards." Din started at the voice coming from over his shoulder, his head slamming into the car hood above him with a resonant bang.
"Ow!" Rubbing the spot and hissing through clenched teeth he straightened more carefully and glared over his shoulder to see the hulking form of Paz Vizsla standing behind him, arms crossed and an amused smirk on his face. "Dank farrick Paz. There are other ways to announce yourself, you know."
The taller man shrugged. "Where's the fun in that?" Din rolled his eyes and chose not to reply. He glanced down at the ancient truck he was working on, noting that the belt was indeed exactly the way it was supposed to be- not that it was a hard thing to mess up. Though with the way his focus had taken a leave of absence since that morning he wouldn't be surprised if he managed to find a way to. "The munchkin make it off to school okay?"
"Yes, and-" he glanced at the clock on the wall- "it's about time I went to pick him up." He wiped the grease from his hands then tossed the rag into a bin by the wall. The coveralls he wore to protect his regular clothes were folded and put into a cubby next to the bin and he grabbed his keys. "You coming?"
"Like you think I'm going to pass up an opportunity to see my nephew?"
"Let's go then." He started for his car then turned back and yelled into the bay, "See you tomorrow Peli! I'll finish on that rust bucket in the morning." Her shrill reply from her tiny cluttered office was muffled but Din continued on his way; if it was important she would have come out into the bay. And if she decided in the next couple hours it was important he'd get a text. He climbed into his car, his childhood friend folding his large frame into the passenger seat, and pulled out of the lot. They chatted as they drove, catching up from when they had seen each other last.
It was a short drive, and only a few minutes later they pulled up in front of the school just as the first of the students started emerging through the front doors. Din climbed out and leaned against the hood of the car to wait for Grogu, and a second later he heard Paz follow. After a few minutes a larger group of older kids exited, a pair of adults close behind, and Din's heart stuttered in his chest when he recognized one of them as the woman he had run into that morning. She was talking to another woman, tall and equally sun-tanned, with a blue scarf braided into her white-blonde hair and dressed in a maroon blouse and capri pants. Din mentally flipped through the pictures of the staff he had studied on the district website, finally landing on a name: Ahsoka Tano, who taught fourth grade and headed the after-school martial arts classes at the high school. The teacher said something that caused the dark-haired woman to laugh, and his stomach did a concerning flip at the way the action lit up her already-beautiful countenance.
"Earth to Djar." He blinked, suddenly aware that Paz was talking to him. He turned to his friend, who was staring at him with a look of amused curiosity. His gaze flicked over Din's shoulder and realization replaced his amusement, but he spared Din further embarrassment- for now- and instead nodded toward the school. "You're completely missing your kid, little brother." With burning cheeks and a roll of his eyes at the old moniker, he turned back to see Grogu step out of a hug with one of the older students, a girl maybe ten years old who he knew after only one glance was the daughter of the woman. She skipped back over to her mother while Grogu started down the sidewalk, breaking into a run when he spotted Din.
"Papa!"
"Hey buddy." He let out an exaggerated ooph when Grogu collided with his chest, swinging the kid into his arms and holding him close. "How was your first day?"
"Good. I met Winta at recess." He twisted around and pointed to his new friend, waving back when she saw them and waved. Din raised a hand in greeting as well, his gaze colliding again with the woman's. She smiled bashfully at him and then she was gone, disappearing behind the school bus idling at the curb. Grogu started wiggling in his arms, and he tore his attention away from the stranger to keep his grip on his son long enough to safely transfer him to "Unca Paz"'s arms. A good four inches taller and forty pounds heavier than Din, the other man's bulk and smattering of tattoos from his Army days effectively hid the fact that he was one of the biggest teddy bears Din had ever known. The two had grown up together, meeting a few weeks after Din's own adoption at ten years old and remaining thick as thieves until they fell out of touch after graduating high school, when Din took his job for Greef Karga while Paz joined the Army, eventually making it into the Rangers.
A smack on the back of his head drew him back to the present, followed by a giggle from the kid, and he sent an ireless glare to his friend. "If you're done I'd like to go home now. Behave, and I might let you stay for dinner."
"Say no more, little brother." Paz was known for a lot of things, but being a good cook was not one of them. Which was why more often than not he could be found bumming a meal off of a member of their friend group. Grogu chattered about his day while Paz buckled him into his booster seat and Din slid behind the wheel, fighting to keep his focus on his son and off the fathomless eyes and bashful smile of the woman in blue.
