Din woke to a rumble in the Eye, and murmured as it rolled through both their bodies. Delicate flames licked his length when he realized he was still half-buried in her and already hard, aware of nothing except how good she felt. Still wet. So warm and soft as he plunged instinctively into her precious depths. Before either of them was fully awake, they were halfway across the Universe, traveling together for an hour at least. By the time they returned to their bunk on the Eye, he'd been remade twice over and she was full to overflowing. But neither was spent, and got out of bed full of energy to prepare for their hike to the Gauntlet.
They were up well before Grogu, and Aldor started breakfast while Din breezed through his morning tasks. Looking over last night's readings from the array and running diagnostics on their vital systems, then checking in with R5 in the engine room to see if he'd picked up on any signals that might be of interest. It took Din a good half hour of undertaking these necessary duties to notice he'd become exponentially more awake and energized as the morning advanced. He suddenly realized he felt stronger than he had in years, and his mind was clear as the sky overhead. Like he went to sleep at forty-six and woke up at twenty-five. He was actually cheerful. Even at twenty-five, Din was never what anyone would call cheerful, yet here he stood smiling wide enough to show his teeth, unwilling and unable to douse the sunshine while he enjoyed the homey bustle of what life had become.
Din had never been more grateful for anything than what life had become. He still couldn't fathom how he'd gotten so lucky, but he was in no mood to question his good fortune any further. Choosing instead to embrace serendipity, he stepped behind her at the hob to smooth his hand over her perfect backside, and drew his palm around her hip and up her gorgeous slopes and rises, mesmerized by her shape and already wanting her again. It was nearly impossible to resist her as she hummed and melted against him. He smiled into her hair and let it bathe him in her sweet herbal scent. "Solstice must be in the next day or two," he whispered. "Feel young again."
Aldor turned around in his embrace and stood on her toes to give him a soft kiss, settling her arms around his shoulders as she pulled him into a tight hug. "Me too… like a girl. With you and Gogu here, the Solstice is truly an occasion."
"It is," he whispered. "Like you said before… a holiday…" Before he knew he wanted to, he took her in a deep, passionate kiss, unable to stop himself when she was so beautiful and lively and Aldor. When he couldn't kiss her a second longer without tossing her back into bed, he pulled her head into his chest to cradle her there for a while, just enjoying how her heart beat against him. "It should always be a holiday," he whispered. "For as long as the Eye exists. The Force commands it, my Lady."
"Agreed, my Love." She gently pressed her lips to the exposed flesh that peeked through the collar of his tunic, and Din all but blinked out of existence for half a moment as her kiss went straight to his head like a whiff of Spice. A fleeting feeling he needed right now. It had to be the effect of the Solstice. They would both hate it if they were like this every day. But right now, he would embrace this altered state. He sensed the remnants of this seasonal magic would sustain them through the next orbit, and it might even save their lives.
My Mandalorian is always so wise. She lifted her head from his chest and smiled up at him as if there was nothing she treasured more. There is nothing I treasure more, my Love. Our bond. Our family, Din… we have a family now… it amazes me… think it always will. And you're right, my Love. "These next few days could save our lives."
Din brushed his nose against hers, kissed her forehead and squeezed her tight. So many things seem possible to me now that never were… the visions that morning… some of it may be darkness… there's always darkness somewhere… but I think for the first time in my life, Aldor… I feel certain of something. "I've never believed in anything more than I believe in us, my Lady. Clan Djarin."
As if he'd heard his cue, they sensed their son's awakening mind, and Din stole another kiss just before the cockpit door slid open. Their boy was still sleepy, and yawned as he walked into the room, giving his backside a good scratch through his trousers as he stretched and smiled blearily up at his parents. He was at meditation much of the night, he informed them. Saw many interesting things. Things far away and eons in the past and future. But now he needed to refuel. "Eat… wait for suns… meditate more."
"Are you sure, Son?" Din asked. "We're going to the Gauntlet today."
Grogu shook his head. "Go next time. Solstice too close now. Many voices call."
"Be careful which ones you listen to, my dear One," Aldor advised. "Remember what your Masters have taught you about the Dark Side."
Grogu nodded. "Some visions dark. Lessons help."
"Good," Aldor said with a smile. "I have every confidence in you, sweet Grogu."
"But if you need us you let us know," Din added. "Okay?"
Grogu nodded again as he climbed into his usual chair, ready for breakfast. "Promise," he said with a sleepy little grin. "Hungry."
"We have our orders, my Lady."
Grogu was done with breakfast and back at meditation in his room within an hour. Afterward, Aldor and Din gathered their gear for the trek to the Gauntlet. Aldor reminded him he needed to bring his armor, and suggested he wear it to the beach to get used to it again. But he really didn't need to be reminded. He'd purposefully procrastinated because he almost dreaded putting it back on. When he came to it at last, he found himself staring at the neatly stacked beskar plates where they had remained by the bed for months. Sometimes he wore his vambraces when their programing would prove useful, but he hadn't touched the rest except for an occasional polish since the day he killed the ray. Strange to think of it. His armor saved his life a thousand times, but his life didn't really begin until he took it off. As if it were a hindrance he needed to shake off. Mando may have created Din Djarin, but he worried it would be too easy to lose his new wisdom in what Mando had been before.
Aldor sensed his struggle, and came to sit on the edge of their bunk to offer support. "You are my Mandalorian," she said quietly. "You have always been Mando. Always will be."
"A Mandalorian heart," he murmured.
"A good one, my Love."
"But… things are so different now," he said. "I'm so different. This armor… it had… many purposes for me. Kept me alive, but… made it too easy to… not feel anything. Kept my heart sequestered. But now my heart is free, and it turns out I like it. The last thing I want is to cage it again."
"Who says the beskar was your cage?" Aldor challenged. "You were in your armor while you were trapped, so perhaps your reticence is merely out of association. Because I feel you've broken your cage, my Love, and it will never imprison you again. It existed only in your mind. You built it yourself because you had to, my Love. But with new wisdom and newfound freedom, maybe the beskar won't feel as oppressive as you think it will. You have the Force working for and with you. Me and Grogu beside you. And you know, my Mandalorian, I fell in love with the man who wears this armor. And Grogu chose him to be his guardian."
Din smiled and looked pointedly back at her. "That's true, my Lady. Both of you loved me before you saw my face. Loved me after. Always recognized… me. But…" he sighed deeply and looked again at the armor, shaking his head. "I'm not sure I ever recognized myself when I wore it. It's… a different life… seems like decades ago."
"I know it may take some getting used to, my Love, and I wouldn't blame you if you decided never to wear it again. But I don't think that's what you want. I sense you'll need your beskar again someday. When you do, you'll need to know how to combine Mando and Din into one truly badass Elemental."
Aldor's uncanny ability to soothe his heart while she appealed to his reason brought a smile to his face, and he bent down to kiss her simply because he was grateful for it. She was right, of course. If there ever came a hard fight, he'd be best off in his armor. And if he meant to find balance between beskar and molten gold, he had to embrace both of them. Nobody expects a Mandalorian in full armor to wield an Old Republic light saber like a Jedi, so if he could combine both sets of instincts, it would become a powerful tool in his arsenal. He always felt better when he had the element of surprise anyway. So at last he sighed and knelt to retrieve his vest of underfittings. He ran his fingers over the side of it where the vulture ripped him open. Aldor had long since mended it, but in his mind it would always be there. He sighed deeply, hesitating a moment more as he considered everything that led to the mended tear, and the reasons he took his armor off in the first place.
"Would you… like me to help?" she offered quietly. "I know there's more ritual in this than…"
"Yes," Din said, silencing the doubt in her voice. "I think… I would like you to help me. Maybe that's all I need. An old ritual made new. Ancient Mandalorians considered it their duty to help their spouses into their armor. If… if you would honor me, my Lady, I think I'd like my mate to continue that tradition."
Aldor kissed him tenderly and gave him a short nod that told him she was the honored party. She stood from the bunk and helped him slip the vest over his head, and nimbly set her fingers to work on the magnetic closures under his arms. He was instantly reminded of the night she healed him, when the reasons to take off his armor became too compelling to ignore. He thought of how gently she'd helped him shed the burden, and now felt a deep satisfaction in watching her fit it back in place. Because he knew she would be there to help him in or out of his armor, he felt very much like Din while he became Mando again, so he let her attach every plate and both vambraces. When he was fully arrayed except for his helmet and weapons, he heaved a cleansing sigh and tilted a small smile at her.
"This is the man I love," she said fondly. "My Mandalorian in his beskar, smiling at me."
Din took her face in his gloved palm, and felt her warmth through the leather. Felt her love through the metal. He kissed her tenderly and murmured, "Thank you, my Lady. You were right. It… feels good… to honor my upbringing… and to honor us at the same time."
"Your memory went where mine did," she said softly. "I wasn't sure it would be a pleasant one for you."
"It was one of the best days of my life." He kissed her again and rested his forehead against hers to look deep into her jewel bright eyes. "It's right to honor it."
"This is the Way," she whispered.
"This is the Way." He leaned down to kiss her once more and took a moment to run his fingers through her hair. "And nothing will take it from us, Aldor."
"Nothing will take it," she answered on a smile. "Come on, my Love. Let's not race the weather."
Din got used to being in his armor again rather quickly, but kept his helmet casually wedged between his elbow and side as they walked. He wasn't willing to miss any opportunity to kiss her, nor did he want to fully transform into Mando until he was good and ready. But the struggle between Din and Mando was reduced to nothing at all by the time they'd walked two klicks, and Din as a whole found himself a little bit at odds between his desire to conquer the Gauntlet and his desire for Aldor. Every patch of moss along their path looked promising, and he envisioned numerous graphic scenarios in each and every one his eyes landed on. He was half tempted to be indulgent, but clouds were already gathering over the Pupil, and they would soon clash with the biting breeze that persistently pushed inland from the sea. So he harnessed his desires and tried to focus on the task at hand.
He tried. But Din's Solstice-driven alacrity lit up the sunshine despite beskar and storms when he remembered the deal he'd struck with her yesterday afternoon. He took her hand and tugged her over to him, and settled his arm around her waist. "You never told me what the deal would be if I run the Gauntlet in exactly three minutes."
"All right then, my Mandalorian… if you insist on splitting hairs… let's say we both go for the next ray if you run it in exactly three minutes."
"Sounds like a fair deal, my Lady."
"I am curious to see how your times compare," Aldor mused as she hooked her arm around his waist in turn. "I have a feeling you'll surprise yourself. Both in and out of the beskar. You've lived most of your life in your armor, and I imagine fighting in beskar is something like piloting a starship. You never forget how to do it barring catastrophic injury or influence."
"Mmm.." Din murmured. "Your influence has been pretty powerful, my Lady. So I'm not so sure."
"It was never my intention to influence you. I'm not a Night Sister, you know, even though you used to worry I was."
Din chuckled. "Yes, I did. I just didn't believe a woman so beautiful and kind could be anything but a trick."
"What changed your mind?"
"Partly Grogu. Partly my heart," he answered. "For the first few weeks, I kept looking for a skank in the scud pie, but everything inside me wanted to believe you. I even thought that was a trick. But because Grogu cared for you and because you made him so happy, my heart finally convinced me you were real. Then I realized I cared for you too… because you make me happy. But truthfully, my Lady, I'm still not entirely sure you're real. I'm always afraid I'll wake up and find out I've been dreaming the last seven months. Can't believe it's months. Sometimes it feels like you've been my Lady and I've been your Love since time began."
"I believe that may actually be so, my Love," Aldor said. "We just got separated somewhere in time."
"It feels that way. Between the bond this light saber sensed more than thirty years ago and the way you… are… it does feel that way."
"The way I am?"
"Whatever I sensed the first night I spent here. Still not sure what to call it. Kept looking for it while you slept that night. Thought about… all the ways I might find it. Wanted you even then… from the moment I saw you, I wanted you. Just… didn't think I should. Felt too good. Too easy. You were… you are… what I always wanted… even though I never allowed myself to want anything… you're everything I want. The thing I sensed just made it stronger. Everything in me is drawn to you, my Lady. Everything. So I didn't trust it."
"I sensed you watching me," she said. "Because everything in me is drawn to you, my Love. I was distracted all night. I couldn't stop glancing at you. Your dreams and your thoughts wanted me to hear them so badly, I felt the rumble through the hull. Felt like… you wanted me to know everything."
"I did," he admitted, pulling her closer. He wasn't sure how this subject had come up, but there was something cleansing and intimate in this exchange that had him pouring his heart out. And for once, he didn't mind pronouncing the words. "I did want you to hear me," he continued. "I just didn't know I did… well… maybe I did know, but… I didn't like what I knew. It was terrifying. Awakening in more ways than one. Then… the darkness came for you, my Lady… and I touched you with my bare hand… held you… out of my armor… could feel your heart pounding… realized the only thing I was afraid of was living my life without you. Of never… never letting you hear me."
"Why were you out of your armor that night?" Aldor asked curiously. "I didn't even notice it at the time because all I could feel was your hands. And your blankets around me." Then all I knew was you from that moment on.
"I'm not sure…" he mused, absorbing her silent comment into his heart as he realized he never really considered her spoken question. "I remember it felt uncomfortable while I was trying to sleep that night. I think I knew even then… it was more than that. Right before… when we were at the table that night… just… talking… don't know what it was, but… made me hate my armor. Maybe because all I wanted was to be close to you. I think you know… I only stayed away so I wouldn't want you so much… only made things worse as you recall. I just remember that morning… you sent me to look for signs of the dogs… I felt it long before… but that was the first time I saw that you cared for me. When you begged me to be careful."
"I knew something changed that morning," Aldor recalled, leaning deeper against him as they continued through the thinning trees. "You said my name for one. For another, I think that was the first time you called me your Lady. I barely noticed it until I heard your voice repeat it in my head all that day while you were gone."
"I don't even think I realized it," he said. "Knew I might've said it when I was trying to wake you up from that nightmare. But the first time I remember was when we got the proximity alert. Half crazy with those fucking dreams by that point." When Din paused in his recollections, he sensed her wanting to apologize again, but he stopped her. "Don't do that, my Lady. I'm not sure you know how much I hate to hear you apologize for things that aren't your fault. Especially when you blame yourself for things that are my fault."
"I… I can't help it sometimes, my Love… I did feel like I failed you… still do… but maybe I was meant to fail."
"It wasn't really a failure, cyare," Din countered. "You've always known I like to find out for myself. I needed to panic… needed to feel that… to be afraid of losing you. I've told you before, my heart has always been my master. It's my master in life and my master in the Force. The thing that makes me love you is the same thing that kept the light on inside me, however dim it got. I needed to feel what I do for you to remember hope… and remember how to use the power that kept me anxious. Didn't think I could do anything with it until the darkness tried to take you. I begged it to help you. And it did… it worked… because my heart couldn't stand it… couldn't let evil have you. I think I would have done anything to keep that demon away from you, Aldor. Always will."
"You always do, my Love," Aldor answered softly. "There have been many times when my dreams wanted to turn to darkness since we've been together, but you always keep it at bay. Like you're guarding me in your sleep. My Sentinel is so resilient, I think even the real Palpatine would have been terrified of you. Your strength matches his power. He would have sensed you're not as easily manipulated as a conflicted Jedi."
"I think he was afraid of me," Din murmured, reflecting on recently illuminated memories of strangers from far away, coming to Aq Vetina for him. Speaking to his parents as a matter of urgency. Trying to convince them of something. "I think… even before the end of the Clone Wars, he knew about me… but not just me… others too… I remember things, my Lady… more than before… and… I wonder… I worry… that I'm the reason my village was attacked. Because one of the things I remembered recently was a Kel Dor who came not long before the droids did… he said something about a list… Separatists and a hunter they hired… and this list… the Kel Dor told my parents… I was on it…"
Aldor stopped walking, and disengaged herself from his arm to face him, looking up at him wide-eyed. "Master Plo Koon," she whispered. "The Kel Dor… Master Plo Koon… and I remember Madame Jocasta and Master Ha'saan talking about it… a hunter and the holocron… the memory crystal… he stole… oh Din… we were supposed to be together as children. All three of us."
"I'm right, aren't I?" Din asked evenly. "The droids came to Aq Vetina for me and other Force sensitives… so we would never live to become Jedi."
Aldor's face went sour, and she growled low in her throat. "Fucking war. Politics. Fear. They've kept so many people apart, it tears my heart to pieces to think about it. It seems you and I and Grogu are among them. And so many others, Din. It consumes me to remember it… all the thoughts I sensed among refugees in the years before we came here… could barely hold myself together… now…hearing this from you… oh Din… kiss me… please, my Love… kiss me and remind me how fortunate we are."
Din took her face in his hand to bring both of them back to the here and now, dipping his tongue deep into her mouth to make her feel that he was with her until everything ended, wiping her memory with desire, overpowering regret. He wrapped himself up in her flavor and feelings as a dozen images of possible pasts mingled between them. For a moment, all either of them could think about was where they might be if not for the fucking Emperor. If not for battle droids and power and evil. But where would they be? Would Grogu be their son? Would they be able to love each other like this? Would they be as wise or as strong? Would they have survived at all?
With these questions in his head, Din dropped his helmet from his elbow and took her face in both hands to bring their foreheads together, looking deep into the expanse of glacial ice that melted under his stare. "You know my thoughts, my Lady. And I ask these questions of both of us. Where would we be? Where would we be without balance in the Force? Without its bad and its good? I've listened to your lectures, Aldor, and I ask you to remember them. There will always be darkness. You know that as well as I do."
"You're right, my Love," she whispered, closing her eyes tightly for a moment to bring her feelings under control. When she opened them again, they were clearer. "You're right," she said again on a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry… just hearing you tell me about this thing I knew… it drove many things from where I hide them in my heart."
"I know, my Lady," he murmured. "I understand. The Solstice has brought so much to the surface, there's bound to be regret and anger in some of it. But… we still have the same destiny, my Lady. We saw it together that morning. My only concern is that we know how to use the darkness. Never let it take us, but break it like a bluurg and make it yield to us when we need it. Don't ask too much of it. Bend it… use it against itself for something better…"
"For Grogu," she whispered. "For others."
"For the future," he concluded.
"Now that we're together…"
"… nothing will take it from us."
At last, Aldor smiled, and stood on her toes to embrace him as he sighed in relief to feel this morning's joy return to her heart. "You see, my Love," she whispered into his ear. "You always put darkness in its place. You and your gilded blankets."
Din tenderly kissed the tip of her nose. "Like your finest fabric."
Herself again and revived, she pressed a quick, hard kiss to his lips and picked his helmet up off the ground with the Force, and presented it to him. "Enough of this somber talk, my Love… I know, I'm more guilty than you this time… let's see how you fare through the Gauntlet. You've conquered many of them, my Love, as we all have, and I have no doubt you will conquer this one. With and without your beskar."
"Forgot how much bigger it is than the Maze," Din murmured as he looked up at the towering rock shelf in front of them. "It's been a while… hadn't shown you my face yet, but I was already half in love with you… especially after I watched you tear this thing apart."
Aldor smiled down at her boots as her face warmed. "Well, I have been running it for thirty years. I hope I've mastered it."
"I think I might want to watch it again," he said with a tiny, wicked little smile. "Knowing how you move in other ways now… might… give me insight…"
"Insight?"
"On how to run it myself. And how to make the best of the other ways you move." He brushed his fingers through her hair and gave her a soft kiss. "Could be helpful later tonight." He kissed her again more deeply, and that rare racy grin lingered across his delicious lips a moment longer, then he brushed his gloved thumb across her cheek and looked up at the Gauntlet again. "Have you reprogrammed it recently?"
"The last time I came here for sea grass," she answered, slightly woozy after Din's kisses. "I think you and Grogu were tracking the dogs. Knew you were almost ready for this."
"What do you think, then, my Lady?" he asked sincerely, like an eager boy hoping his efforts had been recognized. "Am I progressing well? I know I'm no Jedi, but…"
"My Love," she said quietly, but firmly, making sure he felt how utterly amazed she'd been at his progress. "Some of my old Masters would have said it's impossible for a 46-year-old Mandalorian to learn the ways of the Force. Let's just say it brings a smile to my face to watch my Mandalorian prove them spectacularly wrong."
Din chuckled and looked down at his boots, kicking at the sand as he tried to hide a deep smile. "I imagine it does, my Lady. But… if I weren't your Mandalorian you'd still say… I've done well? I honestly don't know."
"My brilliant Elemental… you've learned in two months what takes most Jedi five years. And you've done it in a way that's entirely your own. You're learning to combine what many would consider opposites."
"But… if you break things down to their basic idea… the basic strategies and intents… the skill required… they're hardly opposites, my Lady."
"I know that. Most don't. And it took meeting you to learn it myself."
"So I guess… that means… I'm doing good?"
Aldor looked quizzically back at him, fascinated by his sincere need to understand where he was in his training. Although ego was certainly in play, it wasn't his primary objective in asking this question. It was more like he was trying to solve an equation, and he needed this one coefficient to factor it down. At last she shook her head and cupped her hand to his cheek, gently scratching into the scruff under the point of his jaw. His shoulders dropped and he closed his eyes, covering her hand with his to lace their fingers together. "You continually surprise me, my Love."
"But… but I don't know the… ranks, I guess… the stages to becoming a Master. It's nothing like the way things were in the Fighting Corps. There's more training of the mind… of the… of the Spirit… and I don't know…" He sighed, struggling to find words. Aldor expected to feel a stream of thoughts from him, but she was surprised to find his inner voice mute as his spoken one softly continued. "Things may have turned out for the best, but… the last time my Spirit was tested, I didn't… didn't do so well. Nearly went crazy. Lost my temper and went at you for no good reason. It was my own fault even though you still think it was yours. I know… things are different now… easier… but… I haven't been tested in a while."
"But you passed even that test spectacularly, Din," Aldor countered. "And with little to no help from me." When he tried to protest, she silently begged him not to, so he merely sighed and shook his head. "I know, my Love. I heard every word you said and every word you didn't, and you're right. There will always be darkness. There will always be failure too. We both came out of it stronger. Wiser. I think that may be our ultimate goal as Elemental Force wielders, my Love. Not to gain power, but to gain strength. Never stop gaining it. By the end, we'll be able to withstand whatever darkness and whatever failure and bend them… like you suggest. If anyone can do that, we can."
He looked up at the Gauntlet again, deep in thought. "But I wonder where the end is… and the end of what? Don't even think I know that yet." he murmured.
"Could be the beginning… but then again, maybe there's not an end or a beginning," she said quietly. "Maybe our purpose is simply… not to break."
Din huffed in his way that was most ambiguous. It could mean a thousand things, but whatever they were, it always meant something had deeply touched him. "I like that idea, my Lady," he said softly.
"How do you think you're doing, then?" Aldor asked. "By that metric."
"I think… I'm pretty sure I'm… doing good…"
Aldor chuckled and took him by the hair to bring his forehead down to hers. "My sweet Mandalorian is doing extremely well, I'd say. You're not at Knight level yet, but I know you will be sooner than either of us expects, my Love. I can't wait to spar with you in the spring. By then, I know you'll be ready."
"Mmm…" A plume of lava flared through Din's chest at an image his mind had conjured, and he dipped his nose behind her ear and kissed her neck, nibbling just enough to make her swell and sigh. "Yes, my Lady. I look forward to that. Have been… since I took up this light saber…"
"Me too," she whispered, rolling her cheek against his. She rubbed her lips into her favorite patch of his scruff until she realized they'd become distracted, and pressed a quick kiss there before she disengaged herself to let the haze clear from her head. "But we'll never get there if we end up on the ground before you run the Gauntlet even once."
Din sighed deeply, but quickly straightened up again and cleared his throat. "You're right, my Lady." He looked up at the Gauntlet once more. "What do you suggest?"
"I think you should run it with your armor first. Then without. And once more with the beskar. I believe you'll be able to gain insight from your own movements if you compare each run. If you truly reach out with the Force and listen to it, and if you let your mind ride in the moment, instinct will speak to you in the right language. You'll be able to judge when to go Mando, when to go Jedi, and when to bring them together."
Din nodded, and looked down at his helmet in his hands, still hesitant to put it on. "I wonder… will it… affect my ability… will I be able to… feel things… like I should… with the helmet on?"
"If you don't let it affect you, it won't," Aldor answered. "Beskar cannot silence you and it cannot silence the Force. Just don't let yourself get distracted. And remember, there will be moments in battle when the Force is the only weapon you have. It may be the only weapon your enemy has. So it's vital that you learn to always be aware of it."
Din nodded in understanding, then dropped his eyes to hers with a hint of a smile barely curling into his mustache. "One last distraction," he murmured. He bent down to kiss her again, taking a moment to indulge in a deep caress across her tongue. Then he sighed and closed his eyes, and took a deep breath before he put the helmet on.
For a moment, he simply looked up at the Gauntlet, adjusting to the viewplate and putting his fingers to the switches on the side to adjust the setting. "What setting will you use?" Aldor asked curiously.
"Mmmm…" Din mumbled thoughtfully, pausing in between each quick hit to the controls. "I think… natural light… hope maybe that'll…" he paused again. "Damn. Forgot… forgot how I sound through the modulator… strange to hear myself…" Din looked back down at Aldor. "Is this… strange for you?"
Aldor chuckled and pressed a kiss to the viewplate. "Not really, my Love," she answered truthfully. "Like I told you, my Mandalorian, I fell in love with the man I see and hear in front of me. He is the same man who shares my bed with me every night. I still feel his eyes looking at me through his visor."
"You always have, my Lady."
"The most important question right now, though, is how you feel."
"I feel like… Din Djarin…"
"Then take your time, Din Djarin, and let me know when you're ready." She planted another kiss on his helmet and smiled before she leapt to the top of the rocks fifteen meters above him. She set her communicator to its timing mode and watched him shake out his limbs and stretch his back. He looked up at her again, and she felt him smile when he tilted her a true Mandalorian nod. He took the Old Republic light saber from his belt and looked down at it a moment before he engaged the blade and ran through a few of the more difficult form sets. His thoughts were sharp and focused, and flowed in an even weave of dark matter and molten gold that kept him well centered. She could feel the two sides of him merging, and Aldor began to grow ever more excited to see what would happen when all he knew came together with all he'd learned.
Din only spent a few minutes warming up, then looked up at Aldor again. "I'll give you a nod when I'm ready to start," he called.
"Understood, my Love."
Din dug in and crouched into an aggressive stance. He took two deep breaths that shook the cuirass across his broad chest, and nodded at the same moment he bounded through the entryway and Aldor started the timer, preparing to hop along above him to watch. He was immediately set upon by two sparring droids, but a lightning-quick Mandalorian duck and sweep combined with a single arc of orange-yellow plasma to take out both droids in less than five seconds. From there, her powerful Elemental flowed into an incredible dance of defense and offense. He managed a few Vaapad techniques without even knowing it when he got to the multi-fire ambush, then in the next flex of muscle, he took out a remote with the very projectile it hurled at him while he deflected three shots from a hidden training mod. He strayed a little off course when he got to the holoroom she'd designed to disguise the right path, but quickly figured it out and got out of another hairy trap without breaking his stride. When he got to the final barrage of training blasts and on to the last two remotes, he took them out in one spectacular move that had him running across the wall and dispatching both remotes in one effortless motion before he combat rolled through the exit and Aldor stopped her timer.
"How'd I do?" Din called from below.
Aldor had completely forgotten to look at the time, and could only focus on how dripping wet she was from watching her lover's incredible run. For half an instant, all she wanted was to jump down on top of him and rip every plate of armor and scrap of cloth from his body to have her way with him. But his sincere question roused her, and she finally managed to look at his time. "Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds, my Love."
"Damn," he grunted.
"Best one out of three, my Mandalorian," she called back. "You don't have to resign yourself to a solo ray hunt just yet."
Din took off his helmet and looked up at her. "If you say so. But I was hoping for a little better." He started back toward the entrance as Aldor followed above him. He unfastened the magnets on his vest as he walked, already preparing for the next run. "That one room was diabolical, my Lady," he continued with a tone of admiration. "Tripped me up longer than I wanted it to."
"But you figured it out in no time, my Love," she replied, taking a pleasant moment to watch him strip back down to his tunic and trousers, energized and ready to conquer another run. "I expected no less than four and a half minutes through the first run. But as usual, my Mandalorian exceeds my expectations rather fantastically. The time was not the beauty in that run anyway. It was how you moved. The way you brought so many things together. I don't think you realized it, my Love, but you used some very advanced offensive methods in that trap near the middle. Methods few Jedi can master."
"How so?"
"You summoned a small portion of darkness to get through that ambush. It reminded you of something that made you angry and you used it, then you quickly bounced back from it. It was beautiful, my Love. Arousingly so."
"Arousingly?" he asked through a chuckle.
"I know it's not a word, but it still applies."
Din laughed outright, and Aldor wished she was level with him so she could see him smile wide enough to show his teeth. "Just remember your turn's coming as soon as I take my last run," he said. "And I can't be held responsible for how I might react to it."
"Mmm… If you keep this up, my Mandalorian, I might strike first."
"Are you trying to distract me, my Lady?"
"Is it working?"
"It is. Luckily, you're up there. And the fact that you like to watch only makes me want to run it again. Only better."
"Then by all means, my Love. Just let me change the configuration." Aldor turned back to the Gauntlet and used the Force to reset a few switches and bring forward some spare remotes and a few targets. "There will be one new challenge in this one. But all the other obstacles will be the same, only in different locations."
"I think maybe I should call you Master," Din teased. "I sense you're trying to break my balls here."
Aldor laughed as she moved the final target into position, then peeked back down to the ground to find Din fully unarmored and poised at the entrance again. "The last thing I want to do is break my lover's balls. Would be tragic so near the Solstice. For both of us. But I do like to test his endurance from time to time. Everyone wins."
Din laughed again, this time lifting his face to her so she could see the brilliant smile on his beautiful face. "The perfect teacher, my Lady. I get insight from both the lesson and the test."
"You are rather an attentive student, my Love," she replied. "And I learn a great deal from you as well."
"As it should be, my Lady."
Aldor nodded. "As it should be."
"Same as before, Master," he said as he gave his saber a few little waves in preparation.
"At the ready, my Padawan."
Din was lighter and quicker at first, but when he realized he needed to hit the targets in order to advance, he struggled to overcome a memory that Aldor had sensed before. He drew his blaster with the usual lightning quickness, but fumbled a bit as he tried to aim and deflect a barrage of training bolts coming from the opposite direction. After a few near misses between offense and defense, he finally stopped thinking, and managed a truly spectacular spin out of the line of fire as he saber-deflected shots back to the remotes to disable them at the same time he hit the target dead center with his blaster. Then he was off again. Through each subsequent trap, a greater harmony of instincts propelled him in a blend of grace and strength that was uniquely Din and profoundly effective. But when he landed on the other side of the exit, he grunted in frustration. "That one was worse, wasn't it?"
"I'm afraid so, my Love," Aldor answered. "Three minutes, fifty-three."
"Fuck," he growled. "Can I get another run without my armor?"
"No, my Love," Aldor answered. "Your hesitation on that first trap was a problem of feeling, not training. But your performance was flawless by the last one, my Mandalorian. Don't be so hard on yourself. You knew the root of the problem, and didn't let it stop you. You just… got past it."
"You know… you know I've only killed once when I didn't have a helmet on," he said, his voice gone somber. "Did it for Grogu, but… didn't feel right… this man… my face was the last thing he saw… I didn't… didn't like it. Felt… unnatural. Remembered it when I hit that first trap. What hung me up."
"I know, my Love."
"How did you know about that?"
"I don't know particulars, but I sensed it. Sensed it a few times before you showed me your face. When you were tired and unable to control where your thoughts went, they sometimes went there."
"I imagine they would," Din sighed. "I think about it… a lot… wasn't happy with the situation, but… had to… for Grogu… couldn't let that bastard have my boy…" Aldor sensed a flare of temper licking up his spine, but it quickly shrank back, and he sighed, looking up toward the suns as he took a deep breath. "Yes, my Lady," he said. "If it's okay with you, I might take a minute or two to… stretch out…"
"By all means, my Love."
Din had referred to his particular form of meditation as "stretching out" almost from the beginning of his training. It suited him to take his meditations in short bursts, and executed it by focusing between the suns and the core of the Eye, or the gas giant and the Pupil. In this way, he allowed the Force within him to "stretch out" and unfurl, guided by the elements around him. Then he was able to bring it back into himself in a usable form. She realized only a few weeks ago that she'd inadvertently trained him to do this through her own practice of gathering his anxieties when he needed help to untangle them. He'd told her many times that she softened things for him, and it seemed as though he'd learned how to do it himself. Now he'd combined this technique with meditation, and it had proven very efficient for him. He sometimes took a good two hours alone in his glen to meditate more deeply, but Din typically preferred these short shots through the Elemental Force. It was usually more than enough to clear his head and bring him back plumb. Aldor had never known another Force wielder who meditated this way, because Jedi at the Temple were taught to simply "seek the Force." But drawing from these wild, ancient spirits of creation when she tried Din's method for herself, Aldor found she could travel farther and more quickly through the Force. It was centering and cleansing, and worked as splendidly for her as it did for her impatient Mandalorian.
By virtue of this unique method, Din spent only a couple minutes between the suns and the springs while Aldor reset the Gauntlet again. He was on his feet and putting his armor back on for the final run just as she dropped the last piece into place. He was practically springy as he fit his helmet back over his head and looked up at her, asking her to set the timer. She did as he didn't ask and gave him a reverent nod. "Whenever you're ready, my Mandalorian."
"Thank you, my Lady," he murmured more deeply than the favor warranted.
Sensing his tone, Aldor asked, "For what, my Love?"
"For handling me."
Aldor smiled down at the black visor pointed up at her. "I do what I can, my Mandalorian."
"That's a lot, my Lady."
Then he gave his nod, she started the timer, and he was off again, blowing through the first few target traps like he'd done it half a million times before. The only thing that hung him up was a remote she'd set to descend from above the ceiling of the Gauntlet. It was rather a nasty one she'd configured with six sub-remotes that rained angry sparks on him all the way down. He didn't sense it coming until right before all the sub-remotes started firing, and he got a quick shower of little shocks across his beskar before he brought all seven of them down with a surgically thrown vibroblade and two graceful swings of his light saber. From there, it was pure poetry. A poetry of beskar and muscle and light and dark decimating targets and obstacles in beautiful combinations of Din Djarin. Her Mandalorian Elemental, proving half her old Masters wrong in exactly three minutes.
"So it is, my Love," she announced. "We hunt for ray together."
"Really?" Din asked. "Three minutes?"
"Yes," Aldor answered, holding out her wrist as if he could see it from this distance. But he quickly removed the obstacle by executing a perfect Force leap up to the top of the rock beside her. He took off his helmet and looked closely at her wrist unit. "See, my Mandalorian. You improved by nearly half a minute from your first run to your last. Quite impressive."
Din nodded in approval. "Well, I was hoping I could sit out the ray hunt, but I'm satisfied nevertheless."
"You should be, my Love," Aldor replied. "Those runs weren't easy."
"No, my Lady, they weren't. It's a little scary how good you are with those traps. Maybe a little of your darkness at work."
Aldor laughed. "Maybe so, my Love. I do get a slightly fiendish pleasure from designing diabolical traps for my students. And next time, you'll do it twice without your armor and once with it."
Din chuckled and bent to give her a quick kiss. "A brilliant teacher, my Lady." He smiled a moment more at her, clearly pleased with himself and with her and the Eye and everything. A beautiful thing to see her lover so content both in and out of his beskar. "But now it's your turn," he insisted.
Aldor heaved a great sigh, feigning reticence. But Din saw right through it. She hadn't run the Gauntlet in quite a while, so she was more than happy to oblige him. And giving up the frail ruse altogether, she smiled and planted another quick kiss to the handsome little divot in his bottom lip. "All right then, my Padawan. I'm honored to bring you more insight." She made a show of looking away from the Gauntlet as she moved the obstacles and targets around, only knowing she had a hold on some thing or other she could move. She sensed out places where the various pieces would fit through the run, and even though it was impossible not to know where some of them were, she managed several blind adjustments.
"If I can ever remember how to move things with the Force, I'll design a run for you."
"Your time is at hand, my Love," she promised. "I'm actually rather excited to see what kind of traps you can devise, clever as my bounty hunter is."
"More incentive to learn how to feel my way around the block."
"When you get past it, you'll break it. You won't have to feel your way around anything, my Mandalorian."
"I appreciate your faith in me, my Lady," he said more seriously. "Truly, I do. I want to uphold it as much for your sake as mine."
"I know you do, my Love," she answered, taking a moment to brush her fingers through the stubble along his jaw. "But my Mandalorian is often too quick to forgo his own sake for others'. It makes you noble and strong of character, but it also makes you vulnerable. I think it will be a challenge for you all your life." She kissed him softly and held his shattered eyes a moment longer. "Just keep that in mind when darkness calls, my Love. Evil loves to use selflessness to its advantage, and it simply oozes from you, my Love. So you must always be on your guard. But if you can master that, even the Emperor himself couldn't turn you."
Din closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to hers. "I can try, my Lady. But… you know my heart is my master. It's hard for me to defy it, but… I'll learn my moments."
"You exceed my expectations at every turn," she said, and kissed him once more. "So I know you will." With that, she turned and dropped down to the ground as he watched her, and rounded the corner to return to the entrance of the Gauntlet. "Now let's see if I can learn, my Padawan. I'll give you a nod when I'm ready."
Din set his helmet down on the rock and punched a few sequences into his vambrace, then looked down at her and nodded. "At your command, my Lady."
Aldor took a minute or two to stretch and loosen up, taking her sabers in hand as she looked up at the Gauntlet, and hoped she could run it in less than a minute. She'd only managed it once, but it wasn't that long ago, and she was sure she could do it again. Teaching Grogu and Din had revived more of her power than she knew she lost, and she hoped she could build on it. Her family did make it easier. Gave her reasons where she'd had none since Jumper died. Her surrogate father would have been so proud to see her teaching others. He always thought she would make a good Master, and she was thrilled to finally prove him right by learning from her students.
Among the many things she'd learned, one of them was that Din's elemental method was as natural for her as it was for him. Before he came, she always sensed the elemental energy and could sometimes use it. She could always feel and hear it. But she'd never thought about using it the way Din did. Drawing from these tangible things to feed an intangible Force. Drawing from them, but not compromising or weakening them. Everything within the elemental Force was built on equilibrium, and whatever a wielder took had to be repaid. But every time these exchanges took place, both wielder and element got to keep some of what they borrowed, so long as the ratio was balanced. It was an extraordinary feeling. To be simultaneously empowered and humbled by the forces driving life itself.
These revelations brought to her by a 46-year-old Mandalorian revealed a whole new layer of the Force, and Aldor had never felt stronger. The springs rumbled intensely underfoot, building her fire while the gas giant made her lighter. Filled with air and Spirit, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then nodded her signal and tore into the Gauntlet. She did encounter a surprise or two along the run, but sensed them well ahead of time thanks to the resonance of the rock. It told her without fail when something was coming, and she managed to break through every surprise without much trouble. She was worried about the target traps, but used her sabers to deflect the bolts to the targets, and didn't waste too much time getting through. When she landed in the moss outside the exit, she immediately looked up at Din, who was staring dead at her with his finger still pressed into a switch on his vambrace. A hard rumble rolled across the ground, but he didn't move. To rouse him, she asked, "How'd I do?"
"Forty-five… forty-five seconds…"
"I think that puts me in a tie with myself. I'll take it." She gave him a triumphant smile as he continued to stare at her, and she knew he was as ready as she was to get home and into bed. To punctuate their mutual desire, his gilded dark matter blanket wrapped around her in a seductive embrace that felt like his hands. "Mmm… I'll take that too," she murmured. She was prepared to jump back up to the top and tackle him, but a noisome task beckoned, and she trotted back into the Gauntlet. "I just need to grab a few of these remotes for us to repair and reprogram. I won't be a minute, my Love. Then I want you to take me home and…"
The next thing she knew was a white hot pile of beskar rushing at her with a deep, insistent kiss, licking greedily into her mouth as she groped for his shoulders. He hiked her legs up around his hips, and before she could gasp at the feel of his rock solid erection nudging into her through their clothes, her back hit the wall of the Gauntlet, and his mouth was everywhere. Nibbling and biting her neck, sucking her earlobes, licking her throat and behind her ears as he instinctively pumped his hips against her, and she fought to get his fly open until she finally succeeded. He clumsily pulled and yanked at her leggings, but to no avail, and at last he grew frustrated, and took both hands to the inseam and ripped it apart, leaving her mound exposed and pulsing. In the next instant, Aldor went blind and deaf with the bliss of his gorgeous, thick cock tearing her open to the Universe.
In forty-five seconds, he'd gone from mildly aroused to painfully hard.
Din knew nothing. Nothing except the loud rumble from the Pupil and his lover's tight body, hugging him in honey. Fire and magma and smoke and steam and ribbons and dark matter suddenly filled his chest to the point of pain as he slammed himself hard into her over and again, devouring her neck in his kiss as her fingers gripped his hair and she cried out in pleasure, so wet he felt her dripping from his cock with every brief withdrawal.
He was lost, but he was found, and even through the madness of lust, he knew there was a thousand times more inside him than there used to be. Inside himself and between them, doubling every second. Now all of it wanted to explode through the surface at once. So much pressure and power as she practically sobbed through a climax that nearly brought him after her. It was too much. But he tried to hang on to it, terrified of letting go. Terrified if he let it out, he wouldn't get to keep anything. But there was just too much now as he heaved and stroked and kissed and fucked, and in the back of his mind he became worried he might actually spin into a black hole and tear her apart in the process. Because right now, buried to the hilt in rapture, he couldn't stop himself.
Let go… still be there... all… will come back... don't… don't… "Ahhh!"
He hammered her into the boulder as she begged him to fuck her harder, give the overflow to her. Let it tear through her until she was nothing but energy. She gripped his hair like she would die if she let go, and pushed her back hard against the rock to roll her hips deep into his, rendering him momentarily blind as she squeezed him mercilessly in pulsing softness, bringing him dangerously close to the event horizon. The tendrils of his own dark matter became tangled in her silk until their separate elements became indistinguishable. Just when all this emotion was ready to tear the galaxy apart, he sent a wave of it sliding across the junction between them and into her. Let some fly out to the suns and the Pupil. Sent a few strands back into the known Galaxy. The pressure subsided as she sobbed deeply, trembling as all he'd given her filled her veins. The expression on her face was beautiful. Her mouth half-open as she tossed her head skyward, almost in tears with her eyes screwed shut as her orgasm gushed over his cock, and he began to feel new sensations. Warmer and tenderer ones that helped him fight the pull to oblivion, and gradually slowed his pace as he gripped her body in his hands, staring into glacial ice shattered under fire.
He pushed them off the rock face, and sank to his knees, still holding her. Still anchored deep between her legs as he lay her down in the soft moss and devoured her in languid kisses that had her falling through galaxies again while he drowsed in the ecstasy of her flavor and her body, aware of nothing but how good it felt to be inside her. Her warmth and softness, writhing and trembling, taking every inch of him as he thrust hard and deep, and groaned under the beautiful peace that closed in and held them aloft, together in empty space as the pull became insistent, and drenched silk clamped around him as he watched his lover fall apart again. Her breath heaving and her eyes closed as she arched her back like some Bardottan sorceress, wrapped in magic and entranced as her gorgeous slopes and rises curved upward in beautiful relief against the dark moss beneath them. It was such a beautiful picture, a final hard thrust and a flood of honey dragged him through the black hole and flung him out over the Galaxy, tied to his lover with silken dark matter ribbons as he purged himself inside her. A shock of plasma ran through both of them at once until he was spent, barely conscious of anything but peace, and the woman he wanted to bind himself to irrevocably. Through time and space, he wanted her. Through every dimension and every Universe and every atom of existence, Din Djarin would be one with Aldor of the Eye. He kissed her with this thought, softly exploring her flavor as he infused her with everything he felt.
She sighed and followed him as he dropped to his side, pressing her hips to his to keep him between her legs, begging him not to leave her empty just yet. "Stay, my Love... stay inside me… how you feel… so… so good… so… precious… don't… don't leave…"
"Can't leave... can't move... just... just need this, my Lady... want to... stay always... stay with you... through… through everything…" He shuddered with a tiny squeeze of heat and softness that he felt in the tips of his hair, and tightened his arms around her. "Had to have you... after I watched... watched you run the Gauntlet... didn't... didn't mean to... only meant to kiss you... taste you... but... the Pupil... and you... fuck, Aldor... so beautiful… had to... had to..."
"Made me wait, didn't you? Wait to feel you in me... after watching that... my lover through the Gauntlet... in your armor and out of it... my Mandalorian... my Elemental... my Love... no matter what you are. Always be… my Love."
He devoured her in another deep, slow kiss, wrapping everything he was around her. Arms and legs and dark matter and molten gold and rock and fire and smoke. Everything that made him. Everything that belonged to her. And he felt himself filling up again in a tangle of pounding heartbeats and ribbons and bands. He had to get more out, and spoke the words he rarely knew how to say to relieve the pressure. "I love you, Aldor. I say it even though it doesn't come close. No words for it... no words for what's in my heart."
"Can feel…" she whispered, still half drunk on pleasure and plasma as she scattered sweet kisses across his chest. "Feel it… don't need words… never… never did…"
In spite of her assurances, he needed to say more even though he was out of words again. "Here," he whispered at last with no decision and no hesitation, and pulled her ear to his left pectoral to cradle her against his heart. "It has its own language, my Lady. Do you understand everything it wants to say to you? Do you know how safe you keep it? Nothing can touch me while you have my heart, Aldor. Nothing but you. Me. Our son. The Force."
