Parental Duties
By Rey
Chapter summary: Grogu wants friends. Plural. A big family, too.
Warning for: glimpses of bad situations and things happening to children
1. Grogu: The Call
Shiny wants Grogu to call for a teacher, not only to teach Grogu but also to "return" Grogu to "Grogu's own kind." Shiny is stupid. Shiny is stubbornly persistent about it, too, like about so many other things. It's so irritating. Grogu doesn't want to go! Grogu wants to stay with Shiny! Grogu can muster himself alone, he can! Lots of masters have taught Grogu, after all, though Grogu wasn't always a good student.
Well, but Grogu can do with friends. More friends. Lots of friends. Wary and reasonably skilled friends who won't get killed so easily, like Grogu's previous friends. The Sorgani children were nice, but they were sheltered children, just like the Temple's crechelings, and Grogu knows how easy it would be to kill them, to use their trust against them.
So Grogu dives deep and wide into the Force, just after his bottom plops softly on the stone, calling and calling and calling and calling and calling as he goes. `Come here, please. Keep me company. Keep me safe. I'll keep you safe! I have an awesome guardian. We can share him! I want a family! I need a family! It's so alone here! We can go travel and play and make home together!`
Like calls to like, many people said. And now Grogu finds out how true it is, as one lonely, scared, desperate, traumatised soul reaches back to him from the depths of not only space but also time, then another, another, another, another, another….
`Where are you? I want a friend! The other scavangers are mean! I can help you scavange if you want! Got good tricks I can teach you! We can even share my home!`
`The trainers say I mustn't help others! But they need my help! Can you help? Help us please? it's so scary here! The adults are so mean!`
`My elders all died. I'm the only one left. It's so lonely here. I'm so hungry, too. Is there enough food for you and your guardian, there? Can I have some? Can we share your guardian? I won't be mean to you or your guardian, I swear! My elder sisters often said I'm too nice. But, well, they're dead, now. Nobody can tell me what to do! But, does your guardian want me to be less nice to the brothers or something like that? I can do that, too! But, um, I'd rather not….`
`The Elders never stop hunting us! We need help! I don't know where the others are. I sent them away. The Elders will find me soon. Where are you? Are you safe? Is your guardian kind to you? Would he help us against the Elders, do you think?`
`My master put me here in preparation for my knighthood trials. She told me not to be scared. But I'm scared! I don't want to face Sith creatures by myself! Is your master nice? He's also your guardian so he must be nice… right?`
`My master – no, my father – is dying! Can you help? Please? Pretty please? I don't want to be alone anymore! We still got a planet to free, too!`
`They call me Glitch cause I'm glitchy. I don't know why I'm glitchy. Nobody tells the Kaminiise about it though. I'm grateful, really! But do you know what's glitchy about me? Can you help? I don't want to be glitchy! I'm not a faulty product!`
`Hello? Little one? Where are you? Are you really safe? We can come get you, if you're not! Well, we're still in the middle of a war, but I got good relatives I can put you with for the time being. It'd give me an excuse to visit them, too! I miss them so much! It's so scary, out here. The Sith feel so horrible! I'm not ready to confront them! neither of us are!`
`Does your guardian need the services of a healer? I'm a healer's apprentice! I can pay for my tryad if you'd let us stay there for a while!`
`I'll help, too! Um, I can mix remedies? Well, I'm good with plants, really, so if you also need to fetch or grow or bargain for good vegetables and fruits and grains? I could even make you a garden if you'd like to settle down somewhere or have a big ship with the space for it!`
`Hey, do you have some food over there? I'm hungry. Will your dad mind another mouth to feed? I can work to repay him for food and shelter! I don't take much, honest!`
`Um. I'm not really good at sabrework, but I'm good at mechanics. Do you have needs of a mechanic there? Can I stay there for a while? Are there stormtroopers there? I don't want to die! They were our brothers and then they suddenly got blank and they killed us all! Can your guardian help keep me safe too? At least for a little while?`
`Grey killed Master Depa! Why?! Why why why why why why! We're family! Force, why?! They're chasing me now – no no no no no! I'm not here I'm not here I'm not here! Shoo! Go look elsewhere! Force, why isn't this working? How did Master Depa trick that pesky nosy wannabe tattletale? Ooh, where are you? Can I go there? Promise I'll do that only if they aren't immediately chasing me! Two is better than one, no? Then we can run together! Maybe with your guardian, too? Are they safe?`
…And the only thing that Grogu can say to it all, at first, is, `Oh!`
And then his mind spins and spins and spins and spins and spins, cautious and concerned and delighted and hopeful and plotting.
If Grogu does this right, presents this right to Shiny, manages to convince Shiny….
But then again, Shiny accepts whatever Grogu does with just a sigh, usually, no? And Shiny can't say no if whatever it is has happened already?
Shiny is leaving, anyway. Hopefully just back to the ship for a little while! But, just in case, Grogu urges his new friends, `Come quick! Reach out to me! We don't have much time! Mean people chase us, too, but Shiny is good and we can always run! More people is better than just two, right? Shiny wants me to have friends, too!`
Well, that last part is really just from a certain point of view, and some or perhaps all of the kindred souls notice it – the downside of mind-to-mind communication! – but they consent anyway, so why not?
And then one, two, three, four… thirteen beings trudge through the Force, using their own powers and aided by Grogu's, and materialise in their own ways and places all round him.
`Success!` all fourteen new friends chorus when they realise this, in various degrees of delight and relief and exhaustion and curiosity and wariness. Then, `Awwww!` comes the inevitable headache of overextended, overused Force powers.
It's fortunate that the three encased in starfighters don't crash when they land and hop out, that the three bearing prime blasters don't shoot, that the three bearing sharpened metal poles doesn't swing those or point them anywhere dangerous, that the four skittish recently masterless padawans don't lash out wildly with the Force, that Grogu doesn't pass out before he can get them all to Shiny.
It's also fortunate that all Shiny does once he sees the troop of beleaguered beings trudging down towards him is, "They're all midgets, Grogu! I told you to search for a Jedi!"
Well, Shiny should have specified, no? Now Grogu has lots of friends – no, siblings, like in the creche – just like the good old days, and they will fight to stay together!
With Shiny for guardian, of course.
Just as it should be.