the curious happenstance of pedro pascal and din djarin [The Mandalorian]

so long, farewell

"Hey, kid."

Two green ears poked over the edge of the bed and with them, two big round eyes. Din had heard the pitter and the patter of his little feet across the carpet, and suddenly, every fear, every insecurity, every paranoid glance at his phone, was forgotten.

"Did you climb the stairs by yourself?" Din couldn't see or hear any of the others, not even Winta. The fact that the kid was left unsupervised irked him, but he was too exhausted to be angry. "Here." He crawled to the edge of the bed and lifted the kid onto the mattress. "What's up? Just wanted to see me?"

But only two seconds later, heavy footsteps bounded up the stairwell, and Pedro appeared abruptly in the doorway, pale in the face. "Have you seen—" But he faltered, as he saw the kid in Din's arms. "Oh, thank god. You have him."

Din bit his lip, hard. "You weren't watching him?"

"I only turned my back for a second, I didn't mean to— I'm sorry. He's here, now, so..." He turned to leave, but paused just as he reached for the door handle. "Hey, uh..."

"No."

"What? You don't even know what I was gonna say."

"I can't tell you anything about it."

Pedro grabbed the door handle and gripped it tight, but didn't move an inch. With wide eyes and a locked jaw, he stared down hard at Din.

"Can't tell me anything. Right. So, you're gonna come home covered in someone else's blood and then— and then tell me that I'm not allowed to ask?"

"Are you mad?"

"Yes! Yes, I'm mad! You're a fucking moron! You tell me that you're spending time with Robert and— so was that a lie? Did you lie to me?"

"No. I was with Robert."

"So what the hell happened?"

What would telling him do? How bad could it be? Wasn't he owed an explanation? He was angry and scared and surely you can say something?

Din held the kid close to his chest. He felt the little fingers grab at his collar and pull it down.

"Strange is... gonna come soon."

He saw Pedro shift in the doorway. His hand fell from the handle and rested at his side.

"Okay," he breathed. "How... do you know?"

"Well." Din took a deep, deep breath. "Well. Christopher got shot. Seems like comeuppance to me, but I didn't say that then—"

"He got shot?"

"Yes, in his shoulder, and then the other one was dislocated, and also I think he's been coughing blood and not telling anyone— look, I don't get it either, but a long story made short, everything's fine now."

But Pedro gave him a blank stare. "You— you didn't answer a single question."

Din thinned his lips. "Strange knows we're here now. That's all that you need to know and all that matters."

He thought Pedro would get mad again, and he braced for the worst, but the anger never came. Just the worry.

Somehow, that was worse.

"Fine," he said. "Fine. Well. I guess they'll call you, then."

Din glanced down at his phone. Like the hundreds of times before, in the past hour alone. "Robert probably will, yeah."

-

Any other day, and he would've laughed.