Vibrant Eyes | Din Djarin

24: be.

Din landed the Razor Crest in the open plains of Arvala-7 surrounding the Ugnaught's home. 

As the ramp lowered and they followed him into the sand, he noticed that everything was as they left it. This planet truly was a quiet, secluded one. A couple blurrgs wandered in the pens off to the side, a light breeze swayed pieces of clothing left to dry, and mechanical scraps dotted the ground in an area he could only assume was where Kuiil had repaired IG-11.

As they ventured into the building built into the ground, a weight seemed to lift from Kuiil's shoulders. With familiarity he bustled off to grab something and Din and Venus were left standing in the center of the space to take it in more than they could before. The walls were vaguely cluttered with knick knacks and it was small, yes, but the space felt homely. Personal. 

Kuiil had carved out a life here for himself and it was beautiful in its simplicity. 

He briefly wondered what would have become of it if he died. Would the blurrgs die trapped in those pens? Would Jawas come through and add his life story, everything that once was his and held meaning, to the pile of lives they collected each day?

All of this would become another pile of junk, worthless without knowledge to the meaning that lived within it.

Din lowered himself to the seat he occupied before and watched Venus settle into Cara's chair opposite him. She didn't look around the crowded home like he did and merely stared out into the desert outside the door. A mist covered her expression as it often did but she wasn't smiling in the idle way he was familiar with. Instead, her lips were slack as she drew in a deep, quiet breath, and her brows pinched together.

There was a faraway look in her glimmering eyes of not distant horizons but distant pains. Old, festering wounds. 

It wasn't the first time he found himself wondering on the pains of her past, and he was sure it would not be the last.

Din turned his focus to Kuiil when he made his way over to them with a tray of cups in his hands, reminiscent of IG-11. The older creature set the tray down and filled his cup before settling down on the seat positioned in front of them. Venus filled her cup and held it to her face, letting the wisps of steam caress her features as she closed her eyes. 

Din eyed the cups in their hands almost longingly, imagining the calming warmth of the brew, but made no move to grab the last one.

"Where will you go now?" Kuiil asked after a moment of silence.

Venus tilted her body towards Din as if asking the same, slowly opening her eyes.

He would have held his silence longer, but her attention had his skin pricking. "I don't know where I'll start," he said. "But I've been quested by a Mandalorian Armorer to return the kid to its kind."

"An Armorer?"

"A Mandalorian figurehead."

Venus added cheerily, "Like me."

Din shot her a look.

"Not like me," she amended.

"A shaman, yes, kind of," he explained. "It's a role passed down through generations. They are the centerpiece of every covert and provide guidance. They also form every helmet and piece of armor you will ever see a Mandalorian don."

"And they bind clans together with their earned signets." She nodded to his shoulder and Din focused the gaze of his visor on her in surprise and confusion. "Like his mudhorn."

"How did you know that?"

For a moment she gazed into his eyes with a spark of challenge. Then her lips formed a sloping smirk and his hand tightened into a fist with dread. What was she up to this time?

"Don't I know everything?" she asked in a faint hum, lifting her cup up.

Din swallowed heavily in silence, neck prickling with heat and cheeks flushing at the memory.

Kuiil huffed and it might have been a chuckle. "Where is the child?"

"Asleep," Venus murmured over the rim of her cup, eyes falling shut once more. She took a small sip and sighed. "Dreaming of burning down worlds at IG-11's side."

Din looked at her. "What? Really?"

Her lip twitched. "Hmm. No doubt."

"I doubt it."

She took another sip. "Maybe, then."

"Not even a chance."

She looked up and smiled dreamily. "What?" she asked. If he didn't know better, he'd think she was teasing him. Okay, so she was, but he never would have thought she was there enough to do anything but infuriate him. "Jealous?"

Din scoffed but couldn't bring himself to deny the slim possibility.

"I'm sure he would burn worlds at anyone's side."

Kuiil focused on her with confusion. "The child?"

"Yes."

Din rolled his eyes.

"A baby?"

"Hmm."

"He can't even speak," Din deadpanned.

"Not to you, no."

Kuiil sat taller. "You speak to the child."

Venus nodded with a small smirk. Din studied her in silence, trying to find any sign of falsities. But try as he might, she seemed convinced of this. She believed she could commune with a baby entirely.

When had he forgotten how verifiably insane she was?

"And the child said he would do this?"

Venus shook her head. "No, and yet."

"It isn't impossible," Din admitted. The kid thrived in danger, loved it even. "The kid's the type."

Venus turned that blooming smile on him. Din swallowed and turned his helmet away from her purposefully, focusing on Kuiil. The creature's eyes darted between them, and he dreaded the thoughtful look that formed. It reminded him of when the Ugnaught made him tame his own blurrg to ride across the desert.

He really didn't like it.

"The violent type?" Kuiil asked.

Venus frowned, gaze flitting to land on the Ugnaught completely for the first time. "Not violent."

She sounded like she knew what it was to be violent. Like she knew the violent nature of others, even more than through second-hand experience. But Din couldn't entirely believe it. She was Venus after all.

Not once had he seen anything apart from floating, gentle touches from her. No anger. No sorrow.

Nothing.

No... had he ever seen any true emotion from her at all? 

Sure, she laughed sometimes. She smiled almost always. But that haunted gleam of remembrance never left her, not if he looked close enough to notice. Not when her eyes seemed to clear from that mist moments at a time.

"What is he?"

Pale eyes sought Din out and he couldn't have looked away if he wanted to. "I'll tell you later," she said.

Din didn't know what to say so he said nothing at all.