Vibrant Eyes | Din Djarin

33: life,

Silence fell like a plague between them.

Din thought of everything he'd learned, although most of it he still didn't understand. But that was alright with him. He didn't need to understand that to understand her. Even if he still didn't understand her. And likely never would.

But he wasn't worried about that. 

No, mostly he thought of what she must have been like as a young Padawan. Training for this Jedi council. Learning to harness the life around them (if he got that right). Losing her master, the one person she trusted, and then running. Only to learn that in doing so she left the rest to die.

Din knew war. He knew the toll it took, the training, the mental strength required to stay standing day after day. The fight and the fear.

He'd learned these things when he was ready. She was only 15. Cast off into the unknown to face the consequences. Wandering into a war she had no place in.

Into the tight grips of burdens that would never let her go.

Alone. Alone for so long.

He glanced at the door leading to the room he shared with the child. Grogu. His son. And she was his... his friend? His partner? Confidant. Travel companion. So much more than all of that?

She was simply everything and it was impossible to bind that down to one thing. Just as she was more than a deserter and a liar. She was more than kind and less than mystifying. Yet she was also all of this at once.

He would not bind her to one thing. Even if he never understood her, he could understand pain. 

He thought of the child asleep in that small room, tucked in at her hands and cared for by both of them.

She wasn't alone anymore. Neither was he. She needed to know that, didn't she?

Din wanted her to know as deeply as he was beginning to.

"The Mandalorians took me in when I was young," he began.

Venus looked at his eyes that knew pain and reflected it back so he could see the toll on another. And the wonderful magnificence of effortless understanding.

So, he told her everything there was to tell about growing up in this world she knew too well.

Afterwards, she continued her explanation. Kyber crystals and lightsabers. The call of the Force in its sheer strength. He still didn't understand a thing, but he couldn't care less.

"I've met another like him," she admitted.

"Grogu?" he asked, still unfamiliar with the name.

"Hmm. His name was Yoda."

"Green and wrinkly?"

She huffed a laugh. "Very."

"Even the ears?"

"Yes. He was... old. Older than some stars, some would say."

"So Grogu has a long life ahead of him."

"Most likely. It's impossible to know for certain."

"What else?"

"His lightsaber was green. Many padawans I knew strove for the color so they could claim ties to him," she said.

So kids were the same everywhere, even among... sorcerers. Jedi? He wasn't even sure anymore.

Din paused. "Colors?"

"Hmm. Would you like to see?"

"What?"

She had that weapon with her? She just—

His eyes fell to the thing clipped to her belt. He shifted in his seat. Surely it couldn't be...

When he looked up, Venus was smirking mildly. "Yes, it is," she answered.

Before he could stop her, she was standing to her feet in one solid move and her skirts swayed around her legs. Looking up at her then with her eyes glimmering openly in the dim lighting with almost mischievous intent, he thought he'd never seen a star in human flesh before. She'd always been a cosmos to him. But not only that, she borrowed the glow of every star in the sky and made it her own.

He really didn't want to think of the word that came to mind, then. But from that moment on it occupied every thought. Possibly for as long as he lived, it would. As long as Venus remained as eternal as her soul.

Venus unclipped the saber from her side for the very first time and he watched as her finger fell upon the switch. The world washed away in an instant into a world of purples and lavenders, her presence swallowing him whole. The blade of glowing violet, as violent as the storms he saw in her every breath, gave off a deep hum that echoed in his bones. 

Then she began to spin one of the deadliest weapons in the universe and he forgot about everything.

Even that one, little word.