#and then he tries to get them to take him along on their At Attin adventure

[cross-d-a]

Hondo Ohnaka my beloved when will you return from the war

[stardustloki]

Pirates don't get sick - Chapter Two

When Jod falls seriously ill on their way to At Achrann, it’s up to the kids to figure out how make him get better.

They could have done a worse job of it, all things considered.

-

Gen, Teen, No Archives Warnings

Characters: Jod, Neel, Wim, Fern, KB, SM-33

Hurt/Comfort, Angsty start, Fluff later on, Happy ending

Read chapter 1 on ao3 here or tumblr here.

Read chapter 2 on ao3 here or under the cut.

-

Fern sighed, gripping the straps of her backpack as she trudged towards the town, the muddy grass squelching beneath her boots.

The conditions didn’t seem to be bothering Wim, who raced ahead of her under the drizzling rain, brandishing a long stick in one hand and making slicing motions to accompany his stupid lightsaber noises.

Boys. They were always so childish.

She wished she could have made the journey to get medications and other supplies with sensible KB, but they’d both known that the humidity of the air and the freezing rain would have been dangerous to her augs.

Wim had actually tried to convince her that he and Neel should go by themselves, as if they could be trusted to get the right things, the things that Jod actually needed! It was a good thing that she was the captain, she’d been able to put her foot down on that idea, despite Wim’s complaints that he did the shopping for him and his dad ‘all the time’.

Yeah right, as if someone would trust a twelve year old boy with shopping, especially the one who was in the process of ‘dismembering’ a tree. At least Fern had the experience of haggling over parts for her and KB’s racing bike.

This was why she had been in charge of writing down the shopping list on Wim’s datapad, and why she would make sure that everything was carefully checked off when they finally reached the store.

Thankfully, it didn’t take them too long to get to the edge of town, and, despite the uncomfortableness of the rain, she had to admit it was nice being out of the ship for once, somewhere that was actually habitable, and looked and smelled nice. Nothing like Kh’ymm’s moon, or worse, the pirate spaceport.

It was strange, walking along these streets.

Some things reminded her of home, like the people she saw, the vehicles that hovered past, or the wet leaves that lined the paths underfoot.

But some things didn’t. They made her feel strange and out of place, that there were things about this town that weren't right, things that made her long for At Attin and home, a place that was now about nine hours away. It was the clothes that people wore, brightly coloured and strange, and the way the buildings weren’t made out of ferrocrete and instead something else, probably painted planks of wood from the forest they’d just walked through. Fern hadn’t known that people could build things out of that. It felt… wrong.

Still, they managed to find a general store without too much trouble, and the shiny droid that greeted them inside confirmed that they should be able to find everything they needed, from soup to sparacetamol.

Score 1 for Fern.

-

“What’ll you be wanting cleanin’ supplies for then?” KB heard SM-33 demand. He and Neel were walking back inside the ship, having said goodbye to Fern and Wim. For every loping stride that ‘33 took, Neel was forced to take four to keep up.

“We want to clean the ship,” KB told him, feeling her shoulders relax as the exit ramp closed and she was once again cut off from the humidity of the outside air. “It’s not healthy.”

“Arrghh. Good pi-pirates don’t worry about their ‘ealth.”

“Well, we do,” Neel protested earnestly. “We want to get Jod’s room clean so he can get better quicker.”

“Who cares about ‘im?” ‘33 learnt forwards slightly. It would have been intimidating if they didn’t know that the droid would never hurt them. “Me ol cap’n would’ve left ‘im there an’ given ‘im some rats for company.”

Neel’s ears flapped up in surprise as he took a step back.

“Well, we’re not your old captain,” KB told him. “So show us where we can find them please. There must be some on here, right?”

KB frowned as ‘33 begrudgingly led them to a closet the old captain had clearly considered to be ‘off limits’. It wasn’t that she cared about Jod. He was a liar, and she didn’t trust him one little bit. She didn’t even like him either. But she didn’t think that you should just leave people to suffer by themselves, especially not with medical problems.

Pirates might be cruel, they might think it funny to take someone who was sick and then make them even sicker. But KB wasn’t a pirate. She was kind, and she helped people when they needed it.

She watched as ‘33 levered the old door open, and tried not to think about what a pirate like the droid’s old captain might do to her if they knew how important her augs were.

The door creaked open and the light inside flickered on, its gloom revealing a lot of dusty machinery and small cupboards.

“There, wha’d I t-tell you? Load of ol’ junk.”

“Thank y-”

“Except for that one,” he continued, raising his hand slowly towards a large metal box. “That one be good for gettin’ rid of bloodstains and gore.”

She stared at it, tilting her head sideways, before taking several careful steps forwards, weaving her way around the other machinery - some of which looked like it could be a handheld auto-duster and a vacuum droid - until she reached it. Carefully, she brushed away the grime on top of it, her eyes lighting up as she did so.

“Hey, Neel, it’s a clothes-refresher!”

She grinned at him, and he grinned back. “Wizard! I hope it still works.”

“Thank you, ‘33,” KB said, turning back to the droid. “Can you go check on Jod and make sure he’s alright?”

“Aye,” he said, tone more than a little resentful, before turning and walking down the corridor. “If that be all I be needed for nowadays.”

“And don’t scare him again,” Neel called after him, stepping from foot to foot a little anxiously. “That wasn’t very kind of you!”

The droid didn’t reply.

“We can trust him with Jod, right?” Neel asked her.

“Sure,” she said, not feeling sure at all.

And with that they got to work.

KB dug out some cloths from one of the cupboards, and wiped off most of the accumulated grossness from the clothes refresher. Neel tried - and failed - to get the vacuum droid to turn on, but verified that the auto-duster still had power in it when he turned it on and got it stuck to his trunk.

That done, they headed back to the bedroom.

Even with two of them, it was difficult to strip the bedclothes, especially because it seemed every time they moved them slightly, dust billowed up into the air, making them both cough and splutter. KB could feel some of it getting into her eyes and down her throat, and she wondered if any of the particles could get inside her augs.

Well.

She wouldn’t worry about that now.

Things would be better for her when everywhere was clean, and things couldn’t be clean unless she did something about it. Especially because if she stopped then Neel would either think she was lazy or she’d have to tell him about-

No. She couldn’t do that, because then he might not like her as much anymore. There was nothing KB liked less than explaining.

So, she would just have to be fine.

Neel helped her drag the dirty linen back to the cupboard, and together they just about managed to stuff it all inside. She had almost pressed start when-

“Wait!” Neel lay a frantic hand on her arm. “We need detergent. I’ve seen my parents use it when I help them do the laundry. We have to do a lot of it, because of little baby Tuloo.”

KB nodded, and they started to search the cupboards again.

Finally, Neel let out a happy trumpeting sound, and spun around, a grimy bottle in his hands. From the patches that he’d wiped away, KB could read:

Astro-shine Detergent!

For the freshest laundry on At Atti - no! Her eyes widened in surprise as she realised that she’d just been reading what she’d expected to be there.

At Achrann.

Huh.

“Do you think this comes from one of the lost planets, the planets just like ours?” she asked.

Neel shrugged, tilting his head as he considered the bottle.

“Maybe,” he agreed. “I guess we can figure it out when we get home. Right now we have bigger problems.”

He thrust the bottle, lid first, into her face.

Oh. She could see the issue.

“Child Proof.”

-

Jod came back into consciousness several times, but each time he did the pounding of his head and the exhausted ache in his limbs pushed him back down into a fitful sleep.

Each time he escaped, though never for long, he couldn’t be quite sure of what happened in his dreams. This was probably for the best. But in the same way, each time he managed to blink his eyes open, he wasn’t quite sure of where he was, or what was happening.

Finally, the ache of his throat grew too strong, and he successfully clawed his way back into wakefulness. He could feel a mattress underneath him, and piles of blankets on top. That was a good sign, right? That meant that wherever he was he was probably safe. The blankets were good too - he was just. so. cold., his body aching and wracked with shivers, and, more than anything, he hated being cold.

He made himself roll over and push his head up, to look around for something to drink. It was hard work, especially because midway through he had to stop to cough his lungs out.

Okay, so whatever had happened, he was seriously sick. So badly so that he probably wouldn’t be able to pretend he was fine, nor would he be able to defend himself.

Okay, that was fine, he’d be okay.

He’d just find something to drink and then go from there.

He pushed his head up again.

His eyes settled on a dark shape several feet away from him. A shape that became a droid. He knew that droid.

SM-33.

He watched, through swimming vision, as the droid rose to its feet and stepped towards him.

Shit.

-

Wim nodded his head to the music of the store’s sound system as he made his way round the store, the hovercart floating behind him. The music the people on this planet liked was kinda weird, to be honest, but it was starting to grow on him.

He stopped off next to the soup and picked some random flavours off the shelves - they looked good enough to him! Next he made his way down to the bakery section to pick up some fresh bread. No more of those hard biscuit-y things for him, no thank you. After that, he was planning on checking out what cereals they had. Sure, they were meant to be home soon, but there was no harm in picking up some extra chocolatey-sugary goodness.

He didn’t know what Fern was so worried about, he was fine with shopping. Sure. Sometimes he occasionally forgot something important, or came back with an extra candy bar or action figure that he technically hadn’t been meant to get, but he did well enough. And besides, he wasn’t going to forget something important with Jod looking as rough as he did.

Okay, was he still kinda annoyed that the guy wasn’t an actual Jedi? Sure he was. But Jedi or not he could still move stuff with his mind, and he’d broken them out of prison. Plus, he did seem pretty cool. Wim could probably get over the fact that he wasn’t a Jedi at some point. So, of course he wasn’t gonna forget to pick up something he needed to get better!

Eventually, content with the amount of food (and candy) they had, Wim found Fern next to the medications. She was reading the back of one of the packets with extreme concentration.

Also, as much as she claimed she didn’t jump when he said her name, she totally did.

After Fern had taken way too much time checking off their list, they made their way to the droid at the front of the store, placing their hovercarts next to it so it could scan the items.

Less than a second later, it looked back up at them.

“According to Republic Law, under 16s are not permitted to purchase sparacetamol. Please provide a valid form of identification in order to make this purchase.”

Wim’s heart sank, but Fern took a step forward, looking up at the droid confidently.

“Here’s my ID,” she said, taking out her library card from one of the pockets of her rucksack, and placing it down on the desk. “I’m sixteen, see.”

“This is not a valid form of identification,” the droid told her. “It has no proof of age.”

“It is a valid form of ID,” Fern argued, while Wim watched with his mouth open. “It’s from At Attin, which is a Republic world. And on At Attin, you can only get library cards like these on your sixteenth birthday. So, you can let us have the medicine.”

“There are no records of any At Attin in the Republic,” the droid’s tone was as emotionless as ever. “Please return with a valid form of identification or a parent or guardian, in order to make this purchase.”

Wim looked over at Fern, his face twisted up into a grimace.

What were they meant to do now?

[rooksunday]

shout out to you if you guessed “din and grogu nonsense” from my tag game 😌 i was DETERMINED to get this missing day done! my mom (!) gave me the idea of linking ‘mint’ to skelly crew 🫡

fluffcember: mint

The sun had long since set but Grogu still fussed in his bassinet. Din checked the usual suspects—blankie tucked in, water drank, fangs cleaned—then scanned again for any beings approaching the perimeter that Grogu's senses might've noted but somehow evaded the perimeter security. Nothing stirred.

Din leaned over the bassinet. Used to be that he worried, looming like that, but something about his shadow seemed to calm the kid.

"What do you need? You gotta give me something to work with here," Din tried.

Grogu gave him the stink face.

Din gently rubbed the spot between Grogu's eyes. Sometimes it helped. "You're a tough negotiator, I know, and feared across the galaxy, but even Jango Fett used to get eight hours a night."

The stink face became marginally more fragrant and Grogu's ears lowered. The signs of imminent sleepiness hit Din like finding the first lingering trace of a mark. He didn't let himself get excited. Gotta play it cool, Djarin.

"You've heard of Jango Fett?"

Grogu nodded, but uncertainly. Like the name was a song he didn't remember the words to.

"Jango was Boba's buir," Din explained. "And a very famous bounty hunter. Boba will tell you he was the best in the galaxy." Din allowed himself to shrug one shoulder. There were only the two of them to hear as he leaned in and lowered his voice. "But I never heard about him taking out a krayt dragon."

Sure, the krayt dragon wasn't strictly a bounty, but it still counted as hunting, and Din planned to keep the story in his pocket to buy at least one more drink on Vanth's credits. The whole thing had happened so quickly, and been so necessary, that Din hadn't had time to consider the scale of the task, but the dark nights and cold sweats since had nudged the events firmly into free drink territory.

That gave him an idea.

"What about a story, kid? Something to take to dreams with you?"

Din grinned as those big ears went up even as Grogu snuggled down into his blankets. After helping tuck the blankets more firmly around Grogu's shoulders—with a brief diversion to poke the little tummy on the way—Din crouched beside the bassinet, his knees protesting the movement. He hooked one of his hands through the slats to brush his finger along Grogu's ear. Soft starlight seeped into the room from the open window, along with the permanent scent of burning from the lava flats.

"Let's see. What kind of story would our brave adventurer enjoy this evening? A kissing story?" Din huffed a laugh at the return of the stink face. He tugged gently on Grogu's ear. "No kissing story for Grogu the Indomitable. An adventure, then."

He thought for a moment, reaching into the shadowy dark where he kept the memories of his own buir. That rumbling voice. The comforting scent of spices and engine oil. Their armour that had shone like a new credit…

Din grinned as the perfect story came to him. He leaned in toward Grogu and paused as Grogu's big eyes gleamed back at him, expectant, patient, beloved. Even without the familiar language of a helmet, Din could recognise the love on Grogu's face. Had Din looked at his own buir like that once? He must have. How else would he recognise it so easily?

Maybe one day, Grogu's foundlings would look at their buir that way.

Play it cool, Djarin.

Din made himself focus on the present. On the moonlight. On his kid. He grinned again, maybe wobblier than before, and lowered his voice.

"Here's a story about the pirate Captain Tak Rennod and his search for the treasure of At Attin…"