"Do you like flying?" Harry asks Grogu inside their secret club fort. "We can have a flying club."
Harry knows from the big kids at the X-School that clubs are when people who like the same things make a group to play together. Like a basketball team.
Grogu coos. Harry doesn't know what to do. He's never played with a baby before. He gets out some of his toys to show to Grogu. "Look, I have a toy Iron Man. He can fly, but our club's only kids. Storm can fly, too, but I don't have her or that Thor guy."
Harry looks down at his hero figures. He's missing a lot of the heroes who just fought the aliens. He picks up his Wolverine toy. "Steve painted Batman to be Wolverine. And this one's Steve."
Grogu takes the little plastic shield and tries to eat it like a biscuit.
Harry grabs it. "No! Look, I have trains, too. This is Thomas, and this is Edward and this is James, like my Dad and my dead Dad." He shows Grogu how to stick them together with the little magnets, and how to push them around.
"They can't go on their own." he tells him, before thinking Grogu could probably make them move with his force magic. It's not fair. Why can't he use force magic?
Grogu picks up a train with his hands and gazes at the shiny circle magnet like it's the best part of the train. He puts it in his mouth.
"Don't eat it!" Harry tugs the toy out of Grogu's hands. He holds it tight, thinking Grogu will yank it back with his Force powers, but he doesn't.
"Are you hungry?" Harry asks. Why else would Grogu eat toys? "We have cake!"
Harry bursts out of the fort fort. "Let's eat the cake! 'Cos none of you died! Logan, you can cut it!"
Dad cuts the cake instead. As he's waiting, Harry tells Grogu. "This is cake. Me and Dad made it. We beat the eggs, but it didn't hurt."
Dad's arm whirs, and his metal hand cracks the countertop. Then he frowns, turning to apologize to Mr. Stark, who waves it off.
"And we used flour, but it's not flower dust. And milk from cows. Cows go moo! Mooooo!"
"They don't have cows." Mr. Stark says, and Mr. Mando nods slightly. "They have Banthas that make blue milk."
Grogu can't moo, or say anything. Harry grins and boasts "I made a cake and you can't!"
Everyone gets a slice, but Mr. Mando still doesn't take his helmet off.
"Not even for cake?!" Harry asks in disbelief. Cake is the best thing he's ever had, even better than when he and Dad have hot cocoa after bad dreams. "What about your birthday? I wish I had birthday cakes."
"You will now." Mr. Stark promises. He sets down his fork to mess with some part of the ship.
Grogu grabs fistfuls of cake and brings them to his mouth. Harry tries to show him how to use a fork, but he isn't a big boy like Harry.
Harry eyes Mr. Mando. "Are you really a robot?"
"No." Mr. Mando says, as if Harry's called him the worst thing ever.
"But you aren't eating cake." Harry points out. Only a robot wouldn't want cake.
Mr. Mando looks down at his slice. "It looks good. I'll eat it later. Thank you for sharing it."
"I won't watch when you take off your helmet." Jarvis says. Moody doesn't make any such promise.
Even though Harry can't see his face, he thinks Mr. Mando isn't happy to hear Jarvis. Harry can't imagine not wanting to hear Jarvis.
"Jarvis told us how to make the cake." he says, because surely that will show Mr. Mando that Jarvis is great. Mr. Mando just tilts his head.
"Why can't your suit fly?" Harry asks.
"I don't have a jetpack yet." Mr. Mando says. Like Dad, he doesn't say much. Mr. Stark says something about Jango and Boba. He seemed surprised about the bad aliens, but somehow seems to sort of know people like Grogu and Mr. Mando.
"You can't be in our flying club." Harry tells Mr. Mando.
"Grogu can't fly." Mr. Mando turns to look at Grogu. Grogu looks back at him with a mouth full of cake. He holds out a tiny green fist, offering cake to his dad.
"You said he made a mudhorn fly." Harry says. "And anyone can fly on a broom. Moody says I'm a great flier."
Harry hands his fork to Moody. "Can you please turn this into a Storm toy?"
Moody does, and Mr. Mando asks "Are you a Jedi?"
"Jedi can't do that." Mr. Stark gives Mr. Mando a weird look, as if he should really know that. "And they don't have wands."
Mando tilts his head. "I don't know Jedi magic."
Mr. Stark snorts. "You definitely aren't from the prequel era, then."
He sets down the part he's working on to stab some cake with his spoon. "I built my first suit with scraps in a cave, but the repairs on your ship won't happen overnight. So, Star Wars slumber party!"
"I highly doubt you'll participate in any slumbering, sir. "
"Of course not." Mr. Stark grins. "We're totally watching the movies, by the way. I guess they're a history documentary for you, only way more interesting than what Steve watches. And apparently you need the history lesson, since you're woefully ignorant about Jedi."
Steve just shakes his head.
"We're not watching the prequels." Mr. Barton says. "There are only three Star Wars movies, no matter what my-"
Mr. Barton cuts himself off, but Tony grins. "Come on, Legolas. You know about their secret sons. Time to reveal your own."
Mr. Barton glances at them, then rubs his neck. "I have a son, Cooper, and a daughter, Lila. Sadly, they love the prequels."
Harry doesn't care about whatever a prequel is. "Are they babies too?" he asks, still not sure how to play with Grogu. He'd probably knock down anything Harry made while using books as bricks.
"Lila's about your age, and Cooper's a bit older."
"Can they come play?"
"No, they're hiding. I don't even mention them, most of the time."
Harry frowns. "We're hiding too. We can hide together."
"The remains of the Empire want you too." Mr. Mando doesn't sound surprised.
"Nice to know that the Empire wasn't really defeated, just like HYDRA." Mr. Stark mutters. Dad's jaw is tight, and his metal arm whirs again.
Harry turns to Mr. Barton. "Why can't your kids hide with us?"
Mr. Barton shakes his head. "This tower isn't exactly the safest place to hide."
"Excuse you, This tower has an unparalleled security network with an ever-watchful AI." Mr. Stark says, looking up from the part he's playing with. "Except he doesn't watch you in the shower, because Jarvis isn't a perv, and he seriously won't look when you take your helmet off, Fett."
"My name isn't Fett." Mr. Mando says.
"What is it?" Harry asks. Mr. Mando doesn't say.
Mr. Barton grins and chants. "The best Mandalorian… has a secret, his name's-"
Mr. Mando doesn't give a name. Mr. Barton and Mr. Stark start arguing about things called limericks and syllables and how Mr. Mando's name probably doesn't rhyme with Mandalorian. Sometimes, Harry doesn't understand grownups any more than babies.
He turns to Mr. Mando. "Did you forget, like Dad? I said he could be James, and he said okay, and he really was a James."
"I know my name. I just don't share it."
Dad studies him, his face almost as blank as Mr. Mando's helmet. "You picked your missions."
The Mandalorian nods once.
Harry points at the helmet. "You have a big T on your mask. Like in Thomas. Are you Thomas?"
"No." Mr. Mando says shortly.
"Are you another Tony like me?" Mr. Stark asks.
"No."
Harry rubs his scar. "Do you have a helmet with lightning like me?"
"No."
"A star like Dad?"
"No." Mr. Mando turns his head towards Dad's shoulder. "Stars aren't shaped like that."
"Yes they are." Harry argues. Maybe they don't have shapes where he's from. He points to his circle plate. "What's this shape?"
Mr. Barton smirks. "Enjoy the silence while you can. Once your little guy starts talking, you'll have to answer a thousand questions a day."
Grogu gurgles, which isn't silent.
"He may outlive me before he starts talking." Mr. Mando says, not even sounding sad. "He's already fifty."
Grogu's ears droop.
"He shall be welcome in Asgard, once you die on the fields of battle." Thor says.
Harry frowns. "This cake's 'cos nobody died."
Thinking about Mr. Mando dying makes Harry think about Dad dying, and he hates that thought. His first dad died, and he doesn't want to lose his new Dad.
Harry realizes he said this out loud, because everyone except Mr. Mando looks sadder. Mr. Mando says something about foundlings.
"I've got it!" Mr. Stark suddenly grins, then he sort of starts chanting.
"There once was a green infant.
Hunted with evil intent.
Mandalorian
Was to take him in.
But he became his parent."
Thor nods. "You are indeed a warrior worthy of ballads."
"I guess I'm a poetry genius, too." Mr. Stark says. "But let's watch the movies. They'll blow your socks off. Are you even wearing socks under all that armor?"
I don't share all of Clint and Tony's views in this chapter.
I came up with both Mandalorian limericks yesterday just for fun.
The full one for Clint was
The best Mandalorian
has a secret- his name's Din
He found a child
Out in the wild
The child became his kin.
I was debating about just posting them on their own, but thought it'd be fun to have the characters say them, so here we are.