Chapter Text
Boba dragged his hand over the top of his head, pulling his sweaty curls back. His hair was getting too long again. He'll need to shave it off sooner then later.
"We'll be at the destination in 11 hours and 37 minutes," calls Cal from the pilot's chair as the ship enters hyperspace.
"Good," Boba calls back, throwing his buy'ce on the bed. Enough time to rest. I wonder if I could persuade Cal to join me in the bed..., he wonders as he enters the cockpit, Cal easily moving to the co-pilot chair, BD-1 throwing a quick Beep! his way.
There hasn't been a need to check the ship's settings after Cal in a long time now, but the bounty hunter does so anyway out of habit. As he does, one strand of hair falls into his eyes.
"Fucking...," he grumbles, trying to blow the stubborn curl out of his eyes, unsuccessfully.
Cal watches the whole scene, slowly swiveling back and forth in the co-pilot chair. A smile is slowly forming on his lips.
"Y'know... I could cut it for you.... if you want, that is?"
Boba turns to him, both eyebrows raised.
"The hair? I can cut it for you," Cal repeats. Boba is absolutely disheveled; his hair is the longest Cal has seen so far, most of it stuck to Boba's head from wearing the buy'ce; except the front which Boba's attempts at getting it from his eyes left it in a bird's nest.
"Nah, I'm good, I'll just shave it off later," he brushes the offer off.
But it seems Cal wasn't willing to drop the idea just yet. "C'mon. Gimme a chance? If you won't like it, you can shave it right off."
Boba sighs, rolling his eyes. Stubborn jetii.
"I don't see why you insist, it's not like anyone ever gets to see ner jari'eyc troan."
Cal shrugs, looking to the side; trying to feign disinterest. Boba uses the moment to let himself look over Cal; his pale face is covered in freckles, with dark circles under his eyes, although no longer as obvious as when Boba picked him up about a month ago. His hair is a bit shorter than the usual; Cal cut it short about 3 or 4 days ago. What day was it, anyway?
Boba glances at the chrono, realizing it's been actually 5 days since Cal cut his hair. Osik...
Cal is back to looking at him, one eyebrow raised expectedly. "So."
"So," Boba answers back. Let the jetii fidget in his seat a little bit longer.
"Soooo, you gonna give it a shot and lemme cut your hair, right?"
Boba couldn't resist rolling his eyes at Cal and giving a great big sigh, even as he felt his lips twitching into a smile.
"You're awful," Cal laughs at Boba's grumble, playfully punching him in the shoulder. Before Boba could smack him back, Cal was already out of his chair and leaving the cockpit.
Bede's lenses turn to the bounty hunter. "Bwee-do?"
"Well, c'mon! Whatcha waiting for?" He can hear Cal's excitement in his voice.
"Wait, you mean we're doing it right now?" Although he can't see Cal from the cockpit, he can still hear the smile in his voice as he answers: "No better time then right now!"
Another sigh escapes through Boba's lips. Better get this over with. He glances at Bede, then at the controls one last time re-checking everything before getting up and following after Cal, Bede comfortably latching on top of his shoulder.
"Do we have a chair that's not nailed to something?" Boba can't help but snort at Cal's question.
"Is this your first day on the ship, Kestis?" Boba enters the small sleeping quarters.
"Can't blame a guy for hoping," Cal grins.
"Yeah, yeah, you jetiise are all about hope," mumbles Boba, looking around.
"Will a footlocker work for you?" He asks as he goes to pull it out from its hiding place.
"I suppose?"
"Boo-beep!"
"Heh, yeah, buddy. Definitely better than nothing." Cal picks Bede up to put him on top of the bed covers. Boba swallows his complaints about droids in the bed – that's a battle he knows from past experiences he'll lose.
As Cal's entering the 'fresher he calls after Boba to take his clothes off. Boba's eyebrows shoot to his hairline, but a smirk is quick to appear on his lips.
"If you wanted me naked you could have just said so earlier, I would be quicker to follow." Boba playfully waggles his eyebrows at his jetii, probably looking more ridiculous than anything close to sexy. Cal smacks his arm on the way back, ears bright red. "Boba! Not in front of Bede," the second part is angrily whispered. Boba barely contains his laugh, but he cannot stop the giggle seeing Cal's outraged expression.
As if the little droid didn't know what's going on between them.
"It'll be just easier to clean." Di'kut, or its appropriate Basic alternative, is not said out loud, but it is heavily implied.
Boba is quick to remove his armour, shoes and flight suit, Cal helping where he can. His skin tone helps to cover it, but Boba can still feel his cheeks burning up. Cal is always gentle when handling his armour, almost reverent; and the act of assisting him whether he's suiting up or down is... In his culture it is an act usually done only between spouses...
He never told Cal. Never explained. A selfish (foolish) part of him wants Cal to continue dressing and undressing him for the rest of time. Just two warriors - and he knows Cal is a warrior, same and different as Boba and no amount of insistence on Cal's part that the jetiise are peace keepers can hide the fact that Cal Kestis is a warrior, even if he chooses to fight for peace.
Once he's naked - biting down a comment about the ridiculousness of the fact he cannot even hint at sex in front of Bede, but being naked is apparently fine - he sits down on the footlocker.
Cal runs his hands through his hair, before taking the comb and methodically brushing his curls, untangling them. It is... nice. Boba lets his mind wonder while Cal works. He's not sure just how long Cal brushes his hair, but it definitely took much longer than it should (not that Boba's complaining!) before finally Cal reached for the scissors.
There was nothing beyond the sounds of the hyperdrive and snip snip snip as Cal gently pulls at small sections of hair cutting them short. The whole situation was almost ridiculously domestic. If anyone would tell him a few years back that one day he'll be sitting arse naked on his footlocker while a jetii cuts his hair, he'd take the back of his gun to their skull and crack it open.
"Can I shave your sides and back?" Cal asks, his voice gentle.
"Sure," shrugs Boba. He doesn't really care beyond the ability to see, to be frank.
(And okay, there are limits to what he considers acceptable – he does get to see himself in the mirror after all, but he doubts Cal will go anywhere near any extravagant fresh out of the newest galaxy fashion mag hairstyles.)
Cal quickly snips away the unwanted strands, lathering the short irregular hair left behind with shaving cream. The idea of Cal slicing his neck crosses Boba's mind, but the thought is gone as fast as it came. Cal still notices Boba tensing.
"Relax, I promise to be careful," Cal reassures, squeezing Boba's naked shoulder before going back to work. Cal takes his time shaving his hair off, being extra careful to not accidentally go over the imaginary line into the top hair.
"Done?" Boba asks when Cal wipes off the leftover shaving cream.
"Nope, just a little bit longer," Cal answers reaching back for the scissors. Boba couldn't stop the sigh from escaping his lips. His jetii was taking this too seriously...
Boba sits there in silence listening to the sound of the scissors. His eyes are slowly falling closed by the time Cal moves in front of him, checking his work and fixing a few places, running his fingers through his hair. When their eyes finally meet, Cal grins, poking him playfully on the nose.
"Okay, done!" Cal informs, brushing away some stray hair from his shoulder. "I'll clean around here," Cal shooes him away in the direction of the 'fresher with a wave of his hand.
The first thing he sees entering the tiny 'fresher is his reflection in the mirror. Cal kept the top just long enough for his curls to be obvious. The sides and back were clean-shaven with an obvious attempt on Cal's part to bridge the two sections with a fade, which was just a tiny bit blotchy. Considering the fact Cal had only scissors and a shaving razor to work with, he was damn impressed. Although he still thinks it'd be easier to just let him shave it off as he planned. But as long as ner jetii is happy..., Boba thinks as he enters the pitifully small shower cubicle to wash off.
When Boba comes out, the small sleeping quarters are clean, the footlocker put away with BD-1 nowhere to be found. Cal is sitting on the bed, legs crossed with a datapad in his lap and his mouth carefully shaping the syllables of Mando'a as he reads under his breath.
At some point Cal got comfortable around Boba enough to start asking questions about the Mando'a Boba slips into the Basic. And from there it wasn't long before Cal expressed an interest in learning the language. Boba still wasn't sure why Cal bothered – there weren't that many Mandalorians left in the galaxy and he doubts they wouldn't know Basic. But he still remembers the excitement Cal showed when he gifted him with the datapad. The jetii has been diligently learning and it wasn't unusual to see Cal with the pad in hand. He already knew enough Mando'a to understand most of the more creative insults that leave Boba's mouth, but he noticed a shyness about Cal when it came to speaking. He became terribly self-aware, but Boba was sure that would pass with time.
He sits down next to Cal and as Cal looks towards him, Boba cranes his head to kiss him, knocking teeth awkwardly before angling his head to kiss him properly. He tries to grab the pad from Cal's hands, but the jetii quickly moves it away from his reach.
"You should rest, y'know," Cal says once he pulls back.
"I will, once I have my wicked way with you," he answers, a smirk playing on his lips. Cal snorts, unimpressed. He lifts his hand to grab Boba by his curls, playfully pulling at them until Boba relents and lowers his head to Cal's thight.
"Are all Mandalorians such romantics, or is that just you? Now hush, I'm reading and you need to rest. I'll wake you when we're close to our destination," Cal smiles at him, before turning back to his pad. The hand in his hair is now petting him, Cal's fingers slowly running through his short curls, soothing him until he dozes. He is almost fully asleep when he feels a blanket thrown over his form.
He sleeps while Cal watches over him.