Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Normal. That is what was used to describe your life. Nothing out of the ordinary. Life wasn’t boring per se, but it definitely wasn’t compelling enough for your tastes. Studying to be a healer help keep it somewhat interesting but not enough.

Bzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzz. Crust littered eyes creak open as your face unsticks from the textbook scattered across the desk. Bzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzz. Your stiff neck cracks as you finally sit up. Fell asleep studying again. You loved learning about healing, you really did. But the long nights and barely sleeping was enough to make your head explode. Looking over at the clock with bright red numbers blinking at you. 8:15.

8:15! I’m late! You think as you force yourself awake. No not again! Being a student means you need to do hands on hours down at the nearest medcenter. All the late night studying also means that you oversleep most days. Grabbing your work bag filled with a change of clothes, in preparation of these events, you run out the door.

Your feet hit the wet cobble stones as it echos through your little part of the city. Vendors lining up the street ready to start their days. Passing the shop you went to yesterday, your mind too preoccupied to notice that it’s empty today. You know that theres is a faster route to the medcenter, but is it a path you really want to take today? Dark and windy path that you can barely see five feet in front of you on mornings like this. Too foggy and muggy for your liking. You’d rather stick to the main road where there’s people, where if anything were to happen, people would see, they would know. Regardless, it shaves fifteen minutes off your commute. You loathe having to be late for another shift. Making the sharp turn in between tow booths, you pace quickens to get through as quickly as you can. While not having much visibility, you swear you can see a pair of eyes in the dark. Has to just be my imagination, you convince yourself, I just need to keep going. It’ll be fine.

Footsteps echo behind you. Hands grab your shoulders. A scream rises in your throat, but no sound comes out. Everything goes dark when you feel something hit the side of your head.

.

Sigh. “Grogu get back in your seat.” The little baby waddles down off the controls and into his father’s lap. “Not what I meant,” Din grumbles with a smile hidden under his helmet. He grabs Grogu by his little robe and places him in the seat to his right and tells him to buckle up as a holo comes through from Greef Karga.

“Mando, we’ve just got word that Moff Gideon might have been seen in the Braic system. It looks like they found a substitute for the baby for the time being. I would use this time to go find a hide-out and lay low. He could still come back for the little one. Be well.”

Din goes to start the ship and find coordinates to stay out of trouble for a while when he hears the baby whine. Looking back at his adoptive child, all Din can see is Grogu, then a nameless kid, lying unconscious on a metal table, trapped underneath a contraption. Din starts breathing heavy and feeling sick that he ever gave his son up to those Imps. All he can hear is the beeping of the machine he’s hooked up to. Anger boiling back to the surface as he hears himself yell at the doctor all over again in his memories. No, he tells himself, He’s here with me. He’s fine. He’s safe. He shakes himself out of it and goes to fly the Razor Crest off planet.

Before he even gets off the planet, all Din can think about is that innocent person in his son’s place. They were going to kill Grogu, just for his blood for their experiments. Din can’t bring the kid anywhere near those people, he can’t risk losing his family, not when both of them have formed such attachments to each other. But he can’t stop thinking of this person who is in the that position now. He should’ve made sure Gideon was dead. Because of that now more people are going to get hurt.

Without thinking he turns on his holo already asking, “Where is he taking them?”

.

Feeling groggy with heavy eyes, you are able to open them just a bit to a blinding light. Reluctantly closing them again, you lift your arm to rub your eyes, but only they don’t move. What? The rest of your senses start coming back and you can feel the cool metal against your back, the same metal wrapped around your wrists and your ankles attached to the table. Finally bracing the light and opening your eyes, lifting your head slightly off the table and oh no the room is spinning now. There is an IV in your arm drawing your blood out into some odd machine, explaining the dizziness. Second time in two days you’ve had to deal with your own blood.

Walking through the shops on your one day off, you pick up a flower hair pin. The glasswork is so intricate and entrancing, you can’t help but turn it over and over in your hands. A pearl bead sitting in the center of iridescent gray and white petals. Placing it back in its place, your had scrapes against another glass design that is not yet finished, slashing open your palm. “Oh, dear let me help you with that,” the lady running the stand says. She looks you with her white hair barely covering her forehead. Tattoos liter her arms. A design peaks your interest as you swear you know but can’t quite place.

“It’s fine, I can take care of it myself,” you state already inspecting your hand. No shards in it so thats good.

“Oh no I insist. It happened at my booth, let me help clean it,” she declares taking your hand in her own. It feels like she squeezes the wound causing you to wince in pain slightly. Knowing she should just be cleaning it and wrapping it, you’re a little confused. Maybe she just doesn’t know how to tend to these sort of things, not wanted to embarrass her at her stand, you keep quiet. She finally gets a clean rag to help blot away at the blood on your hand. You didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it appears she has put it in a bag to the side.

“I don’t have any gauze to help wrap it up,” the stand lady says. “Oh, don’t worry, I have plenty of my own,” you mention, “It will be fine until I make it back to my place.” Smiling you walk away. Without looking, you can feel her move the piece you cut your hand on into the bag. Must just be because it’s a dangerous piece, you think, not knowing there’s still some of your blood on it too.

Closing your eyes again, you try to wonder why that is so significant to you right now. It was a harmless thing in passing, so why is it at the forefront of your mind? You are strapped to a table and all you can think about is that little cut you got the day prior. If your head didn’t feel like it was a spinner top right now, you would have laughed. Opening your eyes again you see men all in white armor and helmets guarding the door to your room, while a man in a white coat is working on the machine where your IV is attached. I thought the empire was dead. The same symbol that keeps going through your mind is the same one sewn into the man’s white coat. Your breathing gets shallower as you feel the panic rise in your chest. I’m never getting out of here, you realize as your vision becomes black once again.

.

You’re losing a lot of blood. You know that. You can feel it when noise wakes you up and your eyelids feel like lead. All the noise is muffled, as if you’re underwater. Frankly it feels like you are. It would be so easy to let the waves of darkness just wash over you right now, to let the water take you under. No, you can’t give up the fight and drown into unconsciousness just yet. You force yourself to stay awake.

Barely getting your eyes open, bright red lights flood your vision. You imagine you’re still in bed, or at least asleep at your desk, with the alarm clock blaring, not here with blaster fire. Wait, blaster fire? You attempt to turn your head to the side to look, or to dodge, you aren’t to sure in your current state. The fast action causes you to feel like you’re spinning, or it might be the room, either way your eyes can’t focus on what is going on. Closing your eyes again to make it stop, you hear voices surrounding you. They sound so far away at the moment but finally, after what feels like ages, one voice sounds clearer.

“Please help us. Help us get out of here. Her m-counts aren’t nearly as high as the child’s. They’re demanding more blood. She’s already lost 2 liters, I don’t know how much longer she can last.”

Child? They wanted to do this to a child? You’d choke down a sob if you could just thinking of that poor baby. What did he even say about what-counts? What the hell are those? All these questions are making your head spin more and more. Taking most of your energy to open your eyes, you’re met with a chrome stormtrooper trying to unbind you. Wait no, not a stormtrooper. You’ve heard stories about him and his people. What were they called? For the life of you, you can’t remember right now.

“You’re going to need help getting her out of here,” you realize that the man in the white coat was the one who spoke before and is now pleading with the metal man, “Please Mandalorian take me with you and I’ll help you get her out of here.”

That’s it. He’s a Mandalorian. He gets your wrists free as the doctor takes the IV out. Pushing off the table to sit up, the world starts spinning again. You don’t even realize you’re about to hit the table again until the Mandalorian grabs your shoulders to keep you semi-upright. You hear some sort of static come from his helmet. “Fine.” he grumbles, “help me get her out of this thing.”

With a flip of a switch, the rest of your body is free from restraints. Eager to get out of there, you swing your legs over the edge of the table, hands finding the arms of the Mandalorian with his hands still on your shoulders. Nauseous and woozy, you try to use the cold metal of his pauldron to ground yourself, to get the room to stop spinning. He can see you start to sway and wraps his arms around your waist as he lowers you from the table. Your feet hit the floor and black dots start to cloud your vision. Blood pounding in your ears trying to tell you to stop and lie back down. Muffled voices come from beside you again as you feel another arm wrap around you from the other side. Your feet dragging against the floor as both men on either side of you go towards the door.

You feel the heavily armored man to your left let go. Eyes that are still fuzzy and unfocused sort of see him peak out the door with his blaster drawn. He leaves the room and all that can be heard is the pew pew pew of blaster fire. Vision start to come back the tiniest bit, you can see him standing in the door way waving his hand as to say Come on.

The three of you hurry as fast as you can down the corridor to get to an exit. Lots of twists and turns, just for you all to come up at a dead end. So much for rescuing, you think to yourself as the doctor still holding you up, leans you up against a pillar as the two of them survey the situation. More of the Mandalorian assessing the situation and the doctor just frantically pacing back and forth.

Sitting down now that the adrenaline of being kidnapped and “rescued” die down, you feel your breathing getting shallower and harder to breath. Eyelids getting heavy again. You just want to lay down and go to sleep, hoping that will fix things. Starting your descent from your upright position to close your eyes, two hands grab your shoulders and jerk you up. It takes a second to realize this modulated voice was talking you you. “Hey, you got to stay with me now,” he pleads, one hand going to the side of your face. Pain spreads across your features due to being struck there earlier, a bruise starting to form in its place. Pulling his hand away like seeing the your face contorted burned him, he continues, “I’m going to get you out of here, you just have to stay awake.” You open your mouth to speak, but your throat feels like it’s filled with sand from Tattooine, so you just weakly nod your head yes. “Okay good,” the shiny man says after letting out a deep breath.

Still holding your shoulders, he helps you stand up and tells the doctor to take you and go further down the hall. Taking something small and circular out of his belt and placing it on the far wall, he speed walks back toward you two. It starts blinking red as his arms come and cage both of you in. Peeking over his shoulder, you see the wall disappear. Well explode, but one second ago it was there and now it’s not. When the explosion first rings in your ears, you reflexively reach out for the Mandalorian’s arm and feel him tense under your touch.

When he deems it safe to move again, letting go of his arm, he hops over the rubble to the outside world, blaster drawn. Looking out you think it looks like a desert, but one you’ve never seen before. You have no idea where you are, even what planet you are on. You eyes go to where the chrome man is stalking towards. It seems he found two speeder bikes that the troopers use, sans the troopers. Your feet hit the gravel and you realize you aren’t wearing shoes anymore. How long was I out? You begin to question when you see a stormtrooper take aim at your rescuer. Right when he pulls the trigger, you reach your hand out and scream, “NO!”

You could’ve sworn it was going to hit him. It should’ve hit him. But at the last second it bent and went in another direction. You knew stormtroopers were bad shots, but nothing like that has ever happened. The Mandalorian whips around at your scream and shoots the trooper down. He goes back to what he originally planned to do, but not without turning to you. You see his chest plate heave up and down a few times before turning back around. After a beat, the only sound you can hear is the Mandalorian starting up the speeders and your heartbeat pounding in your ears. The doctor helps guide you to the bikes and as you’re about to get on behind him, the Mandalorian picks you up bridal style and sits on his own respective bike. You make a noise of discontent at the sudden action and are then seated in front of him, yet again caged in by his arms with your legs draped over one of his. You can hear him breathing through the modulator as he states, “Just in case you pass out again. Can’t have you falling off the back of the bike.” You go to adjust how you are sitting when he takes off.

Gasping in shock, you hug your arms around his neck with you head in his cowl as you take panicked breaths. His hand touches your back as you hear him shout over the noise of the engines, “Put your legs around me, you’re slipping off.” He holds your waist as you sling your right leg around and hook it with your left one behind his back. Not the position you thought you’d end up in as a blush creeps up on your face, but neither the less here you are. His hand lets go of your waist and back to the handlebars as he steers.

Suddenly getting the feeling like you’re being followed, you say into his neck cowl, “Go left!” You don’t know why, but you just get a gut feeling to go that way. He follows your lead, not without a brief hesitation. The doctor follows on his speeder in the same direction. Finally looking up you see two stormtroopers in the distance. I wish their speeders would just stop or something, you plead with yourself and you think back to what happened with the blaster. Testing the waters, you unhook one of your hands from Mando’s neck and hold it out and… nothing. Okay focus, you close your eyes and picture their speeders stopping, or malfunctioning, or anything at this point.

The sound of a crash comes ringing into your ears. Opening your eyes, you can see the troopers flip over their handlebars as if their engines just died. You slightly chuckle to yourself as your eyelids feel heavy again. You try to get them to stay open, but sleep just feels so much better at the moment. And with that, you’re out like a light.

.

Din feels you go limp against him. His arm once again going to grab you by your waist to keep you in place. He wills his speeder to go faster, to get back to the Razor Crest sooner as he’s panicking thinking he somehow made the situation worse. He exposed you on the bike by having you sit like this. Your arms, legs, and head were all exposed to possible blaster fire. Have you been hit? He heard a crash but couldn’t look back without moving you more, risking leaving you more unprotected. His blame for himself spirals as his grip on you grows tighter. He can’t explain why he’s so distraught over a stranger, but still every time he blinks, he swears he sees back on that table. The next time he swears he sees his son on that very table again. First he gave the kid up to those people, now he didn’t finish Gideon off and let you, an innocent stranger who he is now clutching onto for dear life, get in the crossfire. Too many people have gotten hurt because of this. Because of him. He needs to make it right.

Finally Din and Dr. Pershing arrive at the Razor Crest where Din is already lowering the hatch and carrying you in. Kicking some crates together, he gently lowers you down onto this makeshift bed. He uses his thermal setting to see your body temperature, to see how you are recovering from the blood loss. He isn’t thrilled to see it still low, you were getting your energy back slowly before, along with more body heat, bit not enough to Din’s liking. Turning his helmet to Pershing, the doctor says, “She’s going to need more blood.” Din, already standing ready to run out and get some, not even knowing where or how to do that, is stopped by Pershing telling him that he’ll go get it, that it would look less suspicious. Agreeing, Din sits by your side while using his comm-link to tell Greef that he could bring Grogu back to the ship. How Din always finds someone to babysit still surprises him.

.

You wake up with a start. Eyes not yet adjusted to the lights overhead. Looking down you can see an IV in your arm again. Now towards the side, you can see the same doctor from before asleep up against a wall. Please tell me it wasn’t a dream, tears well up in your eyes as you think you’ve made the whole thing up to cope. It wasn’t until you felt your hand come to wipe away your watery eyes that you realized it just might not be a dream. The IV isn’t taking blood this time, it’s giving it.

Finally looking around, you realize you’re on a ship that feels like it’s moving. Confused by this, you try and sit up. Not nearly as dizzy as before, you slowly swing your legs off the wooden crates you’re lying on. Noticing your still barefoot as a chill gets sent up to your spine by the cold metal floor, you grab your IV bag off what appears to be just a hook poorly attached to the ceiling. You venture around the small area of the ship, noticing there isn’t a lot besides these boxes and what appears to be two storage type of units. You don’t even tempt to look in, too intrusive. You do however see a ladder going higher up on the ship. Taking the IV out and ripping a piece of your shirt off to wrap around your arm for pressure, so you can use both hands to climb, you start your ascent up.

Once you finally reach the top, you hear cooing? Didn’t that doctor say something about a child earlier? Looking forward into the cockpit, you see your savior flying while looking to his right at one of the co-pilot chairs. Clearing your throat to get his attention, two little eyes peer at you from the seat. A bright smile appears on this little green things face and you can’t help but stifle a laugh because its ears are the size of his body.

Distracted by this cute baby, you don’t notice the way the Mandalorian swivels his chair to face you. Finally looking at the man who saved you today, your breath hitches. You don’t know how to thank him for what he did, so you sort of just stand and stare for a second. He stands up and lightly grabs your arm with your homemade bandage on it. Tilting his helmet to the side you hear static coming from it. Did he just sigh at you? “You were supposed to keep it in your arm,” he finally states, with a tinge of annoyance.

Eyes not wanting to meet the T of his visor, you direct your gaze to the ground. “ I jus- I-,” you stammer, not able to find the right words. “Thank you.” It comes out more hushed than you’d like, but he still hears you. He just gives you a slight nod before releasing his arm and heading back to his seat. All your muscles turn to stone as you stand there not knowing if you should leave or not, until he cocks his head towards the seat to his left. On shaky legs you find your way to the seat. Before even sitting down fully, the little green child is already trying to get into your lap. Giggling to yourself you let him up onto your lap.

Once you do the strangest thing happens. You can feel what he’s thinking, his emotions, his past. How he was trained with the special abilities, much like the ones you just displayed before. How he was scared and in hiding until the man sitting in front of you found him. How he thinks of him as a father, his dad. Your chest tightens at that one. Still confused as to why the same people who wanted this child, Grogu, for his powers, also wanted you, you pull him to your chest to comfort you both. You finally speak up again and ask, “Did they want me because I might have the same abilities as this one?” You meant it to sound strong, but it just came out sounding weak.

Without looking at you, the Mandalorian replies shortly after a pause, “Yes.” You swore you can see his grip tighten on the ships steering as he says that. Turning to the two of you finally, he says in the sincerest voice you’ve heard out of him, “They wont get to either of you again. I can promise you that.” Your chest swells at this statement and Grogu looks up at you with a smile as if he felt the way your heart fluttered. You wish you were the one wearing the helmet right now because you can feel your cheeks heat up. To ease the situation in the best way you can, awkwardly, you clear your throat before asking, “So where are we headed now?”

Swiveling back in his chair to hit a few buttons, you’re confused not knowing what they are supposed to do until he pulls up a map and points a place out. He tells you that he’s going to drop off Dr. Pershing at one of the squiggles you see and then try and figure it out from there. “So, I guess thats where I get off too?” You meant it to come out more as a statement than a question, but after what you just went through, you’d rather not be left to fend for youself.

“If that’s what you want,” he finally utters after a while. “ But they’re not going to stop coming after you. Either of you. It might be safer for you to stay here with me, us.” The last part comes out so quiet, it’s almost as if he didn’t want you to hear, out of fear of your response.

Trying to not answer too quickly, you take a deep breath and finally say, “Yes. I’d like that a lot.” With a curt nod, he turns back around. Warmth fills your chest yet again at this stranger’s kindness. It’s just because I have the same abilities as his child, you try to convince yourself. But deep down you’re hoping it’s more than that. The child in your lap grips your fingers tightly and coos, as if he’s trying to tell you your hopes might not be too far off.

Oh, it’s going to be an interesting adventure with these two, you smile to yourself.

Chapter Text

You see a stormtrooper take aim at your rescuer. Right when he pulls the trigger, you reach your hand out screaming, “NO!”

It was supposed to miss him. It missed him before. Instead of bending out of the way, it hits him and the Mandalorian goes down fast. Before you know it, more troopers come, grabbing Dr. Pershing and dragging him away. They start coming towards you when you hear yourself say, “No, please no!” You could run towards the speeders, but there’s too many of them now, they can catch up easier. Looking back at the shiny man, tears leave your eyes. You were supposed to save him. That’s how it was supposed to happen. You start screaming the only name you know for him as a stormtrooper grabs your arms and has them twisted behind your back. Dragging you back to where you escaped from, the stormtrooper is calling your name. 

He keeps calling it as he shakes your arms then follows it with, “Wake up.” Why does that mechanical voice sound different from the rest? The words echo in your head. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. 

The stormtrooper helmets transforms into the one of the Mandalorian as you open your eyes. His hands leave your upper arms as he crouches in front of you. Still disoriented, your own hand comes up to your cheeks to shield your face when you realize it feels damp to the touch. Closing your eyes again and taking deep breathes you have to tell yourself over and over again: He’s here. I’m here. It was just a dream. Finally calmed down, you open your eyes to Mando still squatting in front of you. 

“You okay?” His modulated voice says to you. Nodding your head while wiping way the last of the tears, you can’t help but feel heat rise to your cheeks, wishing you could just disappear as you sink further into the copilot chair. “You want to talk about it?” he tentatively asks next. If it were anyone else, you would’ve probably said no, but seeing his tenderness as he cared for Grogu over the past few hours in hyperspace makes you give in. 

“We- we were back there, about to get on the speeders,” your heart rate picks up again thinking of it. You have no idea why the dream is affecting you this much. Continuing on with a shaky voice, “The stormtrooper, h- he shot you before I- I could- and” tears were forming in your eyes again, “and they st- started dragging me off and-” your voice suddenly barely above a whisper as you continue, “you weren’t moving.” 

You shouldn’t have shared it. Oh gosh, you wish you could take it back now. He hasn’t said anything. He probably thinks you’re weak now, unable to handle yourself, let alone a nightmare. It was a stupid dream, you are about to tell him when you hear him sigh, “Give me your hand.” Confused, you hesitate, causing him to tilt his helmet to the side and hold out his hand. Giving in, you hold out your own, placing it in his still hesitant. Moving his hand down to your wrist, gripping it lightly as he moves it his chest plate, he speaks again, “Feel this? This is beskar, strong enough to withstand blaster shots. While what you did was impressive, all you stopped from happening is me having to clean my back plate later.” Your face falls at this, noticing it, he brings his other hand over yours. You feel all the heat you have left in your body run up to your face. He declares, “That dream wouldn’t have come true. You’re safe. They won’t get to you again, I promise.” 

Still with your hand against the cool metal, all you can say is, “Oh. Thank you.” You wait for him to let go of your hand and wrist before you pull away, but he still hasn’t. Grogu stirs on the chair to your right, waking up after seeming to have slept through your nightmare. As if the noise startled Mando, he finally lets go and picks up his son. Clanking could be heard coming up from the ladder. 

Mando sits back in the pilot chair with the little green child who keeps trying to reach for the different buttons on his lap, as Dr. Pershing also seems to have finally woken up. Coming into the cockpit carrying a discarded IV bag. Oops. Should have put that back in at some point. 

Pershing comes as squats to the side of your chair, blocked off by the arm rest. “Looks like you’ve got some of your color back, which is good. Just to be safe, you should probably leave this in for longer.” Just nodding your head in response, scared your voice will falter, but now not knowing if it was from the dream or the prolonged touch of the beskar man. Or the fact that Pershing just pointed out how you’re blushing right in front of the person who caused in the first place. 

Trying not to look up at Mando, due to sheer embarrassment, you fail at your task when he turns to watch Pershing with the child still on his lap. He tries to be causal of his hand on his thigh, a little too close to his blaster as the doctor gets closer to you, while Grogu plays with his fingers. Father and protector, you smile to yourself. Realizing your line of gaze, he moves his other hand to hold to his child and abruptly turns his chair towards the stars as you feel a cold pinch in your arm. 

. 

The next hour or so is spent in silence, preparing to land on who-knows-what-planet. As long as you can get off this chilly ship and descend out of the numbness of space, it doesn’t matter where. You might be being a little over-dramatic, but wearing a now torn, thin, short sleeved shirt, some sort of pants with blaster powder now littering it, and no shoes, you think you deserve the right to be just a tad dramatic. The IV bag is finally finished, so there’s one less ice-cold thing touching your skin. Still you shiver in your seat, not wanting to impose too much and ask for a blanket or a change of clothes. Hopefully wherever you get off is warm, or at least warmer. 

Finally descending, you see tall, colorful structures, bright blue skies, and so much green. It’s beautiful. You can’t take your gaze off the gorgeous landscape getting larger before your eyes. Pulling your legs away from your chest, you brave the cold floor yet again to try and get a closer look. Audibly making a noise as you shiver, both men turn towards you, finally taking in your tattered appearance. With a static-y sigh, you're starting to think that’s how he starts everything he says, the Mandalorian notes, “We should probably get you some better clothes.” His helmet points down to your feet, then tilts as he says, “And shoes.” 

. 

Bare feet hit the luscious green grass, toes curling and uncurling into it as you deeply inhale the fresh air. The sun hitting your skin makes you feel alive again, warming you from outside to inside. It’s as if you can feel the golden rays pouring out of you. You have never seen nature as brilliant and as vibrant as it is here, you never want to leave its warmth. Too caught up in your own little world, you don’t notice the two men start walking towards the city. Grogu babbling in Mando’s bag snaps you out of it and you slightly jog to try and catch up to them. 

It takes a while to walk into the city, considering where Mando landed his ship. By the time you actually get there, your feet feel like one of the thousand rocks you’ve stepped on during this journey. The armored man barely seems to notice at first of you trailing behind, only stopping when the city is finally in view. So now on top of being cold and unequipped for this amount of walking, you are now tired. Grrrwwww. And hungry. Hopefully no one heard the atrocious noise your stomach just made. When was the last time you ate? 

Mando must of heard it growl because before you can react, he tosses you a few credits and tells you to go get something to eat while he takes Pershing somewhere to set up his new life. You didn’t catch the last part because you’re already following your nose to the nearest source of food. While walking away you hear more static come out of his helmet, like he was sighing again, but it wasn’t the same as last time. It almost sounded like a laugh. Was… was he laughing at you? You whip your head around, but they’ve already disappeared. Shaking your head, you turn back and let your stomach take the lead again. 

. 

Mando and Grogu finally come back when you are all about done with this meat on a stick. They find you sitting in front of this little shop, eyes closed in bliss about finally eating. There’s barely anyone around, so it was not very hard to spot you. Finally looking up, ripping one of the last pieces off the kebob, you beam up at him. You don’t know it but seeing you happy after the events of this morning, brings a smile to the bounty hunter’s face. Offering his hand to help you stand, he asks, “Better?” You nod your head in response while he helps pull you up. Shoving he little piece of meat into your mouth, you hear his voice yet again, “What even is that?” 

“I don’t know,” you counter. “All I know if that it smelled really good. Honestly if I knew what it was, I probably wouldn’t be able to eat it,” you finish with a giggle. He just nods, still without you seeing the smile planted on his face. You two walk side by side going into the city, with Grogu in a bag on his father’s hip of course. 

You can hear the main part of the city before you actually see it. People are bustling, vendors litter the streets, it’s astonishing. And overwhelming, very overwhelming. Your breath hitches as you recall that a vendor was the way they found you before. But no, no you’re safe with the Mandalorian, he said they wouldn’t get to you. No, that he wouldn’t let them get to you. Without noticing, you start walking closer to Mando, more into his personal space than he usually likes. You’re close enough to graze his hand while walking, and right now you desperately want to reach out and grab it. Okay, it’s okay, just focus on your breathing, in and out, in and out. 

Too busy trying to calm yourself, you don’t notice Mando look over at you after he felt you invade his space. He whispers to you, “Are you okay?” but the volume is too much to get his question to your ears. Instead he lightly puts his hand at the small of your back, causing you to slightly jump. Looking around, your line of vision finally falls on the bounty hunter’s arm, now removed from your back, moving back towards his side. A blush creeps up to your cheeks as your realize that he noticed you. Pull it together. You manage to walk only a few more feet until someone bumps into you and instinct takes over as you grab onto something to steady yourself. The thing that happens to be is Mando’s arm. 

Luckily, he extends it behind your back to steady you, but not before sending the poor soul that accidentally bumped you what can only assumed is a death glare. That poor man turns as pale as a ghost. You almost forgot how menacing he could be. You’ve only been on the receiving end of Mando’s protection and don’t want to know what the opposite would be like. You two continue to walk with his arm guiding you, until you see it. Shoes. You nearly forgot about the pain in your feet until you saw them. Hand no longer on your back, you hurry forward, leaving the now frenzied and confused Mandalorian behind. 

Reaching the stand, you turn to find Mando with his hand on his blaster and his bucket of a helmet frantically looking around the area for a sign of danger. The T of his visor finally looks back at you and you just mouth to him, shoes! and then point at your bare feet. He tilts his head to the side and you just know that he sighed. Shaking your head, you let out a huff of air that resembles a laugh at his signature way of expressing himself. 

. 

Before you know it, you have new shoes, already on your feet, a few shirts and two pairs of pants. Mando insisted you have layers because who knows where they might end up. This begs the question, what kind of trouble has he gotten into before, better yet what trouble are you getting yourself into? Babbles from a hidden baby remind you that maybe the trouble is worth it. 

The shiny man and you continue walking around the marketplace of the city. He said he wanted to see if they had any spare parts that he could use for the Razor Crest and you were just happy to be wearing boots and having the extra time to break them in. “You can go look around if you want, I’m going to be over here,” Mando states as he inspects some round, gear-looking thing. Figuring you’d get bored of the mechanical items, you go to wander. “Hey,” the modulated voice cuts through again, “stay close.” Nodding, you only go two booths down to look at the books laid out. 

Eyes scan to find anything remotely related to this thing, this power, you and Grogu possess. In the back of your mind also knowing you’re searching for something to tell you more about Mandalorian culture, as you have become intrigued by your new companion. While looking, something shiny, much like Mando, catches your eye. Turning to the next booth, the item seems to be a hair pin. You freeze. 

A flower hair pin. Pearl in the center, with gray and white iridescent petals. No, no, no, no this can’t be happening. It feels like you can’t get enough air into your lungs. Your legs feel like lead, but you need to get out of there, you have to. The table has more unfinished glass pieces there too, just like before. They can find you. They can get you. They can get the baby. No that can’t happen, you force your tense legs to move as your hands shake. Backing up away from the stand, you bump into the book stand, letting a stack of books fall into the dirt. “Sorry, sorry,” you say with an unsteady voice. You need to find Mando, you need to find the baby, you need to -

Hands grab the back of your shoulders, as you think it’s over. You try to shake them off when you’re turned around to a familiar T visor. You stop fighting against him and grab his forearms. Your breathing still hasn’t slowed as he asks with a sternness you haven’t heard from him, “What happened?”

You can’t think of how to explain with your mind and heart racing and can only answer with, “We need to get out of here.” He pesters why to better understand the situation but all you can answer with is, “please,” as tears threaten to spill. “We need to get out of here please Mando.” He looks around confused, trying to find any source of danger, but turns his attention back to you when your grip tightens and you try to pull the three of you out of there. 

He lets you lead him to the edge of the city, back towards the green scenery you landed in. Finally stopping you with his hands on your shoulders again, he calls your name, “You need to tell me what is going on.” Taking a few breaths trying to compose yourself, you explain how the day before you were taken, you were at a shop similar to the one you were at. How you saw this hair pin then cut your hand while the person working tried to help you clean up. Explaining how you thought nothing of it, until you realized they wanted your blood for experiments. You barely make it through telling him that you saw the same set up with the hair pin at that booth. 

“That’s how they must have found me. We need to get out of here before they recognize us, please,” you plead. His helmet hangs down low as he slides one hand down to take your hand and begins walking back towards the ship. 

Arriving back at the ship, Mando hands you the bag filled with new clothes, “Go change, I’ll take care of this.” Just thinking he meant to fly the three of you off the planet, you go into the ‘fresher and get ready to take off far away from here. Finally dressed and hearing the latch close, you climb up to the cockpit. Grogu gurgles and makes grabby hands for you to pick him up from the co-pilot seat. While doing so, you realize the pilot seat is empty. 

“Where’s your dad, huh little one?” you coo at him. You called out to Mando to get no response. Attempting to climb down the ladder with the child wasn’t easy, especially still worried from before. You call out to Mando again, this time more frantic as he’s nowhere to be found. Your hear rate increase as you search the ship. Pressing the button you think would open the latch of the ship does nothing. What? did he lock you in here? You open some cabinets to be met with his armory. Picking up a blaster, you start rambling to the kid, “Your dad won’t mind right? Yeah, he’d want you protected. I won’t need to use it, but just in case. Yeah, just in case. Why don’t we also hang out in the cockpit away from the doors? Sound good?” You’re only met with muffled babbles back as Grogu sticks his stubby hand in his mouth. “Yeah, we’re going to be okay. Nothing is going to happen.” You hope.

. 

Back in the city, Din is looking for a stand that has this… hair pin? Does he even know what one of those looks like? He’ll figure it out, you knocked some books over, so he decides he’ll start there. Unfortunately for Din, most of the vendors are closing down their booths. Dank farrik. He’s got to move quickly before they’re all closed. 

Speed walking, he comes across the same man working the booth Din was at before you panicked. He asks the man if he knows if there is a booth that sells this item, and thankfully he points Din in the right direction. Four booths down. The people who wanted his child, and now you, could’ve been four booths down from him and he had no idea. Now’s not the time to beat himself up over this, he needs answers. Stalking up to the table, he’s met with a young man cleaning up the stand. Without looking up the man says, “What can I help you with?” Din’s hand ghosts over the pin you described to him and sees the many broken pieces scattered on the table. 

“Seems a little… unsafe having all of these around,” Din observes while now moving around the table. The man finally looking up, goes white in the face and begins to run. Why do they always think they can outrun me? Chasing the man down an alley, Din uses his grappling hook around his feet and the man goes tumbling to the ground. Grabbing him by the collar to face him. Anger laced through his modulated voice, “Did you follow us?”

“Nope, just the lucky bastard that happened to be on the same planet as you,” He spits out. Din notices that he moves his jaw to the side, but the man continues, “Don’t worry they’ll find you and the child soon. Oh, and I’m sure the troopers will have a good time with that pretty little girl you have once  they get their hands on her.” Before Din can land a hand on this guy, he bites down on something and there’s electricity everywhere, just like he saw with Bo Katan. Din barely jumps off the man in time. Now full of adrenaline and anger he stands there for a few seconds thinking of his next move. Kriff. He needs to get back to you and his son. 

. 

You are sitting on the cold floor of the cockpit, with Grogu on your lap, hand hovering the blaster that is next to you on the ground. Banging coming from the Crest makes you jump. It sounds like the hatch opens, so you clutch Grogu closer and pick up the blaster as you stand up. The pram is still in the cockpit, so you put the baby that is pulling your hair in and close it. Going to the opening between the levels, with shaky hands, you raise the blaster and wait. Clanging can be heard when you finally hear Mando call your name and the kid’s.

Hopping down the ladder, blaster still in hand, you smile at him as he stands still. “What the hell are you doing with that,” he barks at you. You stand there dumbfounded, he’s the one that left you in the ship with his child. He should be glad your first thought was to protect him. He continues with his hands on his hips, “Do you even know how to use that?”

Still startled, you stammer, “You just- point and shoot?” With that his hands go up in astonishment and back down again, almost as if he’s saying, are you kriffing kidding me? Why is he so angry right now? 

“You’re - you’re the one that left me, that left us here,” you point back up to the cockpit, “I didn’t know if someone else could get in or not. Why are you so angry at me for trying to protect your son?” 

“You could have shot him or yourself, you don’t even know how to use it,” his voice raises and he takes it out of your hand. 

“I’m not the one that left us here defenseless!” you scream. Both of you stand there for second huffing at each other. Finally thinking a little bit more rationally, you ask, “Where did you even go?” 

Pushing past you, he put something in your hand, “I took care of it.” He climbs the ladder as you look. The hair pin. He took care of it? He took care of it. Your face falls thinking of what that means. Following him back up, you take Grogu from the pram and place him on your hip. 

“You took care of it?” you say astonished, “Care to elaborate?” Mando sits in the pilot chair already plotting a new location. 

“No.” Your eyes go wide as he spins the chair to face you. “I’m flying us out of here and I-,” his hands go up in defeat, “I need to eat. I’ll tell you when it’s safe to come up.” He sounds less angry but still very annoyed. At this point you’re fuming. You spin on your heels with Grogu playfully slapping his little 3-fingered hand across your face for attention. 

You leave the cockpit and grab two food packets on the crate before the ladder opening. Stuffing them in your pocket, you try to maneuver yet again down the ladder with a baby clinging to you. Hopping off the last wrung, you go to sit on the crates you woke up on. Opening the packets, you help feed Grogu his. 

Why was he so mad? If anything, he should be thankful that you were being resourceful. And after the past couple of days you think you deserve the right to be a little worked up about things like this. The anger is fueling you right now. It keeps spiraling, you can feel the darkness surround you. This used to happen when you were younger. Your emotions would almost devour you whole. Luckily your mother would always tell you, it’s okay to have these emotions but don’t let them consume you. She would lead you through some breathing exercises to help you calm down. Oh, you wish she were here with you right now to help. Could she have known about this ability you have? That’s not important right now, you need to breath and calm down. While doing so, you feel two little hands come and rest on your chest, as to help you relax more. Playing with his ears, the weight of the day starts to set in. You feel your eyes start to droop and before you know it, you’re asleep yet again. 

. 

Din holds his head in his hands. He shouldn’t have snapped. He knows this. It’s just knowing that Moff Gideon and his Imps could be anywhere in the galaxy trying to find others like the two Jedi he seemed to have collected. Are you even a Jedi? He still has no idea how this even works. Din shakes his head trying to clear it of what that man said. The anger boils up in him thinking of what he said about you, about their hands on you. He wishes he could’ve gotten a few punches in on him. He got out easy. 

He’d do anything to protect Grogu, he knows it and they know it. But now with you in the equation? He’s terrified. He doesn’t know what he got himself into with now both of you under his protection. You don’t know this but he saw you peeking through the opening, with your hands shaking holding the blaster and with such fear in your eyes. A pain springs up in his chest just thinking of it. Looking up towards the door, he thinks it might be time for him to stop hiding and time to go apologize for his behavior. He did just leave without explaining. You also have just been kidnapped and rescued in a matter of days. He sighs, remembering what you have gone through, and now with the reminder in the city. He should have been a little calmer and not taken out his frustrations out on you. 

Putting his helmet back on, he opens the cockpit doors and climbs down the ladder again, only to hear soft snores. There you are with your back against the wall, with Grogu in your lap. Grogu’s eyes open and he starts to make, very slow, sleep filled, grabby hands at his dad. Carefully taking the baby out of your arms, he opens up his own bunk and places the child in his little hammock. Quiet babbling is directed at him and Din responds, “I know, I know, I’m getting her a pillow and blanket.” 

Moving back over towards you with those items in hand, he places the pillow in its spot and carefully shifts you into a lying position, bringing your legs up onto the crates. After placing the blanket over you, Din moves the fallen pieces of hair out of your face. You look so peacefully, he can’t help but stare. Finally, he sighs, “I guess I better teach you how to shoot then.” 

Chapter Text

Smack. Three stubby little fingers hit your face and wake you up. Opening your eyes, you see the barely-there toothy grin of one green baby. Moving your head so his fingers are near your mouth you pretend to chomp on them causing the tiniest of giggles to erupt through the Razor Crest. Laughter also erupting from your chest, your head falls back against the pillow. Wait, a pillow? There’s a blanket over you now too. Those weren’t here before. Sitting up and pulling Grogu into your lap, the image of Mando placing these items here comes into your mind. Nose scrunched at the child pulling at your fingers you playfully ask, “Is this your father’s way of an apology?” Babbles fill the air and you take it as a yes.

Clanking of metal is heard as the Mandalorian climbs down the ladder. Turning to look at you and his son, he takes the blaster out of his belt and tosses on the pillow. Your eyes follow it and your brow furrows. Looking back towards Mando, he cocks his head to the side, “Grab it and come on.”

Taken aback you shake your head, “What?”

Pointing towards the blaster on the pillow, he says as if it should be the most obvious thing, “I’m going to teach you to shoot, come on.” He starts to walk towards you, and you can’t help but get flustered. He’s teaching you to shoot? Where did this come from? Taking Grogu from your arms, the shiny man places him in his pram, and starts to open the ship to the outside world. You’re still sitting there dumbfounded by his change of attitude since last night. Turning back to see you still sitting on the crates, Mando then teases, “Unless you still think it’s just pointing and shooting.”

Oh so we’re joking now. Grabbing the blaster off the pillow and standing up you retort, “Ha ha. You’re really funny. You should do stand up in a cantina sometime.” The same sort of static-y sound comes out of his helmet again like you first heard before getting food. Yet it still didn’t sound like a sigh. So he was laughing. He shakes his head and then extends his arm to tell you where to stand among the tree littered greenery you three landed on. The planet’s sun has barely begun to rise as the colors of dawn peak through the foliage. The dirt patch the Razor Crest is docked on is surrounded by these tall, lanky, mostly trunk trees and Mando comes to stand behind you as you get into position.

“Okay,” his hand comes to your shoulder and turns you, so your side is facing the ship, “I want you to try and hit that tree right there.” His arm extends over your shoulder as he points to it. You give a solid nod with determination etched onto your face. Arms raised and awaiting instructions, Mando blurts out, “Wait!” He starts walking back to the Crest and goes near the baby that had followed you two outside in his floating bassinet. With a push of a button the lid closes the child inside. “Now you can try,” he states as he leans against the ship with his arms crossed.

With a huff and an eye roll, you lift your arms up to aim yet again. Then a realization hit you. “Aren’t you supposed to tell me how to do this?” The armored man just shrugs and says he wants to see how your idea played out. My idea? He doesn’t mean…. “Just point and shoot?” you ask with annoyance dripping from your voice. Oh, he’s getting a kick out of this. All he does is shrug with a subtle tip of his helmet. With a groan you get yourself set up. It looks like you’re in line with the tree, so on an exhale you pull the blasters trigger.

The kick back causes you to close your eyes and recoil as you are pushed back. Peeking your eyes back open, you look for any mark on the tree. Nothing. Anything on the other surrounding trees? Nope. Looking back towards the Mandalorian, his head, well helmet, is in his hand. “H-,” he pauses as if trying to find the right words is the hardest thing in the galaxy, “How did you miss every tree?”

Looking at him with wide doe eyes, a small voice comes out of your mouth saying, “I may have accidently closed my eyes.” Mando’s head drops at that with a sigh. Finally walking back towards you with his hands on his hips, still not having the visor meet up with your eyes. Looking back at you now, you weakly smile causing him to shake his head.

“First things first,” his hands come off his hips and waves them in front of himself for emphasis, “keep your eyes open when you fire a blaster.” Nodding meekly in response, he moves to stand behind you once again. “Next your stance,” his foot comes in between your own as he lightly nudges the side of them both. “You are going to want a wider base of support. And bend your knees a little.” You follow his orders the best you can with your heart beating through your chest. You push it off as the adrenaline of having a blaster in your hand and not due to the close proximity between you and Mando. But just hearing him breathing through his helmet has you buzzing, let alone him physically adjusting your stance with your legs wider. “Okay now what?” you question through shaky breaths.

A gloved hand lands on your shoulder and the skin underneath is buzzing with electricity, “Now, relax your shoulder.” You didn’t realize the tension you had built for yourself there. It was only cautionary learning how to shoot, you just wish it never had to come to it. You always wanted to help, never hurt, but with these new circumstances you don’t know if you have a choice. Letting that thought go, you bring your shoulder away from your ear. Turning to look back at the shiny man, the T visor is already pointed towards you. Shaking his head as if clearing his thoughts, he abruptly takes his hand off your shoulder, but the electrifying feeling of his touch still stays. He takes a step back and clears his throat, “Uh, keep your dominant arm straight and the other bent as you hold it.”

You fix your hold on the blaster as you are instructed to line your dominant arm with your target. “Okay,” the modulated voice still comes from behind you, “Take a breath and pull on your exhale.” In, out. The sound of the blaster echoes in your ears as you steady yourself from the small recoil. Eyes still open you see the red light of the blaster flash and hit the side of the tree you were aiming at.

You hit it. Not in the center, more like it skimmed the tree, but still. You hit a part of it. Whipping around to look at the man teaching you, with a smile planted on your face, you quickly wrap your arms around his neck. You let go with the same speed as you realize what you just did. “Sorry, sorry,” you quip quickly with a smile and giggle in your tone.

“It- It’s okay,” Mando responds, “Go again.”

.

You keep going until you hit the tree dead center multiple times in a row. Finally feeling your arms ache from holding the stance, you declare the tree officially dead. The sun still barely over the trees as you near early afternoon. Walking over to where Mando decided to sit to give you directions, you slide down the side of the Razor Crest to sit next to him. It is your turn to sigh now, with your head hung back and eyes closed. A nudge at your arm causes you to lull your head to the side to look at the beskar man. “You did good.” You hum in response. “Uhm,” he continues on slightly hesitant, “Did you- did you use your powers at all to hit the tree?” Your eyes go wide and you face your head forward. You completely forgot about your abilities for a while there. You were so focused on hitting the tree and getting everything right. You were so focused on… him. The way your skin felt on fire just from being in his proximity. “I didn’t mean that you didn’t do a good job,” he starts rambling, “I just have no idea how the powers work.”

“No, no it’s okay. I didn’t even think of that,” you finally turn your head back towards him, “I just… forgot for a bit there. Everything that happened. The newfound abilities. I was just … distracted by the lesson I guess.” Mando just nods his head for a few seconds then turns to the pram. Now done with a shooting lesson, he lets Grogu run around the little dirt and grass patch for a bit. The pitter patter of his tiny feet and his little voice makes your cheeks hurt from smiling. Turning to ask Mando a question, his helmet is already pointed at you, staring. The question dies on your lips as your breath hitches. Neither of you break the gaze, not until Grogu comes and crawls into his father’s lap, little 3-fingered hands on his chest plate. Finding your voice again, you ask, “How did you find out about his abilities?”

“You mean you two can’t communicate?” he asks as his helmet tilts. Din knew that when he brought the child to Ahsoka, she was able to talk with him, tell Din about Grogu’s past. Was that not something you could do too? He notices a puzzled look on your face as you reply, “Sort of? It’s more like I can sense his feelings,” you turn back to him with a softer expression, “That’s how I knew I could trust you, by the way he feels about you.”

Pulling the little green child closer to his chest, very softly he says, “Thank you.” Your heart swells seeing the man in metal hold this baby closer, with the little fingers clinging to the side of the helmet. Grogu puts his little wrinkled forehead to Mando’s forehead, and you are once against graced with a chuckle from Mando. Turning back towards you, he recalls the tales of discovering the child’s abilities. From Grogu rescuing him from the Mudhorn to dissipating the flames of stormtroopers, it hit you how powerful this little child is. The only major thing you did was stop speeder engines, which was just a temporary solution, you don’t really remember much of what happened after you did that. But here this kid is saving so many people with this ability you share. Oh gosh, you were starting to feel inadequate compared to a child. A little chuckle escapes your lips as you realize how ridiculous that is. In reality, you are in awe of how much bravery is stored in such a tiny body.

You are quickly snapped out of this train of thought when Mando says something you weren’t expecting. “He also healed a friend of mine, Greef Karga, when bacta wasn’t working and we were out.” Healing? As in the same thing you are studying? Well were studying. “It took a lot out of him and I haven’t seen him do it since.” You look down at your hands that are resting in your lap in wonder and then back to Grogu, who just makes the tiniest noise with a tilt of his head. He reminds me of Mando when he does that, you smile to yourself as you run your fingers across his comically large ears.

You were about to ask Mando more about the healing, but he goes to put the kid back in the pram. The three of you head back into the ship, but unknown to you, only two of you would be staying.

.

Mando told you he had to go find a bounty. You all needed more credits, fuel wasn’t cheap. It just didn’t hit you that it meant you would be babysitting again. This time, at least, you are not anticipating impending doom, so it is better. But there was no time frame given for when the man in metal would return, only to stay in the ship until he got back. “What happens if we need more food?” you question. “If I’m gone long enough for you two to run out of food, then there’s a problem,” Mando quips back. But with this kid, it might happen faster than he thought.

Entertaining Grogu mostly consisted of rolling his little metal ball back and forth, sometimes him taking it out of your hand while being a good foot away. Mostly it was telling him “Get that out of your mouth,” while his little feet pitter pattered across the floor away from you. When he finally tuckered out, a shower was a must.

You didn’t get a chance to really look in the mirror when you changed into the new clothes, more concerned about getting out and being around Mando and Grogu after the events of the market, not wanting to be alone. But getting out of the shower you could see a bruise that goes around your temple to your cheek bone from when you first were taken. Oh great. So this is how everyone has been seeing you since. It shouldn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. No not at all. Doesn’t matter that a masked man who has taken you into his home and makes you have butterflies has seen you with this hideous mark on your face. Nothing was puffy or cut from the blow you took, so at least there was that. It was starting to turn yellow, should be gone in a few days.

With a sigh you go to fix your wet hair. Twirling it up in a bun, you hesitate as your eyes graze the hair pin sits on the counter. You could have sworn you dropped it last night when picking up Grogu. Did he put it in here for you? Reminding yourself that Mando has protected you, you now know how to protect yourself, sort of, you decide to use it, take away the power it’s holding over you. Closing your eyes and with a shaky breath, you let your hand grasp it. Unsteady hands place it in the bun to hold it against your head. There, it’s done.

Not knowing what to do with yourself now that the child is asleep, you sit on the crates you’ve been using as a bed and just try to clear your mind. It’s been a rough couple of days, and this is the only quiet you’ve had. Just as quickly as the thought came, it vanished as the ramp to the ship dropped. With a grunt you got up and looked out and could see the moonlight reflect off the silver armor. He is walking through the trees, so it is hard to make his silhouette out. Leaning up against the side of the crest, arms crossed you wait for him to get closer. It looks as if he stops to catch his breath with his arm up against one of the trees and a hand gripping his side. Then you see it.

Something else glinting behind Mando. A vibroblade. Mando hasn’t seen the man following. You run to get one of the blasters out of the armory without even thinking. Mando starts slumping down against the trunk. Knowing it’s now up to you to protect him this time around, you let out a shaky breath as you hope this first shot isn’t like your last first shot.

Closing your eyes for a second to take a deep breath to center yourself, you raise your arms and try to recall what Mando taught you. Taking another breath, you shoot on the exhale. The gleam from blade drops to the ground. Before it even hits you are sprinting towards the man in metal slouched against the tree. You hardly realize how hard you are breathing as you slide on your knees right in front of him. Panting you ask, “What happened?” Reaching for his hand at his side, you feel a slick wetness that is too familiar to you. The same type of wetness you would feel with an open wound patient at the medcenter.

Blood. You slide your arm underneath his as you try to get him to stand. With pain etched in his voice the only answer you get is, “Nice,” wheeze, “Shot,” wheeze. With a huff you get him up, refusing to look in the direction of the man you shot. Pushing all the feelings of having Mando bleeding beside you, having just shot someone for his protection, way down. Trying to let your training take over instead of the panic you can feel rise in your chest you quip back, “Had a good teacher.” He lets out a chuckle that you just know hurt.

Getting him to the Crest was the easy part. Having him sit and actually let you find the medkit, not so much. He is sitting on one of the crates of your makeshift bed telling you he can handle it when your voice of a healer taking care of an insubordinate patient takes over, “Sit. Down. Now.” Like most people you’ve had to use that voice on, he obeys. With the medkit in hand, you go and crouch down in front of him to remove his chest plate to get a clear look. His hand grabs your wrist sharply, “What are you doing?”

“Removing this so I can see it better.” Fingers still wrapped around your wrist, you look into the T of his visor where you think his eyes should be waiting for permission to continue. Before releasing your wrist, he demands, “Leave the helmet on.” You nod in compliance as he murmurs apologies to you as you remove his chest and back plate. As you are about to open the medkit, a softness laces through his mechanical voice to ask, “How do you know how to do this?”

Looking back at him with a tiny smile, “I was studying to be a healer, before…” Neither of you need you to explain. He gives what you assume is a sympathetic nod. “Lay down for me please.” This time he complies without your harsh tone.

“I guess there’s a lot we don’t know about each other,” Mando states. Trying to get his undershirt unstuck from his body, you chuckle as you come to what you think is a comical thought. “You’re right. I don’t even know your name and yet here we are.” His body tenses under your fingers but you are now to preoccupied getting the medkit open to notice this change as anything other than pain. Looking in you are only met with a pair of scissors, some gauze, and a cauterizer. With your eyes going wide, you squeal, “This is your medkit?! Mando this is more of a torture device!”

You cut his undershirt to get the wound. It’s deeper than you’d like, especially without any bacta or any other numbing agent. It’s going to hurt, you know it and he knows it. His arm closest to the wound, goes over his chest, clinging to the remainder of his now torn shirt. Using a little bit of gauze to try and clean the area from his lower ribs to his hip bone up. Grabbing the cauterizer, you place your hand over his still clothed stomach to stabilize him before you basically burn his bloody wound. Taking a deep breath, you begin.

.

About halfway done, Mando’s breaths start to get shaky. Surprising you, he reaches for your hand and just holds it. Giving it a squeeze, you warn, “Okay, this next part is going to hurt a bit, just hang in there okay?” He nods as he moves your hand closer to his chest. Your heart feels so tight in your chest as you just want this to stop for him. You’ve seen him out in public, he never shows any vulnerability, but now? He’s in pain, trying to find comfort and it’s killing you.

A groan cuts through your train of thought followed by, “Mesh’la it’s too much.” Furrowed brows stare back at you in the reflection of the helmet. What kind of word was that? His breath is getting too labored for your liking, so you put the cauterizer down saying, “Okay okay.” You rock back on your heels as your hand cradles your head. What do you do now?

Looking around the cargo hold for any inspiration of what to do now, your eyes fall on the pram. The healing powers. Grogu’s done it before, surely, he can do it again. Wiping your hands on your clothes to clean them, you open the pram to a still sleeping child. Trying to get him to wake up is a no-go as you soon come to learn that this child can sleep through just about anything. Pacing the small space between the pram and the crates, it becomes clear that you need do the weird healing magic thing you’ve never done before.

Trying to hide the fear in your voice, you try to calmly ask, “What did Grogu do to heal your friend?” Through multiple deep breaths Mando explains that he came up and placed his little hand on the injury, closed his eyes, then passed out. Sitting back down on your knees at Mando’s side, it’s your turn to take a shaky breath as you place your hands over the deep cut, eyes closed shut. Come on magic, do your thing.

Opening them again, you see nothing has changed. His breaths are still shallow and your hands are still covered in his blood. Some sort of static is coming from his helmet. By the time you realize he’s telling you it’s okay, tears threaten to spill for what feels like the millionth time since you’ve met him. Hands still placed on his side, you can’t help but relive the very few memories you’ve come to make since being in his debt, and how grateful you are for having met him and his small green son. Losing him now, only after the few days, felt as if it would break you.

Head coming down to rest on your forearm, it feels like all energy has been drained from your body. Moving one hand away, your eyes go wide. It healed. You wanted to scream at the joy you felt, but your limbs just felt heavy. No wonder Grogu could sleep through so much of what happens. If using your ability made you feel like this, you couldn’t imagine what it feels like for his tiny body. You hear Mando’s breathing even out, falling asleep from exhaustion. Within a few seconds your eyes flutter closed doing the same.

.

You wake up to feeling the hair that has fallen out of your bun being pushed behind your ear. It somehow feels slightly familiar to you. Eyes still adjusting, you offer a soft smile with a small, “Hi.” Bringing your head up off your arm, you realize you fell asleep right at his side. Blush creeps up on your face. You try to swiftly move a little bit away, your wrist is grabbed yet again. With a sharp inhale Mando quickly tries to get a word out, like he might change his mind if he waits a second more, “Din.”

With a quizzical look on your face, he sighs. “My name. Din. Din Djarin.” You can feel a cramp in your cheeks starting to form as your smile grows more than you ever thought it could. Quickly you remember the little remark you made before you started working on him. It was meant to be a joke. “Oh my gosh, I didn’t mean for it to come out that way before. I thought I would joke to lighten the mood. Oh my gosh,” you rush through saying thinking it offended him.

Somehow with that you have managed to get another laugh out of him. “It’s okay.” You roll your eyes at that. “No really, I wouldn’t have told you if I didn’t trust you.” You let out the breath you didn’t realize you were holding and gave him another small smile as you go to pat the back of his hand resting near your arm, still on the crate.

“Nice to meet you Din Djarin.” The cheek hurting smile returns once again. Recalling the previous events, you ask, “Din?” he hums in response. “What was the word you used before? Mesh-something?” Clearing his throat he goes to sit up and swings his legs over the crate to the side of you.

“I’ll tell you another time,” he dodges as he stands up, “Right now we got to go get the bounty you shot.”

Oh right, you did that. Killed.

Chapter Text

The next events seem to be a blur in your memory. But one thing stays clear. His face. You can’t unsee it. The bounty’s eyes open with no life behind them. You did that.

Din had you help freeze him in carbonite, which you didn’t even know was on the ship. Now here you are, sitting and staring at the frozen block of a man you killed, while the man you saved is double checking to make sure the area is clear.

In the back of your mind you know you should feel something about this entire situation right now, but there’s… nothing. Just numbness. Too much has been happening and you thought you were staying true to yourself during them all. Then last night happened. Now it feels as if you don’t even recognize yourself.

The logical part of your brain keeps trying to tell you that saving yourself, Din, and Grogu was enough, that there was no other option. Unfortunately that isn’t the part you were listening to. The part of your brain that has you spiraling keeps repeating part of the oath healers take at the end of their studies. Do no harm. Do no harm. Do no harm. But now the harm you did is staring you back in the face.

.

Din could tell a lot from your eyes. You never held back how you were feeling, it always shined through. Fear when he first found you on the Empire base. Overflowing joy when he asked you to stay with him and the kid. Pure bliss when you were eating whatever meat was on that kebob. Still don’t think either of you want to know what it actually was. Terror pouring out when you found the booth, thinking they found you again. Determination learning to shoot. And then last night, he saw… pain. You were in pain seeing him hurt, bleeding out. It didn’t make sense. You’ve only known each other, what Din thought, was short time. But he also knew, he’d do anything to never see that look in your eyes again.

But now? Now he couldn’t see anything in your eyes. That scares him to his core.

.

The Razor Crest is quiet, despite a few babbles, as the three of you now travel to Nevarro. That’s where the man in beskar said his friends are and where he drops off the bounties. You just hum in response to him explaining it to you. Sitting in the cockpit with the two of them, you pull your knees to your chest as the battle rages on in your head. Din keeps quickly looking over his left shoulder at you. While you know it’s just concern about your shift in behavior, it makes the walls your building up become skyscrapers.

He wouldn’t get it. He hunts criminals for a living, it’s part of the job description. Feeling your soul split to its core all because you shot someone is not something he deals with. All the excitement from learning to shoot makes this worse. How could you have been excited about that? Now knowing why he was teaching it to you. He just wants you safe, logic is trying to tell you again. Its drowned out by the image of that man’s face flashing in again.

It’s as if your mind hasn’t caught up to what you’ve been through yet. Your body reacted accordingly to what it had seen. Now you’re stuck here, torn between the life you knew and what it is now. But life isn’t the only thing your mind hasn’t caught up to yet. Too caught up in the commotion raging in your head, the realization that you’re dropping out of hyperspace to land doesn’t hit until the knees pulled tightly to your chest move close enough to hit you in the chin.

Not meeting his eye as he turns to get up and leave the ship, you stay glued to your seat. Clicks of the pram opening to put Grogu in echo through the cockpit. Only looking at Din’s boot-clad toes, you see him turn to face you. A gloved hand comes into your line of sight, extended, waiting for you to reach out for it. Not knowing if it would be better to stay alone on the ship with same persons who life you ended, or go with Din and the kid and likely be questioned about the probably sour look on your face, you just turn your head up to finally look at him.

His heart shatters seeing the once very expressive girl, look like a ghost of herself. Getting down to your level, he grasps the hands around your legs and tries to gently ease them off. You oblige, not really willing to put up a fight right now and follow him.

He finally let go of your hand to go down the ladder, even then there is a hand guiding your back, fearful that in your current state you’d fall. Opening the hull door down, he walks in bit in front of you leading out to the sand covered landing site. Your feet freeze to the ground as you take a step away from ladder closer to the frozen carbonite block of a reminder of the previous events.

Din finally turning to see you glued to your spot, he follows your line of gaze to the bounty. Quickly finding Greef Karga, Boba, and Fennec walking towards the Razor Crest, he asks Karga to get someone to get the frozen reminder for you out of the ship. Nodding in response as Greef beckons two helpers over. Once it’s out of the ship, Din cocks his head to the side as in asking, are you coming? Taking a deep breath, you slowly walk out towards what you are assuming are the friends he was talking about.

Trying to put on a smile, no matter how fake it might look, you introduce yourself as the five of you walk into the heart of the town. It didn’t hit you at first that the pram was empty until you heard baby talk coming from Greef Karga. For a second there you didn’t have to fake a smile seeing how loved Grogu is by everyone that meets him. But it is right back to acting like you’re not at war with yourself as you all sit down in a cantina.

It is very lively in there. Not something you expected from what you have heard of Nevarro. thinking it was still just a bounty hunter hub, you’re shocked to see kids and families littering the streets. There is a lot more life there than first thought. You are abruptly pulled out of your people watching as Din ushers you into one of the booths in the back of the cantina.

Sliding in next to you, you feel the cool metal of his chausses hit your thigh. Digging into one of his hidden pockets, he places the tracking fobs out on the table in front of Karga when he asks something that makes you wish you were sitting on the end, not caged in by this metal man. “What happened with that last one? You’re usually not that sloppy Mando.” Maybe I can just slide under the table. As if reading your thoughts, a gloved hand comes to rest on your knee and gives a reassuring squeeze. Before you can even turn your head to look at Din, he moves his hand as if it was never there, as it now ghosts over his side where he was stabbed.

“Turned out to be more trouble than I thought,” is all he says about it. Nothing about how you had to shoot him. Nothing about him bleeding out. Nothing about you healing him miraculously. And Greef doesn’t even push for more information on it, which you’re grateful for. You’d be more grateful if it weren’t brought up at all, but too late for that now. Greef Karga keeps baby talking Grogu while simultaneously trying to give Din more fobs. Begrudgingly he takes three more. The red light blinking off the fobs blind you as all you can see is the red blood spilling out of Din all over again.

Din leaving the booth with Boba Fett and Fennec quickly pulls you out of that thought as you are now left alone with Greef and the kid. Grogu whines and makes his grabby hands as food is placed on the table. Pushing the little biscuits towards his stubby little hands, he graciously takes them and starts munching away. A small smirk tugs at your lips looking at him in Greef Karga’s lap.

“So travelling with these two troublemakers treating you well?” Greef Karga inquires. If treating me well you mean making me cry multiple times and now killing a man, then yes. But that’s a downer and too personal for a first meeting. Then again you had your legs wrapped around Din when you first met too. So instead you settle for a subtle head nod that could be interpreted as a maybe.  He hums in response to your small gesture, “Guess you’re not much of a talker too.” That makes you raise your eyebrows in question. Too? Yes, Din might not talk your ear off but there’s still conversation there. Now even a joke or two. Is he talking about Grogu maybe? No, he babbles constantly, which you don’t mind.

Turning to look at the shiny man at the counter with the armored woman in a bit of confusion, his visor is already pointed at you. Now noticing you looking, his helmet tips forward as if asking are you okay? And for a second there you can forget that it was him dying in the hull last night with his consistent concern for you. The corners of your mouth turn up to let him know that, for the time being, you are okay. Chatter from, a now crumb covered, child turn your attention back to the man sitting in front of you. Taking a breath to center yourself, you reply a little delayed to Greef, “It’s just been a lot the past couple of days.”

“Ah so she does speak,” he chuckles as he takes a swig from his glass of bright blue liquid. Trying not to slam it back down onto the table, he continues, “Seems like your handling it well, after all you’ve been through.” That causes you to give a closed lip laugh. Handling it well? That’s not how you’d describe it. “What? You don’t think so?”

Resting your hand on your face, you scrunch your nose with a small nod ‘no.’ Somehow sitting here with Karga, as he treats Grogu with such care, makes you feel the tiniest bit better. From what you’ve heard from Din earlier yesterday, he had done some questionable things in the past regarding Din and the kid. Seeing someone who has a dark past still be so kind and gentle makes it feel like somehow, you’ll be okay. “Now what makes you think that?” The sound of the higher pitch at the end makes Grogu tilt his head to the side with his little teeth showing.

What’s the harm in opening up to another stranger, if Din trusts him now, it’s probably okay. “I just- This isn’t who I am. Someone on the run, getting in trouble. I know life can never go back to the way it was before this, but I didn’t want it to change who I am.” Hands coming up to your face covering your eyes, then bringing them to the side of your face. “Guess that’s out the window now.” It’s Greef’s turn to give you a quizzical look now. Well I guess there’s no going back now. “Last night, when Di-Mando was coming back, he was being followed but he was too hurt to notice.” He nods following along to your story, seeing the small fear in your eyes as he finishes for you.

“You had to shoot him then.” Feeling the tears prick behind your eyes, all you do is keep your eyes low and quickly nod your head. “What you did helped save the lot of you. Life might not be the same but one thing’s for sure, you protected those who needed it. Though I doubt Mando would like to admit that part,” he finishes with a laugh. It was meant to help, and for a bit it did, until all you could see was the face of the man you killed flash into your brain. Greef Karga must have seen your demeanor change as he observes, “This new life will get easier. You got a good heart if this is eating you up this much. Don’t let this harden you. If it helps, you probably saved more lives than just your three.”

You nod your head waiting for him to continue, needing to know more to try and clear your conscious. “I don’t want to get too much into it. Don’t want you to fret more.” You smile and tell him okay with a more cheer in your voice than you thought there’d be today. “I’ll tell you one thing though,” Greef points his finger at you and then to Din, “I’ve never seen him more open and,” he chuckles at this next part, “talkative, and I have a hunch that it’s your doing.” As if on cue, Din and the other armored man and stealthy woman walk back over and you feel his gloved hand brush against your shoulder, igniting your skin once again.

Something about the way his touch feels makes everything else in the galaxy seem irrelevant. The pain, the fear, the torture of last night seems to have faded from your mind as you turn to face him, sliding to the end of the booth, legs hanging out over the side. Getting down to your level yet again, he announces, “I need to go with Fett and Fennec to handle something.” About to object your eyes dart from his still healing side back up his visor, he proceeds, “It’s going to be fine. They flew out here to find me for this. It won’t take long.” You give him a meek okay as he stands up to follow the two out of the cantina.

Watching him walk away makes your heart drop to the pit of your stomach. Images of him leaving the night before flash into your mind. Before you can even think, you call out to him by the first name you knew for him. You open your mouth to say something, but all that comes out is a huff of air. Light reflects off his helmet, momentarily blinding you, as he nods in understanding, “Stick with Greef. He’ll show you around Nevarro,” giving a quick nod to Grogu, “Don’t let him eat too many of those blue cookies.” The tiniest squeal comes from Grogu in disappointment causing the softest of chuckles to come from Din’s modulator as he turns again to walk away.

.

A little light was back behind your eyes. At least there’s that, Din thought.

.

Walking with Greef Karga through the little city was nice. Learning all the little details and facts while strolling along. It was almost like following a tour guide through a museum, but if the tour guide was very rambunctious and the museum was not as quiet as it should be. He also seems to be very well known. People just stopping and saying “hi” everywhere you three go. From what you’ve gathered from Greef, whatever happened when they defeated the Imperials really turned this place around.

There’s one thing that Greef hasn’t brought up yet but seems like it is important. This huge statue of a droid, pointing his weapon to the sky, with his foot crushing stormtrooper helmets. Grogu whines as you go past it. Picking him up to try and comfort him, even though he may be 50-years old, he’s still a baby, he makes happy coos looking towards it. Feeling of safety washes over you as Grogu grips your shirt staring at this monument. Did he know this droid? Once Greef is done talking with yet another person to cross your path, you ask him about it, “What’s with this droid statue over here?”

“Right there? Oh that’s a bit of a long story,” he replies. You gesture around as if to say where do we need to go? “Alright then,” he obliges, “That was IG-11…” He goes on to tell you the story, how he was first sent out to bring the child to the Imps, you’re confused by this since the child seems to feel comfort from this droid. How Din first shot him to save Grogu, but then later found himself crossing paths with the same droid once again with another fallen friend, Kuill. Kuill apparently programmed IG-11 to be a nurse droid, served to nurse and protect, which is nicely written on the plaque underneath.

Greef tells you that Din’s head was badly injured in their fight to escape and stop the Imps, that they didn’t think he would make it. Flashes of him bleeding from the night before coming to your mind again. He tells you how IG-11 stayed with him until all other living beings left, so he could help him. This droid saved the man that saved you, so by extent, IG-11 also saved you. Reaching out to touch the statues foot in a silent thank you. Greef’s tone gets more somber as he tells you how IG-11 sacrificed himself to save Grogu and the rest of them.

He doesn’t seem to want to go into it more and promptly changes the subject, “We’ve been out here for quite some time, let’s get you two some more food.” You can’t help but think of this droid and how it started out by almost doing something as terrible as harming a child but was still able to be perceived as good for its later actions. You just pray that after the events of last night, you can see yourself as good again one day. Maybe sometimes the good outweighs the bad. Just maybe.

Greef seemed to ignore Din’s request of not having Grogu eat too many blue cookies by buying him a pack of them. The child is contently eating them as Greef then offers to take you to a place for the kid, Din and you to stay for the night. “Wait, do you sell medical supplies anywhere here?” You don’t want to ever be unprepared for a crisis ever again.

.

The hotel Greef was talking about turned out to be two separate rooms connected by a door, not one. A sigh of relief leaves your mouth when you realize that you both can probably get an actual good night’s sleep. There’s something in the back of your mind trying to convince you that you should be upset, but you can’t figure out why. You push that out for the time being. Right now all that matters are you won’t be sleeping on the crates and Din won’t be sleeping on suspended strips of fabric which he qualifies as a “bed.”

Sprawled out with a content green baby by your side, you hear the sound of a ship landing. Exhaustion from walking around all day starts to hit you so you decide against being nosey and looking to see who it is. The door opening next door sparks your interest though, followed by a knock on the connecting door. Din calls both yours and Grogu’s names. “Yeah? Din come in,” you call back as you quickly sit up on the bed. Noticing the silver wrapper of those blue cookies with only a few left also on the bed, you quickly tuck it away into your bag on the floor as the door opens.

His arm goes over to his side again. You open your mouth to ask what’s wrong, he beats you to, “It’s just sore that’s all.” Closing your mouth, you get up to get some bacta to put on the scar of what you didn’t heal with whatever abilities you have. “What are you doing with that? I’m fine.” Once again, the training of a healer kicks in to give him the look. The look that says you don’t have a choice when it comes to this. With a sigh, he points to the bed, “Here?”

Quickly switching to one of your sweetest smiles, you reply, “Yes please.” He obliges by sitting on the edge about to lift up his undershirt just enough while leaving all the armor on this time. You could see the scar without him removing it so it’s fine for just putting the cream on it. Once he does, your breath hitches. The scar has a perfect edge from where you used the cauterizer compared to where you healed it. A perfect line.

Your hands ghosts over the scar while applying the cream, finally able to look at the man underneath. It’s radiating heat and so warm in color. Tiny scars also litter the space shown. A map that tells his story. You wish one day to hear it. Taking advantage of not being able to look up at him to talk about last night and its effect on you. “I’m sorry for the way I acted this morning. I’ve just never- I never- “

“You don’t need to explain yourself,” he offers.

“I know, but I want to,” you reply. He gives you a small okay, as you finish, and he pulls his undershirt back down. Sitting next to him on the bed, legs twisted into a pretzel shape, you continue, “I didn’t think I’d have to utilize what you taught me so fast or for something so serious as that.”

He gives your knee a reassuring squeeze once again, “You did what you had to do. You saved us by doing that. And probably so many others by having the bounty fulfilled.”

You quip back, “Yeah, I know Greef Karga already told me that.”

“You talked to Greef about this?” Din says in shock, but you can pick up on the little hurt in his voice.

 “That’s not the point right now,” you swat at his arm earning a breathy laugh out of him. With a deep breath you continue, “My life has changed so drastically in the few days, not all bad,” you say as running your hand over the little green bean’s ears. “And I know that good and bad isn’t black and white, there’s gray mixed in there. But I always held myself to a higher standard than I probably should have. I went into healing to do good. Do no harm. But now I did. And now I don’t know who I am. But I know, I know, I had to. Who knows what would’ve happened if I didn’t. I’m just not used to this life yet. But I’ll get there.”

“I don’t want you to,” he says flatly.

“What?” What does he mean by that? Is he saying he doesn’t want you around? Your hands go to push your hair behind your ears as you stare at the ground instead of the man beside you. Is he –

“That came out wrong,” he rushes out as he brings his leg up onto the bed, bent at the knee almost mimicking your pretzel shape. “I don’t want this life to toughen you too much. I like— mrph – I don’t want this life to take the goodness out of you,” his hand twitches towards you, but doesn’t leave his lap. “But please still do what you need to keep yourself and the kid safe, get used to that part of this life.”

Crinkling your nose with the corners of your mouth tugging slightly upward, “So you’re not kicking me out?”

His helmet tilts and quickly shakes and with a gruff voice says, “What? No, that’s not what’s happening right now.” Grogu goes to leave your arms and goes to sit in the little nook created by Din’s bent knee. “You’re still a good person. You helped me last night. You thought to protect Grogu when you knew the Imp sympathizers were at that booth. That’s who you are. Now get some sleep.” He grabs Grogu and stands up going towards the door that connects the two rooms.

A bad feeling drops to the pit of your stomach. You don’t want to be alone. Scared to see the face of the man who hurt Din and made you do something you’d never think you would do. “This might be a really weird request, but could you—could you stay until you fall asleep?”

“Of course,” he responds. With the baby still in his arms, he goes to sit next to your bed as you lay back down on the cloud-like pillows. Reaching over you turn off the light, the only illumination coming from the door to Din’s room. You hear the rustling of your bag, just assuming Din moved it to sit better. There’s a tiny shift in the weight of the bed, looking down you see he’s resting his helmet on the bed. Warmth floods your chest. You start to feel yourself drift off into the place between wake and sleep, breath starting to even out. Faintly you hear Din stand up. Something soft and warm touches your forehead, “Goodnight mesh’la.”

Before you can stop yourself, you mumble, “M’night Din.” A gloved finger moves your hair behind your ear. Two sets of feet walking are heard walking back to his door, one significantly smaller than the other. It takes you that long to realize he kissed you. On the forehead. He lifted up his helmet to kiss you.

Getting closer to finally falling asleep with a smile now planted on your face, you hear Din boom, “How many of these did you eat?!” Din didn’t move your bag on the floor, Grogu did. He got the rest of his cookies. Uh oh.

Chapter Text

Finally getting Grogu to bed after having just “reprimanding” the best he could to those big brown eyes, Din finally lays down in an actual bed. Light snores come from the floating bassinet as Din quickly hits the button on his vambrace to close it. The doors are locked, his blaster’s next to him, the child and you are both asleep, the rest of his armor is next to the bed ready to go. With a sigh of relief he takes his helmet off. Rough, calloused hands rub his eyes until stars cloud his vision as he flops down on the pillow.

He can’t stop adjusting himself, as he hasn’t had the luxury of something so soft in a while. Until he finally stops and just stares up at the ceiling with an agitated sigh. There’s no way I can… fall asleep … on this…, his thought is cut short as sleep pulls him under.

.

Usually it’s not this easy. It’s like they want to be found.

Two sets of footprints lead toward the cantina, but only one of them really matters for the time being. The other one isn’t the target right now.

Following at a distance, Din enters to see the two men at the back, near the bar, backs towards him. This is really too easy.

Blaster pressed to the bounty’s back, his helmet tilts into the space between the two of them, “We wouldn’t want to make a scene, now would we?” The man next to the bounty, who was half of Din’s height, but just as stocky, pulled out a vibroblade the size of his forearm. Before he can do anything with it, the bartender shouts, “No fighting in my cantina! Take it outside!” With a head tilt towards the door, the two men follow the armored man out.  

Barely a foot from the door and the two are one him, wielding their moving knives. The beskar vambrace helps deflect until his non-dominant hand is able to grab another blaster, aiming it at the two of them faster than they can try to get another slash in. “I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold,” Din waited for them to move but saw no change in their stature, “Your choice.”

“Or you could give us your valuables. The asset and the girl.” Din’s breath catches. He’s used to people threatening him for the kid, but for you? They shouldn’t have known about you. Not this quickly. He only rescued you, what, four or five days ago?  Sensing his waver, the short man lunges and gets him in between his chest plate. The bounty’s counterpart can barely wind his arm up again before the Mandalorian pulls the trigger leaving him lying there.

The bounty tries to run but Din hits him in the shin, head already dizzy with what he just heard. If they already knew about you, who else did? Your name falls from his lips as he tries to get himself back the ship. Back to you and the kid.

.

Struggling to keep himself up, Din finds himself holding on the many trees on the way back to the Razor Crest. When it finally gets into view, he can’t stay on his legs any longer. Before making his decent to the ground, he clicks on his vambrace to open up the hull doors, praying you were close enough to hear it and not asleep.

His heart bursts to see you start to walk over as a light laugh mixed with a sigh escapes his lips. You’re leaning on the wall with your arms crossed and he can’t keep himself up anymore and slumps against the tree. His heart drops seeing you turn around, even from here he can see the fear in your eyes. But then your back and raising both your arms with something in your hand. He can’t make it out. Not until he hears the shot ring out.

Over his shoulder is the bounty, now laying on the ground. Breathing is getting harder as you run up and slide in front of him. Gasping for air with fear etched on your face as you ask, “What happened?” Your hand reaches for his side and all he can do is look at you with admiration, not that you can see.

Before he can get the next words out, you’re pushed out from your kneeling position in front of him with a vibroblade to your neck. No that’s not how this happened. Din tries to crawl towards you but the more he tries, the further you get. But he keeps trying and trying, stretching out his arm as far as he can calling out your name. You whimper out his name, trying to reach your hand out toward him. All he can do is scream as he has to watch the light leave your eyes with a fellow swoop of the blade.

.

Clutching his chest and gasping for air, Din shoots up in bed, shaking. He reaches to turn on the light next to him and looks around the room. He’s not on the ground in the forest. You’re not laid out in front of him, just out of his grasp. Still trembling, he moves his legs over the side of the bed and carefully stepping around his armor to get to the fresher to splash some cold water on his face. He looks towards the connecting door with his heart still aching from that nightmare as he enters his tiny fresher towards the sink.

.

The light from under the door wakes you up. It can’t be morning already, can it? Looking over at the alarm clock with its blinking green dots on the nightstand, you realize that you’re correct. It’s 3:23. In the morning. What was he doing up?

Sitting yourself up, with your elbows propped on your knees, you remove the sleep from your eyes, debating if it is wise to go and check on him. He always makes sure you’re okay, why does this feel so much more personal than all those other times? Kriff, he even sat next to the bed for you to fall asleep. The faucet runs in the room next door as you swing your legs over the bed, hands clutching the edge, not able to move.

It feels like ages you are sitting there, running every possible scenario of you entering his room through your head. It seems the galaxy had another plan than the one’s you’ve thought out as the connecting door opens a crack as an armor-less mandalorian steps through.

This. This is why it felt too personal. His helmet is still on but… the rest of his blinding armor is off. Your breath hitches. It’s sometimes hard to remember when he wears that get up. That he’s still a man. Your eyes trail over his new appearance observing how uncomfortable he looks in just the long sleeve shirt and pants with suspenders off his shoulders down by his hips.

His chest heaving goes unnoticed until he finally speaks up, “Sorry… I – I didn’t mean to wake you.” You’ve never seen him like this. You’d be lying if you said this sight before you didn’t make you the teensiest bit worried.

“S’ alright,” you slur, voice horse and laced with sleep. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah, just needed to make sure your door was locked,” he breathes heavily as he walks towards the door. Din jiggles the handle and flips the lock a few times, before his helmet goes to rest on the door. Definitely not okay.

Finally getting up, you shuffle over to him. Exhaustion somehow making you brave, or making you stupid, it’s still too early in the morning to tell, you wrap your arms around his waist. With a sharp inhale, he brings his hand up to wrap around both of your hands, pulling them closer into him.

Oh. Oh. No armor also means no gloves. This is the only time you’ve felt his skin without needing to help heal him. You have to force yourself to let that thought go as you feel his panicked breathing. You lean your cheek up against his back as he whispers, “I had to make sure th-that no one could get to you.” It felt like a dagger to your heart as you choke down a sob for his sake.

Prying on of your hands lose, you grab on the hand still clutching yours closer. “C’mon,” you say softly into his shoulder blade. You lead him through the connecting door back to his bed, pram still closed and floating next to the mattress, just within arm’s reach of it. Din sits on the edge of the bed, helmet in his hands. You follow suit, with your one leg hitched up on the bed. Remembering how he helped you after your nightmare all you can think to say is, “You want to talk about it?” That question enlists a sad chuckle out of the man sitting next to you.

His helmet tilts to the side as he lets out a low, “Not really.”

Squinting your eyes at him, you knock your shoulder against his in attempt to get him to open up. When he just lightly shifts and doesn’t acknowledge it, you continue on, “You helped me with mine, at least just let me try to help with yours,” refusing to say the word nightmare, afraid it will scare him off, or worse, cause you to have your own later.

His hand clasping your knee, he lets out a breath, “You’re helping already.” Your eyebrows furrow as you turn your body to face him. Lifting up his head out of his hands, he rotates his head toward you.

“It- it involved me, didn’t it,” you ask meekly. You can’t hide the look on your face as it hits you. He’s hurting because of you. He just shifts his gaze from you to the ground, and slowly nods his head. He’s seeking comfort in you, so you can only assume it involved not being able to protect you. You don’t know what takes over you as you reach out to put your hand in the indent of his helmet where his cheek should be. “I’m okay,” you try to convince him. He brings his hand up to meet yours and turns towards you. Giving a soft smile you recall something else he did to try and help you.

You take his hand and move it to your heart. “See? Still beating. I’m still here.” His next action doesn’t seem to faze you at this point in your sleep deprived delirium. Your hair gets brushed behind your ear. Something you vaguely remember him doing before you drifted off to sleep the first time tonight. But he leaves his hand there, to your surprise. Slowly and gently, he brings your head closer to his, until your foreheads touch. All you can do is close your eyes and listen to him breath.

Not wanting to leave him alone, voice barely above a whisper, you ask, “Can I stay in here with you tonight.”

Not a millisecond goes by before he breathes out, “Yes.”

“Okay good because it is way past my bedtime,” you say with a little laugh. Finally moving both your hands away from your heart, you scooch back towards the head of the bed. Din follows your movement, still leaving about a pillows distance between both of you. Crawling under the covers, it hits you. Eyes wide, you ask, “Are you going to sleep with your helmet on.” All he does is give a low shrug as if to say, no big deal. Not being able to stop yourself, you blurt out, “No you’re not! You deserve a good night’s sleep on an actual bed. I’ll go back to my room.” You let your legs fall over the side of the bed, but before you can get any further, his rough hand grips your forearm, heat radiating off of him.

“Wait,” you look over your shoulder back at the visor shielding him from your gaze. “You said you trust me. Do you still do?”

Heartbeat picking up, you respond, “With every fiber of my being.” Without missing a beat, he grabs the pillow nearest him and rips the open edge off the pillowcase. Confusion hits you as you retort, “What did that pillow ever do to you?”

Ripping the circular piece open, all he says is, “Just hush and come over here.” Following his order, you crawl closer to where he sits. “You can tell me no. You got that?” You just nod your head yes, wanting to see what he means. He lets out a sigh as he raises the fabric towards your eyes. A blindfold, you smile to yourself. He ties it behind your head, and you move back a bit, trying to find where your pillow is now.

The weight shifts on the bed and you realize he laid down. His hand comes to yours again as he guides it towards your pillow. Laying down next to him, your heart can’t help but beat out of your chest. His hand stays on yours as it absent-mindedly draws patterns on the back of yours. “The- the bounty,” you jump, not expecting him to talk. “He knew about you,” he breaths out. It feels strange to finally feel it hit your face. But a good strange. You flip your hand over for him to hold on to, lacing your fingers with his. You give it a reassuring squeeze.

“That’s why I came back the way I did. I didn’t think the news of you would travel that fast. I just needed to get back to the two of you.”

Your stomach drops and seems to do somersaults. The hand not holding his, goes to rest on top of the tangled pair. “I’ve dealt with worse,” you joke, “Plus now I got you. I’ve never felt safer.” Something about not having enough sleep makes you very truthful, because you can’t believe you just said that out loud.

Din moves his arm with both of your hands over towards your side, flipping you so your back is towards him. Pulling you closer to him, his head rests near your ear, breath on your neck sending a chill down your spine. “Just don’t make that dream a reality.”

Smiling you quip back, “As long as you don’t come back hurt like that again.”

He laughs at that. Oh his laugh. You can’t believe what it sounds like without the helmet. You don’t ever want to hear it muffled by that ever again. “Deal,” is all he says.

 You let out a breath of contentment, “Goodnight Din.”

“Goodnight mesh’la”

Raising your eyebrow again, even though it is hidden by a piece of the pillowcase, you edge on, “You know, one day you’re gonna have to tell me what that means.”

“Not a chance.”  Leaving it at that you let sleep pull you under, never wanting to leave this bed.

Chapter Text

Light shines through the white cloth over your eyes. Somewhere between wake and sleep, you sort of acknowledge that it’s at least morning. No matter how early it is, the sun manages to be up. Things have never felt more peaceful than this. An arm draped over your waist. The soft sound of Din breathing echoing in your ear. Warm breath hitting your neck. Somehow this is everything you never knew you needed.

You keep drifting in and out of blissful sleep when the unusual happens. There’s a knock on the room door. Your body goes rigid as Din hastily rolls over you to grab something on the nightstand. Something gets pushed into your hand as his comes up to move the blindfold away from your eyes. Sitting up, you blink as your eyes adjust. Helmet already on, a finger comes up to where his lips would be, gesturing for you to be quiet. Looking down at the blaster in your hand, your chest tightens at the thought of the last time you held one.

There is another loud bang on the door as Din picks up his chest plate and starts stalking towards the door. Heart beating out of your chest, your hand goes to rest on the still closed pram to your left, ready to push it behind you at a moments notice. “Djarin, it’s me,” Boba Fett’s distinct voice booms from the other side of the door. With a huff, the both of you lower the blasters as Din stops trying to get his armor on and opens the door.

The man in the prominent green armor walks through, talking with Din about something on the holopad in his hand. It’s too early for you to make any sense of what he is saying, especially with the pounding of your heart still ringing in your ears. It isn’t until the green and red helmet turns towards you and he lifts it off his head, that you register what he says next. “Looks like I’m interrupting something,” he taunts while raising an eyebrow.

Too in shock that he took his helmet off without a second thought, you just sit there, blindfold hanging off your neck, with your mouth hanging open. Din tries to stammer out a ‘no,’ when it clicks that he’s not in shock about what you would assume to be the obvious Mandalorian blunder by his counterpart. No, it’s about the fact that you are in his room, in his bed. Probably still with sleep littering your eyes as they now adjust to the light.

Trying to help him out, you quickly recover by say, “I had a nightmare. About what they did to me back there.” Boba’s eyebrows raise at the realization, but you continue, “I didn’t want to be alone, so D- “looking towards the silver helmet, not knowing if you can use his real name or not, he gives a slight nod, you carry on. “Din was kind enough to let me stay in here.”

Fett’s mouth falls open into an ‘O’ that quickly closes as your words register. “I see,” he nods as his focus then shifts back to the quiet man before you, “Just wanted you to know there on the move, traveling sub-light, can’t make out a destination yet.” Din takes the holo from Boba’s outstretched hands with a small thanks.

The helmet-less Mandalorian then begins to walk towards the door, but quickly turns on his heels. “Oh, one more thing, the Princess just made her way into this system. This is about to be interesting.” Din’s head falls to the side at these words. Brows furrowed as you try and think of any royalty from planets within the galaxy, but you come up short. Whoever this girl is, you think, they’re clearly are thrilled with her arrival.

Pressing the button on the pram to your left, a pair of bright eyes blink as Grogu takes in the light you just let in. Running your fingers of his little wrinkled forehead, he reaches out for you to pick him up. Nose scrunching up from happiness, you quickly oblige. Sitting back down on the bed with your new companion on your hip, your adrenaline from before winds down and you feel your eyes start to droop again. Going to lay back down fully, the little green child goes to curl up next you and you can’t help the smile that erupts on your face at his adorable antics.

.

Din comes back and sits where he once was on the bed, scrolling through info on his holopad. His eyes glance over the two of you as his chest tightens. Grogu clinging to your shirt as your fingers softly run over the top of his head, coaxing him back to sleep. There’s a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he can’t quite figure out, one he hasn’t felt since he was a boy. That feeling is soon drowned out with fear for both you and the child’s safety as his attention goes back to the intel in front of him.

Okay so he might not have been fully truthful with you on why he had to go with Boba and Fennec yesterday. Din keeps trying to make sure the holo is positioned out of your view, not that it even matters with you laying on your side, back facing him. It looks like wherever this ship he’s tracking is going, it’s traveling sub-light. It’s going to be awhile until it reaches their final destination. In the meantime, Din just drops a pin at where it currently and makes a mental note to continually check back to it.

While putting the holopad down, Din hears the faint smack of a little stubby, 3-fingered hand come in contact with skin. A faint gasp comes from your direction which is quickly muffled by you pretending to eat the little hands that attacked you. An eruption of giggles come from Grogu, and Din can’t help but reflect on how that was such a rare sound for either of them before you came into their lives. His heart constricts again thinking that. He failed at not getting attached to the kid, with you it’s like he threw his whole rule book out.

He just continues to watch you two be happy and content for a bit until Grogu decides to climb over you and place his tiny little hands on his thigh. All he hears from you is a mumbled, “Traitor,” as you then flip over to face the two of them. He can’t help the laughter that escapes him at both of your antics. There is a glint in your eye that looks a lot like happiness, but different Din notes. He thought he could always get a good read on you, but right now he’s not sure what that one means. He might not be ready to know what that one means. With a clear of his throat, he quickly asks, “You hungry?” He notices your eyes go wide as you slowly nod your head yes and get ready to head out the door.