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Mando hadn't had a lot of time to think about what caring for a foundling on his own would look like before he had taken the child into his care. He hadn't had a lot of time to think about having a foundling at all until it was a done thing and they were in the Razor Crest's cockpit, in transit. Mando was his covert's beroya; he wasn't supposed to have a foundling in his care. He was supposed to focus on providing for the covert. And even if he'd have brought a foundling back, under normal circumstances they would have been cared for by more than just him, assuming he stayed involved afterwards. But these were not normal circumstances.
He'd delivered the child as a bounty, because the reward had been more beskar than he'd ever seen in one place and he couldn't bear to have it remain in the hands of the Empire. He'd returned for the child because it was the right thing to do. And he'd left alone with the child because Nevarro wasn't safe, not with the entire Guild after them.
So he'd stumbled through a series of decisions, and as a result he now had a child in his care. And that meant feeding him and providing shelter for him—Mando thought he was doing relatively fine with those—but it also meant keeping him clean. Mando had a system for his own hygiene. A sonic shower was the most convenient option. He didn't have a full sonic on the Razor Crest, but he made use of one whenever he was able to, in whatever port he set down in or when he returned to his covert. Between those opportunities, he made use of a cloth, water, and soap. Sponge baths were fairly effective, especially when you wore absorbent base layers and changed them regularly. They worked better when he could avoid getting caked in mud, but he did what he had to.
The child, he thought, would appreciate a true bath, and on a planet like Sorgan where water was plentiful and the village was located right off of a river, he assumed bathing was regularly practiced. And after running around outside with the other children, Mando knew the child could use that bath. Omera had said to find her if he needed anything, and she'd seemed to mean it, so Mando sought her out that evening once he'd wrangled the kid.
"Is there somewhere I could bathe the little one?" he asked. "Or do you use the river?"
"Oh!" she said. "There's a bath house, I can show you. We have a smaller tub for the young children. Are you planning to bathe as well?"
He shook his head. "Not right now." The child in his arms was cooing softly, absorbed in clacking his nails against the metal of Mando's vambrace, and Mando smiled as he looked down at him. When he looked back up, Omera was watching them, a smile on her own face.
"Follow me," she said.
"Alright, kid," Mando said once they were alone. "Bath time."
The child looked up at him with big eyes, but as far as Mando could tell, he didn't have a strong opinion on bath time, not like some of the other young foundlings the covert had picked up over the years. And that— Mando knew that the kid was actually fifty, older than Mando himself was. Had anyone been caring for the child before he had become a bounty? Or had he been alone? He'd looked clean enough when they'd met, but Mando didn't have enough information to guess what the child had lived through over the years.
He sighed. The past could wait.
Carefully, he took off the child's tiny robes, pulling out one small arm at a time as the child babbled at him. And when he was left with a small green naked infant who looked like he might be considering the joys of running around the room like that, Mando picked up the child and set him in the little tub. There wasn't enough water in there that he was worried about the child drowning, not as long as he kept an eye on him, but it was about waist deep if the child was sitting in it. The moment he set the child down, the kid lit up and practically vibrated in excitement, slapping at the water to watch it splash.
Mando laughed. "No frogs in here, but the water's still nice, huh?"
The child made a noise that sounded like agreement.
After a moment of hesitation, Mando pulled off his gloves and all the armor on his hands and forearms, rolling the sleeves of his kute up to his elbows. It wasn't his helmet, and they were in private. It was fine.
Of course, the child noticed his bare skin immediately, the excited splashing pausing as the child stared at Mando.
"Hey," Mando said softly, running his fingers over the downy fluff on the kid's head. The child leaned into the touch, his eyes closing and his ears twitching. "Let's get you clean, then."
A great deal of water was no longer in the tub by the time the child was washed and rinsed, but Mando had expected that, and it didn't bother him. It wasn't like beskar, of all metals, would rust.
He washed the child's robes in what was left of the bathwater when they were done, wrapping the child in a thick, soft blanket that might have been meant to act as a towel. Mando wasn't positive the kid's clothes would dry overnight, not with how humid it was, but the blanket worked for now, and maybe Omera would have something they could borrow in the morning if they needed it.
As Mando walked back to the barn where they were staying, his armor and gloves back in place, the child slept peacefully in his arms, swaddled and comfortable.
And maybe he could get used to having a foundling to take care of.