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no-droids · 4 years

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Ask Me Again Tomorrow

gif credit @pedros-pascal

Part Sixteen of the Rough Day Series

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 16.3K

Warnings: SMUTTTTT, following/stalking, some fluffy moments but mostly just a lil action and interaction, I don’t think there’s any other warning besides language and the smut (comm sex WITH A TWIST YALLLLL) but if you happen to find something else that warrants a tag, please let me know and I will do so accordingly!

A/N: The response to this story has grown beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined and I genuinely thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the privilege of writing for you. Hope this one ends up being okay and I’ll get to work on the next chapter soon!

***

Headstart—12:17pm:

The sky is so pretty. There isn’t much to look at on the surface—rolling hills and plains, grassy but with dry bare spots breaking up the green stretches, but the sky. It’s an oil painting above you, pastel swishes of yellows and pinks and purples with an enormous ringed planet taking up half the horizon and another sizable moon hanging high.

You should probably be running. Like, for real sprinting, but you can’t push yourself to go faster than a brisk walk. It’s so… free out here, more hills springing up every time you get to the top of the next, warm air filling your lungs. Even though you know realistically that the beginning will likely be the hardest—where you need to focus most on running and putting distance between you instead of hiding—truth be told, you’re not foreseeing making it more than a full day. You’re going to try, obviously, but in the grand scheme, you wouldn’t be surprised in the least if he finds you tomorrow. So, instead of wasting all your energy going as fast as you physically can right out of the gate, you just decide to stroll and think for a little bit.

You know what your goal is. Obviously, to last as long as you can, but more specifically… well, if Din is going to chase after you, then he’s going to try to think like you. Anticipate your movements, if he can’t already see the tracks you leave plain as day. Very soon, he’ll be walking this same exact pathing, following the footprints you’re leaving behind, but if you’re ever able to shake him or throw him off course, he doesn’t have a tracking fob. He doesn’t have any mechanical device that points him in your direction—if you can lose him with the footprints, then he’ll have to rely solely on predicting you. Which means you need to think… exactly the opposite of yourself if you want to outsmart him.

That’s harder than it sounds though, because… is he going to predict you predicting him? At what point does it stop? You somehow have trouble seeing this as an advantage the way he said it would be—you almost wish you had someone else chasing you, someone you didn’t know and someone who didn’t know you if only so this paradox could end before it begins.

You’re walking for about ten minutes before spotting a dirt road in the distance. There’s a person following it in the direction of the sun—you don’t know this planet’s magnetic field but you do know it’s after noon and the sun would set on Arvala-7 in the west, so that’s what you’ll call it for now. You call out to them as soon as you’re in range, and the stranger turns to you.

“Excuse me!” It’s a woman, you see it as you get closer. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but can you tell me where this road leads?”

She removes a sheer yellow shawl covering her dark hair and gives you a friendly smile. “Hello,” the lady greets, before spinning around and pointing back the way she came. “Osiruu is a few hours that way. There’s not much there, but it will take you to G’ila, a transport hub with many opportunities for drifters, or Nariss, the capital. I’m on my way to Shabeth,” she points in the other direction. “It’s far—a day’s walk, but it’s a holy place and offers quite the view. I would be glad for the company, but I understand its lack of practical appeal.”

So this place is safe enough to be inviting strangers along on your travels, noted. You’re going to have to make the decision right now, then. Which path should you take?

Something deep inside you tells you that you want to see this holy place, and just from a few sentences, you already like this woman and feel safe with her. But then all of a sudden, you remember something.

Last known locations tell you a lot about a quarry, Din’s voice drifts back to you, sounding soft and distant from the dark forests of Naboo. Smart ones go to populated planets, planets like Coruscant, planets that make it nearly impossible to find people. Brave ones go to dangerous planets, suicidal ones try their luck in the Unknown Regions, idiots continue to go about their business on their homeworld without caring. But planets like this—like Naboo… those are the pacifists. The ones that don’t ever put up a fight.

You suppose you should decide what kind of quarry you want to be. Friendly company and a view is something you normally crave—it’s something your soul speaks to after going without it for so long during your previous life. You never pictured yourself as the fighting type. When Din first asked you, you told him you wouldn’t run from him if he was chasing you, and choosing to accompany this kind stranger to her destination is essentially just that. Sacrificing a chase for a pretty view.

“Does Shabeth have a sizable population?” You ask her, and she shakes her head.

“It’s the sight of an annual pilgrimage that happens in a few months, but it’s beautiful there and I like to go whenever I can,” she tells you with a soft smile. “But there’s nothing for miles outside it, I’m afraid.”

Your footprints will lead directly there. He’ll find you easily.

“It sounds very nice, but I need to find somewhere with a lot of people,” you give her an apologetic smile. Truly, you think she would’ve made for a nice friend. “Thank you for your help, though, and good luck with your journey! I hope we meet again.”

“Do you need any food or supplies?” She asks you, and you stop short of passing her by. “I don’t have much with me, but know what it’s like to be a newcomer to Sanctuary II. I’d be glad to help.”

Good Maker, is this how everybody is here or did you just hit the jackpot with this lady? She seems like… you, almost. Her voice is gentle, she looks like she’d give nice hugs. You’re about to politely turn her down, but then you realize the brilliant opportunity that’s presented itself in her image.

“Actually, this might sound like a really strange question, but…” you tell her, before looking down at her feet. “Wanna trade shoes with me?”

***

Headstart—6:12pm:

You don’t think it’ll work, but as you walk into a small settlement a few hours later in a unfamiliar and worn pair of sandals, you decide that you’ll need to do this as often as possible. You can’t come up with anything else that’ll throw him off your physical trail besides constantly switching shoes—is that bad? Are you just an idiot with no hope? You’ve had—you check your watch—like, five hours to think of a game plan, and all you’ve come up with is shoes? You’re screwed.

At least there’s food here. Plenty. There’s vendors stationed along the street, multiple people passing by and going about their business. Osiruu, that nice woman said—not much here, but you think she was wrong. There’s children giggling and jumping rope on the corner, a shopkeeper sweeping her storefront, a graying man with an empty cup plucking an unfamiliar melody on an unfamiliar instrument—and while your tummy growls and you know you should quickly buy supplies and be on your way, you still stop for just a few minutes to listen.

It’s a lovely tune. You drop a few credits in his cup after he finishes and find yourself humming it as you look at the plethora of goods being offered by the vendors. Water, food—you buy enough of everything to sustain you for at least a couple days, not wanting to go hungry but also feeling realistic over optimistic. The cuisine is foreign and you just point to things that look appetizing since you’re not sure about the name or pronunciation, but after paying and taking a bite into a rather large piece of purple fruit, your eyes nearly cross at how sweet and tasty it is. Holy Maker, that might just be the best thing you’ve ever tasted. You ask for two more after you finish the first, tucking one in your backpack next to your blaster and munching on the other as you keep browsing.

Suddenly you see shoes—yes. Fucking shoes, your salvation. You take a good look at all your options, of which, there aren’t many. Generic men's, women's, and children's, all in the same color and design. It’s good in a way—you see most people walking around in the same type of clothing here and you pray there’s not a way for him to track your gait or the whole thing is a bust, but truthfully, what you’re most worried about is the fact that you’ll create a brand new set of footprints wherever your old ones disappear. Unless you trade with someone else, you won’t ever have a back pathing, you know that Din will probably be able to easily spot it.

“Three pairs of these, please,” you point to the correct shoes and tell him your size, but then—“Oh wait, actually, can I actually have one of them that’s the next size up? And another that’s the same but in men's?”

The man behind the counter gives you an odd look but acquiesces, measuring the size of your preferred pair to multiple men’s shoes to find one that looks roughly the same��you doubt he’s ever had a request like this, but you’re also a generous tipper. His smile is grateful when you tell him to keep the change and then you’re stuffing the new shoes into your backpack and moving onward.

Would there be some kind of map here, you wonder? One that shows distance so you won’t waste time trying to reach a place you won’t be able to walk to? That lady said a transport hub and the capital are through this settlement, but she didn’t provide much information beyond that. You don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere when he finally catches up to you, you’ll need some place to hide.

When you stop to ask an elderly gentleman as he passes by, he freely provides you a basic gist. There’s a large forest beyond Osiruu—after it will be a road that passes through a few notable places, with a town called Sijua to the west that leads north to G’ila, and Devain to the east that leads northeast to Nariss. Both are within walking distance, though it may take a couple days to reach your destination.

Alright then. Through the forest, you suppose. You probably should’ve asked which way is east, but he’s already leaving and you don’t have the nerve to ask him to stop again. You have a finger point, that’s all you need. Making sure to use one of the small restrooms near the square before heading out, you eventually decide to make your way towards the direction he said this forest would be.

***

Headstart—6:58pm:

A bus.

You’re not going to take it, of course, but it’s the perfect solution to the problem you’ve been mulling over. It’s at the very edge of the small settlement, and you quickly speed up into a half-jog as soon as you hear its engine running.

“Last call for the seven o’clock!” A large man stationed near the doors yells as you approach. “Last bus to G’ila until tomorrow!”

The sun is setting and you have to extend your hand out in front of you to not be blinded by it. “Hello,” you give him a smile, before grabbing one of the handles on the side and stepping up onto the metal platform.

“Ah!” The man quickly stops you, moving to stand in front of the open doors. He’s as wide as he is tall, big enough that he blocks the entire exit. “That’ll be ten credits, miss.”

“Oh,” you say, patting your empty pockets and pulling your eyebrows inwards, trying not to move too much in case the sizable amount of credits you have stashed in your backpack happen to rattle. “Oh, no. I think I lost my wallet.”

He sighs. “Off the bus then please, miss. Come back tomorrow if you find it.”

You nod, leaning your forearm against the paneling and beginning to take your shoes off. “Will it be parked in the same place exactly?”

The driver looks curiously at you, clearly confused at both the strange question and your strange actions. “I’m sorry? Please—off the bus.”

“One second,” you tell him, now barefoot on the platform and digging into your backpack for the slightly larger sized shoes you bought earlier. The sound of credits clink against your blaster, but you hope he takes your lead in purposefully ignoring them. “Does the bus to G’ila park in this spot every single day?”

“Yes,” the man tells you impatiently, eyeing the way you’re stepping into the new pair with a subtle look of distaste. Everyone is polite here, it seems. “It will arrive back at seven am sharp with passengers from G’ila, in the same exact place. Please get off the bus.”

“Thank you, sir,” you tell him with a smile, watching him step to the side to allow you to drop down into the dirt again and continue on your way.

Brilliant, if you do say so your fucking self. Eliminate the need for a back pathing. All footprints facing this direction are going to be the first footprints, and all of them facing the opposite way are going to be the last; if Din manages to figure out you didn’t take the bus, then he won’t be able to tell which new set are yours and which belong to the other passengers. You pray the helmet can’t track gaits, but while you’re still paying enough attention, you make sure to keep your steps just slightly longer and even try placing more weight on the edges of your feet to make it look like you have a slightly higher arch than you actually do. You’d put a pebble inside of them or something, but you know you’re going to be walking through the night and you don’t want to commit to having your feet hurt more than you already know they’re going to.

Eventually the quaint shops and small houses disappear behind you, and the sun setting over the horizon turns the clouds above turn more dusty green and brown than yellow and pink. You hope Din opened up the ramp after you left. You want him to see the sky.

***

Headstart—9:34pm

The forest here is different from Naboo, too.

Maybe it was because you only saw it while you were in crisis-mode, but that forest seemed much scarier and darker than this one. The vegetation there was thick and overgrowing, but these trees look like they’ve never had leaves on them at all. No twigs or small branches that sprout from the trunks—the branches are all thick and gnarly, criss-crossing with each other with how close they’ve grown together. You bet their roots are practically one at this point, stretching for miles and miles but all sharing the same system.

Because there aren’t any leaves, there's nothing to block the moonlight shining clear and crystalline through the twisting maze of branches. Sanctuary II appears to have a sister moon—Sanctuary I, perhaps?—that’s likely a similar size, because it’s the same one you've seen all day and it’s barely moved a few degrees that you can tell. It must orbit incredibly close and be tidal-locked with this one then. Two massive satellites swinging around each other as they circle a ringed gas giant, but it makes a stunning view and reflects more than enough light to see.

The sky is deep blue and maroon and you’ve been walking in a straight line for hours, using the stationary moon overhead as your guide. The only issue with this plan that you’ve been able to come up with is that there’s no widely traveled path through the trees—even you can see your footprints and the clear trail you’re leaving behind. You’ve been trying for a while to figure out another clever evasion tactic, but it’s harder than it sounds. Can’t just change shoes again, that’ll be a dead giveaway. How do you lose him?

You stop for a second, reaching into your bag to grab some water and stay hydrated. Looking up once more at the beauty of the swirling colors peeking through the branches above you, you find yourself pausing after returning the bottle to your pack. There are… an atrocious number of branches up there, and all of them are long and tangled and thick. Sturdy.

You’ve… never climbed a tree before.

Without thinking much beyond that, you decide to bend your knees and jump, grabbing hold of one of the strong wooden tubes over your head and then swinging your legs up. Ouch—the bark scrapes against your palms and you have to hold on tight with your thighs while you shimmy yourself upwards, but at least the wood is solid as fuck. It takes you a minute or two, but you’re eventually able to shuffle yourself around so you’re straddling the thick branch, and then you look out to see the large collection of them criss-crossing in every direction around you.

Oof, this is dangerous. You know it even before you start. The gaps leading to the ground are bigger and more numerous than your potential pathing forward, but the only thing that gives you reassurance is how thick the wood is—you’re almost certain the branches aren’t going to break as long as you’re careful.

Okay. Shoes, these are too big for the kind of dexterity you’re going to need. You take them off slowly, being extra careful not to drop them, and then exchange them with the better-fitting pair you bought earlier, making a mental note that the sandals and the larger shoes are the two you’ve already worn. If your pursuer manages to catch on to the multiple footprint changes, your most recent ones should ideally just… disappear right there, shouldn’t they?

You grin, before struggling into a low crouch and looking around your wooden cage for a safe way forwards.

***

Headstart—11:37pm:

Water.

A blessing, and not because you’re thirsty. You have clean water in your bag and decades of habits formed in the desert to ensure you’re taking breaks and drinking enough—what you need is a way to disguise your footprints once you get back on the ground again. This was good; scuttling your way along thick and twisting branches for as long as you have was time-consuming and exhausting, but it allowed you to avoid touching the ground for at least a mile or so, which means he’ll have to comb that entire radius to look for your drop.

And it was fun.

You even found yourself giggling as you ducked and scooted, ignoring the bark scraping your skin and your panting breaths, the way your face got sweaty and hot. You had to do some brave maneuvers at tricky spots—jumping, balancing, hugging—but it almost just felt like an exciting little obstacle course for you and you’re honestly having a fucking blast right now.

Water, though. Water is an unexpected beauty, even more than you’ve always considered it to be. Water is an eroder. Not only powerful enough to smooth down the rough edges of strong elements over time, but it will hide your footprints as soon as you create them and leave no indication that you were ever there.

Eventually you see it—a babbling stream cutting a considerably wide line through the trees. You creep forward and hang tight to a branch above you to make sure you won’t fall, wiping the sweat on your brow with your other hand as you study the terrain. The water is… a considerable distance below you, maybe about ten or so feet, and there’s quite a few branches on either side that extend and hang out over it. You could probably find your way to the other side somehow, but something tells you to avoid the road beyond the forest if you can. It leads to multiple places, it would be better to follow the stream until you can eventually merge with it later.

That means you’re… fuck. You’re going to have to jump, aren’t you?

It’s the only way—you can’t leave footprints which means you’re going to need to land in the water. The trees clear too far from the shoreline, so you can’t shimmy down the trunk of one for a shorter fall. You’re going to have to climb out on one of those long branches until you’re suspended over the stream, and then you’re going to have to lower yourself as far as you can and then let go. With your height already accounting for at least half the distance plus the length of your arms as you hang, you should only have to drop two or three feet before reaching water, and then maybe another two feet to the floor under it. It looks forgiving enough—the moonlight shines and the stream is clear and you can mainly just see sand at the bottom, no sharp rocks or other potential dangers to be found. This… this is doable.

Okay. If you pull this off, you’re a badass. If you don’t break any bones or seriously injure yourself in any way, you deserve some kind of commendation. This is probably kiddie shit to Din, who keeps literal rockets strapped to his back and jumps out of ships flying thousands of feet above the ground, but this is a challenge for you and you’re feeling just excited enough to be up to it.

You’re eventually able to climb onto the thickest, sturdiest branch you can see that happens to hang over the water, straddling it and beginning to scoot. Your thighs are killing you at this point but you’re holding deathly tight to the wood, your movements becoming more and more cautious the further away from the trunk you get.

You’re directly above the water now, but you need to go out a little further. Aim for right in the middle so you don’t accidentally leave any tracks or prints on the shoreline if you need to catch yourself. The unfamiliar wood in this forest is admittedly sturdy, but the branch begins to subtly sag with your weight as you keep slowly scooting forward, and you’re just about to the correct spot when—

Day 1–12:00am:

“Sweet girl.”

—You nearly fucking fall.

“Maker,” you gasp, suddenly scrambling to catch yourself on the branch before you can plummet. It creaks and groans under your weight but supports you nonetheless, and when you’re one hundred percent certain it isn’t going to break, you jerk your head down to the communicator and see that it’s midnight, on the dot.

Shit.

Your heart slams against your ribs and your arms shake with adrenaline while you study it for just a moment longer, trying to calm the fuck down.

“Hey,” Din’s voice comes sharply from your wrist, crackling and tinny through the comm, nearly scaring you again. “Answer me.”

You don’t want to sacrifice your grip right now, but you have no doubt he’ll fly the Crest out to you if you don’t respond. So you quickly let go to press a button on the front face and then latch onto the branch tight once more, raising your voice because you can’t risk bringing your wrist up to your mouth to speak. You hope he’ll be able to hear without the microphone picking up the sound of the stream below. “Uh. Ahem. Hello. Yes?”

“You’re too quiet,” Din’s disembodied voice immediately informs you. “Or something on your side is too loud. There’s an earpiece built into the side of the communicator, take it out and use it instead.”

You study the wrist brace without moving, until you finally see what he’s talking about. It’s a small, wireless piece of machinery hidden on the left side of the electronic display, and you quickly pop it out and stuff it into your ear just in time to hear the sound of hydraulics clanging through the speaker as you clutch the branch again. You’d know that sound anywhere, it’s the ramp of the hull closing.

“Are you already on the move?” You ask him incredulously, your thighs starting to go numb with how deathly tight you’ve been squeezing this tree.

“Can’t sleep,” Din murmurs, sounding so much closer and deeper than before. Does he have his earpiece on under the helmet or something? Stars, is that why his voice sounds that good? It’s like it’s coming from inside your own head, bassy and rough. “Ready or not.”

You huff, your tummy going warm. Of course he can’t sleep, of course he’s going to look for you as soon as he’s allowed to. If he waited until morning, you’d probably be slightly offended. You try to slow your heart rate into something acceptable, but being this far above water and hearing his baritone murmur directly in your ear make it difficult. “But I’m… sleepy.”

“You’re always sleepy,” he tells you, and though you can’t actually hear him walking, the sound of his footsteps shake through his voice just slightly as he speaks.

“Hang on,” you huff, ducking your head to drag it against your shoulder, keeping the sweat from your eyes without using your hands, “you’re gonna make me stay up all night just because you do? This isn’t fair—”

“Fair wasn’t part of the rules.”

Well. Fair.

Stars, you can’t stay here. You don’t know how long he wants to check-in for, but you’re also not confident with this branch’s ability to hold you for an extended time when you’re this far out from the trunk. You need to get in that stream one way or another, but now that he’s here, you have an extra problem. Din is going to hear you no matter what.

“Um. Can you give me a second?” You ask him, glancing around to make sure there’s no better way of doing this. Nope, you realize very quickly—this is the best idea you’ve got, and you don’t really know what that says about the quality of all your other ideas.

“What?” Din grunts shortly, but you just clear your throat.

“I need to… mute myself. Give me like… five minutes.”

“What are you talking abou—”

“You of all people cannot be upset about asking for five minutes of quiet,” you return testily, looking down at the distance to the stream once more. That’s a long way. You… you can’t swim obviously, but again, the water doesn’t look too deep. Just a couple feet likely, shouldn’t go past your knees.

It’s fitting that he doesn’t say anything, which you eventually take as disgruntled acceptance, so you quickly press the proper button on your wrist to silence the mic and then take a few deep breaths. You have a time limit now, you have to do this.

With incredible patience and precision, you eventually slide until you’re clutching the branch upside down like an only slightly quicker and less coordinated sloth, before slowly dropping your legs and hanging over the water.

It’s… admittedly a bit further down than you anticipated, or maybe that’s just you making things worse than they actually are, but you’re committed at this point and there’s no going back.

You close your eyes, count to three, and then you let go.

The sandy floor meets your feet with considerable force and you make a hell of a splash doing it, nearly falling but just barely managing to keep yourself balanced and upright at the last second. The water is cool and comes up just over your knees, your backpack miraculously didn’t get wet and all your limbs remain shaky but unbroken.

Okay. Okay, fucking success. It feels… thrilling, accomplishing a dangerous feat, and you quickly let out a loud whoop before clearing your throat, trying to sound normal as you press a button on the communicator’s face once more.

“Mando?” You ask, slightly out of breath. “Sorry about that, I’m back.”

Okay, now which way do you go? Downstream seems like the easier path after getting in so much unexpected exercise, so that’s the one you go with. As soon as you lift your foot from the sand bed, you watch your footprint almost immediately disappear through the moonlit water, and you bite your lip at just how well everything turned out for you.

After a moment though, you realize he hasn’t answered you. You look down at the communicator again to make sure you pressed the right thing. “Hello? Shiny?”

“Did you trade shoes with someone?” Din’s voice suddenly comes through the earpiece, sounding absolutely incredulous.

“Shit,” you tell him, trying not to smile. “Hoped that was gonna buy me more time.”

“It… might’ve, if you kept walking in the same direction as they were,” he informs you after a moment. “Your shoes went south, but this other pair got all the way out here just to turn back around again? Good idea, but the execution needs work.”

Maker, he’s smart. It was the first attempt at a footprint change so you weren’t thinking much beyond tricking the tracking mechanism in his helmet, you ignored his logic completely. Essentially, the exact opposite of what he told you to do. You like to think you’re getting better at it by this point, thinking beyond just the original exchange, and you’re hoping you’ll be able to trick him with at least one of the other fifty times you changed shoes today. You’ll have to see tomorrow night, if you can make it that long.

Also, the road you were on apparently goes north-south, that’s important information you make sure to take note of. The man in Osiruu said Devain and Nariss are to the east, and that Sijua and G’ila are westward, right? Remembering that you thought south was west earlier, you do some quick calculating and immediately come to a stop in the moving water as soon as you figure out your positioning, turning around and walking upstream instead.

You want to go to Nariss. The capital, and the biggest city in walking distance. Smart quarry go to populated places, places that make it nearly impossible to find people.

“Alright. Mando: one, Me: zero,” you finally acknowledge, swinging your backpack around and unzipping it to dig inside for another piece of fruit. You’ve been hungry for hours but had to use both hands to stay safe and far above the ground, it’s the perfect time to eat. “How’s the baby? Behaving himself?”

“He kept trying to follow you after you left,” comes Din’s response, and you stop with just your teeth piercing the flesh, wondering if you heard him right. You actually open your jaw and pull the fruit away with just a bite mark in it.

“You’re joking.” No fucking way, not that little demon.

“Wish I was,” he tells you solemnly. “Made a fuss, tried to open the ramp a few times. Didn’t cause any trouble after, just… pouted.”

That’s… that’s exactly how he responded the very first time Din left the kid on the ship with you instead of bringing him along. He threw a fit, tried to ditch you for his dad multiple times, and then ultimately just looked cute and mopey with his limp ears until Din came back. Do you think it’s just him rebelling against change? That has to be it, right?

“He better not be giving you any hints about where I am,” you warn his father. “I’d tell you to put him on but I don’t want the earpiece getting lost forever.”

You hear it. The softest laugh—barely a breath, coming after years of learning to make it just quiet enough not to be registered by the helmet. It gets picked up by the communicator in all its understated beauty when normally it’d be silent, and it’s just jarring enough to make you careless.

On your next step, you accidentally lift your foot too high and make a splash, and you already know you fucked up before he can say a single word.

“What’s that sound?”

You immediately stop moving, allowing the cool water to move as silently as possible past your stationary knees. Shit. “Uh. What sound?”

You think he purposefully doesn’t say anything. Probably because it feels a little like cheating, doesn’t it? It’s to your disadvantage, having him be able to catch hints from your environment when he’s the one who made check-ins mandatory, but then again… how smart do you think he is? Something tells you that he might not need to track you at all—what are the chances he stumbles upon this little stream and just naturally assumes you were clever enough to use it to hide your trail? Did you waste time trying to engineer a vanishing act when it’s not going to matter regardless?

Oh well, too late now. You quickly decide to change the subject.

“You should try the big purple fruit that one vendor sells when you get into Osiruu, by the way,” you tell him pleasantly, taking a big chomp out of it and then letting out an extended hum of delight that only really fucking good food or sex causes a person to make. “I’m eating one right now, it’s so good. Be the best thing you’ve ever tasted.”

“Mm. Doubt it,” immediately comes his low response. Fucking immediately.

“Mando,” you gasp, scandalized and giddy enough that juice dribbles down your chin a bit.

“Are you having fun?” Din asks, instead of pushing the conversation any further in that direction. You don’t know if you’re thankful or disappointed with how quickly he decided to abort, but you take a moment to consider his question while swallowing and wiping your mouth. Not the answer, you know the answer—but why he bothered to ask. Did he know you were going to enjoy yourself as much as you have? Your only possible lament is how you’re talking to him through a communicator instead of having him next to you.

“I am,” you say warmly. “Be… be better if you were here, though.”

“Give me your coordinates,” Din proposes, and his voice is just low and rumbly enough to make you pause.

You’re really, really proud of yourself for only considering it for a few seconds before scoffing. “Psh. Nice try.”

“Was worth a shot,” he sighs through the earpiece, and you smile, taking another bite of fruit.

“Ask me again tomorrow,” you offer, grinning at the implication.

“We’ll see,” you hear him return, and though his tone doesn’t really change, you know he’s probably rolling his eyes. He won’t have to ask for your coordinates because he’ll already be there, but it’s nice to pretend for a while longer.

And then you both walk all through the night, sharing casual banter with each other for hours. He never once implies he wants to disconnect, even when you hit him with more nonsensical questions—

“What’s your favorite food?” (“I don’t have one.”)

“Okay, well what about just a food that you like?” (“I don’t like food that much.”)

“What do you mean? Everyone loves food.” (“Not me.”)

“Alright, well um. What’s your favorite color, then?” (“I don’t have one, either.”)

“Come on, you must have some kind of color you like.” (“What’s your favorite color?”)

“…Brown.” (“Then that’s my favorite, too.”)

—until the sun rises and you both say your goodbyes.

***

Day 1–6:15am:

You resolve to waiting until you see another person to allow your feet to touch dry land, figuring the longer you stay untraceable, the better off you’ll be. Your toes are wrinkly and your pantlegs and shoes have been drenched for hours, but then you finally spot a few fishermen standing upstream with their backs to you, speaking to each other in the dawning light. Two look to be full-grown, but there’s a smaller one in the middle, maybe a teenage boy, and you pause for a second, looking at the riverbank next to them. All their valuables—water, food, bait, extra rods, but also… their shoes.

Quietly, you reach into your backpack and remove the pair of men’s shoes you bought earlier. The ones closest to you on the shore seem to be the smallest, so you sneak over as silent as possible and rapidly make an exchange, fitting the new ones on your wet feet before allowing yourself to touch dry land and then speed walking away.

The ones you left him are newer and roughly the same size anyways—yikes, maybe slightly smaller now that you’re thinking about it—but at least you have a back pathing. If that kid decides to take your offering and the shoes fit, Din will follow him, and if he decides to go barefoot instead, he should still follow him, right? You’re not really aiming to trick him outright, mostly you just want him to waste more and more time. This likely wouldn’t work if there wasn’t a time limit attached to this hunt, but you’re going to do everything you can to disappear while he’s still far enough behind you.

***

Day 1–7:06am:

You get to Devain remarkably quickly after finding the correct road. The pit stop is much bigger than Osiruu, big enough to call an actual town instead of just a settlement, but still not large enough to feel concealed. You want a city. This place at least has cars and ships moving about and overhead respectively, but you’re looking for somewhere with lines. Somewhere that feels as cramped and busy as possible.

Still, you find a restroom to use and then decide to grab some more food for your trip, happily spotting your new favorite purple fruit in one of the shop windows. As you’re reaching out to hand the storekeeper the appropriate amount of credits, Din’s gruff voice comes through the earpiece so suddenly that you jump, nearly dropping them all on the counter. “Hey.”

“Holy shit, what?” You gasp, earning a confused look from the lady in front of you. You quickly shake your head at her and mouth an apology while Din grumbles in vexation.

“You were supposed to stay on foot.”

Ah. So he got to the bus, then. Okay.

“Oh,” you answer ambiguously, exchanging the money for your bag of food and giving her a polite smile. Din stays completely mute while you grab your snack, stuffing the rest of the goods in your backpack and then turning to leave—mute for so long that you have to double check you didn’t accidentally do it yourself.

“…Smart girl,” you finally hear him say. Quietly muttered under his breath, half proud of you and half frustrated for making his job more difficult. “Which one of these is yours then?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” you announce, before taking a large bite as you leave the establishment and talking with your mouth full. “You really gotta try the purple fruit, it’s great.”

The communicator abruptly clicks to silence on his end without anything else and you laugh so unexpectedly that a few pieces of it fly out of your mouth.

***

Day 1–1:32pm:

Somewhere miles away from you, Din jerks to a halt in the middle of a forest.

He looks around the dirt floor, walks a few paces and hears the kid coo gently from his cradle. Behind the visor, the red footprints he’s circling are the last ones around for hundreds of meters, as far as his display can read.

His helmet slowly tilts upwards, and follows the endless maze of thick branches overhead.

With the beskar hiding his face, no one can see the way he slowly breaks into a beautiful grin.

***

Day 1–9:51pm:

Oh. Oh stars, you’re tired.

You’ve been walking all day without really seeing anything, not having any place to disguise your tracks in the wide open plains. You could’ve stuck to the road, but you started to feel the exhaustion creep in during the early afternoon and you wanted to be far away from other travelers and potential danger if you needed to rest. You knew this would be a long journey when you left Devain earlier—over a day’s walk, a group of children told you—you even tried skipping or jogging a bit to see if that would inspire more energy in you, but it didn’t help much.

The large cup of caf you bought while in town was drained hours ago and it didn’t help much either, probably because your exhaustion is more physical and not necessarily mental. It just felt like a sweet warm drink to sip before you go to sleep, that’s how much the caf helped. Still, you kept walking, kept moving forward even as you squinted in the setting sun, your feet aching from traveling for this long wearing unfamiliar shoes. The last time you changed them was hours ago, pulling another bus maneuver but with an air shuttle instead. Still, you don’t think it’ll be enough. You don’t even know where Din is but you already feel like you’re losing ground just knowing that he’s the one in pursuit.

You feel it—the hair standing up on your neck, the tingles in your hands, the stirring of your tummy—whatever the incessant gogogo that your instincts happen to scream when you’re in first place but you know the person behind you is quickly closing in. It’s day fucking one, it’s day one and you feel him in the wind as it brushes through your hair, you can’t even pause to rest because nobody knows better than you that he’s an absolute fucking machine when he wants to be. The kid may have powers beyond that which can be explained by the laws of nature, but Din is a force all his own. He drives you forward when everything inside you is telling you to stop. He keeps you awake and determined when you just desperately need to rest.

But that only goes so far. You’re bordering on two full days without sleep, and though you’d normally be able to suffer through, the constant movement is just brutal after being confined to a stationary ship for so long.

There’s a lone tree in the distance, you think. It’s hard to see. Not because it’s dark—well it is, just a bit darker tonight compared to last, but mostly because your eyelids have grown heavier and more burdensome than the bag around your shoulders. That looks like a good place to just sit for a second, right? Maybe eat some more food, try and wake yourself up? Yeah, that’s a good idea, you’ll head towards the tree and just… sit…

***

Day 2–12:00am:

Completely dead to the galaxy and sitting on your ass with your back against rough bark, the comm clicks and Din’s voice comes through the earpiece.

“Wake up.”

It startles you enough to make you lurch forward and jerk your head around in a panic, looking for any flash of beskar so you can instantly break opposite to it. You scramble on all fours to look around but you don’t see anything, not even behind the trunk when you crawl, and then you take a deep breath and use the bone of your wrists to rub your eyes vigorously after a moment, knowing your hands are filthy. “Fuck, how’d you—”

“You’re always sleepy,” Din repeats, and you collapse back into the tree with an exhausted groan, not entertained but not even having the energy to get mad about it.

“I… I gotta sleep,” you tell him, already feeling your body let go of its tension and search for the darkness of unconsciousness once more. “Shit. How d’you… mm. Stay awake all the time…”

“Sleep,” Din encourages, you can still hear him walking. “You need rest. I’ll see you soon.”

No—

“No,” you whine like a child, moaning and shoving yourself upright. Maker, you’re trying to focus, but asking that of yourself is almost impossible right now. Everything swims—you were dreaming, you think, but you can’t remember and it’s not important other than to emphasize how woozy you are. Things still feel like a dream, somehow.

You think he can hear your struggling through the comm, because the sound of his footsteps pause. “Go to sleep.”

“You go to sleep,” you tell him bluntly, giving your head a violent shake to try and wake you up. You want to slap your own cheek but you don’t want him to hear it. “I can’t sleep if you don’t.”

“I’ve have at least a couple more days in me before that happens,” Din murmurs, and you bet he knows exactly what the fuck he’s doing to you. You start to slouch, hearing the voice he uses when he’s curled around your body in the darkness of the hull. So warm, so gentle. If you use your imagination, you can feel his fingers drawing slow circles on your back, the vibration of his low voice rumbling against your ear as you lay your head on his chest. “If I hunt you the way I’d hunt a quarry, I’m going to find you before you wake up.”

“Then I’ll jus’ have to… not let tha’ happen,” you slur. Even this close to unconsciousness, you try your best to throw in a misdirect. “Already… paid for the bed an’ everything.”

“Sure you did. You in another tree?”

You immediately frown even as your eyes drop closed, too tired to fight but still managing to sound upset. “You makin’ fun of me?” You ask him with a harumph. Genuinely, you’re not smart enough to figure it out right now.

“Not hardly,” Din sighs, sounding… you don’t know. Is that displeasure or not? It’s not immediately clear. Does it sound that way because you’re just dumb stupid right now? Or because Din can’t actually decide how he feels about it? “Lucky I heard water over the comm last night, I would’ve wasted hours in that forest.”

“Noooo,” you whine in response, trying to push yourself off the tree but tipping sideways in the process, “that’s not fair—”

“Fair wasn’t part of the rules,” he repeats himself again and… nope, you don’t even have the energy to snark something back. You just grumble your best imitation of him while you do everything you can to heave yourself upright. It’s pitiful, you lose your balance not even halfway through and just plop on the grass for a second and groan.

“Stop,” Din eventually orders through the earpiece, tired of it. “What’s sixteen times itself?”

You’re loopy to the point where you don’t even question why he decided to ask you that. You just furrow your brows for a second and try to think about it, before suddenly realizing you… don’t know, you can’t remember. Multiplication tables and squares up to twenty are elementary to you, you know them by heart. Sixteen times sixteen. One forty-four. No… no that doesn’t sound right, is that twelv—

You take way too long answering what would’ve been an immediate response two days ago.

“I’ll stop here for tonight,” Din tells you with a resolved sigh. “I won’t move until you wake up. Go to sleep. You’re putting yourself in danger, you can’t even do the basics.”

Later, this moment will come back to you. That problem isn’t basic, not many adults would be able to tell you very quickly that the answer is two fifty-six. You don’t even think Din would. You would, though. On Naboo, you used rapidly applied trigonometry in your head to find his location, and that was barely two minutes after waking up. You should know this. And he knows you.

But for right now, you don’t pay it a single lick of attention.

“You promise?” You ask quietly, voice incredibly small as your head tilts back towards the sky, already feeling yourself beginning to fall back into the darkness again.

“I promise,” he vows in return, gentle but a promise nonetheless. He doesn’t have to do this. You wouldn’t be able to keep going even if he didn’t offer up this temporary truce, but knowing he isn’t currently gaining ground on you makes the idea of sleep so much more welcoming, something you want to seek out instead of fight.

“Will you, um…” your expression furrows. How do you say this? You sigh, giving up before even trying to figure it out. “I’m… not in a bed. I’m outside.”

Din doesn’t say anything when you pause, and even through the haze wanting to take over, you know it’s going to sound needy. You want him to stay. Even in the midst of an adventure, you want him to stay, you want to hear him breathe as you rest, but there’s not really an integrous way to ask.

You don’t need to ask.

“I’ll keep the comm open and wake you when the sun rises,” comes his lulling baritone before you can elaborate anymore, enveloping you in comfort in this dreadfully uncomfortable bed of grass and dirt. “Sleep, sweet girl. I’m right here.”

***

Day 2–5:34am:

The sun shines over the hills and you lift your head up to squint your eyes at it, confused as fuck. Looking down at your wrist to check the time in the warm rays, hands and clothes dirty from laying on the ground that long—you stay groggy and clueless for just a moment longer, before your heart lurches when you remember Din’s promise to you.

You open your mouth to address him but then catch yourself just in time. Wait. Don’t panic. Listen.

Breathing. Slow and relaxed through the earpiece, a rhythm now branded into your memory from months of nights spent in pitch black. He’s… asleep.

Din is asleep? Seriously?

You can count like… twice that this has happened, and one of those was because he got you to touch him just right after closing up a wound on his back, and his body couldn’t handle the strain and passed out. You’re never awake when he’s asleep—you’re just not, it doesn’t happen. Din… sleeps like it’s just a choice for him, he doesn’t ever really need it. Almost like how he used to eat before he started sharing meals with you, he said he doesn’t even like food that much. You think he just severed all of those things long ago, things that are basic fundamentals of survival and operated like a bounty droid that lost its voice box. It’s… nice, feeling like you’re somehow giving back some of the things he lost. Unintentionally encouraging him to find sleep again. Making sure he eats more, listening to him speak.

You struggle to your feet as quietly as possible, hearing him continue to breathe slow and relaxed through the communicator. This isn’t purposeful, you don’t think he actually allowed it. He promised you, and Din doesn’t take shit back. If he tells you he’ll do something and he doesn’t follow through, it’s either out of his control or a mistake, it’s never been purposeful. He didn’t mean to fall asleep.

And, in other circumstances, you most definitely would not find some way to take advantage of this. You’d let him sleep and do other things in the meantime—make some food for you and the kid, find something on the Crest that isn’t spotless and clean until it is, or just… lay there next to him until he woke up. But… these circumstances are their own. You have to capitalize now, this is your chance. You passed out last night around… ten pm, you think it was, and then he promised to stop at midnight. That means you have to walk at least two hours before he wakes up if you want to prevent any loss of ground—you don’t know where he stopped, he could be a few miles back even.

You have to find Nariss—you have to. It’s your only option, if you keep trying to run, it’s just going to make it so much easier for him. Now is the time to hide. You know it hasn’t been long, it’s barely been two days since you first left the Crest but it feels like you’re already in endgame, already making moves in self-defense instead of actually planning your maneuvers ahead of time.

The capital should be half a day’s walk from here, then. As long as you get there, you think you’ll be okay.

***

Day 2–8:28am:

Din’s groan suddenly comes through your ear.

You immediately stop, seeing a busy road in the distance and glad you haven’t quite made it there yet, before trying to disguise your voice as drowsy. “Mm?”

“Shit,” he breathes, and you hear him get up, the sound of beskar moving as he grunts.

“Mpph,” you groan back, squinting your eyes to see if that’ll help sell the act. “I thought you… Mando, fuck, y’said you’d wake me when the sun came up.”

“I… fell asleep,” he admits, voice rough with it, sounding just as confused as you felt earlier.

“You said you had days in you before that happened,” you murmur, taking a deep breath and stretching your arms up above your head. Stars, your back hurts, how does he possibly manage to carry a fucking jet pack around all the time?

“Yeah, I…” He pauses for a moment and you bite your lip, not liking the quiet as soon as you hear it. “How long have you been up?”

Op. Not good. “Wha?”

He’s not falling for it. “How long?”

How in Maker’s name? This is impossible. How can you hope to hide from him when you can’t even manage to hide the smallest fucking truth from him? Can you salvage this somehow? “…Like ten minutes.”

“Least a few hours, then,” he sighs, and you get ready to hit him with the same line he used when you complained about his leg-up, opening your mouth as soon as you hear him speak. “That was smar—”

“Fair wasn’t part of—”

Oh. Well. Apparently you didn’t have a reason to feel shitty about deciding to haul ass while he was passed out even though you kind of ended up doing so anyways. There was no agreement besides that he wouldn’t move until you woke up. Reason is on your side, but it still feels a bit like you fucked him over. Is that valid or are you just so used to being nice that putting yourself first feels like a wrong you’ve committed?

“Don’t feel bad,” Din tells you, and you hear a soft coo in the background. It makes you smile the smallest bit, your shoulders relaxing even as they ache from carrying your pack around. “You should feel bad about stealing that poor kid’s shoes, though. He walked home barefoot.”

You smack your forehead. “It was just….”

“Yeah,” he scoffs when you don’t finish your sentence, and you can’t keep back a giggle. “Alright, I’m up now. See you when you get here.”

And then the communicator clicks, and you’re…

Uh. What the fuck was that?

No. Nope, you’re not going to get played. That was a brilliant attempt at fucking with you, but you’re not falling for it this time. You’ve grown since that night on Canto Bight, you know him, he can’t just say shit to fuck with your head and then smile at your flailing response from under the helmet anymore. You normally would stew in that last comment until it got to you, made you make a mistake most likely, but the more you think about it, the more certain you are that he has nothing. He was just trying to see if you’ll abandon your entire plan just by implying he already knows it. That’s beginner shit, you’re not falling for it. Din wanted to leave the conversation with the upper-hand since you gained at least an hour of extra ground while he slept. You’re certain of it.

***

Day 2–12:35pm:

Nariss is big. Nowhere near the size of Coruscanti sectors of course, where billions of people are packed from surface to exosphere and require oxygen recirculation towers to breathe at the very top, but just slightly bigger than you expected. It’s bustling and you haven’t even made it through the city gates yet—you’re approaching them and the large number of people waiting in line, seeing buildings stretch out for miles in front of you and grinning. Yes, this will work nicely.

As you peek over shoulders in the sizable crowd, you see only two or three people allowing people to enter one at a time… is that a biometric scanner?

Oh. That looks good and it also doesn’t look good at the same time. If Din’s safety meant nothing to you, you’d have no trouble whatsoever getting in line and waiting to do a retinal scan, but you immediately pause and consider the potential consequences.

Your dumb ass almost weighs the option of clicking the communicator on and asking his opinion. You’d give away your location in a heartbeat (if he doesn’t know it already) just because you’re worried he’d… what, exactly? Stand in line for an hour, take his helmet off in front of a crowd of people, have the system ping his scan, and then hang out and wait for New Republic reinforcements to show? You have to stop worrying about him. He’s not a baby, he can handle himself and you need to stop considering the possibility of taking a loss just so he doesn’t have to, even if the self-destructive sentiment feels ingrained in your nature to do so.

So you wait in line, moving at a slow pace but at least moving. While you’re standing there quietly, a man in front of you decides to strike up a conversation. You don’t come from a place with an excess of people, but the ones in your sector were friendly and did this kind of thing often, so perhaps for that reason, you decide to chat.

“Do you have some place to stay?” He asks at one point. So far the conversation has revolved around him—every time he asks about you, you deflect. He doesn’t need to know. “Nariss isn’t kind to drifters.”

This catches your attention, though. This is relevant. “What does that mean?”

“It’s expensive?” He scratches his blonde hair, giving you a soft smile. “Food, housing, all of it is way out of my price-range. I stay with my uncle and work overnights at the eastern docks. It’s not much, but it’s enough to keep a roof over our heads. We used to live in Gibrath, but then we moved to the city because he’s a good architect and they’re always expanding. It’s nice, of course, but really expensive.”

He’s handsome, you think… in kind of a boyish, charming way. Blonde hair, sparkly blue eyes. He doesn’t look much older than you, and maybe in another lifetime you would’ve found him appealing, but… you like darker features, you think. Someone a little less expressive. This guy… talks a lot.

“I thought this moon was a safe world for people displaced by the Empire,” you offer, taking a step forward as the entire crowd shifts.

“Sanctuary II is,” he comments. “The capital is safe, too—what, with all the orangies walking around,” he tilts his head to two jumpsuited guards trying to organize the glob of people so the line can move faster, rolling his eyes as if they’re some kind of joke. “But not… welcoming, not if you’re looking for a place to settle. You would’ve been better off in G’ila.”

“Is there anywhere you know that would take me for free?” You ask. You have quite a few credits left, but you don’t think it’s a good idea to stay in an inn. It’ll be the first place Din checks.

“Are you a virgin?” He returns, and you immediately pull back at the unexpected question, your heart thudding at the possibility of danger. The man’s sandy eyebrows shoot up at your response and he quickly apologizes—“Heavens, I’m so sorry to ask like that! It’s just… the only place I know is the Holy Keja Orphanage on the northern outskirts. Their signs say they only house children and teenagers, but I’ve heard from other girls your age that they’ll accept any woman as long as they’ve stayed pure in the eyes of the Maker.”

“Oh,” you say after a moment, leaning sideways to see just a few people standing in front of him. Good, this is almost over. “Um. Yep. That’s me.”

He smiles at you once more, giving you a nod. “When you get to the city, just go straight through. It’s about a mile outside of the gates, no more than a day’s walk from this side of town.”

Okay, that’s… interesting. You think about it while you thank him and begin to exchange polite goodbyes, moving up another step until he’s next in line. That might actually be a good move. Din could spend a long time in the city without ever finding you. Smart quarry go to populated places, but… smarter quarry defy the expectations placed upon them, right? He knows you’re smart, and even though you’re confident his “See you when you get here” was purely psychological fuckery, that also implies… at the very least, that he’s assuming there is a here to get to. Meaning, he knows you’re not going into the wilderness to evade him. He’s not going to comb the outskirts when there are so many places to hide within the city gates, with an entire perimeter of New Republic guards stationed around it. Even if he does, the signs will say only children and teenagers—categories you do not fall into.

The unnamed man is soon ushered forward but you stop him quickly. “Oh, by the way. I doubt this will happen, but if a man in a big metal suit with a tiny green baby happen to ask you the same thing, please don’t tell him what you just told me.”

He furrows his eyebrows at you and cocks his head, but smiles and agrees nonetheless.

***

Day 2–5:43pm:

You have an idea.

You’ve been working on it all afternoon, but you were hit with it the second you were looking for another pair of shoes to buy and find a clever way of putting on.

The cheapest ones were ridiculously overpriced, blonde dude was right. You blinked down at the tag and asked the salesman where the cheapest shoes in this part of town were, and then he just wrinkled his nose at you and shooed you out of the store. Granted, you slept in dirt and spent two days walking—you bet you reek, but he didn’t have to be like that.

Though, the man’s displeasure with you had an upside. You were holding a possible pair of pants and a shirt to buy when he threw you out, not yet having checked the atrocious pricetag on them, but it appeared as if he’d rather let you have them for free than rip them from your… admittedly, pretty filthy arms. Oh well, you weren’t complaining. Fancy clothes for free, score.

But now you’re here, and you have the best idea. You don’t need to change shoes, not yet. Why? Because you’ve figured out how to turn your incessant detriment into an advantage.

You’re in the middle of downtown, you think, maybe just some random crowded square, and there’s an inn in front of you. It’s fucking enormous, and you already know it’s gotta be incredibly expensive just looking at the sheer number of stories. It’s an eyesore, it sticks out. But that’s okay, because you’re only planning on staying for a night.

It’s also… right next to New Republic headquarters. Or fuck, at least a station of some sort, because they’re swarming in and out of the constant crowd, passing by the valet doors.

At first you naturally wanted to steer away from the jumpsuits, since you know they’re bad news for Din, but then you remember what he said before you left. I’m only telling you so that you’ll know your advantage and find a way to exploit it. I can’t be seen by any officers, or they might arrest me.

It’s to your advantage, he said so himself. Everything lines up perfectly—the street is bustling, the inn is well protected, it’s nice—it’s everything you’re looking for.

And there’s another upside, see. An omnipresent, omniscient ghost in the form of a communicator clipped to your wrist right now. If Din is always going to be able to predict you, he’s always going to know when you’re lying, always be able to read you… then you’ll just have to let him.

Let him know. Let him know exactly where you are. Right in the middle of the most populated street you’ve seen thus far, a constant barrage of people walking by and New Republic officers patrolling. If you were planning on staying in the city, this would probably be your best option to hide. He could waste days here if you’re smart about it.

The concierge doesn’t appear too pleased with your lack of cleanliness and neither do you, honestly, but at least he allows you to book a suite for the night. It’s… not as bad as you were originally assuming, credits-wise, but it’s worth more than half your stash and you’re going to have to conserve from this point on. It shouldn’t be too bad—your destination is a holy orphanage, you’re sure they’ll have some extra food and a bed for you even if it won’t be ideal. Still, you think you’re going to enjoy some lavish experiences for once in your life before you go.

***

Day 2–11:54pm:

Alright, so this was the best idea ever. This is the shit.

You’re leaning back against a fluffy stack of pillows, squeaky clean from an absolutely glorious bath and watching the flickering drama on the large holonet display in front of you. You don’t have any idea what’s going on, as it’s being broadcast in Rodian, but you haven’t been able to change the frequency because it’s so fucking intense—somebody’s sister is their mother, you think? No, that must be a mistranslation, right?

You’re also in a robe. Yes, there is a motherfucking robe in here. And… and slippers, it’s like a dream. Do people normally wear slippers in bed? You do. Hell, maybe you should stay here, screw the credits and the chase. This mattress is even better than the one on Naboo and you’re basking in the luxury after being outdoors for so long.

The lights are off other than that and you’ve opened the drapes wide, knowing you’re on something like the fifteenth floor and nobody would be able to see you anyways. You just like being able to turn your head and look out at the sky. Violent and periwinkle tonight. You wonder if he’s looking, too.

Luckily, you snap yourself back out of it and glance down at the time on your communicator, quickly pressing a button on the remote to mute the Rodian show and then opening the line the moment the hour changes.

Day 3–12:00am:

“Hiya, Shiny,” you say before anything else, laying back and running a few fingers through your damp hair. Your eyes close against the flickering light, taking a slow, relaxed breath. Maker, this feels nice.

“You sound happy,” Din comments. Astute, you feel happy. Well… you’d obviously feel happier if he was here. Your eyes flick over to the open bathroom door, still steamy from your bubble bath earlier, imagining him walking through it completely naked and then climbing over you on the covers. You can only really picture it from the neck down—no, hang on… you can see his shaggy brown curls, that one spot on his forehead you know, how his facial hair would be dark and frame his mouth. No face, though. Missing just one fraction of him from your imagination, feeling incomplete but also somehow… complete in a way.

“I feel better after sleeping last night,” you tell him, purposefully leaving out the softness of the sheets underneath you, the sheer comfort of all this extravagance. You don’t need it, you’ll never need it, but it feels nice to have for once.

“I do, too,” he replies quietly, and your eyes flutter closed. You… miss him. This mattress would feel softer with him next to you. He’d probably be able to translate this show for you, even though you already know he’d fucking hate it. You can imagine it—you with your eyes closed, him propped up on an elbow next to you and grumbling vague descriptions of the nonsense happening on screen just to hear your chuckles. Adventures are great, but maybe they aren’t as great by yourself, you think.

“You should sleep tonight, too,” you encourage, but he scoffs.

“Not a chance,” Din mutters. “Oh, before I forget, we need to charge the communicators today.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” You ask him, glancing at all the multiple wireless charging outlets stationed around you. “I’m in the middle of nowhere.”

He doesn’t even take a fucking second before responding. “Good one.”

You grin up at the ceiling, warmth flooding you. You love him. Literally every single time, he just knows. Your curiosity is too overwhelming after this happening so often. Your plan to distract him relies on him being able to read you, but that doesn’t prevent you from wondering how he does it so accurately, time and time again. “How do you know?”

“You slept outside last night,” he immediately tells you, like that should mean anything to you.

Does he… does he truly know you well enough to know how much your back and shoulders hurt today? How much you were aching for a shower and clean clothes? A bed to sleep on that isn’t dirt or metal? You give into the accurate prediction with shameless honesty, not caring if he knows it’s the truth.

“This bed is soft,” you murmur gently, dragging your hand across the mattress next to you. “You should be here. I’d make you feel good.”

Admittedly, your comfort is making you a bit drowsy and you said it in the easiest way possible, but you didn’t necessarily mean it sexually. Well… you sort of did—you’d make him feel so good in this bed—but what you meant was more… comforting. He could take a bath, or a shower, and get all the grime off him. He could feel clean and unburdened, take a break instead of constantly moving around. The baby could have a whole bed to himself if he wanted, though you know he’d probably want to be on this one instead. You could all look at the sky together.

Din is quiet for a little bit, before his voice comes back through the earpiece. “Are you in an inn?”

“No,” you say, a little too quickly. Perfect, that sounded just right for a lie. You are lying, you absolutely are in an inn, the only difference is that you want him to catch on that it’s a lie, so… why does he take way too long before responding?

“Hm.”

What the fuck—why… how is it even physically possible? He read you that deeply from one single word? You’re not sure if he’s somehow psychic and figured the whole fucking thing out or if he just knows there’s something off, but it’s still enough to blow you away.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” You blurt without thinking.

“Doing what?” He grunts, sounding like he’s stepping over something, his breath changing intensity as he walks.

“If I look out this window right now, am I gonna see you standing out there just messing with me?” You don’t even know what to believe anymore. How do you beat this? If you don’t want him to know the truth, he’ll figure it out, and if you do want him to know the truth, he’ll still figure it out. His perception is unbelievable.

After a moment of silence, he murmurs gently through the comm. “I thought you said you were in the middle of nowhere.” It sounds like he’s smiling.

“I…” your eyes shift around awkwardly, “am…”

Din lets out a deep sigh. He’s right, that was bad, even for you. “I found your bed a few hours ago,” he admits. You close your eyes as you listen to him make his way closer to you, step by step. “I’m nowhere near the city yet. You have time to sleep.”

Your expression furrows and you frown. “Why are you helping me?”

“Why do you want me to think you’re in an inn?” He tosses back, and you huff.

“Because I’m trying to outsmart you but you make it really fucking difficult,” you grumble, not happy about him catching on so quick.

“You’ve also gained about four hours on me since we started.” His voice is gruff. You don’t know if he thinks it’s a good thing or a bad thing. “You should give yourself more credit. I thought I would’ve found you by now, never expected you to get all the way to Nariss. It’s… not good for me.”

The honesty creeping in makes you go soft. It makes you want to reciprocate, even if it’s dumb and you haven’t thought it all the way through. “Wanna know a secret?”

“Tell me.” His voice is a bed all its own, deep and gentle and safe.

You say it before you lose the nerve. “I might just turn around and walk back.”

His footsteps stop and you hear a small sound in the background, a quiet little baby noise that suddenly makes your heart ache. You’re comfortable but incredibly aware of how alone you are. People pass by on the streets below, cars and hoverbikes honk in the distance and you’re by yourself. For the first time in over a year, like you have been for years, you’re by yourself.

“Sweet girl,” Din sighs, and all of a sudden… you can feel his arms around you with it. You feel so… known, somehow. Every sentiment you could’ve possibly given in your last sentence, he relays his understanding back with his. He makes you feel loved with it. “Never wants to run.”

You don’t say anything, because you suddenly realize you’re totally fucking whipped, up down and sideways for his metal ass and the little floating grimlin that follows him around, and you would throw away the fifth quarry, adventure, the sky—literally everything if you could be with the both of them right now.

But again. You don’t have to say anything, he already knows. “Give me your coordinates.”

Your eyes pop open and you bite your lip. Oh, stars. You hate that you do genuinely consider it. He could be here, and very soon. With the jet pack, both of them could be here in less than an hour, probably. He could take a shower. Watch these stupid shows with you all night without needing to be on the move, help you build a bed of pillows for the kid on top of this one. You could be with both of them again, even if it’s only for a little while.

“Ask me again tomorrow,” you finally whisper, looking down at the soft white fabric of your robe, the way one of your slippers is falling off your foot as the holonet program continues to play on mute.

Din’s footsteps eventually start up again, and you both relax in silence together. You, squinting at the screen because your eyes are getting heavy; him, continuing to travel step by step and gain ground on you. Let him come. You’ll be long gone by the time he even makes it to the gates.

It’s been about ten minutes of shared, quiet existence before you hear him bite into something and chew, and your face suddenly lights up.

“Are you eating the purple fruit?” You ask, your slipper falling off with excitement. You don’t know why, but it’s like… you’re stoked for him. Just as proud of him for doing normal things as he does when you step out of your own comfort zone. You like to think you’re both better that way. Balanced.

“Mm,” Din replies with his mouth full, and you grin down at your bare legs peeking through the robe while he swallows.

“Is it not the best thing you’ve ever tasted?” Your voice goes a little breathless with it, and you hear his footsteps stop once more.

“Close,” Din murmurs lowly, sending a small shudder through you. It suddenly feels a bit warm in here, doesn’t it? This morning was one of the rare times you were awake while he was asleep… it’s almost always the other way around, and just from the implication in his tone, you’re reminded of the thing he likes doing most when you’re resting. Maybe he’ll let you do it to him, next time around. The thought gets you hot enough to warrant the other slipper falling to the floor.

“You’re alone, right?” You whisper, knowing he must’ve pulled the helmet up to take a bite of the fruit. He must still be following your path through the hillside, then, not yet reaching the road.

“The kid is awake,” Din tells you, sounding like he’s trying to stop everything before anything starts. His words are short and clear in their meaning, but…

This has a very small chance of success, you already know. “…Do you want to—”

“No,” he responds quickly, already way ahead of you. “We can’t.”

Something in his voice… you don’t know, there’s just something there that makes you feel just a little reckless. Should you push it? You’re by yourself in this suite, what can go wrong?

“You can’t,” you correct him quietly, shifting around on the bed just a bit and biting your lip. It’s a thrill—being able to tease him without having him in front of you, drive him crazy knowing you’re just out of his reach. “But I can do whatever I want, can’t I?”

There’s a pause, a tense and knowing silence suspended between you before he eventually speaks.

“I’d be real careful,” Din mutters low in warning, but what is he gonna do?

“What are you gonna do?” You whisper to him devilishly. Quiet and breathy, beginning to snake your hand down. Stars, your heart is already pounding. You’d only likely mouth off like this in person just to see how hard he’d fuck you, but this feels extra dangerous for some reason. He’s stuck, he can’t do anything about it right now, and you know it’s playing with fire. “You could hang up if you don’t want to hear me. Or you could find me before I’m finished. Come make me stop.”

Din doesn’t say anything but he very much does not hang up, nor does he come busting into your room like you imagine he’d like to. The sheer fact that your door is still closed and locked tells you for sure that he isn’t just hanging out in the hallway, just letting you have your fun.

You start pressing your fingers against your robe at the apex of your thighs, humming at how nice the pressure feels. You don’t even spread your legs or push the fabric away, you just sigh into it and wiggle your hips a bit, pressing hard against your clit and listening to him breathe.

“Do you want to listen?” You ask quietly after a moment, and Din still doesn’t respond. Likely because there’s not a real answer, both yes and no would imply the wrong thing. “I’ll talk.”

Still, nothing from him. Dead silence through the comm. You’re starting to understand. For two days, you’ve felt like he could read your every thought just by the cadence of your voice. He’s staying quiet so you can’t even attempt to do the same to him—if he doesn’t talk, you can’t find a weakness and pounce on it, you can’t feel any more confident or reassured about your own ability to read him.

You’ll just have to push a little harder, then.

“Hm. If only this fancy communicator could…” you pause to look down at your wrist for a second, studying the menu. You don’t think you’ve ever really looked at it, you never had the time.

Din’s growl is sudden and sharp through the earpiece. “No, don’t even think—”

“Ah,” you smile, tapping the face and immediately finding the correct screen. “Take pictures.”

He’s deadly quiet for a moment, and you bite your lip with excitement. When he does speak, his voice is a pure threat, chilling you to the bone as much as it burns deep in your tummy. “…You wouldn’t.”

Ignoring him, you suddenly locate a menu option that sounds phenomenal right now. “Oh shit, does this holocall? Or is it a video option?”

“Holo,” he says very seriously while you study the lack of complexity of the built-in camera in skepticism, “and the kid is awake, so you can’t—”

“Oh, it’s definitely a video,” you unclip it from your wrist and he curses as you sit up, and then you press a button and wait impatiently for him. “Pick up.”

Din takes forever before responding, and you hear the continuous beeps as it attempts to connect, before his quiet baritone rumbles in your ear. “What if I don’t?”

You feel your mouth pull down at the corners, not so much frowning as you are dubious. He’s going to turn down the opportunity to see you and your surroundings when his whole goal is locating you? Really?

“You sure?” You ask softly, raising an eyebrow. “You’d get to see me, where I am. What I’m…” your eyes dip down to the loose robe riding your curves, your skin glowing against the white fabric, “…wearing.”

The beeps continue on for a few more seconds, until they finally stop. You frown down at the black screen of the communicator, not seeing anything at all. Did he decline the transmission request? No… there’s a little red light next to the small lens that wasn’t there before. Why can’t you see him?

“Why can’t I see you?” You ask. You want to look at him looking at you, you don’t want to always be stuck on the other side of a one-way mirror.

“I… have it linked to my helmet, but it only has a front-facing camera,” Din tells you after a moment, and he sounds… slightly out of breath. “Easier to see, the watch is useless now besides the controls.”

Wait, does that mean you’re… being shown on the inner-display of his helmet instead of his wrist? Right in front of his eyes, as if he were actually here with you?

“Nobody can see me but you?” You clarify, and when he doesn’t respond, you bite your lip and lean back into the pillows. You lift the watch up slightly, extending your arm out until you can get the angle as wide as possible. “Can you see… this?” You ask softly, before hooking your fingers in the collar of your white robe and slowly pulling it open for him.

“Where are you?” Din asks instead, and you hear his footsteps through the earpiece, as if he’s walking away from something very quickly.

You don’t answer him, parting the soft fabric until your breasts are completely exposed and you sigh, closing your eyes and snuggling back into the pillows once more. “I’ll tell you where I am if you keep watching me.”

“Why?” Din grits in frustration, coming back around to the same dangerous question he had earlier. “Why would you do that?”

“I don’t know.” You slowly tilt the camera down until you can spread your legs and the robe falls open with the movement, letting him see your pussy peeking through in the flickering light of the muted screen in front of your bed. “Can you see that?”

“Yeah,” he says shakily on the end of a breath, and you feel yourself get wet. Fuck, he sounds so fucking tempted, the sight making his voice come without any of the self-assuredness as it usually has, but… he could also just be saying that. How do you know he’s telling you the truth?

“What am I doing?” You test him, lifting your knee just the slightest bit so you really give him something to look at.

“Spreading your legs for a camera,” Din responds without hesitation, voice scraping against your ear, making you shiver and your nipples harden. Fuck, the way he says it, like it’s wrong and bad even though he’s the only one who can see or hear you do it… it makes you feel even more naughty and emboldened.

You bite your lip and reach your hand down to spread your lips for him, too, hearing his breath immediately catch on the other end. Already your pussy makes your fingers slick against your soft skin, the sash of your robe still holding the fabric together on your body but also loose enough to allow it to part in the right places and reveal everything you want him to see.

“I am in an inn,” you whisper teasingly, letting your finger drop to brush against your clit and then sighing in soft delight. Oh stars, that feels nice, it feels so good to treat yourself after being completely nomadic for two days, getting to be clean and soft and comfortable while you feel this pleasure, and Din’s voice growls through your communicator like you’re doing something painful to him.

“Fuck,” his breathing picks up while you begin circling your clit. “Where?”

“Nariss,” comes your quiet moan, turning your head on the pillow to blink slowly at the camera. Wanting him to see your eyes as well as your finger slowly dip into where you’re the hottest, caressing the sensitive skin there knowing he’s watching.

“Where in Nariss?” Din’s voice is as pleading as it is sharp, desperately trying to keep either you or himself on track.

“I don’t know,” you say again. Truthfully, you don’t—you don’t know the cross streets, you don’t know the part of town, you don’t know much of anything at all besides physical descriptors. You quickly move the camera to the side as far as you can hold it and let him see you from a different angle with the window as a backdrop. “But the window is open. And there are lots of people outside.”

“Can they see you?” Din immediately challenges. Of course they can’t, you’re fifteen stories up and the room is darker than it is outside with all the city lights and swirling colors of the sky, but you suppose he doesn’t know that. You think he just needs to relax—if this is what he’s always like during hunts, you now know exactly why he comes back to you all riled up and tense.

“I don’t know,” you murmur back, starting to rub your clit a little faster, trying to make it feel like him. It doesn’t—your fingers aren’t large or strong enough to give you those perfect circles; you just feel like you’re meandering yourself towards ecstasy instead of picking you up and hauling your ass there like he does, but it’s okay. Hearing Din’s rough breathing come through the earpiece, knowing his hands are probably clenched tight into fists, wondering if he’s hard yet… all of it culminates into a power trip unlike any you’ve experienced recently. It makes you bold, tells you to open your mouth. “Does it matter? I’d still let you fuck me against it if you were here.”

“Stop it,” comes his growl, but what is he gonna do?

Your leg lifts a little wider so you can slowly slide your fingers down and push two of them inside yourself, and Din swears as you moan, “Come find me.”

“Give me your coordinates—”

“Are you giving up?” You offer breathlessly, lifting your eyebrows and your hips up slightly at the question, but you’re… not expecting the extended silence following. You assumed a growled no would immediately come next, or just another empty threat said with enough force to make you tremble with excitement, but not… nothing.

The response makes you pause just for a second, easing your fingers out and dragging them across your thigh to clean some of the wetness off before extending your arm out towards the communicator. Din stays quiet while you navigate through the menu with trembling fingers, eventually finding your coordinates and hovering over the unchecked share location box.

You wait with your lip bit, confident he knows what you’re doing and you don’t have to narrate or repeat yourself. Fuck, you knew you were considering abandoning this entire adventure just to be next to him again, but you had no idea. No fucking idea that it could ever be a thought in his own mind as well. You… assumed he likes this, hunting is what he does for a living and he’s the one who conceived of the idea in the first place. Is he just that aroused by you? Or is there something more?

“No,” Din eventually murmurs, and you immediately navigate out of the menu so you don’t accidentally press anything catastrophic, before pulling your hand away from the communicator with a resolved hum and settling back into the pillows again. Making sure to look directly into the lens even if your eyelids are heavy with heat and desire, you slowly lick your fingers and then reach down once more.

His deep, shaky breath is so telling. Exhausted after all this, but still not hanging up, still doing his hardest to tough it out when he’s only miles away from you and has jets attached to his back. You don’t want to drag it out but you also do, you want to be kind but something about Din makes you also want to be as formidable as possible. You’ll never be able to threaten like he does, you’ll never have anyone cower just because you walked into the room, you’ll never be as powerful or strong as he is, but you can still put up a fucking fight against him in your own way.

You whimper softly, your breathing beginning to find a quicker pace as surely as your fingers do. It begins to spark and build, a red hot flame being kindled by the knowledge that he’s as close as possible without actually being close, right here with you when he always seems so far away.

“Mando,” you whisper, though your expression pulls inwards just slightly because it… in a scenario as sensual and intimate as this, it almost doesn’t sound righ—

“Din,” he whispers back, so quiet you almost don’t hear it, like he almost doesn’t want to but has to anyways, and then you just start to fucking burn.

“D-Din,” you whisper instead, trying to keep your voice as quiet as possible through the rising swell. He’ll be able to see it, you think. The way your tummy and chest start to heave, how your body begins to brace for it—and yeah, Maker, he sees it, because his voice suddenly changes.

“Stop,” Din growls roughly, knowing exactly how you cum—knowing exactly what it looks like, the way it sounds in your breathing, what it tastes like, how it feels on the inside. It’s been so long since you’ve touched bliss without him, months and months since you brought yourself to completion on the floor of the Crest by yourself, and though he’s rarely ever denied you, your own high on newfound control causes it to slip. He barks your name and tells you to stop once more, but it’s too late.

“I’m gonna cum, Din,” you breathe out—

“Don’t—”

It tears through you, rapid and surging, and he snarls a curse, something loud snapping and thudding and… did he just punch something? You can’t think, it’s delicious and hard as fuck and everything you needed after two days of near constant movement and thought with little rest, and you bite your lip to keep quiet but a pained whimper still shoves its way out of your tense vocal cords regardless. It sounds like it hurts because it does hurt; the orgasm shatters your body into pieces and you’re left trembling by yourself on this soft bed, wishing he was with you on a metal one.

You sink into the mattress in the moments following, sluggish and exhausted and just conscious enough to keep the watch facing you. You bet the camerawork was terrible, shaky at best, but you can’t find it in yourself to care right now. You just lay there and listen to his harsh breathing while you work to slow your heart rate, reveling in the filthy little show you just gave him and wanting to finish it out properly.

“Come find me,” you breathe out once more, lazing soft and naked for him, blinking dazedly at the watch as you pan it over you. Your thighs are still twitching and there’s a thin sheen of sweat clinging to you, but you drag a finger through your swollen lips and carefully wipe the wetness across one of your nipples. “Clean me up.”

“Fuck,” Din suddenly spits through the earpiece, furious. “You think—y-you think—”

“What?” You hum, basking in the afterglow and so, so curious. Truly, you’re dumb as fuck, you have no clue what you’re thinking, but if anybody would be able to tell you, it’s him.

There’s a moment where his breathing stops. It’s completely silent on the line, before you hear another few heavy footsteps on his end pick up and then halt just as quickly.

“You think you can taunt me?” He murmurs, dangerous and deadly quiet. “Show me exactly where you are, disappear and then make me waste forever trying to get there? You think that’s gonna work?”

Your eyebrow lifts, considering. He… may or may not have predicted your strategy perfectly, but his insight has stopped surprising you by now. “Maybe…”

“Maybe you shouldn’t fall asleep tonight.”

Ooh. That one sends goosebumps down your arms, but you’ve gained four hours on top of a twelve hour headstart. He can’t scare you with that tone, not when you’re still woozy with pleasure and he isn’t right in front of you. Instead of wilting beneath the hard threat, you just blink gently at the communicator, finding strength in being the only one to get him this mad when he’s always so composed, this talkative when he barely says a word. “Maybe I’ll just stay here then?”

“Maybe you wanted me to know you’re in an inn because you already found someplace to hide that isn’t one,” Din reasons very, very adeptly. Stars, your heart subtly begins to pick up, your legs continuing to tremble as the small red light next to the lens stares you down. “Can’t be planning to stay with someone you just met because you’d already be there, can’t be going to a hostel because you found the one city on this moon built for commerce and not aid. Not staying in another inn, you can’t afford it—the view looks high up, that robe is expensive, and you already bought food and at least five pairs of shoes in two days. I don’t think the place you found is even in Nariss. You think you can outsmart me, sweet girl?”

The chill down your spine doesn’t reach your eyes, you won’t let it. You just feel yourself smile, tilting your head at him and licking your lips while your finger brushes one of your nipples, but Din doesn’t accept your silence the way you’ve always accepted his. He wants an answer from you, right now, and it’s clear in the dark rumble of his voice, the danger slowly brewing beyond what you originally planned for.

“Tell me,” he orders, unamused and leaving no room to disobey. “How long do you think you can keep running?”

Your eyelashes flutter, suddenly deciding… why not? What have you got to lose? Nothing that you didn’t already go into this situation completely expecting to lose anyways. What’s the worst he can do? Find you?

You close your eyes, pinching one of your nipples and wondering if you might just go for another one since he’s still here. “Ask me again tomorrow.”

But then, instead of immediately responding, you just hear Din’s footsteps suddenly pick up, faster than any pace you’ve been able to keep over the past few days. You don’t think it sounds like a run necessarily, but you know that his legs and strides are far longer than yours and it’s probably pretty much equivalent to a run for you. You hear the rhythm of your demise speeding up, coming closer and closer, and everything in you both fears it and welcomes it.

“We’ll see,” he tells you, and then the red light vanishes and your earpiece clicks to silence.

***

Day 3—2:23am:

Even though it takes you much longer to do so than it normally would on a bed so large and comfortable, after such an exciting interaction and not being used to flickering light when you try to sleep but wanting to experience the rarity anyways, you’re eventually able to pass out.

But, not even a few minutes into a restless dream, you turn over and accidentally knock your communicator off the wireless charging station on the side table. It blinks with four percent battery life.

***

To be continued!!

#the mandalorian x you #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #mando x reader #mando x you #the mandalorian #smut #reader insert #fanfic #rough day #no-droids #tw: stalking

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ashxllbey · 2 years

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Starman - Poe Dameron x fem!reader - Chapter 16: Wanted Dead Or Alive

GIF by damn-stark

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Word count: ±13.3k Warnings: canon-typical violence, mild swearing

One of the universal truths in the Galaxy was that everyone had, at least, heard the legend about the Jedi. From Coruscant to the remote planets of the Unknown Regions, everyone had heard about them. And most likely, about the rise of the new Jedi, trained by Luke Skywalker. After the Battle of Exegol, everyone knew a Jedi had played a role in the fall of the Last Order. They didn't necessarily know that there were, in fact, two of them; Ren and Rey. Ren was dead; Y/N knew that much. And with him, the Jedi could have disappeared, but no; there was Rey. Trained by Skywalker, a fierce ally to the Resistance. That was what Finn had told her, anyway. Y/N had steered clear of the drama after her fall from grace, making sure she avoided both Sith and Jedi. But, as they waited for the briefing on the Bryx Sector mission, he had leaned forward conspiringly and given her some information about Rey. She was en route to Kuat, despite Poe's protests. He insisted that he didn't need to disturb her for something that stupid. After all, it wasn't the first time someone had put a bounty on his head. Which was true. But! This time was different, as Finn had pointed out. Poe wasn't too happy in the spotlight. He naturally attracted everyone's attention, but that, too, was different. They had been back for what, a couple of days at most? And he was still brooding. The initial discovery of the bounty hadn't rattled him at all. But to know a Jedi was on her way was different. Y/N had guessed he didn't like to feel like he wasn't good enough to handle a situation. She would have joked about his male ego if she wasn't just like him.

That was… strange. And not an accident; Y/N was sure of it. What were the odds, really? "Any other common point?" Finn asked. Poe hummed and nodded toward Calrissian and Zorii. "They're all from different planets," Lando said. "But all of them were kidnapped in systems under the Alliance's control. Peaceful planets, protected by the Senate." And that was worrying. "All of them are nobodies," Zorii added. "They don't know why they were kidnapped or by whom. But none of them have families, a high-ranking job, or anything. Them going missing doesn't affect anyone. The perfect candidates for a kidnapping session. Nobody would miss them." Y/N thought about the mom with her son. How could someone say they were nobodies? "Do we know how many of them were taken and when?" She questioned. Poe nodded. "According to one of the prisoners, who'd been there for four weeks, they brought around five new prisoners every month, and two went away each week. We're talking, hm, maybe fifty of them in total. So it's been going on for a few months. They probably started small, which explains why we didn't pick it up earlier. We have no idea where they were taking them or why. Or who ordered their kidnapping." So they had nothing. That was… Problematic. But not so surprising. The key was to not lose hope. And keep digging. "We're hoping to go to Tatooine and find who put the bounty on my head will help. They're obviously linked. Maybe they're even the same person or organization. Someone had to pay for the ships, the weapons, and the kidnappings." He was right. Chances were that they at least knew one another if it wasn't the same person/group. And they had to find out what was happening. They couldn't let other people get kidnapped for Maker knew what. And they had to make sure nobody would go after Poe. Well, other than the usual enemy pilots, which he could handle. Having all the bounty hunters of the Galaxy after Poe was… less than ideal.

"Lando and I will ensure everyone gets home safely," Zorii declared. Y/N felt slightly better upon hearing that. Zorii was many things, but she was dedicated to the causes she served, and she knew her masked partner would stop at nothing to bring everyone home. She smiled, and Zorii nodded in her direction. "In the meantime, Finn and Rey will head to Coruscant and talk to some Senators. Try to get answers. If this is happening under the Republic's nose, I want to know why we didn't know about it." Y/N frowned. Wait. Wasn't Rey supposed to come and help with watching over Poe? Finn had sensed her confusion because he leaned toward her with a long sigh. "Yep. Poe always manages to get things his way. I couldn't do anything about it. Don't look at me like that; you try and convince him next time." Y/N giggled softly. She understood how frustrated he was, but she still found it funny that Poe was so childish sometimes. It annoyed her as much as it made her laugh. Poe was polarizing. "Senators LOVE Jedi. They'll be more willing to open up about their secrets if she's there. Plus, she can always force them to reveal the truth if needed," he added with a shrug, and Finn looked at him, horrified. "What? You know damn well it wouldn't be the first time!" So, Finn and Rey on Coruscant. Lando and Zorii were back around the Galaxy. Which left… Poe? BeeBee, and one or two people with him, for a secret mission?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Zorii, who was on her way out. They had a lot of work to do, and she had overstayed her welcome. Her words. Y/N was just convinced she just wanted to get back to work. She couldn't blame her. "We'll keep you updated. And keep an eye out for anything that might come up about the bounty on your head. Watch your back out there." Poe nodded. But before Zorii could walk away, he smirked and sent her a flirty look. Wait. What on Coruscant- "Can I?" He said, voice full of humor and honey. Zorii snorted. "No." She walked away, followed by Lando, who waved at the group and disappeared behind the door. What was that about?! Y/N asked Finn that precise question, and the General laughed. "Oh, that's their thing. Every time Zorii and Poe part ways, he asks if he can kiss her. She always turns him down. Don't even ask." …Wow. Okay. Y/N blinked a couple of times, unsure how to process that piece of information. What the hell was Zorii's interrogation about if she still openly flirted with him? What was she missing? And why would he do THAT if he wasn't into her? She huffed quietly. Her mood had swung in an instant, and she hated it. She also hated how unstable these two made her feel. She was so deep in her brooding that she almost missed Poe calling her name. She had to bite back a very rude "what" as she looked up. "You know the planet better than anyone else here. You'll be coming with us." "I've only been there for a short time," she retorted. "I'm no expert." "It's better than nothing," Poe shrugged. Yeah, whatever he said. "Klana will come with us as our interpreter, and Skylen will be our spy on the inside. His uncle was a bounty hunter; he can pass as one. We've contacted an ex-member of the Bounty Hunters' Guild and set up a meeting. Skylen will pretend to be interested in the bounty." That was as good a plan as it could get.

Before anyone could add anything, the door opened, and a young woman ran in. She was out of breath, and some strands of hair had fallen out of her two slick buns. "Connix?" Poe asked, curious. "Generals. It's- Rey. The Millenium Falcon just arrived in the atmosphere. You said you wanted to know-" Finn and Poe RAN outside the room, throwing a "thank you" over their shoulders. The poor woman watched them run away. Feeling a wave of sympathy, Y/N unhooked her water pouch from her belt and tapped on Connix's shoulder. She perked up. "Here. You deserve it." She took it gratefully as Skylen and Klana walked up to them. "My poor Kaydel, don't tell me you ran all the way from the landing strip?" Klana asked, horrified. The younger woman shrugged. "You know these two: they would've thrown a fit if I hadn't gotten here when I did. Rey has been gone for a while now." That much was true. Y/N had never seen her, and she had been there for a while now. And from her understanding, she had been gone longer than that. Half a year, maybe. That was a long time without seeing her friends. Connix handed Y/N her pouch back with a grateful smile. She almost dropped it when Skylen hit her back as he always did. "Heh! Our little Duckling will finally meet her first Jedi! Excited?" Uh… Y/N shrugged. She didn't know what to think. She did know of Force users. She had known one pretty well. And she wasn't as intimated by Rey as she was by Poe. Mainly because their paths would probably very rarely cross. She had to impress Poe daily. But Rey? She wouldn't work with her. "Sure. I'll be good if she doesn't whip out a red saber." Skylen cackled, and the four of them, now that Connix had caught her breath, made their way to the landing strip. It seemed like everyone who wasn't at work had gathered there. Y/N was surprised by how invested the people of Kuat seemed to be with the Jedi's mission.

They reached the landing strip rather quickly, despite the pilots gathered by the doors; perfectly on time to see a massive ship on its landing phase. Y/N had never seen a ship like that. It was an old model, without a doubt. If her eyes weren't deceiving her, it was a model YT-1300f. Its blue reactor shone a light and blew wind around the base as it descended, and Y/N's hair whipped at her face. Even though the ship was quite old, it looked in stellar shape - pun intended. Y/N was impressed. She couldn't even keep her TIE clean for a week, let alone years. Which… had earned her an earful from Hux quite a few times. But he had been lenient with her, seeing as she was his best pilot. Heh. Y/N was probably the only pilot who could ever brag about not being hated by General Hux. And that, in itself, was an accomplishment, especially with her antics. The ship finally touched the ground, and Poe and Finn ran to its door as it opened. A young woman with brown hair walked out, and she was attacked by the two men who hugged her ferociously. Y/N winced in compassion. Ow. This had to hurt. R2-D2 soon joined the trio, zooming past the crowd, beeping excitedly, followed closely by BB-8. And then, coming from the ship, a Wookie appeared. Wait - she was traveling with a Wookie?! Y/N had never met one. During her time in the Order, the only times she had gotten close to their home planet hadn't been happy occasions. She was pretty sure her face was still stuck to the walls of various cantinas, with a bounty on her head. She winced. The creatures had a long memory, and she wasn't going to test it. But he (or she?) wasn't the last passenger - soon enough, another droid walked down the ramp. Its steps were hesitant as if it was limping or was unsure of where it was. Gold from head to toe, it was immediately approached by AreToo, and they engaged in a conversation.

"And here it is, the dream team complete," Skylen commented. "You have the best the Resistance had to offer before your eyes. These guys kept you busy during the war," he joked, and Y/N hit his arm. "Who are they?" She asked. Skylen pointed at the droid. "That's C-3PO. If you think Poe talks a lot, wait until you meet him. He'll talk your ear off and can't get a hint. The Wookie is Chewbacca; Chewie for short. He was Han Solo's copilot for years. He is family to all of us. And, of course, that's Rey in the middle." The reunion was over quickly, and the three humans went on their way, followed by Chewbacca. The Jedi waved at the soldiers gathered around her to welcome her home, and Kuat's sun caught the hilt of her lightsaber, swinging back and forth on her hip as she walked- Wait. They were walking in their direction- "Oh, nope," Y/N whispered, turning on her heels. She didn't want to meet a Jedi NOW- "Oh, Kriff, no. You're not getting away," Skylen said as he blocked her path. The damn Rancor was way stronger than her. "Y/N! Here you are." Shiiiiiit. She huffed and glared at Skylen with all the strength she could muster. Okay, she had lied. She was nervous. And particularly wary of Force users. Her first encounter with Ren had ended with a mind-probing session. Still, it was rude to run away now. Y/N turned back around, coming to face Poe. "Rey, there's someone I'd like you to meet. This is Y/N Thunderbird. Blue Squad's newest recruit."

The woman next to Poe was younger than all of them. That was evident. It was also conspicuous that the battles she had fought had taken a toll on her. She had aged faster than she should have. For someone so young, she held herself with a lot of confidence. Her hair was tied up in three buns, and she had kind brown eyes. Her skin was tanned and sprinkled with freckles. She must have spent a lot of time in the sun. Her clothes weren't standard Resistance either, with the white part crossed on her chest and falling to her ankles. It was a Jedi-worthy outfit, without a doubt. If the lightsaber on her hip wasn't an indication enough. "It's nice to finally meet you," she said, extending her hand for Y/N to shake. "I've heard a LOT of things about you. I'm Rey." Yikes. What the hell had Poe and Finn told her?! Y/N smiled timidly and shook her head. She was only half surprised when nothing came to touch her brain. "Y/N. Likewise." Her hand was warm. This was a stupid thing to notice, but she did anyway. Chewbacca stopped behind them, and his eyes fell on Y/N. For a second, he looked… Surprised? Not like he had been looking until then. "Hi. Chewbacca, right?" She realized slightly too late that it was witless to strike a conversation with someone she couldn't understand- He groaned. "Hello. Nice to meet you." "Likewise," Y/N found herself answering. Poe looked at her, surprised. "You speak Wookiee?" … She spoke Wookiee? Tilting her head to the side, she tried to remember something, anything that might tell her where she had learned the language. Certainly not in the Order. So this meant she had learned during her past life. Interesting… "Looks like it," she mumbled.

Rey went on to greet both Skylen and Klana, who looked delighted to see her. But she had barely finished talking when Finn hit her back, catching her attention. "Okay, you've had a loooong trip. Let us treat you to a drink in the cafeteria." Rey laughed and shook her head. "No, Finn, I'm fine. I want to unload the ship before I sit down, or I'll never stand up again. Your call kept me up all night," she added, more seriously, and Poe looked utterly embarrassed. "I told you it's nothing." "Of course, you would say that. Now, can I borrow Y/N?" What- The woman blinked a couple of times, feeling oddly put on the spot. Poe shrugged. "I have no mission for her, so if she's fine with it." "She is okay with, uh… What do you need me for?" Y/N asked. Rey smiled. "Just some help with the crates. I'd like to get to know you better, and I could use a hand. Finn always knocks things up in the Falcon, and I won't let Poe near the cockpit since he blew both sub-alternators." That rattled Poe, who glared at her, annoyed. "Okay, that was ONE TIME-" "One too many. And you blew up the compressor." "I was trying to save our lives-" "GUYS! Knock it off! Maker, every time," Finn interrupted, shaking his head. Oh, Y/N was pretty sure they'd had this argument already. But Rey was more amused than anything. She, apparently, very much enjoyed teasing Poe. They would get along JUST FINE.

With one last, curious look in their direction, they parted ways with the rest of the group. Chewbacca went with the rest of them (he highly admired Skylen's beard, which made the pilot tremendously happy), and Y/N followed Rey to her ship. It was even larger from up close. They stopped to admire the machinery. The hull was fuming in some spots, probably from the long flight home. Some mechanics were already hard at work and enjoying themselves; working on such a legendary ship was an honor they didn't want to waste. Y/N had already seen the Falcon - well, once, and it had been from a distance. She was still impressed. That ship had been a pain in the ass of the Empire for a LONG time. Way before she was even born. That was historical. "Beautiful, huh?" Rey commented. Y/N nodded. "I'm surprised it's still in one piece," she joked. "You'd think after so many rides, it would be falling apart. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's a hunk of junk, but a stunning one. The hydraulic system could use some care," Y/N added, nodding toward the pipes sticking out near the boarding ramp. "But Kriff, I've come back with a TIE in far worse condition, and it was brand new." Rey laughed, and Y/N realized she had been rambling. Whoops. She tended to get a bit carried away when introduced to new ships. "You're right about the hydraulic system; we damaged it on the way here. Poe warned me you were a big fan of ships in general, but I thought he was just exaggerating as usual. For once, I stand corrected. It's nice to see someone appreciate its history." She cocked her head to the side as if suddenly remembering something. "Funny choice of words, though…" she mumbled. Y/N frowned, but before she could ask about it, a robotic voice interrupted them. "Ah! Mistress Rey! I was afraid I had lost you! AreToo tried to convince me you were leaving without us. You are terribly rude, you greasy can of rust!" The golden droid, with his big eyes and visible wires, was nothing one could expect to see. His steps were awkward, and he was positively jumpy, shivering, and looking around when someone made some noise. The duo he formed with AreToo was very comical, and Y/N chuckled. "I would never leave you, Threepio. Now, say hello; we have a guest." "A guest! Oh, dear! How rude of me! I am C-3PO, human/cyborg relations. And you-"

He turned away from AreToo, and his glowing eyes fell on Y/N. This seemed to rattle him because he jumped back a bit. "Miss Y/N!" …Yes? Y/N squinted. "That's… me. I'm sorry, have we met before?" He looked at Rey, then at AreToo, then at Rey, then at Y/N. "Oh, no, my apologies, Miss. AreToo told me about you, and I was surprised to see you so soon." Y/N smiled and extended a hand for him to shake. "Well, C-3PO, I am Y/N Thunderbird, human/X-Wing relations. I'm glad to meet you." Stupefied, the droid shook his head to the best of his abilities while turning to look at AreToo. "You see? She is so polite! You could learn a thing or two from her!" Both women laughed at their antics but eventually left the droids on the ground as they walked onto the ship. They were, after all, on a mission.

What surprised Y/N was the filth. The ship was well-lived; there was no doubt about that. The white panels on the ceiling and walls were scratched and dirty. Some pipes protruded from the walls, and the hallway was littered with crates. "Sorry for the mess!" Rey said, walking around an open crate. "We didn't exactly have time to clean things up when we got Finn's emergency call. Came as fast as I could." "I've seen worse. I lived with male pilots for a couple of months. If you think that's messy, you've not seen half of it." Rey snorted. "True. You've also met Poe, so I guess you know a thing or two about men being messy." It was Y/N's time to laugh. Poe was… something. Apart from his ship, everything else was a mess around him. She had, once, caught glimpse of his desk, and Maker, how he got anything done was a mystery to her. Following Rey like a lost puppy, Y/N double-checked she wasn't knocking anything over. The Jedi noticed and turned around with a warm smile on her face. "You don't have to be so nervous, you know." Ah. Well. "Is that what your Jedi sense is telling you?" Y/N joked - or tried to. In all honesty, she was very nervous. Her people skills were still rusty, and this was Finn and Poe's friend! She couldn't make a bad impression on her! "Oh, no, you look like you're gonna pass out," Rey shrugged, closing a cart as she walked past it. "…That's not as reassuring as you thought it'd be."

She laughed again. She was either very easy-going, or Y/N really was an idiot. She wasn't sure which scenario was the most probable. But she didn't have time to ponder on it; Rey gave her her first instructions, and they started working on the crates, putting things inside and putting away random metallic pieces. Without Poe or Finn knocking things around, they made quick work of the mess in the main hallway. Rey then led her to the main hold. Y/N had to admit that even if the ship was a mess, it was cozy. Far from the sterile hallways of the Finalizer. Now that she knew about Ren and his childhood, it was hard to imagine him toddling around these hallways, laughing with his dad. "Also, don't worry. Poe and Finn only told me good things about you." Wait, what?! Y/N looked up so fast it gave her whiplash. Rattled, she stared at Rey, blinking like a deer in the headlights. "Sorry - I didn't mean to read your thoughts earlier. You were just projecting them a lot," she added sheepishly. Ah, yes… That was right. Rey could do that. Force user and everything. Kriff. Centering herself like Kylo had taught her to do in case she ever came to meet Snoke, she rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah… I've always done that. It's been a long time since I had to worry about keeping them in check, though." Rey nodded thoughtfully. "With Ben," she answered knowingly. But she caught herself, shaking her head. The buns on her scalp were starting to loosen up a bit, with meant she must have been running around a lot because they looked very secure. "Sorry. Kylo. Ren. I don't know how you called him." Master. Usually. Or Leader Ren, when they were around other people. My Lord, sometimes. "It… depended. Ren wasn't very strict about titles when we were alone. Which was nice; you could lose your head for a mistake like that with other officers." Rey nodded and bit her lip. She seemed… hesitant.

"I… don't want to make you uncomfortable talking about him. But you're the only person I've met I can talk to about his good side. Other than Leia, of course." Y/N couldn't help it: she snorted, and the Jedi raised both eyebrows in surprise. The pilot was quick to justify her reaction. "You're the first person I've heard who refers to him as someone who had a good side." She snickered. "They didn't know him as I did. They know what he did for them, and they're grateful… But he'll forever be the man who tortured Poe, who almost killed Finn. Who killed Han Solo. But you and me, we knew him differently." She had a point. And it was… nice. Poe had been very open-minded, but he couldn't possibly understand. Y/N wasn't sure even she could understand the nature of her bond with the Sith Lord (provided he could be called as such). But Rey… Rey understood. She hadn't been given any details regarding THEIR relation, but from her understanding, they had been quite close. Something about the Force. That escaped her comprehension. She got it, though. It must have been hard to have everyone hating on someone you knew didn't fit the light everyone was painting him in. "…Did you know him well?" Rey wondered. They sat down on the couch. It squeaked a little. Y/N felt bad abandoning her task, but hey, if Rey said they deserved a break, then they deserved a break!

She thought about her question for a moment, eyes drifting around the room. The metallic panels on the floor were visible in a few spots under the white crates stacked around. But it was the tidiest room of the ship she had seen. In front of them was a Dejarik chess table that had seen better days… but Y/N could only imagine the legends it had seen playing. "I don't know. It's hard to tell, sometimes. I was closer to Ren than everyone on board. But I don't think I knew him that well… I still saw that good side of his you're talking about, though." There was one moment she remembered in particular. She smiled, thinking about it. "One time, we were out on a mission. I can't remember where - all I remember is that it was freezing. I caught a terrible cold. I was so sick, but I dragged myself out of bed the following morning for routine training. Ren saw me looking redder than his lightsaber and sent me back to my quarters. He told Hux I had the Nabooian flu. I got to rest for three days while my second in command took care of the training. I asked about it later; he told me he didn't want me contaminating the entire squad." Rey smiled. Both knew that Ren had lied - Y/N had never pushed the matter further. She was grateful she got to rest. In her line of work, any mistake could be fatal. Also, working herself to the bone was exhausting. Y/N wasn't going to complain about getting a day off. Or three. "When we were on Exegol," Rey said, eyes lost in the distance, "I was dead for a moment. I mean - I died. Ben brought me back; he traded his life for mine through the Force. It was the last thing he ever did. Ben wasn't all bad. I think he had lost his way and could only see one in the First Order. He was lost. And he never forgot what he did to Han." Yeah, Y/N would imagine that killing your father would leave a mark. She understood, theoretically, why he had done it. She just couldn't understand. He had been lucky enough to get two loving parents… She would have traded everything for just one.

Still, she gently put her hand on Rey's knee. "I'm sorry. For your loss. I can't imagine how hard it was for you." She smiled gratefully but didn't say anything. The memories were still fresh in her mind, without a doubt. After all, it had only been a year. Perhaps time would never really dull the pain. "I'm sorry. I didn't ask you to come here to nag you about Ben. So, tell me about yourself. How did you end up on Kuat?" They returned to work after that as Y/N recounted her origin story - how she had met Skylen and Poe (which sent Rey hollering with laughter. Apparently, not knowing his identity was a pretty big accomplishment). How she had made Blue Squad. Rey told her about her growing up on Jakku. Her life as a scavenger. How she had met Finn. It turned out that both of them had been introduced to the Resistance in very… eventful ways. Which wasn't so surprising, considering they were a bunch of troublemakers. "From scavenging to starting a new Jedi order… You have quite the backstory," Y/N joked after a couple of hours. They had finally cleaned the ship - or, rather, tidied it. The only place they hadn't touched yet was the cockpit. Rey was saving that for last. "You can talk! An Imperial officer who ended up in Poe Dameron's squad? Talk about a change of path!" Y/N snorted. "Maybe! But I didn't get a lightsaber on the way there!" Smirking, Rey unclasped the weapon from its hook and presented it to her. "This thing? Maybe not, but you got an X-Wing!"

Y/N looked down warily at the inert stick. It was less scary when it wasn't ignited, and there wasn't a blood-red energy blade coming out of it. She still wondered what color it was, though. She knew about the red and the blue, but perhaps there were other shades? "I can't cut through things with my ship," she stated matter-of-factly. Rey nodded. "You have a point." But a lightsaber couldn't fly! Heh. "Wanna see it ignited?" Wait, WHAT? Y/N looked back up at Rey with big eyes filled with anxiety. Uh… Was it even safe to turn it on inside the ship? She wouldn't offer if it wasn't, would she? "It's okay! It's safe. Just don't touch the blade. It wouldn't be too bad for you to see a lightsaber that hasn't been used to cut people in half." …She had a point. "You just wanna show off, don't you?" She taunted. Rey giggled. "I've already shown it to everyone on base! You can show me your ship after if it makes you feel better." Oh, they had a DEAL! Y/N nodded and Rey turned it on with a flick of her wrist. The familiar hum reverberated around the hallway as the yellow blade was ignited. Wait. Yellow! She didn't know you could have yellow blades! It was pretty. Not as vibrant as Kylo's - but very pretty. Rey moved it slowly, showing it off. "Not so scary like that, is it?" No, she was right, Y/N had to admit. She smiled.

But as the blade swayed softly back and forth, Y/N felt uncomfortable. As if something unwanted was coming to her mind. Oh, kriff. No. It couldn't be- But nothing touched her brain this time. She was just… feeling weird. As if she was trying to remember something, but couldn't. She shook her head as Rey turned the lightsaber off. "You okay?" "Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I get these headaches sometimes." Maybe she should get her head checked by a medic? No, it was probably nothing. Besides, Poe had told her they had given her an implant. "Okay. Well, if you want to stop here, I understand. You've helped me a lot, and you didn't have to." "No, it's alright. We're almost done anyway." Rey stared at her for a moment longer before nodding. Then, they walked to the cockpit. The long hallway was remarkably spotless, which was good - fewer crates to put away. But when Rey opened the door, Y/N stopped dead in her tracks. She… knew that room. "I've been here before," she whispered. Somehow, the four seats were as she remembered them to be. Grey, well-lived, they had welcomed countless passengers. The dome-like shape of the ceiling was covered with various lights, metallic parts, switches, and buttons. They were powered off but still impressive. On the other side of the room were the commands and the large canopy from which they could see the buzzing base of Kuat. The two passenger seats on her side were once yellow, but that had been long ago. "What was that?" Rey asked as she rummaged through one crate abandoned there. She put some things back in the slots where they belonged, on the walls. "I've been there before, in this cockpit. I… don't remember how or when," Y/N repeated, looking around. The place reminded her of a weird mix of… excitement, nostalgia, and sadness. "How's that possible? Did you know Han? Or Lando? He had her before Han won her," Rey asked, standing back up. Her white outfit was smeared with grease. The cleaning crew would have work to do with that thing. "I… don't know. I've met Lando, and he didn't say anything. Maybe I'm just imagining things. My memory isn't exactly… working well." Yeah, understatement of the CENTURY. But as Y/N looked at the commands more closely, and when she noticed the two golden dice hanging from the ceiling, and she remembered seeing them before, she knew it wasn't all in her head.

The time spent with Rey had been exhausting, both physically and mentally. The Jedi was thoughtful and open-minded, but she had opened up deep wounds Y/N had forgotten about. And that lightsaber of hers… Whenever she thought about it, her head stopped cooperating. Still reeling from their meeting and her annoyance with Poe, Y/N had eaten quietly and as fast as she could before slipping away unnoticed. She hadn't seen Klana or Skylen since they had parted ways earlier that day, and she was sure they were busy eating with the crew anyway. Their talk had given her a lot to think about, and she would rather do that alone. After a quick shower and some reading, she slipped into her bed, turning off the lights for the night. It was still early, probably around nine, but she didn't care. She wouldn't fall asleep for a while anyway.

In the dark, resting on her back, she stared at the ceiling. Trying to remember where she could have come across the Falcon. Or the dice. Or anything. For years, nothing had triggered her memories, and now? She seemed close to uncovering some of the mysteries of her past life. It scared her as much as it excited her. What if it was somehow worse than what she had lived in the First Order? …Yeah, she could hardly have done something worse than killing people for a living. That was… something at least? With a huff, she rolled over. What had the medic told her? She couldn't force it. That was Bantha shit: she had been patiently waiting for years. Maybe forcing it would have worked better. So, she tried, for what seemed like hours, tossing and turning, thinking about it, trying to make sense of what she had felt, seen, thought. Of what Rey had told her. It reminded her of the times she had done the same, alone in her quarters on the Finalizer, trying to make sense of her life. Of the tasks Ren had given her. She always passed out in the early hours of the day after, with no answer in sight. This time was no different.

Laughter. The fresh breeze of an early morning. The humming sound of a lightsaber. Water splashing. Delighted squeals. A yellow flash. Screams of terror. The smell of charred wood. The acrid scent of an inferno. Soot in the air, smoke darkening the sky. Blue against blue. "BEN! NO!"

Y/N gasped as she jumped awake, breathing heavily. She was shaking like crazy, her throat was sore, and she could almost still smell the smoke. She was drenched in sweat and chilled to the bone. She couldn't catch her breath. What was that? What was THAT?! She couldn't remember. That hadn't happened in the Order- Before she could even try to make sense of what she had seen, her door whooshed open, and the security lights were turned on, revealing the muzzle of a blaster and the man holding it. Poe. He looked ready for a fight, and his eyes scanned the room, alert, before he lowered his gun when he realized there was no threat. "Y/N! What the hell? Are you okay? I was walking outside, and I heard you screaming. Said something about Ren. I thought…" He shook his head and put his weapon away, frowning when he saw she was still shivering. "What's wrong? What happened? You look terrified." What had happened, indeed? Had she said something about Ren? Called after him in her dreams, or rather, nightmares? "Nightmare," she mumbled, rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to alarm you. What time is it?" "Four in the morning." He kneeled by her side and gently pressed her wrist. He cursed. "Maker, you're burning up." Was she? She hadn't noticed. "Stay put; I'll get you a glass of water." Before she could refuse, he stood up and went to the bathroom. It was only after he had left and the door of her room had mysteriously closed that Y/N noticed BeeBee was there as well. She pushed the covers away from her body and sat down on the edge of her bed. The shivers were dying down, but the smell of smoke was still in her nose, faint yet ever so present. As if she had just walked away from a burning building. That's all she could remember. The smell… And the blue lights. And her screaming. Ren's name? That wouldn't make sense. She didn't know Kylo Ren before she had met him that day, on the Finalizer. That, she was sure of. BeeBee nudged her leg, beeping worriedly, and Y/N smiled softly at him. "I'm okay, little one. It's nothing. Happens sometimes."

It was true; she often got nightmares - but never of that intensity. And never of things she didn't remember. Maybe it was just the fragments of her imagination? But no, it had felt so real. It was a memory. Poe came back at that moment with the glass of water. He sat on the bed next to her and handed her the glass. "Here. It'll help." She took it and drank it in one go with a grateful look. She was parched. Her throat was still tender from having been squeezed so hard by the thug the other day and screaming at the top of her lungs definitely didn't help. "You get them often?" He asked after a moment, and she shrugged. "Sometimes. This one was different, though. I'm sorry you had to barge in here. Must have scared you half to death," she joked, but Poe didn't smile. Instead, he sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose between his thumb and index finger. "Don't joke about that. I thought someone had broken into your room, and you were in danger. Good thing you didn't change the code." Ah, yes. Y/N understood how he must have felt. How stupid of her! An intruder on the base was a serious issue. "Well, if Ren was somehow alive and here, I don't think I would've had time to scream for help." BeeBee let out a long, horrified beep, looking up at her with what would have been wide eyes if he had two and they could expand. Poe opened his mouth to answer, but she beat him to it. "I appreciate the concern, though. And I'll be taking notes on how my room isn't soundproof. This definitely limits my possibilities." The droid at her feet beeped again, this time in shock, as Poe slowly let a smile creep up his face. "Nope. But mine is." Y/N let out an appreciative hum. "Kinky." They both laughed. Y/N had stopped shivering and felt better. There was nothing Doctor Dameron couldn't cure. Who would have thought?

It took her a moment of silence to realize she was pretty much in her underwear, in her room, alone at night, with none other than Poe Dameron. Had she been any less tired, she would have turned bright red. But he didn't seem to mind. Ever the gentleman, he hadn't looked down once. Which was… equally insulting and commendable. "Wanna talk about it?" He finally asked after a minute or so. Y/N sighed. "There's nothing to talk about. I don't remember much. I don't think there's much to remember. There were mostly flashes. A yellow one, then bright blue lights, the smell of smoke. Maybe a battlefield? But the war ended before I was born. Must have been triggered earlier when I was speaking with Rey." He nodded thoughtfully. "She told me you have been on board the Falcon before. And that you had a headache when you saw her lightsaber. She shouldn't have ignited it with you there. That thing brings serious PTSD." Y/N shook her head no. It wasn't Rey's fault; she had said yes. Couldn't blame the Jedi for doing something she had asked about before. "No, it's not her fault. I'm not scared of it anyway; it must have triggered a memory. I hate it. I wish I could remember everything or nothing at all. But living in the middle is exhausting." Poe merely nodded. There was nothing he could do, or say for that matter, that would make things better. It was alright. Having Poe there was enough.

"How do you do it? Live with half your life missing?" He asked quietly. Y/N thought about it, watching BeeBee in the meantime. He was listening intently. "To be fair, it was never a big issue; I always thought I'd be dead by the time I reached twenty-five. So not having a past was no biggie since I didn't have a future. But now… I just try to not take things for granted, I guess. Live things fully because I could very well forget it all tomorrow again. It's harder to forget something crucial to you." She still felt incomplete, though. Like one half of a jigsaw puzzle. A doll with no head, an X-Wing without its wings. Poe put his hand on her knee and squeezed softly. "Things are starting to come back. That's good. They'll come back with time, I'm sure. But for now, you need to rest. BeeBee will stay with you until morning. He will wake you up if you start drifting off. That good, buddy?" Like the diligent watchman (watchdroid?) he was, BeeBee nodded eagerly, and Y/N chuckled. "My little guardian angel. But don't you have to charge him up?" Poe shrugged. "He is fully powered up. I woke up an hour ago and plugged him before going to sleep." Wait. Wait-

"…Why were you even awake at four in the morning? And fully dressed too?" She asked. Poe grimaced, embarrassed. He looked down at his droid to find some support, but the orange ball purposely looked away. "I, uh. Couldn't sleep. Went for a ride around the base to clear my mind. But don't tell Finn! Or Rey. Please." Y/N mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key. "I'll take it to the grave, General." He snickered and nodded towards the bed. "Take it to bed for now. I'll let you sleep-" "Poe. Stay, please? Just for a while. Until I fall asleep. I… going to bed alone makes it worse." Oh, how embarrassed she was to ask him that. He had better things to do than be her babysitter! But to her surprise, he nodded and leaned forward to take off his shoes. "Trust me. I know. I do." As he walked around the bed to settle on the other side, Y/N leaned down on her pillow and leaned over the bed to kiss the top of BeeBee's head. "Thank you, sweetheart. Good night." Then, with the voice command, she turned off the lights and rolled over. She couldn't see Poe in the dark, but she could hear him breathing. It was bizarre to lie next to someone she couldn't see. In any other situation, it would have been threatening. Perhaps with anyone else, it would have felt like a threat, even with the knowledge of the person's identity. "Night, General." She heard him chuckle, which made the bed rumble a bit. "Night, Keebler." She fell asleep five minutes later.

When morning came, Y/N wasn't surprised to find the other side of the bed empty. She was, however, shocked to discover there was a note on the other pillow. She picked it up; Poe had scribbled something on it, probably in the dark. Thinking about him cursing to himself as he tried to write a note without actually seeing anything made her laugh.

Let you sleep. Set the alarm for 2 pm just in case. The briefing is at 3. We'll leave for Tatooine at 4. Pack light. xoxo Porg Head

She snorted and rolled over, finding BeeBee in his spot by her side. He perked up when he noticed she was awake. "Hello there! I didn't sleep for too long, did I? I'm sorry if you got bored waiting." Beep beep. No, I'm not bored. I rolled around the room to check for threats. Y/N laughed, pushing strands of hair away from her face. "You're the perfect bodyguard. Now, come on. I'll let you go back to your dad so you can see him before we go." He woefully beeped as she got out of bed. She stopped on her way to the bathroom, then put her hand on the sheets. They were lukewarm. Wait. Had Poe slept here? Beep beep. Poe told me not to say anything, but he accidentally fell asleep. This time, Y/N burst out laughing and couldn't stop herself until she was under the shower. She washed the remains of last night's nightmare off her body before stepping out with a towel. "Oh, before you go, I have something for you." Opening her dresser, she pushed aside the toolbox Varun had given her a few weeks prior and produced a can of filtered oil. "I should technically keep it for the ship, but I know you droids love that stuff- Maker!" She couldn't even finish her sentence; BeeBee was practically vibrating from excitement, rolling around her. Wow, okay. With a fit of giggles, she kneeled and opened his oil compartment. "I know you're not supposed to be fed that. But I won't tell Poe if you don't. It'll be our secret. You deserve it anyway. He can fight me if he wanna." She filled the small tank and sealed it again. Whoops. No one would know. Well, Poe would probably notice how hyper his droid was, but… That was a problem for future Y/N!

She made her way to the door, opened it, and thanked BeeBee for his service again as he rolled away. Then, she got dressed, putting on a light yet durable pair of pants, a cotton tank top, her leather jacket, the holster with the blaster inside on her belt, a light pair of boots, and- She hesitated. Sitting with the rest of her stuff was a knife strap. Made for a vibrodagger. With a sigh, she strapped it to her right calf. She'd have to swing by the armory to get one, but considering how the last mission had gone, well. Maybe it was for the best. Last but not least, she grabbed a piece of beige cloth she could pull up to hide and some goggles to protect herself from the sand. It could always come in handy. Satisfied with her pick and the two braids she secured on both sides of her head, she tucked her necklace inside her shirt and went out. The hallways were quiet. Kriff! She hadn't even looked at the time yet. A glance at her commlink told her it wasn't even two yet - good. She had time to grab some food and get to the briefing.

She did just that and didn't run into anyone she knew besides some mechanics who nodded in her direction when she walked past them. Y/N reminded herself that she owed them some gifts after the miracle work they did on her ship that time she almost blew it up. The list of gifts she had to make on Life Day grew each day. She was sure her whole salary would be spent on trinkets. After a copious meal (she had to fuel up - Tatooine wasn't exactly known for its culinary delicacies), with little time to spare, she headed for the briefing room. On the way there, as she avoided yet another cleaning accident (these droids needed an urgent check-up), she bumped into Klana. It shouldn't have surprised Y/N, but she wore yet again another type of clothes. The woman seemed to have an outfit for every situation that arose. She could be easily confused with one of the sands people that populated the charred rock. "Hello there, stranger. Ready for the big mission?" "You mean the next big mission?" Y/N countered, and Klana chuckled. "You're not wrong. Can't complain about life being boring around here, that's for sure. And you've definitely become a fan favorite real fast. I mean, I don't think there hasn't been one high-stake mission you haven't been part of since you arrived. Not sure you're too happy about that one, though. Am I wrong?" Nope, she wasn't, as usual. Y/N grimaced as they turned around the corner of the hallway, eyeing warily another cleaning droid dangerously close to its bucket of soap. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Poe's taking me. But I've been avoiding Tatooine for a while now. I only have bad memories of it. The few good ones I had have been destroyed long ago. And the sand, Maker, it's SO coarse, I hate it!" Klana laughed and joked about how surprising it was to find sand in a DESERT. Y/N sassed her back by pointing out she was slowly starting to get Skylen's humor. "If I had known it was contagious, I would have whisked you away months ago," she said, stepping aside to avoid being whacked on the arm. "Rude!" The two women laughed as they got closer to the rendezvous point. It was always enjoyable to spend some quality time goofing around with Klana. When she was in the Order, the only woman close to her rank whom she could spend time with was… Phasma. And the shiny tin can had been anything but friendly. Or talkative. Y/N was sure she would've had better luck striking a conversation with an actual tin can. That, and she wouldn't have believed she could talk if she hadn't heard her speak to Ren once. She was pretty sure the Knight of Ren had snickered under his helmet when he had seen her face upon hearing her voice. That, or the half-whispered "wait, she can SPEAK?!" that had followed. Whoops.

"There's at least one good thing about that," Klana nonchalantly stated while she slowed down. Uh-oh. That smelled fishy. "Do I wanna know?" "At least Zorii won't force you to team up with her this time." Theeeere you go. "Our partnership wasn't a total fail. We got out of there alive and with all our limbs. I call that a victory, all things considered," Y/N commented, pushing one of her braids back out of nervousness. "Oh, you know that's not what I mean, Y/N. Is playing dumb when you're uncomfortable another leaf you've taken from Poe's book?" O U C H. Y/N visibly winced. That was a low blow! Okay, it might have been spot on, BUT! She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, trying to come up with something. "I mean, she's… something. And she makes me uncomfortable sometimes. She's so pushy." "Oh, I noticed that alright. Especially when I saw the face you made when Finn told you what their inside joke was about." …Yikes, she had seen that. Y/N sighed. It had been foolish of her to think she could escape Klana's keen eyes. "Yeah, it's just… Zorii gave me this long-ass lecture about her not being into Poe anymore, trying to make sure I was treating him right or whatever; he also laughed at me when I encouraged him to do whatever he wanted the other day. Can you believe it? I didn't ask to be part of the drama! Maker, I'm starting to regret being antisocial. At least Ren wasn't trying to set me up with Hux or anything." She snorted at the thought. That miiiight have been a lie. But, technically, forcing her to be Hux's date at a random showing-off event did NOT count as playing matchmaker. Right? For the sake of her trauma, she would not consider it.

Klana chuckled. "Oh, come on, you don't mean that. You like us. Besides, this is a joke between them. Poe doesn't mean anything by it. I think Finn told you that already, but I just wanted to see your reaction. For scientific purposes." Yep, she was just going to ignore that. Instead, she sighed. "It doesn't matter if he does or not. You know what, maybe you were right the other day. Maybe I should start dating or something. To keep me busy. And get Zorii off my back." If Klana could reach another level of existence from squealing too hard, it would happen in the next few seconds because she was vibrating with excitement. "YES! Oh, Maker, I already know who to introduce you to. Okay, describe your dream guy to me, and I'll make it happen. I have a list and-" Someone cleared their throat behind them, and Y/N just KNEW it HAD to be the only person she did not want to hear that. And yes, of course, it was Poe.

"Sorry to interrupt your critical discussion, but we have a briefing to attend. Skylen is waiting for us." Klana giggled but didn't look sorry in the slightest. What had she done?! Her friend disappeared inside the room down the hall as Poe lingered, waiting so she was out of earshot before he turned to Y/N. "Slept well?" "Yeah. Thank you. Didn't have another nightmare." "That's good. Remember that you can get some sleep pills from the medics if needed. You don't have to suffer in silence." He squeezed her shoulder and walked after Klana without another word. Sigh. As she followed him, Y/N promised herself she would put some distance between her and... the rest. What had happened the previous night couldn't happen again. She would stay perfectly friendly with Poe, would let the drama die done, and get on with her life. The last thing she wanted was her heart broken by pretenses and wishful thinking. Once had been enough.

Somehow, the pre-mission briefing was always over quickly. Poe had given them the information they needed - the time and place of the meeting in Mos Eisley, the plans of the cantina they would hide in. Skylen's role, where they would sit to spy on them. The distinctive sign their contact had given them. It had been over quickly, and off they went. A quick visit to the control room (where they had waved goodbye to Finn, Rey, and Chewie) later, and they were boarding the ship. It was an older model - perfectly inconspicuous. No one would expect the best pilot of the Galaxy to show up in a flying trashcan. That was perfect. Poe and Skylen were piloting, leaving the women in the main room. Laying on a makeshift bed, Y/N was thinking. So much had happened during the past week. She couldn't wait to get a day off. Sure, missions were interesting, but too many of them took a toll. Time always seemed to stop when you were in hyperspace. Or perhaps Y/N was just not too happy to be back and was hoping the trip would last for decades. Klana had taken the hint and was staying quiet. Y/N was grateful for that. She wasn't exactly thrilled to get into why she hated the planet. She hadn't told them about her escape from the Order and the following events, and she didn't want to. Hopefully, the mission would be over quickly, and they could leave the damn rock. Hey, one could dream, right?

She had been sharpening her vibroblade for a while when Poe climbed down the ladder and nodded. "We're landing. Grab your stuff." From his stern voice, Y/N guessed he was tenser than he was letting on. That wasn't reassuring. Poe was very chill, even under pressure. If he was on edge, then they all should be as well. When the rusty ship finally stopped moving, hitting the ground with more strength than anticipated — Y/N cursed at Skylen — Poe sighed and wrapped his head with his scarf, making himself some sort of hood. It wasn't unusual to see travelers with one, so he would be unsuspected. BeeBee had been left on base (a real heartbreak), and none of them had any identifying sign. They were pretty much invisible. At least they hoped so. "Showtime," commented Skylen as he climbed down the ladder. His outfit was on point; body armor, strapped blasters left and right, two vibroblades protruding from his boots. With his broad shoulders and his beard, Skylen had the perfect look of a bounty hunter. He hit the button commanding the opening of the ramp, and Y/N pulled her own scarf up, mimicking Poe's outfit. They let Skylen go first and talk to the owner of the spaceport. Once they heard him talking, the three pilots slipped unnoticed out of the ship through a maintenance ladder. They were quick to leave the perimeter. As soon as they reached the exit, they parted ways. With a nod, Klana disappeared into the crowd, headed for the cantina. The rendezvous wasn't until an hour later. But arriving at the same time would be suspicious. Which left Poe and Y/N plenty of time to explore the planet's main city.

Mos Eisley had always been dusty. Speeders and people were picking up sand as they walked, and the atmosphere was saturated with filth. The buildings, with their dome-shaped roofs, hadn't been spared by the roughness of the suns. They were dirtier than the last time Y/N had visited. All in all, the only difference between then and now was the absence of stormtroopers in the streets. But it didn't help Y/N relax at all. If anything, she was tenser; with the shiny buckets, she could spot the threat in one look. Now, it was just hidden well, but not nonexistent. "So, where was your home?" Poe murmured once they were out of earshot. Y/N sighed and looked around, trying to situate herself. "A couple of kilometers in this direction," she said, waving in said direction. "But it wasn't my home. I hate this place. Only stayed there for a couple of days after I left." He looked at her from under his hood, brows furrowed. "You hid here after you escaped? It'd be the first place I'd look at if I were Ren looking for a deserter. That's your home planet. He didn't send troopers after you?" Y/N stayed silent for a second. Some kids ran past them, running after a makeshift ball. "…He did. He came down here himself." She wished she could have run away faster. But finding a ship wasn't easy. She had bought her way out of Tatooine from a slave trader, but he wouldn't leave right away - he had a deal to make first. Y/N had been forced to stay on the planet for two nights. Until the First Order had sent the Finalizer after her. She could still remember the screams as the star destroyer appeared in the atmosphere in the middle of the night.

She and Poe stopped in the shade, pretending to look at a merchant's trinkets. "Took them two days. I crashed my TIE against an asteroid. Descended toward the planet's atmosphere and programmed the autopilot to return once I reached it, kinda like a big swing. I ejected myself and landed outside Mos Pelgo. Walked all the way here. I was hoping I could buy some time if they thought I had crashed the ship, but Ren knew better. I was too good of a pilot to die so stupidly." The merchant was growing impatient, asking them if they wanted something. Not wanting to look suspicious or be called on for steaming, Y/N waved at a trinket in one of his stalls. She slipped the credits in his hand, pocketed the thing, and they walked away. It was a small chain with two suns. Cheap and flimsy, but a nice gift for Klana to go with the rest of her collection. "What did he do?" "Ransacked the whole town. Shot anyone that would resist. I was in the cantina when it happened. T'was a bloodbath. The guy I had paid was killed outside; I stole his ship. I somehow managed to slip past the TIEs and jumped in hyperspace as soon as possible. But these poor people…" She shook her head. She didn't like to think about it. "If I hadn't hidden there, they'd still be alive. I knew what Ren could do, but that night, he was… I must have pissed him off a lot. Never seen him so cruel before." "Well, I have, and I can tell you that even if you hadn't been there, he would've murdered them anyway. He would've still come here to check even if you went anywhere else. That's on him, not you." She wished he were right. When she turned around, she could see the small alleys where people had been cornered and shot on sight by the troopers.

Klana's voice crackled in their earpiece. "Skylen just walked in. You can make your way over here. No sign of our guest for now." Poe nodded, and they strolled toward the cantina. Nobody was paying attention to them, and Y/N checked they weren't followed. If they were, they were good at hiding because she wasn't picking up anything suspicious. It took them ten minutes to reach the cantina. It was as Y/N remembered it to be; dark, full of outlaws, loud and smelly. The bar was made of a metallic U-shaped counter around which countless people were gathered. Against the wall, sitting at the counter, Klana. She didn't look at them when they walked in, but she nodded subtly. Poe ordered random drinks from the droid barman, and they went to sit in one of the smallest, more private rooms. It was on the right side of the bar, and if they sat facing it, they could see the room in the far left corner, where Skylen was sitting. He was probably on the seat against the wall, leaving the other one visible to the spies. The sea of people was blocking the view, but sometimes, they moved enough to give them a good panorama of the room. Y/N hoped it would be enough. Poe sat against the wall, and Y/N sat next to him, on the same side of the table. It was dark enough for them to take off their hoods - and less suspicious that way. The Mon Calamari waiter slid their drinks carelessly, and the beers spilled a little. Poe groaned. "Thank you, pal." He got no answer. Y/N chuckled. "Not used to the locals' hospitality yet?" "Where I come from, people don't spill the beer," he complained, and Y/N chuckled. She took a sip. How come the beer itself could taste like sand?! She made a face and forced herself to drink some more. Poe chuckled silently by her side. "What, not used to the locals' special yet?"

Unfortunately for him, they were so close to each other that Y/N only had to jerk her knee to the right to hit his. He hissed. "Ouch." "You're an ass." Even in the dark, she could perfectly see his grin. A glance at her commlink told her that their contact would be there any moment now. He was already running a bit late - which wasn't a surprise. The cantina was quieter than usual - the band was playing but not loud enough to cover the chatter of the patrons. From across the room, Y/N met Klana's eyes, and the brunette shook her head. No sign of him yet. "Seeing something?" Skylen asked quietly in their earpiece, and Poe informed him that nothing had changed. They waited some more, and five minutes later, Y/N started to grow restless. "Something's wrong. I don't think he is coming." "Me neither-" They were interrupted by a loud crash coming from outside the cantina. People screamed, and everyone went to grab their blaster. The pilots exchanged a look. Yep, something was wrong.

A few seconds later, a heavily armored man stepped inside the room, as Y/N saw when she glanced outside the alcove. "Bounty hunters. The real deal. Skylen, get out of here: it's a trap," she hissed in her commlink as the man and his friends started making rounds, roughening up some people to get a good look at them. Thankfully, Skylen managed to leave his seat and walk out of the room unnoticed, using the backdoor and the commotion the newcomers had caused. "We're looking for someone. High-profile bounty," stated the metallic voice. "All you lowlives have nothing to worry about. Let us have a look around, and we'll leave." Y/N turned to Poe as they both understood what he was saying. "Oh, Kriff, they're not here for Skylen. We've been compromised. We need to get the hell out of here, NOW." But they couldn't. There were three bounty hunters clad in some sort of armor. One of them wore ex-stormtrooper armor; it was in good shape. Metal plastron, full helmet, paldron on the left shoulder. It still had some traces of the First Order sigil. Y/N frowned when she noticed the pants he was wearing: black, made for TIE pilots. He was armed to the teeth. Fortunately for them, he went the other way. One of his friends looked at the people around the bar. Which meant- "One of them is on the way here. Must be checking the group behind us." "I know," Poe answered. "We can make a run for it, but I'm afraid we won't-" "Do you trust me?" Y/N interrupted him. Her fingers made quick work of loosening her braids, and her hair fell in soft curls around her face. Poe stared at her quizzically. "What the hell are you doing?" "I said, do you trust me, Poe?" "Yeah, of course, I just don't-" "Please don't hit me." "What are you-" She cursed mentally, already shaking from the adrenaline. The footsteps were getting closer: it was now or never. She already hated herself. With a shaky breath, she turned to Poe, raised her leg above his, and sat in his lap. Y/N didn't let him process what she was doing; with one flick of her wrist, she pushed her hair to the right side of her face, making a curtain of it as best as she could. And right as she heard the footsteps coming closer, she smashed her lips against his.

For a split second, nothing happened. Y/N couldn't even breathe, let alone hear what was happening. If the bounty hunters didn't kill them, she knew she would die from a heart attack. She was kissing Poe Dameron. Oh, Kriff. Kriffing hell- But after one second, or two, Poe got the hint. His left arm snaked itself around her back, pulling her closer to him, and his right hand went to the side of her face. Very softly, he angled it a tad more so she could hide his face better- And he kissed her back. His lips were surprisingly soft against hers; they tasted ever-so-slightly like beer. The rough stubble of his chin was scratching against her skin, and she was pretty sure it would leave a mark. But Kriff was he a good kisser. She knew he could feel her heart thundering against her chest. Or maybe it was his? She wasn't too sure. Y/N didn't know what to focus on: that, the hand on her back or the one against her cheek. His lips moved against hers, and for a second, she forgot where they were, why they were kissing in the first place- Footsteps stopped behind her, and she could feel someone staring at her back. Praying her plan would work, she distanced herself from Poe a smidge, turning around swiftly enough to whip her hair the other way. And then, with her best drunken voice: "Do you mind, asshole?" She slurred. The bounty hunter was a woman older than her, and her armor was made from several parts, undoubtedly picked up on bounties. She looked away, embarrassed, and walked away as Y/N turned back to Poe. This time, she merely rested her nose against his. He was looking at her in perfect silence, waiting expectingly. "It, uh… Displays of affection make everyone uncomfortable." His hand was still on her back, and the other had gone to his blaster, just in case. He stayed silent for a moment before coughing softly. "Yeah, uh, that's… Smart. I mean, I was NOT expecting that, but it was… good thinking on your part." Kriffing hell, he was flustered. Oh, no. She had made him THAT much uncomfortable. She bit her lip, and his eyes trailed down, following her move. "I'm so sorry. I had no time to give you a warning." Her face was still tingling from the scratch of his beard, and her lips were certainly bruised. The kiss hadn't lasted that long, but she was out of breath. His damn hand certainly didn't help. That was the exact opposite of what she had promised herself she would be doing from then on. "Stay there for a moment. We need to make sure they're gone before we get moving."

The two minutes that followed felt like an eternity. Especially since Poe was still staring at her. Y/N tried her best to see through the curtain of her hair, but she could feel his eyes on her. What was going through his head? Was he mad at her? He had been so thoughtful of her personal space, and there she was invading his. Yeah, okay, it was an emergency, but still! "They're leaving." Klana's voice was a much-needed relief, and Y/N sighed as she relaxed. She waited a few more seconds for extra safety before climbing down Poe's lap. In a swift motion, she secured her scarf around the lower part of her face and her hair. Poe did the same. He nodded, and they walked out of the alcove. The bounty hunters had left; they were nowhere in sight. Poe grabbed her hand with the one he wasn't holding his blaster with. "Backdoor." They hadn't taken three steps when a blaster shot zoomed past them and hit the wall right by their heads.

People screamed in terror, and both pilots turned around, only to find the woman from earlier standing at the entrance, blocking it. Her eyes were focused on them. Shit. But a blaster shot came from the other side of the room and missed their attacker by a hair - Klana. Her blaster raised, she fired relentlessly at the other woman, who had to duck for cover. The other clients flew from the scene with no issue. They weren't there for them; they were there for Poe. They hid in the orchestra's alcove, weapons raised, ready to defend their position. Y/N would be damned before she let anything happen to him. "There's a fourth one right outside! You gotta leave through the main entrance; I can't get to- HEY, FUCK Y-" Skylen's voice went silent. The cantina was empty, now - save from the three bounty hunters, Klana, Poe, and Y/N. The pilot turned to her leader, awaiting orders. "What do we do now?" He stared at her for a second too long. Y/N knew they didn't have a choice. "We fight like hell." That, she could do. She quickly addressed a prayer to whoever was listening and jumped out of her hiding spot.

The blaster shots missed her by a hair as she ran across the room, throwing herself above the bar. She slid on the metallic counter and fell behind it as another shot hit the spot she had been in a mere second ago. Only two shooters. Where the heck was the third one? She heard Klana moving as she engaged in a fight with the woman. That was one down. Coming to sit against the counter, Y/N raised her bust ever so slightly, trying to sneak a peek at the second- The shot hit an abandoned glass by her side, and she jumped, startled. Poe immediately took it as his signal to jump into the fight, firing at the second shooter. Klana had gotten closer to the entrance, forcing the other woman to back down. Okay. They could fight their way out if she could lure out the last shooter. She crawled across the floor to the other side of the bar, breathed in deeply, and jumped to roll across the counter a second time. She landed with both feet on the ground and made a run for the alcove- Something hit her leg, and she was pulled to the ground. With a yelp, she rolled on her back as she realized someone had grabbed her ankle with a grapnel. Kriff! And here he was, the last bounty hunter. Dragging her toward him with his gun raised at her- Oh, hell, no. Y/N aimed and fired at his bracelet, efficiently breaking the mechanism and freeing herself. The impact made him recoil, and he raised his gun again. Y/N rolled to the side as he fired, noticing his blaster was in incapacitating mode. No, she would not get captured AGAIN. She tried to grab her blade to sever the rope, but she wasn't fast enough. The guy yanked it toward him, and Y/N was thrown against a table. She hit it, and it toppled over as she grunted. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth as her lower lip split. With his foot on the rope and Y/N proverbially in the ropes, the bounty hunter raised his gun, but the woman beat him to it. She pulled the rope with all her strength, and it slipped from under his foot, making him lose his balance. She yanked it close to her and used it as a lasso, hooking it around the muzzle of his gun and jerking it from his hand. Then, with lightning-fast reflexes, she grabbed aimed at his eyes- …Right as he unhooked his second blaster and aimed at her head in return.

Both of them were immobile, blasters raised, eyes unmoving. Y/N realized a second later that the cantina was quiet. She carefully looked to her side without moving her head and noticed that her friends were in the same situation she was in. Blasters raised, eyeing the enemy down. They were stuck. Footsteps were heard, and although Y/N couldn't see the newcomers, she guessed who it was. "Welp. Looks like we're in a dead-end, huh, fellas?" Yep, Skylen with his own bounty hunter. Okay. So there were four of them, four of them, and nobody was going anywhere. …That would end well. "Y/N? You okay?" Poe asked quietly. He must have seen her hitting the table. Even though he probably couldn't see her, she nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine-" "What did you just call her?"

The voice of her sparring partner was modulated by the helmet's vocoder, but not enough to erase all of its familiarity. Something twitched in Y/N's brain. Recognition. No. It couldn't be. With slow movements, the bounty hunter raised the hand that was free of any weapon. Y/N sent him a warning look, but he continued to move. "Easy. I'm just gonna take that off." She was tense, tenser than she had been during the fight. Her heart was in her throat, beating like crazy. She hoped she was wrong. Oh, how badly she hoped she was wrong. Time seemed to slow down as the hunter unclasped the helmet and took it off his head. It took Y/N five seconds to acknowledge what she was seeing.

His hair was longer than she remembered, and he had grown a beard that wasn't a five o'clock shadow. He had aged a bit, maybe faster than he should have, because of the war. But his eyes were still as warm as she remembered them to be. He still had the brown locks she liked so much, and his skin, albeit marred with more scars than she remembered, still was sun-kissed. And he still was handsome as hell. He looked at her expectantly for what felt like an eternity, and Y/N hesitated. She wasn't sure she wanted him to see her face. But she also wanted him to know it was her. With a sigh, and while ignoring Poe's question, she pulled the scarf down, and his eyes lit up in recognition as her hair fell from its restrains and her face came free of its mask. Silence hung in the air for a moment longer before her lips parted to let out a name she had tried to forget and had hoped she would. "...Kit?"

#poe dameron #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron reader insert #poe dameron fanfiction #star wars #star wars fanfiction #star wars reader insert #female reader

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whirlybirbs · 5 years

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( gif, again, by @barissoffee ! )

— STARJOCKEY & CO. ; 2 of ?

summary: the bad batch gets a pilot, and they get a mission. acid rain happens. hunter & zip still don’t get along. no one is surprised. pairing: twi’lek!reader (zip nickname) x hunter word count: 3.2k a/n: pumping this out so i can write some hunter/reader content tonight to follow this character arc! we love some good ol’ action adventure acid rain! also, don’t try and neutralize acid with water, kids. that’s not how that works. but this is star wars, and it works here.

previous chapter | next (coming soon!)

It’s too early for this.

Despite having a steaming thermos of caf in your hands, you still have to pull your eyes open wide and try not to sway on your feel as you remind yourself this debrief is important. Very important.

Very early, but very important

Sleep, too, especially after the amount of hours you poured into repairs on the Havoc Marauder last night, is equally as important — but the debrief takes priority. For now.

Maybe you can bribe D-M1 to pilot for a bit once you take off. Just so you can plant your head on the dash and doze for a minute. A loth-cat nap.

Ugh -- a nap sounds good right about now.

You take a long sip of caf and rub your face as Cody continues to speak, gesturing to the glowing blue holomap that casts a glow across the entire room.

Through the thick of the swirling mission debrief, Hunter is staring.

Well, more glaring, really.

(Can you blame him? His senses have been cranked to 12 since he was made, and still, he can’t ignore the smell of your morning beverage of choice. All he can smell is your caf and the elaborator creamer you’d put in it. It smells like cocoa and star-cherries and caf and it’s all Hunter can smell. It’s giving him a damn headache.)

You’re beginning to wonder if that’s all his stupid -- albeit handsome -- face does. The scowl there digs in deep, and you have to try your hardest not to roll your eyes as you take another sip of your caf.

He’d walked in here, hauled the helmet off, and you’d realized Cody was right when he said they didn’t look like the other clones you knew. They were all different -- higher cheekbones on Crosshair and a sharper profile on Hunter. Tech was small and boggly-eyed, while Wrecker towered over everyone in the room with his round ol’ dome.

They were nothing like the others from the 212th.

Your lekku twitch, swatting a bit, as your attention moves from challenging Hunter’s glare back to the debrief at hand.

Hunter, as he pries his eyes away from your cock-hipped posture, wonders how in hell a civvie like you managed to land this job. He’d much rather have a reg flying him and his brothers around than a ex-criminal and her junkyard droid.

... He heaves an inward sigh.

Maybe he’s being a dick.

Cody trusts you. Hunter can at least try...

... Right?

Hunter diverts his attention back to Cody’s words, ignoring the unsettling idea of being civil with you. “What’s the status of Yanibar’s alliance?”

“None,” Cody drops a hand to his hip, resting it on his holster, “Neutral -- but it lays between the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions. The inhabitants tend to be those running from things like the war. But, I’m sure the Separatists will have their eye on the space ports for GAR officials. It’ll be basic recon. You fly in under the radar, scope out the manufacturing lab on Yanibar, and get out.”

Cody pauses, takes in the affirmative nods of the room, then continues:

“And lucky for all of you -- that ship in the hangar has no Republic tags. You’re gonna be a ghost.”

“No Republic tags?” Hunter asks, dark brow lifting.

“We’ll be off the books -- Seps will think we’re probably just smugglers,” you shrug, explaining as Tech hums quietly at the realization, “Knowing them, they won’t wanna start anything with locals. Especially if they’re break neutrality laws and mining a planet in the grey zone.”

“Exactly.”

You cop a smirk Cody’s way. “Now I know why you kept that bucket of bolts.”

“Repo’s have their uses,” the Commander shirks, “And civvie pilots, too.”

Now this is all starting to make sense. They wanted you to play the part -- and with any luck, the boys in the back cargo hold will go unnoticed as you carry on on Yanibar.

D-M1 pipes up from her spot below the holo-map. “Zip plays a wonderful smuggler. Four varying counts of weapons, drug and wildlife trade have made her --”

“Alright, alright,” we swat at the droid’s bobbing head, “I swear, who ever programmed you should be shot.”

The droid makes a sound akin to a laugh. Cody snorts.

Hunter ignores the distrust settling under his skin.

“Everyone got the plan?” Cody asks, looking around the command center. When he’s met with silence, he nods to dismiss the Bad Batch and their new pilot, “Alright. Head out. Comm in if there’s any trouble.”

“You got it, Commander.”

“Hunter?” Cody calls, “Zip?”

You both linger in the doorway.

“Play nice, yea?” he grins, “And good luck.”

-- ↯ --

You realize, six hours later, as you hang yourself out of the landing ramp mid-flight, trying desperately to get a hold on Crosshair who’s trying to get a hold on Hunter, that Cody jinxed you.

He most definitely jinxed you.

-- ↯ --

The mission had started just fine, after all -- the ride was fast, the travel checkpoints passed with no trouble, and you’d entered Yanibar’s airspace on a pretty mild day. No questions were asked when you dropped the Havoc Marauder down fifteen klicks outside of the nearest space port. The boys off-loaded and headed for the manufacturing plant.

The landscape gave enough cover as if it.

Large, sweeping stone outcroppings punctured the dunes and climbed high towards the sky, casting long jagged shadows in the golden sand. Creatures moved with the shade, relaxing along the cooling surfaces as the suns moved high in the sky.

Parked in a ravine and hidden from sight, you’d spent the first two hours monitoring the location of the Batch; every half hour, Tech would radio in giving an update on their location. By hour four, they were close. By hour five, the line had gone silent.

And you were starting to get nervous.

Their geo-coordinates marked them about 30 klicks East -- in the estimated area of the manufacturing lab they were slotted to recon.

By hour five and a half, the sun was disappearing. Slowly, with clouds shrouding the sky, but... the spaces between the brown clouds were turning a muddied color. You leaned, squinting over the dashboard with a confused look, before moving to the back of the ship and punching open the landing ramp.

When you stepped into the hot, mid-day heat, you realized exactly what was happening. You kicked yourself for not realizing sooner.

D-M1′s the one that made a panicked sound.

“We’ve got a problem!”

You were fast, bounding up the ramp and skidding inside as you slam the lock for the door on your way to the cockpit -- in a flash, you’d started up the engine and flicked alive the comms.

“Boys,” you yelped, pulling the headset on over your lekku, “We’ve gotta get a move on, now.”

Hunter, elbows deep in a dune with his eyes plastered to a pair of specs, cursed. Your voice crackled from his helmet, resting between him and Crosshair, and Hunter was almost inclined to ignore it.

But, the sniper tapped his wrist without looking from his scope and spoke.

“Go ahead, Zip.”

“Acid rain storm,” you blurted out, leaning as D-M1 points at the meteorological gauge in her little hands in a panic. The radar swept across the map once and showed the brewing storms, “About five klicks South of me.”

You knew acid rain storms. The planet you’d grown up on had them enough -- and even Coruscant had them. But, the color of these clouds...

Your father always used to say, the dirtier the cloud, the quicker the shroud.

Y’know, like death shrouds?

“-- Shit.”

Hunter was hoping that feeling in his gut was nothing. He should have listened to it.

“She couldn’t a’ told us sooner?” Hunter gritted out, pushing up from his elbows in a flash. Not entirely fair, but damn. This was not going according to plan. First the patrol droids and now --

A deep bellow of thunder rolled in the distance, then.

And now this.

Crosshair inhaled sharply and proceeded to silently snap the attached scope from his rifle in one swift, practiced move. He’s not gettin’ in the middle of this.

“Unless you boys wanna melt your pretty armor,” came your voice, crackling alive in Hunter’s helmet as he pulled it over his head, “I’d say we hurry this little play date up --”

And that’s the precise moment Wrecker snapped one of three patrol droids over his thigh, much to Tech’s despair, and sent the entire op down the shitter.

You found the squadron, then, pinned in a rain of blaster-fire, trading shots with the handful of B1′s -- their shots lit up the kicked up sand from the winds, beginning to howl as the dark brown clouds to the South began to loom over the once sunny dunes.

“Bring it down low, Deemi!” you hollered, throwing your headset as you moved to the back of the ship, “Get ready to go when they’re loaded on!”

“Got it!”

You punched the ramp, pulling your green tinted goggles down over the slop of your nose as the door opened. Taking a braced step out, you were fast to spy the boys as the Havoc Marauder began to lower itself slowly.

Then, a blaster bolt skimmed your head -- it leaves a charred sizzzzle against the matte black paint job of the repo’d ship.

You leaned back, tugging your pistol from you hip and firing a quick volley back at the droid who’d aimed for your head. After three shots, you nailed the B1 unit down, and turned your attention back to the Bad Batch.

You’re about to wave Deemi down, to tell her to plant the ramp on a rising dune then, when an entire squadron’s worth of battle droids lumbered from the back entrance of the manufacturing plant and began laying down fire on you and the ship.

“SWING IT AROUND!” Hunter screamed, waving you off.

Deemi listened, and you fell back through the door as the ship pulls away fast from the oncoming fire. Your back hit the navicomputer’s paneling hard as the ship banked left, and your breath flew from your lungs as you did, gritting your teeth tightly at the impact.

You scrambled, quickly, to watch from the open side-ramp as the entirety of the plant came into view.

It’s huge.

A main control tower rises high in the sky, above the three conveyor bays that spark through the small slitted windows three stories up. The walls are encroached by dunes, and the desert threatens to swallow it up.

As Deemi banked wide, you planted your boot on the doorway as you watched the firefight disappear around the edge of the massive building.

And that’s when it started to rain.

You hissed loudly then, immediately drawing a hand back when a fat droplet of brownish water hits your skin. Cursing as you swiped away the acidic liquid, you scowled at the welt it left behind.

And if the from the drop in temperature was any indication, it was about to pour.

“Deemi,” you screamed, “I’m gonna need you to speed it up!”

You were fast to stagger back from the doorway, moving to haul the bottom of your flight suit up -- the sleeves, tied neatly over your belt, are yanked onto your arms and over the black compression top. You zipped the collar up tight and moved to the storage built into the bunk atop the navi-console.

“Come on, come on,” you muttered, digging around. You knew you saw a poncho somewhere and -- “Aha!”

It’s not much, but it at least covered your lekku. If anything it will keep the sensitive skin of the head-tails safe enough for a few minutes. You hauled the black, weatherproof poncho over your head and ignore the musty smell coming from it -- just in time, too, as Deemi had propelled the engines into a kick for the banking maneuver and the Bad Batch was in sight again.

The moment you and Deemi get in range, the skies opened up.

It starts raining so hard you could hardly see -- and the headlamps of the boys illuminated the muddied downpour a few feet ahead of them. Deemi bought the ship down low enough that the ramp connects with the tip of a dune, and you staggered a bit on the impact.

The ship’s lights cast bright cones of light into the acid rain storm, and Tech is the first one through the doors. You curse, ignoring the tingling sting of the rain splashing on your face, and call out to the others.

“GET ON!”

Wrecker is next, passing you and launching himself through the doors with a curse -- the droids have seemed to back off, leaving the squadron to book it as the acidity begins to gnaw at their armor. You can hear a commotion behind you, and assume it’s Tech snagging the gallon of filtered water stored under the refresher sink to dowse himself and the heavy artillery man.

Next is Crosshairs, who you reached out to as he planted a boot on the edge of the ramp -- without warning and rather suddenly, the ship gave a terrible moan. Then, unceremoniously, the dune the ramp had been perched upon tumbled downwards into a slip of mud.

The landscape was melting, and so was your poncho.

In a panic, you grabbed Crosshair’s vambrace and barely managed to snag the ramp’s guard rail; in a flash, Crosshair had Hunter’s hand secured in his own. Good thing, too, since the Sergeant’s boots now hung thirty feet in the air where the tip of the towering dune used to be.

And that’s where you find yourself now.

Cursing, you strain to readjust your grip on the railing as rain runs down your chin. It stings like a bitch -- but you can’t help but think the pull of your arm is a little worse.

You curse sharply in Ryl, and scream Wrecker’s name so harshly the trooper’s heart nearly stops. His helmeted head whips around.

“DON’T JUST STAND THERE!”

Your knuckles, beneath the thick flight gloves have gone from a warm peach to a pale yellow -- the strain there is only relieved when Wrecker finally moves to the other side of the ramp and grabs Crosshair’s upper arm; together you both haul the two troopers up onto the ramp as Deemi’s banks backwards -- a few moments too late -- and sends a pile of acid rain soaked bodies tumbling back into the belly of the ship.

The droid closes the ramp as she banks away from the manufacturing plant.

You don’t even have time to celebrate the sheer survival of the stunt -- you’re instead stripping off the poncho that’s now got Republic credit sized holes eaten into it. You whip off your goggles, and curse again -- your flight suit is starting to sizzle and the acid on your face hurts and --

Suddenly, you take a whole bucket of water to the face and it all stops.

Tech, standing there clutching the now empty bucket, looks rather sheepish.

Your shoulders immediately sag in relief, and the troopers behind you are the next victims of Tech’s hose-down. Deemi, from the front of the ship, asks if she should drop into hyperspace and the entire cabin gives a dejected chorus of yes at the same time.

You wipe the neutral water, running over your nose and chin, from your face as you sit down in one of the chairs by the navicomputer.

Hunter drops his hands to his waist, chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath, and opens his mouth to speak.

You, instead, cut him off with a single raised finger and a pointed look.

“You,” you snap, “Don’t get to say a word to me until my face is not swollen and Tech can confirm I don’t have acid rain poisoning. Understood?”

Hunter just snaps his mouth shut. You have welts down your cheeks from where your goggles met your skin. Your lekku, too, don the same blistered orange marks. Guilt suddenly washes over him, only for a second. He’d gotten off easy. The acid rain had only eaten through the first layer of his composite armor.

The whole cabin, suddenly incredibly uncomfortable, decides to go their separate ways. Hunter, though, doesn’t move. Instead, he watches as you stand and inspect the now shredded flight suit that hangs off of you. You move across the cabin quickly, not bothering to avoid him.

You slam your shoulder into his and keep moving.

-- ↯ --

You don’t have acid rain poisoning.

Which is good, you guess.

But, the residuals still hurt -- bad.

You throw yourself into the far-too-small ship refresher for a rinse off -- Wrecker was nice enough to insist you get to go first (“For savin’ our skins an’ all, Zippy!”) and you can’t help but snort at Tech’s face when you emerge in a clean flight suit. He looks worried.

You’ve got welts all over your face.

“I think it’s a cute look,” you jab playfully, leaning to inspect your reflection in the polished chrome door, “Don’t you, Tech?”

“Looks painful.”

Crosshairs laughs.

The welts on your lekku are. You’d had to smother the startled yelps with your hand when the hot water made contact. You hope the boys hadn’t heard.

(Hunter certainly had, and he wasn’t even in the lower level of the ship. He was up top, ignoring the dull ache in his arm and pretending he didn’t need to rinse off. It had sparked a little worry in him, though, and he’d casually muscled his helmet on to do some digging on the holo-net about potential complications from injured lekku. The results were... not ideal.)

You massage the point on the back of your neck where your headwrap normally clasps together, keeping the animated little appendages under control and out of the way. You’ve forgone it now, and Crosshair watches as you sigh quietly as you rub the tension point.

You look different without it. A bit softer.

“It doesn’t feel great, but,” you shrug, shoulders a bit more relaxed than before, “I’ll be fine. Definitely the worst acid bath I’ve had in a while.”

“You’ve been caught in those storms before?” Tech asks, surprised. He’s placing his helmet down, stripping his armor as he speaks.

“I grew up in the South Tann Province,” you explain, “The jetstreams would carry polluted air through during the summer months, and sometimes the rain would be bad -- tarkona taka, my dad used to call it. But, that, back on Yanibar? That was worse than anything I’d ever experienced when I was a little girl.”

“Tarkona taka,” Tech sounds out, “What does it mean?”

“Brown weather -- or, storm, actually,” you grin, “Tak is brown, and tarkona is storm.”

“Yeah, well,” Wrecker supplies, muscling around through the barely stocked fridge in the far corners of the meager living quarters. Behind the microscopic kitchenette lay a hall of four bunks. Wrecker closes the door looking dejected, “I can’t wait to be back on Coruscant. No brown rain there.”

“On the lower levels there is!” you call out, spurring Wrecker’s shoulders to sag.

You move towards the ladder, planting a boot on the bottom rung when Crosshair’s calls out.

“Careful, Zip.”

“He still pissy?” you ask, loud enough that you know Hunter can hear, “Shame.”

The three members of the Bad Batch snort quietly as you move up the ladder anyway.

They like you.

And Hunter, still, doesn’t.

#bad batch imagine #tcw imagine #hunter x reader #clone trooper hunter x reader #sergeant hunter x reader #star wars imagine #starjockey & co #hehehehehHHEHEHEHEHEH

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and-claudia · 4 years

Text

The Struggles (The Mandalorian x Reader part 6)

Word Count: 4060

Masterlist

warnings: none I think (unless domestic Din is a warning)

Posted on May 3rd 2020

not my gif

After leaving Tatooine, Din found us a safe place to stay for a while. It was actually a planet that me and him used to frequent quite often when we would bounty hunt together and jobs were slow to come in. It was a large planet in the Unknown Regions. We had stumbled upon it by accident, but after we found out that it was actually a really nice planet we saved it’s coordinates for later use. It wasn’t heavily populated, it definitely had more people than Sorgan did, but they tended to gather in certain heavily populated regions.

It was nice to be returning here after not being here for so many years. This was going to be my final destination on my running after I found out that I was pregnant. I didn’t have a whole lot of credits at that time or a decent ship, so it was going to take me a while to get there. But then Din showed up with my tracking FOB, and that plan went out the window. After I found out that it was him, and that he was letting me stay, I honestly had not even thought about my plans for running away, I had no need to. It was a little crazy to me that I was here, it was always a sort of safe place for me.

“Yn, you okay?” Din’s voice drew me out of the trance I was in.

“Yeah, sorry. It’s just a little crazy to me that I’m back here.” I admitted.

“Why, we used to come here all the time?” Din said, reclining a little in his pilot’s chair. We had landed some time ago, but neither of us had made any attempt to move from our spots. We were just taking in the beautiful scenery in front of us.

“This was going to be my final destination while I was running. This is where I wanted to end up, alone, just me and my baby. I always felt safe here, even more so when it was with you.” I said.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about running anymore, at least not your own. We’re in all of this together now.” Din said, turning around a little to look at me. I gave him a grateful smile.

“Do you want to go sit out by the water and watch the sun go down?” I asked. That was one thing I used to always do when we were here. The sunsets here were probably some of the best in the whole galaxy.

He stood and stretched slightly, we had been sitting for hours now at this point, “I think some fresh air would do all of us some good.” He agreed, walking over to the kid and picking him up.

I stood up as well and let out a groan. My back had been killing me since before we got to Tatooine, and it’s only gotten worse. Over the past few days, my feet had also been hurting. I didn’t say anything. When you lived in our line of work for so long you learn how to do two things when it comes to pain. The first being to just simply live with it and continue on with your life. The second was to not make your pain anyone else’s problem besides your own.

“You sure you want to go down to the lake?” Din asked.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” I asked back quickly trying to hide the fact that I was indeed in pain. “Let’s just go, we can show the kid the rings as well.”

I made my way over to the ladder and waited for him. It was an unspoken but well-understood rule that at this point I couldn’t really really use the ladder without him at the bottom to make sure I don’t fall. I may have been a skilled fighter but I was a cluts when it came to simple everyday actions like this. It took one fall to my butt a few days ago for this rule to become a thing. He went down holding the kid then once he was down I made my way to meet him.

“Let’s go!” I said looking at him and then walking to the ramp. I used the keypad on the wall to open it.

Din has set the kid down to allow him to walk on his own. When we walked out I looked up, we had landed on the upper hemisphere of the planet, so the rings looked perfect from where we were.

“Look up there little guy. You see the rings?” I said to the kid.

He looked up and his eyes got even wider if that was even possible. He giggled a little before we continued our walk to the water.

Once we were closer to the water, Din helped me ease myself down to the ground. The kid was playing in the sand in front of us, he was currently finding different colored rocks.

The lake was filled with them. That’s another reason why this place was so beautiful to me. It was like a rainbow under the crystal clear waters of the lake.

“Did you ever consider leaving the guild?” I asked Din, I was still watching the kid pick up rock after rock, just to drop them when he found a prettier one. It was quite amusing.

“Yeah, more often than I care to admit, honestly.” He confessed.

“If you had left, where would you have gone? Would you have given up the Creed too?”

“I don't think I would have been able to give up the creed. But I know where I would have gone.”

“Where?” I asked, turning to him.

He looked over at me as well, “Here. I knew that if I ever left I would want to come here, I hoped that for some reason you would end up joining me as well.”

“This was my go-to place, too.” I admitted turning my attention up to the horizon. The sun was getting lower and lower casting beautiful colors across the sky and reflecting them on the water's undisturbed surface.

“I wish there was a way we could stay here. Not just temporary, but actually build ourselves somewhere to live. You could have the baby here and then raise it here. It would be perfect.” Din said, watching the sky as well.

“It would be, but they would come for us and we’d have to run again.” I sighed.

“Then let’s enjoy it while we can.” Din said.

I scooted closer to him and leaned my head on his shoulder. The kid looked up at us and suddenly his rocks were forgotten, save for the light green one he had set aside. It was bigger than his hands could hold and he ended up basically hugging it as he ran as fast as he could on his stubby little legs towards his father and me. Once he was at Din’s side he waited to be lifted up into his lap. Once he was there he snuggled up between the two of us with his rock. He never failed to bring a smile to my face.

Besides the one night that the three of us slept on Din’s cot the night of the storm, this was the most domestic we’d all been together. Me and Din had continued to share the cot, I slept better with him by my side, but the kid returned back to his cradle. Sitting here with them made me almost forget about everything that was happening. I could only really focus on the little family that I had become apart of. It was an odd family, but I knew that I wouldn’t change it.

The sun continued to set and not a word was spoken between Din and me, nothing really needed to be said. We were just basking in the peacefulness of the lake and the memories that we had here, especially after everything that went down on Tatooine. The sun had set long before the silence was finally broken.

“We should probably head back to ship and eat something before the kid falls asleep.” I said, picking my head up off Din’s shoulder and looking at him.

“You’re probably right.” He agreed.

He picked the kid up off his lap and set him on the ground to allow him to walk back to the ship on his own. Then he offered me a hand to help me up off the ground. Sitting here had felt nice, the pain in my back had lessened immensely and my feet weren’t hurting either. But the moment I was back on my feet it all returned. Usually, in the past, I wouldn’t mind if a grimace passed over my face, the helmet was always there to hide it from anyone around. I wasn’t sure if Din saw it, he didn’t say anything if he had.

We began walking back to the ship. The kid made it about a quarter of the way before he had enough and made grabby hands for Din to pick him, which he did without a second thought on it. Then, now that he didn’t have to make sure the kid was okay, he subconsciously sped up some. He had naturally long strides, and for me to keep up I usually had to walk twice as fast with my smaller strides. I tried to keep up, but anytime I tried to speed up, the aches in my body screamed in protest.

“Din,” I called out to him and he turned around, he was quite a few paces ahead of me, “can we slow down some?” I asked.

“Of course, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize how fast I was going.” He said walking back to where I was.

“It’s fine.” I tried to brush it off.

We continued back to the ship. When we got there, I made my way to the kitchenette while Din went to clean the kid up for dinner. That’s how our nights typically went, one makes of our dinner while the other gets the kid ready for dinner. I liked to have the kid’s hands washed up before he ate because he has adopted a small corner of the cockpit that he liked to sit in while we were in hyperspeed and play with the few things I had convinced Din to get him at one of the shops we walked by on one of the planets we had been staying on. And while I did try to keep the ship clean, it was hard to make it spotless all the time, so his hands did tend to get a little dirty.

I had been stockpiling certain foods and spices for special dinners that I had been having small cravings for. Mainly they were dishes that the people who took me in used to make. They weren’t strictly traditional Mandalorian dishes but as close to the originals as they could have been. I didn’t have everything to make it exactly as they had, but it would be pretty close. Tonight I was attempting to remember all of the ingredients for Red Gourd Soup. I had stumbled across some red gourds at one of the markets I swept through while Din was refueling the ship and couldn’t pass them up.

I had made this meal for me and Din a few times before, but I knew if I made like I used to the kid wouldn’t be able to eat it, the extra spices would be too much for him. So I decided to take out a small portion of the soup for him before adding most of the spices, there was still a little bit but not too much. I continued cooking the rest of the soup for me and Din, adding all the spices. My feet were practically begging me to sit down, but if I left the pot it would boil over and I’d have a huge mess to clean. I kept telling myself just to power through it.

“Dinner smells really good. What is it?” Din asked, walking in.

I forced a smile, “Red gourd soup, the kids in right there if you want to go ahead and feed him while I finish up ours.” I said. I hadn’t noticed my self shifting my weight from foot to foot.

Dins pov

As she shifted her weight I noticed the grimaces she was trying to hide. My gaze shifted down to her feet, they were swollen.

“Why don’t you feed him, let me finish the food. It just had to simmer, right?” I asked.

“No it okay, I got it.” She brushed me off.

Damn she could be stubborn.

“Yn, please sit down and feed the kid. You need to get off of your feet for a while. I can see that they’re swollen, and I can tell that you’re in pain.” I said trying to reason with her and get her to just sit for a little bit.

She did not respond, only sighed heavily while she paused from stirring the pot, only to shake her slightly and continue. I set the kid down at his spot at the table and walked over to her. I reached for the spoon in her hand and she glared at me but allowed me to take it from her. Without a word, she took the kids bowl and a smaller spoon over to the table and sat down. I worked on finishing the soup, it was easy enough, I had helped her make a few times before.

My back was still to the two of them when I heard her get up. She appeared beside me and dropped the bowl and spoon into the small sink to be washed later. “I’m going to put the kid to bed.” She said before walking off again.

Her tone wasn’t angry, more just deflated. I could tell that there was more going on than what she was letting on. I wanted to help her, but I really didn’t want to force her it out of her.

While she was gone I scooped out two bowls of soup and set them on the table. As I was grabbing spoons she walked back in.

“Do you want some water?” I asked already grabbing a cup for myself.

“Yeah.” She sighed. She had leaned herself over and was resting head against the wall.

I set our spoons and drinks down on the table and then walked over to shut the light off. We had gotten used to eating in the dark. Back when we were bounty hunting together, anytime one of us cooked for the other we would eat together in the dark so we could remove our helmets.

I took my seat across from her and began eating. I let a few minutes pass in silence before breaking it, “Did you go down easily?”

“Yeah.” She said quietly.

“I figured he would, while I was getting him ready for diner, his eyes were already starting to droop a little.” I said.

She hummed in response. I heard her spoon hit the side of her bowl as she dropped it. “I know it’s my night to do dishes, but would you mind doing them?... I’m sorry my feet and back are just killing me today.”

“Of course, and Yn, please don’t apologize when you ask for help.” I said reaching across the table and feeling around blinding for a moment before finding her hand and grabbing it.

“I just feel so defeated. It feels like every day that passes, I get even more helpless. And I just… I hate it.” She admitted.

I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “If there’s anything I can do to help, tell me. Okay? I will never think any less of you.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment but then she lightly squeezed my hand back, and said, “Okay.”

I heard her yawn and it made me let one out as well. “We should probably head to bed. Just leave the dishes in the sink, I’ll do them tomorrow.”

I let go of her hand and got up grabbing my dishes as well as hers and placed them in the sink. Then I grabbed my helmet and offered her a hand up. We went into the main part of the ship and quietly got ready for bed, we didn’t want the kid to wake up. She was already laying down when I carefully climbed in beside her. I was tired from the almost nonstop flying we had been doing, so I quickly drifted off to sleep, expecting for Yn to not be far behind me.

Yn pov

Din had fallen asleep long ago, I check the time on my watch. The sun would be rising in a few hours if I was remembering the day and night cycle of the planet correctly. After being on hundreds of different planets it was hard to remember the time system each one was on. That paired with constantly being in space, where day and night don’t even exist and time is really just an abstract thing it was hard to remember how far along in my pregnancy I was.

I remember reading in one of the books I had before Din found me that a lot of women get insomnia in the second trimester and have been in this same position, completely wide awake no matter how tired I was, I could only assume that is what I was experiencing. I knew it must have been at least a month and a half that I had been living with Din, so that would make me about five-ish months. I think. I have no idea. It could be six for all I know.

“What are you talking about?” I heard Din mumble from behind me.

“Nothing. I’m sorry I didn’t realize that I was talking out loud.” I said.

“S’okay,” He mumbled, I smiled a little at his tired, slurred voice. “Why are you up?”

“Can’t sleep.” I sighed.

“Is it the baby?” He asked.

“Not this time.” I said. I shifted a little and rolled over to face him.

“What is it?”

“Just can’t shut down my mind, I guess.” I admitted.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, not really. Just go back to sleep. You’ve been flying almost nonstop, plus one of us needs to be well-rested to keep up with the kid.” I joked a little.

He didn’t necessarily laugh, more like just blew air out his nose, but I had a feeling that he was smiling.

“If you need me, wake me up.” He said I hummed in agreement.

I rolled back over and put my back to him. Eventually I heard his even breathing return as he fell back asleep. I’m not sure how long I had listened to his soft snores before I finally fell asleep, but it was at least an hour.

It was all too soon when I was woken up by Din getting out of bed. I groaned, feeling the cold air hit my feet.

“Diiiiiiiiiiiiin.” I groaned.

“Go back to sleep for a little bit, I’ll get the kid and get some breakfast.” He whispered.

“It’s cooooooold.” I whined.

I heard him laugh a little from under his helmet, but he fixed where the blanket had come off my feet before walking away.

I was able to get a few extra minutes of sleep before I heard a crash from the kitchen. I slowly began to push myself up off the bed. I stood up and my feet hit the chilly metal floor, making me shiver slightly before making my way into the kitchen.

I leaned against the doorway, watching the scene before me as I smiled. We had picked up some eggs and we had been using them as a fairly routine breakfast for the last handful of days. Right now, Din had the kid set up on the counter with a small bowl in front of him where he was attempting to whisk his own egg. Din had a bigger bowl that I could only assume had ours in it.

“Good morning, you two.” I said causing Din to look over at me.

“I thought you were still in bed?” Din said, turning back to the food.

“I was, but I heard a crash and decided to come see what was going on. What was it?” I asked scanning the room for any signs of what could have broken.

“I just dropped one of the pans, I’m sorry.” He said.

“It’s fine.” I said, honestly I didn’t mind.

I made my way over to the table and sat down as Din continued cooking. The kid decided that he was done helping and so Din moved him over to sit with me at the table. It wasn’t long until a plate was placed in front of me and the kid. Din went to take a quick shower while we ate, then we would switch off and he would get a chance to eat his food. He left his on the small stovetop, covered so it wouldn’t get cold.

After we had both eaten and showered and dressed for the day we decided to spend what time we could outside. The planet was beautiful and I intended to soak up every moment I could before we’d have to leave.

Din and I were sitting under a tree while the kid was chasing different, colorful bugs in front of us.

“Hey Din, I need to talk to you about something.” I said, not taking my eyes off the kid as he continued to try and grab one of the insects.

“What is it?” He turned to me.

“I know it’s going to be difficult, but I’m way past due for seeing a doctor about the baby. The last time I saw an actual doctor was before you found me. I probably need to get a scan. I mainly just need to make sure everything’s okay with it. I didn’t say anything earlier because it honestly just hit me last night how long it’s been.” I picked at my fingers as I spoke. I knew that this was going to be a hard task, but it needed to happen.

“I’ll have to find a planet with a decent medical facility that isn’t a hotspot for bounty hunters. But I agree that it needs to happen. We have to make sure you and the Bean are okay.” Din said.

I nodded, “Thank yo- wait did you just say the Bean?” I asked.

“Yes.” He said simply.

“Do you care to elaborate on why you called the baby, Bean?” I had now turned to him.

“It looks like a bean, at least it did in the picture you have stashed in the drawer. Mentally I’ve been calling it Bean for a while, I guess I just never said it out loud.” He said turning to me only for a brief moment before watching the kid again.

“I like it, we don’t know if it’s a boy or girl yet, and you’re not wrong, it did look like a bean. So our family is now, you, me, the kid, and the Bean. I like it.” I said resting my head on his shoulder.

“Me too.” He whispered, I’m assuming to himself but I heard it.

“We’ll stay here as long as we can, but it can’t be more than two weeks. It’ll get too risky after we leave here, we can find a medical facility to get you checked up at. Can’t it wait that long?” He asked at a normal volume.

“Yeah, that should be fine.” I said.

We continued to watch the kid play until lunchtime came around, then we headed back to ship to eat. I couldn’t help but find myself really liking this way of life. It was so natural for us. Like we were an actual family and not a mixed matches group of individuals. I wish we could stay here, but bounty hunters would find us. I tried not to think about that just yet, instead, I’d rather just live in the moment. This perfect moment with my family.

Author’s Note:

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on one of my Mando stories yet, but I am dyslexic. So sometimes spelling is hard for me. I try to check my work to the best of my abilities, but if I miss anything I’m sorry. If there’s ever a really big issue on spelling that you belive needs to be fixed let me know and I’ll try to fix it!! ALSO THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT ON THIS STORY!!!!!!

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