In the week or so that followed it rained. Aviina could hear the ever present tap tap tap as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Silver droplets chased, collided and absorbed each other against the glass and metal in intricate trails that Aviina had always loved. When she was a child she would spend hours tracing the streams of water as they cascaded down the stained glass of the temple from the torrential downpours that surrounded flooded the valleys every spring. Even now as she was barely coherent and flushed with sickness the rain called to her.
A fever had settled into her before Din could get her back to safety for proper medical treatment. He had done his best to patch up her wounds with what he had available, but he wasn't a medic any more than Aviina was. Evidently he didn't have any bacta and she didn't know how long it took them to get from whatever cesspool in the outer rim he pulled her from. And the only thing she could even barely recall was a cool, metal floor at her back and the deep rumble of engines shaking around her; every once in a while she heard a mumbled curse from Din as he pressed wet cloth to her wounds. Her own violent tremors woke her from time to time as the involuntary movement racked her abdomen with pain.
As Aviina began to wake again, she still didn't have enough strength to open her eyes. She was about to force herself back into sleep when she felt a soft pat on the hairline of her forehead. Light and gentle as it pushed the loose hair off her face. A slight shuffle and a shifting weight on her bedding made the inevitable pain of opening her eyes worth it.
She peeled back her eyelids and immediately snapped them back shut again and groaned at the sharp pain that followed the light. After a few seconds she tried again, this time squinting and only using her right eye. That was the only one that worked anyway.
After an adjustment period she was able to take in her surroundings. She was in a small room with a small window, letting in the soft sounds of the rain against its pane. The cream colored walls were a new construction, but these dark blue and soft linen sheets seemed worn and well loved. They smelled like something familiar, something earthy, masculine and comforting. A smell that she'd be a fool if she didn't recognize. Din. This was Din's bed. She spread her palms flat against the sheets beneath her, as if she could will the comfort to seep into her very being. The small window was not as grand as the colorful shards that had painted her in light many years earlier, but it did allow her to look out to the rocky landscape outside. A tall, dark mountain loomed in the distance, and the clouds swept and crowned against its peaks. The same mountain she'd seen many time before from the shipyards outside Nevarro City's gates.
This was the room in Din's home. A new building Greef Karga helped construct after giving this tract of land to the Mandalorian and his newly adopted son after the return of Mandalore. When she left several weeks ago in pursuit of that bounty, Varlo Keene, Din's lodge had not been completed. Now while it seemed it was unfurnished and bare, it was done.
The weight shifted on her bedding again and she turned her head towards it. A small green creature with big eyes and bigger ears gazed back at her. His small hand still stroking her hair.
"Hey, kid," she croaked out. Her voice feeling unfamiliar in her own mouth. In response the little thing babbled incoherently. "What are you doing in here?" She reached up and nuzzled the soft space between his ears and they twitched and flattened in appreciation. He wasn't any bigger than the last time she saw him, still about the length from the crook of her elbow down to her fingertips. Still wrapped in the tan soft robe he always had. But now Beskar chainmail peaked out from his collar. Grogu's tiny hand gently touched the bandage covering the gash in her hairline and his eyes met hers and took on a pitiful glaze. "I'm okay. I promise," she reassured him softly.
Those big eyes stared back at her, saying more than words ever could. And just like every time she looked at him, an all too familiar sense of possessiveness washed over her. She once again stroked the place between his ears and let that feeling settle into the nooks of her mind. His odd little nose twitched and his mouth opened to release a babbling. And though they did not look alike, speak the same language, or have any blood relation they still understood each other better than most humans did. While it's was widely acknowledged that Grogu was Din's foundling, Aviina felt that he belonged to her in equal part. The small being provoked a more gentle side that she thought long dead. The hold he had on her was something only rivaled by one other Beskar clad individual. A truth carved as deep into her as the scars across her eye.
Grogu shuffled forward and patted her arm as he nestled in the crook of her elbow, into the space between her arm and torso. He looked up and her and made a series of grunts and babbles. Aviina allowed the side of her mouth to twitch up into a grin as she rubbed her eye in exhaustion. Her throat burned in thirst and her head throbbed. She glanced through the doorway hoping to see some sign of life other than her and Grogu, but there was no light outside the door and no sound either. She glanced around the bare room, at the blasters and ammunition half-hazardly strewn about. Nothing adorned the walls, there were no chairs or tables that suggested Din had ever kept company. Nothing to display that this was anything more than a place to sleep and regroup. Off in the corner, sat a small cot. It was still far too big for Grogu but Aviina guessed it was the closest that Din could get. For some reason that made Aviina smile—the thought of the The Mandalorian doing something as mundane as bed shopping for his little boy. She turned her head as far as the crick in her neck allowed her to and spotted a glass of water placed on the floor where a bedside table would be. She struggled to reach down and grasp the glass with numb fingers and it nearly toppled over in the process.
When she finally had the glass in hand she straightened and brought it to her lips and let the soft cool swaths of water fill her mouth and soothe her throat. She drank the whole glass in two greedy gulps before she sighed with relief. The contentment that filled her after her thirst was quenched quickly lent itself to exhaustion. Her eyelids became heavy and the comforting musk of Din's sheets beckoned her to lay back down and sleep. She looked down to Grogu who's eyes were so big she could see her whole reflection looking back at her.
"Are you gonna stay here with me?" She asked. In response he patted her arm again. She laid her head back down and stared out the window, following the streaks of water down the pane as they raced one another. What a strange thing to see on a volcanic planet. Rain. It seemed too clean and forgiving for a place like Nevarro. Not like the place she grew up, where it rained nearly every day. "Yeah. I missed you too, kid."
