GALDANA || the mandalorian

PART TWELVE

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"How long had it been since you last slept?"

The Mandalorian didn't answer the query; he was content to gaze upon the stars in the distance and watch the planets swish by. It was still a couple hours until they would come upon Ran's ship, as the hyperdrive was in no shape to be used for such a short trip, if at all.

"Din.." The voice trailed off. Two arms encircled his shoulders from behind the seat.

"Can't remember," he mumbled, flicking another switch. Truthfully, his eyes were struggling to stay open underneath his helmet, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"You can't remember." She rested her cheek against the side of the chair, "you're of no use to anyone if you're dead tired."

Mando sighed and switched the ship to autopilot, finally turning to face her.

"Fwega, I'm fine."

"No you're not," she whispered. Her forehead rested on the front of his helmet.

She kissed it.

"Maybe if you had your helmet off you could've gotten a real kiss."

Mando stood up, pushing past her and into the belly of his ship. Her footsteps followed behind him as he opened the hatch to his bunk.

"The child?"

Fwega smiled softly. "Sleeping in one of the chairs in your cockpit. You know, you certainly forget about it enough to make me worry."

Mando shrugged. He picked up a crate and put it on top of another, a meaningless task, but it allowed him to avoid Fwega's halfhearted glare.

"Din, you can't just ignore me until I go away." She opened the hatch to the bunk. "At least try to sleep."

He shook his head. A bump to his side caused him to grunt, cursing and dropping the crate he held.

Mando pulled his hand away and recognized that he was bleeding.

"Is that blood?!" Fwega exclaimed. Her own hand found his side and he hissed in pain, the cut stinging under her prying fingers. A weakness in between his beskar. One wrong move and a small mistake.

"Don't worry about it," Mando replied, swatting her arms away. She crossed them, and Mando almost stripped his armor down himself to appease her and her narrowed brows. Her green eyes shined brightly, like ivy warmed by the rising sun. He decided that green was his favorite color.

"I'm going to help you clean this cut and then you're going to sleep, you hear me? Yeah?"

Mando only nodded.

Fwega's ivy eyes glimmered in victory, and she began the slow process of stripping a Mandalorian of its armor. Piece by piece the metal was removed, set delicately to the side until all Din had on was his black underclothes. His helmet stayed on, but he felt small, vulnerable. Not something taken lightly by a Mandalorian, especially this one. But as he looked at her face as she mended his wound, he couldn't help but feel...different. Sure, he was vulnerable, but she didn't make it seem like a weakness. Fwega gave him something that no one had ever given him before, a strength beyond character he couldn't quite identify. And it bothered him.

"Fwega..." he whispered. She looked up at him, surprised by the way he uttered her name.

"Fwega, what are you doing to me," he groaned, placing his helmeted head in his hands. Oh, how he wished he could rub his face with those hands.

She chuckled, washing her hands with some alcohol. "Making sure you don't get yourself killed, of course. Blood loss probably isn't the only thing we'll face today."

He looked up at her.

Fwega imagined what he looked like under the helmet, trying to piece together all he had told her. She imagined his warm brown eyes looking up at her, distraught, as he tried to make sense of his feelings. She felt them too, his strong doubt and warmth she knew he only had around her. And, weaker and in the distance, she felt the child's happiness as he slept, peaceful, most likely dreaming of catching frogs back on Sorgan.

Fwega looked away.

"Do you wish you would have left us? On Sorgan?"

He stood up quickly, but Fwega's gaze stayed locked on the wall in front of her.

"Why would you ask that?" His gloved hand found her arm.

"I don't know," she turned quickly, walking over to the bunk and adjusting it. "We agreed you would sleep after I fixed you up."

He grabbed her arm again as she began to walk away.

"Sleep with me."

Her eyebrows raised.

"Please."

She nodded and climbed into the alcove, making herself comfortable before shutting her eyes.

He turned off the lights in his ship carefully, and slid his helmet off.
Mando climbed into the alcove beside Fwega and nestled his head into her neck, kissing her collarbone. She giggled and wove her fingers through his hair.

Their eyes drooped, held in each other's embrace.

"I would never leave you. I could never find the strength to try," he whispered, his hot breath warming her skin. His arm tightened around her waist.

"Why?" She muttered back dreamily.

"Because you're more important to me than any planet or star in the galaxy."

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