"If I could start again, I'd find you sooner so that we could have more time. But I will cherish every second we do have."
They're polar opposites - she's open and talkative, he's closed-off and a man of few words. She's seeking connection, while...
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"We should reach the cruiser within the hour," Boba said when Aula went to go keep him company in the cockpit.
"Oh, good. Leo will be back with us soon." These words came out sounding more like a reassurance for herself. But she needed it.
"So he's been teaching you Mando'a."
"Some, yeah. I love languages."
"What have you learned so far?"
"A few things: burc'ya, kov'nyn-"
"Riddur."
"Yeah, that too."
"You know, maybe it's not my place, but riddur doesn't just mean partner."
His words, like a confession, surprised her. "Oh, what does it mean?"
"It means partner, just in a different sense than you were using it. In the sense of marriage partner. Spouse, husband and wife."
"Really?" Now she was shocked, not just surprised.
Fett nodded. Part of her wished she could read his expression from beneath his helmet, as she often wished with Din. Well, always wished with Din.
So either Din had used it not knowing its full meaning - which was unlikely - or he was using it knowing full well what it meant, referring to her, to them, in that way.
"You didn't hear it from me." She imagined Boba winking beneath the helmet.
Boba's words wouldn't leave her - Din couldn't really know what it meant, could he? As unlikely as that seemed. He couldn't really be referring to her as his riddur in the full sense of the word, could he?
The thought pulled at her heartstrings, but she shoved the feeling away. She could not let herself get her hopes up over something already so impossible.
"Din, do you have a moment? Can I talk to you?" She called from the other side of the closed chamber door.
"I'm just getting changed."
Right, out of his stormtrooper armour and back into his own. "Oh, sorry-"
"No, it's okay, we can still talk."
"Oh, okay. I've just been thinking - I don't know how much longer we'll be traveling with Leo - Grogu, I mean. It could be a while, or not. I've just been thinking, there's a lot of goodbyes on the horizon-" She broke off there. "Anyway, I was chatting with Boba and he said, he said-" One moment to make a decision that could make or break it all. "-He said we're on route, making good time. We'll reach the cruiser within the hour by the sounds of it."
