Calamity || The Mandalorian

forty-four

"I can see that," he replied dubiously, playful sarcasm slipping in his words in a futile attempt to conceal some of the relief in his voice obvious even with the modulator. He paused a moment before asking, "You forget something?"

"No," Kasia shook her head at the question, her eyes dropping. She chewed on her lip for a moment before adding, "I'm... I decided not to join Yrel after all."

At her statement, Kasia felt surprise and delight and hope surge from the Mandalorian. Emboldened by the last emotion, she flitted her eyes towards the still closed hull doors in front of her, silently communicating with Din in the way they had always been able to, whether it be through Din's thoughts or Kasia's meaningful looks and gestures.

At the glance, Din didn't hesitate to press a button on his wrist pad, Kasia jumping backward as the doors slowly slid open. Smiling sweetly, if not slightly sheepishly, at the Mandalorian, Kasia slowly made her way into the ship. Immediately, her shoulders relaxed as the familiar metallic smell wafted towards her, followed close behind by the very distinctive scent of freeze-dried meals. She supposed that was one aspect of her time with Din and the kid that she would be happy to forsake.

Din joined her a moment later, the doors to the ship sliding closed behind him. Slowly, Kasia forced herself to turn and face him, chewing on her lip once again. She glanced up at the ladder in silent question a moment later.

"The child is upstairs in his little bunk. I was just closing out my tab for the fuel and thought it would be better to leave him here," Din answered her unspoken question.

Kasia nodded before sighing. "We should really figure out a more responsible thing to do with the kid when we leave the ship to do shit. Little bugger doesn't necessarily have the best track record with staying put or avoiding danger."

It didn't escape either of them, her use of the word "we" in the sentence. Underneath his Beskar, Din's heart once again to speed up at the thought that she wasn't actually going to leave him, that she intended to stay. "So... you're really not leaving?" his question came after a moment, simultaneously uncertain and hopeful.

Kasia remained silent for a long moment before her eyes rose to peer up at his helmet. She studied the fine craftsmanship of the Beskar, wondering for the umpteenth time what the man underneath looked like. 

When she spoke, her words were quiet and emotion-filled, utterly honest and possessing a sense of vulnerability Kasia typically avoided betraying.

"I just found that... I couldn't. I didn't want to leave the kid behind and..."

She trailed off, her heart racing as the emotions she had kept bottled up over the last few months, the feelings she had struggled to explain away and hide, threatened to burst from her chest. 

But in that moment, Kasia Torelo realized that those emotions she had ignored—she no longer wished to hide them.

Yrel was right; she needed to speak her thoughts, to get the cloistered, restrained feelings off of her chest. It was not the Eulentian way to keep everything bottled up, to have so many secrets from the ones you love.

And so, once again Kasia put her fate in the hands of luck, taking the dive off of the cliff and into the water below without the security afforded to her by uncertainty and hidden truths. 

"And... I didn't wa—I couldn't leave you."

Kasia spoke the last word with an air of reverence, of love and adoration. The word alone was a confession, a testament to all the pent up love and emotion which had grown and grown and grown in her chest. She had become so used to its weight in the last months, but as soon as she spoke the word, Kasia suddenly felt free in a way she never had, free from a burdening secret she had not realized had been weighing her down. Free.