tritanopia | The Mandalorian

twenty-two

"Quiet!" Peli scolded as she stepped through the door, "Oh, you woke it up. Do you have any idea how long it took me to get it to sleep?"

Fae, who was following behind, scrunched her face up in disagreement and said, "You held him in one hand and played cards with the other, he put himself to sleep."

"Oh, shush you-"

"Give him to me," The voice far deeper than theirs interrupted the squabble which was bound to ensue, which Peli then span around to face once again.

"Not so fast! You can't just leave a child all alone like that," She waved her hand around to gesture towards the Crest, "You know, despite the fact your daughter is a teenager, you still have an awful lot to learn about raisin' a young one. In fact, don't even get me started on her." Fae just rolled her eyes and went to stand by the Mandalorian instead.

"I didn't leave him alone," He started firmly to the woman before turning to the young girl and asked in a quiter, yet no less aggressive tone, "And what did you do, exactly?"

A well practiced, sarcastic smile made it's way to grace Fae's lips before she replied, "I was my usual, charming self. Why?" The deep sigh which filtered out through Mando's helmet only reenforced Fae's expression.

"Of course you were."

"Anyway," Peli spoke up again in slight concern that they were going to completely forget she was there, "I started the repair on the fuel leak. I had a couple setbacks I want to talk to you about. You know, I didn't use any driods, as requested, so it took me a lot longer than expected. But I figured you were good for the money since you have two extra mouths to feed."

Perhaps Fae did have a slight issue with the woman, but even she had to admit that it was a kind gesture for the mechanic to make for them.

"Thank you." Was all Mando said to her before he began to walk towards the exit silently.

Peli's jaw dropped open slightly in shock, "Oh, I guess I was right," She said while scrambling to follow him, the Child still nestled into the crook of her arm, "You got a job, didn't you? You know, it's costing me a lot of money to keep these driods even powered up."

By the time she was finished talking, the trio had made their way all the way out of the back door. And it was at that moment which Fae regrettably remembered that she was on a desert planet. It was likely just a placebo effect, but she would have sworn that the scorching sun was already making her head feel dizzy and her mouth to run dry.

"Hey Mando, what do you think? Not too shabby, huh?"

Infact, Fae was so bothered by the sight of endlessly barren land infront of her, that she initially didn't notice the two speeder bikes which had seen better days. Nor did she acknowledge the man leaning against one of them -- however, as soon as she did, she sincerely wished she could go back to five seconds earlier where she hadn't yet.

For he looked as though the definition of the term "date rape" had grown legs, adorned a hideous outfit, and started walking.

In typical Mando fashion, he took his sweet time to reply. Instead, he walked around one of the speeders, tinkering here and there in order to emphasis all of it's faults to the onlookers, before simply staring directly at Toro as if to ask 'are you fucking kidding me?'.

The younger man scoffed, "What'd you expect? This aint Corellia." And then, unfortunately, he turned his attention towards the two females who had previously just been stood by the door, silently observing. "Ma'am," He nodded his head towards Peli, which she replied to with an untrusting look.

And then he was looking at Fae. An overly cocky smirk was almost immediately displayed on his face as he pushed himself up from his nonchalant posture to walk closer.

"Hey," He started, eyeing the young girl up and down before sticking his hand out between the pair of them, "The name's Calican. Toro Calican."

Fae's own hand reached up to his, but only for a moment -- shaking it snarkily once before releasing it in revulsion. "Hi," She replied, "I'm disgusted."

The man was clearly thrown back from Fae's reponse -- which was understandable concidering he had obviously spent his entire life convincing himself that he was the sexiest man alive. Which he wasn't.

Fae didn't bother to entertain him any further, instead turning to Mando, who had watched the exchange with his own internal loathing and tense muscles.

"Can we leave now?" She implored, although Mando knew by that point that it was more of a demand when it came from Fae.

"We can," He answered, nodding his head towards Calican, "You can't. You aren't coming."

The young girl observed him for a long second, neither of them wanted to break eye contact first and admit defeat. Eventually Fae began to lazily step towards him, a frankly ingenius idea forming in her head. One she was only a foot away, she looked up and him and spoke in a rather calculated tone.

"You've got two options here, Mando. I can either come with you, sat on the end of your speeder bike. Or I can come with you anyway, just sat on the back of his." Her head subtly tilted to her left, where Toro was, despite the fact that everybody present knew exactly who she was talking about.

"Which I am fine with, by the way!" Toro shortly interjected, earning the response of Mando's helmet whipping over to to give the man a death glare he couldn't even see. beneath the beskar, Mando held the look for an uncomfortable amount of time before suddenly replying into the tense silence.

"Fine, get on."

{ i'm a bad bitch, you can't kill me

p.s i find it far too hilarious when i see someone add this story to a reading list titled something like "haven't read" or, "want to read". like??? what??? read it then??? i don't understand the problem?? }