Stowaway | A Mandalorian Love Story | Din Djarin x OC

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Small Potatoes, Part I

Suggested Listening:
To Athens - John Williams (from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) | ...back to coruscant
Oxley's Dilemma - John Williams (from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) | ...don't make a mess

"Look familiar?"

Din glanced over at me from his pilot's seat, and I could sense the smirk. I sat up and looked further over the viewport as Coruscant loomed into view beneath us. He brought us down into the very port where we had our first adventure together, and as we strode down the ramp side by side, my senses tingled — it felt like only yesterday that the rancor had gotten loose and I had met Din again under that ship. I had a visceral memory of little Grogu sitting on a shipping container, the sharp, desperate breaths hurting my lungs as I ran to rescue him, only to be shown that he was perfectly capable of looking after himself. Long before I knew his name. Long before I even knew Din's name.

"You gonna be okay here?" Din's voice snapped me out of my reverie as we strode away from the ship. "Last time... it didn't seem like a place you wanted to be."

I chuckled to myself and glanced over at him.

"Last time was a long time ago." I looked around at the shimmering lights of the city, a small smile lifting my lips. "I'm feeling a lot more confident this time."

He nodded, but adjusted his stride to be a little closer to me, as though to provide an additional feeling of safety.

Now, as we walked through the port, everything was so different than the last time. I recalled how I had snatched the coinpurse out of Din's outstretched hand and disappeared into the night, terrified that a threat lay around every corner, afraid of my own shadow.

After the last few months... The last few days even... Coruscant didn't scare me anymore.

The bounty was supposedly an easy one — Fane Reth, an Arcona small-time criminal who had robbed a business on Navarro and skipped out on his trial. Din had tracked him down to a casino here in the city where he had allegedly been holing up.

"I can't believe you brought Grogu down here," I hissed as we descended into the lower levels. I pulled my hood up so that it hung low over my eyes — not that we could ever be low-profile with Din's armor. My face was still marred with the ghost of a black eye, but I figured that if anything, that would give me credibility down here.

"Hey," he muttered defensively, though I could hear the hint of a smile. "He did okay."

"I'm sure he did," I chuckled, following him down a side street. "Back then he could throw a full-sized rancor like it was nothing."

"He could lift up a mudhorn like it was even less than nothing," he said, almost wistfully, followed by a throat clear and, I suspected, a gruff clench of the jaw.

"I wonder what he can do now," I ventured. Din didn't say anything. I walked a little closer to him and lowered my voice. "Lets go visit him. Like you talked about. See what he's learned."

He came to a stop and took a long breath.

"Come on, it'd be good for him!" I had almost said 'you' but I figured it was a bit early in this phase of our relationship to psychoanalyze him directly to his face. "You can give him the chainmail you had made for him."

"... Maybe," he grumbled eventually, but there was a definite undercurrent of excitement at the prospect in his voice. Then, he jerked his head toward a run-down looking metallic building, the shine dampened by patches of rust and graffiti. One of the windows in the front was broken, and the neon sign was hanging by one corner. "That's the casino."