To The Stars || The Mandalorian

Chapter Five

She crosses her eyes and puffs up her cheeks, which the creature laughs at. 

"You're making faces at it again," he comments.

"Am not," she denies. Her cheeks warm as she turns away from the kid, and sighs  softly at the kid's whine. It raises its arms up in the air as if it wanted to sit on her lap, "everytime I look away it does that."

"Better you than me," he says with amusement.

"Makes me feel terrible when I don't pay attention to it," she says, waving her index finger near the child's small fingers.

"Just don't get attached," he warns her. "It's not staying with us for long."

"I should be telling you that," she reminds him gently. "You two were attached to the hip when you came back to the camp with it."

The child coos as it tries to reach for the switch once more.

"Look at it," he says with incredulity, "it doesn't even consider me an enemy."

"You did rescue it," she points out, and reaches over to finally allow the child to sit on her lap, "Sorry, kid, the mean Mandalorian says no."

She can see him glare over at her from the corner of her eyes, and she grins.

"We're here," he announces.

From above, the town is small, and hidden in the desert, which, she has to admit, she isn't that thrilled about. He lands outside of the town, just right near the entrance, and shuts off the engine.

She notices that the Mandalorian is still sitting in his seat, having a staring contest with the child.

"Having second thoughts?" She asks. He jumps slightly at her voice as if he'd forgotten she was there. 

"Stay on the ship," he tells her.

"Wha--? Are you --!?" Her jaw drops as she splutters.

"These kinds of people don't hesitate to kill," he reminds her. "even if they saw you with me. It's dangerous."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but danger seems to follow you wherever you go," she reminds him.

"Which is why it's just better for you to stay on the ship," he says.

"What if you need back up?"

"I've dealt with higher odds," he sighs with exasperation, "just stay on the ship, please?"

"Fine," she scoffs. It's still a little strange to hear a Mandalorian say please.

That's that. Her eyes meet the child's confused ones, and her chest tightens at its small whimper as it disappears on the other side of the door.

Wonderful. Now what? She sits back down in her chair, quietly watching the Mandalorian and child disappear into the crowd from the windows. And she jumps as another space cruiser lands not too far away from theirs.

Dessa frowns, and leans forward, careful not to mess with any of the switches as she did. People in strange armor stepped down and into the town.  And the bad feeling's coming back. It could explain why the Mandalorian wasn't back yet.