To The Stars || The Mandalorian

Chapter Fifteen

"You can -- you can stay if you want," he says gently, and the hint of a nervous tone in his voice makes her double take.

"You feeling alright?" She asks as she sits back down beside him this time, and presses her hands against his helmet to look for any sign of damage. The steel is scratched up pretty bad, but other than that she sees no sign of blood, "Burg smacked your head pretty hard too."

"I'll be fine, most of the damage was done to my helmet," he answers. His gaze is drawn to somewhere on her forehead, "how's your head?"

"Surprisingly okay," she answers, but still flinches as a sharp pain bursts slightly as her fingers brush against her forehead, "might have to sleep off this massive headache later, but I feel okay."

A comfortable silence overcomes the two of them. She, surprisingly, enjoys their silence more than she thought she would, even though it's still something she has to get used to being around him.

Soft snores bring her out of her thoughts, and she glances down at the sleeping child cuddled in its blankets next to the Mandalorian, and her lips twitch upward just slightly. Mando follows her gaze down to the child as well, and tilts his head.

"Do you remember when you asked me about my childhood?" He asks, and she glances over at him, and nods. He has never opened up this much during their time together, and she wonders what caused the sudden change of heart, "I always caught her stealing, and nobody would really notice. I thought it had been some sort of fun game, we played together in the streets, and we'd run from the people that were after her. Then I found out the reason why she did the things she did, and why she had people after her, and her family."

Mando tilts his head slightly to stare at her.

She wishes she could see his eyes, know his face. She knows a human being is underneath that armor, that much she remembers from seeing the back of his head in Sorgan.

"You remind me of her, you had the same reckless behavior she does."

"Hey, and you aren't reckless?" She teases. Her smile fades when he doesn't joke around with her. His story is too familiar with hers. She exhales sharply as some memories come back, "Do you-- do you think I'm her?"

He exhales sharply.

"I've -- I've had my suspicions, " he admits quietly, "back in Sorgan, but ..." he shakes his head, and his voice wavers as he says, " no, you can't be her, she died a long time ago."

"You miss her, don't you?"

"Yes," his voice cracks, "I do."

"It's funny," she frowns as she recalls the memory of running through the streets. "I think we might have came from the same village."

"What?" He asks sharply.

"I remember running alot when I was a child," she recalls, and tries to her best to ignore his stare, but her cheeks warm as she thought over the memory, "I kept taking things from people, food, anything that could help my family and I, but this annoying boy kept stopping me, and before I knew it his family tried to save mine."

She pauses, and tenses when she remembers the fires, "Then the fires started, and people were running and screaming because there were so many droids as big as your ship coming from every corner, and there was someone running with me, holding my hand, begging me to stay close to him--"

"How?" He asks sharply, and jumps away from her. "You could only remember if --"

"I was there?" She finishes, and moves closer towards him, and slowly places her hand over his, but he moves away at her touch.