Armored Passion | The Mandalorian

|10|

"Now, I'm going to have to ask you to stay strapped in whenever you're seated. Traveling sublight can be a little dicey these days," Mando says, flipping a few switches to get the ship stable and smooth. 

"But you don't have to worry too much about that. With the two of us piloting, everything should be just fine," I say, winking back at the frog woman before turning back in my seat. 

I still had yet to fly the Razor Crest since I had gotten back and it was starting to eat me up on the inside. I wasn't sure whether it was because I wasn't allowing myself to be put in a position to fly the Crest or if Mando was making it a point not to let me fly my old ship. Either way, it was starting to make me feel antsy. 

"Even so, it's still a little dangerous. Whether it be pirates or warlords, someone either ends up with a nice chunk of change, or they end up with your ship," Mando counters, letting out a small sigh as he settled comfortably in the pilot's seat. 

"I suppose you're right," I mutter, sighing just as he had. The woman sitting behind us starts speaking, but I don't think either of us actually understands what she's trying to tell us. 

"I don't speak whatever language that is. Do you, Mae?" he asks, looking over to me. His tone told me that he obviously expected me to understand the language, which made me tense up. I purse my lips, not wanting to admit that I had no idea what the woman was saying either. Mando seems to realize what my silence signified because he's suddenly very attentive to the situation at hand, his posture straightening out as he fixated his gaze on me. "Mae?"

"I don't speak what she's speaking either," I mutter under my breath, flicking my gaze further away from his own peering gaze. 

"So you're telling me that I've finally found a language you don't speak?" he asks, a smirk shining through his already cocky tone. 

"Ne'johaa," I groan in Mando'a, telling him to hush in a language he knew all too well. I cross my arms and slump further into my own padded seat. He lets out a low hum of a laugh, letting it come from the bottom of his throat. I take a deep breath and then stand up to my feet, knowing that I wasn't going to just let myself sulk in the cockpit when I could be doing something more important. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I have to do something real quick."

"Are you okay?" Mando asks, looking up at me as his previous cocky tone disappeared. I could tell that he was worried that he had hurt my feelings by calling me out for not knowing the language the frog woman had been speaking. I could just tell through the tone of his gentle voice. I smile down at him and nod my head, finding it sweet how much he cared. 

"Don't worry. I'm okay. I just need to send a quick message to an old friend. She might be able to help us on our little quest," I say, winking at him while walking towards the cockpit's doors. I slide down the short ladder, not waiting on a response from him. 

Once my feet meet the metal ground, I look to my side and spot the kid, who happened to be standing eerily close to the container of frog eggs that the woman had brought along. I walk over to him and quickly swoop him up in my arms, letting him rest on my hip as I looked down at him. 

"And what kind of trouble are you trying to get yourself into?" I ask, quirking my head to the side as I walked over to his little hammock. I stopped in front of the small makeshift hammock, placing the kid in it. He keeps his eyes on me, reaching his hand out to me. I smile and lean against the wall, lifting my hand and placing two of my fingers in his hand. "You've gotten stronger, bud."

He coos back at me and the energy he had been radiating seems to strengthen. I push off the wall and stand up straight, furrowing my brows a bit as he continued to hold onto my fingers. He coos up at me, his grip tightening a little more. I perk a curious brow, feeling a certain kind of connection begin to form between him and me. It didn't feel like the normal connection you could usually feel when sensing another force user. This felt entirely different. It felt like he was trying to personally connect with me and just me.