In the past, Din had always been the one to get up first thing in the morning. He always seemed to be ready when it came down to facing his typical strenuous day head-on. On the other hand, I was set on the complete opposite of the morning spectrum. I rarely ever wanted to start my day early on, which meant Din usually had to drag my ass out of bed because I was simply too stubborn about untangling myself from the thin sheets that covered our bed.
Yet here we were, switching roles for once in our lives. And surprisingly enough, he hadn't shown any signs of waking up any time soon.
The thing is, I knew that regardless of how we were feeling, we were going to have to get up soon because we were going to have to check up on the kid sooner than later. I could already feel how fussy the kid was starting to get since he was kind of stuck in his little compartment all alone.
Oh, and even though I absolutely love laying here in bed with Din, my legs had fallen asleep a good twenty minutes ago, and I was starting to lose my mind over the pins-and-needles feeling that had started to trickle through my limbs.
I subtly shift around under Din's body a few times, hoping to find a more comfortable position to rest myself in. You know, one where my legs didn't feel like they were going through a tingly hell. I shift around once more before falling completely still, my mind concluding that there was no hope to save my legs. I really didn't want to wake him up since he had gone through a lot last night, but his weight was starting to take a heavy toll on my legs.
Fuck it.
I'm gonna stay here until he wakes up because he really needs this kind of rest right now.
"You're getting squirmy."
I immediately snap my attention down at the supposedly sleeping Mandalorian that was resting in my arms. I perk a slight brow as my brown eyes gazed over his soft curls. I quietly sigh as I lifted one of my hands up, my fingers slowly starting to run through his messy hair.
"And here I thought you were still asleep. I should've known better," I say, smiling softly while playfully nudging him around. He lets out a low hum from the back of his throat, shifting his body around on top of me. He props his upper half up on his elbows, slowly lifting his head so his eyes could meet mine. I smile a little more as my fingertips slowly trailed away from his hair, both of my hands settling on my stomach. "How're you feeling?"
"A little better," he answers, nodding his head while lazily shrugging his shoulders. He rests his chin on my chest, his light scruff gently rubbing against my olive-brown skin as his eyes stayed glued to mine. I notice the way his brown eyes flicked down to my lips for a flash of a second, but he doesn't seem to make a move to act on whatever it was he was thinking about. "We should get ready for the day. The kid's probably gonna start getting fussy soon."
"Yeah. I guess we should."
He plants his hands on the plushy mattress near both of my sides, slowly pushing himself up so his weight wasn't resting directly on top of my body anymore. I go to sit up as well, but I only manage to prop myself up onto my elbows since he had decided not to completely move off of me. I look back up to meet his eyes to see that he was already staring right back at me. He leans forward and my breath hitches in my throat. And just as I thought he was going to pull through with his bold action, he tilts his head up and presses a soft kiss to my forehead.
"Thank you," he whispers, slowly pulling his lips away from my smooth skin.
"What for?" I ask, my voice barely meeting a hushed tone.
"For helping me get through last night," he answers, nodding his head once. I smile softly and nod my head back at him. "I do have one question for you, though."
"Yeah, what's up?" I ask, sitting up all the way this time as he shifts all of his weight back. I lean my weight onto my hands, letting my wrists bend and ache at an uncomfortable angle. Our faces hover a few inches away from each other, making a light blush fall over my face.
"Why is there a burn mark on the sheets?" he asks, perking a curious brow at me. My face flushes even more and I quickly look away from him, my eyes landing on the mark that had been burnt into the sheets last night while he had been sleeping.
"Well, I kind of had a random force connection with someone last night. And before you say anything, he wasn't able to see you or anything else in the room. He could only see me the entire time. Even if he could see my surroundings, I had your face covered up the whole time," I frantically explain, my hand sliding over to cover the singed mark.
"You had a force connection with someone? Who was it with?" he questions, making me realize that I hadn't even told him who I had connected with last night. I hold my breath for a few moments, wondering if I should actually tell him who it was I saw.
"It was..." I start, trying to figure out what the best way to answer his question without sounding crazy would be. The thing is, I don't think there was a way to sound sane when it came around to something like this. I guess I'm just going to have to rip the bandaid off. "It was Gideon."
"Moff Gideon? But he's dead. He died in that TIE fighter crash, remember?" he insists, shaking his head as his eyes widened.
"I know! That's why I think that it might've just been some weird fluke connection with his force ghost or something. I'm not exactly sure what it was," I explain, shaking my head as I tried to think it all through. Even if I wanted to believe that it was just some sort of fluke, that wouldn't explain how there was a physical burn mark resting in the sheets beneath my hand. The only reasonable explanation would be him being alive and (unfortunately) well. "It's probably nothing."
"Are you sure?" he asks, leaning forward a bit as he spoke.
I let my thoughts wander for a few seconds, my mind wondering what it was I should really tell him. Bo-Katan technically never stated that it was Moff Gideon that she was looking for. She alluded the shit out of it, but she never directly stated his name. Maybe she was just talking about someone else. Or maybe she thought that I already knew who the new wielder of the dark saber was. It all could've been some sort of miscommunication.
Oh, who the hell am I kidding?
Of course she's talking about him.
"I'm sure," I say, nodding my head. He stares at me for a few more moments before nodding his head back at me. He pushes himself up to his knees before sliding off of the bed. Once he gets up, he stretches his arms over his head, his shirt creeping up enough to expose part of his torso. He slowly lowers his arms back down to his side, then turning back around to face me.
"You should probably go get ready for the day," he muses, softly smiling down at me. I smile back and nod my head, dragging the sheets off of my legs. I slide off of the bed and quickly stand to my feet, but I instantly regret it. I stumble around a bit, my legs still feeling tingly and numb. Din reaches out and grabs onto one of my arms, keeping me up on my feet as I winced from the stabbing in my legs. "So that's why you were getting all squirmy."
"Oh whatever," I say, playfully rolling my eyes at him. I take a few steps on my own, the feeling in my legs slowly starting to come back. I walk out of his room with ease, but I stop after a few seconds to turn around and look at him. He smiles at me before looking away as the door shut between us.
I shake my head as I walked over to my room, quickly stepping inside before leaning against the freezing metal of the door. I let out a small sigh and slap my hands over my face, wondering if I could act anymore like a fucking lovestruck teenager. Maker, I hated how flushed my face felt right now.
I pushed myself off of the large door, grabbed a fresh pair of clothes from my closet, and then quickly changed into them as I tried to shove a few stray thoughts out of my head in an attempt to clear my mind, but it wasn't really working out very well for me.
After tucking the hem of my button-up into the waistband of my pants and cinching a belt around my waist, I turned around to look in the full-length mirror that was practically bolted into my wall. I had to make sure that I at least looked presentable for the entirety of the galaxy to see.
Good enough.
I grab my leather jacket from my closet and walk out of my room, the soles of my boots quietly tapping against the old metal floors. I adjust my collar a few times before looking up to see Din kneeling down in front of one of the exposed electrical panels that ran deep into the walls of the Razor Crest. I furrow my brows at the sight as I tossed my leather jacket aside onto one of the nearby crates.
"What're you doing?" I ask, wondering why he was crouched in front of the exposed panels.
"Trying something and hoping that it works," he answers, not taking his gaze off of the interior of the electrical panel his visor was practically glued to. He clears his throat and leans a little closer to the opening. "Okay, did you get the wire out? The red wire?"
A childish 'huh' echoes from the inside and that makes me furrow my brows even more.
"Did you put the kid in there?" I question, my eyes flicking between the panel and the tall Mandalorian kneeling in front of it.
"No, no, no. No, the red one. Could you show me the red wire? The red one," he continues, completely ignoring me and my concerned tone. I let out a slightly surprised huff of a breath, wondering if he had really put the kid in the freaking wall.
"Din, please tell me you didn't actually put the kid in there," I say, shaking my head while pinching the bridge of my nose.
"Shush, he's got this. Now, you're going to plug that red wire where the blue wire goes in the board. Put the red wire where the blue wire goes in the board, okay? But don't let them touch," he says, pointing his fingers around as if that were going to help the kid out. My heart drops as I realize that Din has the kid working with live fucking wires.
"Did you not shut the power off for this sector of the ship? Are you insane?" I question, my eyes widening as the memory of the New Republic mechanic getting a bone marrow transplant flashed in the back of my head.
"You see where you took the blue one off? Yes, now put the red one- No, don't put the blue one back. Put the red one where the blue one was. And now put the blue one where the red one was," he explains, continuing to move his hands around.
"Please be careful!" I call out, hoping the kid could hear me. I then snap my attention back down at Din. "You know, there's an easier way to do this, right? I made certain modifications to the Crest for situations like this."
"They're oppositely charged, so keep them away from each other," he asserts, keeping his gaze trained on the kid. "Make sure you hold them apart from each- No, hold them apart-"
The horrible sound of sparking wires and the quiet cries coming from the kid fills my ears, making me cringe and tense up. Smoke starts to pour out from the open panel and the sight of the light grey cloud finally makes me step in.
"Alright, it's my turn," I say, shaking my head while nudging Din out of the way with the side of my hip. My hip bumps into his beskar pauldron and he moves out of the way, letting me step in front of the low-set electrical panel. I unhook a few things from the other edge of the panel before stepping off to the side. The whole section of the wall slides out and the kid appears right inf front of us, the red and blue wires resting near his sides. Din picks him up and immediately cradles him in his large arms.
"Are you okay?" he asks, running one of his gloved hands over the top of the child's head. The child coos back at him and rests his head on Din's armored chest. I smile softly and shake my head, looking back down at the interior junction box to see what was wrong. I plug a few of the wires into their right places before sliding the unit back into the wall and latching the panel back into its proper place.
"There we go, all better. Now how about we make ourselves some breakfast? I'm sure the kid's hungry after all that," I say, smiling while placing my hands on my hips. Din nods and the child smiles.
We step over to the middle of the hangar and Din starts flipping through some of the ration packs we have, ending up on some sort of broth for the three of us. He passes the child off to me and I hold him in my arms, playfully rocking him back and forth as we waited for our food.
The kid reaches up and sets his hand on my cheek, resting it there before pressing against my face. He stares into my eyes, craning his head forward a bit. I smile down at him while perking a curious brow. Everything around us seems to fade away and the only thing that seems to be clear is the kid resting in my arms.
The bond between us strengthens and the smile I was wearing slowly fades away into thin air. He coos at me a few times as if he were trying to tell me something, but I couldn't seem to decipher what he was trying to say.
"Hey, you two ready for breakfast?"
I snap out of our connection and whip my head over to look at Din, who was holding two small bowls of the broth that he had been making for the three of us. I clear my throat and put a smile back on my face, nodding my head a bit to tell him that we were ready.
"Yeah, sorry," I say, walking over to where he was standing. I set the kid down on one of the crates and Din hands him a small bowl of soup before handing the other one to me. And before I could even ask to make sure he had made himself some, he grabs another bowl and holds it up in the air, showing me that he had some for himself too. I smile a little more, finding it funny that he already knew what I was going to pester him about.
We take our seats on each side of the kid, our gazes flicking over to him every now and then as we ate. It felt nice sitting together in peaceful bliss. There was nothing attacking us, nothing screaming at us, no imposing threat looming over our shoulders. There was just the three of us, eating breakfast like the family we had been before.
Din lifts the bottom half of his helmet for a few moments to take a sip of the broth from his bowl. The kid immediately leans forward and quirks his head to the side, looking up at Din as if he were trying to spot any sign of his face. His eyes looked as if they were searching for something important and I could practically feel the curiosity radiating off of his small body. I let out a small chuckle and shake my head as Din set his helmet back into place.
"Kriff, the kid's acting like he hasn't seen your face in years or something," I joke, letting out a quiet chuckle before taking a sip of my soup. Din visibly tenses up and the hand that had been lowering his metal bowl back to his lap freezes in place. The kid quickly snaps his attention between the both of us and I perk a slight brow. I slowly lower my own bowl, my eyes flicking back over to him. "Din?"
"Uhm... After we lost you, I kind of stopped showing my face," he explains in a quiet tone. My eyes widen and I just about drop the bowl of soup that was resting in my hands.
"You what?" I say, not believing what I had just heard. The kid had practically been ecstatic when he had seen Din's face for the first time. And he just about loved all the other times he had gotten to see it too. He was always messing with Din's curls, running his tiny little fingers over his scruff and mustache, and tracing Din's strong-curved nose.
"I just... I couldn't handle it," he says, looking away from me. I open my mouth to comment on it again, but I leave it be, knowing that we both went through some hardships during that whole timespan. I nod my head and let out a quiet hum to let him know that I understood. I take a sip of my broth, clearing my throat once before speaking again.
"You know, I have a feeling that we aren't going to be able to finish up all the repairs for the Crest on our own. I thought maybe we should make a quick stop on Nevarro. I know how you haven't been there in a while, but I'm sure Cara and Greef would love to see you and the kid again," I say, smiling while looking back up at him.
"How'd you know I haven't been to Nevarro in a while?" he asks, quirking his head to the side.
"Cara and Greef never mentioned seeing you pass through with the kid, so I kind of just assumed that you haven't visited them," I answer, shrugging my shoulders as I spoke. "I haven't seen them in a few months or so. I think it would be nice to see them."
"I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing them again," he says, nodding his head.
"Sounds good!" I say, smiling while popping up to my feet. I take a quick sip of my soup as I walk over to the ladder that led up to the cockpit. I climb up the ladder with one hand, balancing the bowl in my other hand. I take another sip as I enter the cockpit, plopping down comfortably in my seat.
"Wait, you mean like we're going now?" Din asks, his head popping up from the opening in the floor just outside the cockpit doors. He sets the kid on the platform first before climbing up all the way. I hum in response, nodding my head. I start typing in the coordinates, confirming that they were the right ones before relaxing in my seat.
"Thankfully, it shouldn't take us too long to get there. We can visit Cara and Greef and then relax for a day or two while the ship gets fixed up. Then we can fly over to Corvus to find Ahsoka Tano," I say, taking another sip of my soup. Instead of responding to my little plan, he silently sits down in the co-pilot while keeping his gaze locked on me. He continued to stare and I let an awkward smile tug at my lips. "What?" I playfully question, wondering why he had gone quiet.
"It's nothing. You just look good sitting back in your usual seat," he says, crossing his arms while nodding his head once. I smile some more and let out a small chuckle, averting my eyes away from his intense gaze. "I can see why they made you a commander of your own squadron. I think Commander Mae Dameron has a nice ring to it."
"Well, how do you think Commander Mae Djarin sounds?" I ask, sending him a hopeful look. His visor's blank face stares at me for a little longer before he slowly nods his head. A small chuckle passes through his modulator and he nods a little more confidently this time around.
"Commander Mae Djarin, huh?" he repeats, crossing his arms over his armored chest as he continued to nod his head. Maker, I could practically hear the stupid grin in his tone, which just about made me smile even more. "Yeah, I think I like the sound of that too."
"That's good to hear," I mutter, my smile remaining as I looked back over to the navigation system that was set on top of the dashboard. I let my eyes scan over all the information on the screen as I rested one of my hands on the steering mechanism. I rest my bowl in my lap, strapping myself in. "Alright, we can make it to Nevarro in a few clicks. So, is everyone strapped in?"
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Word count: 3702
Note: Hey guys! How're y'all doing? I hope all is well and that you're having a wonderful day so far! Anyway, I decided to give y'all some more Djarin fluff because y e s- But yeah! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I can't wait to see y'all next chapter! ;)