The next morning, warm rays of the sun stir you from slumber. You want to sleep in longer, especially after such a long night, but duty calls. Your alarm comes in the shape of Banx, who always scratches at your door while meowing from the top of his lungs.
You groan and roll over in bed. It takes a moment to will yourself to sit up. Your legs dangle over the side of the mattress as you yawn and stretch. The floorboards are frigid under your bare feet as you pad across the room towards your closet, where you quickly get dressed for the day. Banx's meows only grow louder once he hears you moving around.
"I'm coming, I'm coming..." You grumble, still trying to rub the sleep from your eyes.
After you pull your boots on, you head over to the door and open it. Banx immediately slithers through the crack and nearly trips you up as you step into the hall.
On your way to the kitchen, you linger by the guest bedroom door where you know Mando is staying. You wonder if you should check on him.
Maybe after a cup of caf.
Banx follows you into the kitchen and sits down in front of a particular cabinet with a demanding yowl.
You roll your eyes, deciding to feed him first so you don't lose a finger. You grab his bowl and reach into the cabinet to get a few scoops of kibble. After adding some bits of raw meat to it, you set it down on the floor for him. He immediately scarfs it down like he's never been fed in his entire life.
"Weirdo." You mutter under your breath, turning towards the counter to get the caf machine going.
Once the caf finishes brewing, you pour the steaming dark liquid into a mug and add a bit of cream to lighten it. Before you can even take a sip, you hear a heavy thud come from somewhere in the house. It can't be Banx, so you immediately abandon your caf and rush down the hall. You don't hesitate to open the door to Mando's room.
He's on the floor by the bed. You assume he tried to walk and failed.
Idiot.
"You aren't a very good listener." You murmur, kneeling down beside him to check him over.
He only huffs in response, one hand clutching his side while the other is braced against the floor.
You help him back onto the bed and get him situated. You knew he was stubborn, but not that stubborn.
"Haven't even had my first sip of caf." You shake your head at him. "Are you hungry?"
He stares at you, then nods.
"Good. Are you okay with eggs?"
"Eggs?"
"Yes, eggs. Like fresh eggs from a chicken."
"I don't think I've ever had eggs that weren't freeze dried or powdered."
"Seriously?" You ask, staring at him in disbelief.
He shakes his head.
"Well you're in for a treat." You shift your gaze to his knee. "Mind if I check your knee since you decided to fall out of bed?"
"Be my guest." He answers sarcastically.
You roll your eyes and bend over to take a look. The ice pack was still in place, thankfully—having only slid a little to the right during the fall. When you peel it away from his knee, there's an immediate difference. His skin was red—which was to be expected—but the swelling had gone down dramatically. Just like you thought it would.
Smiling to yourself, you undo the strap that's holding it in place and bundle it up in your palm.
"Good news. The swelling has gone down." You say, eying him curiously as he perks up. "I still want you to stay off of it, though. Let me check to make sure you didn't reopen your wound and then I'll leave you alone, okay?"
He sighs heavily and sinks back against the headboard. His hands pull away the woolen blanket so that you can get a look at the bacta patch on his side.
Upon examination, you see no traces of blood or anything that would suggest the wound had been reopened. The surrounding skin did look a bit irritated, but that was most likely due to the patch rubbing against it. Somehow, he had managed to keep everything intact despite falling on the floor.
"Alright." You say, pleased that everything was going well. "I'll be in the kitchen making breakfast. When I'm finished, I'll bring you your portion."
"Sounds good to me." He replies with a nod, folding his hands in his lap.
Your eyes are drawn to his chest yet again as you try not to stare directly into his visor. Before any thoughts can enter your mind, you tear your gaze away and swiftly leave the room. Your heart begins to pound in your ears.
You need to stop. This is getting ridiculous.
It's easier said than done, obviously, and your mind seems perfectly content with lingering on him. No stranger had ever made you feel the way you felt around him. Why was he so different? You couldn't even see his face, yet his entire persona was incredibly alluring. Perhaps it was the mystery that drew you in. Having his face hidden behind a shield of beskar allowed your mind to be creative. It let your imagination run wild. Was he handsome? Ugly? Were his eyes cold and sharp? Or were they warm and comforting?
You had only known him for less than a day and you wanted to know everything about him. Was that normal?
No. Definitely not.
You become annoyed with yourself and shove every thought back into the depths from which they came. You know they will make it impossible to focus if you let them linger.
Your caf has gotten significantly cooler by the time you pick it up again. You drink it anyway, making sure nothing spills as you whisk a carton of eggs over to the counter and grab a bowl. Your cast iron skillet is already sitting on the stove, having been cleaned and oiled the previous day. The flames ignite beneath it as you turn up the heat.
The eggs pop and sizzle as they land in the melted butter. While they're still wet, you season them with a good amount of salt and pepper. Personally, you liked your eggs over hard with a bit of cheese on them, but you weren't sure what Mando would like. You decide to go the safe route and make them plain.
He lifts his head as you walk into the room. You have both his plate and yours balanced on one arm and a glass of purple-ish liquid in your free hand.
"What's that?" He asks, referring to the strange liquid.
"It's a drink made out of a fruit with healing properties." You answer as you set his plate and the glass on the nightstand. "It'll help you recover quicker."
He eyes it skeptically, but doesn't protest as he's currently distracted by the steaming plate of eggs.
"Thank you." He says, bringing the plate into his lap.
"You're welcome." You reply.
After a brief period of awkward silence, you realize you do remember something you've heard about Mandalorians. It's been rumored that Mandalorians never show their faces to others, and assuming he was one of them, you figured he wouldn't eat until you were out of sight. It made things slightly more difficult, but not by much. It wasn't hard to respect someone's culture.
"I don't want you to feel lonely, Mando." You break the silence, setting your plate down on a crate. "Do you mind if I hang up a curtain so we can talk?"
He stares at you for a moment, pondering over your words. You wonder what he's thinking. Perhaps he thinks you're an idiot. Or maybe he's thankful that you offered to do something like that. You could only hope it was the latter, not the former.
"No, I don't mind." He finally answers.
Your heart flutters a little in your chest and you nod. You gaze into his visor where you imagine his eyes would be before swiftly turning to fetch a large sheet that would serve as the curtain. Since there were already hooks and whatnot in the ceiling beams from previous additions made to the house, hanging the sheet was simple and straightforward. Once you secured it, you went back onto your side. It was fairly sheer, but not so much that you could see through it.
"What made you come up with that idea?" He asks rather suddenly, catching you off guard as you're about to take a bite.
"Well," You struggle to find your voice. "I heard that Mandalorians never remove their helmets in front of others, and I didn't want to keep leaving you in here alone, so I improvised. Also, I like to talk to people and hear about their lives."
"Do you not get many visitors?"
"Oh, I get plenty. They're all patients, though. Sick and wounded. I'm often too busy trying to save their life to strike up a conversation."
"So you're a doctor?"
You note the curiosity in his tone, very different from the gruffness his voice had held the night before. You had thought he wasn't a conversationalist until now. Perhaps he was coming around.
"Not really." You reply, poking at your eggs with a fork. "I'm not a certified doctor, I just know how to practice medicine. They come to me because the nearest licensed practitioner is over fifty klicks away in Pann City. No one can make that journey. It's too dangerous."
He hums thoughtfully in response, presumably because his mouth is full.
"Why are you here?" You ask him. "This place is nothing but a dust bowl."
He's quiet at first, leading you to believe that you've overstepped your boundaries as a host. You liked to ask questions that not everyone was willing to answer, sometimes oblivious to how personal they were.
"My apologies, I—" You try to backtrack, but he interrupts you.
"I came here in search of a bounty I'd been hunting for days, hoping to end the chase that had brought me halfway across the galaxy. The damn bastard was waiting for me with an ambush. Should've known."
"So how did you come across my aunt?"
"After I wiped out his posse and got what I needed, I stumbled off into the darkness. I guess her house was the first thing I came across."
His voice sounds so much clearer without the modulator. It was smooth as molasses, with a bit of roughness around the edges. You began to create a picture of him in your mind to refer back to, knowing you might never see him for who he really is.
"You're lucky you found her instead of my uncle." You pause to finish chewing your last bite of eggs. "He would've shot you on the spot."
"Does your entire family live here?" Mando asks, a touch of amusement in his tone.
"Yeah. What's left of them, anyway." You answer with a shrug. Your family liked to stick together. When one member moved, everyone moved. "We slowly migrated here over the years to try and get away from the Empire. Now that the Empire's gone, we live in peace."
You hear him set his plate down on the nightstand. It bumps against the glass with a soft clink.
"The Empire isn't gone." He says, his voice deepened by the modulator of his helmet once more.
"What?"
That wasn't true. It couldn't be. You were there when it felt like the entire galaxy threw its arms up in celebration. Most, if not all, remnants of the Empire had been extinguished a long time ago as far as you knew. So who crawled out of the ashes?
"I encountered an imperial client on Nevarro. He had stormtroopers as bodyguards."
Fucking imps.
"What did he want?"
"He wanted a child with special abilities. If I didn't know any better, I would've let him have the kid."
The mystery surrounding Mando only deepened, drawing you in further. Who was he? How'd he have a brush with the Empire and survive? And who was this child that he spoke of?
"Wait, did you say child?" You sputter in disbelief. "As in, you have a child with you? Where?"
He grunts softly as he pushes himself up in the bed and you immediately pull the curtain aside to stop him.
"Wait, Mando, you're still recovering—"
"I need to get back to him." He insists, pushing your hand away. "He's on my ship. I need to return before someone finds him."
"You mean to tell me that you left a child unsupervised on a starship?" Your voice strains with exasperation.
"I had no other choice."
"Right, because you were bounty hunting." You groan, shaking your head in dismay. "Maker, Mando... you're making this so much harder than it needs to be."
"Will you just let me return to my ship so I can retrieve him?"
You didn't think it was possible to roll your eyes as hard as you did when he said those words. This Mandalorian was just full of surprises, wasn't he?
"Fine, but I'm going with you." You begin to gather his things for him so that he could get dressed. "I would have to be stupid to let you go out there alone in your condition."
"I've been through worse." He retorts.
"Oh I know you have." You fire back, taking a dig at his ego. "I'm going to grab my rifle. Don't even think about trying to leave without me."
He better pray that the Jawas hadn't gotten to his ship first. Whatever shit you were expecting to get into, it certainly wasn't this.