~*~
"You gonna start avoiding me again?" She asks after a comfortable silence had overcome the two of them as they sat in the cargo hold. She's trying to focus on helping with the wound on his right shoulder, instead of being too aware that they're close enough she can hear his soft breathing once in a while, and sometimes, she wonders how he's able to breathe just fine since he wears it all the time. The armor must be so heavy to walk in ... does he not get tired?
"Why would I do that?" He hisses in pain when she pours alcohol into a cloth, and places it on his shoulder.
"You did last time I called you that," she reminds him.
"Can you blame me?" He asks sharply, "No one is supposed to know that name."
"Why's that?"
"Just part of the code," he says.
She's starting to think she'll never understand the Mandalorian code, or the Way. Maybe if she'd been raised the same as him, she'd understand it better but...
"I really am sorry I keep doing that," she sighs as she takes a seat beside him. "Is he a Mandalorian too, that friend of yours?"
He lets out a shaky breath. She glances over at him with a small frown. Doesn't want to talk about it, she realizes.
"This really is familiar," she quickly changes the subject, nodding to the wound on his shoulder. He stretches his arm after having it in a same position for a while.
"It is ... kind of like when we first met," he agrees, and nods at her when she finishes patching his shoulder up. "thank you."
"You're welcome," she smiles faintly. "by the way, the first time we met was when you were having trouble with the blurrgs, and you refused my help."
"I was hoping you forgot that," he admits.
"Nope," she teases. "I'll never let you forget that."
"Thanks," he says dryly. "I knew I can count on you."
"No problem, partner," she smiles, and starts to get up to leave the cargo hold, but stops in her tracks when Mando gently grabs her hand. She raises her brows at him, "what's the matter?"
"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.
"That's impossible, I would have remem --" he stops himself, staring straight ahead at the metal walls in front of them as if he'd suddenly gone into deep thought.
"Maybe we both knew Din, and just forgot about it," she reasons.
Now this silence. This is a silence she didn't like. It's dangerous again. She does not like the way her heart is speeding. She does not like the long stare he gives her, as if he were lost in his thoughts or memories. She had to find something familiar.
"Oberon," she smiles weakly. "It's Oberon, isn't it?"
"You're still going at it, aren't you?" And she can, funnily enough, detect a smile in his voice.
"I'm going to get it right one day, I swear it," she promises.
"It's Din," he answers softly. She whirls around, her heart's beating fast as they stare at each other, "My name is Din Djarin."
Din. She couldn't comprehend the familiarity of it at first. He's the boy she kept seeing in her dreams. He's --!
"Don't joke around like that," she manages to find her voice. She gets up to leave, go anywhere but there, but he mimics her movements and stops her, "You said your name wasn't Din. You said that --!"
"I kinda lied," he sounds sheepish about it, "I didn't want you figuring out my real name."
"Which is why you avoided me then," she realizes, and turns to face him,"back in Sorgan."
"Yes," he answers. "I thought that you'd remember --"
"Remember you," she guesses, and frowns.
"I wanted you to remember," he says softly.
"And when I didn't?"
"I figured that you weren't her, and I was just imagining it."
Her hand slowly reaches up for his helmet, and he backs away from her touch, possibly from reflex. He's probably had so many people try to take the helmet off, and show his face, and she retracts her hand.
"Can I--?" she asks with hesitation.
He doesn't say anything, or move away from her this time. All he does is stare.
Her hand reaches for the helmet once more, but then she stops. There's a reason why he won't show his face to anyone. She respects that decision too much to let him. Maybe he really did hit his head harder than she thought back during that fight. Maybe --
He gives her a nod of encouragement. She shakily places her hand over his helmet, and his gloved fingers brush over her own --
A cackling noise fills the room, and a hologram flickers on. She frowns at the small, blue form of Greef on the dashboard.
"He can't see you, right?" She asks anxiously as she stares into the eyes of the man who shot her, and her hand absentmindedly hovers near her stomach, where she can still sometimes feel a ghost pain there.
"No, it's a pre recording," Din shakes his head, also tapping at the comlink to get a clearer picture, as he places his helmet back on in a rush.
"My friend, if you are receiving this transmission then that only means that you're alive," Greef's voice fills the ship as his hologram comes back up. "You might be surprised to hear this, but I'm alive too. I guess we can call it even. A lot has happened since we've last seen each other. The man who's hired you is still here. His ranks of ex-Imperial guards have grown. They have imposed despotic rule over my city, which has impeded the livelihood of the Guild. "
"We consider him an enemy, but we cannot get close enough to take him out. If you accept one last commission, I will very much make it worth your while. You have successfully staved off their hunters, but they will not stop until they have their prize."
She glances back at the child who's sleeping soundly with a troubled frown on her face. How can one small child cause so much trouble? Why do they want the child so badly? She just doesn't understand.
"So here is my proposition," Greef continues. She whirls around to stare at the hologram, "Come back to Nevarro. Bring the child as bait. I will arrange an exchange, and provide loyal guild members as protection. Once we get near the client, you kill him, and we both get what we want. If you succeed, you keep the child, and I will lhave your name cleared with the Guild, for a man of honor should not be forced to live in exile. I await your arrival with optimism."
The hologram disappears into thin air. She glances over at Din, (Din, she almost bursts out laughing despite the tension, she's still not used to that) who seems to be thinking it over. He glances back at the kid, shoulders tense. The child is still snoring without a care in the world.
"Are you actually going to trust him?" She asks with disbelief.
He seems to be thinking it over, from the way he still tenses, gripping onto the ship's controls tight.
"No," he shakes his head. "Not after what happened in Nevarro. If we offer up the child as bait, without any back up to protect us, he'll kill us both, and take the kid for himself."
"I don't like this," she admits.
"I know, I don't like it either," he sighs, and leans back in his chair. She frowns at the exhaustion in his voice,"But I have to do as he says or they'll keep sending bounty hunters after him."
As much as she hates to admit it, he's right. They'd never be safe with bounty hunters trailing after them all the damn time just to grab the child. She glances over at the sleeping child, and smiles fondly as his ears twitch as he dreams.
"We're going to need back up then," she says quietly.
"I think I know the perfect canidate for this job," he says, and she gasps when she sees the familiar map of Sorgan. "but she's not going to like it."
"Are we--?" She stops herself, and can't help but smile.
"Any objections?"
"No, of course not, Oberon," she grins slyly at him.
"That's not my name," he says with amusement.
"I know," she playfully shoves him, despite still feeling the tension from earlier, and he laughs softly as he swats her hand away to take control of the ship again.
Din. Her laughter dies down as she recalls his name, and glances over at him. She's never going to forget again.
She swears it.
~*~