~*~
"You okay?"
Dessa sighs heavily at the question, and tilts her head back; pressing it against her chair. She should have expected this; he's been asking it non stop ever since they left Nevarro, and she knows exactly why. Okay, maybe 'non stop' is a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure did feel like he kept asking it way too many times for her liking.
In retrospect, she should be gloating about this. Din's never normally one to start conversations willingly, and she's not sure whether to be proud of him or annoyed.
"I'm fine," she answers, and winces because she can hear the exhaustion in her own voice. It's not that she's tired of being with him and the child, she's just tired of remembering.
"You sure?"
"I said I'm fine," she repeats herself with a slightly raised voice that makes Din turn to stare at her from his own seat. Alright, maybe she'd been a little too snappy with him, but in her defense she's annoyed that they have the same conversation over and over again.
"You should get some more sleep," he comments, and turns back around to look over the control board.
Now she's just plain annoyed because he's right, and she hates it when he's right. Sleep just doesn't come easily to her anymore, and she never knows how he falls asleep so quickly. In fact, she envies the ability.
"I know, I know," she says. "It's just ..."
Every time she sleeps she dreams about Kuiil.
Kuiil...
Dessa presses her lips in a thin line. She never told Din about this; he already has too much on his plate trying to look for the child's own kind, but somehow, she has a strong feeling that he already knows, because she always catches him staring at her whenever she got too caught up in her own head.
"Would you feel better if the kid was in the room with you?" Din's muted voice brings her out of her thoughts, and soothes her ears. Sometimes, it surprises her how soft he can be, especially since she's seen him fight, and how quick tempered he got whenever things didn't exactly go to plan.
She glances at the child again whose ears twitch at being mentioned and can't help but grin. "Yeah, I would," she agrees with him.
"Get some sleep," Din says.
"Okay, fine, fine, bossy," she scoffs, and pokes at his helmet as she gets up from her chair. She knows it always bothers him when she does that, which is exactly why she made the effort. Her back is hurting her anyway from sitting too long. "Ready to get some sleep like the mean Mandalorian ordered us to do?"
She laughs softly when Din turns around at her, and probably has an unimpressed expression underneath that helmet of his.
The child merely coos in response. She wonders if it even understands what she's saying sometimes. They've set up a little cot for her and the child to sleep in the living quarters next to the cargo hold. Sleeping there wasn't exactly comfortable, but she can't complain. It's better than being anywhere near sand, that's for damn sure.
To her surprise, Din walks into the room a few moments later. She never normally sees him down here since he's always running the ship. She smiles when he pats the child's head affectionately.
"Not here to watch me sleep, are you?" She teases as he takes a seat across from her, cross legged and arms folded. "Because that's kinda creepy."
"Yeah, I'm here to watch you sleep," Din says with amusement.
"Again, creepy," she shrugs, "But, whatever, it's your ship after all."
"Damn right it is," he says, "I have no idea what I was thinking when I let you drive it."
"Yeah, what were you thinking, letting me drive it?" Dessa snorts at the memory of him trying to evade the asteroids. Sure, it wasn't really funny then since they were trying to save their skin, but now--? "Didn't you know I'm a terrible driver?"
"If I had known that, I wouldn't have let you drive it," he doesn't even miss a beat.
"Don't even lie, you knew," she says with a quiet laugh so she wouldn't disturb the sleeping child beside her.
"I did, and I paid for it," he agrees with great reluctance.
"Sucks to be you," she grins, but it slowly fades when she remembers how hard he's been overworking himself. She isn't the only stubborn bantha in this ship, "How about you get some sleep? I think you need it more than I do."
Silence from him. Or ... maybe he already fell asleep, and she wasn't aware.
"Din?" She calls unsurely, and lifts her head up from the cot to check on him. He's still in the same position as earlier. She calls his name again. No answer.
"Hey, Mando, you asleep yet?" She tests, just to make sure.
"Go to sleep, Dessa," Din says, tilting his head slightly, and she can still hear the amusement in his voice.
"You really should take the helmet off, Din," she says, and turns away from him so that he can't have the satisfaction of seeing her face when she finally does fall asleep. "It can't be that comfortable to sleep with."
He doesn't say anything. She assumes his silence is either because he'd fallen asleep himself or he's just ignoring her. He would be childish enough to ignore her.
She hates to admit it, but having him in the room gives her some comfort. Dessa glances over at the child, who's softly snoring, and she smiles as his ears goes up and down with his snores. Both of them being in the room made a huge difference.
And the child's soft noises slowly, finally drift her to sleep.
Din and the child are nowhere in sight, but someone's with her. She whirls around, to find someone in Mandalorian armor, the color is nowhere like Din's, a faded red and copper, and her breath hitches because all they're doing is staring at each other and holding hands. She knows him. Somehow knows that it's a him. She wants to call out, but the wind carries her voice.
Desert. Blaster fire. Pain in her stomach as blaster fire hits her. She topples over, and lands on her side. It's hard to breathe.
"Dessa?" Din. Where is he? Nearby. "Dessa! Hey!"
Dessa gasps awake, clutches onto her stomach, and accidentally bumps into the child's cradle. She glances around the room. Still in the ship. Startled awake, the green creature whimpers and lets out a cry. She's still breathing heavily. She can't get any breath in her.
"Hey!" Din's by her side in an instant, panicked. She'd fallen off the bed in her own panic, and now she's wrapped in his arms, "Hey, what's wrong?"
She reveals the blood where her bandages were on her abdomen, and Din swears under his breath. Her breath hitches as his gloved fingers brush over the wound.
The child whimpers, and brings a hand up towards her.
"Sorry, sorry, little one," she apologizes to the child quickly once she finds her voice, and stops him from healing her when she realizes what he was about to do, "Don't do that, I'm fine. I'll be fine! Must have slept on it wrong."
"This is fine?" Din asks incredulously. "Why didn't you say anything about this?"
"I'll be fine," she emphasizes, glaring at him half heartedly. She doesn't have enough strength to argue with him at the moment. But, as stubborn as he is, he swats her hand away to look at the injury. Still bleeding, but not as bad as it was when she woke up. "Din.."
"Don't do that," Din scoffs. He relaxes slightly, but still has a grip on her shoulders as he helps her sit up, "I think that's the fifth heart attack you've given me."
"Still got you beat," she laughs breathlessly despite the pain she's in.
"Do we really have to make this a competition?" Din asks, "I'm really over it."
"Hey, you're the one that turned it into a competition, not me," she reminds him, smiling. Her eyes close as she savors the moment of being in his arms. Then she realizes what she's doing, and immediately jumps away from him, cheeks burning as the kiss flashes through her mind. She and Din haven't fully talked it over yet, and she's beginning to wonder if he even remembered at all, considering he hit his head pretty hard enough to have a concussion and had a severe injury of his own. Her fingers brush over her own faded injury.
There's a loud beeping up in the cockpit that startles them, and makes them both look up at the noise.
"Remind me to get you more bandages later," Din says, as he climbs up the ladder.
She sighs heavily. She knows she's lost this argument with him, and glances down at the child who'd whimpered softly.
"Your Mandalorian friend is a real piece of work, I hope you know that," she tells him, and the child only tilts his head at her voice. She smiles, and climbs up the ladder, wincing in pain when her side accidentally hits the metal wrong. She's fully aware that the cradle is moving up with her, even as she makes her way to the control panel, and is just in time to see a blue hologram fade out of view, and hear Din sigh in frustration to himself.
"Everything okay?" she asks softly as she moves closer towards him, and presses her hand against the top of his chair. He doesn't move at her presence, but he had to have been deep in thought not to have noticed he had onlookers.
"How do you feel about going to a brawl?" Din asks.
A brawl? Dessa frowns. She never normally likes going to those things. Brawls usually ended up bloody and messy. She winces, recalling the brawl Cara had back in Sorgan.
But ... he might have found more information for the child. They were at a standstill, and still had no clue where to even look and had no idea if there were any remains of its kind left. She glances down at the small child wrapped in its tattered brown blankets in the cradle Din put him in, and she's thinking about getting him a new one soon, he couldn't be comfortable in it. She and the child were in the same boat, now that she thinks it over more. Maybe that's why she's felt so drawn to helping him.
"Let's go," she agrees, with a nod of her head.