Mando and I stride into our usual cantina, the low buzz of chatter stopping for a few moments as the other bounty hunters scattered around start to spot the tall Mandalorian and I walk in. I slap a smile on my face and walk over to Greef, who was enjoying a drink at his own little table as he had always done. His usual smile burns through the crowded cantina, warming the room up. I slid into the seat in front of him, tilting my head to the side as I met his kind gaze.
"That was fast," he says, stating the obvious while perking an interested brow.
"Well, it was easy," I say, sliding over in the booth so my companion could sit as well.
Mando drops all of the tracking fobs on the table before plopping down into the seat next to me. His leg pressed up against mine, but I don't make an act to move away from him. It was comforting being this close to him, especially in a room full of bitter bounty hunters who probably wouldn't hesitate to snap my neck if they had the chance.
He subtly lifts his arm and rests it over the top of my shoulders before sliding it up to the top of the booth. My cheeks flush a light pink and I spot Greef's smile turn into a small smirk, his eyes flicking between the both of us.
"I suppose I'll begin the off-load then," he says, nodding while pressing a subtle button on the table. I curiously narrow my eyes at him, but I quickly drop the uneasy feeling that had flooded into my chest for a few seconds.
Here's the thing about Greek Karga: He is an absolute softy when it comes to me and he has been ever since we've met. It's pretty helpful in this line of work since he likes to give me some of the more high-paying jobs, but that's not the only reason I like him.
He's one of the few people in the galaxy that has kept my dark little secret, the one that helped me land a spot in the harsh bounty Guild, and he's the one that introduced me to Mando all those years ago. At least one good thing came out of that train wreck of a partner job.
A small stack of credits is suddenly placed on the table in front of us, snapping me out of my nostalgic daze of adoration. I furrow my brows, my eyes narrowing even more at the sight of the shiny Imperial credits that had been set in front of us.
"Come on, Greef," I whine while shaking my head. He should know better than to give me Imperial credits, especially with my background.
"Those are Imperial," Mando says, stating the obvious while agreeing with my whiny attitude.
"They still spend in these parts," Greef says, sliding them closer to my partner and me.
"I don't know if you've heard, but the Empire is gone," Mando continues, shaking his head. My body tenses up slightly at the mention of the Empire being gone, but I try not to show it too much. Mando tilts his head over to look at me, but I don't dare meet his piercing gaze.
"That's all I've got-"
"I think we all know that's a lie," I say, rolling my eyes while perking a sharp brow. Mando grabs the fobs and pops up from his seat, but I quickly grab the sleeve of his shirt and pull him back down into his seat. He looks over at me and yet again, I ignore his stare. I wasn't about to let Greef pull something like this on me, especially when he knew how sensitive I got about subjects like this. "Come on, Greef. It's me," I say in a slightly sweeter tone, pouting my lips while staring into his kind eyes.
"Fine," he says, immediately giving in. He sets a different stack on the table with a sigh. "I can do Calamari Flan, but I can only pay half."
"See? That wasn't so hard now, was it?" I say, winking at him. I earn a harsh eye roll from him and that just makes me smile a little more. "So, what else have you got for us?"
"I've got three bail jumpers and a wanted smuggler," he lifts off while taking out a few bounty pucks and setting them out on the table.
"We'll take them all," Mando says, reaching over the table to grab all of the bounty pucks that Greef had so graciously set out for us.
"Now, hold on a second. There are other members of the Guild and this is all I have right now," Greef says, sliding the pucks out of her reach while raising his other hand to shoo Mando's hands away.
"Why so slow?"
"It's not slow at all. It's actually very busy. They just don't want to pay Guild rates. They don't mind if things get sloppy," he explains, tucking all of the pucks away.
"Alright, then what's your highest bounty?" I ask, perking a curious brow.
"Five thousand," he answers, grimacing.
"You're joking." He shakes his head and my jaw drops slightly. "That won't even cover fuel these days!" I exclaim while slumping my shoulders in disbelief. He sucks in a breath and purses his lips, giving me a look that I know all too well. It's the one he makes when he's thinking about whether or not he should tell me about something. "What do you really have in store?"
"Well, there is one job," he says, sighing out his words while clasping his hands together.
"Let's see the puck," Mando says, obviously just wanting to get out of the crowded cantina already. He never took too nicely to other bounty hunters and staying in one place where there were practically crowds of them always made him tense up.
"No puck, just face to face, direct commission. It's a deep pocket job too," he explains, shaking his head.
"Underworld?" I question, tilting my head to the side.
"All I know is that there's no chain code," he continues, shrugging his shoulders. he pulls out a small chit card from his vest and I perk up a bit. Mando stares at it and then shakes his head, rolling his shoulders back. "Are you sure you don't want it-"
"We'll take it," I rush out, snatching the card from his hand. Mando kicks me roughly from under the table, but I keep my smile on my face while kicking him right back. "See you around, Greef," I say, ushering Mando out of the long booth. I walk out of the cantina with the tall Mandalorian hot on my heels.
"What the hell was that?" he snaps at me, almost bumping into me as I whip around to face him. He stops short, his metal chest plate knocking against me. I can see him suck in a harsh breath as my brown eyes stared up at his blank visor. I smirk and shrug my shoulders.
"That was me getting us a decent job so we could get paid well and finally take a little break. Now come on, we've got a new client to meet," I say, patting my hand on his armored chest before pivoting on my heel and walking away.
My brown eyes glanced down at the chit card that my nimble fingers were messing with as I tried to figure out where the hell it was we were supposed to be doing. I shake my head, hating how ominous and unclear this job was turning out to be. Then again, that's the whole point of an Underworld job, so I guess I can't really complain too much about it.
Mando and I continued to walk through the streets of the grim city with our heads held high and our shoulders set straight, our auras obviously unafraid to show our complete dominance in the city. Other bounty hunters and innocent civilians strolled through the city as well, minding their own businesses while keeping their heads down, only glancing up for a few seconds as we passed them by.
We soon stepped up to a large building, coming to a slow stop in front of the thick metal doorway that kept us from entering. I take a small step forward to see if it might open up automatically, but the second I place my foot down in front of the door, a gatekeeper droid shoots out from the wall, almost knocking me in the face. I yelp and jump back, my shoulder blades knocking right into Mando's beskar chest plate.
Mando quietly snorts out a laugh, his chest moving up once as he looks towards the gatekeeper droid. I glare up at my tall companion before holding the chit card up, waiting for it to open up the doors. When the metal doors split open, I slide the chit card back into the pocket of my jacket, still shaking off the spike of anxiety I had gotten when the droid had practically shot out of the wall.
We walk through the dark hallway, simply following its path before we hit another door, which happens to open up automatically, unlike the front door.
"Greef Karga told me that you two were coming."
"Really? What else did he say?" I ask, smirking as I step into the room. I look up and all of the confidence that I had been radiating was quickly snatched away from me as I met eyes with the so-called client we were supposed to be meeting. But it was really the group of stormtroopers surrounding him that made me straighten my back out and swallow hard.
Surprisingly, my smirk still somehow stood.
One little detail that Greef had failed to mention is the fact that there would be a bunch of stormtroopers all up in this shit. I didn't think that this was what he meant when he mentioned the job being 'underworld'. I clench my jaw at the sight of the familiar pristine white armor, but I keep my cool.
The client smiles knowingly at me, which makes my nerves spike even more. I know that I've seen him before, walking around with the other high ranking officers on one of the main bases. I can only pray that it's been long enough for him to have completely forgotten about me, but the smile on his face was telling me otherwise.
"He said that you two were the best in the parsec," he continues, nodding his head once. I open my mouth to say something, but I stop short when one of the doors on the other side of the room opens up. Both Mando and I whip our blasters out, our hunter instincts instantly kicking in. All of the stormtroopers around us do the same, the muzzles of their blasters aiming right at our heads.
"Drop your weapons!" they command.
Mando and I stay still, our blasters resting easily in our steady hands. The client sighs and we all look towards the man that had walked in. He looked to be quite frustrated and in distress, his glasses barely even resting on his nose as he kept his eyes glued to the clean floor.
"This is Doctor Pershing," the client says, gesturing over to the man that had been howling about something being wrong. I perk a slight brow, wondering what he was going on about. "Please, lower your blasters. He's practically harmless."
"Have them lower theirs first," Mando demands, taking a subtle protective step closer to me.
"We have you eight to two," one of the stormtroopers spit, obviously underestimating our skills.
"I like those odds," Mando growls, taking another step closer to me.
"As do I," I mutter, my smirk growing.
The client suddenly takes a step closer to me, staring right into my eyes as he did so. Though, his motion wasn't what really scared me. What really scared me was the way his aging eyes flicked down to the silver hilt that was strapped to my hip. I swallow hard and slowly holster my blaster. Mando snaps his attention over to me, probably wondering what the hell it was I was doing, but I subtly shake my head, hoping that he would just follow along.
Shit.
He knows.
He has to know.
"He also said that you were expensive, very expensive," he finally answers. He nods towards the empty booth set in the middle of the room, smiling at us. "Please, sit." He raises a quick hand and all of the stormtroopers lower their blasters, going back to standing at stiff attention.
Does he recognize me?
Mando and I take a hesitant seat, his leg pressing up against mine as it did back in the cantina. The slight movement of a stormtrooper in the corner of my eye makes me shift uncomfortably and settle even closer to Mando. My knee starts to nervously bounce as I mess with the cuff of my jacket.
Fuck, I need to calm down.
One of Mando's gloved hand slides onto my thigh and he squeezes tightly. My knee instantly stops bouncing and I suck in a harsh breath, clamping my legs together from the sudden intrusive action. My head snaps over to Mando, but he doesn't take his blank gaze off of the client sitting in front of us. I roll my shoulders back and let out a shaky breath, surprised by his bold move. I slowly look away from him and spot the stack of beskar that had just been set on the table.
"Go ahead, it's real," the client says, shrugging his shoulders while pushing the ingots a little closer to our side of the table. Mando lifts one of the ingots, inspecting it closely. His other hand was still gripped comfortably on my leg, forcing me to take deep breaths that match the pattern that his thumb was slowly grazing on my thigh. "And This is only a down payment. I have a camtono of beskar waiting for you upon the delivery of the asset."
"Alive," the doctor adds in, finally looking up at us as he adjusted the glasses he was wearing.
"Yes, alive. However, I acknowledge that bounty hunting is a complicated profession. This being the case, proof of termination is also acceptable for a lower fee. I'm sure you both have experience with that," he continues, his eyes landing right on me.
Fuck he really knows.
"Let's see the puck," Mando says, nodding his head once. He hesitantly slips his hand away from my thigh and my nerves start to rise again. I force myself to take a quiet breath in a useless attempt to keep myself calm.
"I'm afraid discretion dictates a less traditional agreement. We can only offer you a tracking fob," he says, sliding one over to us while pursing his lips slightly. The metal of the fob scratches against the table, making me cringe slightly while my head twitches to the side a bit.
"What's the chain code?"
"We can only provide the last four digits," the client continues, settling in his seat a little more while drawing his hand away from the tracking fob.
"Their age? That's all you can give us?" I question, furrowing my brows while cocking my head to the side. The client looks over to me and smugly narrows his eyes.
"I'm sorry, but have we met before? You seem awfully familiar," he says, leaning forward in his seat. I slowly shake my head, my knee starting to bounce again at the same rate my heart was pounding.
"Can't say that we have," I lie, barely choking my words out as I spoke. I can see a few stormtroopers shift and the shine of their pristine white armor catches my eye too easily. He hums and nods his head at me, slowly leaning back.
"Back to the job then. The asset is fifty years old. We can also give you the last reported positional data. Between that and the fob, I think you both should be able to make short work of this," he continues, dropping the conversation we had been previously having as if it never even happened.
Mando nudges my arm before standing up from his seat. I slide out of the booth and follow him closely to the point where my arm was practically brushing against his. I want to grab his arm and hide behind his broad shoulder, wanting to stay hidden from the intense stare of the blank white helmets. But I knew that if I tried to grab onto Mando's arm, he would question me until I snapped.
I mean, the whole arm around my shoulders to his hand squeezing my thigh- Now that had me questioning everything. It's just so... unlike him to do something like that. Not that I'm complaining about it, I'm just curious as to what was going through his head when he decided to do that.
Mando nudges me out of my clouded thoughts as we walked towards the door, but just as we reached the narrow doorway, one of the stormtroopers mutters something under their breath.
"He's right, you know. You do look familiar," the stormtrooper mutters, barely even taking a glance at me. I stop next to him, but I keep my eyes glued to the empty hallway that was set in front of me. I could practically hear my heart beating in my chest while my blood pumped through my veins.
"I thought stormtroopers were supposed to be seen and not heard."
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Word count: 2942