"Alright, so Cara's not really the type to stay in the middle of town because she straight up has trust issues- for good reason, of course. So, we should probably check the outskirts of the village because there's a higher chance of her being out there than somewhere around here," I say in one long breath, taking in a heavy breath afterward. I let out a small huff before opening my mouth to speak again, but a few loud cheers cut me off.
"Pay up, mudscuffers!"
I perk a brow and look over to the tavern we had once stopped in the first time we had ever come to Sorgan. Another line of cheers ring out and I already know who everyone's cheering for. Since when did she start staying in town? It's not like her to stay in a place that's so crowded.
Mando hums and lightly nudges my arm, nodding his head in a know-it-all way. He bends down, resting the bottom of his helmet on my right shoulder while his face hovered close to mine. "You were saying?" he teases, cocking his head to the side a bit to get a better look at me. I roll my eyes and set my hand on the front of his helmet, pushing his face away from mine.
We walk into the tavern and instantly spot Cara collecting stacks of credits from different people while an almost unconscious man was lying flat out on his chest right at her feet. A dazzling smile was shining on her face as credits were placed in her hands. So, this is why she was staying in town. I guess I couldn't exactly blame her.
"What kind of country ass duel shit it this?" I tease, taking a few steps towards her. She looks over at Mando and me and an even larger smile tugs at her lips. I smile back and nod my head once, holding my arms up as if I were presenting myself to her. "Did you miss me?"
"Looking for some work?" Mando asks, getting straight to business while completely overstepping my question. I frown and slowly look over to him, dropping my arms back down to my sides. We would've had a better chance of getting her on our side if we had waited a little longer and sweet-talked her a little more, but unfortunately, that's not Mando's style.
I look back over to Cara to see the smile she was wearing falter a bit. She waves us over as she sits down at a table across the tavern. I sigh and stroll over to where she was, plopping down into the seat next to her. We look into each other's eyes before she smiles and pulls me into a quick hug before letting both of us sit back comfortably. She holds two fingers up and a drink is immediately set down in front of both of us.
"Shit, maybe I should've just stayed on Sorgan with you. I could get used to this," I mutter under my breath, nodding my head to the side as I wrapped my fingers around the cup of spotchka. She laughs a bit and nods her head.
"Yeah, well, I guess that's what happens when you get a little too familiar with the locals," she says, flashing her brows. This version of her was new to me. She never used to settle down and it was nice to see that she actually learned to relax for once in her damn life. "What happened to you? You look tense. Like you went through some shit or something."
"I kind of did- Anyway, are you looking for any work right now? If you are, we might have a job lined up for you if you're interested," I continue, tapping the tips of my fingers against the wood table in front of us.
"That depends on the work. Also, what kind of shit did you go through while I was relaxing here in paradise?" she asks, picking her cup up by the base. I grimace, wishing that she would have just left the second part. Mando notices how I uncomfortably tense up and he subtly squeezes my thigh from under the table in an attempt to soothe me.
"We need to head back to Nevarro, where we were previously stationed at. We're going to surrender the kid and then take out the guy who originally commissioned the bounty. It's an easy job. We'll be in and out within a few hours," I explain, shrugging my shoulders while taking another short sip of spotchka. "It could be a trap too, but you know how we work," I mutter into my cup.
Mando snaps his head over to me as if he were sending a glare my way and quite honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he were.
"What she means by that is, it seems like a straight forward operation. Our employer is providing the plan and the firepower. Mae and I are just the snares for the trap," Mando cuts in, swiping his hand across the table to signify the two different groups in the plan. As he explains the plan, I roll my eyes, knowing that Cara wasn't a person who would go off small details like that.
If I wanted her to work this job with me, I would have to throw her a bone. Something that was going to pique her interest, just like that. I just have to find something that's going to fit her wants as well.
"So, you're trying to go back to that place... with the kid?" she questions, looking at us as if we were absolutely crazy. I laugh a bit and nod my head at her, flashing my eyes to show how shitty the real situation was. It was a horrible plan, but we could pull it off if we had the right people with us.
"And that's why we came to you," I say, holding my hands out to her. She hums out a small laugh and shakes her head, playfully pressing my hands down to the wood table resting in front of us. She places her hands over mine, the pads of her finger tapping against my knuckles as she thinks in silence. She looks back up at us and shakes her head.
"I don't know. I've been advised to lay low for now. If anybody runs my chain code, I'll rot in a cell for the rest of my life. And you know that for a fact, Mae," she says, grimacing a bit at the thought of getting caught due to our risky plan.
"I thought you were a veteran," Mando says, cocking his head to the side in obvious confusion.
"Yeah, well, I've been a lot of things since then and most of them carry a lift sentence. If I so much as book passage on a ship that's registered under the New Republic, then I'm done for-"
"Cara, if I so much as get on a ship registered under the New Republic and get caught, then I would be done for too," I say, perking both of my brows up while pursing my lips. She sighs and then leans back in her seat. She knew I was right, but she wasn't going to say anything about it. "Did you already forget my baby's resilient abilities?"
"Don't call the ship your baby," Mando mutters, shaking his head with an annoyed sigh.
"My baby could bring you there and back with a handsome reward and your freedom intact. Then you can live the rest of your days here, free of worry and without my constant dazzling presence in your face," I continue, emphasizing the word 'baby' just to annoy Mando in the process of trying to convince Cara to join us.
"But I'm already free of worry. And I'm not in the mood to play soldier for anyone anymore. Especially if we're just going to be fighting some local warlord that you can deal with yourself," she scoffs, rolling her eyes at me while pulling her hands away from mine.
"You see, I feel like you're forgetting about the whole me constantly being in your face thing. Plus, we're not fighting some stupid local warlord. He's Imperial. And when I say Imperial, I mean Imperial," I say, flashing both of my brows at her. I set my cup down of spotchka down as her jaw drops a bit.
And there it is.
Consider the bone thrown.
"Him?" she asks, furrowing her brows while narrowing her eyes. I hum and nod my head.
"Him," I confirm.
"Him?" Mando questions, but we ignore his confused tone and stare into each other's eyes.
"I'm in."
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"So," Cara starts, tapping her foot on the metal flooring of my cockpit. It was an old habit of hers that used to annoy the shit out of me. I glance over at her and she crosses her arms as her foot tapping comes to a short halt. I hide the small smirk that was creeping on my lips as she narrowed her eyes at me.
She knew what I was thinking with a mere glance.
"So?" I question, waiting for her to go on. She sighs and cocks her head to the side, moving a strand of hair out of her line of sight.
"Does your contact need to vet me or anything?" she finally asks.
I snort out a laugh and shake my head, turning the autopilot system on. I get up from my seat and flick my brown eyes over to Mando, expecting him to answer her for me. I slide down the ladder, keeping my hands on the outer sides of the poles to avoid the actual steps. Once my feet hit bottom, I turn and lean my back against the wall. I hear Mando sigh deeply as he and Cara climb down the ladder at an even slower pace.
"He doesn't know that you're coming," Mando mutters as if he were trying to keep the information secret. Cara's gaze snaps over to him as they both meet the bottom floor.
"That can be a problem, don't you think?"
"Well, if it does end up being a problem, this it's going to be his problem. He should've stayed down when we told him to," I sigh out, nodding my head once. Mando scoffs and looks over his shoulder to stare right at me. I perk a curious brow, tilting my head to the side as I waited for whatever it was he was about to say to me.
"You can't tell me that you weren't happy when you saw his face pop up on that hologram," he says as he starts to turn around to face me properly. I stare at him for a little longer before looking away from him, not wanting to admit that he was right, yet again. Cara clears her throat, trying to wave away the tension in the air.
"Is that kid going to be alright up there? You know, all alone?" Cara cuts in as she nods towards the cockpit above us. I purse my lips into a slight frown, trying to find the best answer to her question.
"He should be okay," I answer, shrugging my shoulders. He's never given us too many problems when we left him alone, so I think he should be okay for a bit. I look back over to Mando, watching him slowly open up the doors to his weapons vault. Cara's jaw practically drops down to the floor at the sight of the collection of weapons.
"Pick one," Mando instructs, taking a step back to make room for her to step in. She starts messing around with a few weapons while glancing between Mando and me.
"Do you guys trust the contact?" she asks, throwing a weaponized sphere in the air a few times. I flinch, afraid that the weapon would detonate from how careless she was throwing it around.
"Not particularly," Mando mutters, looking away.
"Yeah, he shot him in the chest last time we saw him, but he miraculously survived," I add, hinting at a taunting laugh at the end of my sentence. Mando snaps his attention over to me and I hold my hands up in faux surrender.
"He was threatening to shoot you, Mae. What did you want me to do? Stand there and watch?" he asks, leaning forward while taking another step towards me. I take a step forward as well and shrug my shoulders at him.
"There are other places to effectively shoot someone, Mando," I say, flashing my brows at him. I watch his hands ball up into fists as he takes another step towards me.
"Are you kidding me?" he asks, cocking his head to the side, "Are we really going to get into this, in front of Cara, about a man that tried to shoot you?"
"Well, before you two get into your whole lover's quarrel, I just want to know why we're still going to Nevarro if you guys already know that there's bad blood between the three of you," she says, interrupting us before we could go any deeper into the argument.
"We don't really have a choice at this point, not after what happened back on Sorgan and Canto Bight. We already know that they'll just keep sending hunters after the kid and he'll never be safe until the Imp is dead," Mando says, tiredly shaking his head.
"What happened on Canto Bight?" Cara asks, furrowing her brows while flicking her eyes between the both of us.
"Nothing happened on Canto Bight," I quip, sending a certain intense look over to Mando in hopes that he would understand to keep his mouth shut about this one. He straightens his back out and then nods his head, keeping quiet about the topic at hand. I subtly nod back and take a deep breath.
No one close to us will be safe if those Imps live. Adrienne has already been a prime example of that. I back down from the conversation once the image of Adrienne's smile pops into my head. She still hasn't sent a message saying that she was okay and I was starting to lose hope.
"And you guys are okay with bringing the kid back here?" she asks, glancing back at us as she messed with a few more guns from the vault.
"Not really. If it were up to me, I'd be going on this whole mission on my own," I say, letting out a small sigh. Mando turns to face me again, but before he could say anything, the ship jolts and starts thrashing around. I yelp and stumble backward, slamming my back into the wall I had been previously leaning on.
As the ship continues to shake, Mando stumbles forward and pins me to the wall, making me blush and tense up. He looks down at me and pushes off the wall, almost knocking right into Cara. I shake my head and grab onto the ladder, quickly climbing up to the cockpit.
I open the cockpit doors to see the kid messing around with a few of the controls like they were a bunch of toys. I race forward and gently pick him up, passing him over to Mando. I slip into my seat and easily adjust the controls, steading the ship before it strayed off course. I let out a small sigh and slump in my seat.
"We're gonna need someone to watch that thing," Cara breathes out, pressing herself against the wall while eyeing the kid.
"Yeah, no shit," I mutter, settling myself back in my seat, "That's why we're heading to Arvala-7 right now. We're gonna ask an old friend of ours to watch the kid while we deal with this shit show."
"That's why we're going to Arvala-7?" Mando questions.
"Did you just now put that together, Einstein?" I ask, sarcastically perking my brows while flashing my eyes a bit. He knocks the back of my head as he sits in his usual seat next to me. I smile and nod my head.
"Shush," he mutters, crossing his arms.
"Anyways, we're here, nerds. And I would take a seat if I were you. It's not necessarily the best terrain I've ever landed on," I say, switching the landing gears on. I immediately slow down and land, settling down easily on the rocky yet flat terrain. I slid out of my seat and rushed both of them out of the small cockpit. "Let's go, people! We don't have a lot of time on our hands and we definitely don't have time to be strolling around this dust ball."
"Alright- Alright! We're going," Cara says, getting to the bottom of the ladder and opening the hangar up. We all step out and I instantly spot Kuiil, who was tending to the blurrgs. He looks over at us and I let a small smile shine out on my face.
"Long time no see."
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Word count: 2844
Note: Hey guys! Before I say anything, I wanted to thank you guys for 27k reads! Honestly, I'm just amazed by how many people are reading and enjoying this story. Thank you so much for all the support and love, you guys are amazing! Anyway, how are you guys doing? I hope you're all having a wonderful day!