One Endless Night - A Mandalorian Fanfic

Chapter 12

So...I had the best of intentions to edit way ahead and just save the updates and release one every week. Those who have read many of my stories know I have never in the history of my writing been able to do that. I just get too excited. So, I spent all day yesterday editing and because I have zero self control here is the update!! I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Reading!

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The following weeks were fairly peaceful in the village. They spent the first couple days cleaning up from the attack. By the end of the second week there was no evidence there had been a fight at all.

They had all taken turns keeping watch the first few nights. Not trusting that some of the raider's friends wouldn't come looking for retribution, but no one had come. The village had returned to its quiet and peaceful rhythms. The villagers had come to accept the strange quartet of visitors into their community.

Yara had worked to make the hut as comfortable as possible. She had hung up sheets to create some semblance of privacy so Mando could sleep and eat comfortably. Despite that she had ended up falling asleep several of the nights sitting on the bed next to Mando, as they had done the first night she had woken from nightmares.

At first she had just thought it was Mando beginning to enjoy the novelty of company. The two would talk quietly late into the night until she was too tired to keep her eyes open. It took her two more nights before she realized he was making sure she was able to fall asleep without nightmares plaguing her. She couldn't decide which made her feel better. 

It was sweet, and totally unexpected from someone like him. He never asked about the nightmares again, but sleeping in the same open air room, he had to know they troubled her and woke her multiple times a night. With the bad ones he would get up and sit with her, silently hold her hand and wait to see if she wanted to tell him about it.

That night was no exception. Yara jerked awake with a start, convinced she was somehow still in that lab on Nevarro. Her heart was thundering in her ears and her breath was coming in short, rapid pants. The phantom pains of the tests still lingered.

She shivered in her sweat drenched blankets and climbed to her feet moving as silently as possible. She moved confidently through the dark, sidestepping things that she would have bumped into and knocked over without a thought. Her elevated stress made her gift that much more potent and accessible, but she didn't realize it. She hardly thought about it. In that moment, she wished she never had it and she had just been left in peace.

She hesitated at the edge of Mando's sheet. She wanted to feel his quiet presence but she didn't know if she had already woken him. She felt guilty for wishing she had and turned to head for the door. She would never open the sheet to his side of the room without his express permission.

She pushed open the door and stepped out onto the porch. She stood in the chill night air and just breathed. She closed her eyes and focused on her breath, and the thundering rhythm of her heart. The stress and focus made her instincts that much sharper. She felt his swirling, electric energy rather than heard him. It brushed against her as surely as if he had touched her. She shivered. It was cold yes, but she also liked the feel of his energy, it made her feel incredibly safe and reminded her that she would never have to go back to that lab as long as he was there.

"I'm sorry I woke you," she told him without turning around.

He didn't respond. Instead he stepped up next to her to stare up at the stars. When she let the back of her hand brush against his, he obliged her and took her hand in his. The smooth leather of his gloved thumb rubbed comforting circles on the sensitive skin of her wrist. It was the only comfort he knew how to offer her. He wasn't good with words.