PURPOSE | The Mandalorian

XXI

"That guy is gonna be the biggest pain in my ass," I muttered to Din once Calican left to go find the speederbikes. He just hummed in agreement as the boy tossed one last glance back at us before he turned the corner, out of sight for good.

We began walking in silence for a bit while we crossed town.

"Did you really have to take the helmet off?" Din asked pointedly as we continued walking back to the hangar. Behind my helmet, I furrowed my brows. He almost sounded offended.

I cocked my head to the side. "Does that bother you?" I asked slowly.

He didn't seem to like the fact that I answered his question with my own. I opened my mouth to ask him again, since didn't respond immediately, but then he said, "No." He paused again. "I just..."

I gave him a moment to finish his sentence. But when he didn't continue, I prodded, "You just what?"

I could see the muscles in his neck ripple when he clenched his jaw. He muttered sharply, "I don't like the way he looks at you." Then after a quick second, he added, "Or talks to you."

I balked. "Oh."

The word slipped from my mouth before I could think better of it. He was worried about some first time bounty hunter making cheesy advances on me? I didn't know whether to be insulted for flattered.

Before I got the chance to think about it we turned into hanger three-five. I glanced around the large hanger and I noticed the droids were on standby in the corner, but the lady that was supposed to be doing the repairs was nowhere to be seen.

She probably needed to go out to get parts.

Din marched straight into the belly of the Crest while I hung back to inspect the repairs the lady had already started. She'd started cleaning off the carbon buildup, but she only managed to stop the fuel leak. That still needed to be fixed.

"Hey!" Din shouted furiously. "Where is he!?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Din snapped. Then suddenly, loud cries began echoing throughout the hangar, and the lady popped up in the window of the hangar control room. "I'm up!" She shouted.

As she walked out from behind the windows, she complained, cradling the little green child in her arms, "Oh, you woke him up! Do you know how long it took me to get him to sleep?"

Oh no.

Din marched right up to her. "Give him to me," He demanded.

She wasn't phased in the slightest. "Not so fast, Mando," She piped, wrapping her arms protectively around the child, "You can't just leave him alone like that!"

As much as I wanted to agree with her, she was majorly misjudging our situation. This place was crawling with traitorous lowlifes who would hand us over to the Empire for half of the bounty on the kid. It was better to just leave him here than risk getting noticed.

"You have an awful lot to learn about raising a young one," The woman chided just before she handed the kid over to Din.

"So how much of the repairs have you got done?" I called to her, hoping to break the tension between her and Din.

The lady snapped her eyes to me, giving me a certain look before walking towards the ship. "Well..." She began, listing off the repairs she got done. I didn't understand over half of what she was saying, but Din nodded along, so it sounded like things were going well.

As I noticed the half hour mark getting closer, I motioned to Din that I was going to wait outside for Toro. He didn't look happy about it, but he nodded back, continuing to listen to the lady as she listed off the things that still needed to be fixed.