Armored Passion | The Mandalorian

|33|

I am one with the force and the force is with me. 

It's a true statement, but at the moment, it doesn't feel so true. 

"What do you think they're talking about?" Din asks, keeping his blank visor trained on Ahsoka and the kid as he capriciously paces back and forth in front of me. Leaves and twigs crunch loudly under the thick soles of his boots with each step he takes, breaking the calming silence that I've been trying to seek out for the past ten or so minutes. "They're not even talking. They're just staring at each other and nodding. What are they doing?"

"I don't know, Din," I sigh out before closing my eyes and leaning my head back. I roll my shoulders back along with the slow movement, forcing myself to take a deep breath as I try to find a way to ground myself within the force. Fuck, I actually need to ground myself in general before I try to do anything else. 

I feel so fucking lost right now. 

My senses are buzzing off the hook and I don't know how to make it all just stop. It's been a long time since I've felt this kind of power radiating through the force around me and if I were being completely honest, it was a little overwhelming. The feeling almost felt welcoming, but it also felt off-putting all at the same time. 

"Can't you use the force to listen in on what they're saying?" he asks, letting his gaze flick over to me for a few moments before shooting back over to the other force-users sitting not too far from us. 

"I'm pretty sure that's called eavesdropping—"

"Mae," he whines as he continues to furiously pace across the forest floor. I hold in another sigh, knowing that the notion wouldn't help either of us. 

"Would you please stop pacing? You're gonna make them nervous," I request, keeping my voice steady in an attempt to not sound too whiny or frustrated. I cross my legs on top of the flat stone I've been sitting on ever since Ahsoka had taken the kid to do whatever it is they're doing right now. I take in another deep breath, letting it out in a quiet breath to avoid it sounding like a sigh. 

My head feels like it's going to explode and I still don't know how to make that kriffing feeling go away. 

"What do you mean I'm gonna make them nervous? How would me pacing make them—"

"Alright, fine! You're starting to make me feel nervous," I admit, snapping my head down while opening my eyes to look at him. 

It was true, his constant pacing and erratic questioning were starting to make me feel just as nervous as he was obviously feeling. And I already know that one of us was going to have to stay calm or else we'd both lose it and everything around here would just go to shit. 

Though it was rare for both of us to completely lose it at the same time, it's definitely happened before. Unfortunately, most of those occasions had happened while we were working on capturing high-price bounties and the ending was never too pretty for us. Usually, one of us would get hurt pretty badly and the other would somehow manage to wrestle the bounty into the carbon freezer, or we would both get hurt and just lose the bounty altogether. 

Greef always hated it when that happened with us. 

"I'm sorry," I apologize in a quiet murmur as I silently decided that I was going to be the one to keep my cool while he freaked out for a bit. I run my fingers through my raven hair, my fingertips snagging on a few knots that had formed from the extensive action we had faced earlier today. 

"You've been saying that too much," Din says softly as he slowly takes a seat next to me. He grabs my hand and gives it a comforting squeeze. 

"I know, I'm sorry—" I start, but I cut myself short the moment I realize I was starting to apologize, yet again. I bite my bottom lip for a few seconds before releasing it to let out a sigh as I look down at our entwined hands.