Calamity || The Mandalorian

thirty-nine

After a quick introduction, Kasia, Din, and Yrel jogged through the corridors in the direction of the ship's control center. While Kasia and Yrel would have been able to locate the others in their group with little difficulty, it had been decided that controlling the other group's path rather than attempting to intercept them would be a wiser course of action; it would allow the trio to divide the group of traitors and determine the terms on which the inevitable confrontations occurred.

Finally, they reached the control center, the room now abandoned save the dead human guard who lay face down on the floor. Without a word, Din strode forward, pushing buttons on the control panel methodically as Kasia lingered at his shoulder and Yrel stood a step away.

Suddenly, one of the screens on the panel displayed the group as they halted, Mayfeld and Xi'an arguing while Burg and a lavender skinned Twi'lek with an abnormally large forehead that Kasia took to be Qin—Din had silently filled her in about him and their shared history as they made their way to the control center—stood a step away.

Kasia tilted her head as she peered at the unknown Twi'lek, nodding a moment later. "Well, he certainly looks like an asshole."

Mando didn't pause where he continued to rapidly press buttons on the control panel, responding without so much as casting her a glance, "You say everyone looks like an asshole."

She gave him a sideways saccharine smile, "And am I ever wrong?"

Yrel chuckled quietly from behind the pair, watching the two of them with a knowing smile. He could not fathom how the two had managed to dance around their shared feelings for so long, particularly given Kasia's very ability to read emotions and thoughts. Though he supposed that perhaps that was part of their dynamic, the inability to acknowledge their own emotions nor the feelings of the other a valuable component of... whatever the two of them were.

This should do it, Din suddenly told Kasia and Yrel silently, pressing one final button before straightening.

Kasia shifted her gaze to the screen which displayed the group, watching with wide eyes as the lights in the hallway suddenly went dark, the screen black save a dark red, backup light which did little to illuminate the room. The blast doors around the group began to slide closed, herding the group through the only remaining door.

She couldn't fight the fiendish grin on her face as a blast door hissed closed between the group, separating Qin and Mayfeld from Xi'an and Burg.

Karma's a bitch, bitches, she thought to herself with a smirk. Yrel snorted quietly behind her, and Kasia tossed a grin over her shoulder. It was unnerving to know that he was aware of all the thoughts running through her head, yet... there was also a sense of calm to it. A sense of familiarity. And just as Yrel was aware of all of Kasia's thoughts, she too was aware of all those of his which he did not purposefully choose to guard from her.

Still, despite Yrel's words earlier, she could not bring herself to look into Din's mind, would not allow herself to cross the established barrier of trust and forsake the promise she had made to the Mandalorian in the past.

Kasia had been foolish recently with Toro and now Mayfeld, Ran, and all the rest. She would never make such amateur mistakes again, never allow herself to fall into a self-inflicted guilt trap for an ability that was entirely her own right to utilize.

But with Din... he was perhaps the one person whose brain she would never allow herself to blindly read without consent, the one person whom she cared enough about to respect his boundaries. She would not read his mind without his permission—not without knowing with certainty that he wanted her to.