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Hebe felt her cheeks flush, feeling like she had just been caught doing something deathly embarrassing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Din leaning against a post, arms folded. She couldn't help but immediately think he was judging her. "I didn't mean to blow up on everyone like that..." Mando unfolded his arms and walked over to sit next to her in silence.
"I sound nothing like a Devaronian," he said dryly, cutting through the silence. Hebe's head snapped towards him and she felt a pressure build-up in her throat.
"That's what you came over here to talk about? Your awful imitations of a mating call?" She coughed slightly as her chest rattled with quiet laughs.
"Hey, I speak good Tusken. And I don't think there is anything else to talk about: everything you said back there got everyone back in line and able to somewhat cooperate with each other," he replied resolutely. Hebe felt her shoulders relax even though she hadn't realised that there was a build-up of stress and tension piled onto them. Perhaps she was worried that she had upset her partner, or maybe it was the anxiousness she had felt as she was unpurposefully reminded of Toro earlier on that day. Even of thinking of that disgusting cretin made her want to dig her fists into the nearest solid object.
"What's wrong, ner kar'taylir darasuum?" Din asked, reaching over and taking one of his woman's fidgeting hands in his gloved ones. He regarded Hebe's low expression with a hard frown on his concealed face.
"You know, you still haven't told me what that means, Din," she uttered to him. He let out a conceding sigh and slowly pulled Hebe over and under his arm by her hand. Din draped an arm around her shoulders, his gloved thumb caressing her smooth skin in comfort. "Ner kar'taylir darasuum... My love," he hums. His cheeks inflamed as Hebe's grey eyes snapped up to his visor, she started so directly into his eyes past the visor that he wondered for a moment if she could see them.
"What did I do to reward such words of affection?" She whispered, eyebrows knitted together sadly. Din felt his heartstrings tug.
"You deserve them more than you know, cyar'ika," he muttered as she grabbed one of his large hands with both of hers and brought it to her chest, where he could feel her heart erratically beating. They spent the rest of their night discussing the plans for tomorrow, showing light but meaningful gestures of affection. They kept each other company under the blanket of stars, lying on a large blanket on the soft sands with the child between them.
The suns of Tatooine had barely risen again when Hebe, Din, Cobb, the Tuskens and the child set off on the backs of banthas through the desert. Hebe shifted uncomfortably on the back many times, she wasn't the fondest of animals. She held tight onto Din's waist, which was quite slim even with his bulked armour and various layers. She couldn't understand how he wasn't profusely sweating in the blistering heat. She wondered the same of the Tuskens.
A thin sheen of sweat lingered on her forehead and neck. Hebe had long since taken off her hooded cloak and stuffed it into Mando's shoulder bag, which was hanging off of the saddle of their bantha along with the child. They walked in a line up to a large flat plane of sand, where they got off the banthas and were led to a large heap of rocks. They sat on the edge where there was a steep hill, beyond that a gaping chasm in the side of an impossibly towering rocky mountain. They all crouched and watched as one of the Tuskens led one of their lumbering banthas to the entrance of the cave.
