WAYFINDER ▹ the mandalorian

𝐕𝐈𝐈.

𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐍
𝟗 𝐀𝐁𝐘

WHEN SHE WOKE IN THE EARLY DAWNING LIGHT, their positions had changed.

Din's arm was wrapped all the way around her waist, having pulled her up on top of him in the night. Tahl's chest was pressed to his and her cheek was upon his bare collarbone, just under his chin. And their hands... they were intertwined where they rested on his firm stomach.

Tahl's heart leapt.

His even breath fluttered her lashes and she squeezed her eyes tighter shut, not wanting to betray him, not when they were so close. Tahl forced away the images of what he would look like, should she open his eyes, should she break his slow trust. She didn't dare move, terrified to wake him both in fear of him leaving and in fear of him regretting this closeness. His heartbeat was steady and true beneath her ear, and his skin was smooth to her cheek.

Tahl hadn't felt this comfortable, this safe, since... well, since.

In the privacy of her mind, in the silence of words she would never say, Tahl let herself pretend, even if for only a moment, that this was the way things worked out. In their youth, Din and Tahl had been inseparable, attached at the hip since their very beginning. Even now she saw it all so clearly, partners just as much as they were competitors. Both so headstrong and so dedicated — an unspoken thing binding them together, no matter the competition.

Among the Mando'ade, it had been clearly understood that Din and Tahl were one another's. For the longest time, everyone had just... assumed that this would be the way things ended. It was the simple truth, the natural assumption. It was as irrefutable as the sky was blue and the stars hung in the heavens.

He was hers.

She was his.

No other option could have ever existed.