Pet Names

Din

    They had spent another week on Sorgan, and Imogen was ecstatic to be treated like part of the close knit community. She had spent a lot of the day playing with the children and keeping them entertained, seeing as that was normally Omera's job, apparently.
    "You spend time with your fiancée," she had prompted, and Omera's gaze had flitted over the children nervously. "I'll watch them, you deserve some time with Cara," she pressed, and eventually Omera gave in. Imogen had noticed the Mandalorian watching her with the children many times, and every time she caught him he would turn his helmet away, pretending to be gazing at something else. It was endearing, and Cara never missed an opportunity to tease him about it.
    Though after they departed, Imogen realized that the Mandalorian had an ulterior motive for their week long vacation.
    "There's a quarry somewhere on Corellia," he told her as he landed in a long term bay.
    "Somewhere?" she asked nervously, and the Mandalorian had stilled for a moment before curtly nodding his head.
    "I don't know how long it'll take," he said, gearing up, and Imogen bit her lip.
    "Okay," she murmured, and the Mandalorian nodded as if that was his goodbye before pushing the button to lower the ramp. "Hey!" Imogen called, rushing to him and throwing her arms around his shoulders, knocking him back a couple of steps with an 'oof'. "Be safe," she implored him, melting against him as his arms came around her waist.
    "I'll be back," he said, pulling away slightly to rest the forehead of his helmet against the top of Imogen's head. "Don't worry,"
    She worried. For the first couple of days, Imogen had been able to distract herself with playing with Ruu'Eva and patching up random odd jobs on the Razor Crest. By the time the Mandalorian had been gone for 5 days, she had started wearing his cape constantly, trying to comfort herself with the scent of him wrapping around her. It had provided enough comfort to tide her over another week, but as it approached the 2 week mark with no word from the Mandalorian, Imogen really started to freak out. The cape no longer smelled like him, instead it was covered in Imogen's scent.
    She tried not to show Ruu'Eva how distressed she was, putting on her most convincing smile as she played with him, but it was as if he knew anyway, but was trying to be strong for his mom. He sought out more cuddles instead of playing, and Imogen was thankful for it, whether he knew he was comforting her or not.
    On the night of day 13, after Ruu'Eva had conked out and been put in his bed, Imogen cried herself to sleep.
    She was awoken abruptly, however, by the sound of boots on the floor of the Razor Crest. She shot up, recognizing the Mandalorian's gate, and he barely had put the bounty in carbonite before Imogen was hurtling into his arms. She didn't even care that she knocked him over, nuzzling into his neck as he lay on his back and she straddled him to comfort herself.
    "Imogen," he breathed, his arms encircling her and pulling her tight against him.
    "You're back," she choked out, tears streaming down her face. The Mandalorian shot up, cupping her cheek as he stared at her.
    "Are you okay?" he asked, frantically standing and taking her to her cot. Imogen was no help, wrapping her legs around his waist and continuing to nuzzle into him as he carried her.
    "You're cape lost your scent," she murmured, and the Mandalorian hummed, confused.
    "Lost my scent?" he asked, and Imogen sighed, knowing she had to explain this to him at some point but right now she barely had the emotional energy.
    "I'll explain," she promised, pulling back to begin undoing his armor. "But can you just hold me for a moment?" she pleaded, and the Mandalorian nodded, assisting her with setting his armor to the side and then pulling her to his warm chest. "You're okay?" she asked him, her voice small, and the Mandalorian nodded.
    "I'm okay," he confirmed, and Imogen breathed a sigh of relief, belatedly guilty that she had barreled into him without even thinking of whether or not he was injured. "I-" the Mandalorian heaved a deep breath. "My scent?" he pressed, impatient for the explanation of Imogen's odd reason for distress.
    "It's a thing with my species, and probably others," Imogen explained. "We um... it's complicated,"
    "I'm not going anywhere," the Mandalorian assured her as his now ungloved hands stroked her back and through her hair. A wide smile unconsciously came to Imogen's lips.
    "We don't have a name, really, and we were hunted by the Empire during its reign," the Mandalorian's arms tightened around her. "They wanted us for breeding stock, with our heightened sense of smell and sharp teeth," the Mandalorian's breathing quickened, but Imogen continued, voice sounding oddly detached, trying to distance herself from the horrors committed against her species. "But they couldn't get anyone pregnant. We mate for life, and can only reproduce with our chosen mate, which is why you don't really see a lot of us. The Empire didn't believe that, thinking it was a myth, but after a couple months and zero sign of any babies, they shipped everyone off to Kessel. They continued hunting us out of spite, and a couple of the females were chosen for... special services," the Mandalorian was basically crushing Imogen against his chest now, not that she minded. "They were valuable, seeing as nobody needed to worry about them getting pregnant. I think the Empire wanted us extinct... you know of Kessel, right?" she asked, and the Mandalorian nodded. Everyone knew of the terrors in the mines on Kessel. "I met someone, one of my kind, who had escaped from there once... they rip out our incisors," she gasped out a shaky breath. "Take away our natural defenses,"
    "How-how do you choose your mates?" the Mandalorian asked, and Imogen chuckles slightly.
    "It's funny, my brother explained it to me once but I didn't understand anything he said until kind of recently," she said. "He described it as an instinct, some kind of pull that you don't even recognize until you've fallen in love with them. We call them chosen mates, but there's not really any choosing involved, it just happens," she giggled softly.
    "You have a brother?" Imogen heaved out a forlorn sigh, tilting her head up to gaze into the black visor of the Mandalorian's helmet.
    "I did," she said.
    "Oh,"
    "He raised me, the Imperials came and took our mother away when I was an infant, but he hid with me in this tiny little cupboard, and then he raised me," Imogen had a fond, but bitter smile on her face as she remembered her brother. "Eventually he met his mate, and they had a son," she sniffled. "He was beautiful, and then the Imps came again, and this time it was me hiding with a baby in that cupboard," tears began to leak out of Imogen's eyes, and the Mandalorian raised a hand to cup her cheek, thumb swiping at the tears. "I watched them kill my brother and his mate, and then they found me, and decided since we were young they could make decent money selling us," the tears came more aggressively now, but Imogen continued. "I tried to fight them off, but-but they got him, and they," she let out a tiny sob. "They just threw him on the ground, just like that, they killed him, they killed a baby. I-I got so mad, that was the only time I'd used my teeth before that time on Coruscant, I ripped their throats out," she began to sob freely now.
    "I-" the Mandalorian cut himself off, probably realizing that there was no point in an apology, even if his instinct was to say "I'm sorry". So instead he just held her as her tears soaked through his shirt. Once she had calmed down, and her gasping sobs were nothing more than little hiccups, the Mandalorian spoke again. "But my scent?" his voice was quiet, and confused, and Imogen took a deep breath, looking up at him with a small smile.
    "The scent of our mate is-very comforting," she said, not letting the Mandalorian think enough to realize what she was saying. "And your cape smelled like you, but now it smells like me and it just wasn't enough," the tears were still coming, but much slower now, and she heard the Mandalorian's gasp as he realized what she was revealing to him.
    "Me?" she nodded.

Din let out a short laugh, glad that his tears were masked by his helmet. "Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum," he breathed, and Imogen froze, looking up at him.
    "W-what does that mean?"
    "I love you," Din brought their foreheads together, closing his eyes as he basked in the pure relief that came with admitting it. "Literally I know you forever," Imogen smiled tearily at him, and Din cupped her cheek once more.
    "I love you too," Imogen confessed, biting her lip, shy suddenly, and Din laughed slightly.
    "Din,"
    "What?" her gaze snapped up to his visor in confusion.
    "My name is Din Djarin," he told her, and Imogen smiled softly.
    "Din," she echoed. "It suits you, Din Djarin," he shuddered at the way his name rolled from her tongue, and Imogen sighed contently as she nuzzled back into his neck.
    "Imogen-I-" he cut himself off with a deep breath before trying to speak again "Do you trust me?" he asked, and Imogen nodded into his neck.
    "Always," Din nodded, standing and having Imogen stay on the cot.
    "I'll be right back," he assured her, running to his room and grabbing a spare strip of cloth he had lying around.
    He returned as quickly as he left with the cloth in hand.
    "Close your eyes," he commanded softly, and Imogen did so without hesitation. She didn't even jump when Din wrapped the cloth around her eyes and tied it behind her head. "Is this alright?" he asked, and Imogen nodded.
    "Yes," Din nodded, despite knowing she couldn't see, and took in a deep breath.

    Imogen waited with a blindfold tied around her eyes, wondering what exactly the Mandalorian-Din-had planned. She heard a thunk a little bit away from her, before feeling a warm puff of air brush her cheeks. It took her a moment to recognize it as someone's breathing, and before she could gasp in surprise, Din had pressed his lips to hers. Imogen melted into the kiss, flinging her arms around his shoulders and kissing him back passionately. She sighed into his mouth as her fingers tangled in short locks of hair, and she briefly wondered what color they were-black? Brown? It didn't matter, all that seemed to matter was kissing her Mandalorian like her life depended on it.
    "I love you," he muttered against her lips, hands finding her hips and lifting her so he could spin them around, sitting on her cot with her in his lap. "Cyar'ika," he breathed out as he broke away, lips trailing from her lips to her jaw, leaving kisses and nibbles down and down to her clavicle. Imogen sighed in pleasure as his lips brushed a particularly sensitive spot above her collarbone, and Din zeroed in on it, nipping and tonguing at it. She was vibrating with happiness, finally hearing these words and his true voice, without a modulator. It was better than she'd thought, deeper and just as raspy as it was with the helmet, and it sent shivers through her body.
    "I love you too," Imogen fell boneless against him, running her hands through his hair as he laid back, taking her with him. She tugged slightly at his hair, earning a groan from him, and he followed her hand up to reconnect their lips.
    They spent a couple minutes like that, lazily kissing each other until Din finally pulled away with a reluctant sigh.
    "We should sleep," he said, and Imogen nodded. She flinched, however, when he sat up and went to grab his helmet.
    "What are you doing?" she asked, and Din sighed.
    "Cyare, I need to put my helmet back on before I take the blindfold off," he said, voice tinged with a slight sadness.
    "Then don't take it off," she grumbled, pulling him back to her. "I know your creed, and I respect it, Din," they both shuddered as she said his name. "But it can't be comfortable to sleep with the helmet on,"
    "I've done it be-"
    "I know you have," she cut him off, slowly pushing her face forward to kiss his cheek. She ended up missing, instead kissing his forehead just above his eyebrow, but she followed his face, kissing across his forehead and down his nose before finally reaching his lips, leaving a quick peck there. "I'm just saying you don't have to, I can sleep with a blindfold on, it's much more comfortable than a helmet, I assume," she giggled, and Din sighed.
    "Okay," he whispered, settling back into the cot and pulling Imogen into his chest, burying his face in her hair. Imogen sighed happily, leaving a kiss on his neck before beginning to drift off to sleep.

Mando'a Translations
Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum - I love you
Cyar'ika - Darling; Beloved
Cyare - Beloved; Loved