The Mandalorian’s Everything - Chapter 6
Story Masterlist
Episode 2- "Chapter 2: The Child"
Word Count: 9800
Warnings: Whatever happens in the episode oof
"... and the Mandalorian swooped in and saved the day!" you beamed as you swung the kid above your head, making it giggle both at the ride and the ship noises you were making.
Said Mandalorian was walking a few paces ahead of the you, half listening to the stories you were telling the Child about the two of you over the years and half looking out for any threats, especially since you now had a very valuable target on your hands.
He was wary; speaking from plenty of experience, anything could happen at anytime.
The more he thought about the threats that could happen, the more he thought about protecting you, and now the kid.
There was no denying that you and the kid have already become best friends. Or, even more so, like mother and child. It was obvious in the first 30 seconds of meeting the baby you would be a great mother, and it was proved the longer he observed your interactions with each other. You'd be strong and stern, yet tender and kind and loving and gentle and really, really, really...
He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts and continued forward, the egg thingy floating behind him and you trailing a few paces back.
The bounty hunter was doing his best to walk the three of you back to the ship, but it was becoming increasingly difficult.
Mud was sticking to his shoes and was beginning to crawl its way up his legs. He had to turn around and catch you twice from some particularly slippery patches.
It didn't seem to phase you though, since he heard you pointing out the little lizards you saw and kept your smile on at all times. You had asked if it was okay for you to carry the Child, to which he answered of course, but he still brought the... carriage?... just in case.
"Now, let me tell you about an even better superhero than the Mandalorian. I know what you're thinking! Y/n, how could there be someone even better than the Mandalorian, he sounds like such a great guy. And I would say well, he is, but sometimes he can get grumpy (especially when he's hungry), and nobody likes a grumpy man, oh no. But this superhero is the most courageous, brave, beautiful, strong, smart, and funny person, and she goes by the name of-"
The Mandalorian furrowed his eyebrows and slowed to a stop as he heard the sound of something new, though he couldn't quite place it. "Y/N," he called hesitantly to you. It sounded like footsteps.
He heard you stop abruptly, both in walking and your story. "Are you serious?" you asked. "I just told like 6 stories about you, don't I get a turn-"
"Y/N," he called a bit louder this time and waved you over. He placed his hand on his gun and looked around while he waited for you to catch up. Right now you were surrounded by tall rocks besides the path in front and behind you. You were standing in the shade because the sun was blocked out by the tall cliffs, but the heat was still intense as he could see some sweat dripping off your forehead.
As you came and stood next to him the Mandalorian whispered, "Keep the kid close." He could see you nod in his peripherals, staying silent because he knew you could hear it too: the sound of movement of something much bigger than those lizards.
The bounty hunter instinctually put his left arm in front of you while the other gripped the gun. It was silent, save for the wind blowing in your faces and your heavy breathing in anticipation. To his right he noticed a shadow move quickly, making him look left to find the source.
All of a sudden a Trandoshan, an alien with orange-brown scaly skin and four short horns on the crown of it's head, jumped towards the Mandalorian, swinging it's vibro-axe and attacking the bounty hunter.
"Get back," he grunted in your direction as he quickly pushed the carriage away and turned to try and shoot his attacker, but he wasn't quick enough.
The Trandoshan knocked the blaster out of his hand and swung it's axe straight for the bounty hunter, so he swiftly shot his head back and blocked the repeated hits with his wrist guards.
On the fourth swing the Mandalorian caught the axe and began wrestling the alien for it. The Trandoshan tried to punch him in the head but that failed when the bounty hunter deflected it with one arm and twisted the axe with the other, effectively making the attacker lose his balance and flip onto the ground.
Just as the bounty hunter was about to stab the opponent, another of it's kind came from nowhere and thrust it's own axe out, blocking the Mandalorian from his actions and tangling the two axes together.
The second Trandoshan freed his axe and swung again, crippling the blade of the bounty hunter's axe causing him to throw it to the side, rendering it useless. Panting, the Mandalorian ducked under another swing of the axe before taking out his Amban Rifle and using it to combat his foe.
First he waved the rifle above his head an maneuvered it to be in front of him, turning on the electricity and shocking the scaled enemy till it was dead. He groaned as the Trandoshan he knocked down earlier used the broken axe to cut deeply into his left arm, but the bounty hunter quickly turned to face the surprise attacker and smacked it's head with the razor sharp edge of the rifle.
With both of his opponents on the ground he whipped his head around to find you in your own mess, a third Trandoshan standing behind you with his arm around your neck. He ran over as fast as he could, watching as you elbowed the alien in the stomach and slithered out of its grip, then kicked its legs so hard the scaly alien fell back and hit its head on the ground.
The Mandalorian aimed his rifle at the Trandoshan's head and as soon as he could see you crouching and covering your own, he shot the alien and watched as it disintegrated into ashes.
With heavy breathing coming from the both of you the bounty hunter held his hand out to you, gently helping you stand up. He looked to his left and was relieved to see you had put the kid in the floating egg, and it was just sitting there cooing at the two of you.
That was when he heard what sounded like beeping, causing the both of you to look to your right and see a tracking fob sitting in the mud. You quickly rushed over to it and picked up a rock, smashing the fob into tiny pieces.
"Does this mean they're always going to be onto us?" you panted, looking to the Mandalorian for some answers. He slowly nodded his head and looked at the kid, now realizing just how dangerous this situation was going to be. ---
It was beginning to get dark out, so the bounty hunter offered to rest for a while which you didn't hesitate to agree upon.
He was sitting next to the small oil lamp you had turned on, grunting in pain as you sat next to him and tended to the wound on his arm.
He did his best to focus on anything but his arm, opting on your features and humming as you continuously shocked the wound with the very small taser. He had to admit, the distraction was working quite well.
Your hair had fallen out of it's ponytail long ago, leaving it to cascade down your back and occasionally fall into your eyes. There was a small crease between your eyebrows as you concentrated on the task at hand, and your skin had strange reflections dancing across it from the glow of the lamp.
You had stopped for a moment to look down at something, and the Mandalorian was about to ask you what was wrong before he saw it too. The kid had somehow managed to climb out of the carriage and walk it's way over to you, trying to climb up onto your leg.
Giggling at it you gently picked it up and brought it back over to the egg, carefully putting it back inside. "I have to go help Lumpy for a few more minutes," you whispered in its direction, wrapping the blankets around its tiny body. "So I need you to wait in here. Okay?"
The baby only cooed back and grabbed onto the finger you were using to caress its face. The Mandalorian watched as you smiled brightly and gave it one of your leather wrist bands to inspect and hopefully grab its attention enough to keep it out of trouble.
He saw you nod in satisfaction that the kid was preoccupied with the intricate designs of the wrist band before you turned back to the bounty hunter's arm, picking up the taser and beginning again.
This went on for a few more minutes, you shocking the wound in an attempt to close it while humming, the baby turning the piece of fabric in his hands over and over again in complete and utter fascination, and the bounty hunter wondering how the hell you were managing to make him fall even more in love with you after all this time. It truly wasn't fair.
As he watched you with a silent admiration behind his mask, he couldn't help but get lost in his thoughts. The Mandalorian loved and hated the mask for many reasons when it came to you. He loved it because it allowed him to be able to memorize your features without you even noticing, but he hated it because he wasn't able to do anything about it.
How much longer was he supposed to go on with this stupid game of pretending like everything was okay? Because, at least in his mind, it most certainly was not. He just wanted to be able to hold you and love you and never ever let you go, but some stupid gut feeling told him that now was not the time. Not yet.
He's never hated his gut feeling more. It hasn't let him down yet, though, so that means he's sticking to it. The worst part about it is that this is the one time he can't even ask you for your opinion, your help and view of the situation, which has guided him in the right direction countless times.
It's all so messed up, but the bounty hunter's hoping that soon he'll be able to work up the courage to at least tell you something. Anything.
His thoughts got cut off by you talking to him with a very gentle tone as you started to wrap the wound on his arm.
"I think I closed your cut as far as it can go, but I'll still have to wrap it so it won't get infected. Even though it's extremely useless for me to say this you're gonna have to try and ease up a bit on that arm, just for a day or two to help it heal. However, it seems like with our luck right now that isn't going to happen," you sighed, beginning to clean up all of the supplies.
"Thank you for helping me," he grunted out, biting his lip to stop him from crying out in pain as he picked up his broken chest plate and began shocking that as well in hopes of bringing the pieces of metal back together.
He flicked some sort of switch and an orange light came on, effectively making the author question what the hell was going on.
The bounty hunter was interrupted by your gasp and quickly whipped his head up, watching you put your hand over your heart. He was about to ask what was wrong before he saw you pick up the kid from beside you place him in your lap.
"You almost gave me a heart attack, how did you get out of the carriage again?"
The Child only replied by giggling and waving your leather wrist band above its head, making you chuckle as well. "Yes, that is pretty interesting isn't it?"
You laughed again when you gave it the second bracelet, watching as the baby gasped and slowly reached out for the second one. It held one in each hand and looked back and forth between them, not sure what it was supposed to do with two wrist bands.
The Mandalorian continued tinkering with the machine while he faintly heard you talking to the kid. When he was finished he glanced up to see the you lying on the ground with your eyes closed and the kid snuggled up into your arms, both of your breathing patterns slow and even.
He sighed as he grabbed the blanket from inside the carriage and opened it, shook it out and then laid it on top of you before putting out the lamp and attempting to get comfortable on the rocks as well.
He didn't go to sleep, even though he wouldn't tell you that, and chose to stay on look out in case something were to attack again. ---
It was bright and early on the next day when the three of you walked over a ridge with the sun slowly rising behind you. The Mandalorian could tell you didn't get enough sleep because you kept rubbing your eyes and yawning, but he knew time was slim ever since the kid was around, meaning you had to keep moving.
He wasn't sure how much longer you walked when you reached the ship, but he did know it was about mid-day because the sun was high in the sky by now. He wasn't paying too much attention to the sun, though, because a situation much more pressing presented itself and now he was fuming.
He had walked days upon days in the desert only to come back and find out that some stupid Jawas thought they could rip his ship into pieces and steal whatever they wanted. Well, not on his watch, that's for damn sure.
Before he could wait for you to catch up the Mandalorian took full advantage of his position on the higher ground and took out his rifle, quickly aiming and shooting at one of the Jawas stealing his things. He then reloaded his rifle and aimed at another one, not thinking about the consequences it may hold later.
As he began reloading for the third shot you kneeled down in front of him and placed your hands on either side of his helmet.
"What the hell are you doing?" you screamed, looking at him with wild eyes.
"What do you mean what am I doing," he yelled back, just as exasperated. "They've just torn a part the entire ship!"
"We can get it back, but it's not going to be easy now that you've killed some of them-" your arguing was cut off by the Jawa's Sandcrawler starting up and beginning to drive away.
"Y/N we've got to get our stuff back!" He didn't wait for your response as he bolted for the Sandcrawler, running at full speed. When he got closer the bounty hunter knelt on one knee and aimed for a main power source to the vehicle, firing as quickly as he could. It slowed down the Sandcrawler but not enough to stop it, making the Mandalorian sigh as he got back up to chase it again.
Once he got right beside the massive machine he jumped to his left and grabbed onto the droid chute, using his arms to pull his body up to reach the ladder. He gripped the first rung of the ladder with one hand and swung his other over, then stopped for a minute to take a breath.
With legs dangling the bounty hunter did his best to pull himself up, using the momentum of the Sandcrawler. The second his leg reached the first rung of the ladder the Mandalorian began climbing it, not hear your screaming for him to stop and think for a second.
Grunting from the pain in his arm because of the gash (he rolled his eyes internally as he realized you were correct in the situation not letting him take it easy), he continued to pull himself up the ladder. Just as his hands reached the top rung, he felt the Sandcrawler turn to the right, making him look to the right as well.
That's when he noticed what the Jawas were doing; there was a large piece of rock sticking out from a wall, and they were going to try knocking him off with it. Luckily he was at the top of the ladder, meaning he could quickly lay down on his side on the small ledge and avoid the jutting out rock.
He did just this, with seconds to spare.
After a big breath of relief the Mandalorian looked up only to see the Jawas were throwing spare parts down the side of their Sandcrawler in an attempt to knock him off, but this failed when he grabbed onto the ladder again for support.
The bounty hunter climbed back onto the ledge and stood up, back leaning against the outside of the vehicle, looking all around while thinking of what to do next. The Jawas were above and throwing more things at him, and you were to his right running at a slower pace behind the baby carriage, but he knew that you knew as long as you could see the massive tin can you'd be fine.
Glancing to his left the Mandalorian noticed that there were pieces of metal sticking out of the exterior wall of the Sandcrawler and immediately began climbing them, determined to get his ship pieces back.
He climbed about half the height of the wall when a Jawa opened a window just above him, making him reach for the ledge as extra support than the tiny pieces of metal sticking out.
This did not work in his favour, however, because the Jawa then shut the lid of the window on his fingers so hard the bounty hunter had to pull back immediately, his feet slipping too. This lead to him hanging on for dear life by just his right hand, and he could hear you scream his name as he almost fell off the Sandcrawler.
Grunting from the exertion the Mandalorian rolled his eyes at his own stupidity before launching his whipcord thrower at the large canon resting on the roof of the vehicle. Once the line wrapped around the gun and was stable enough to support his weight the bounty hunter then placed both feet on the side of the Sandcrawler and began slowly walking up.
The Jawa's continued to throw miscellaneous items at him but the bounty hunter's grip on the cord was stronger, and he slowly pulled himself up the huge machine. Debris kept falling in his face but it was really only starting to annoy him and made him want to push further even more.
For good measure he grabbed one of the Jawas poking its head out of a window and tossed it behind him, not really paying attention to its scream as it fell to its death.
Even though he couldn't make out the exact words you were saying the Mandalorian could hear in your tone that you were scolding him greatly for what he just did, and he instantly felt a bit bad. A bit.
The Jawas then began hitting the cord with the tips of their weapons, causing the rope to slack and give him away a bit, but it held and the Mandalorian climbed the whole way up, reaching the top and throwing another Jawa off the Sandcrawler.
He then placed both arms on the lip of the floor and heaved his way up, then quickly got to his feet and drew his gun.
As soon as he stood up to full height, though, the Mandalorian knew that this was a big mistake. He was extremely outnumbered with at least 20 Jawas all aiming their own ion blaster at him. Each and every single one was fired, making his body go stiff for a second, then convulse, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. The last thing he felt being the sensation of falling to the sound of your screams of anguish.
---
You watched with horror as the Mandalorian got shot at multiple times by an ion blaster and fell back off of the Sandcrawler, hitting the ground so hard you cringed, then went limp.
"LUMPY!" you screamed, running at full speed to get to his body and ignoring the tears that started streaming down your face.
You knelt down beside him as soon as you could, shaking his shoulders and his head, sobbing.
"Lumpy, get up, please, it's okay," you sniffled, feeling around where you could for any injuries. "Come back to me!"
You glanced up to see the Sandcrawler slowly moving forward with the Jawas standing on top and laughing at you, making you feel quite angry at their rude behaviour.
"You get back here right now and help him," you yelled at them. "I know for a fact that it is not the Jawa way to-"
You were cut off by a shot from one of the short creatures by its ion blaster hitting you directly in the chest, making you convulse the same way the Mandalorian did and fall back next to him, shaking uncontrollably. You watched the world go black as your eyes rolled to the back of your head and your throat began to close from the electric shock, making it hard to breathe.
The last thing you remember is hearing the Jawa's tedious laughter, and the throbbing of your head from the lack of oxygen.
---
The Mandalorian shot his eyes open and groaned as he sat up, taking in his surroundings. To his right he noticed the tracks of the Sandcrawler belonging to the thieving Jawas continue to further than the eye could see, the machine long gone in the time he was passed out.
To his left he saw you lying beside him and immediately crawled over your body, quickly becoming desperate as he shook your body and called your name.
"Y/N, hey open your eyes for me, come on now," he pleaded. The bounty hunter could see your chest slowly rising and falling, encouraging him to continue his attempts at waking you up.
"Come on, sweetheart, you know I can't do this without you. Y/N, come on, you gotta wake up," he ignored the light shaking of desperation in his voice as he pressed on, determined to wake you up.
He breathed a sigh a of relief as you opened your eyes just as suddenly as he did and sat up, scanning everywhere with wild eyes as your breathing picked up instantly. Sensing your panic he brought your face to his, making you look at him directly.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm right here," he stated firmly, trying to make you understand. "You're safe, it's okay, I've got you." At hearing these words your body seemed to deflate into his, and he let you rest your head on his shoulder as you cried, hugging you and rocking you slowly back and forth.
"I thought you were dead," you whispered, making him glance down at you quickly.
"I'm not, I'm right here," he vowed, tightening his grip just a bit.
"You know," you sniffled, rubbing your cheeks to rid of the tears but keeping your head buried in his shoulder. "You can be really stupid sometimes."
This made the Mandalorian laugh through his nose and nod his head, agreeing with your statement. "Yeah, I know."
Together the two of you looked at the kid and its cute little frown, and then back at each other. The bounty hunter placed his hands on your hips and helped you up, saying, "Let's head back to the ship, then we can make our next move."
With your nod of confirmation the three of you headed back, dreading the information of just how bad the ship's condition was in.
---
The closer he got to the ship the more angry the bounty hunter seemed to get. The Jawas had literally left nothing behind, taking even the smallest things, including the panels of the outside walls of the ship.
He walked inside and went straight for the weapon's closet, slamming them shut in anger when he saw that it was completely empty. He then climbed up to the cockpit to see you sitting in the pilot's seat, flipping switches and pushing buttons to see just how many things weren't working.
The Mandalorian glanced back at the left engine to only to see black smoke puffing out of it, then looked to the right one to see it met the same fate. He heard you sigh and turned to face you, waiting to hear your news.
"We're completely offline," you stated, crossing your arms and looking around. "It's the Jawa nature to steal anything even remotely useful, and that's what they did." You heaved a big sigh before continuing. "What do you think we should do?"
Before he could reply the both of you heard a cooing noise and turned to face it. The Mandalorian saw the kid walking slowly up the ramp with it's tiny legs, reaching it's hand out towards you.
This made you put a on a bright smile and run to go pick it up, spinning it around to make the Child giggle. The bounty hunter couldn't help but smile softly at what was going on in front of him, observing as you then placed the Child on your hip. Despite the circumstance, he realized that he was indeed very lucky to not be doing it alone.
"Should we go ask the Ugnaught for help?" you suggested as you rocked the kid back and forth in your arms.
The Mandalorian sighed and slumped over, looking at the ground. "I don't think we have a choice," he replied in a very defeated tone.
"Well then," you perked up as you tickled the baby on its stomach, walking down the ramp and in a random direction. "We better get moving."
"Y/N," he called, laughing a bit through his nose as you continued your trek.
"Yeah?"
"He lives that way," the bounty hunter smirked, pointing in the complete opposite direction of where you were going. He watched with amusement as you slyly turned yourself around and began walking in that direction, stating,
"I knew that, I was just testing to make sure you knew that too."
The Mandalorian rolled his eyes at that statement and began following you, not realizing how glad he was to have you in such a situation like this.
---
After at least another day of walking tirelessly through the desert, the three of you came upon the moisture farm of the alien that helped you a few days prior.
It was getting close to nighttime and the bounty hunter could tell that you were starting to get cold, but kept quiet because he knew his arguing would work to no avail.
Together you walked up to the shorter man who was up on his radio tower, fixing something at the very top.
"I thought you were dead," the Ugnaught deadpanned as he continued with his task, not bothering to even look down to see who approached him.
The both of you stayed silent as he stepped down the ladder and looked at the baby that you had set down on the ground. "This is what was causing all the fuss?" he asked, confusion lacing his tone.
"We think it's a child," the Mandalorian stated, pressing buttons on his wrist as he spoke.
You whipped your head around to face him and gave him a dumbfounded look. "You don't say," you expressed in a mocking tone, pointing to the baby that was preoccupied following a frog.
The Mandalorian stuck his tongue out at you even though you couldn't see and continued on. "Our ship has been destroyed," he explained. "We're trapped here."
"Stripped, not destroyed," the Ugnaught corrected as he grabbed another tool. "The Jawas steal, they don't destroy."
"Stolen or destroyed, it makes no difference to me," the bounty hunter replied as he accepted the small device offered to fix his wrist control panel. You walked over and ripped the tool from his hands, giving him a glare at his tone and set to work on fixing the panel.
He ignored it and continued on. "They're protected by their crawling fortress, meaning there's no way to recover the parts."
"You can trade," the Ugnaught countered, looking directly at the bounty hunter.
"With Jawas?" he exclaimed in a very unconvinced tone. "Are you out of your mind?"
The bounty hunter yelped as he felt a small shock in his forearm, and looked down to see your smirking face. "It's not a bad idea, Lumpy. I used to do it all the time with my Grandma."
The shorter alien nodded. "I will take you to them."
The Mandalorian sighed as he knew he had no choice but to comply.
"I have spoken."
Together the three of you turned around to look at the kid, and watched as it put a frog in its mouth.
"Hey," scolded to Mandalorian. "Spit that out." He then rolled his eyes as the baby instead ignored his words ate the frog whole, turning to see the look of laughter on your face.
You then looked up at him and shrugged, knowing he was giving you a look of question. "You gotta eat what you gotta eat, and that is clearly what he wants to eat."
"Why do you have to say it in such a weird way?"
"Am I wrong?"
"... No."
You shrugged again and then went over to the baby, picked him up and sat him on your shoulders as you walked back to the Ugnaught's small home.
The Mandalorian mumbled under his breath as he followed you, shaking his head and contemplating many of his life choices.
---
After a very long and rainy ride in the trolley attached to the blurrg, you arrived at the campsite of the Jawas.
The Mandalorian jumped off and held his hand out for you, keeping a wary eye out for the stupid tiny aliens that tore apart his whole ship.
He held his gun out in the other, the Jawa's attention on him not going unnoticed.
"They really don't like you," observed the Ugnaught.
The Mandalorian watched you roll your eyes as you responded, "Yeah, well he did disintegrate a few of them."
"You need to drop your rifle," the shorter man said.
The bounty hunter shook his head. "I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion."
"Then you are not getting your parts back," the Ugnaught deadpanned, and the Mandalorian glared your giggle.
He sighed, and relctantly gave in. "Fine."
"And the blaster." The Ugnaught then turned around in greetings of the Jawas. "Good day!" he shouted in Jawaese, raising his hands above his head. As the shorter man continued his conversation with the thieves, the bounty hunter turned to face you.
He watched as you placed the Child on your head and cooed at its giggles, then walked up to you and booped the baby's nose. The kid laughed much louder than expected from such a tiny body, making the Mandalorian smile and look down to see you doing the same.
"Stay here," he whispered. He pinched your elbow lightly to make you laugh then spun around and went to meet the Jawas and get his parts back. He went and sat down beside the shorter man, awaiting what was to be said.
"They will trade all the parts for the beskar," the Ugnaught translated.
"What? I'm not gonna trade anything. These are my parts," the Mandalorian shot back, ignoring the holes you were burning into his skull with your glare. "They stole them from me."
He then tried to speak back in their language, doing his best to remember some of the words you taught him last night. "They, they... belong... to me!" He said in a frustrated tone, trying to get his point across to the poopyhead Jawas.
The smaller aliens then began laughing at him, teasing him for butchering the pronunciation of their language.
"You speak terrible Jawa," their leader(?) criticized. "You sound like a Wookiee." he said in a sarcastic tone, putting his hand up to his ear in mock confusion. The bounty hunter was becoming increasingly outraged, and missed the way you quickly put the baby down and started rushing to his side.
"Do you understand this?" he asked in a very bitter tone, lighting the fire from his wrist straight towards the leader before it quickly got put down by your hand.
"Stop it!" you frowned, giving him an angry scowl that made the Mandalorian look down in shame before turning around and blocking him from view.
"Please, please, lower your weapons," you begged, placing one hand out protectively in front of your body. The bounty hunter watched at your careful approach and rebuked himself internally.
"Please forgive his aggressive behaviour, but he is a Mandalorian, he can not give up his armour. There must be something else we can trade."
The Jawa then pointed to something behind you, making all three of you look back.
"Get away from it!" the bounty hunter demanded, now becoming even more ticked off with the situation. He felt the slightest bit of relief when you stood up and collected the baby in your arms, then came back to sit beside him.
"Please, there must be something else," you begged, keeping the Child close to your body.
The Jawas then all turned to face each other and huddled together, disscussing what the Mandalorian assumed would be something he would be willing to trade.
When their decision was made, the leader then spun to face them, waving his hand in your faces.
"We will require The Egg," he demanded. "Bring us The Egg."
The bounty hunter furrowed his brows in confusion, and you looked at him with the same expression.
"The Egg? What egg?" he asked, the both of you turning to the Ugnaught in hopes of some answers.
The Jawas then began chanting "The Egg! The Egg!" making the bounty hunter what in the name of all living things could be so special about an egg.
"It seems they will take you there," the Ugnaught observed, noticing the the Jawas were boarding their Sandcrawler and waving for him to get on as well.
Letting his head fall for a minute, the Mandalorian sighed at how this all could have been avoided if these stupid Jawas were anywhere else on the planet and wouldn't have taken apart his ship.
He was brought out of his stupor by the feeling of a hand on his shoulder. The bounty hunter looked up to see you smiling gently at him, and he nodded. "Let's go."
He stood up and held his hand out for you, then brought the carriage to his side and followed you up the ramp into the massive vehicle.
---
It was at least another day's travel when the Mandalorian reached the entrance to a cave, toying around with the idea if he should actually go in there.
"Is there where the Jawas said it would be?" you asked as you walked up to stand beside him, furrowing your brows at the very vague information given.
"I think so," the bounty hunter nodded, feeling just as confused as you were.
"Well, let's go," you shrugged, taking a few steps towards the opening.
"Woah woah woah. What?"
"What do you mean, what? We need that egg, so let's go get it!" He groaned internally at your stubbornness. Why were you so determined to suddenly go on all of these expeditions? Why did he even agree to you coming along? He should have said no in the first place, but as per usual he caved and agreed to you coming along. But why were you suddenly so interested in running into the face of danger?
"Look at this place, you can't just go marching in! It's pitch black in there!"
"You have a light that sits on your head!"
"Yeah, it's enough for me but is it enough for you?"
"Well, do you have any other suggestions, cause I'm all ears!"
"Yeah, I go in, and you stay here."
"Oh, yeah because that's so much better!"
"Yes it is!"
"Why, because I won't be in your way and you can go do all the hero stuff while I sit back?"
What?
"No! Because I'm the one with all the armour, and this way if something happens at least I'm being protected!"
"Oh good, and I just get to watch it all happen?"
"No! Because it's pitch black in there, and you'll be safe out here!"
"Even better! I won't even get to know what happens to you if you die because I'll be left out here all alone!"
"That's not a valid point, because it might be all sunshine and rainbows in there and I'll be fine!"
"Then why can't I go in if it's all sunshine and rainbows?"
Dammit.
"Because what if it's not!"
Oh yeah, valid point she's on your side now, go me, yet again.
"Oh, you're such a-"
Your argument was cut off by a low grunting noise that did not sound happy at all. The both of you turned to see a giant Mudhorn walking its way out of the cave, giving what seemed to be a death glare directed at him more than you.
Before he had time to react you reached up and unclasped the flashlight from his helmet, then stood in front of him and did the ritual of placing your forehead on his. Immediately he snaked his arms around your waist and brought you closer.
"You distract it, I'll get the egg. I think it likes you more," you whispered, making the bounty hunter let out an embarrassing snort.
"Seems more like hate to me."
This made you shrug, but giggle nonetheless. "Don't die, please. I do still need you, you know."
The bounty hunter could then feel his heart in his throat at your words. He could've poured all his feelings out right there, but he knew that yet again, now was not the time. Instead he only responded with, "Come back to me."
He smiled as you grinned as well, and found himself holding on just a little bit longer. "Always."
With that, you made a mad dash to his right in an attempt to go around the large rhino. Said Mudhorn didn't notice you at all, much to your amusement, and lowered it's upper body to the ground, getting into position to start running.
How the hell am I gonna fight this thing?
The Mandalorian didn't have much time to answer that question before the Mudhorn began sprinting straight towards him. Out of the corner of his eye the bounty hunter saw a glimpse of your hair as you ran into the cave, and that split second of distraction was enough of an opening for the Mudhorn to run into him and knock him back a good 30 feet.
He groaned as his back hit the ground and his body slid back in the mud, feeling it get under his armour and seep through his clothes. His neck felt sore as his head smacked against the ground, but he did his best to quickly stand back up.
He then grabbed his rifle and tried to load it, but the mud had jammed the loading cartridge, rendering the whole rifle useless. Still, the bounty hunter pressed on, desperate to get as much defense as he possibly could against the animal 5 times the size of himself.
His finagling attempt ended up being a bust as the Mudhorn ran at him again at full speed, knocking him back another 40 feet. The bounty hunter groaned again as his head whipped back against the ground and he slid back in the mud again, hurriedly trying to come up with a new plan.
He sat up quickly and tried wiping his wrist clean, thinking that maybe he could use the fire to fend off the beast.
That worked for about 2 seconds before the large rhino used its massive front horn to ram it into his chest, knocking the wind out of the Mandalorian and making him see stars. The bounty hunter gasped for breath as he willed the blinding pain in his chest to go away before using his whipcord and getting it stuck in the beast's face.
That also only proved to be useful for about 3 seconds before the Mudhorn quickly became irritated and started running in the opposite direction, making the bounty hunter go flying as his arm was still attached to the cord.
His shoulder screamed at him for ever thinking that would be a good idea, and he went for a little roll in the mud as the cord broke from the force of the Mudhorn acting against him.
The animal then rammed into his chest again, once more making him lose his breath and go tumbling backwards. His vision was starting to go all fuzzy as the pain increased tenfold, and he found himself wheezing from now having crushed ribs.
He glanced down to see his chest plate had completely opened up again and was sparking with electricity, making him groan this time in frustration more than anything else.
The Mandalorian's legs and arms felt all tingly as he realized he was drained; his adrenaline was completely worn out and every muscle in his body ached beyond belief.
Mud was covering most of his vizor, leaving him barely able to see, but nonetheless, he willed his legs to move and stand him up. Panting, he brought himself on one knee and grabbed the small knife from his boot, coming to terms with the fact that there was not much else he could do. This is certainly not the way he wanted to die, but it seemed like he had no choice.
As the Mudhorn sprinted straight towards him, the bounty hunter's life flashed before his eyes, and he found that most of it was you.
Sure, there was the odd memory here and there about becoming a Mandalorian, but the ones he enjoyed, the ones he wanted to see were of you.
And they mostly centered around the thought that he's spent years not telling you how he feels. But how could he? He's certain that if you felt the same way, there'd be no more Mandalorian from him. And if you didn't, you'd leave him forever and his life would no longer have any meaning.
But would not being the Mandalorian be such a bad thing? He's not so sure he's ready to settle down just yet, but he knows the second you told him you wanted to he would.
Is that a problem? Yes.
But does he care? No.
Sighing, he stood up to his full height as the Mudhorn sprinted towards him at full speed, while the Mandalorian just lazily held the knife out in front of his body; his energy had been completely drained, and there really was nothing else he could do.
Maybe if he died this way then he wouldn't have to live with the possible rejection. That thought made him roll his eyes instantly. What a coward.
Very unacceptimg of this fate, the Mandalorian held his knife in front of him, determined to fight no matter how tired he was.
However, as soon as the rhino got about 4 feet away, it all of a sudden couldn't move forward anymore. The bounty hunter stood there in shock and confusion, wondering what was going on. He could clearly see that the animal was desperately trying to get to him, but something was holding it back. He continued to stand there dumbfounded as you came up in front of the now floating Mudhorn and placed your hand on its head, doing your best to soothe the beast and calm it down.
"Hey! Hey, it's okay, it's okay." The creature immediately began calming down, and the bounty hunter gave an even bigger look of confusion as he thought it was you keeping it in place. Since when could you do that?
That thought was quickly diminished, however, when he looked to his left and noticed the kid was holding its hand out with its eyes closed. It seemed to be concentrating very hard. The baby became tired very quickly from the obvious overexertion of whatever it was doing, and it clued in that you were trying to calm the creature down to put less strain on the Child's work load.
It seemed your help wasn't enough though, because after a few seconds the kid backed up in his carriage and passed out, exhausted from doing... the floaty of the Mudhorn thing.
As soon as the kid fell back the Mudhorn dropped to the ground, and that's when the Mandalorian stepped forward and plunged his knife straight into the beast's neck, killing it almost instantly.
The bounty hunter gasped for air as he fell back, but had a much softer landing than he expected. He glanced up to see your face looking back down at him with an obviously worried expression.
"Lumpy, I said distract the thing, not take a mud bath with it."
The Mandalorian could form no response in his attempt to catch his breath, knowing if he tried to speak it would probably end up being offensive in another language. He rested his head on your legs and desperately tried to regain his energy as you wiped the mud away from where his eyes would be.
"Did you... get the... the egg?" he asked in a still very breathless tone, and you looked at him with a concerned face.
"Well, I was hoping you wouldn't notice so quickly but I actually couldn't find any egg-"
"WHAT?"
You giggled as you wiped some more mud off of the bounty hunter's helmet and looked down to see the rest of the damage done to his armour. "I'm just kidding, of course I got it. I put it over there, it's fine. I'm so sorry I put you through this."
The Mandalorian waved his hand around in a non-chalant manner, but in an overly dramatic way. "Nah, it's fine, I mean I did almost die multiple times, but it's all good-"
He smiled at the scoff you made as you responded, "You know what you're right, I think I just over estimated your skills and abilities to be able to-"
"Are you serious? Did you see the size of that thing?"
"Yes, I did, and the baby seemed to have much more success in taking it down than you did!"
"Yeah, well he's got weird magic stuff and look now, he's knocked out."
"Aw, the poor thing's probably exhausted. We need to get him back."
The bounty hunter sighed at your statement because he knew you were right but he didn't want to move, partially because it physically hurt him to do so, but mostly because he just wanted to stay like this forever, even though it was super uncomfortable with all of the mud. "Just... a few more minutes."
He smirked at the small smile you sent him and closed his eyes, revelling in the last few minutes he had before you had to make the long journey back to the Jawas.
"Lumpy?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm really worried about the baby."
He sighed again, not wanting to get up. He mentally went through the list of all the things that had to be done and internally groaned in frustration. You had to help the kid, and then he had to figure out a way to put the ship back together. Not to mention his armour needed an extreme fix up too. And then get the kid back to the client.
With one last deep breath, the bounty hunter sat up, agreeing.
"Alright, let's get going."
---
The Mandalorian handed the egg to the Jawas, feeling much more relieved now that he can finally get the parts back and get off the planet. He shook his head in disgust and turned your body around to face the Ugnaught as the Jawas began feasting on the furry egg, opting out on watching them stick their hands in it and slurp it up.
"I'm surprised you waited for us," he said to the shorter man.
The bounty hunter snickered as you shoved his shoulder and stepped in front of him. "What he means to say is thank you for waiting for us."
The Ugnaught only shrugged and responded, "I'm just surprised it took you so long."
The bounty hunter only rolled his eyes at the punch to his ego, but determined that after seeing you laugh at the comment, he would take all the jabs in the galaxy to see it again. "Yes, well, there were some minor complications," he tried to play it cool, and almost broke the façade from your stare of disbelief at his words.
The shorter man nodded his head in knowing and walked up the ramp with the Jawas. The Mandalorian watched as you followed him and started laughing at a small joke he made as you began loading the parts onto the cart, and he rolled his eyes at his own stupidity.
Years. It's been years you idiot, get over it.
But could he really do that?
---
On the ride back to the ship, you sat next to the Mandalorian and gently cradled the Child in your arms, glancing up at him with worry.
"Is it still sleeping?" the Ugnaught asked as he was riding the blurrg pulling the cart.
You nodded your head as you stroked the baby's cheek.
"Yes," the bounty hunter replied, obvious concern laced in his voice as well.
"Was it injured?"
"I don't think so," you answered.
"At least, not physically," the bounty hunter clarified, and he smiled at your nod of confirmation.
"Explain it to me again," the shorter man asked, still not understanding what exactly happened.
"Lumpy, do you think it has the Force?" you asked him, furrowing your eyebrows in thought.
"The Force?"
You nodded your head in affirmation. "Yeah, like in the stories my Grandma used to tell. You remember Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, don't you? Those stories went on for ages."
The Mandalorian thought about what you were saying, and remembered you telling him about how Darth Vader was the cause of the destruction of your home. Not to mention the Battle of Yandor was such a pivotal point in history that the whole galaxy knew about it within days.
"I don't know," you shrugged. "I just can't think of any specific species that could do such a thing."
The bounty hunter slowly nodded at your words but didn't have an answer. He had certainly heard of those things, but had no idea if it was true or not.
The conversation was cut short by the arrival at the Razor Crest, and the Mandalorian let out a loud and rather annoyed sigh. He walked up to it and placed his hand on the side, wondering how it was going to get fixed.
"There's no way we're gonna get this to work without a full maintenance facility. This is gonna take days to fix."
He heard you scoff yet again behind him, making him turn around to face you with his eyebrows raised.
"How dare you doubt our knowledge," you accused as you gently placed the baby back down in the carriage and gave it another quick glance before jogging beside the Ugnaught.
"If you care to help, it might go faster," the shorter man quipped, and the bounty hunter glared at the little fist bump you shared with the Ugnaught.
"Don't mind him, he's a little slow when it comes to technical stuff like this," you explained, talking as if he wasn't 3 feet away from you and very much listening to every word you were saying.
"How do you manage to do it all on your own?" the shorter man teased, and the Mandalorian grinned as you snorted at that question and picked up a torch and some goggles.
"Beats me."
The Ugnaught then brought a metal plate over to the Mandalorian and held it out to him. "There is much work to do."
The bounty hunter looked up at the ship and sighed. You were already climbing up to the top with another metal sheet to weld onto the ship and he obeyed, knowing there was indeed much to be done.
It was an entire week of giggles, little jokes, small arguments, worry over the baby, almost no food or sleep, story telling, burn marks littered over everyone's body, from comfortable silence to loud breakouts in song, and everything in between before the Razor Crest was fully operational once more.
The Mandalorian then sat in the cockpit and turned everything on, sighing in relief as everything seemed to be the way it needed to be.
He smiled as you came up behind him, carrying the baby because you were still very worried, and hung the dice you gave him all those years ago back up on the little hook attached to the windshield.
The bounty hunter looked up at you and noticed there was still mud caked into your hair, making him realize if you needed a shower, he definitely did. You made eye contact with him and gave him a small grin of your own, cradling the baby in one arm and using the other to flick a few more switches.
"Seems like we're all good now," you observed, checking all the computer screens for any signs of something going wrong.
The Mandalorian stood up and nodded his head in agreement, then made his way over to you. He looked down at the sleeping Child in your arms and frowned. "I think it's gonna be okay," you whispered, gently caressing its face with your finger and rocking it slowly. "We just gotta give it some time."
The bounty hunter only nodded again and looked at your face, trying to read your expression. He could see the increased worry from the little creases forming between your brows and the squinting of your eyes as you tried to figure out a way to help the baby.
Without saying anything the Mandalorian pulled you into a hug, even though he knew he smelled like literal poo, and held you as close as he possibly could towards himself. He internally sighed in relief as you seemed to snuggle a bit closer, and he knew that it was going to be very difficult to let the baby go.
Pushing that thought aside, because that was not a road he wanted to go down right now, he gently reminded you that it's time to go.
You nodded, responding quietly, "We have to go say thank you, our new friend deserves the world for his kindness."
The bounty hunter agreed and followed you out of the cockpit to where the Ugnaught was standing. Together the three of you looked out of the open hatch, enjoying the view of the planet now that you were done building.
"We can't thank you enough," you started. "For absolutely everything."
"Please allow us to give you a portion of the reward," the bounty hunter offered, feeling just as grateful as you were towards him.
"I cannot accept," the Ugnaught declined. "You are my guests, and I am therefore at your service."
The bounty hunter watched as you slowly nodded your head and gave him a big hug with your free arm. "Then all we can offer you is our sincerest thanks."
"And I offer mine," the shorter man replied, making the bounty hunter scrunch his nose in confusion.
"What for?"
"Well, thank you for bringing peace to my valley. And for giving me a happy memory to look back on, despite the circumstance." He then collected his bag and walked down the ramp, leaving the bounty hunter to wrap his arm around your waist as he climbed onto his blurrg.
"Good luck with the Child," he waved, and while the bounty hunter nodded, you gave a sad smile and wave back. "May it survive and bring you a handsome reward."
The frown you gave after that sentence did not go unnoticed by the bounty hunter, but he kept his mouth shut and simply nodded.
"I have spoken," the Ugnaught finished, and with that, he turned the blurrg around and began the long journey back to his home. The Mandalorian squeezed your hip a little as you rested your head on his shoulder, but no words were spoken between the two of you.
Silently you headed back to the cockpit, the bounty hunter sitting in the pilot's seat and you in the one behind it, not putting the Child down for even a second.
The Mandalorian started up the engine and pressed any more buttons that had to be pressed, successfully letting the ship take off away from the planet.
After you were floating in space for a minute or two, the bounty hunter turned around to see a small tear falling down your cheek. He quietly leaned over and wiped it from your face, only using a gentle whisper to talk to you.
"We've gotta bring it to the client. I'm sure it'll be okay."
He sighed as you only nodded and kept your eyes on the baby, making the Mandalorian turn back around in his seat and plug in the coordinates. He didn't like it at all, but this was his job.
So he sucked it up and let the autopilot take over, watching the millions of stars go by as he contemplated whether giving up the Child was a good idea.
From what he could tell by his gut instinct, it was not a good idea at all.