Hala was starting to understand, on a gut level, why Din had chosen the dangerous life of bounty hunting. Granted, what they were doing in Jabba's Palace wasn't quite the same as a normal mission to retrieve a quarry. But the rush she felt as they walked out of the Palace together, with the information from the databanks? Well, that feeling was addictive as any spice. Hala wanted to shout, to dance, to drink every bit of alcohol she could get her hands on, to strip naked and let Din ravish her – all of it at the same time. Heady was an understatement for the sensations she was feeling as they walked towards the landspeeder they'd borrowed from Peli.

"That was…I'm so…Can we do it again?" Hala couldn't contain her excitement and Din chuckled, the sound distorted by his vocoder.

"Get in," he ordered her, his tone bemused.

"I'm serious," she whispered, though she climbed clumsily into the vehicle, her arms held out to feel for any obstacles or anything that could help her, "I've got so much energy right now."

"Can you see anything yet?"

"No."

"And you want to walk back in there?"

"I don't know what I want…I just…is this how it feels when things go right?"

She couldn't see Din shaking his head at her, and even if she hadn't still been feeling the effects of hibernation sickness, the helmet hid his wry smile as he watched her sink into her seat.

"I've created a monster," he mumbled and Hala tried to reach out and swat him playfully but all she did was swipe her hand through air.

"Where are you? I'm gonna hit you," she giggled and for a few moments, they both indulged a certain childish glee as he dodged her repeated swings until she was up on her knees on the worn seat, flailing both arms towards him, listening for any breath or chuckle to help her figure out where he was. He caught her arms in his hands and pulled her over to him.

"Lemme go!" she squealed.

"You gonna keep trying to hit me?"

"No…yes…no…maybe," Hala kept changing her mind between fresh peels of laughter as she half-heartedly struggled against Din. He pinned her down, her head in his lap, looking up at the bright sky and as she caught her breath, calming down as she laid across the speeder, he loosened his grip on her wrists.

"Brightness," she finally murmured, "I can see light."

"Good," he replied approvingly, "Now can you sit up and let me drive us back?"

She grumbled good-naturedly but Hala got up and turned to sit properly in her seat.

"I don't understand how you stay so calm. It's exhilarating, what we're doing," she mumbled as Din made his way back to Mos Eisley.

"I've been doing this for a while," he replied, "Guess I've gotten used to it."

"Well, I want to celebrate," Hala said with a mock pout, "We got what we wanted and neither of us is bleeding or possessed or anything!"

"You're blind," Din countered.

"No, I can see shapes…if there were any to see out here."

"How do you want to celebrate?"

Hala blushed because the first thing that came to her mind was lewd and lascivious and…well…perfect.

Din must have seen the flush on her cheeks.

"Now you have to tell me," he said lazily when she didn't respond.

"What if I show you…later?"

"I'll hold you to that," he murmured, resting his free arm across the back of Hala's seat, his gloved hand grazing her shoulder.

It felt good and right, there in that rusty speeder, sitting next to Din. It was like one more band constricting her chest had broken and she could breathe more deeply, laugh more freely. Even upon their return to Peli's workshop, Hala was unbothered by the other woman's snarky complaints about unseen damage to her landspeeder and the baby's penchant for hiding. Nothing could shake her good mood.

Nothing, save the fact that the information Hala had retrieved from the databanks didn't end up yielding squat. All that work they'd done – the weeks she and Din had spent, practicing so that she knew exactly what to do while blind as a bat as she stood there, in that rancid basement room of Jabba's Palace and downloaded all that data onto a portable datastick – none of it had mattered because the Hutts knew as much as she already did which was that Endor was the last place anyone had seen Luke Skywalker and that was five kriffing years ago.

Hala almost punched the console as she and Din reviewed the files once more, searching for any additional information on Luke Skywalker.

"I can't believe this was all a waste," she growled when yet another search returned the same, disappointing results.

"We knew this was a possibility," Din replied, calm and even-keeled as always.

"Did we?" Hala asked, perturbed both by the lack of information and Din's seeming imperviousness.

The helmeted man turned to her, bringing his gloved hand up to cup her cheek.

"Remember how excited you were today, when we made it out of there unscathed?"

"Yeah, I know," Hala admitted, looking down in shame at how petulantly she had reacted to the data searches, "And you know what the weirdest thing is? I don't even really want to find this man or anyone who's gonna take the kid away from us. But I just thought…after all that work…"

Din rubbed her cheek.

"I get it," he said softly and she believed him. He knew all of it – the mix of frustration and relief at being no closer to finding the mysterious Jedi who would become the child's rightful family when they finally did come across him – the irritation at having trained so hard for a mission only to discover the mission had been pointless – Din understood it all so well.

"I'm sorry I'm grumpy," she murmured, leaning into his caresses.

"You still owe me a celebration – lack of data is no excuse," he said lowly and Hala felt a familiar tightening, a pooling of excitement in her gut.

"You're right," she replied huskily, her eyes hooded as she looked up at the beskar-clad man in front of her. She looked past him briefly, at the holovid feed from the kid's makeshift bunk. In it, she could see the child sleeping soundly. Wordlessly, she grabbed Din's hand, the one that wasn't tracing circles into her cheek and pulled it to her, pressing his palm against her sternum, hoping he could feel how her heart was racing.

"Here?" he asked and she noted the jagged edge of his voice.

She nodded. "I don't want to wait another second."

"Stars, Hala," Din managed to choke out as he pulled her away from the console and repositioned her along the port side of the cockpit, finding the only spot along the dashboard with no buttons, and gently pushing her into the space, allowing her to sit slightly, her legs spread to accommodate him.

"Mesh'la," Din murmured, pressing his helmet to her forehead. Hala placed her hands on the sides of his helmet, holding him against her, caressing the beskar, knowing he could sense what she was doing, even if he couldn't see it.

"My ca'tra," she whispered back, wrapping her legs around his waist, drawing him even closer. He pulled his forehead away from hers and cocked his helmet at Hala as he considered the nickname.

"You don't like it?" she asked, her eyes on his visor.

"I love it," Din replied, "But that's not one I taught you."

"Uh-uh," Hala agreed, "I heard it at the covert and asked Amudai what it meant. We spend so much time on this ship, out here in space – it seemed right for you."

They both turned to look through the transparisteel canopy of the cockpit at the stars streaking by them in hyperspace.

"You've shown me so much," Hala murmured, "We've had so many adventures – most of them good – and I'll never be able to truly tell you how much it's meant to me. I love this – I love you, the kid, all of it."

Din turned to her and, feeling his gaze on her, Hala turned away from the light show to face him, noticing how his helmet reflected muted streaks of light. He pressed his forehead against hers once more and sighed. She felt goosebumps form on her arms and, slowly, she ran her fingers along Din's back, under his cloak, below the cuirass, where she could feel his skin through the clothes he wore.

Din reached into his belt and pulled out a piece of black cloth. Hala smiled as she recognized it but she shook her head.

"I've been blind enough for both of us lately. I'm not going to wear that right now."

"Then…what do you want?"

Hala widened her smile and grabbed one of Din's gloved hands and brought it to her lips, nipping on the edge of the glove and pulling it off. She dropped that hand and grabbed the other, repeating her action but this time, she guided the ungloved hand down her body, to her waist, then lower.

"Keep your helmet on, let me keep my eyesight…and make me scream," she whispered as she released his hand.

Something that might have been a snort or a chuckle became modulated static from Din's helmet as he pulled in closer, his helmet still cocked to the side.

Hala loved the way Din's helmet shone, how the lights from the cockpit, from being in hyperdrive, gave him an almost halo effect with the burnished beskar. She loved how much he communicated with the angles at which he would tilt his helmet. Right now, he was all quiet intensity, desire, want – everything she was feeling but it was all visually subdued by the layers covering him. However, the way he unbuttoned her pants, the ease with which he lifted her off the console so he could pull her pants down just enough to access her center – there was nothing moderate about his touch. He wanted her as fiercely as she wanted him and Hala relished it. She would never understand why this perfect warrior had chosen her but she would treasure his devotion until her dying day.

She moaned softly as he brushed his bare fingers against the aching bundle of nerves at her core and dropped her head down to his shoulder, her breath fogging up his pauldron.

"You like that?"

"You know I do."

She brought her hands up to grip his biceps, careful to avoid the pauldrons – careful to press her palms against his canvas over-shirt, so he would feel the warmth of her touch just as she was feeling the way his fingers danced around her already-wet center, the way his other hand held the nape of her neck, rubbing the tendons back there softly. Maybe because he'd lived such a solitary life, denying himself so much basic affection by choosing to follow the ways of Mandalore, Din understood just how powerful touch could be. He understood that the cravings he had for soft, affectionate exploration with the hands were exactly what Hala sought as well. They had both, in very different ways, been touch-starved for a good portion of their lives. And while there was a time and a place for losing control, for taking what was desired with little thought or concern outside of coming and coming fast, Din seemed to know this was not one of those times. This was a time to move slowly, to listen for a hitch in Hala's breathing and to explore that path – to see if he could make a hitch become a moan, a moan become a plea, a plea become an exclamation of pleasure and joy.

And for herself, Hala savored how well Din had come to know her body in a relatively short amount of time. She was impressed with how much he'd remembered from their three days of pleasure all those months ago. And as he explored her wetness, as he drove her to higher planes of pleasure, Hala took to whispering against his helmet the things she would do to him when he was done. How she would sink to her knees in gratitude and give him what he was giving her. She didn't censor herself and Din moaned as she sweetly shared the filthy things she wanted to do to him, leaving out no detail of how it would feel, of how much she would enjoy his pleasure. With every flick of his fingers and swirl of his thumb around her swollen clit, she described in more explicit detail how much she wanted to debase him and herself as well. It was maddeningly enticing, her honeyed voice spewing the most obscene and profane words, the only interruptions being the gasps and moans he drew out of her as he played her core like an instrument.

"Shab, Hala, you've got to be quiet or I'll come before you do," he finally grunted at her, two of his fingers buried deep inside her.

"Sorry," she mumbled, the tail end of the word pitching upwards as he stroked her clit once more with his thumb. "I can't help it when you make me feel so good," she panted, breathless at the fresh attack he launched on her.

When he slipped a third finger inside her, Hala couldn't help the sound that fell out of her – something between a moan and a scream and Din stilled his movements, waiting for her to collect herself.

"I don't have to gag you, do I?" The tone of his voice unleashed something ferocious and wild in Hala – the way he stood over her, masked, foreboding – she'd never fully realized before Din just how much she enjoyed playing the submissive to someone else's dominant and she changed her posture immediately, almost folding in on herself, going limp in his grasp.

"I'll behave," she whispered reverently, "I won't make too much noise."

"Good girl," he practically purred, "I'm going to enjoy making you beg for release."

Hala was excited by this new shift in the dynamic but there was something bothering her in the back of her mind and as he stroked her, teasing his fingers closer to that one spot – the one that would make her see stars, she couldn't help but wonder how much of this was performance for him. Was he slipping into a persona the same way she was or was this really Din?

He teased her again, getting closer, and when she whined as he pulled his fingers away, he used his free hand to swat her thigh.

Was he just someone who needed to control at all times? Sure, they'd done some scenes during that three-day sexual Olympics yet she hadn't had the sense during their romp that Din needed to be in charge all the time.

Again, he inched closer to the bundle of nerves along her wall, the one she so desperately needed him to stroke and she shifted on his hand, doing what she could to bring the pleasure to herself more quickly, only for him to push her back, and growl at her to behave and wait or be punished.

But then, with everything that had happened on the destroyer… Previously, she'd felt like he was similar to her – a switch, but one who had a preference for dominating while she had a preference for submissiveness. Had she been wrong? Was this a dangerous game to play? Would he actually hurt her if she didn't comply in the way he wanted?

As if reading her mind, Din brought his free hand to her chin and repositioned her face so she was staring directly at his visor, and she could feel his gaze on her.

"If this is too much…you can tell me to stop," he murmured, his voice so completely different from the one he'd just used to keep her in her place.

Hala released a deep breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding and Din let go of her chin to rub her shoulder as she slowly relaxed. She'd had no idea she'd grown so tense so quickly.

"This is fine," she assured him, "I like this. I just…got lost for a second."

He didn't say anything for a moment and Hala realized how bizarre it was, what with him having three fingers inside of her, for them to be having this very serious conversation – so much of which was being left unspoken. She knew, from the way his helmet was tilted, from the fact that his eyes were still on her, watching her closely, that Din was aware of what she meant when she said she'd gotten lost. He knew she was thinking about what had happened on the destroyer.

"We'll take it slow," he whispered, bringing his hand back up to her face, "You remember the safe word, right?" She nodded.

"I'm good," she promised him, smiling into his hand as she rubbed her cheek against his palm, "I want this."

She reached up and kissed his helmet, just a soft press of her lips against the side of it but her actions seemed to be enough to convince him.

"You'll be quiet for me? Like a good girl?" The changes in his tone and his posture let Hala know they were back in it again.

"Yes, sir," she replied, stifling an excited giggle as she felt his fingers begin to move again within her once more.

He was gentler this time around – still dominating, still withholding the release she craved, but Din kept his tone even and his grip steady. It felt like hours that she sat there, balanced precariously on the edge of the console, letting Din explore her depths with his fingers.

"Din," Hala moaned as she felt herself getting closer to the edge, "I'm so close."

"Did I tell you to use my name?"

"No, sir. But please! Let me come!"

"You'll come when I'm ready for you to come," he replied but he also brought his forehead down to hers, slowly, so he didn't hurt her, and pressed the beskar against her, allowing her to rest against him in their Keldabe kiss.

Hala bit her lip to suppress a whine as Din circled her clit with his thumb, his fingers still teasing so tantalizingly close to her g-spot.

"You're doing so well," he murmured as she moved her head away from his to rest on his shoulder – between his pauldron and his neck, burying her face in the warm wool of his cape.

"I don't know how much more I can take," she whimpered.

He stroked her, letting his fingers just barely brush that one place she was restless for him to touch. She jerked into him with a moan and he pulled away so she could no longer hide her face in his shoulder.

"You want me to stop?" His visor was pointed down, at her and she knew he was studying her face, making sure she was still okay to continue. She gave him a look and he nodded, almost imperceptibly. Hala would use the safe word if she needed to but this was hardly a situation that called for safe words. This was a game and she wanted to make it as difficult as possible for him to win it. Even if she had to deny herself gratification in the process.

He teased her again and she bit her cheeks to keep from reacting, hoping her lack of response would egg him on to giving her what she desired. But when he didn't let his fingers rest there, Hala became ansty. She could feel the pressure inside her, the need to come making everything a little hazy.

"No, please don't stop! Just…let me come. I'm begging you!"

She wiggled against him, hoping in vain to find satisfaction and he clucked his tongue at her, the sound distorted slightly by his helmet.

"I'm sorry," she gasped, ceasing her movements even while the heat within her prevented her from stilling completely. Her chest was heaving, her eyes dilated and there was nothing she could do about it besides figure out exactly what it would take for him to grant her the one thing she needed.

"So good for me, aren't you?"

Another brief flick against her inner wall and Hala felt tears in the corners of her eyes.

"I'm trying."

"Gods, Hala, you're so beautiful like this."

And finally, he was pressing his fingers in that place, giving her what she craved and Hala didn't bother to keep her voice down as she exhaled loudly.

"You realize – yes, right there, yes – I'm going to exact – oh, Maker, yes – a terrible revenge for this, don't you?" she gasped against the side of his helmet as Din made tighter, quicker circles around her clit with his thumb while continuing his ministrations inside her.

He chuckled. "I'm counting on it."

"Oh stars, I'm so close…yes…oh…" Hala opened her eyes briefly, her chin on his shoulder and caught sight of something small and green across the cockpit, staring up at them.

"Din!" she cried but for once, he didn't pick up on the fact that she was distressed and he continued what he was doing even as she pushed away from him.

"Droid," Hala gasped their safe word and, for good measure, repeated it more loudly, "Droid!" Din froze, looking down at her wide-eyed panic.

"What is it?" he asked, pulling his fingers out of her as he stood up straight, his hand – the one that hadn't had three fingers buried inside her just seconds ago – on his blaster. Later, she would replay how he went from loving to menacing so quickly and wonder what it said about her that she was so turned on by the abrupt change.

"No, it's not…just…behind you…the kid…"

He turned and looked down, seeing the child staring up at him with unblinking eyes.

He turned back to Hala, and moved closer to her, allowing her to slide off the console and pull up her pants without the kid seeing her. She knew her cheeks were on fire.

"How long has he been here?"

"I have no idea. I just saw him." Once she was dressed, they both turned to the child. He seemed…unflustered by the entire situation which was more than either adult could say. He blinked as he looked up at them and slowly toddled closer to them.

Hala got down on one knee and held her hands out as he moved towards her.

"Hey bean…," she started and then trailed off before looking back up at Din with a bewildered expression on her face.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say to him…Did we just scar our kid for life?"

Din snorted and joined her on one knee.

"Doubtful," he said, giving the child a rub on the top of his head with one hand while he discreetly cleaned the other one with a wipe he kept on his belt, "It's not ideal but kids walk in on adults sometimes."

"Oh Maker, I'd be mortified if I caught my parents doing it."

"You've seen how things are in the covert. And not all coverts have as many rooms as the one on Quora. It's…not uncommon to wake up in the night and overhear or even catch a glimpse of your parents or other adults doing what adults do when they care about each other."

Hala stared at Din with wide eyes.

"What? It's a normal, healthy part of life."

"He's a baby!"

"I didn't say we should make him watch. I just don't think he's gonna be permanently scarred by whatever he witnessed."

As if on cue, the baby cooed happily and reached out to grab Din's finger while simultaneously snuggling in closer to Hala. He let out a giant yawn and despite the guilt Hala felt for whatever the child may have witnessed, she couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her lips.

"Yeah, I'll bet you're tired. What are you even doing up right now?" she murmured to him as she stood up.

"Ruining a perfectly good time," Din muttered and Hala shot him a look but she didn't disagree. They both climbed down the ladder and got the baby settled back into his bassinet. Din looked over at Hala.

"I'm guessing this is goodnight?" he asked as she moved the bassinet towards her room.

"I think…that would be best," Hala murmured, watching the baby as its eyes grew heavier. She felt Din come up behind her and didn't stop him as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I swear, he's got some sort of tracking sense in him," she mumbled, "He knows if we're getting frisky."

"Maybe so," Din replied, his tone less joking than hers. "Who knows how the force works?"

"Gotta say, I'm not a huge fan of the force right now," Hala replied wryly before turning around in Din's arms.

"Good night," she said softly, reaching up to caress his helmet.

"Sweet dreams," he replied and waited a beat before adding, "Sweet dreams of being frustrated by a tiny, green terror."

Hala snorted. "I'd rather dream about what would happen without him interrupting."

"Me too."