Hala knew what she needed to do. She needed to confront Din about what she'd overheard. It was what mature adults did. And Hala had matured a lot over her time with Din and the child. But she couldn't help giving into that bratty part of herself that wanted to sulk rather than have a hard conversation. She told herself it was because the conversation between Din and Paz hadn't been meant for her ears but she knew better. She was angry but she was also a coward. She didn't want Din to confirm to her, face to helmet, that he didn't feel as strongly for her as she felt for him.
She tried to replay the conversation between Din and Paz over in her mind, to find a silver lining, but she'd been so stunned, and so intent on getting away before getting caught, that she couldn't remember everything. Paz had used a word she hadn't recognized…something in Mando'a, probably, but she couldn't remember it for the life of her. All she knew was that Paz thought Din should've shown his face by now…and Din had said that was something they only did if they were making a life commitment. Hala clung to that hazy memory. Maybe Din did care about her…but, like a lot of men she knew, he wasn't ready to commit to something for life. She could handle that, right? After all, was she ready to commit to Din for the rest of her life? The suddenness and ferocity of her own internal feelings over contemplating making a life commitment to Din sent her reeling and dashed what little hope she'd been trying to harbour up. She would marry Din in a second if he wanted her. But it seemed pretty clear Din was, at the least, unsure if he wanted her for life and perhaps even worse – he knew she wasn't someone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. No matter how she played it out in her mind, there was no conclusion that didn't leave her in tears.
To add insult to injury, Din didn't seem to notice Hala was avoiding him. Sure, they were busy repairing the ship, working with Luke on the kid's training exercises and the like but they'd gone from looking for any excuse to hand the child off and squirrel themselves away for a few moments of intimacy to barely speaking and Din was acting like nothing had changed. Hala alternated between wanting to punch his too-shiny helmet and fighting to keep herself from breaking down in tears.
"You seem troubled," Luke observed as she dropped lil' Bean off with him one morning a couple of days after she'd overheard Din and Paz talking.
"I'm fine," she assured the Jedi and then blushing when she realized she wasn't fooling him in the least. "You're reading my mind, aren't you?"
"I'm not reading your thoughts," Luke countered, "But I can tell you're not fine."
"It's just…" Hala looked down, uncomfortable about confiding in Luke. Not because she didn't trust him. Truth was, Luke was rapidly becoming one of her favorite people. He was so gentle with the little one and every time she talked to him, she felt his calming influence. She was so grateful they'd finally found him. But she was pretty sure his Jedi lifestyle didn't make him the best person to go to with relationship issues.
Luke shifted as if perceiving her thoughts.
"Oh. Yeah, maybe I'm not the best one to come to for advice on love."
"You ARE reading my thoughts!"
"No, it's more your feelings I'm sensing."
"Details," Hala grumbled, but she couldn't help the smile playing at the corner of her lips. She turned to look at Leia and Han, who were busy arguing about something a few meters away from them.
"Would you recommend I go to them instead?" she asked with a devilish grin.
"Maker, no. What about Lando?"
"Pretty sure he'd just see it as an opportunity to hit on me."
Luke shook his head while chuckling.
"You might be right. And I'm guessing you don't speak Wookie?"
"Not enough for a heart to heart."
"Shame. Chewy's probably the smartest one in our rag-tag group."
"Don't let Maz…or C3-PO… hear you say that."
"Maz wouldn't be a bad person to seek out."
"If I could find her."
Luke laughed again. It was true. Their mutual hostess was a busy woman and no one was ever sure where she was, though she did manage to show up whenever fun was being had.
"Well, I'm not sure I'll be much help…but tell me anyway. What's got you so upset? You and the Mandalorian seemed so happy just a couple of days ago."
"We were," Hala practically wailed.
"What changed?"
Hala briefly outlined what she'd overheard and Luke listened, his head cocked to the side while the child practiced lifting blocks with his mind, content to be left alone to his activities, so long as neither Luke nor Hala left his line of vision. Hala waited, with growing uncertainty, as Luke considered what she'd told him. Finally, the Jedi spoke.
"You already know what you need to do, don't you?"
Hala hung her head.
"Yes, but –"
"No buts."
"I can't face –"
"You can and you will," Luke replied firmly, placing his hands on her arms. For a moment, the child looked up, realizing the gravity of the situation, then returned to his blocks. Luke looked into Hala's eyes with compassion and understanding. "You're stronger than you think…and sometimes, things work out better than we expect."
"I don't think I'm as strong as you believe," Hala grumbled but she knew Luke had said all he was going to on the matter as he turned away from her to look at the kid. Quietly, Hala slunk away, knowing Luke had much to do to help the baby get control of his powers. And she knew, whether she liked it or not, Luke was right. She needed to talk to Din.
The ship was dark and quiet when Hala got back to it and she stopped at the bottom of the gangway, confused. It wasn't like Din to stop working in the middle of the day unless something had come up…She felt her heart leap into her throat as she climbed the ramp into the ship. Inside, the only lights lit were the emergency ones.
"Din?" Hala called out, not bothering to hide the worry in her voice. Oh Maker, what had happened now?
"In here. Close the ramp and lock the ship behind you," his modulated voice replied, from back where their bunks were located. Hearing him caused two simultaneous reactions in Hala – relief and annoyance. What the hell was going on? Why was he asking her to lock them in the ship together when he'd been so hell-bent on repairing the outside hull for the past few days? She closed the ramp and hit the code to lock the ship before taking a deep breath and heading down the darkened hallway to confront the Mandalorian.
"What's going on?" Hala asked uneasily as she reached the banks and saw the outline of Din's form moving around in his bunk.
"We need to talk," he replied, beckoning her to join him inside his bunk. Even though he was right, Hala's unease tightened into real nervousness. She knew they needed to talk but she hadn't expected Din to be the one to initiate the conversation.
"How…" the question died in her throat.
"You've been avoiding me," he said simply and, now in his bunk with him, Hala put her hands on her hips as he closed the door behind her. For a moment, they were in darkness before Din turned the lights in his room on.
"It's not like you've been seeking me out," Hala said with narrowed eyes as she took in the armoured man in front of her.
"Fine. We've been avoiding each other. You overheard my conversation with Paz the other day, didn't you?"
As he spoke, Din began removing his pauldrons, always the first thing he took off when he removed his armour. Hala felt a momentary confusion as to why he was undressing but she was more shocked by his question.
"How'd you find out?"
He momentarily cocked his helmet at her before resuming the removal of his cuirass.
"For one thing, you haven't looked at me since you took the kid out to explore the area."
"Not like you've been seeking me out either, you know."
He held his hands up as if to surrender. "Let me finish, okay?"
She nodded, watching as he undid his left cuisse, then the right.
"Maz told me you seemed pretty upset when she ran into you that morning – said you were looking for something for the kid to drink. It didn't take much to put two and two together."
"So you've known I was upset? And you didn't say anything?"
In fairness, Hala hadn't rushed to clear the air either and she felt her cheeks grow warm as she realized she had no real right to call Din out for avoiding the same thing she had avoided.
"I wanted to make sure I did this right."
Hala wrinkled her brow.
"Did…what right?"
"I wanted to make sure you'd understand."
"Understand what? That you don't feel the same way for me as I feel for you? Don't worry, I get it." She hated how bitter she sounded. Din moved towards her, unarmoured save for his helmet and Hala stepped away from him.
"Don't," she pleaded. "Don't try to make this better. Don't try to be nice about it. Just do it quickly."
Din shook his head before advancing on her once more.
"Stupid girl, I love you."
"But not enough to commit to me." She couldn't stop the tears and she halfheartedly swatted at Din as he took her in his arms.
"You're wrong," he murmured, holding her tightly despite how she tried to pull away from him. "From the moment I realized you felt the same way for me, I was ready to commit to you." Hala stilled at his words.
"But you told Paz–"
"I told Paz it's a decision I shouldn't take lightly. And that's why I haven't asked you to be my riduur before now. Hala, we spent three days together before your father came in and betrayed us. Then I was brainwashed, and you couldn't stand to be near me. It's not like we've had a lot of downtime to make a life commitment to one another yet. I've wanted to do it but I didn't want to move too quickly. I know how long courtships last in your culture."
"What's a riduur?" Sure, it wasn't the only thing Hala wanted to say but it was the first thing to come out of her mouth.
"Spouse."
"So…this whole time…you've wanted me to be your spouse?"
"If you'd take me."
"Why…the other Mandalorians…is that why they thought we'd already committed?"
Din nodded. "They know a good match when they see it. What they didn't know were the details – how long it took for us to admit our attraction to one another – how much happened once we finally became lovers. Paz knew you were with me on Quora when the covert was being established. He knew I cared about you and Paz assumed I would have made my feelings clear to you more quickly."
Hala smiled. "He's not the kind of guy to wait around. But you are."
"I wanted to be certain, Hala. I didn't want to make you uncomfortable if the feelings weren't mutual."
"But once you knew they were?"
"Tell me now – if I had asked you to commit yourself to me during the three days we were en route to your planet, would you have said yes?"
Hala thought about it. Really thought about it. Sure, she'd been crazy about Din. But it would have been a little weird to accept a proposal so quickly.
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I knew I loved you. But it would have felt strange to be heading back to my planet, engaged to a man I'd just realized felt the same way for me…it's not exactly how we do things where I'm from."
Din nodded.
"But it's how you all do things?"
"More or less. Marriage isn't a big ceremony in Mandalorian culture."
Hala smiled. "Well, that's a relief. I never liked all the pomp and nonsense in my culture. What's a Mandalorian ceremony look like?"
Din pulled her closer. "It's a private ceremony between the two partners. They stand face to face – no helmets – and each recites 'Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde.' And then they're joined."
"What's it mean – the pledge?"
"We are one when together, we are one when parted, we share all, we will raise warriors," Din paused and released Hala from his arms. "You can recite it in Basic, if you want."
Hala's eyes widened.
"You want to do this….right now?"
His hands went to his helmet. "If you'll have me, I don't want to wait a moment longer."
"Din!" He froze and waited.
"Yes, yes I want you. But…you mean it? You'll take the helmet off and it's okay to do that?"
"Of course. But only when we're alone."
"Even though I'm not a Mandalorian?"
"Will you promise to raise our kids as warriors?"
"As best I can."
"Then yes, it's fine. I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner. And I'm sorry you doubted my feelings for even a second. I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you."
Hala felt tears at the corners of her eyes. "I'm sorry I doubted you. I should have come to you immediately!"
"Be my companion and we forgive each other for all the mistakes we've made along the way."
"Okay," Hala breathed and slowly, Din lifted his helmet.
When he removed it, and she could see his face, she gasped.
She could see the unease on his face – a face that had never had to train itself to hide reactions. She watched his expressions – the uncertainty, the fear, confusion.
"What? Am I that hideous?"
Hala choked on her reply.
"You're not – you're – oh, Maker…"
"Seriously, are you okay?"
"You're so handsome!" Hala finally exploded, her eyes wide in amazement.
Din was taken aback.
"You thought I'd be … not handsome?" His brows knit together as he tried to work out her reaction.
"I just…you were always telling me how pretty I was so I assumed…well, if you thought I was pretty, that meant you were probably not great to look at…I mean, I could feel your face at night, in the dark – and it felt fine but I just…I mean, I thought you probably had bad teeth or something…but you're…oh Maker, you're perfect. Which must mean you have bad eye sight or–"
Din didn't let Hala finish as he swept her into his arms and his dark eyes pierced hers.
"Listen to me, foolish woman," he growled, "You are beautiful. And I'm gonna keep telling you how beautiful you are till you believe me. You understand?"
Hala nodded weakly as she hesitantly brought her hands to his face.
"Can I?" she asked and when he nodded, she gently began touching his cheeks, his scruffy jaw, tracing his lips with her index finger. It was Din. Her fingers remembered every curve and her eyes confirmed that the curves she was feeling matched the gorgeous face in front of her.
"Din," she gasped.
"Hala," he replied, "Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde."
"We are one when together, we are one when parted, we share all, we will raise warriors," she replied, not bothering to swipe at the tears sliding down her cheek, forgetting them altogether when he leaned towards her after she was done reciting her pledge and kissing her softly, deeply, tenderly, and thoroughly. She wound her fingers through his dark hair and Hala realized she was home. Din was home and after so much time wondering where her place in the galaxy was, she had found it by his side.