"This is what you're taking me to my father in?" Ezra asked as she stepped into his razor Crest, gesturing towards her dress and flower crown.
"Do you prefer a jumpsuit or going naked?"
Her cheeks flushed, embarrassed. Shaking her head, she sat on one of the cold passenger's seat in the cockpit. "I didn't even get to say goodbye to Jei." Her eyes searched for her friend and her children from the windows of the Crest, she couldn't spot them. Her heart sank thinking about it. What if her father outsmarted the Tin Man and she never came back? Anxiety coursed through her like her own blood.
"You won't be gone for long," he insisted. "If you're telling the truth, you'll be back in no time."
"You said you're a Mandalorian? That means you never take off your helmet, right?" She tried to change the subject, anything to take her mind off of her current situation.
"Correct."
She chuckled, thinking about Jei and their little joke from earlier that day. "I heard about you coming into town, from Jei. We heard about a metal man coming and we called you Tin Man." He turned his head, looking over his shoulder at her. Even if she tried to avoid the topic of Frey-Lo, her mind kept coming back to it and her friend. "I had a feeling it was because of me, nobody ever comes to Frey-Lo."
"My name's not Tin Man."
"Well, yeah. It was.. a joke." She looked down at her hands. "Tough crowd."
"Call me Mando."
"Mando the Mandalorian? You don't even let people know your real name?"
"The less people know my name, the better."
"I guess for your security, huh? It's smart."
"And you're Ezra. A princess."
"I don't go by that."
"Does your friend know?"
"No. She can never know."
"What're you going to tell her when you come back?" He asked. The knot in her stomach tightened, he had a point. What was she going to say? To explain this bounty hunter taking her away?
"When?" She asked. "Sounds like you know I'm telling the truth but you want to see it for yourself."
"That's not w-"
"Thank you."
He was silent. The razor Crest rumbled as he turned it on and she gripped onto the seat's armrest. "Strap in." She buckled her seatbelt and looked onto the ground as the ship lifted off. She said nothing as she saw Frey-Lo shrink from underneath them. Her home. Mando LOOKED over his shoulder again, looking at Ezra who wasn't paying any attention to him. She didn't look like any of the game he would hunt. He was thinking about the type of people he captured. Thieves, murderers, pirates, but this one, to him, looked like the title her father had given her: a princess. Elegantly beautiful with petite features. He turned back to face the front, shaking his head at himself. Being alone for so long in this ship has made him... curious. It's not everyday he stumbles across eye candy.
"You don't have a radio?" Ezra asked. He shook his head, trying to keep the talking to a minimum. "Hmm, this is going to be a long trip." He reached across the board of buttons and switches.
"Not if we travel in light-speed," he mentioned. Her stomach tightened. The faster they got there, the better, she knew. But she wasn't ready to see her father. She thought, she hoped, to never see him again. Ezra grazed a hand over the saber that was strapped to her thigh. It's been a while since she even touched it, let alone used it, but she would if she needed to. "But we won't be going in light-speed, at least not yet. I need to make a pit stop. My calibrator's damaged."
She exhaled in relief, she had time. Ezra knew she couldn't try to run away. Where would she go? She had no speeder, no ship, no money, it would only be a matter of time before he caught her again, and more than likely take back the deal he offered her. "Will be long?" she asked. "Is there somewhere I could sleep?"
"It'll be a few hours, and I have some credits to collect, to pay my friend for fixing my calibrator. It might take a day, I'm not too sure. I'll get us lodging, princess."
A sour taste formed in her mouth, making her nauseous. "Never call me that."
"I've never met anyone who hated being royalty. Or a Jedi."
She looked at him. "What?"
He looked over his shoulder, nodding at her. "Your mother was a Jedi so I'm assuming you are, too."
"N-no." She looked down at her lap, not sure if she was feeling embarrassed for being Force sensitive, or ashamed she had that part of her mother in her but wasn't even close to filling her shoes. Mando didn't say anything after that, just pushed a few buttons in front of him. All Ezra could do was look out the windows in front of her. It's been a while since she traveled through space. Even though she looked up at the stars every night at Frey-Lo, seeing the beauty of the heavens from the ground, there was something about seeing them from within the darkness. She rested her head onto the metal wall beside her, finding the whirr of the razor Crest lulling her to sleep.
When she woke, it was when Mando had landed the Crest onto Tatooine. The sky was pitch-black, it was the middle of the night. There was a blanket on her. When she took it off, cold air pricked her skin and she pulled it back over her shoulders. "It gets cold in the cockpit," he said, as he got out of his seat. "We're here. Stay in the ship for a little bit while I talk to Peli. If it'll take too long I'll find us a place to rest for the night." She nodded, and with that, Mando left the cockpit. She heard his heavy footsteps as he left the ship and peaked out the glass in front of her, watching him. I wonder what's under that helmet... she thought. Has he ever taken that thing off? Ezra remembered how her mom would tell her stories about the Mandalorian, it felt like a myth, though. A fairytale told to children. But she was looking at one right now, they were no myths, no fairytales. An older woman with coiled, light-brown hair and fair skin came out from her nook, followed by droids. Mando's body language showed how uncomfortable he was around droids. They exchanged words and the lady held out her hand, Mando shook it, handing her some credits. He walked back towards her, towards the Crest. She stood up and opened the door to the cockpit, where she climbed down the ladder and faced Mando.
"She said it'll take a few hours, but she can't start it until morning," he mentioned. "She has a spare room for us to use."
"Us?"
"It has two beds." Ezra became tense. "You don't need to worry," he added. "I want to sleep just as bad as you do. Plus, I have no intention to harm a princess."
She rolled her eyes and softly spoke, "Stop calling me that."
Mando managed a chuckle and started walking back out of the Crest. "Are you coming? Or are you going to sleep in that metal bucket?" She followed right behind him, not too close but not too far. She's never been to Tatooine, the sky was beautiful, the buildings were... different. It looked like a giant sand dune, probably because it was. Peli raked a hand through her frizzy curls and cocked her head at Ezra.
"Who's this?" she asked. "Is she your partner or another bounty?"
"Bounty," he answered.
She laughed, then her face went blank when neither of them showed an expression. "You're kidding, right? You've got to be- what did she do? Don't tell me you killed someone."
"My father's hunting me."
Peli crossed her arms. "A runaway princess?" She looked at Mando, then at Ezra, and back at Mando. "Dank ferrik, Mando, I've got a bad feeling about this. Now, get your butt in my house before I change my mind! I'm tired." Mando and Ezra made their way into Peli's home, that was a hoarder's heaven. An abundance of extra or broken ship parts, paintings hung on the wall in a scattered manner, cardboard boxes that were too old to be laying around, but surprisingly the house smelled clean. The bedroom that Peli offered them was very plain - a single queen sized bed pushed against the wall, two pillows and a single blanket folded over the bed. It was neatly made. Mando and Ezra looked at each other.
"You can take the bed," he said. "I'll sleep on the couch or the floor." She looked puzzled. "The bed's not as big as I thought. Out of respect to you, you take the bed. I'll be fine." He promptly left the room, and Ezra sat on the edge of the bed, taking off her boots. As she looked over her shoulder at the window, she saw Mando go into the Crest, the door closing behind him as he entered. She laid down on the bed, thinking about her father, about her friend and her new home. That night she laid on that stranger's bed and nodded off, with her mother's light saber under her pillow.