Author's Note
I have somewhere I gotta be today but I wanted to get this out real quick, so no time for much chat.
Go onward and enjoy!
Someday
A noise catches in Din's ear through the helmet. An odd noise. His head tilts to the side curiously, trying to place it. Not really yelling, exactly. But definitely voices. They're in hyperspace, so it can only be Mahin and the kid.
Unless he has another stowaway. But what are the odds of that happening again?
It doesn't come back for a few moments so he returns his focus to the nav computer. His gloved hand swipes through the holo to finish plotting their next course. Two pucks remain to fulfill this haul. If his intel proves accurate, then he'll be able to catch up to the second quarry on Tatooine. It would be…nice to stop by. See Peli again. He suspects the kid will be happy to see her, and that the feeling will be mutual.
He also finds himself wanting Mahin and Peli to meet. Something tells him they'll get on like a house on fire.
That sound echoes off the durasteel walls again. Bouncing up through the hatch from down below in the hold. There and then gone again.
Din slowly turns his seat around to stare out the cockpit door expectantly, waiting like the patient hunter he was trained to be.
There. Again. A voice, light and tinkling and full of warmth.
Laughter, he realizes.
Mahin's laughter.
And…the kid's. It's quieter and a higher pitch, but that's definitely the kid. Laughing.
Din falls back in his seat a bit dumbly. The kid's laughing. He didn't even know the kid could laugh. Physically, anyway. He's cooed and made his little chirping noises. A squeal. The odd babbling every once in a while. Even little gurgles that Din can almost call giggles. But never true laughter.
But, now, the child laughs. Laughs.
Because of Mahin. He doesn't know what's going on down there, but he'd bet anything that wonderful sound is because of her.
This ship has witnessed a lot over the years, since Din first climbed aboard as the covert's new beroya. The Razor Crest has known violence, and blood, and death. The most twisted of criminals got dragged through its hold. It has been shot at, torn, completely unmade. It has witnessed Din's struggles with the terrors of his past, his waking nightmares, his doubts and his shame. This ship has only ever known darkness.
Then the child came. And a ray of light found a way through the cracks. But even the child came with his own darkness and they've been struggling to keep each other afloat since.
Mahin, though. She is more than just a ray of sunshine. Despite the darkness that clings to her like a second skin. She still doesn't feel comfortable enough to share it with him—and he won't push her, he promised he wouldn't and he sticks to his promises—but she never fails to bring light to everyone around her.
This ship has never known such warmth before she came along. It never cradled laughter in its walls. Never knew stories of knights and princesses and dragons. Never heard songs until Mahin started randomly humming them, singing them to quiet the kid into sleep. This ship never flew so well before—Mahin is a damn good mechanic—and it never knew such care, even when Din tried his hardest to keep the old bird flying.
This ship never knew such joy.
Mahin has changed their lives more than Din ever expected when he let her stay.
Nav long forgotten, Din makes his way down into the hold. Wanting to feel that sunshine again. He finds the fresher door cracked open, laughter and—oddly enough—the sounds of splashing water spilling out. He slides his hand into the open crack to pull the door open the rest of the way.
Mahin and the child both freeze, heads swiveling towards him with matching wide eyes. Like bounties who know trouble when they spot it looming in the doorway. Mahin's hair is damp, her shirt and half her shorts covered in dark spots of water, almost completely soaked. The child sits in the sink, completely naked with his brown robe dripping wet from the shower spicket. Water fills the sink to the brim with white, sudsy…bubbles….
Mahin is giving the kid a bubble bath. In the sink. They've both given the kid baths before but….
A bubble bath?
"And what, exactly, is going on in here?" Din deadpans as he leans against the doorway.
Mahin looks down at the kid and then back up at Din, eyes still wide as she licks her lips nervously. "Um. Nothing?"
"Nothing?" He crosses his arms in front of the chest, thankful for the modulator in his helmet. It makes hiding his amusement so much easier. "This doesn't look like nothing to me."
Mahin's eyes suddenly track upward and then snap back down again very quickly.
Now, the hunter in Din would call that rather suspicious behavior.
"No, it is totally nothing," Mahin prattles on, words coming faster than usual. "Absolutely nothing at all."
"Oh, really? Because it looks to me like you two are up to no good."
"Oh, no, there's absolutely nothing going on in here. Nothing. At all. Right, ad'ika?"
The kid gives a coo that almost sounds like an affirmative. Which, honestly, sounds just as suspicious.
And as soon as the kid takes his eyes off of Din to look up at Mahin, a bucket-full of water and suds crashes down on top of Din's helmet, soaking his cowl, his cloak, and dripping off his beskar.
Din looks up into thin air. Nothing over him that could have dumped that water. Nothing he can see, anyway. He gives the kid the most unimpressed look he can manage with the full armor on. "Really, wamp rat?"
Mahin and the kid burst into cackling laughter that forces Mahin to grab onto the edge of the sink to keep herself upright. The child falls over in the water and splashes bubbles all over his face with the force of his full-bellied giggles. It just makes him laugh even harder. They both look so happy, so bright, Mahin's light turning her cheeks rosy and her eyes sparkle like the twin suns of Tatooine gleaming in the pools of a desert oasis.
Maker, Din's never seen a sight more beautiful.
And Din grins. He smiles so big under the helmet his cheeks hurt, a sensation he doesn't remember feeling since before his parents were killed.
A smile they can't see.
But he thinks Mahin knows, somehow, by how she smiles at him, bright green eyes dancing with warmth as she gazes up at him.
Maybe someday he can…she can….
Yeah. Maybe someday.
Author's Note
I'm not much for changing POVs too much, but I really wanted to show Mando's thoughts on the progression of his relationship with Mahin.
And fluff. Fun, bubbly fluff. :)
So, yeah, Mando's thinking of someday. Someday, maybe, he and Mahin can be more. I'm not sure under what circumstances Mahin will see his face yet, but I definitely want it to be a decision Din makes himself, because he wants her to see.
And I am operating under the belief that, even in Din's strict covert, spouses can see each other's faces. ;)
If you haven't guessed, yes, we're seeing Peli next chapter, yay! I want to do Cara and Greef eventually as well, but I need to do some more planning first before I write those.
Alright, hope you enjoyed, PLEASE REVIEW, and see you all next time!
Translations
Beroya - Bounty hunter
Ad'ika - Little one
