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Chapter 12

~X~

"If I am to die this night…I would see that the night does not pass quietly."

~Mandalorian saying~

Ravana was completely mortified. Was Mando serious? Had that filthy Rodian gangster actually been interested in her? Had he truly believed she'd been offering herself as a bargaining chip instead of the necklace?

All the way back to the Razor Crest she'd ran the evening's events over and over in her mind, trying to understand how she could have been so blind…so utterly foolish and stupid! Yet, how was she supposed to know what males desired, especially those from alien species she'd never before laid eyes on? Sure, Tannor had kept coming around, attempting to attract her attention, but he had been a disgusting space-slug who'd have slept with anything that had a heartbeat. Ravana had simply never considered herself attractive…to anyone.

Yet, if Mando had been telling the truth, she had just received a taste of what it felt like to be…desired. Ravana wasn't sure she liked how that felt either, at least not coming from the sludge she'd met that evening. And had her naivety now put them all in danger? If Mando failed at his task, would she be expected to…to what? Ravana wasn't even sure she knew an answer to that.

When they arrived back at the ship, she immediately went into her little room and tore off the dress, wanting nothing more than to be free of the revealing item as quickly as possible. Slipping back into her shirt and pants, she felt more like herself, someone who had always been able to handle whatever came at her. Yet, even when she was fully dressed, she hesitated, unsure if she could go out and face Mando after what had happened. She'd both messed things up and humiliated herself in the process, and Ravana could only imagine what the Mandalorian now thought of her. How would she ever live this down?

"Ravana?" came his voice from outside her room, accompanied by a quick knock. "We need to talk."

He no longer sounded angry, though she was certain he was still highly disappointed with her, and in her mind that was almost worse. Yet, Mando deserved an apology, one she was determined to give him even if the effort killed her.

Unlocking the door, Ravana slid it open, keeping her eyes lowered for she felt unable to meet this gaze. Still, she could feel his eyes boring a hole in her head from beneath his helmet, his reflective visor offering her no hint as to what he might wish to say. Part of her wanted to wait for him to speak first, to yell at her or whatever he planned to do, but never being one to stand prolonged silence, she blurted out her regret first.

"I'm sorry, Mando! I know I screwed everything up and I wouldn't blame you if you threw me off your ship and flew away right now," she wailed.

"Ravana," he began, yet she still had a lot of regret to get off her chest.

"I have no idea what came over me, I just…just…oh, I don't know. I was in way over my head and too stupid to realize it," she continued. "So, let me have it, I deserve everything coming to me and more." Here she stopped, squeezing her eyes shut and preparing herself for a severe tongue lashing…or worse.

"Ravana, stop!" Mando ordered once more, this time able to get a word in edgewise. "I'm not going to yell at you. Nor am I going to throw you off the ship."

"You're not?" Her eyes popped open immediately, his words shocking her almost as much as what he'd said outside the casino. "Why not?"

"For one thing, the kid would probably use his strange powers to explode my head if I did," the Mandalorian stated, his tone almost teasing. "And second…you did help tonight. Just not in a way I was completely comfortable with. Still, we did get the job, and that was mostly due to you."

"Then…then you're not mad at me?" This was almost too good to be true.

"No. I'm not mad," he confirmed.

"And you were only trying to scare me with all that talk about that Rodian finding me desirable…right?" she asked hopefully.

"That I was dead serious about," he informed her, his tone having lost all its teasing quality. "And whether you are wearing a fancy dress, or the clothes you have on now, you need to come to terms with the fact that you're a beautiful woman and that males of any species are going to find you attractive. Understand?"

Ravana just nodded silently, not at all sure what to say, yet her actions seemed to satisfy her companion.

"Good. Now, why don't you check on the kid and your mutt and make sure they haven't destroyed anything while we were away," he told her, turning around and heading for the cockpit. "I need to find out what's on this chip and then decide how I'm going to do whatever the hell it takes to see that the job gets done."

"All right," Ravana called after him, watching him nimbly make his way up the ladder. "I'll fix something for us to eat in the meantime." When he was at last out of her sight, she all but collapsed onto the bench beside her, both relief and panic washing over her. Relief because the Mandalorian was no longer upset with her and had actually said she'd been helpful. Yet, the wave of panic was due to the fact that Mando had just said she was beautiful!

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Din sat in the cockpit staring at the screen, his mind alternating between the information displayed there and the conversation he'd just had with Ravana. He hadn't intended to tell her she was beautiful, not because it wasn't true, but because it was bound to complicate things. He was a bounty hunter and a loner, recently saddled with the job of finding the kid's people, but he had no time for the thoughts that had been bouncing around in his head lately. A woman was a distraction, and one he couldn't afford right now, especially not a beautiful one like Ravana.

Clearing his thoughts, he gave his full attention to the job at hand. Fexl Zojo was plotting to take out a fellow member in the syndicate, a Falleen, yet in order to do so with minimal fuss, he was in need of the access codes to his target's lair. Which Din had now been hired to acquire. Looking at the layout of the fortress he would need to break into in order to obtain the codes, he could see that getting in wouldn't be easy. Getting out with them, however, would prove even more difficult…yet it wasn't impossible. It would simply require all of his skills and concentration, which meant he needed to put Ravana out of his mind.

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Din spent the next day preparing for the job, checking and rechecking his armor and weapons, making sure that there would be no gap in his defenses. His beskar would protect him from most blaster fire, yet he didn't intend on being in there long enough for anyone to discover his presence and start shooting. That was the plan at least.

He could tell that Ravana had been trying not to hover, yet the Razor Crest was not exactly the roomiest of ships, thus they had constantly run into each other all day. Her worry was evident, both in her movements as well as her facial expression, and that in turn bled over into the kid and Zax. By the time he was getting ready to leave, Din could have cut the tension around him with a knife. With a sigh, he turned and gave the three of them a pointed stare.

"Lock the ship up tight after I go," he instructed, slinging his incinerator rifle across his back and strapping it in place. "Don't let anyone onboard, no matter what they say or do. Understand?"

"Yes, Mando," Ravana nodded obediently.

"And if I don't come back…" here he paused, seeing how she had actually flinched at the idea. "…hit the button I showed you on the control panel, it will automatically take the ship to Navarro. You can get help from Greef Karga and Cara Dune, if she's still there." The former shock-trooper had expressed interest in working for Karga as his enforcer, but Din wasn't sure how long that might last. Knowing their personalities the way he did, he figured the two would either work well together, or have already killed one another by now.

"I remember," Ravana agreed once again. "But you will come back."

"That's the plan," he said with a nod of his helmet, turning as he pressed the button that lowered the ramp at the back of the ship. Just before he made it to the bottom, he heard Ravana call his name.

"Mando!" He stopped, but only turned his head slightly in her direction - not wanting her image to be the last thing burned into his mind when he needed to keep a clear head. "Please be careful."

With a final nod, he walked away, hitting the button on his wrist-guard that would close the hatch.

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Ravana had only known this kind of fear once, and that had been when Moff Gideon had attacked her home. Still, even then she had been somewhat in control, able to fight back, even if it had been to no avail. This time all she could do was wait and worry. After he'd gone, she'd locked up like Mando had said and then taken Zax and the kid up to the cockpit. Not because she wanted to be near the button that would whisk them off-world to safety should he fail to come back, but because it was the only place she could watch for his return.

As the minutes turned to hours, and those hours ticked by with utter slowness, her nerves began to fray at the edges. Was Mando all right? Had he been captured by whomever he was assigned to steal the codes from? Was he by chance hurt or even worse…dead? Ravana refused to even let her mind entertain that morbid idea. He had to come back. He simply had to.

The kid had long ago fallen asleep in her lap, having played with most of the buttons and yanked on the control stick until she was afraid he would break it off. Still, it had entertained him, allowing her to worry and fret without her concerns fostering off onto him…or at least she hoped they hadn't. Zax, being more attune to her moods, had sat at attention most of the evening, his ears perked up and listening for any sign of danger.

When had the Mandalorian become so important to her? Sure, he'd saved her life, Ravana being certain she would have died otherwise if he hadn't returned to Pessue. Then he'd offered to let her travel with them until he deemed it safe for them to journey back to her planet without fear of being tracked. But did the lump in the pit of her stomach stem only from gratitude? He was a very difficult man to unravel, and the fact that she had no idea what he even looked like made it even worse.

In the short time since she'd met the Mandalorian, Ravana had often imagined what might lay beneath his shiny helmet. If Mando had been particularly irritating that day, she'd amused herself with the idea that he had the face of a Gamorrean, his stubborn attitude matching the pig-like creature quite well as far as she was concerned. She'd only known one from that species before, a lone male who lived on Pessue for only a short time. However, Ravana remembered him as a very surly fellow. Then, when her Mandalorian companion was being excessively silent and sullen, she imagined he looked like a Kaminoan, her Uncle Rexl having described that race to her in great detail. Saying they were very quiet and thoughtful, only speaking in a calm and dignified tone. However, the extremely long neck didn't quite fit with Mando's build, so that description was perhaps a bit harder to conjure in her mind.

Yet, right now, Ravana didn't care what her Mandalorian looked like…she just wanted to see his shiny silver helmet and matching beskar armor walking towards the ship, letting her know that everything had gone well.

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Ravana had stayed up most of the night, never taking her eyes off the front window, literally counting each minute as the dawn approached. The kid had woken a few times, demanding he be fed and given attention, which had helped kill a bit of time, but then it was right back to keeping watch. She was just about ready to give in to tears of worry when she saw something moving in the shadows below. Holding her breath, she rose from the chair and leaned forward, attempting to get a better view over the kid's head as he played with the buttons in front of her. Yet, when there came the glint of metal off the figure, followed by the child's squeals of glee, she knew her prayers had been answered. Grabbing both the child and Zax, she raced down the ladder, eager for his signal to open the hatch.

Ravana had just made it to the controls, her hand hovering over the button when she heard the familiar voice of Mando over the intercom.

"Open up, it's me," he instructed, his tone betraying his deep weariness, yet it was music to her ears.

Without any further delay, Ravana did as directed, impatiently waiting for the hydraulics to lower the door enough for her to catch her first real glimpse of her companion. He walked up the ramp slowly, with one hand wrapped around his middle, though she thankfully couldn't see any blood or signs of injury. When he reached her at last, he held out his hand, the necklace she'd offered to Fexl dangling from his gloved fingers.

"It…it went well?" she asked hopefully, reaching up to accept his offer. "The job is done?"

"It's done," he nodded. "And my business with the Rodian was completed to our mutual satisfaction."

Ravana understood what Mando meant by that, as well as the returning of the necklace. He was attempting to convey the fact she was now safe from Fexl Zojo, and that he would not come looking to collect. Overcome by a sudden wave of gratitude and relief, Ravana threw her arms around the Mandalorian's neck, nearly sobbing into his chest. She knew it was not the proper thing to do, and from the way he had gone ridged at her touch, he was apparently just as shocked by her actions as she was. Still, Ravana couldn't bring herself to let go, and clung to him for just a little while longer.

When at last she was able to compose herself, she pulled away, stepping back as she wiped the tears from her eyes in embarrassment.

"I…I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I was just so worried. We all were," here she gestured to the kid and Zax, the two of them standing at their feet, both nearly bouncing with excitement over seeing Mando back safe.

"Everything is fine," he assured her once more, his tone almost as stiff as his posture. He did take a moment to kneel down and give the kid's head and ears an affectionate rub. He even went so far as to pat Zax very briefly, much to the zaktan's delight. "But I say the best thing for us to do now is leave…immediately."

"Yes, of course," she agreed. "How can I help?"

"Take this," he instructed, standing up and handing her a small bag that jingled when she took it. "And get yourself and the kid strapped in. We may be square with Zojo, but no sense in hanging around long enough for his adversary to figure out who it was who stole his access codes." And heading for the ladder, he made his way to the cockpit, eager to put this planet behind them.

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The moment he sat down in his chair, Din leaned his head back and shut his eyes. He was once again bruised and sore, his beskar having deflected quite a bit of blaster fire as he'd made his escape. As he'd expected, getting into the Falleen's compound had been the easy part - it was getting out again that had proved difficult to the extreme. Only after he'd downloaded the access codes and left the information center had he paused in a room that looked to hold a great deal of expensive artifacts. The last thing he wanted was anyone who might discover him on the way out to suspect what he'd originally come for. Thus, a little diversion, and a small swiped statue that looked absolutely hideous, had been his cover.

However, it appeared that this Black Sun member valued his artwork more than Din had anticipated, and the moment he removed the figure, the alarms began to sound and before he knew it, he had a dozen blasters all aimed at him and prepared to fire. In the end, Din had to utilize most all his weapons, each one having either protected him, or outright saved his hide as he'd fought his way through the guards and thugs that had come at him. He figured he owed his life to the fact that this member of the syndicate chose to scrimp when it came to hiring good soldiers, and most of them he was able to take out with ease. Still, some had decent aim, and he would be stiff and aching for a few days because of it.

Yet the unexpected welcome, and warm embrace, he'd received from Ravana had gone a long way in making the whole evening worthwhile. Well, that and the money he'd earned upon turning over the chip containing the access codes. He'd even thrown in the ugly statue he'd stolen for good measure, demanding that the Rodian return the necklace, and disavow any intentions he might have had on pursuing Ravana. Thankfully, Zolo had agreed.

With what the job had paid, Din knew he could now offer Ravana a real chance at rebuilding her life. It was that goal that had been his focus while on his mission, doing this for her…as well as keeping her safe from the Rodian's clutches. His blood still boiled at the thought of how that slimy creature had let his dark eyes wander over her, as if she had been something to possess. Ravana was no one's plaything! And it shocked Din to realize that he would do nearly anything to see that she remained safe. First the kid…and now Ravana.

"You're going soft, Djarin," he told himself with a disappointed shake of his head.

As he punched in a new set of coordinates and lifted off, Din realized it was for this reason he needed to take her and Zax back to Pessue! He and the kid had already disrupted Ravana's life enough, and he feared that if she stayed aboard the Razor Crest much longer, there was a real danger of her disrupting his…in more ways than one.

Din had a mission to complete, one that would require all his concentration and attention. The kid came first, as did all the foundlings rescued by the Mandalorians. He owed his allegiance to them...to the covert.

This is the way.

However, for the first time since swearing to the creed…Din found he actually resented it, just a little.

Well, the job is done and all is well on the Razor Crest. And it looks like both are now starting to realize they have feelings for each other. Question is...how long will it take to let the other one know?

Sorry I didn't write the 'job' in detail...I just wanted them to get the job done and get off the planet. It was simply a way to make some money, it has no bearing on the story really. So, mission accomplished...now let's move on.

Soooo, now that Din has the money to give to Ravana so she can go home...do you think she will? How many say yes...and how many say no?

Guest Reviews:

Guest: I'm so happy you loooooooveeee it. And I do hope you weren't disapointed with the 'job'. Din did it, and very well too...even if he did have to take a bit of fire getting out. Mando could handle it. Thanks!

DinJarinsLover: Well, isn't that a very fitting name for this story. ha ha. And yes, they are working on the 'getting together' thing, but it will take a while...can't have them falling too fast. And that blasted helmet of his is really slowing things down! I swear she might have kissed him a dozen times so far and sped things along, but nooooooo, he just won't take it off! Thanks for joining the party.

Phantom Guest: I always tell people I'm not naïve...I'm trusting. ha ha. But yes, Ravana is a bit unprepared for the big, bad galaxy and all that's in it. Good thing Mando is there to help her navigate it all. Oh yes, I think he was about to snatch her up and run for a moment, and to heck with the job. ha ha. Good thing they pulled it all off though. No more worries.

Travelbug: HELLO! So good to see you again! Nice of you to pop over for a peek. So glad you are hooked and I hope I can keep you coming back for more. Baby Yoda IS stinking adorable...but you DO know he's not really Yoda as a baby...they only call him that because no one knows what species Yoda was from, so that's what they nick-named him. Yoda is dead by the time this story takes place (nine years after Return of the Jedi) I believe. So yeah, The Kid is a new character, just from the same species as Yoda was...with Force powers too. (2) Oh, and what an unexpected treat to find 11 new reviews in my box when I woke up this morning! THANKS. I think Ravana and Din BOTH want to keep the kid...I mean, who wouldn't, he ADORABLE! Yes, the kid can heal ouchies. Too bad Din has to stop him from fixing his leg...can't let just anyone know what kind of awesome powers he has, right. You know, I don't know if the real Yoda could do Force healing...I never saw him do it. Interesting. (3) Nope, so let's just hope that the kid is the clean sort. ha ha. Ravana would keep the kid for sure, but as for Mando...she's still debating on if he can be fully trusted. (4) I would probably be startled if a cute naked green thing came running at me too. ha ha. Yes, they ARE forming a bond of trust...even if he still has to leave in a day or so. (5) Din may think he wants to stay, but I just don't see him as the settling down type...he must be free to roam the galaxy. BUT...he could do that with friends. I actually had Ravana picked out for a potential OC in a Hobbit story. ha ha. But brought the name over here when I came. Can't remember where I saw it and wrote it down from, probably a Dwarf name generator, or under one of those baby name finders on the internet. (6) And String-bean will miss her. She will miss the excitement Din brought I think. Flying with a Mandalorian is probably a highlight...yes? (7) I had to have SOME reason for Mando to come back, and him just finding out that Gideon had gone there didn't seem believable, so this worked wonders. Enter the Zaktan thief and boom...instant reason to go back. (8) Yep...Din had to fess up that he was the one who undressed her...and did he REALLY switch his helmet's setting? Oh yes, watching the show would really help when reading this. And there are only 8 episodes and they are only 45 minutes long each...it won't take you too long. (9) Nope, she's stuck to him like glue. See, he LIED to her...he saw it all. I do love me a twisty/turny story. Who wouldn't want to cuddle with the kid...or Din? ha ha. (10) Oh, I'm glad you love their interactions, I do too. They are like an old married couple, right? Compliments? You call those compliments? Painful is what I call them. (11) All caught up...including the one you just read, right? So, in the meantime you plan on reading one of my longer stories...which one? Little Son of Durin will take FOREVER. ha ha. Thanks for all your wonderful reviews! Again, good to have you on board.