"I don't think I'm very good at this game," I scratched my head while staring at the deck in my hand. My masters didn't teach me to play cards back home. "You don't have to be good; you just need to be lucky. Speaking of which, I'm in. And I'm going to raise you three bolts and a motivator." Me, Kuiil, and the mechanic- her name was Peli Motto- had been playing cards for roughly an hour now. Meanwhile Peli's bots worked away on our ship, careful to stay clear of me- per Mando's orders. Speaking of Mando….

We all flinched at his sudden arrival; he came in through the same door he exited from. "Mando!" I perked up happily. Good, he wasn't gone for too long. He came over to where we were sitting and Peli stood up. "I've started the repair on the fuel leak. There we go… We're having some setbacks I wanted to talk to you about; it's going to take me a lot longer than expected," she explained while pushing buttons and whacking the side of our ship annoyed. Then Peli looked at Mando, who was going onboard to grab his bag. Wait, his bag? My eyebrow raised. "But I figured you were good for the money, since you have extra mouths to feed," her hand motioned back to us. "Thank you," Mando told her in a very kind voice. My heart dropped when he started to walk away again. Peli followed him, as did we.

"Oh… Oh, guess I was right; you got a job, didn't you?" "You got a job, Mando?" I reiterated Peli's query. The Mandalorian exited through another door, trailed by the three of us. "You know, it's costing me a lot of money to keep these droids even powered up," the mechanic told Mando. He ignored her, heading over to one of the two weird, bike-looking vehicles waiting outside. They were hovering just above the sand. Now for sure my heart dropped out of my chest as I began to realize what was happening.

There was this young, handsome, rugged fellow propped up against one of the bikes. His arms were folded, and he had this air of swagger about him. "Hey, Mando. What do you think? Not too shabby, huh?" Mando scanned his bike over in an unimpressed manner; he played with one of the gadgets and looked to the man. He shrugged. "What do you expect? This ain't Coreillia." Mando didn't say anything. My heart skipped a beat when he set his bag down onto the back of his bike.

"Mando," I heard my mouth say without my brain's permission. All eyes were on me quite suddenly, while I stood there staring back at the Mandalorian. "Whoa! Well hello, beautiful," swagger man smirked cockily at me. But I didn't move my eyes off Mando; it was hitting me hard what was about to happen. He quickly finished securing his bag onto the back and came over to stand in front of me. I merely gazed up at him, waiting…..

"Stay with Kuiil, and don't leave the shop," Mando instructed. I nodded, then nervously bit my bottom lip. "H-how….. long are you going to be gone for?" You could hear the worry in my tone. "Eh, couple of days," swagger man replied for him. Peli shot him a glare, silently telling him to shut it. Meanwhile my eyes lowered a bit in disappointment. I knew this was coming; he told me himself that he wouldn't be taking me on any jobs with him. Still…. This would be the longest we'd been apart from each other since the day he picked me up back home.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Mando reassured me. I grinned up at him, though admittedly it was a sad grin. "I know you will… I-It'll be fine; two days will go by like that," I tried- in vain- to sound optimistic. Mando's head lowered a tad. "Remember to carry your blaster." "Always," I nodded gently. That gave me an idea; I have something from him to carry…. Now, for some unexplainable reason, I wanted him to have something from me. I don't know why it was so important in that moment to me, but it was. It really was….

I pulled out the now dried pink flower Kuiil had bought for me back on the castle; I brought it off the ship last time. Everyone, particularly Mando, watched as I lifted up his gloved hand and carefully set it on his palm. I was smiling genuinely now. But before Mando or anyone could say anything, my eyes shown up at him. "Hurry back. I'll be waiting….." "I will," Mando responded in a very soft tone. I watched as he set the blossom safely behind his breast armour plate….. the spot right above his heart.

With that, the Mandalorian went back over to the bike and mounted it. My lips parted as my heart skipped another beat; this coil curled itself around both my lungs. "Mando!" My hand reached out on its own accord. He glanced back to me and I blinked several times, comprehending what I'd just done; my lips parted a sliver. "Be careful…. please." A very brief yet tender moment of silence proceeded. Mando nodded more considerably, sincerely than I'd ever seen before….. Then, after one last look straight at me, he and swagger man rode off into the distance. I didn't move from the spot where I was standing until they were out of view; my hand planted on my beating chest.

By now both Peli and Kuiil were watching me in a sort of awe, not that I noticed. Soon enough though, Peli simply waved her hand in the air. "Ah, they'll be fine. He's a Mandalorian," she turned to head back inside. "Yes; yes, he is," Kuiil stoically agreed with her. He said that, but he was looking at me while he said it. While I was watching Mando drive off, he was watching me…. Kuiil watched me and knew something I had yet to know about Mando…. and myself.