Chapter Summary: The adventures of you and Boba Fett continue.
"Alright, tall, dark and dangerous, what's got you in a mood?" You spun absently in the captain's chair as Boba Fett entered the cabin, immediately sensing the dark mood radiating off of the Mandalorian. You could see it in his body language and the tense way he held himself. You had gotten much better at reading Brooding Bounty Hunter in the time you had been stuck with him.
He didn't immediately answer you, instead dropping into the other captain's chair and punching controls furiously on the dashboard with enough force to nearly break them. The ship hummed to life beneath you, tearing away from the docking port on the planet. You waited, fiddling absently with a loose string on the clothes you had gotten from a shop some time ago.
"Someone's looking for us."
"Someone's always looking for us. It's the perks of the lifestyle you live." You reminded him, but a growing sense of worry started to bloom in your gut. Boba's life was always in danger of people who wanted to hunt him down, but he never worried about it. If he worried, then you definitely should be. "Why are you freaking out?"
"I am not freaking out." There was an undertone of annoyance running through those words.
"You're freaking out for you. C'mon, don't make me play twenty questions."
"Not until we leave the planet."
You bit your lip, silencing the torrent of questions in you. You had learned that it was best to sometimes let Boba answer your questions on his terms. If you asked too many questions, he shut down on you and then you were left to your own devices for hours on end.
Your best guess about this someone looking for the two of you was the Empire. They were really the only ones who could catch and corner Boba effectively; most of his fellow bounty hunters weren't capable of holding him down long. Was it Vader? Oh, Force, you hoped not. Boba was powerful and dangerous (and didn't that send thrills down your spine if you thought about it too much) but he was nothing compared to Darth Vader.
"The man who's after us is Cad Bane."
You started, pulled from your thoughts by his voice. "Pardon?"
"Cad Bane. Pay attention; it could save your life." If it were in any other scenario, you would believe he was showing his rare sense of humor. He had done it, on occasion.
"My ears work just fine, Boba. Who's Cad Bane?"
"Another hunter. He's older than me; he worked mostly during the Clone Wars." His voice caught funny on the end, in a way you couldn't describe. You knew very little of the Clone Wars, only what you had been taught in school that was officially sanctioned by the Empire and that Boba had been old enough to be alive then. "He was the best."
"I'm hearing the past tense here. What happened to him?" You frowned.
"After the end of the Wars, he had to go hide from the Empire. Rumor has it he had done something to earn Vader's rage and had to lie low to keep him from find him. He faked his death some time ago." Now that the planet had been left behind you two, he relaxed marginally. You could feel the tension you had been holding onto leaving as well.
"So why's he out and about now? And why is he hunting you?"
You could almost hear the bones creaking in his jaw from clenching it so tightly. "There's bad blood between us. He's found a way of evening the score."
"Yikes. What did you do to piss him off?"
"What makes you think I was the one who did something?" You smiled at the mild exasperation in his voice. "It's irrelevant at the moment. Right now, he's currently on our tail and we need to go somewhere safe."
"Why not wait till he shows up and take care of him then? You're a handy shot and not too bad at hand-to-hand." That was understatement; you had some experience fighting and had wanted to try it against him. You swore your tailbone was still broken from how badly he had handed your butt to you, but it had been worth it to his hands on you. A blush tried to spread across your face but you tamped it down.
"Too many variables. If I just wait for him, he'll change his plan."
"Which is…?"
The tenseness went back into his shoulders and he stared directly ahead. You waited for an answer, but nothing was forthcoming.
"Ugh, fine, keep your secrets. Bounty hunters have no weakness and yada-yada-yada. Where are we going then?"
"A safe place." He said. "It will take the better part of a day to get there and we need to stop and fuel before we get there."
"More space travel, yay." You muttered under your breath. You had barely spent any time on the planet before Boba had hightailed it out of there and were seriously getting sick of the same four walls. "I'm going to go crash for a while. Wake me up when we get to the space port for fuel so I can stretch my legs."
You left, not getting a response. You missed the way his helmet craned around his shoulders to watch you leave and the way he stared at the door for a moment after it hissed shut. All you knew was that you were going to go stir crazy if you stayed on this ship a moment longer.
"Wake up."
The voice cut roughly through your dreams, pulling you from the blissful oblivion of your mind back into the world. You groaned, grinding the heels of your palms into your eyes. "Boba, are we here already?" It had only been a few minutes since you had fallen asleep, or at least, that was what it felt like.
"Boba's not here, little one." Your brain's higher functions suddenly jumped online and you tensed. The voice was completely wrong; it wasn't Boba's low, soothing tone. It was raspy and metallic, echoing strangely and garbling words.
The alien smiling down at you tipped his hat in a strange gesture of chivalry. It was well worn by the years. He had dark blue skin and completely red eyes, with strange tubing hooked up to the sides of his throat.
"Who are you and how the hell did you find me?" You prided yourself on how calm you sounded, when internally you were freaking out completely. This was Really Not Good on so many levels.
"Ah, forgive my manners. I am Cad Bane and it wasn't that hard to find you at all. Boba thinks he's the best, but he forgot that I trained the people who trained him." The smile revealed sharp teeth and you felt a cold sweat break out on your skin. "It wasn't very hard to get you."
"He's going to kill you. You're just a relic from the Clone Wars." Part of your mind was screaming that it wasn't the best idea to antagonize a bounty hunter, but you shoved it aside.
He chuckled at that, the sound grating on your ears. "You've got guts, I'll give you that. Not many mouth off to me. No, little one, Boba won't kill me. You get to be bait and draw him out. I've been waiting for an opportunity like this for some time and I don't intend to squander it."
"Like hell I'll be your bait." You snarl, rage bubbling up in you. You were a lot of things, but bait you were not and you definitely wouldn't be for Cad.
He laughed again, sounding truly amused. "We'll see about that."
A/N: This was a gift fic for the lovely stickytablet who was recovering from a horrible sickness some time ago. I wanted to lift her spirits a little and wrote this based on her request for more Boba Fett and reader. I ended up continuing it from the first Boba Fett prompt I wrote and it got cheesy dramatic really quick. But I figured Cad Bane would be the only bounty hunter who would actually be able to give Boba Fett a run for his money, so he got pulled in. Plus, he would have reason to lay low after pissing Anakin off in the Clone War days. He may not know what he did to piss Vader off but he's sure as heck laying low if the Sith Lord of the Empire has it out for him.