Bo-Katan's eyes flickered open. Her head was on Din's chest. It was rising and falling steadily. She played with chest hairs a bit and heard him grunt in his sleep. They were going to have so much to do when they got back, she wanted to savor this moment. It was a sweet intimacy that felt so shiny and new, she didn't want anything to touch it. The ship air was cold so she snuggled a little closer to steal some of his warmth and she saw his lips curl into a grin.

"Hey." She said

Her voice broke the silence in the air.

Shit.

The ship was too quiet, which meant they were idling. 'How long have we been here just hovering over the landing pad?' She flipped the thin blanket off and start grabbing at random articles of clothing to cover herself. She quickly shuffled over to the pilot chair to read their stats. 'Dammit.' Her right arm had fallen asleep having been under Din for who knows how long.

"What's wrong?" He asked groggily.

She started their landing procedures best she could ignoring the floppiness of her arm. She scrunched her nose when the feeling of pins and needles kicked in.

"It looks like we have been here for about twenty minutes just hovering." Bo-Katan said, still not taking her eyes off the controls.

She felt a soft pressure on the back of her head followed by a warm hand on her bare shoulder.

"Good morning." Din said pulling up from kissing the back of her head.

He started separating their clothes so they could fully get dressed.

"I think those might be my trousers that you have." He chuckled. "Could I have them back?"

She tossed them to him.

"You watching the show?" He teased.

She didn't realize she was staring at him so intently as he was trying to get dressed.

"So, last night-"

Bo-Katan was interrupted by the ship's comms.

"Did you forget how to land?" A voice belonging to one of the docking agents asked.

Her hands immediately went to cover her face and she let out a groan. So someone had noticed the ship just awkwardly floating, it was so early in the morning she had hoped no one was around yet.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it happens more often than you think." He offered, she looked so cute when she was embarrassed.

"Have you ever left your ship idling in the air above the landing pad for a considerable amount of time?" She looked up and asked.

"Well...no actually."

She tossed her head back and groaned again, what an annoying answer. She got up from the chair and swiped the pile of clothes Din had left her and started getting dressed as quickly as she could.

"We should hurry to the council, I'm sure they've received the files we sent them already."

Her hair had gotten long enough now that she had to flip it out of the collar of her flight suit.

"I haven't gotten anything back from Teva yet." He said as his helmet sealed into place.

She felt a little sad seeing his helmet again.

"Come on let's go." She said after tightening the last strap on her boot. He hit the control to open the ramp.

"What were you even doing? You had us waiting down here and pinging your comms over and over again." Called out a disgruntled voice from below.

"I blame you for this." She grumbled as she side-eyed Din.

He was completely stiff and expressionless now. She thought about how different he was just a few hours ago, hoping to maybe see that side of him again soon.

"Sign." Sniped the grumpy dock agent as he held out a tablet. "There's an autopilot function, do you need an auto park function as well?"

Bo-Katan ground her teeth as she signed the parking forms.

They quickly made their way to the great hall and approached the door to the council room. The sun was just making its first appearance over the mountains.

"Okay, let's get this done." She sighed bracing herself for the approaching reaming she would get from the council for sneaking out on a mission during her honeymoon.

She turned and looked at him one last time before grabbing the door.

"Wait!" He said and grabbed her wrist.

"What? We need to get moving on this. Whatever it is, let's address it later." She said impatiently.

He stutter a bit but she was already pushing the door open with one hand and had her helmet in the other.

Chey Tan leaned back in his chair and sighed after Bo-Katan finished going over their findings.

"This is serious." Chey Tan stated plainly.

"We need to start gathering troops to send out." Said the Armorer from across the table.

"I think it would be wise to send a small reconnaissance group back to Endor to collect more information before we make any action." Said Re-Han

"I support Re-Han's idea. Additionally, I think we should send out several more recon groups to planets close to Endor, there could be more bases in the near area. In the pictures shown, the base already looks to be rather established. We can never be too careful when it comes to the nefarious plans of the empire." Said Chey Tan.

"If we surprise them now with a hit it'll send them a message." Said Korben as punched his palm for an added spirit of aggression.

"If we act rashly we might not have more opportunities to gather valuable intel." Re-Han retorted.

"Going with a more reconnaissance approach, I believe it best still to send several of our best troops. They lost Moff Gideon a year ago but they might not be as vulnerable as they seem. Gideon spearheaded many of their plans, but let's not play ourselves thinking he was irreplaceable to them. We should be prepared in case things go transversely." Said the Armorer.

She placed a hand on Korben's forearm to ground him back in the conversation. He had lost his brother fighting Gideon and wanted revenge on the empire.

"I have reached out to Captain Carson Teva of the New Republic Star Fighter Corps. He just got back to me and said that the woman pictured at the base, Elia Kane, has raised his suspicions in the past. This confirmed those suspicions. We have his full support in any effort we make in finding out her objective and bringing her in." Din Djarin said as he read through his messages.

"That's excellent. I propose that we begin drafting a contract between ourselves and the New Republic Star Fighters. We can set up a meeting to establish a firm plan. And Armorer I agree with your earlier statement." Said Re-Han.

The Armorer nodded her helmet in Re-Han's direction.

"I wish to bring something up that I hope won't be a problem but we should be prepared for it nonetheless." Said Hi-Hiro.

Everyone turned their attention to the financial advisor.

"We've been rebuilding here, we've made much progress, but I wouldn't consider the dent we have made in our work as rendering a stable civilization. We have many vulnerabilities as we currently stand and taking able bodies away from here would obstruct our progression. Now, let's say we dig into this problem and find out that it is a much bigger situation. We don't have the resources to go into a war. All of you have seen our budget, we may be in the black now, but having half our population off world and losing more of our brothers and sisters isn't a devastation we could survive." Said Hi-Hiro.

The room was quiet for a moment.

"No matter the size of this problem, it will touch us here on Mandalore, whether we do something about it or not. I say that for now, we do as the Armorer suggests in tandem with the New Republic. Once we have more information we candeciden from there. It hasn't been long since we have been working together to rebuild Mandalore and our reputation is still malleable to others, this could be an opportunity for us to set the stage." Said Bo-Katan.

There were several nods and grunts of approval.

"I motion to start the process of a contract with the New Republic, as our Mand'alor has suggested." Said Re-Han.

"I second." Said Korben.

"Looks like we will be busy for a while now." Said Chey Tan. "We will deliberate over the details and send you a draft. We will probably be too busy to discuss the manner in which you choose to spend your honeymoon..."

"Oh hush, Chey. At least we can see that they've taken their roles seriously and they're enjoying each other's company." Scolded Hi-Hiro.

Something about Hi-Hiro's tone felt teasing, but Bo-Katan couldn't figure out why.

"Please leave us. We will attend to the rest of business, resume your time together." Said Re-Han.

Din Djarin was thankful for his helmet to hide how mortified he was and reached for Bo-Katan's wrist to guide her away from the meeting.

"What the hell was that? Did something occur that I'm not picking up on?" Bo-Katan asked.

Din Djarin mumbled something that he couldn't even quite comprehend.

"Let's just get home."

"There was something you wanted to say earlier, before the meeting. Did you want to talk about it now?"

He didn't respond and was silent for the remainder of their brisk walk.

'Did I say something wrong? He can be so hard to read sometimes.' She thought.

It was still early in the morning when they arrived home.

"Well, I'm going to freshen up a bit first. Would you like a cup of caf?" Bo-Katan said hoping to open up the conversation.

Din took off his helmet and his expression looked worried.

"What's with you?" She said as she made her way to the fresher.

He didn't get to answer before she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

"Din! What the fuck?!"

She whipped around quickly to face him again.

"I am so sorry."

"What the fuck is this? You let me go in there like this?" She said pointing to the massive and dark hickey on her neck.

"I'm so so sorry. The sun was barely up when we were on our way so I didn't even notice it until the moment before we walked in there."

"That's what they meant. Oh my gosh. I could seriously just strangle you right now. You could've stopped me or told me to just put my helmet on. Oh, I want to punch your stupid handsome face so badly."

She paced back and forth around their kitchen biting her thumbnail. He put his hands on her shoulders to hold her still.

"Maybe they'll forget about it?"

She tilted her head back and let out an irritated groan. Din twirled a lock of her hair along his index finger and looked down at the mark he left.

"If you're really worried about how it looks I could just get the rest of your neck so the color would be even."

She laughed and lightly smacked his arm.

"I can't believe how ridiculous you are. I cannot catch a break, first, the ship idling, and now this. You're going to get me in so much trouble. I have to set an appearance, you do know?"

"I thought the great Mand'alor could do as they please and everyone would have to respect them regardless."

"It's different for women. People hold us to different standards." Her tone turned a bit more serious with the topic.

"I'm sorry." He said brushing his thumb gently across her soft cheek.

He leaned in a kissed her softly expressing his apologies. Her hands automatically went to him like a magnet and started wandering up his back. She bit his bottom lip and things started to get rougher and more passionate. She jerked away suddenly and glared at him.

"No more marks." She stated.

He looked at her with such sad eyes.

"None at all?"

"Nope. Never."

He tugged at her waist to bring her close and kissed the top of her ear.

"Not even if they're only in places I will see?"

A hot and heavy blush grew across her face.