Author's Note: First off, I want to say thank you for the kudos thus far. I'm not as confident in my writing as I used to be and it really meant a lot. It's been so long that I've written anything that I feel just so beyond rusty. It doesn't help that my medication tends to make my brain feel like mashed potatoes. I re-wrote this section several times over, so I apologize if there is any mistakes.

We're still following the main story-line of the first few chapters here. But I promise things will start changing soon as I start twisting events and adding new plot into it. Bare with me ya'll.

Odd fact: When I was writing this, I didn't realize just how big Grogu actually is at first? He's 1 foot 11 inches tall. Next to Din that's pretty damn small, but for short-ass Jax I found it hilarious that he literally is almost to her mid-thigh.

My mind was going so fast I almost felt dizzy. A Mandalorian.. here? I don't know a lot about Mandalorians as a whole, I had never actually met one. But everyone heard the stories. They were so rare now.. To have one standing in front of me, hand threateningly close to his blaster.. My heart felt like it was gonna push it's way out of my ribcage.

Growing up, I had heard plenty of stories about Mandalorians. Most people on my home planet had a very negative view on them. The stories were rotten, skewed, seen through biased eyes. Like most things I had heard growing up, I chose not to believe any of it. Most of what I had heard was pure Bantha-shit. I had made a decision long ago to make my own opinions about cultures and people in general.

There was one thing I believed about them however, what anyone with two braincells knew. Mandalorians were, and still are, dangerous. Their dwindling numbers didn't change that. If anything, it made them more lethal. Like a Nexu backed into a corner.

If I die on this planet, I swear I'm gonna kick the Maker's ass.

The only sound that stretched between the four of us was that of the windpump rotating in the limited breeze and the croaking of a very distraught frog. I was pretty sure the smaller creature was chasing it, but I hadn't looked down to check.

I couldn't help but observe the man before me. His entire demeanor demanded attention, I felt like I couldn't look at anything else. He was tall and broad, stars was he ever. His shoulders were wide, the mismatched pauldrons only adding to his build. His chest looked strong, his thighs too..

I needed to get myself together and stop eye-fucking him. I wasn't sure if I was entranced or terrified at this point. The messed up part of me realized that it was probably a mixture of both. It was almost scary how a man covered head to toe in armor could be attractive even at first glance.

It was one thing to hear about Mandalorians, it was another thing to have one in front of you. I couldn't help but wonder how much of the stories were true, and how much were fiction.

His helmet was captivating, the metal was different, I had never seen anything like it. I could recognize the durasteel of the majority of his armor. But his helmet, no. On closer inspection I realized that his right pauldron and the heart-plate on his chest were made out of the same kind of strange metal. There wasn't a single imperfection on either three pieces.

Not one.

The unpainted shine was entrancing, it was a beacon that no doubt drew attention wherever he went, not just mine. The more I stared at the metal, the more I felt a nagging feeling in the back of my brain. I had heard about it before, I was sure I had. Mandalorians had a specific metal that was from Mandalore didn't they?

The fact that me, a certified junker couldn't remember a metal like this was driving me crazy.

My fingers twitched at my sides anxiously. I wanted to touch it, but I was also smart enough to want to keep my fingers attached to my hand.

The fact that I couldn't see his face, couldn't observe his facial expressions added a veil of unease. He couldn't be here for... No, there's no way. I banished the thought as quickly as it came.

I had been careful.

He had been cautious.

I was safe.

Just breathe Jax, just breathe. I forced myself to inhale and then exhale. Slow and steady until I was breathing almost mechanically.

His visor remained locked on me in turn, neither of us had looked away from the other. Had he noticed how I had perused his body? Maker, I hoped not.

His gloved fingers twitched by his blaster.

One breath, then a second.

Finally, his shoulders relaxed and his hand shifted away from his blaster.

My next breath came easier.

"Jax." He repeated. I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise.

His voice was deep, sinful even. It rumbled low, almost soft in one way and biting in another. The baritone was assertive but almost velvety in it's timbre. You could tell that he didn't need to raise his voice to get people to listen to him. The modulator in his helmet added a very subtle synthetic layer to his voice, making the mystery that was this Mandalorian even more intriguing.

It felt like he had his own orbit and I had been forcefully yanked into his gravitational pull.

I forced myself to nod, trying to focus on what he had said as well as clear my head. I knew I had taken too long to reply, and I could feel my face flush as I instantly cursed my own awkwardness. My tongue felt like sandpaper and I knew it wasn't just the lack of water during the day.

"You're back late." Kuiil spoke at my side, breaking me out of my thoughts abruptly.

I hadn't heard him approach to grab the reins out of my clenched hand. My fingers were stiff and protested when I tried to hastily let go of the leather. When had I tightened my grip?

"I told you the Blurrg's hate me." It was harder than I would have thought to turn my attention onto the Ugnaught, and even more difficult to keep my voice steady. "I ended up walking back." I explained further. I was acutely aware of how my voice sounded almost too quiet even to my own ears.

Kuiil made a noise that almost sounded like a scoff as he scrutinized me.

If he had noticed the intense staring contest I had with the Mandalorian, he was kind not to mention it.

"Don't give me that look." I grumbled, gaining some of my confidence back as I shrugged a shoulder. "I tried." I was suddenly reminded that I was barely taller than Kuiil, once again drawing my stupid thoughts back to how big the Mandalorian watching us was.

Bantha-balls, could I stop thinking about him for a kriffing second? I had barely been in his presence for more than five minutes.

"You and the Mandalorian seem to have something in common." Kuiil almost sounded amused this time. Almost. But his face betrayed nothing as he moved to return the Blurrg to it's pen.

What had happened while I was gone, why did he also hate Blurrgs? I felt like I had missed a lot, which was just typical wasn't it? The one time something interesting happens on this stupid planet, I was off dealing with rude-ass Jawas. I hadn't even found what I was looking for either.

A waste of time.

Turning my head back to the Mandalorian I realized with a start that he was still watching me. At least I assumed he was.

The t-visor was centered on me, but it wasn't like I could actually see his eyes to know for sure. For all I knew, I was just horribly paranoid and he was looking off over my shoulder. He seemed the type to never let his guard down. I wouldn't be surprised if he was acutely aware of the permiter around us.

He must have been thoroughly distracted when I had approached, I don't think I would have gotten as close as I had if he had been fully paying attention. Thank the stars he hadn't shot me on sight.

Swallowing thickly, I once again had to will my voice to remain strong and steady as I straightened my spine. You got this Jax, he's just a man. Just.. an intimidating man.. with lots of weapons on his person.

Well this pep-talk wasn't going well.

"Don't like Blurrgs?" I questioned, needing to hear him say anything. Just anything to break the tension surrounding us.

It was definitely not because I also craved to hear his voice again. Absolutely not.

"Not particularly." His response was flat, short. A slight static lacing the words through the modulator as if he had almost been speaking too low for it to properly catch it.

Definitely a man of few words.

"Thanks to him, we have two more Blurrg's with us." Kuiil spoke as he walked back towards us.

"Oh, how wonderful." I didn't bother to hide my lack of enthusiasm, even as my brain struggled to really absorb the words being spoken to me. I had a feeling I wasn't going to actually be able to focus on anything asides from the armored man until he was long gone.

Hearing an odd babble near my legs I glanced down to see the small creature I had noted earlier when I first approached. Except it wasn't a creature, it was a child. He seemed to have abandoned his frog chase for the time being and decided that I was far more interesting.

He was short, the top of his head barely reaching the middle of my thigh. A quick glance confirmed that he would only come up to the Mandalorian's knee in height. He was obviously a baby of some kind. He was green and a bit wrinkly with light fuzz on his head. His ears were big, as were his brown eyes.

My insides melted as he blinked owlishly up at me. He was the cutest thing I had ever seen in my life.

Without bothering to glance at the two males, I squatted down before the baby. He cooed at me, his ears shifting up in curiosity. He didn't seem weary of me, quite the opposite in fact.

"Well aren't you cute?" It came out as a mumble, but by the way I could hear a rock crush under a boot, I knew the Mandalorian had heard me and shifted forward.

That was an interesting reaction. He was obviously protective of the child. Not that I could blame him in the slightest. Was it his? He certainly didn't seem to be green with big ears under all that armor.. He was definitely human shaped.

"What is he?" I questioned, moving my gaze up and over to the visor that still hadn't looked away from me.

Was there something on my face? Did he not trust me that much? He seemed to trust Kuiil well enough.. Was he worried about me being so close to the baby, or was it something else?

"I don't know." The Mandolorian replied.

Okay, well that answered that. The green child was definitely not his.

"Does he have a name?"

"I don't know."

Well now I was just bewildered, what was this Mandalorian doing with a baby? He didn't seem to know anything about him, and yet his body had pulled taught again. He was tense. Even more so than when I had approached. He was definitely defensive over the little guy.

I felt something touch my knee through my leggings and turned my attention back to the child. A small clawed hand with only three fingers rested on my leg.

Reaching forward with some almost comical effort, his small hand grabbed onto a handful of my long hair, tugging slightly. It didn't hurt, it mostly seemed like he just wanted a better look at it as he pulled it closer to his face. He tipped his head studying the light blonde waves. Turning his gaze back to my face, he cooed again and released his hold on my hair, seemingly satisfied.

Reaching out slowly in turn, I lightly touched my wrapped fingers against the top of his head, smoothing them over to lightly rub the tip of his ear. His eyes lit up happily with another string of babbling.

"You like that little guy?" I couldn't keep the smile off my face, this baby was too damn cute.

He was so small, emphasized even more so by the oversized robe he wore.. It kind of resembled a sack. A nice one though, soft even.

The need to protect him surged through me and I didn't bother questioning it. I had never thought myself as maternal, but I also hadn't been around a lot of babies either. Certainly not tiny green ones. Maybe it was just this one? He seemed to effect the big bad Mandalorian too, so at least it wasn't just me.

"Jax."

Begrudgingly I rose and turned away from the child, focusing back onto Kuiil. "You saw the Jawas earlier, yes?"

I nodded.

"The Jawas stripped his ship." He gestured to the Mandalorian with an upturned palm.

I frowned. "That explains the parts I saw. They've never had parts like that before."

The Mandalorian stood straighter, taking a step forward again. A small spark caught my eye, drawing my attention down to his left vambrace. It had been damaged recently. How had I missed that before? Had I been so wrapped up in the pure force of his presence that I didn't even see it?

Furrowing my eyebrows I was instantly annoyed with myself. Such a glaringly obvious thing to overlook.. Especially for me.

"I can fix that." The words were out of my mouth before I could fully think them over, my annoyance making me far more confident than I had felt minutes earlier. I pointed one of my wrapped fingers towards his arm with a nod of my head. I didn't want to seem like I was ignoring the situation at hand - but I needed to fix that or it was going to drive me bonkers well into the night.

He glanced down at his vambrace, and then back up at me, his helmet slowly tipped to the side. I recognized the gesture as curiosity.

"Can you?" This time there was a slight tilt to his voice, almost polite in nature.

I nodded. Before I could even turn around to go find what I was looking for, Kuiil was already passing a multi-tool into my hand and I inwardly cringed. Had he anticipated this?

Turning my gaze back onto the Mandalorian I took a deep breath through my nose and forced my feet to move across the dusty rock at an even pace. Please don't let me trip in front of a Mandalorian, my ego will never recover. The closer I came to him, the more nervous I became.

Did I mention he was big? He was dwarfing me as I stopped at his left side. The crown of my head didn't even fully reach his shoulder and I was painfully aware of just how small I was as he turned and tipped his helmet down to look at me. The visor was completely black, I couldn't see anything behind it. Somehow I just knew that was completely one sided. I had a sneaky suspicion that he could see everything perfectly. Probably even better. Who knew what features were built into that thing?

"Can you hold this for a moment?" I held the tool up in front of him. He took it from me without question and I was drawn to how large his gloved hands were.

Focus. Focus.

Tearing my gaze away from him, I reached up and grabbed the charcoal gray wrap that started beneath my elbow and started unwinding it from my arm. He didn't say anything, he didn't even move, just dutifully held the tool exactly as he had grabbed it, still poised for me to easily take it back.

I worked the material down off my hand and then moved to the other pieces concealing my fingers before I repeated the practiced motion again on my other arm.

Folding the material, I quickly stuffed it into a pocket on the side of my leggings.

Moving my now bare hands, I shifted and grasped onto his forearm, pulling it towards my side. I moved my palm to grip his elbow and let his forearm rest partially atop of my own much smaller one. I was doing my best not to pay attention to how warm he was as well as making a conscious effort not to look up at him again. I had embarrassed myself enough for one night.

I held out my hand and felt him put the tool back into my palm.

I was trying so hard to ignore how nice his forearm was - he was strong and I was reminded of my earlier thought.

He was dangerous; trained to be. And maker if his body didn't drill that into my head even further.

Breathing deeply, I got to work fixing the damage on the vambrace, shifting small wires here and there and soldering them back into place. Despite the fact that I could still feel his heavy gaze, I fell into my usual rhythm. This I could do, even under his scrutiny.

"What did this?" My voice was barely a mumble.

"One of the Blurrgs." Hearing his voice above my head, so much closer this time made my stomach flutter annoyingly. I couldn't stop the nervous laugh that bubbled in my throat. Well that certainly explained why he also hated Blurrgs.

"You can trade for the parts." Kuiil announced before I could even think about replying to the man at my side. Redirecting our conversation back to where it had been before I had interrupted with my instantiable need to fix everything broken I saw.

I grimaced when I realized he had been watching us this whole time. Did I look as much of an idiot as I felt?

"With the Jawas? Are you out of your mind?" Disbelief bled into his tone as he turned his attention away from me and onto the Ugnaught. The first time he had looked away from me since I had arrived.

"We will take you to them." Kuiil declared just as suddenly as he had spoken up. "I have spoken."

I shot a quick glance Kuiil's way, noting the way he had said 'we' without even asking me.

Not that I was actually going to disagree or complain. I wanted to come.. as much as I loathed seeing the Jawas again so soon. Especially considering it was going to be a longer journey this time around. I had intercepted the Jawas before they got to their usual 'home', they'd be further by now.

Moving the tool away, I examined the armor, making sure I hadn't missed something.

"Thank you." His deep voice rumbled above me.

When had he turned his attention back onto me? Swallowing thickly, I glanced up and met what I hoped was his eyes behind the pitch-black visor.

"Uhh.. yeah." I cleared my throat nervously. "No problem. You might need to replace the whole thing soon though, even I'm not a miracle worker." I let his arm go and took a step back out of his personal space as he nodded once.

A happy babble sounded off to my right. Turning my head I blanched at the sight that greeted me.

"Uhh.. Your baby is eating a frog."

The Mandalorian turned his head as I watched the baby start swallowing the frog whole.

"Hey. Spit that out." His voice had taken on a firm edge and I startled. Well, if I thought his normal talking voice was commanding.. Stars I had not been prepared for him to sound like that.

Despite his order, the green baby gulped down the rest of the frog easily, giggling afterwards. Not even remotely chastised. He was probably one of very few that dared not listen to the man in front of me. Or at the very least, look as if he was going to get away with it.

"Well, this has been a very weird day." I mumbled louder than I had intended.

The baby burped and I had to duck my head to stifle a laugh. The child laughed with me.

"I will prepare a Blurrg." Kuiil announced.

Kuiil had me pull out the cargo sled so that he could hook one of the Blurrg's to it, confident we would be bringing the parts back with us. The Mandalorian was sitting up front using a storage chest as a seat while I climbed in behind him with the kid who had decided his floating pram was not the place to be and had taken up residence in my lap.

Night had fallen before we had even set off on our journey, the only lights we had were the two lights on the front of the cargo sled and the flashlight I had sitting down next to me. It was a flashlight of my own design. I had built in several features, including a switch to change how bright it could be, and the type of light it would give off. There was also a little switch under the light itself that created a base so you could set it down turning it into a lamp.

I loved the thing and I was ridiculously proud of it.

The kid didn't stay in my lap for long, not but an hour after we set off to find the Sandcrawler it started pouring rain. And I do mean pouring. We were drenched to the bones in minutes. I quickly put the baby in his pram and closed it, shielding him from the storm.

The Mandalorian shifted in front of me, turning his head to look at me as I sat with my legs crossed in front of me. The visor looked even more eerie in the storm. He definitely had night vision on that thing.

"Are you alright?" I could just barely hear him above the rain.

I nodded and grinned.

"I love the rain." It wasn't something I had ever experienced before I came here. One of the only nice things on this stupid rock of a planet.

He stared at me for a second longer before he turned and faced forward once again. The fact that he had checked on me wasn't lost on me. He was a contradiction it seemed. He was dangerous, I already knew that. You could sense it, it was almost tangible around him. It was in the way he caried himself, the way he moved. Careful and precise.

So the fact he had checked on me was just.. unexpected. Did he feel like he owed me for fixing a piece of his armor?

I couldn't get a read on him and I knew that had a lot to do with the fact I couldn't see his face, couldn't gauge his facial expressions. I hadn't ever had to deal with that. I was used to watching people's expressions, growing up it had been a necessity.

Despite the rain, there wasn't a chill to the air. The rain was tepid while the night stayed relatively warm. The clouds had trapped in a lot of the heat from the day.

There wasn't anything to do or to look at, I couldn't see past the glow my flashlight provided. I spent all night just feeling the rain hit my skin and watching the broad back in front of me as he breathed.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

It was weirdly relaxing to watch, the rhythmic way his breathing stayed even. Never changing.

The storm continued most of the night and the Mandalorian didn't check on me again.