Din didn't really understand how his life had led to this point.
It didn't even seem real.
He had always been sure that he would spend his days from one bounty to the next, support the Tribe, bid his time at the convent if need be. He never thought he wanted more. It always seemed like enough, then she came into the picture and he found himself in a constant state of disbelief.
Yet, she was still here.
With him.
He almost couldn't fathom going back to his life before Rapunzel and that, that terrified him.
Rapunzel skipped ahead of him. Literally skipped.
It was odd at times, to watch someone with zero experience in society. She moved and acted without the subconscious filters most possessed from a young age. Part of him admired it, even if she didn't do it on purpose. The other part worried she would inevitably give offense to the wrong person.
She fluttered from one interest to the next. Everything from some smooth small rocks that she stowed away in her satchel to crunching dried leaves through her fingers.
We came out of the thin woods and walked through a cluster of squat houses tucked in the shade of the trees. She lightly ran her fingers over a wooden door.
His fingers twitched in response. Luckily the door didn't open.
The guard droid reacted as well. It placed a hand on her lower back and gently nudged her to the center of the dirt road.
Din tensed.
He'd kill it. It'd already be dead if Rapunzel hadn't seemed so fond of it.
The droid pulled back and sedately followed Rapunzel a foot or so behind and slightly to her left. A guard position if he'd ever seen one.
He just couldn't say why. Why it deferred to Rapunzel. Why it suddenly stopped it's hunt for him.
Din also followed Rapunzel but stayed back to keep the droid in sight.
"A baby!"
Rapunzel's exclamation jolted Din out of his head.
Just in time.
Rapunzel rushed toward a woman cradling a small baby in her arms. She stared at Rapunzel's approach with wide, fearful eyes. Her arms tightened around her baby.
"No, no." Din barked. He sped up and latched one hand around her arm. The other snared her waist, bringing her to a sudden stop. "You cannot have other people's babies."
Her outstretched arms drew in to her chest. She cradled one wrist in the other hand. He assumed her original attempt was to hold the baby but came off enthusiastic. Aggressively enthusiastic.
"I just want to see." Rapunzel said. Her voice tight with embarrassment. "I wasn't going to keep him or snatch him."
Din nodded at the woman. He pulled Rapunzel away.
"I know." He muttered.
And he did, but that mother didn't. She didn't understand that that baby was the first Rapunzel ever saw.
Rapunzel needed to understand that no one would entertain her odd requests like he did.
He dropped her arm. His other hand stayed on her waist, wishing he could feel her though the thick leather of his glove.
"You can't just run up to people like that." He scalded.
A vice grip on his arm stopped their progress. "My lady can have all the babies she wants."
Din sighed at the rough growl from the droid and shook off its arm.
Rapunzel gave it a soft strained smile. "It's okay. I just got excited. The baby looked so small and cute." She gazed over at another passing child. "I can't wait to have babies."
Din dropped his arm like she burned him. The conversation died when she caught sight of the market up ahead. Meanwhile Din internally panicked.
Babies. Fucking babies.
Did she know about sex? Birth? She knew they didn't just appear, right? Did he have to tell her about sex? A rock formed in his gut that he vaguely recognized as nerves. This was way over his head.
Rapunzel squeaked and ran off to the first table.
Din followed. His movements strangely awkward. He hadn't felt like that since he first donned his helmet.
Maybe he won't have to mention it at all.
The market on this planet held maybe fifteen small stalls. The structures were set in the ground with dull metal supports covered by tight canvas or fabric. Some sellers simply laid their wares from a spread out blanket under the shade of a stall. Others had deep setups with many tables.
The first stall they came upon held bolts of fabric, cut cloth, and woven rugs. Some were hung from the ceiling, which created odd moving walls. The shadows deepened as he walked further in after Rapunzel.
Too many places to hide.
A man deep in the shade of his wares showed Rapunzel a soft blue coverup that flowed through her hands like water. The man's eyes gleamed. The watery blue gaze locked on her with a greedy eagerness.
Din watched and stayed back, curious if Rapunzel had enough instinct to avoid the merchant's careful sell.
She interacted with an person like they were long friends, with warmth and openness and trust. Thus, she listened intently to the man with a smile. Her eyes wide and happy. They moved over every item pointed out. She responded with an open kindness.
The merchant seemed startled with the attention, but still pushed the light blue cover up.
He felt a odd sense of understanding toward the merchant. It was jarring to be the sole focus of someone's attention like that. To be met with warmth and kindness with the first interaction. Din liked it, but it still felt strange.
Rapunzel moved away with an apologetic smile and a soft laugh, even though her eyes lingered on the blue cover up. She stepped out of the stall and practically leaped toward the next. She almost vibrated with her excitement.
The droid stayed with Rapunzel, waiting at the entrance of whichever stall she stopped at.
Din looked over at the fabric merchant and went over to the blue coverup. The other man eyed Din carefully with none of the exuberant chattering from before. The fabric slid over his gloved fingers.
A faint vision of her draped in silky blue filtered through his mind like a ghost. Only silky blue and lots of pale pinkish skin...
"I'll take this." He said. His voice, distant. Distracted. His eyes on Rapunzel.
Rapunzel eyes flickered from one thing to another. She took it all in while looking for the things she really REALLY needed. Her fingers trailed over the raised vine pattern on the brush in front of her and moved to grab the plain black one next to it.
She didn't know how many credits Din had, but she knew there was a limit. It's not something she had any experience with but Mother often came home moaning about credits and thieves and sneaky merchants.
She would think the plain brush would be cheaper then the metal one with filigree, right?
The longer she spent out of the tower, the more frustrated she got with herself. She should know those things.
She should know about babies and credits and people.
A sheen of sweat covered her skin and gathered between her arm and her hair. She desperately needed to tend to it.
Sweat.
What a good way to describe this place, Rapunzel thought. It smelled of sweat, musk, and cooked meat.
She loved it.
Rapunzel glanced over her shoulder. Din walked up to stand next to her. She held up a plain pale bar of soap and the black brush. "Is this okay?"
He nodded and talked with the seller. His normally gravelly voice firm as he states the price he'd pay.
She winced slightly.
The woman on the other side of the blanket looked from her, to Din, and even glanced over at the droid. She nodded, the muscles in her jaw ticked. If Rapunzel had to name the look on the woman's face, she would call it a combination of fear and anger.
They walked away from the blanket. An uneasy feeling balled up in her stomach.
She glanced back over her shoulder at the merchet woman. Their eyes met and all Rapunzel could see were dark pools of hatred.
She swallowed hard.
Her eyes sought out Din. "Do people often fear you?" She asked in a soft voice. It couldn't've been her, right?
Din scanned the area with barely a head tilt to give it away. "Yes."
Rapunzel hummed.
Her eyes lit on a table with old tore paper books and data cards. A hand at the small of her back urged her toward it.
"Go on." Din said. He hesitated. "People usually act in fear or anger around my kind. They worry I'm here to take someone they know or cause trouble." He didn't mention that her clothes and coloring gave her away as a native of Corona and they likely hated her on principal.
Rapunzel's head whipped around to look at him in concern. "But we're not!" She glanced back to where the merchant woman was only to see her gone. The blanket left unattended. "Should we tell them that we're friends?"
Din made an amused sound in the back of his throat. "No and they wouldn't believe us, even if it was true."
"But it is!" Rapunzel insisted. "I don't want to hurt anyone."
"Now that I believe." Din nodded at the books. "Go look, we still have some time."
She walked up to the table. The shade of the canopy dulled the heat of the sun.
She sighed softly in relief.
She understood now why the natives would sleep through the morning heat. The sun already sat high in the sky and the heat and light almost made it unbearable. She couldn't imagine it getting hotter. At least in Corona, we had lots of cool rain to wash the heat away.
Her hands gently moved the books to read the titles. Careful with the rare items. She looked over at the rows of data cards. She'll have to look there next. They were probably more affordable.
One book got thrust under her nose. She flinched back.
"Maybe this one would pique your interest, miss?" The older man's voice roughed over each word like gravel. His sun tanned hands shook slightly as he waited for her to take the book.
She smiled and took the book. "Thank you."
A look at the cover showed a title that had almost worn off the front. Rapunzel squinted.
The Known Universe: A brief look at the tribes and species it hosts.
A few pages in showed an index. Her eyes skimmed the titles. Some of them stuck out in her head in no real order:
Sith
Jedi
Hutts
Yuzzum
Talz
Mandalorian
Her eyes lingered on Mandalorian. The book got snatched out of her hands. She huffed.
The droid stood next to her with her book on top of a stack of others with a stack of data cards about to fall off.
"These." The droid said to the merchet and took out a sack of small disks. All of which landed in the merchets hands. "All of them."
"Y-Yes. Of course." The merchet stuttered. He hurriedly shoved the disks into a metal lock box under the table.
She had a feeling that the droid just gave him a lot of credits, maybe more then it should've.
The droid bowed to Rapunzel. "I will return this to the ship, my lady."
She watched, shunned, as it walked away.
"Any of that seem weird to you?" Din questioned. He stood off to the side, in the shade of the canopy.
She startled again. Her hand pressed over her heart. "I don't know." She shrugged. "Maybe all droids act like that."
Din stared her for a long moment. "They don't."
