Rapunzel made sure to snag her datapad and pan on the way to the window. There wasn't much on the datapad, but maybe she could find someone to add more books to it. Her heart raced as they stood next to the window. A nervous nauseous feeling churned in her stomach.

"Where's the door?" Mando asked. Half hoping to give his hand a break.

Rapunzel blinked. "There is no door."

Mando just stared at her for a moment. "And you never found that odd?"

Rapunzel shrugged. Unsure what to say.

Mando glanced at her one more time before stepping up on the window ledge. He already started his descent when he realized she hadn't followed. He didn't even glance up. "Are you coming, Blondie?"

Rapunzel, at that moment and the ones before, stood frozen on the window ledge. Her hair over the hook and clinched in both hands. The satchel over her shoulder, across her chest, with the pan tucked under her arm. Pascel tied a piece of her hair around his waist and gave her a thumbs up.

Her voice shook as she whispered to herself. "Look at the world out there, so big..."

She couldn't do it. Her eyes flickered from the inside to outside.

Inside, outside.

Inside, outside.

Her breathing got ragged. "I just have to do it."

"Do I dare.?" She clinched her jaw against the wave of anxiety and panic. Okay, okay. It's okay. People go outside all the time. "I'm already halfway there..."

She just had to not think about it. In a effort to do just that, she swung out from the ledge. Instant regret hit the moment her feet left solid footing, but it faded just as quick. It faded as she slide fast down her hair. Wind flew by her face, so unlike the soft breezes that filtered through the tower. She had slid over halfway down, passed Mando, when she realized she had been laughing the whole way down.

Rapunzel clinched her hands around her hair, stopping her momentum right before she would've hit the ground. Her eyes wide with fear as she scrunched her legs to her chest. A sea of green fanned out under her. The individual strands shifted and swayed. She couldn't look away. So unfamiliar. She's only ever had stone under her feet. It seemed almost to strange to fathom...

She tentatively placed her feet on the grass and everything changed. Those soft strands wormed between her toes and tickled the bottom of her feet.

She hit the ground with soft knees and a full belly laugh. Falling fully onto her front. Still laughing, she rolled through the grass.

Mando followed with far less fanfare and far more effort. He jumped the last few feet and landed next to the laughing Rapunzel. His injured hand clinched and unclinched, throbbing in time with his pulse.

"Do you feel the grass, the dirt..." She started. She pulled up on her elbows. Her stomach pressed into the soft earth. A soft summer breeze ruffled through her hair. The pleasurable sensations caused goosebumps to race over her flesh. "Do you feel that summer breeze. It's just like I dreamed it'd be."

Mando waited passively for her to get through whatever she was doing. He watched as she ran into the stream, a look of wonder over her face as the water lapped at her ankles.

"You have never left that tower? Ever?" He asked.

Rapunzel paused in her splashing to look over her shoulder at him. "No. Never."

Mando left it at that. He gazed at her in thought as she explored. He felt a large amount of pity toward her. He overheard everything between Rapunzel and her mother and while he didn't understand why she never just left, he felt sympathy for the woman who had never felt grass under her feet till that moment.

He felt too much, in his opinion. None of it was his problem.

He needed to get a grip and some distance. Instead of entertaining this connection- chemistry to a woman half his age, almost a child, if not one in mind and experience. He couldn't get attached. But instead he let her hold his weapons and pretend to have some control as he agreed to help her.

Stupid.

He should've just took his weapons back there and left her. He could even still do it, he thought, as Rapunzel ran toward the cavern passage. He should. It'd be almost too easy.

All he could see is the effects of those possible actions. She would probably give up and go back to her mother, believing the bantha shit that woman had been spewing. She would waste away in that tower, alone, and ignorant.

He's been chewed up by all the universe had to offer, but he couldn't imagine never having a chance to experience it. And he would do that to her before she even steps foot into the real world. He didn't have it in him.

She had the determination to leave, but even he saw how fragile it was. He would've broke it and her if he just went on about his own business. He had no idea why he cared.

He sighed and followed a rapidly disappearing Rapunzel to the cavern. His eyes caught on her trailing hair. They'd need to do something about that. He also needed to find out why someone would want to steal her hair of all things.

"Wait." He called out.

Rapunzel paused and turned to him. Her eyes bright. Her cheeks and chest flushed a pretty pink.

There was a familiar tightening below his belt. He ignored it. "I'll go first. There was a droid trying to take my head off out there earlier."

Some of her excitement seemed to wan in the face of a threat. Her pause was enough for him to get in front of her and carefully squeeze through the passageway.

He activated the heat sensor in his helmet. His eyes scanned the clearing just outside the passage, catching the heat signatures of a handful of small animals.

No droid.

He turned his head to tell Rapunzel, only to find her inches from his face. He flinched back, unnoticed by Rapunzel as her eyes were scanning the hanging vines and the clearing behind it. Mando rolled his eyes. He took two fingers and pushed on her forehead, moving her out of his personal space.

"All clear." He said.

Rapunzel jumped at the sound of Mando's voice. All her focus had been on the thought of a killer droid. Her mother had told her about those, though she always had a hard time believing that one. A droid used to care for her and the house when she was very little, till Mother got rid of it when she was about eight. She loved Stacy, the droid. It was hard to imagine a killer Stacy.

"All clear..." Rapunzel repeated. Her tone hesitant. She wasn't exactly sure what that meant.

Mando stared. "There's nothing out there that will kill us." He said, slowly and clearly. "Presently."

Rapunzel smiled. She pushed passed Mando, intent to explore. She ran into the clearing. It almost overwhelmed her. The trees with their stunning leaves, the flowers and birds. She giggled. "This is amazing. I'm never going back." She said as she kicked through some leafs. Shivers raced up her legs at the odd textures. Things she's never touched or felt before. But then she realized what she's done.

"Oh my god. I have to go back, this will kill Mother." She moaned. She dropped to the ground in dismay. Her form instinctively curling inward. Her legs clinched against her chest. Her cheek rested on her knees.

Her thoughts were torn between what she wanted and her obligation to her Mother. She had to stay to protect her hair. Mother said so. She'd be so heartbroken. After all she did for Rapunzel...

Mando couldn't believe it. He shook his head. "You can't be serious." He snapped. He had a hard time understanding her loyalty to a woman who locked her in a tower her whole life.

Rapunzel blinked. Her eyes wet with unshed tears. "What?"

Mando took a deep breath and let it out. "You obviously feel loyalty to your Mother, but you couldn't have really stayed in that tower your whole life. Right?"

Rapunzel nodded, mutely.

Mando gestured to the world around them. "Then go, figure it out. I got things to do." Mando turned to walk into the dark woods, annoyed. He couldn't sit here all day and play babysitter.

"What? No!" Rapunzel scrambled to her feet. "I don't know where to go. You have to help me."

Mando stopped but didn't turn around. "I don't need to do anything." He held up the satchel he picked up during her drama feast. His weapons already back on his person. He felt a sharp pag of guilt, but pushed it aside. He tossed the satchel at her feet.

Rapunzel sat there with a stunned look, that quickly turned to determination. She scrambled to her feet. "Just take me to the city, please." She paused. A hurt and sad look flashed in her eyes. "Then you can leave and never see me again. Please."

Mando turned and stared at her. He sighed again. "I have to pick up a bounty I dropped. It's near the city's edge. I'll- I'll take you that far." He said, reluctantly.

Rapunzel perked up and grinned. "Oh, thank you." She skipped up to him, snatching up her satchel on the way. She hoped that the trip to his bounty would give her time to convince him to take her all the way there.