Din started a fast pace through the woods. His bounty stared him right in the face. It loomed closer with each step. The dead milky eyes peeping out from the scattered purple and blue leaves. A somewhat disturbing vision.

They came from the other side of the ditch he dropped the body in. The dried leaves crunch beneath their feet. Somehow they made a twisted circle in all their travel and ended back here.

A gasp came from next to him. He looked over to see Rapunzel staring at the dead body. Pascal turned pale, burrowing beneath the hair at the back of her neck. His stomach dropped. He didn't even think about it, so used to death, but she wouldn't be.

She took a tentative step forward. Lines formed between her eyebrows as she stared on in concern.

"Sir, are… are you okay?" She asked in a soft voice. A hand rubbed along her arm. The frying pan hanging limp from the other. Her eyes betrayed her unease.

He stared at her, startled. He blinked. Unsure how to precede. She didn't seem to know he was dead. Something obvious to Din.

The bounty's eyes had a blank, cloudy gaze. Open and unblinking. His body had that unnatural stillness. But… all that and Rapunzel didn't seem to see it.

But Rapunzel did see it, even if she didn't know what she was seeing. Something about the man made her gut churn. An uncomfortable feeling pulsed through her, like a heaviness. She stared at him, his body covered haphazardly in leaves and dirt. A twig crossed over one hazy blue eye. He didn't move and a stillness floated around him, stifling the air. His eyes stared at nothing.

"He's dead."

Rapunzel jumped. Her breath left her in a woosh. She glanced over at Din. "W-What?"

He stared back at her wordlessly.

She watched as he moved closer to the man on the ground. The dead man. She had no real concept of death. She's…she's never seen it before, in any form. Her tongue came out to moisten suddenly dry lips. Sweat beaded on her upper lip. The pit in her gut churned. She quickly looked away. Her eyes flickered over her environment. Seeing but not perceiving.

Rapunzel found it difficult to process the world around her, but she managed to stumble through it. It all turned out to be thrilling, in a way. This though…

It felt like going face first into a stone wall. Her breathing became ragged, puffs of air leaving her parted mouth at a rapid rate. A pressure on her shoulder caused her to shriek and jump.

Din. Just him. His fingers pressed into her shoulder with light pressure. "Calm." He said. His hand eased from her shoulder, down her arm, and stopped at her wrist. His grip still light as his thumb rubbed the inside of her wrist in a slow back and forth. The worn leather of his glove soft and supple on her skin.

Rapunzel took a deep shaking breath. And another, till her breathing matched the rhythm of his soft movements. Her gaze finally focused and the large blob in front of her formed into her armor-clad companion.

She didn't know what to say. How to describe her confusion, her distress. But that was one of the things she loved about being around Din. She didn't have to say anything. He let things be. He let her process and think without interruption.

"Come on." Din said, after a long silence. He motioned with his head behind her. "Ship is that way."

She followed without comment. Her mind wondered to the dead man they left behind. She resisted the urge to look back. "The dead man. What happened to him?"

Din paused a step at her question. She recalled that that was his bounty. Why did he leave him back there? She thought he needed him to get the credits.

"Don't you need to take him with? What about the bounty on him? Does it matter that he's dead?" Her questions came out fast, one after another.

Din glanced back, briefly. She didn't know why, but she got the sense that he was amused. His response solidified that thought. "Are you done?" A teasing quality to his voice. Amused.

Her lips twisted up as one shoulder rose.

He hesitated to answer her. "I killed him. The bounty stated dead or alive. It said they would be satisfied with a bio scan as proof." He held up a device, about the size of his hand, then tucked it in the pouch on his belt.

Rapunzel stopped. Her eyes glued to his back.

Din slowed to a stop when he realized she wasn't following anymore. He turned and met her gaze. She stared at him. Her gaze thoughtful. He almost wanted to lie. To paint a better picture of himself. One that wasn't a killer. A hunter.

But he couldn't.

He wouldn't hide who he was, what he did, and would probably do again.

She licked her lips. "Why did you kill him?"

Here's his chance, he thought. He could pull things in any way with his answer. He could go extreme, say he killed him for fun. He could go the other way and get her to sympathize with him. Instead he found himself telling the truth. "We were being pursued by guards. He was determined to get me caught. I made the call that letting him live threatened me, so I eliminated the problem."

It came out cold and almost harsh, but maybe that's what it was. It's often his life. Cold, harsh, brutal, frank, and... lonely.

Rapunzel stared at him. She surprisingly, didn't reveal much. Something new. She was usually very easy to read. Her face reflected her emotions from one moment to the next. Her eyebrows came together, forming lines between them. "Did you enjoy it?"

Din flinched at the question, the motion almost undistinguishable. "No." He snapped back. He enjoyed a lot about his life, even a good fight, but he's never taken any pleasure from killing. Killing has always been a means to an end. A result of other actions at times. He eyed Rapunzel, surprised.

"Do you kill people often?" She responds without pause.

"Not if I can help it."

She nodded absently.

He wished he knew what ran through her head then.

Rapunzel wasn't too sure what to think, herself. Her thoughts jumped all over the place. She struggled to separate her mother's influence from her own ideas. She found she didn't think much of anything about Din's actions and it meant more then he could know that he was honest about it all. She decided then to roll with it. Maybe she'd figure it all out with time.

Did that make her a bad person? She should feel more about- well about all of it. The dead guy. His killer. Was there something wrong with her? She wasn't sure.

Din had proven to have an honorable nature, with a form of shy kindness. He had helped her, even encouraged her. That meant something. Didn't it?

She needed to know more, she thought. She wanted to know him. As a Mandalorian. As a hunter. As a man.

She nodded. "Okay."

His head tilted slightly. "Okay."

She nodded again. "Okay."

He stared at her for a long moment. He let out a hard breath and turned around, leading the way to the ship.

The editing was a bit rushed. I wanted to get out this chapter, so there may be mistakes I didn't catch.

To answer a reviewer: Yes, Let Down Your Hair will, eventually, start to merge into The Mandalorian series. We are not done with Tanged (It may seem that way soon, but we haven't seen the last of Mother Gothel and Maximus!). There will also be a bit of a time gap before we get into Episode one of The Mandalorian.

And that's all I'll say about future events, because if I keep going I'll end up blabbing spoilers.

Thank you for sticking with me and this story! I know updates are coming a bit slower then before.