A little fluff to end the year.

This chapter is a bit of filler. We will explore Corona's neighboring plant, Sapora, in the coming chapters.

I just want to reassure that I have not abandoned this story. My posting has been a bit erratic with the holidays and a new pregnancy. I do apologize and hopefully I can get back to a good posting schedule.

Thank you to all the readers sticking with me through the wait!

It took Din two days to captor his bounty. And it took Rapunzel almost as long to hopefully fix the hot water in the shower.

She was just about vibrating with excitement when the ship alerted that life form approached and Din appeared on the screen. She hit the switch to open the ramp with a wince as Din's earlier warnings rang through her head. Check the surroundings before lowering the ramp, he warned, even if he flagged her to open it. She forgot in her excitement. Her feet took her to the top of the ramp, hovering in the doorway.

Din dragged a man, bound by metal cuffs around his ankles and wrists, up the ramp and passed a wary, but curious Rapunzel.

It all took Rapunzel off guard. She understood his job on some level, but it was different to see it. To see a man, red in the face, sweat dripped down his face as he screamed passed the gag in his mouth. The cloth soaked with spit and blood. His eyes bulged as he struggled. And continued to struggle when Din heaved him up under the man's arms and shoved him in the cryo chamber.

She just watched on with wide eyes. Pascal sat on a nearby crate and looked on with sleepy eyes and gray skin.

Din finally turned around with a huff. The bounty's scream cut off when the machine hissed and froze the man. His shoulders relaxed as he took in the familiar metal walls. He didn't know how Rapunzel would react to a live bounty and it bugged him, that he seemed to care.

He cared enough for thoughts of her judgement to linger in the back of his mind during his trek back to the ship. He did his best to remember that it didn't matter. Her opinion didn't matter. She could leave if she didn't like it. It wasn't his problem. If only that removed the rock that settled in the bottom of his gut.

She stared from him to the cryo-frozen man. Her eyes lingered on his chest plate, a crease formed between her eyebrows. "Are you alright?" She asked with real concern.

He blinked in surprise. "Yeah." He glanced down at the small spray of blood across his chest plate. His mind flashed back to punching the bounty in the face when he tried to bum-rush him. "It's not mine."

An awkward silence blanketed the space. The froze man in the middle of it.

Din glanced to his right and had to look again. He pointed at the now neat stack of crates. Labeled with Rapunzel's curved handwriting. "You didn't have to clean." Even the floor shined, instead of it's normal dull, dusty appearance.

Her fingers brushed unconsciously through her hair. "I wanted to." Rapunzel shrugged. She stood with the toes of one foot balanced on the other as one heel twisted to the side. "I'm used to staying busy or trying to anyway."

Rapunzel perked up with the reminder of how she spent most of her time. "I want to be useful, maybe fix things around the ship." She just had to show him, then he'd agree.

Din tried to interrupt. More then a little alarmed. She's been fixing his ship? What the hell did that mean?

Rapunzel pulled him by his forearm to the refresher. His confusion mounding. "I noticed the hot water didn't work and you had all these manuals on the ships working. It was crazy! Everything from a breakdown of the hyperdrive to unjaming the ramps…" She rambled on as she tried to force both of them into the refresher. The small room was not made for two people, especially with one layered in armor.

Din stopped at the door, one hand braced on the door frame. forcing her to stop short.

The sudden movement forced her to stop short, just inside the door. She tugged at his arm. "Come on. I want to show you."

Din took a hesitant step through the doorway with a reluctant sigh. He didn't want to squeeze in the small room with her. Already, the soft smell of earth and flowers invaded his senses as her hair weaved a chaotic trail around them.

She smiled, a nervious twist of her lips, and turned toward the shower buttons. Without warning she turned on the hot water. "I haven't tested it— eek." She quickly fell back into him with her full body weight. He braced a hand on the wall to keep them up, but she also adjusted at the same time. It sent them both stumbling into the wall.

Din grunted from the impact. His arm braced around her waist, with his hand pressed into her stomach. The sink dug into his side as he used his shoulder against the wall to stabilize them.

Cold water pounded from the ceiling. It soaked Rapunzel. "I don't understand. I did everything correct. I read the manual—" Her voice held a mix of embarrassment and frustration. During her monologue, the water suddenly turned scalding hot. She yelped and pushed against him.

Din tried to eject and get her out the stream. The end result landed them in a tangled of limbs, hair, and armor with Din at the bottom of the pile. His back to the shower somehow.

"This seems familiar. "He drawled in a dry tone. He nodded his head at the now steaming shower. "I think you fixed it."

She turned to look up at his face. Wet hair plastered to her head. Water drops trailed down her neck to her collarbone. Din had to work to pull his eyes to hers.

"I fixed it." She clasped her hands together. "I can't believe it!"

Steam filled the room and he, surprisingly found himself smiling. He tried to get them up, only to slip and barely avoid landing on Rapunzel. The water pounded down on them, boiling hot at that point.

She sputtered and scrambled up, pushing Din back down on the floor. One hand pushed on his thigh, the other on his shoulder. She stretched to reach the buttons and finally turned the water off. Silence replaced the soft pounding of water on metal as Rapunzel settled. She somehow ended up straddling Din's thigh in her scramble, with one leg high up on his side. His armor siding dug into the inside of her thigh.

His hands gripped her hips in a firm grip. Heat flooded her face and neck, the pressure of his hands made her lower tummy clinch in a pleasant way. The moment stretched as she settled in it. Din's voice, low like gravel, made her jump.

"You still want to get out of the ship and see Sapora?"

Rapunzel smiled.