Suggested Listening:
Definitely Unexpected - Hans Zimmer (from The Holiday) | ...a new day
Anna and Albert - Joel McNeely (from A Million Ways to Die in the West)Kissing You - Craig Armstrong (from Romeo+Juliet) | ...where to next? {Shoutout to BEX1981 for reminding me about this one!}
Anna and Albert - Joel McNeely (from A Million Ways to Die in the West) | ...can we have a day? {My go to theme for these two 3}

I woke slowly and gently, drifting out of a dream that I instantly forgot, but knew it was a good one. Eyes still closed, I groped around next to me, feeling the empty bed. When my hand landed on something unrecognizable, I pried open my eyes and saw that I was clutching the blindfold from the night before. An involuntary smile crept across my lips as I rolled onto my back and looked around the cabin. A beam of morning light was streaming through the porthole, illuminating the debris from the evening's events — though notably more organized than I remembered them being. My clothes were draped carefully over the foot bars of the bed, and Din's armor — and helmet — were nowhere to be seen.

I wondered for a moment if I had imagined the whole thing. But then physical remembrances of the night, memories of his soft, breathless voice as he murmured my chosen name, his lips pressed up against my ear, his fingers laced tightly with mine, pinning my hand above my head with tender yet dominant force… I writhed in pleasure and covered my grinning face with my arm, my body responding involuntarily to the memory.

But what did that mean for us now? What would we be to each other now that the barriers had been crossed, the fantasies made real?

Only one way to find out…

I dressed and treaded quietly to the cockpit. Din was under the dash, his hands nimbly working on a mess of cables hanging down from an open metal pane. He was fully armored again, but having touched him with my own hands, literally feeling his humanity for myself, I found his armored figure to look a little different. More rich, more rounded — like I could see him properly, now. Like he had come into focus.

"It's a sad state of affairs if you have to hotwire your own ship," I said, leaning against the doorway.

His head snapped up, and the top of his helmet made loud contact with the base of the dash.

"Sorry," I laughed, covering my mouth.

He ducked his head out from under the dash and leaned forward onto his knees, rubbing the top of his helmet. He chuckled, softly.

"Good morning."

"Hi," I replied, smiling.

"I was just trying to fix, um —" he said, standing. "The static on the radar, it's been driving me nuts for weeks."

We looked at each other across the cockpit, and for a moment, I held my breath. Maybe he regrets it, I thought to myself, fearfully. Maybe everything is weird and uncomfortable and spoiled now.

"I didn't want to wake you," he continued. "I wanted you to get to sleep."

"Thanks," I said.

After a brief hesitation, he walked over to me and pulled his glove off, touching his fingertips to my chin and gently turning my head to examine what I assumed were bruises on my neck.

"Is it bad?" I asked with a chuckle, trying to keep it light.

I heard a hiss of exhale through his nose. He was angry at the sight.

"It looks like it hurts," he murmured, his hand gently cupping my face and his thumb carefully running under the line of my black eye.

"It does," I admitted. "But… I'm okay."

I smiled up at him, a glimmer of the night before in my eyes. I heard the faintest chuckle rumble through his vocoder and pictured him smiling — maybe even a small blush. The thought made my heart swell. He touched the forehead of his helmet to mine for a brief moment of connection.

"Good to have you back, Moss," he said, a slightly teasing note in his tone. I laughed. "Come sit down."

He led me to the pilots seat and dropped down again to work under the dash.

I sank into the seat and pulled my knees up, tucking my feet under myself comfortably and leaning back.

"So," I mused with a smile. "You got your helmet fixed. I take it we both had an eventful few days."

"I found the Armorer with the rest of my covert," he said, reaching up with effort to unite two copper wires.

"That's amazing!" I knew how much his people meant to him, even though I didn't really understand the many complex fibres of their culture. "I'd love to meet them."

He stopped working for a moment, hesitating before continuing.

"I don't think that'll be possible," he said in a dull voice. Instantly I was gripped with anxiety.

"… They won't want to meet someone like me?" I asked tentatively.

"It's not that. I'm… I've been cast out. I'm an apostate."

He was speaking in a low monotone, but I could hear the undercurrent of pain in his voice.

"Oh, Din…" I murmured.

"I broke the creed," he said plainly, yanking out a cable with a loud snap. "When the Armorer asked, I had to answer truthfully. That makes me a 'Mandalorian no more'. This is the way."

I almost detected an edge of bitter mocking in his voice, but it was swallowed up by a somber straightforwardness. I bit my lip, desperately wishing to be able to make it better.

"Is there anything we can do?"

"If I want to rejoin my people," he answered, activating the fuse pen and slipping it up into the dash. "I have to go back to Mandalore and retake the creed."

"If you want to rejoin?"

"It's impossible, anyway," he continued, not quite addressing his lack of certainty. "I'd have to go to the waters in the mines of Mandalore, and they were destroyed a long time ago."

I leaned my cheek on my hand and gazed down at him, searching for anything to say that would be helpful.

"I'm so sorry," I said.

He sighed, and looked up at me.

"I don't regret anything I've done."

I smiled at him, slowly and sadly, and somehow I could feel that he was returning it. I thought back to Moff Gideon's ship, and Grogu's little hand gently asking to see Din's face. I thought of how it must have felt back at the Imperial holdout for Din to have to choose between his creed and the safety of the child. It must have caused him so much pain — but I knew him well enough to know that if it came down to protecting someone he loved, he would always do what needed to be done.

"So," I said, swinging my feet back down to the floor and sitting up. "Where to next?"

Din shifted and cleared his throat.

"I thought we'd stay here for a bit."

"What?" I furrowed my brow at him, then peered through the viewport at the lapping waves. "Where is 'here' exactly?"

"Eldoth", he answered. "It's a small planet, out of the way. We'll be safe here."

He busied himself with the cables again. I looked over at him, examining his tense figure.

"Din, we can't just hole up."

He stopped lacing the copper and sighed, sitting back.

"I know things seem bad," I continued. "But we can't let them drive us into hiding."

"I don't—" he began, measuring his tone in an effort to conceal the unmistakable undercurrent of fear. "I don't want to lose you again."

He sounded so vulnerable, my heart ached.

"Hey." I dropped gently to the floor and put my hand on his. He flexed his fingers and wrapped them around mine, tightly. "We're not gonna lose each other. We're going to figure this out just like we've figured everything else out."

"They know you're with me now," he rumbled, shaking his head. "I'm putting you in danger. I'm less of a liability if we keep our heads down."

"Din, if there's anything I've learned in the last few months, it's that hiding away doesn't solve anything. It might have been what I needed to do before, when I first got out, but eventually I was just wasting my own time. I finally started to live again when I met you. You gave me that. And now… it's strange, but I feel like being face to face with my family broke whatever spell they had on me. I'm not going to let them control me anymore."

Din took in what I was saying, then sighed again.

"Well we can't go anywhere anyway," he attempted, feebly. "There's no job lined up."

Without breaking eye contact, I reached up on the dash and pulled down a bounty puck, waggling it between my finger and thumb.

He stared at it for a beat, then let out a small, weary laugh.

"Fine. But can we just have a day?"

I grinned at him.

"A day sounds perfect."

We spent the morning exploring the beach and the shouldering woods. I swam in the cool, refreshing sea, the water feeling like a balm on my bruises. I lay on the pink sand letting the hot sun dry me. Din and I took turns finding stones and branches in the sand and amongst the trees that Grogu would like, pointing out anything we wish he could see or play with. He showed me the tiny beskar chainmail he'd had made for Grogu, and told me of his hopes to visit him, a plan I immediately endorsed.

In the afternoon we made love again, exploring and discovering each other slowly and curiously. I found myself reeling in disbelief that this was something we were allowed to do now — just reaching out to touch him at all felt so forbidden before, and now the idea of not touching him felt impossible.

We lay in his narrow cot, my blindfold on, my head nestled in the crook of his arm, telling each other all the times we'd wished to be able to be with each other like this.

"That target range in Nevarro," he murmured through an audible wry smile. "You were being such a brat."

"Oh, yeah, you hated that," I chuckled sarcastically, resting my hand over my blindfold as though it could shield my blush.

"It took everything in my power not to throw you over my shoulder and punish you for it right then and there," he said in a low, wicked voice, and traced his fingertips over my ribs.

I made a mental note to be as obstinate as possible the next time he issued anything resembling an order.

"Interestingly enough," I replied through a snicker. "I had the same line of thought."

"Well…" he mused. "Who knows what would've happened if I hadn't gotten kidnapped."

My mind quickly flashed through images of the alternate universe in which we had gone back to the ship that day and let our flirting crescendo until some impossibly delectable things happened.

"Do you remember when you gave me this?" I asked, fingering the necklace resting on my collarbone. He groaned and I heard him rub his face with his hand.

"What?" I chuckled.

"Just… torture," he muttered into his hand. "That was torture."

"Oh," I laughed, teasingly. "The dress, huh? I knew you liked it... Is that when you started thinking of me like this?"

"No," he rumbled. "I already thought of you like this. That's when it started being impossible to get to sleep at night."

My lips curled into a satisfied smile and I skimmed his chest with my fingers, slowly feeling the ridges and hairs. This was almost too delicious, I was beginning to feel spoiled. I pressed him for more.

"Why's that?"

"Because I'd been wanting to touch you for weeks, and that was the first time I put my hands on your skin." He spoke in a soft voice, his vulnerability showing. "It was excruciating to feel your neck and be so close to you and have to swallow it all down."

I rolled over onto his chest, resting my head on my hand.

"Why did we swallow it down?" I asked.

He stroked my chin with his thumb.

"I mean, all this time, we could've been here…" I mused wistfully.

"Well… I didn't know you thought of me that way, and didn't feel like ruining our partnership by making you uncomfortable."

I nodded, laughing softly.

"That's how I felt, too."

He took a deep, thoughtful breath through his nose.

"I think," he continued, pondering as he spoke. "I never really thought this was something I could have. I don't…" He swallowed. "I still don't know what a life with me even means. I think… I think I do want to reaffirm my creed and rejoin my people. That's why I'm afraid to let you see my face — again, I mean. I know you've seen it once… I know I'm an apostate, but I don't want to give up on being a Mandalorian the way that I believe it should be. And I know that if I let myself abandon that rule with you I'll lose it forever. I won't be able to stop."

A pang of fear seared my chest. I swallowed, speaking slowly and carefully.

"Does that mean… are your people not allowed to be with someone like me? Like this, I mean?"

"No," he reassured quickly, moving his hand up to stroke my hair. "Mandalorians and non-Mandalorians have always been allowed to be with each other. I just… I'm still learning what being a Mandalorian means for me. I thought I knew, but it's all much bigger and more complex than I understood."

It was a vague explanation, but I knew he was doing his best to explain it clearly to me, a layman.

"I don't know if I can ever show you my face," he said, quietly. "But I know I don't want to be apart from you again."

I felt my eyes beginning to brim. I lay my cheek down on his sternum, listening to his heart beat.

"I understand," I murmured into his chest. I didn't, really — not fully, anyway, but enough to be supportive and trust in his clearly demonstrated care for me.

"What about you?" He asked, sweeping my hair off of my bare back and placing a protective hand over the scar skimming my shoulder-blade. "Why didn't you tell me how you felt?"

I heard his heartbeat quicken, like he was nervous to ask the question. I laughed softly, a tear spilling out of my eye into the blindfold, and dropped a kiss on his chest.

There were a million answers to the question, really — I'm broken and I have trust issues. I was terrified you'd think I was repulsive. I was even more terrified that you wouldn't and that we would end up hurting each other. I decided on the answer I knew was true and could explain the most clearly.

"Honestly?" I murmured into his chest as he stroked my hair. "The moment we met — I mean, really met, on your ship — I just felt… safe. For the first time in so long. I wanted to be with you, in any capacity. I didn't need it to be more than colleagues — I wanted it to be, pretty quickly," I confessed with a shy chuckle. "But I would've kept it to myself forever if it meant being able to stay with you and Grogu. I was afraid that if I pushed, you wouldn't want me with you anymore."

He rolled me off of his chest and lay my head on the pillow, snaking a hand around my bare waist until he was leaning over me. He kissed me, deeply and slowly, and when he spoke again, his voice was serious and vulnerable.

"Kyra, I've wanted you for a long time."

I smiled. My fingers tenderly explored the terrain of his face. He kissed me again, and as we fell into each other, I pondered tomorrow. We would be back on the job, like we'd always been… only different. I wondered how — if — things would change.

But tonight was tonight, and there was time to rest in the moment before the page really turned.