#astra djarin

[dindjarindiaries]

One of the main motivations for getting into drawing is to bring my characters to life. Of course, I had to start with Astra Djarin of Security!

This is just one interpretation of her. One of my favorite things about Astra is that she can be whoever the readers want her to be. No matter what art I may make, that won’t change. 🩷✨

#these are my parents and my children simultaneously!!!!!!!! #astra djarin #security #original character #original character art #my art

[januaryembrs]

AD ASTRA - CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHPT XIII. THE SPARK

Description: a casual game of wrestling has the child dropping the weight of the world on your shoulders as you head to Nevarro to face a much deadlier foe.

Length: 4.1k

main masterlist

AD ASTRA MASTERLIST

Din Djarin X Jedi!reader series. Friends to lovers, (Somewhat) slowburn, female!reader, JEDI!READER, possible smut, jealous!mando, reader has problematic childhood, fluff, saviour complex!mando, canon star wars characters mentioned, Obi wan x padawan!reader, dad!obi wan, general star wars bloodshed etc.

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

“To the stars through hardships”

You were headed for Nevarro not long after that. The Ugnaught, who you had learnt was named Kuiil, the IG unit, the blurgs, the bounty hunter, the shock trooper and the ex-Jedi. And the baby of course. It seemed the galaxy's oddest crew to travel with, and you were seriously beginning to question the situation you were now in. Then again, you'd take them over your last crew mates anyday. Had someone told you a year ago through your drunk haze on Sorgan this was where you would be, you would have bought them a round for the terrible joke.

In the midst of speeding through hyperspace towards the trouble that awaited on Nevarro, you were resigned now to simply killing the time. Cara had suggested a friendly arm wrestle match as a way of keeping you entertained, though you could second guess it was also just a way of her showing you and Mando up with her brute strength. The two of you sat on some small crates you had arranged with a makeshift table in between you, hands locked in a ready position.

"Don't go easy on me, sweetheart" You teased, eyeing up the mauve almost red tinge the dropper had added to her hair since the last time you saw her.

"I wouldn't worry about that, honey," Cara replied quickly, a smile on her face, as she began pushing against her opponent's hand.

You both grunted for a moment. Cara had much bigger muscles out the two of you but you were simply trying to hold out, knowing you had more stamina. Din watched the two of you challenge one another, observing the way you clenched your jaw in concentration, your nostrils flaring in exertion. It was times like this he was reminded just how beautiful you were, the way you breathed out open-mouthed at the effort of the game giving him such explicit thoughts he felt almost ashamed to stare at you so intensely from the safety of his helmet.

His eyes trailed over your pursed lips, thinking about the way they had breathed such shallow, cool air over his fingertips not too long ago, wondering how they would feel under the soft pads of his hands. How they would feel pressed against his own. He couldn't smell you because of the barrier between you, but he wondered how you would taste to kiss. Minty, perhaps? You did pride yourselr on hygiene. Or maybe even sweet like the little candies you had picked up for him the last time you had stopped off for supplies.

He knew he couldn't, that he wouldn't, ever know what you felt like pressed against him in a passionate kiss, but maker did he want to. Din had never craved the feeling of anything outside his beskar suit until he met you.

He watched Cara's arm slip for a moment, knowing just as well as you did that she was losing her momentum, and that was all the you needed. Smiling coolly, you pursued Cara's enclosed hand heavily, pushing it down to touch the table slowly.

Cara grunted, muttering curses quiet enough that the child wouldn't hear them, as you stood from your seat smugly.

"Your turn," You said heading towards Mando, casually brushing past him - unafraid to invade his space, "Unless you're too tired, Cara?"

"Kiss my blaster, Ash" The woman replied, making her opponent chuckle. Din’s footsteps seemed loud as he traipsed over the cold metal floor to sit down and resume the position you had just been in.

The two began as you had before, and it became clear that Cara was much more determined not to lose this time as she evened her pace longer than the last, promising that the round wouldn't end so significantly. You watched on with a smile on your face at her clear determination to not be beaten again.

"I got you, Mando," Cara said, and you tried to take your eyes off the way her muscles bulged around her rebellion tattoos. As far as women went, Cara was certainly your type and were it not for the fact you were friends or the fact you were practically enraptured with the sound of Mando’s voice, you were sure you would have at least made a move on her by now.

"Care to double the bet?" As if your heart heard your brain's train of thought, it fluttered at the sound of struggle in the man's voice, coming out crackly and deep through his vocoder. You had tried to piece together in her head what Mando looked like, knowing you would never dare ask him to show you, but since you had seen even just his hands you were lured down the rabbit hole of wanting more. Just his hands alone had been absolute specimens to look at, let alone feel them wrapped warmly around your shoulder, tending to her gently but with the guarantee of strength behind them.

You wanted it more. You needed more.

You wanted to know if the rest of his body was the same; compassionate yet firm. Tender. Warm. Earthy. It was strange knowing a man who had done so much hurting to those who deserved it was so considerate of being delicate towards you and the child. The fact he knew how capable he was of being so powerful sent hot shivers over your body.

You hadn't even realised something was wrong until you felt an almost magnetic energy flowing through your body, the hairs on your arms standing on edge. You were quite familiar with this feeling. The force.

There was no way to truly cut yourself off from the force, not that you knew of anyway, so instead, your powers had lain dormant inside you for the past three years, not to be used or thought of even until the very end of your life when you would become a part of the force yourself, as everyone does eventually.

That had been your plan at least. So what in the maker's name was happening to you. Why was it ebbing its way through you as if it had never left, as if your body didn’t feel alight with electricity like you’d just shoved your bare hand into a conductor.

It took one look at the child who was looking up at you with big, tear-filled eyes for you to understand. Somehow the little monster had shared his force energy with you, drawing out your connection from the woodwork like a tiny, green beacon for your powers. You knew he was powerful, that he could have done this at any point in time since you had been caring for him, but why now? Why push your connection back onto you now?

You felt the wind get knocked out of you at the feeling of pure, unfiltered power rush through you, like water racing from a crack in a dam. This wasn’t just putting your finger in a conductor, no. This was like you had been plugged into a hub of voltage mills, as if you were every atom of electricity running through an entire planet and then some. You felt every single heartbeat in the room pounding in your ears, each bodies' own force signature greeting you all at the same time. Then came the thoughts.

They all came as a murmur. You were able to pick out Kuiil, Cara and Mando quite clearly based on the situation they were in. And that's when you got your answer as to why the child had done this to her.

"Help him!" A little voice called in your ears, immediately recognising the childlike ring to it and judging by his pouting face staring at you he knew what he was doing, "Hurting him!"

Your jaw fell open at the child, having to rest against the side of the ship for support as the force kept getting stronger inside you as it had once before. You held in a grunt, feeling as though you were a cup of water full to the brim, and the galaxy kept the tap running over. You were overflowing. Overwhelmed. Though standing still, you were alight with power, with feelings of all sort rushing through you, other people's emotions projected onto you. Pain, happiness, anger, jealousy, excitement, joy. You could barely concentrate on the child calling for you, your head pounding as the thoughts, the feelings, the force just kept coming. From nearby planets, nearby ships. Nearby systems. You felt it coming, threatening to drown you under the weight of it.

Stop it. Please, stop it. Please. You felt like crying. It was too much, too much for someone to have dropped on them so quickly. You were bursting at the seams. Going under. Being shoved under the weight of it. Sinking. Drowning. Choking. You were choking. 

And all at once, it went quiet.

You drew a hasty breath just as Cara seemed to lose her own, clawing at her neck like a wild animal trying to get free. Your brows furrowed, confused as to what happened and still a little dazed. You had forgotten just how scary the force could be in your moments of solitude from it.

"No! No no, stop! We're friends, we're friends! Cara is my friend!" You heard Mando shout, quickly putting the pieces together in your mind. The child had clearly seen your hesitation and taken things into his own little clawed hands, force choking Cara as the poor thing thought the woman was trying to hurt his cabur. He looked up at the Mandalorian, who had grabbed him the second he realised what was happening, with pure confusion.

"That is not okay!" Cara yelled after being dropped by the child's grip, rubbing her neck gently.

"Very curious." Kuiil cut in, as it seemed they had all missed the interaction between you and the baby, which you were thankful for. You had no idea how she would have explained the reason you felt like the weight of multiple planets had just hit her at full force. Kriff, you were sure the death star could have done less damage to you than the feeling of your powers returning to you had, even for the briefest of moments.

"Curious?! It almost killed me!" Cara seethed, obviously taking what the Ugnaught said the wrong way as it had been clear the Dune woman disliked his ties to the Empire since the moment they'd stepped in his house.

"The story you told me of the mudhorn now makes more sense." Kuiil ignored her, looking at the child in the man's gloved hands with wonder.

"What is it?" Mando asked, and you debated answering honestly, of course leaving out the part where you were once the same as the child too. But you knew there would be an onslaught of questions from all three members of the group, and so you stayed silent.

"What it is, I don't know. But what it does, this ... this I've heard rumours of." The Ugnaught looked between the three companions with as much excitement as his wrinkled face would liberate him. But it seemed Cara was still not happy, her trust for the Ugnaught not wavering past hatred.

"What? When you worked for the Empire?" She fumed, which made your brows furrow at the woman. You really did like Cara. She and Mando were the first friends you’d had in years, and you understood the woman's distrust for the Ugnaught but you felt the woman was being a little unfair to the creature. It was clear he had no choice working for the Empire, and just because he had been involved with them for reasons beyond his influence, didn't mean he was an awful person. You actually found him to be quite endearing, in all honesty.

Then again, Cara didn't have the eighteen years of Jedi teaching drilled into her the way you did, the idea of being fair and kind to all quite literally instilled in you to the day. 'Only the Sith deal in absolutes, You remembered Obi-Wan telling you, only making you disagree with the shock-trooper even more.

"When I was sold to the Empire, in indentured servitude."

"Yet somehow, you walk free." Cara challenged as she stood, towering over the little Ugnaught who fought his ground.

"I bought my freedom through the skill of my hands and the labour of three of your human lifetimes. Do not cast doubt upon that of what I am nor whom I shall serve." By this point, IG-11 had heard the commotion between his maker and the grumbling woman and walked towards the pair, staring at Cara intensely. The woman stared back, her jaw clenched in anger, making you hurry to jump in between them in case things got ugly in the small hull of the crest.

"Okay, guys. How about we take this down a peg or two, okay?" You reasoned, stepping forward to watch the two parties meticulously for any sign of a fight brewing. They seemed to lose their spirit when you spoke calmly, however, and went back to what they were doing before things had gone south, bitterness written on their faces.

"Tell you what. I can really use your craftwork right now. Can you pad this container so the Child can sleep better?" Mando also jumped in, seeing a chance for both of them to be distracted while he and you watched over the child carefully in case he fancied teaching Cara another lesson for touching his cabur.

Kuiil looked up at the man with a nod, shuffling over to the container the pair of fighters had been using as a makeshift pram for the child, "I shall fabricate a better one. Then perhaps this dropper can see how one can win their freedom with the skill of one's hands."

There was a moment of tense silence between the group as Mando nodded his head up to the cockpit, signalling for you to follow him to the promise of silence there, something he knew you both wanted. It was so much easier when it was just the two of you. As wonderful as your guests were, you missed the solitude that came when it was just you two and the baby. The baby's laughs and your witty quips towards one another were all that could be heard on those days, not the tense arguing that had ensued despite both sides having a good reason to hold anger.

You followed him up the ladder rungs, leaving the child to watch Kuiil work on his new pram, seemingly entranced by the flickering of the blowtorch he was using. But you couldn't shake the feeling of nostalgia that the force had brought to you, the way it had sparked a flame in you that you hadn't felt in years.

The way it had made you feel so alive, so like the Jedi everyone revered once more.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

"What happened with the mudhorn then?" You asked, leaning against the dashboard gently as not to knock any of the buttons controlling the ship. your legs brushed against Mando's lightly as he sat down in the pilot chair, a sigh drawing out his throat at the fact you’d been playing peacemakers all morning.

"When I first collected the child, some Jawas had stripped my ship by the time we went to leave. The only way to get the parts back off them was if I got a Mudhorn egg for them to eat," You chuckled and you could hear the smile in his voice as you did, "It turned out to be a much bigger task than I thought. Kriff, the thing nearly killed me with how hard it hit me, broke my old beskar too. But the child, he somehow lifted it with its mind. It was like nothing you've ever seen."

You smiled wryly at that; if only he knew.

For a child so small, lifting such a heavy creature was surely impressive to those who had never seen the Jedi's powers before, but it didn't so much as scrape the surface of what you were capable of. Still, you raised your brows at his words to hide your smugness, looking down at the floor of the cockpit. You were still a little shaken after having the weight of your powers practically ripped from their hiding place, and it must have shown on your face. The hesitant look in your wild eyes that looked more like a scared deer at the moment caught Din's attention immediately, and it was clear you had something on your mind. You always did when you went quiet like that.

Din watched you carefully, daring to reach out his hand to trace your thigh gently to pull you out of your thoughts. He wished he could even have a peek at that mind of yours, but he was sure he would get lost were he to ever get the chance.

"What are you thinking about?" Din almost whispered, gently tracing the side of your leg with the pad of his leathered finger. You were almost embarrassed at how fast your heart started beating for such a simple ministration. In your thirty-seven years, you had never had someone hold you with the gentleness Mando did. You didn't even know his real name and you felt things for him you’d never thought you would. You didn't feel scared anymore, not like before. You felt like with him and the kid you were more in touch with the light than you had ever been. You could be good, do good things with no trace of the dark side to pull you away if he would make you feel that way for the rest of your life.

But still, one thought lingered in your mind. You didn't know if Mando knew about the history between the Jedi and the Mandalorians. The bad blood, the wars and endless feuds between the two creeds that were heavier than dust swept under a rug. If you were to reveal yourself there was always the chance he would treat you as the enemy your people were to him. You couldn't bear to think of him as an enemy, not him. Please, not him.

You looked at him, eyes full of questions with no answers to them, and you opened her mouth to speak, not even sure what you wanted to say to him, only to stop yourself when Cara burst into the cockpit, a sour look on her face.

Mando removed his hand as though your skin had lit aflame, which didn't go unnoticed by the Alderaanian who didn't say anything and simply plopped herself into the spare seat to her left, cleaning over her guns. It seemed she must have tired of the loaded silence between her and the Ugnaught in the bottom deck of the hull.

"So we're going to Nevarro?" Cara asked, not questioning the fact the two of you were still standing so close to one another so unashamedly.

"Have you ever been?" You asked, turning away from Mando in an attempt to settle the excited glint in Cara's eyes as she watched you carefully.

"No. We lost all of our forces there. The city's dug in pretty deep. There's no cover when you drop in. Stayed in Empire control till the end of the war." Cara said, sounding deep in her thoughts, no doubt remembering her time as a dropper well.

"The warlord we're taking out was an Imperial officer." Mando jumped in, punching in the co ords for Nevarro. Being reminded of what was at stake here unnerved you, but you hands down would do it if it meant keeping the child safe. They hopefully wouldn't know exactly what you looked like, simply have a prediction based on the archives held of you in the Jedi records that the Empire had staked a claim to when they took over the temple on Coruscant. But they would have your chain code. That was all that you needed to keep safe, you hoped. Still, you would wear your kerchief over your nose just in case you were wrong.

"What station?" You asked, hoping it would be a lower down, insignificant ranking that would have no interest in you. Though saying that, if they wanted the child no doubt for his abilities, they would have an absolute field day with you; one of the most powerful Jedi to have been raised.

"Hard to tell. No insignia anymore. I took out the safehouse when I snatched the kid. More Imps have reinforced since." You both nodded solemnly, Cara switching out her small blaster for her bigger one, cleaning it thoroughly as she spoke.

"There is something more going on."

"What do they even want from the child? He's only young, he can't even talk so they can't be looking for information. Something about his powers perhaps?" You thought out loud, the sadness lining your words ringing clear as a bell.

"Maybe. We'll find out more when we land." Mando said looking up at your expression. He looked at Cara to make sure she was fixated on her weapon before he slowly put his hand over yours and rubbed the side of it gently with his thumb. It wasn't nearly the same level of electricity as when he'd taken his glove off, both of you thought, but you still felt your heart jump nonetheless. Even these little brushes of comfort had you behaving like a teenage girl, you thought sourly. It was embarrassing, to say the least, but there was nothing you could do to stop it. 

As for Din, since he had felt your skin under his, pressed his bare hand to your warm shoulder it was like he couldn't get enough. He had gone from being content to never making contact with anyone, happy to remain friends and co-protect the child to having no control over his actions as they instinctively reached out to you, even to touch her lightly for the briefest of moments. He couldn't stop himself, he needed more of you like you were the strongest spice in the galaxy and he was a fool chasing a high.

Their little unknown moment ended when the IG unit came stomping into the cockpit, straightening up at watching the three humans with its piercing red lights.

"I have prepared second meal. Would you care to be served here or below?" It asked in its mechanical voice, the thought of food swamping your hungry mind. Still, you waited for your friends' responses first, feeling as though you’d be betraying Mando and his hatred of droids were you to leave with the unit. Surely Mando wouldn't hate Artoo if he met him, would he? You thought to herself.

Mando sat and stared at the droid angrily, not only for interrupting their silence but also for the clear distrust he held against it, "I'm not hungry." The IG left unceremoniously, not particularly offended by the man's hostile tone, then again it didn't have the wiring to feel such things. "Under no circumstances does that thing leave the ship."

"You got a real thing for droids, don't you." Cara half laughed at the theatrics of the man, knowing full well they were all starving yet he chose to take the high ground and refuse the meal made by the machinery.

"I got a real thing for that droid." Mando seethed, fiddling around with some more controls to allow them a smooth journey, mouth-watering at the sound of a meal despite his pride.

"The Ugnaught said he rewired it." Cara tried to reason, though you knew it would do no good. In all fairness, you had no room to judge him for his hatred of droids as you felt the exact same way about Tusken Raiders, yet another reason you were glad she hadn't left Peli's warehouse on Tatooine.

"That droid was designed to kill things. I don't care how much wiring he replaced, it goes against its nature."

"Well, it shouldn't be a long job anyway. You take out the head Imp, the rest will run like rats." Cara finished excited to shoot up some Imps, the three of you standing to go get some food in your bellies before you set off for this job that seemed so smoothly planned out. Your plans always did though, you thought to yourself cynically, and you knew just the same as your previous jobs that you were headed up shit's creek, and towards the people who’d wanted you dead for the past thirty years no less.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

taglists

AD ASTRA @zapsalis-d @mishasminion360 @itsnottilly @sebschicken @lexloon @vampgguk @ajeff855 @thatonedindjarinfan @archaeoheart @sunipostsstuff @eternal-fandoms @fredd-weasley @lost-xim @laraschestakow @the-bottom-of-the-abyss @dessinemoiunehistoire-blog @horsedragonllama @tongueofareadywriter @eury-dice3 @littlemissoblivious @call-me-soap @lovelylostminds @razzle-my-berries @iamdannyday @yourwonderbelle @bees--in-my--bones @firestar180 @wizardofrozz @fangirlalexia @lizziel1410 @jesfreedark @a-c-lee @flan058 @sagittariuswritings @waywardtrashfam @realimbo @what-iwish-you-knew @haleypearce @sirianisrock @graciexmarvel @zanzann @stevesworld9 @rebloogggs @depressedbagpipe @jenaatje @philiasoul

PERMANENT TAG LIST:

@greeneyedblondie44 @liadamerondjarin @andy-rocks

Pedro Pascal

@evyiione

authors notes:

hello! so this is like a year wayyyyyy too late. I'm so sorry for the absolute shit storm that is my life, but im really trying to pick myself back up and get back to writing now I have time to. Ive garnered nearly 1000 followers now which is insane and I really don't want disappoint any of you on here. so I hope you enjoy!km

#din djarin imagine #din djarin x reader #din djarin fanfiction #star wars fanfiction #star wars imagine #pedro pascal x reader #mando x jedi!reader #the mandolarian #the mandalorian #mando fanfiction #mando angst #mando x reader #star wars x reader #star wars #pedro pascal x female reader #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal x you #pedro pascal imagine #ad astra #din djarin x you #din djarin x jedi!reader

[nembees]

Can someone help me remember who wrote a Mandalorian fic where he gets together with a character named astra? I’m totally flustered with the loss of my OG account and I’m trying to find my favs again. Any help appreciated!

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin #din djarin x reader #din djarin x astra #pedro pascal characters #mandalorian fanfic #help please

[fallingforfictionalmen]

march favs

here’s my favorite fics i read in march!! ** indicates smut, but if the work says 18+ regardless of sexual content pls respect the author these are all (character) x fem!reader or (character) x gn!reader

Din Djarin (Star Wars)

Significant - @softlyspector

Anxious - @lordabovehelpme

untitled - @janghoefett

**The Spaces Between Walls** - @snipershood

**Astra** - @moralesispunk

Joel Miller (HBO’s The Last Of Us)

She’s A Gun - @cowgurrrl

Javier Peña (Narcos)

**Birthday** - @wheresarizona

**Concerned** - @ ↑

Steve Harrington (Stranger Things)

untitled - @theemporium

untitled - @wroteclassicaly

**hands on you** - @usedtobecooler

JJ Maybank (OBX)

**untitled** - @blueicequeen19

Matt Murdock (MCU)

**hands off** - @grippingbeskar

**beg for it.** - @amarediaboli

#din djarin x reader #joel miller x reader #javier peña x reader #steve harrington x reader #jj maybank x reader #matt murdock x reader

[moralesispunk]

Claraste (Din Djarin x Female Witch! Reader)

Previous chapter / Fic Masterlist

Summary: Din stays at the farm for longer than ever before, giving the both of them time to think about what life could be like if he stayed

Warnings: smut, oral (f receiving), unprotected sex, talk of contraceptive tea, feelings, this is third person but there are no descriptions of the witch other than using she/her pronouns so I have labelled as reader insert in the hope it can come across that way (although please tell me kindly if not and I will update to x oc), canon typical violence

Word Count: 4.3k

Din had stayed for longer than ever before. Two whole weeks where the walls they had thrown up between them began to crack and splinter until they could finally dream of a life he could - would - build here. 

The morning after the first night had been the only sense of reality they gave into, a contraceptive tea slipping past her lips as she leaned against the uneven wooden rail around the cottage porch while watching on as Din got to work weeding around the edge of her flower patch. One day was all that was said as the tea steeped in the delicate mug and Din nodded, his hand sweeping from her hip only covered in a thin slip dress to her low belly as he kissed her cheek.

Kissed.

Her fingers ghosted over her lips that still felt bruised in the bright light of day from how they had kissed the night before, like it was the first and last time they would ever get the chance to give in to the temptation. Until now, Din’s helmet had been the last barrier they had kept up between them and now that it was gone…

The sun caught his dark head of hair as he stood up from kneeling by the flower patch and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as he turned to look back at her, his face still mostly covered by the frown she had heard in his voice for years but his eyes holding a softness she had yearned for.

Din had never said out loud that he had also let himself dream of a quieter, steadier life and for as long as she had known him - from the second time he had visited her here - she knew that he was keeping it locked up inside his chest for protection. At first it was a fools dream - a Mandalorian thinking he could ever be the kind of man who would live the life of a dutiful husband and father on a quiet stretch of land on some forgotten planet and a witch thinking that there was anything other than a lonesome life where she was but a page in the novels of others, healing them or feeding them before they went onto their adventures, written in the stars - but now… Now ten years had gone by where he would return at least twice a rotation of Terra and he would slip into her life like he had never left, telling her stories of the planets he had seen and the people he had met, but they were growing tired and she felt it in her bones.

She loved Din more than she had loved anyone, but with that love came the yearning for a full life. The yearning for a husband to wake up to every day who would kiss her bare shoulder as she woke up like Din had done this morning. Who would help her on the farm. Who would listen to the made up adventures she had in her mind and would make promises of showing her even an inch more of the galaxy than she had ever seen. Who would hold her, cherish her, let her love him, perhaps one day raise children who knew what love was like, just as she had as a child when she watched her own parents.

She knew they would have to give themselves more than they ever had before - whether by finally giving in to how their hearts and souls had twined round one another over the years or to let go, let each other move on.

What was between them was a love like that created between Astra and Terra. Terra had watched the bright star - Claraste - every night like the rest of the stars until one night it came hurtling towards her and chipped Terra right out of her arms. 

She had watched Din like any other traveller on his first visit, cautiously and with interest, and then every time after that until… until they were more. 

Even if it made it harder in the end, she told herself that she would enjoy what she could for now. That she would ask him before he left, and not a second sooner, and it was easy enough when he dropped whatever tools were in his hand and she left the mug abandoned by her side as he stalked across the farm towards her, his knees bending and his arm wrapping around the backs of her thighs as his mouth crashed to hers and he carried her inside.

*****

Two weeks, longer than ever before, and the pain in her chest ached harder than usual as he finished tying up his bag and turned to her.

His helmet was still off, perched on the middle of the table and waiting to be slipped on the second he was ready to go, and she found her eyes racing across his face to commit every last bit to memory. The dark brown of his eyes and the tiny glimmer of gold around the edge. The bump in the ridge of his nose and the scar that ran across it. The pout of his bottom lip. The lines of a hard life that edged his eyes.

“I’m going to visit the child,” he said, his hand flexing and releasing by his side.

“Tell him I said hello,” she replied, her voice hollower than he had ever heard it before and he found his legs carrying him across the room before his mind had even caught up, his hands holding the sides of her face.

“Something is wrong.” There was no question in his words and it only made her chest ache more from how well he knew her. 

Her hands raised to cover his and slipped them from her face to where she instead held them between their bodies.

“Yes and no.” His brows pinched together and she sighed. “I’ve always accepted this life for what it is, Din. I was never angry that my parents had been murdered, never sought revenge for their lives that were stolen away and mine that was displaced. I’m glad I didn’t, I don’t think I have it in me to be vengeful, but… I can’t sit by and let my life go by without doing something.

“I love you, Din,” she said, and the way he reacted to hearing those words for the first time - his mouth falling open and his shoulders softening - lodged under her ribs and right by her heart as she continued to talk. “No matter what we decide, I will always love you, but I need…” She trailed off with a sigh. 

“More,” Din finished for her and she nodded.

“I know I can’t ask you to promise me anything here and now but… when you come back I need you to have an answer for me, Din. It’s the only thing I’ve ever asked you.”

His thumb brushed across her knuckles, dark eyes flicking back and forth between hers as he swallowed heavily and nodded. “I swear it.”

It wasn't a yes - or a no - but the unease was forgotten when his mouth crashed against hers, her wrists tangling behind his neck and his hands squeezing and roaming her body. His palms weighed heavy on the bottom of her back and back of her neck as he walked them towards the kitchen table and his tongue pressed into her mouth.

When her back met the edge of the table he pulled away long enough to lift her dress up and over her head, his mouth kissing down her neck and shoulder as he lifted her onto the steady oak surface and with a palm in the centre of her chest he laid her down against it and remained towering over her. 

It took everything in him not to rip his clothes from his body and fill her now, instead taking his layers off slowly as he kissed and touched every inch of her beautiful body beneath him, marvelling in how her eyes tracked each movement with her bottom lip pulled between her teeth until her entire body was covered in goosebumps and she wrapped her hand around his cock, tugging it once in a way that wasn’t painful but made him hiss - and her smirk - nonetheless. 

His palm wrapped around hers, holding her still as he raised an eyebrow down at her and he had to stop his knees from buckling as he watched the shiver wreck through her body - her chest heaving in need and anticipation as he gathered her wrists in his hand and held them against the table above her head. 

“I have the chance to taste you once more before I leave,” he said as he bent to kneel before her spread legs, his forefinger and thumb spreading her open and his warm breath fanning her when he spoke again. “I won't be leaving till I take that chance.”

His shoulders kept her thighs open for him, the scruff around his jaw tickling her soft skin as he licked slowly up until his lips wrapped around her clit and he sucked. He did this again and again, her thighs tensing and releasing over his shoulders. 

When her head rolled to the side and her back arched from the table, she caught sight of Din’s reflection in the mirror peeking out from behind a chair, his strong profile kneeling between her legs and his hand-

She let out a low moan, her hips urging him closer against her as she rocked in time with his hand that stroked his cock. The sight of him on his knees before her, pleasuring himself while bringing her pleasure, was enough to thrust her over the edge and she came with a choked gasp as her thighs pressed to the side of his head and he guided her through each wave until the heel of her palm tapped his forehead. 

He stood with a low growl, like it took everything in him to pull away from her, and when his body draped over hers to meet her mouth in a kiss she caught sight of his chin and bottom lip that was shining with her before she could taste it on her tongue. 

With his hand planted by her head and the other palming her hip, she reached between their bodies and lined him up as he rocked his hips once and slid inside her fully. They groaned together, their kiss not ending until she took his face in her hands and pulled back enough to look into his eyes before looking down to where their bodies met as he continued to thrust into her. 

“More, Din. I need more-”

In an instant he had slipped from her, lifting her body off of the table and settling her on the floor where she stood on her toes and bent over the table as he slipped inside her once more. 

With his hands gripping her hips and her body bent over the table, she felt him spearing his cock inside her so deeply that she couldn't barely gasp a breath. Her nails raked down the wood and she pushed her hips back to meet him thrust for thrust, her mind completely empty of any worries about her past or their future until all she could feel was Din, Din, Din…

She hasn't even realised she had been chanting his name like some prayer to lost Gods until his chest was pressed to her back and his lips brushed the shell of her ear. 

“I’m here, I’m right here.” 

His thrusts slowed and instead he moved slow and deep, his fingers slipping over where they met and deftly circling her clit as his mouth slanted over hers the second she turned her head to meet him in a kiss. 

She never wanted it to end, and from the way Din had built them up before letting them fall back until they were both slick with sweat she knew he was thinking the same. He did it again and again until the coil was wound so tight that she was certain there was no stopping her from falling over the edge and so she did, her moans high pitched and swallowed by Din’s ferocious kiss as he fell over the edge with her. 

She was so consumed by wave after wave, crash after crash of pleasure that she could barely feel the table that was digging into her hips until bruises would no doubt be forming. 

They kissed until he softened inside her and slipped out, his mess slipping down the inside of her thighs as their kissing slowed until only his forehead was resting against hers and his breath was fanning her chin. 

Her eyes fluttered closed as he kissed down her back, reaching for a cloth and cleaning her gently and taking the moment of peace to let his eyes roam her face once more. It was the same face he had seen for the first time those ten years ago, a few more lines by the side of her eyes and a few grey hairs - ones he had counted under the moonlight the night before when she had thrown her hand up and proclaimed she had at least a dozen, much to his amusement. 

They said few words as they passed each other the clothes that had been stripped before and his cheeks were still flushed pink as he lifted the helmet from the table, her chest still slick with sweat that made him want to lick across the skin visible from where her dress was still untied. 

“Din, I-” She stopped as soon as his eyes met his, her bottom lip pulling between her teeth and she jerked her chin in a nod - holding something back like she had already said too much to say even more. “Tell the kid I said hello.”

He nodded, his helmet slipping over his head with practised ease before he lifted his hand and held her cheek, his thumb stroking across the round fullness. “I will. And I will return, I swear it.”

Still no yes or no, no answer for their future that lay in the balance, but it was enough for now as he picked up his bag and began the walk back across the farm. He didn't look back until he reached the edge, finding her still at the top of the steps with her arms wrapped around her waist and her chin lifting in a wordless goodbye as he did the same for now. 

****

It had been three months since Din left, not long by any stretch when compared to some of the breaks between his visit before, but ever since his shadow had disappeared through the thick trees surrounding her land she had found herself searching for him on the horizon every morning and night. 

This morning was no different, yet as she opened her door and looked out to the tree line she felt an unease she had never felt on the sanctuary of her farm before. Her palms grew sweaty and the back of her neck prickled in awareness but at what she couldn't tell. She found herself spending the day collecting essentials from around her home - a few trinkets that caught her eye and pulled at her heart too - and had even packed them into a bag no matter how stupid she felt. 

It’s nothing, she told herself again and again and yet still she climbed onto her hands and knees and found a bag that had been tucked beneath her bed, packing it to the brim until the sun began to set. 

If for nothing else, the long walk she took to the stream after the bag had been tied up and tucked by her door was more of a distraction than a necessity since the well by her house had been filled by rain the week before. She had gone slower than usual too, finding plants and mushrooms she had pocketed with the intention to dry out when she got home, but when she made it to the edge of her farm and stopped the tune she had been humming she heard the heavy sets of footsteps rushing behind her.

Not taking a second to think, she dropped the bucket full of water to the ground and ran. 

Her feet hit the freshly farmed land harder and faster than ever before, faster than when she was a child and ran through the bare, damp land of her home planet alongside the only friend she can remember - Beron, a freckled faced boy with bright red hair who would make her laugh as he chased her through the thin lifeless forest pretending to be whatever monster their parents had told them stories of the night before. 

But she didn't feel like laughing now. It was only fear that raged through her veins as she bounded up the steps of her cottage and fled inside before slamming the door behind her. She could barely hear the men’s laughter over the blood pounding in her ears and she let her body slide down the door, crawling to the edge of her bed where Din had made her hide a blaster years ago. 

He had practised with her a few times over the years, finding old trees to use as aim, but he had refused to leave her without her having some sort of protection against any raiders who could stumble across her farm. She had argued against it at the time but had never been more glad for the cool metal that her hand curved around as she pulled it from between the mattress and wall and crawled back to the window. 

“Come out little witch,” a rough voice called out to her and a few of the other men laughed, horrible laughter that made her eyes prick with tears. 

She held the cool metal against her chest, squeezing her eyes shut as her whole body shook and she silently called out into the galaxy for Din, the name of the only person she wanted - needed - and his name roared in her mind like she could call to him wherever he was. 

****

Every time Din approached Terra, the same wave of calmness washed over him. His shoulders inched down from his ears, his brow unfurrowed, his mind stopped racing. It's like the kid knew where they were going too despite only being here twice betore; his small hands pressed against the glass and his breath fogging it up as Din began the descent over the trees. 

The kid cooed and Din huffed a laugh. 

“Yeah. She missed you, too.”

He landed his ship - one a lot smaller than the Crest that had cleared a wide circle of land for his arrival every time - flicking off every button as the engines went from roaring to silent and he patted the small pocket of his belt to check the ring of beskar one final time. 

It was never an important part of Mandalorian tradition to give jewellery as part of a promise, but he had seen the ring she wore in a necklace around her neck and she had told him how it belonged to her mother given by her father. He knew that coming back with an answer he had to prove it more than just words - he had to show her that despite needing more time before they could settle in any one place, he would be the man to give her that life. 

But the second Din landed on Terra, he knew something was wrong. With the soles of his boot on the mossy ground and his hand raised to stop Grogu from climbing down any further, he scanned around him until he could find what was wrong.

There was almost so much wrong that Din had to grip the edge of the ladder to stop himself from keeling over with nausea. The moonlight felt dull, the wind howled when it was usually quiet, the grass was a lifeless kind of green… Everything had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on edge and his hand reaching for his blaster as the other tucked Grogu safely into the bag already hanging from his shoulder.

The walk to the farm was one he has done more times than he could count but he had never felt like this while doing it, never gripped his blaster and took each step with such care like he did as he rounded the last line of trees. 

His heart was in his throat as he took in the scene before him. 

Raiders - twelve of them dressed in black - circling the cottage like prey waiting to pounce. Some of them held ageing blasters, others simple sticks that had been whittled down to a sharp point, three of them held burning stakes that were flickering towards the thatched roof.

“Come out little witch,” one of them  - the leader - snarled. He took one step towards the door, then another, and before Din could move he caught the glimmer of silver in the moonlight.

A blaster - his blaster that he had tucked between her mattress and wall and begged her - with her hands in his - to use if anyone caused trouble, was tucked in the corner of the window and aimed directly at the man.

“Don’t take another step,” she called back, her words steady to the ears of a stranger but laced with fear he had never heard before as someone who recalled the cadence of her voice every night before he slept.

The man took no heed, his boots crunching one more step before a red blast shot from the window and the man collapsed to a heap on the ground. Din turned as quickly as he could, setting the child behind a tree and pointing a shaking finger in his direction,

“Stay here. Don’t come out until I call for you.” 

He only waited long enough for Grogu to cower back against the tree before Din took off running towards the blasts and fire that had erupted. He watched as she defended her home to no end, fighting off brutes twice - three times - her size as they tried to take hold with one now dragging her out of the cottage. Her eyes met his across the farm in shock, widening for a second long enough to be distracted as one of the men took an off-centre shot that grazed along her hand and forearm and she hissed at the burn.

The rage that flowed through Din was like none he felt before - not when he was a helpless child and his parents were murdered, not when he was a young man with more emotion than he knew what to do with, not when Grogu was taken and he felt more panic than rage. No, these men were fighting a losing battle as Din slashed through them and up the steps - these men who were trying to hurt the person who was more his than anyone in the universe. He tucked her behind him as he fought against the ten men left after he took down the one still on her porch to defend both her and the cottage.

She took down two with steady aims he had made her practice and Din easily took down the other eight with shots from the blaster and slices of the saber, but it was too late for the cottage. He gripped her wrist and tried to pull her down the steps, away from the flames engulfing her home as she beat at his arm and shoulder with a fist until she managed to slip free and race inside.

He bellowed her name, his foot barely over the threshold before she came running back out with a back tucked under her arm and her hand over her mouth as she coughed against the smoke. His hand wrapped around hers and he dragged her to the middle of the field, no matter how hard she tried to dig her heels in and turn back again. 

By the time they reached the middle of the field - far enough away for him to deem them safe as he called out to the kid - he took her face in his hands and looked into the eyes where all life was seeming to drain from. 

“Are you hurt? Are you okay? Are-”

She waved him off, letting her bag fall to the ground and soon following it as she sat and stared on at the fire. 

She sat in the middle of the field with Din and the child watching on behind her as the home she had built burned to ash. She had nothing but the small bag beside her, one she had the unnamed urgency to pack today.  

It had some clothes, some medicine, some things that she held dear to her heart that perhaps were not the most practical weight to be adding to an already heavy bag. Everything else… She watched it burn until the sun began to rise and the smoke went with it. She watched it until the silent sobs gave way to steady to tears to the emptiness in the hollow of her chest that made her so tired there was nothing to do but collapse to the ground, letting sleep take over as Din called her name, shaking her shoulder to try and rouse her using a name he had only called her once before.

“Rion’nag.”

#din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin x female reader #din djarin x oc #mandalorian #din djarin #mando #the mandalorian #mandalorian x reader #mandalorian x you #din djarin x y/n #mando x you #mando x reader #mandalorian fic #din djarin fic

[1donoow]

STAR WARS REC

PT.2

......

♡ - smut

Most of them are fluff

......

<a/n>i somewhat explain why there's alot in my pin post

Anakin Skywalker

obi wan kenobi

poe dameron

din djarin

@star-whores-a-new-hoe - the star wars boys with a s/o who struggle with physical affection

@feyre-darling92 - when they're jealous

———————————————————————

anakin skywalker

@thequeerestmf - how are anakin kisses like

———————————————————————

obiwan kenobi

@ivorydragoness44 - imagine meditating with obi wan

@curiouser--and--curiouser - obi wan kenobi having a crush on you would include

- dating obi wan would include

@clints-lucky-arrow - dating obiwan headcannon

@rentskenobi - shirt

@star-whores-a-new-hoe - mornings with obi wan

- snow day

- back rubs

@spilledkauffie - tender tension

- obi wan sfw hc

- obi wan kenobi soft hc

- dating padwan!obi wan hc

@moonlit-imagines - sending care package to obiwan while he's in tatooine

@not-the-droid - across time and space

@scribble-dribble-writes - late night talking

- only you

- distraction

- socializing blues

@thequeerestmf -actions that show obi-wan kenobi that you love him

- obi-wan taking care of you when you get sick

- how are obi wan kisses like

@nanagoswife - monsters,hayrides and pumpkin patches

- Une Danse d'Amour Inconscient

@forever-rogue - ___

@bellarkeselection - I'll keep you warm

@panic-in-the-multiverse - attachment of the child pt 1 (child!reader)

@hoeforevery1 - obi wan kenobi hc

———————————————————————

poe dameron

@juno-eclipsee - starlight (first order!reader)

@mads-weasley - hope

@moonlit-imagines - poe being recruited by the first order, and you trying to get him back(skywalker!reader)

@agntofhydra - sawbones masterlist

@yelena-bellova - don't be afraid masterlist (solo!reader)

@stormkobra-5 - the house of fett masterlist (mando!force sensitive!reader)

@noclue32 - new auras (jedi!pilot!reader)

@starryeyedstories - like husband,like wife

- black leader shutting up

@eyelessfaces - heal

@jake-g-lockley - I'm cold

@dailyreverie - kiss me I'm miserable

@the-dendrophile-bookworm - lifeline

@chloe-skywalker - may the 4th be with you (solo-organa!reader)

@writefightandflightclub - you make me shy

@the-little-ewok - little help

———————————————————————

din djarin

@januaryembrs - ad astra ch.7

@starryeyedstories - din djarin and flowers

@dinsverdika - soft din thoughts

@joels6string - open tab (mechanic!reader) ♡

@noodlesfics -You being a parent to Grogu involves

@funnylittlelad - a touch of humanity pt.1

@spctrsgf - irrevocably

@namjoon-koya - mando being overprotective father to the reader

- mighty heart ch.2 (dad!mando)

- dad!mando headcannon

@pedrito-friskito - uncharted territory ♡

@groguspicklejar - the strength we admire

@sofiaaaaaaaa03 - grogu's gift

@shangchiswife - maroon

@mewhenimsad - din's kitten

@softlyspector - significant

- din takes his riddur to sorgan

@peterparkersnose - sucks to suck (senator!reader)

- after last night

@mandoalorian - borrowed time ch.1

@angelltheninth - din melting when you kiss his hand

- rivals to lovers

#masterlist #star wars rec #anakin skywalker x reader #poe dameron x reader #din djarin x reader

[supernovaslut]

Chapter 2: No Longer Strangers

Din Djarin x OC

Word Count: 8.6k

Warnings: MDNI, canon typical violence, cursing, angst, hurt/comfort, minor character death, injuries, protective!Mando, protective!Astra, Toro Calican is a creep

Previous Chapter ~ Masterlist ~ Next Chapter

The Razor Crest zoomed through space, weaving away from the blaster fire from a bounty hunter trying to get the Child. Astra sat next to Mando, strapped in and looking back every once in a while to make sure the kid was okay.

It had been a few weeks since Astra and Mando decided to work together. They’d left Sorgan a few days ago to Mando’s chagrin and Astra’s delight. They had gone to hide, but when they helped some people reclaim their village, a bounty hunter found them. Astra killed him when she’d found him lurking in the woods aiming to shoot Mando and they decided to leave.

As peaceful as it was, Astra knew they wouldn’t be able to stay there. She knew how resilient the Empire was, like kriffing cockroaches. If they wanted her or the kid, they wouldn’t stop until they had them.

Luckily for her, they’d only run into bounty hunters looking for the Child. Honestly, Astra felt guilty about it. The Child was innocent. Astra was not. Not that Mando knew that, which added to Astra’s guilt.

They’d been prickly with each other for the most part, but they had their moments. Just the other night, Astra had offered him the food she had made for herself and the kid. He accepted, hiding away in his room to eat. It was a step in the right direction, she thought, but then he was cold to her the next morning, passing her without a word and sitting silently in the cockpit for so long that Astra would’ve thought he’d fallen asleep if he wasn’t flipping a switch or checking a reading every once in a while.

The ship swerved, narrowly avoiding another blast as a voice came over the comms, “Hand over the child, Mando.” BAM! A blast hit the ship, knocking Astra to the side. She put an arm out to stop herself from fully flying out of her seat.

“I might let you live,” the bounty hunter added.

“Yeah, right,” Astra muttered as Grogu whimpered. She turned around to make sure he was okay.

“Ya know,” Astra started, turning to Mando, “Not to be a backseat driver, but I don’t think this is going well for us.”

“You think?” Mando asked sarcastically, spinning the ship in evasive maneuvers until one of the engines was hit.

“Hold on,” Mando suddenly said, and Astra didn’t take those words lightly, bracing for whatever the hell he was about to do. The ship spun around and around, making Astra dizzy as the ship was bombarded with shots, taking out the other engine.

“Come on,” Mando said to himself. “We’re gonna die,” Astra muttered, white knuckling the arms of her seat.

“I can bring you in warm or I can bring you in cold,” the hunter said.

Astra whipped her head to Mando, recognizing that as something Mando had said to her when she was his bounty. Mando ignored the man, pulling back the controls and letting him fly over the Crest, right in Mando’s line of fire. “That’s my line,” Mando said before shooting the hunter’s ship. The last thing Astra heard was the hunter’s scream as his ship blew up.

The ship was silent as it sputtered through space, one engine fully dead while the other barely functioned.

“Well,” Astra said after a moment, “That was exciting. What’d you think, kid?” The Child cheerfully babbled in response.

She turned to Mando, watching him flip switches frantically.

“Losing fuel,” Mando said just as the ship powered down.

“Need any help?” Astra asked, watching him stand.

“No,” he said curtly.

“Well, alright then.”

Mando did something behind her and the backup generator came on, the red lights of the cockpit illuminating Astra’s face. Mando sat back down and flipped a few more switches until the ship came back to life and they shot off towards the nearest planet.

“Where are we headed?” Astra asked. Mando flipped the radio switch and it crackled to life as a man’s voice came over the comms, “This is Mos Eisley Tower. We are tracking you. Head for bay three-five, over.”

“Copy that. Locked in for three-five,” Mando replied.

“Oh, so you’ll reply to him, but not me. I see how it is,” Astra huffed, crossing her arms.

“We’re gonna need to get the ship fixed up. I’ll take a job while we’re there to pay for it. You stay with the kid,” Mando said.

“I’m sorry? You’re prickly with me all day and now you want me to play babysitter?” Astra asked, incredulously, “No, not again. I’m going with you this time. You’re not leaving me with the kid like you did on Sorgan.”

“Someone’s gotta watch him,” Mando rebuked.

“Then you stay,” Astra smiled, cocking her head to the side.

Mando was silent.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Astra nodded, “We can leave him in your room or whatever else you did before I got here.”

Mando sighed as he landed the ship. He stood and walked off, taking the kid, who’d somehow fallen asleep, and closed him inside a hidden panel in the wall.

“You sure he’s safe there?” Astra asked.

“If you’re coming, keep quiet and do what I say,” was all Mando replied, opening the ship’s door.

Astra followed Mando as he stepped down the ramp, shooting at the droids that started to scurry towards his ship.

“Hey!” Peli Motto yelled, coming towards the pair, “You damage one of my droids, you pay for it!”

“Just keep them away from my ship,” Mando ordered. Astra rolled her eyes. She was annoyed at how bossy he could be. She was far more capable than he could ever know.

“Yeah, you think that’s a good idea, do ya?” Peli asked, stepping up close to Mando and eyeing him up and down before looking behind him to Astra, giving her a once over as well.

“Let’s look at your ship,” she said, walking up to the side of the Crest and banging on it in a few different spots. She then listed all the many things wrong with the ship.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were in a shootout,” she said, looking back at the pair, saying nothing yet everything.

“Special tool for that one. I am gonna have to rotate that. You got a fuel leak. Look at that, this is a mess. How did you even land? That's gonna set you back,” Peli continued, approaching them again.

“I’ve got 500 Imperial credits,” Mando said. Astra couldn’t contribute since Mando had kidnapped her with nothing but her satchel.

“That’s all you got? Well, what do you guys think?” Peli asked, turning to the droids. They chattered a bit, some nodding and some shaking their heads.

“I’ll get you your money,” Mando promised.

“Hmm. I’ve heard that before,” she said doubtfully, taking the 500 credits.

“Just remember,” Mando started.

“Yeah, no droids. I heard ya. You don’t have to say it twice,” Peli said, waving them off.

Astra followed Mando out, her hand protectively reaching for her satchel as they left the hangar and made it out into the town. Mando seemed to know exactly where he was headed, and all Astra could do was try to keep up.

“So, what’s the thing with the droids?” Astra asked, trying to spark conversation. Mando ignored her. She was coming to realize there were a lot of things Mando didn’t want to discuss. He looked her way, which excited her for a moment, until she realized what he was looking at.

Rows of bloodied Stormtrooper helmets. Astra shuddered, visions of cold hallways, marching feet, a breath, deep and modulated, surrounding her.

“Hey,” Mando called. Astra looked ahead to where he’d stopped to wait for her. She hadn’t even realized she’d stopped walking. “Coming, Shiny,” she called, catching up to him. Mando watched her, her arms stiff and eyes slightly dazed. He had so many questions floating around about her, as she did him.

He didn’t know what to think of her. He’d thought she’d become a nuisance or maybe bolt at the first chance, but she’d chosen to stay. She could have been dropped off on any planet to hide, but she chose to join him, and he had accepted! That was what confused him the most. He wasn’t sure if he trusted her, but then she’d saved him on Sorgan, shooting that bounty hunter aimed for him.

There was something off about her, though. The blaster shot looked wider, cleaner than normal, even for close range. Mando knew he had to keep his guard up, but something about her kept whittling it down.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

Mando and Astra arrived at the Cantina, stepping into the dimly lit bar full of a variety of species chatting and drinking away.

“Stay here,” Mando said to Astra, walking up the bar. Astra followed him anyway.

“Hey, droid, I'm a hunter. I'm lookin’ for some work,” Mando said to the bartender droid.

“Unfortunately, the Bounty Guild no longer operates from Tatooine,” it replied.

“I'm not looking for Guild work,” Mando said, leaning closer and lowering his voice a touch.

“I am afraid that does not improve your situation, at least by my calculation,” the droid responded loudly.

Think again, tin can,” a voice said from behind them.

Mando and Astra turned around to see a man sitting at a booth.

“If you're looking for work, have a seat, my friends. Name's Toro, Toro Calican,” Toro said. Astra noticed an air of narcissism about him.

“Come on, relax,” Toro continued, gesturing to the booth for them to sit. Mando and Astra looked at each other. She couldn’t see his reaction, but she hoped her wary look said enough. They sat, Mando ensuring Astra went in first as he stood halfway off the chair, like he was ready to go at a moment’s notice. Toro looked between them, his eyes lingering on Astra longer than she felt comfortable with.

“Picked up this Bounty Puck before I left the Mid Rim,” Toro said, turning on the fob which showed a woman with braided black hair.

“Fennec Shand, an Assassin,” he explained, “Heard she's been on the run ever since the New Republic put all her employers in lockdown.”

“I know the name,” Mando said. Astra thought it was familiar, too. Perhaps something she’d overheard from before. She did a lot more listening than talking back then.

“I followed this tracking fob here,” Toro continued, a map appearing on the hologram, “Now the positional data suggests she's headed out beyond the Dune Sea. Should be an easy job.” Toro looked between the two with a confident smile.

“Well, good luck with that,” Mando said, standing. Astra slid out of the booth, grateful that Mando had turned the man down.

They made it to the door when Toro called out, “Wait, wait, wait, hey. I thought you needed work?”

Mando stopped, to Astra’s chagrin.

“How long you been with the Guild?” he asked Toro.

“Long enough,” Toro said suspiciously. The more the man talked, the less Astra trusted him.

“Clearly not,” Mando refuted, “Fennec Shand is an elite mercenary. She made her name killing for all the top crime syndicates, including the Hutts. If you go after her, you won't make it past sunrise.”

There, Astra thought, now that was the end of it.

“This is my first job,” Toro pleaded, “You can keep the money, all of it. I just need this job to get into the Guild. I can't do it alone.”

Astra and Mando looked at each other again. Astra shook her head, not liking the way Toro stared at her.

Mando turned back to Toro, saying, “Meet me at Hangar three-five in half an hour. Bring three speeder bikes and give me the tracking fob.”

Toro smashed the fob against the wall. Yet another red flag, Astra thought.

“Don't worry, got it all memorized,” Toro said, smiling.

“Half an hour,” Mando repeated and left, Astra already halfway out the door.

“Looks like you're stuck with me now, partners,” she heard Toro call from inside.

Mando walked past her, heading back to the hangar.

“Hey!” Astra called, catching up with him, “I don’t trust that guy.”

“Neither do I,” Mando agreed.

“Then why the hell are we working with him?” Astra asked, baffled.

“Because we need the credits to fix the ship,” Mando said simply.

“Ok, but him? There’s something off about him,” Astra said, trying to get through to Mando.

“You’re welcome to stay on the ship with the kid,” Mando offered.

Astra scoffed, shaking her head, “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Well, tragically for you, I’m not going anywhere. You’ll need someone to cover your ass again, anyway.” Astra smiled mockingly.

“Should’ve dropped you off at the nearest planet,” Mando muttered.

Astra gasped sarcastically, “Rude. Admit it, you need me!”

“I need you?!” Mando asked incredulously, stopping outside the hangar door, “If I hadn’t found you, another bounty hunter would have already turned you in. You weren’t very hard to catch.”

Astra gaped at him, offended. She shook her head and took a deep breath, saying, “Look. We need to work together and to do that we have to trust each other. I have no problem putting my faith in you since I am literally here right now instead of anywhere else, but you’ve been a brick wall since we got here! What’s your problem?” Mando crossed his arms, tilting his head as he looked at her for a long moment.

“How’d you kill the bounty hunter on Sorgan?” Mando asked.

Astra froze, an anxious look in her eyes, “I told you. Shot them with my blaster.”

“Astra,” Mando warned.

“You should check on the kid,” Astra said quickly, avoiding his gaze, “I’ll wait here for Toro.” Mando stared at her for a long moment before entering the hangar, leaving her alone.

Astra didn’t have to wait long before Toro walked over, guiding two speeders with him.

“Hey there,” Toro said, approaching Astra, “Didn’t get your name back at the cantina.” He smiled at her, stepping close.

“No, you didn’t,” Astra said, tilting her head and giving a curt smile, “We said three speeders.”

Toro looked back like he’d only just realized he brought two as Mando and Peli walked out, the latter carrying the Child.

“You know, it’s costing me a lot of money to keep these droids even powered up,” Astra heard Peli say, catching the back end of their conversation.

Mando noticed Astra and Toro, who gestured to the speeders and said, “Hey, Mando, what do you think? Not too shabby, huh?”

“I said three,” Mando said, looking between Toro and an uncomfortable Astra.

“Oh, I could only get two. Don’t worry,” he said, turning to Astra, “We can share.” He tapped the speeder seat, eyeing her.

“I’d rather die,” Astra scoffed, walking to the other speeder. She looked back at Mando expectantly. Mando didn’t know why that made him feel relieved.

He walked up the speeder, checking it out and noticing it wasn’t exactly in peak condition.

“What’d you expect?” Toro shrugged, “This ain’t Corellia.”

Mando sat on the speeder, leaving space behind him for Astra to sit. She settled herself in, unsure where to put her arms, but settled for placing them at his waist, gripping the edges of Mando’s Beskar chest plate.

“You good back there?” Mando said in a low tone, looking back at her.

Astra nodded, “Yeah. Is this okay?”

Mando hesitated, “You may want to hold on a bit more than that.”

Astra’s eyes widened, but Mando didn’t turn away from her until she wrapped her arms fully around him, leaning further into his back.

Just to keep from falling off, she told herself as they sped off, though she couldn’t deny the feeling that ran through her hands and down her body. It was hot and buzzing and wholly unfamiliar to Astra, igniting every part of her that touched Mando.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

The trio zoomed through the dunes for a while, Toro and Mando fighting to be ahead of the other, making the trip faster which Astra wasn’t going to complain about. Unlike Mando, she didn’t have a helmet to protect her face from the sand whipping at her cheeks. She pressed her face into Mando’s back, using him as a shield.

Mando could hardly concentrate on his driving. Everywhere that Astra touched sent a jolt through him. He wasn’t used to contact, and he knew it didn’t usually have him reacting this way. Yet another question about Astra added to the ever growing list. Mando held up a fist, signaling for Toro to stop.

The speeders slowed to a stop, Toro removing his bandana from his mouth to ask, “What’s going on?”

Mando pointed ahead, “Look. Up ahead.”

Astra stood on the bike a bit, looking over Mando’s shoulder to faintly see the two Banthas wandering the dunes. Toro got off his speeder and used his binocs to get a better look.

“Tusken Raiders,” he said, “I heard the locals talking about this filth.”

Astra scoffed to which only Mando heard. Makes sense, Astra thought, that Toro would see the Tuskens as the filth instead of the colonizers that stole their home.

“Tuskens think they’re the locals,” Mando replied, “Everyone else is just trespassing.”

“Whatever they call themselves,” Toro said, too engrossed in talking shit to notice the Tuskens that approached, “They better keep their distance.”

“Oh, really? Why don’t you tell them yourself?” Astra asked, sarcastically, following Mando off of the speeder.

Toro turned around, jumping when he noticed the two Tuskens.

His hand went to his blaster, but Mando held a hand up, saying, “Relax,” before signing to the Tuskens. What he was saying, Astra had know idea, but she knew it would be in their benefit.

“What are you doing?” Toro asked.

“Negotiating,” Mando said simply. Astra stood beside him, watching the interaction.

“What’s going on?” Toro asked after one of the Tuskens made a cutting motion at his neck which worried Astra as well.

“We need passage across their land,” Mando answered.

The Tuskens signed again.

“Let me see the binocs,” Mando said, holding a hand out to Toro.

“Why?” Toro asked. Mando just gave him a look and Toro handed them to Mando who handed them to the Tuskens.

“Hey! What?!” Toro protested, making Astra smile. She enjoyed Toro being upset. She truly did not like the man and would rather be anywhere else, but she wasn’t going to leave Mando alone with him.

Mando walked back to the speeder, Astra hopping in behind him as Toro complained, “Those were brand new!” “Tragic. Let’s go,” Astra said, holding onto Mando just in time before he sped off, leaving Toro to catch up.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

Mando stopped them again, the two speeders slowing. Mando hopped off before it’d even stopped, ducking behind a dune and looking over.

“Get down,” Mando ordered. Astra listened, following Mando’s lead. Toro fumbled before following suit.

“Alright, tell me what you see,” Mando said, asking Astra.

“Dewback. Looks like the rider’s still attached,” Toro said, turning to them, oblivious to Astra’s look of annoyance and the equivalent to one from Mando.

“Is that her? Is that the target?” Toro finished.

“I don’t know,” Mando said, turning back to the Dewback, “I’ll go. Astra, stay with Toro and cover me.”

He turned to Astra directly, making sure she was paying attention, “Stay down.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Astra said, giving him a mock salute as he ran down the hill.

She opened her satchel, pulling out her blaster. Toro watched from beside her, catching a peek of something cylindrical and metallic. Astra turned back to see Mando, keeping an eye on the surrounding area.

“So, how does a girl like you end up with a Mandalorian?” Toro asked Astra.

She rolled her eyes, ignoring him.

“How’s it going, Shiny?” Astra called down to Mando as he approached the body.

“It’s a bounty hunter,” Mando called back, crouching.

“You don’t look like a bounty hunter. So, what is it?” Toro pressed.

“Do you ever shut up?” Astra groaned, watching Mando examine the body.

“I’ll shut up if you tell me why you’re traveling with him?” Toro asked, a dangerous look in his eye.

Astra sat up, glaring at him. Why does he want to know so bad? Astra thought.

Before she could speak, Mando yelled, “Get down!”

Astra turned, watching a blaster shot hit Mando, knocking him to the ground.

“Mando!” Astra yelled, standing and then ducking when another shot whizzed past her.

“Mando!” she yelled again, shooting haphazardly in the direction of the shot.

Mando crested over the hill, getting another shot to the shoulder which sent him tumbling down again. Astra yelped, reaching out as Mando righted himself and laid beside Astra.

“Are you okay?” Astra asked, her eyes frantically scanning him for injuries. Mando froze as she put a hand on his gloved one. Toro noticed, an eyebrow quirking as he watched the pair.

“Fine. It was a sniper bolt. Only an MK-modified rifle could make that shot,” Mando answered, turning to look out across the sands.

“How’d you not die?” Toro asked dumbly.

“Hit me in the Beskar,” Mando said, “and at that range, Beskar held up.”

“Wait, I don’t wear any Beskar,” Toro said.

“Nope,” Mando said, a hint of petty amusement in his tone which made Astra smirk.

“Well, so what do we do?” Toro asked.

“You see where that shot came from?” Mando asked Astra.

“Yeah, it came from that ridge,” Astra said, pointing.

“Okay, we’re gonna wait until dark,” Mando said

“Well, what if she escapes?” Toro asked him.

“She’s got the high ground,” Astra spoke up, “She’s gonna wait for us to make the first move. That’s what I would do.” Mando gave her a look, “Yeah. I’m gonna rest. Toro, you take first watch.” He slid down the dune, setting up by the speeders.

“Gonna keep me company?” Toro asked, winking at Astra.

“You’d like that, huh?” Astra said, sweetly. Toro nodded which prompted Astra to drop her smile and slide down the dune to join Mando.

“Maybe later?” Toro called.

Astra ignored him, sitting by Mando.

“This guy gives me the creeps,” Astra said lowly so only Toro couldn’t hear.

“Only have to deal with him a bit longer,” Mando replied, his tone equally low.

“There’s something … weird about him,” Astra said, “He kept asking about me and why I’m traveling with you.”

Mando cocked his head to the side, “You think he knows about your bounty, too?”

Astra shook her head, “He’s been annoying all day, trying to get me to talk to him. But, he seemed oddly interested in why I was even here. I don’t think he knows about the target on my back, because then he’d probably know about yours and the kid’s, too. I just think he’s trying to pull one over us … in some way.”

“We could shoot him and finish this ourselves,” Mando offered.

Astra laughed, “Stars, I’d love that, but he’ll be useful as bait later and I don’t want that to go to waste.”

Mando chuckled, watching Astra try to keep her laugh quiet.

“Ya know, I’m starting to think I made the right choice in letting you catch me,” Astra said.

“You let me catch you?” Mando asked in a mocking tone.

“Yeah,” Astra laughed again, “I did, and I think it was a great decision.”

“And why’s that?” Mando asked, looking into Astra’s eyes. She couldn’t see them, but she could feel his eyes on her, looking her over.

She bit her lip, staring at where she suspected his eyes were, “There was … a feeling about you. So far I haven’t been wrong about it.”

“You seem to have a lot of feelings about people,” Mando said, referring to her suspicion about Toro.

“Call it intuition, I guess,” Astra said, avoiding his gaze. She wasn’t lying, really, but how could she ever really explain it to him? What would he say? Astra would rather not find out. She liked not being alone anymore, and she knew the second he knew what she was, he’d leave her … or worse.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

It was dark out now and Astra had fallen asleep, her head resting on Mando’s shoulder.

“All right, suns are down,” Toro said, standing and walking over to Mando and Astra’s peacefully sleeping forms.

“Time to ride, guys. Come on, wake up,” Toro said, to no response. Not even a twitch from either one. Mando was wide awake, watching him from the secrecy of his helmet. Astra was wary of the man, but all Mando saw was an idiot. Mando didn’t think about how idiots could still be dangerous.

“Look at you. Asleep on the job, old man,” Toro smirked, pulling out his gun and aiming at Mando a few times like he was in a standoff.

“You done?” Mando asked, alerting Toro that he was awake.

“Yeah. I was just, uh, waking you guys up. Come on,” Toro said, feigning innocence. Mando turned his head carefully to Astra who was somehow still asleep. “Astra,” Mando said, gently nudging her side, “Wake up.”

“Hmm. Yes, sir,” Astra muttered in her sleep before waking suddenly, shaking her head as she sat up, “I wasn’t asleep.”

Mando chuckled, “Come on,” and reached out a hand to help Astra stand. She gladly took it and followed him to the bikes.

“Get on your bike,” he said to Toro,” Ride as fast as you can towards those rocks.”

“That’s your plan?” Toro scoffed, “She’ll snipe us right off the bikes.”

“Then be faster,” Astra snidely remarked. Toro narrowed his eyes at her.

Mando tossed something at Toro, “It’s a flash charge. We alternate shots, it'll blind any scope temporarily. Combine that with our speed and we got a chance.”

“A chance?” Toro and Astra both asked in shock.

“Hey, you wanted this. Get ready,” Mando said to Toro.

“Mando-” Astra started.

“It’ll work. Take this and shoot it when I tell you to,” Mando said, handing Astra a flash charge and peeling off.

The two bikes flew over the hill, slamming onto the sand before zooming through the dunes.

“Astra, now!” Mando called over the wind.

Astra sat up and reached over Mando’s shoulder, shooting a bright light towards where Fennec was hiding. Fennec shot back and Mando swerved out of the way. Astra kept steady by holding onto Mando’s shoulders, finding a better grip under the Beskar plate to his shoulder, nothing between them except Mando’s flight suit.

“Now!” Mando yelled louder to Toro. Toro shot the flash charge as Mando swerved from another shot. Astra wobbled, gasping as she held onto Mando tighter.

“You okay?” Mando asked, keeping his body rigid so Astra wouldn’t knock them both off of the speeder.

“I’m good,” Astra said.

Toro shot again, the light bouncing down the path. Before Astra or Mando could do anything about it, Fennec shot again, hitting their speeder dead on. They flew off the speeder, Mando thudding face first into the sand as Astra rolled across the dune, arms protecting her head until she slowed to a stop a ways away from Mando.

“Astra!” Mando called out to her, scrambling on the sand to reach her.

She groaned, barely picking her head up as she reached an arm out and shot another flash of light, letting Toro slip through. Before Mando could reach her, Fennec shot him square in the chest, knocking him back.

“Mando!” Astra screamed, crawling towards him. He laid motionless in the sand.

Astra reached him, examining the black blaster mark on his armor, noticing the shot didn’t go through. She gasped when Mando shot up suddenly, feeling his chest plate to come to the same conclusion Astra had only a moment before.

“Guess Beskar holds up at close range, too,” Astra joked.

“Guess so,” Mando said, looking at her, “Are you alright?”

Astra laughed, “You just got shot in the chest by a sniper bolt and you’re asking me if I’m alright?”

“You did fly off an exploding fast-moving speeder,” Mando added. “So did you,” Astra pointed out, smiling, “Are you alright?”

Mando paused, staring for a long moment at Astra’s mouth, quirked up in an amused smile. He followed her lips to their points, finding two dimples hidden in her smile, like a treasure map. Her smile betrayed her eyes, which showed concern as she raked them over Mando’s body, searching for any injury. They were each so engrossed in each other that they didn’t realize that the other was doing the same thing.

“I’m okay,” Mando finally said.

“Great. Let’s go keep Toro from kriffing this up,” Astra said, standing. She held a hand out for Mando who took it, though Astra wasn’t much help in lifting the heavily-armored man.

“Maker, that Beskar weighs a ton. I don’t know how you run around in that,” Astra huffed as they made their way to where Fennec and Toro were.

“You get used to it. Feels weird when it’s off,” Mando replied, shrugging.

“Well, since you never take it off, I’m sure you feel weightless without it. Like you could just fly, untethered to gravity as you float up into the stars,” Astra said, her hand trailing up into the sky imitating her imaginary flying Mando.

Mando shook his head and said in a humorous tone, “Yeah, something like that.”

Mando and Astra made it up the ridge, their movements hidden under the sounds of Fennec and Toro fighting. They came up behind them as Fennec caught Toro in an armbar hold.

“Nice distraction,” Mando said, aiming his gun for Fennec’s head.

Fennec sighed, letting go and holding her hands up in surrender. Toro got to his knees, moaning in pain as he held onto the arm Fennec had overextended.

“Yeah. Good work, partners,” Toro groaned from the ground.

“Cuff yourself,” Mando ordered, dropping the cuffs at Fennec’s feet.

“Why don’t you go find your blaster?” Mando suggested to Toro who nodded and walked off.

“A Mandalorian. It's been a long time since I've seen one of your kind. Ever been to Nevarro?” Fennec asked, trying to rile Mando up, “ I hear things didn't go so well there, but it looks like you got off easy.” Astra looked to Mando. She remembers him mentioning a fight in Nevarro to save the Child.

“You don't have to worry about gettin’ to Nevarro, or anywhere else, once we turn you in,” Toro said when he found his blaster, shaking the sand off of it, “You know, I really should thank you. You're my ticket into the Guild.”

“You're welcome,” Fennec deadpanned, being led down to the speeders by Mando.

“Uh-oh. Looks like two of us have to walk,” Fennec joked mockingly.

Mando pushed her down to sit on a rock, “Or we could drag you.”

“All right, so what is the plan?” Toro asked Mando as they and Astra stepped away from Fennec to talk out a plan.

“I need you to go find that Dewback we saw,” Mando said to him.

“And leave you here with my bounty and my ride? Yeah, I don't think so, Mando,” Toro scoffed, ignoring the fact that three of them still wouldn’t fit on one speeder.

Mando scanned the dunes, finding the Dewback’s heat signature with his helmet.

“Okay, Astra and I will go. Watch her, and don't let her get near the bike. She's no good to us dead,” Mando ordered, walking off.

“Wait?! You’re gonna leave him with the speeder and the bounty?” Astra asked, incredulously.

“Oh, you wanna spend time with me that badly?” Toro asked, winking at Astra.

She scoffed, turning and catching up with Mando. “Mando, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

He kept walking, ignoring her protests. Astra looked back at Toro and Fennec and huffed in annoyance before following Mando.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

“What’s up with you?” Astra asked after about 20 minutes of walking. They’d already made it out of Toro and Fennec’s sight, yet who knew how much longer it’d take to reach the Dewback.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Mando deflected.

Astra scoffed, “Yeah, right! You don’t trust me! I saved your ass on Sorgan and this is how you treat me. You go from being mostly bearable to colder than a Chistori. What is it?!”

Mando stopped, stepping close to Astra, “You want me to trust you. Fine. How did you kill the hunter on Sorgan?”

Astra swallowed, eyes narrowed in anger while her heart beat wildly in her chest from fear.

She shook her head, “Why does it matter?”

Mando came close enough to Astra’s face that she could see her reflection in the black slats, saying, “Because you’re hiding something, and until I find out what it is, I can’t really trust you, can I?”

“Oh, and like you’ve given me so much to trust, yeah?” Astra asked, sarcastically, getting equally in Mando’s face as he had to her, “I get there’s a lot of secrecy about you because of your Creed, but I know nothing about you. Maybe that’s why you’ve really been alone all this time. You push away anyone who wants to try to get to know you.”

“And what if I don’t want you to know me? Don’t forget that you asked to join me, not the other way around,” Mando said harshly.

Astra narrowed her eyebrows, taken aback by his tone.

She nodded, looking down, “Alright, Mando. Then, I guess you can figure this out yourself. I’m leaving.” She turned and started walking back to the village.

He went to follow her, but then looked back to the Dewback walking off. Mando looked between the retreating Dewback and Astra walking in the opposite direction.

“Dank Farrik,” Mando muttered, chasing after the Dewback. He planned to pick Astra up on the way back to town after he’d gotten Toro and Fennec. She wouldn’t be able to walk the whole way back.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

“Kriffing nerfherder. That’s it. I’m going back to Coruscant. Actually, they’ll probably find me there. I’ll have to hide somewhere else. Outer Rim? Well, wherever it is, it wouldn’t be far away enough from you, Mando!” Astra yelled, turning around to yell out into the empty sands, the suns coming up in the distance. She’d walked all night and frankly was starting to feel delirious. She didn’t realize how far they’d traveled.

As Astra debated with herself on whether to head back and hopefully meet them halfway or keep going, she heard the sound of a speeder. She turned, watching the speeder get closer and closer until it came to a stop a few feet away from her. Toro got off the bike, walking towards Astra.

“Toro? Where’s Mando and Fennec?” Astra asked, confused.

Toro looked back the way he came, “Oh, uh, his ride is a bit slower. Told me to go ahead and pick you up.”

Astra hesitated. That was unlike Mando. Despite their fight, she knew Mando wouldn’t have trusted Toro alone with her. That’s why he’d told Astra to go with him to get the Dewback. Astra took a step back as Toro took one closer.

“Toro, what did you do?” Astra asked, a hand on her satchel.

Toro cocked his head to the side, smiling, “I’m gonna be a legend.”

He jumped, launching himself on her before she could reach her weapons. They slammed to the ground, Toro on top of Astra as he tried to pin down her limbs. Astra screamed at him, banging on any part of his body she could land a hit while her other hand reached in her satchel and pulled out her lightsaber.

Before she could ignite it, Toro grabbed it, holding it out so she couldn’t use it on him. He pushed his arm into her neck, choking her as he reached for the saber, ripping it from her grasp.

She cried out in protest and, without even realizing what it was, Toro smacked the saber across Astra’s head, knocking her out. He stood over Astra and looked at the object he took from her. He smirked as he examined it.

“Oh, now that’s interesting,” he chuckled darkly.

He picked her up and put her on the speeder, zooming off back to the village.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

Mando had just gotten back to where he expected Toro and Fennec to be waiting for him. Instead, all he found was Fennec’s lifeless body crumpled on the sand, a blaster shot to the chest. He sighed and then froze. If Toro left with the speeder, he thought, he would’ve run into Astra. Mando booked it, jumping on the Dewback and making it go as fast as he could get it to go, which wasn’t very fast, but still better than walking. At this rate, he wouldn’t make it till sunsdown, but he had no choice.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

Astra groaned, her eyes slowly peeling open to see that she was back at Peli’s hangar, the suns high in the sky. She looked up, seeing her hands cuffed to one of the hydraulic poles of Mando’s ship door.

“Oh, look. She’s waking up,” Astra heard, turning her head to see Toro holding the kid with a blaster pointed at Peli.

“Toro. What the hell are you doing?” Astra asked, trying to shake the pounding out of her head. When she creased her eyebrows, she felt something stiff and flaky on her face. Blood from when he knocked her out with- Astra’s eyes widened in realization just as Toro raised the saber in the air.

“Looking for this?” he asked, smirking. Astra only looked on in horror.

“I know there was something weird about you,” Toro smiled, handing the kid to Peli, “Hold … this. And don’t try anything or I’ll have to kill you.”

He walked up to Astra, keeping Peli in front of his blaster just in case. He waved the lightsaber in front of Astra’s face.

“Ya know,” he started, “I thought your kind were all wiped out. Both by the Empire and the Jedis’ own foolishness.”

“I’m not a Jedi,” Astra said simply, her eyes following the saber.

“No, I didn’t think you were. You’re worse than that. Sith, they called ’em, yeah?” Toro smiled as Astra gulped.

“I’m not that either,” Astra said again, narrowing her eyes in anger at Toro.

“Oh, really? Then explain this.” Toro turned on the lightsaber, red plasma shooting out to its full length, humming with energy.

“I don’t have to explain anything to the likes of you,” Astra said defiantly. She looked over to the Child and Peli, who looked worriedly at Astra, not giving a Bantha’s ass about the implications of her owning a red lightsaber.

Toro held the saber out, the tip just inches from Astra’s neck as she raised her chin to avoid it. “Then we’ll just see how your Mandalorian feels about it, won’t we?”

Astra clenched her teeth, her face twitching in a mix of fear and anger. If Mando found out, Astra thought, she’d be doomed.

• •┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈• •

Mando finally arrived at the edge of the village as the suns disappeared over the horizon. He found Toro’s speeder parked outside of Peli’s hangar. He pulled out his blaster, carefully walking into the hangar, ready for anything.

As he stepped in, one of the droids zoomed past to hide with its friends in the control booth, startling him.

“Took you long enough, Mando,” Mando heard Toro’s voice.

He rounded a stack of crates to see Astra cuffed to his ship, a towel tied to her head as a gag. Mando thought the red hot anger coursing through him at the sight of the dried blood down the side of her face couldn’t be topped. Then Toro appeared, pushing Peli out with the gun as he held the Child in his arms.

Toro smiled, “Looks like I'm calling the shots now. Huh, partner?”

Mando didn’t answer, his calm stance betraying his pounding heart.

“Drop your blaster and raise ’em,” Toro ordered. Mando slowly followed his commands.

“Cuff him,” Toro said, pushing Peli with the gun. She grunted and walked over to Mando.

“You're a Guild traitor, Mando. And I'm willing to bet that this here is the target you helped escape and pretty little Astra is the runaway Imp they also wanted,” Toro smiled.

Mando cocked his head, looking at Astra. He never got any info when he’d gotten her tracking fob and he never asked because then he’d be expected to reveal things about himself in return.

“Oh? You didn’t know?” Toro asked, feigning surprise, “Astra here is full of surprises, aren’t you?”

Astra cursed him out, but it became unintelligible through the gag. She turned to Mando, eyebrows pulled together as she shook her head as if to say, don’t listen to him!

“And the best part is right here,” Toro said, lowering the gun to get the lightsaber out of Astra’s satchel that he’d stolen.

Mando took the chance to press the flash charge he had in his hand, stunning Toro who shot blindly in Mando’s direction. Mando snuck up from the side of the ship and Astra ducked as he shot at Toro, hitting him square in the chest. He spun and fell off to the other side of the ramp.

Mando and Peli ran over with Mando warning Peli to stay back just in case Toro was faking it. Peli pushed on anyway, finding the kid coming out from behind a crate.

“Is he okay?” Astra asked through her gag, unable to see. Peli picked him up as Mando turned to Astra.

“He’s shaken up, I’m sure, but he’s fine,” Peli called out to Astra before focusing on cheering the kid up. Mando walked to Astra when he was satisfied with the Child’s safety. He kneeled in front of her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, taking out the gag before moving to undo the cuffs.

“I’m fine. He- He found me walking back, knocked me out, and I woke up tied here,” Astra said, looking down. Astra’s arm dropped when Mando hit the release. He reached up to her temple. Astra winced when he rubbed his finger along it. He pulled his hand back, the will to kill Toro again rising through him.

“Shiny, really, I’m good,” Astra comforted, standing before Mando could reply. She walked down the ramp, towards Toro’s body.

Mando was watching her until Peli spoke up, walking up the ramp and handing him the Child.

“So … I take it you didn’t get paid?” she asked.

Mando pulled out a small satchel and dumped a bunch of thin gold bars into Peli’s outstretched hands.

“That cover me?”

“Yeah. Yes, this is gonna cover you,” Peli nodded gratefully.

Mando turned and walked up the ramp. Peli looked at Astra who gave her a wink and a short nod as if to say, your secret’s safe with me. Astra smiled gratefully and turned, following Mando into the ship, her satchel tucked safely to her side, all of its contents within.

Astra held onto the wall as they took off and then shot into hyperspace. Mando walked into the cargo hold from the cockpit, having set them on their path on autopilot.

“Let’s get that cleaned up,” he sighed, motioning her to follow him. They walked into his room. Astra hesitated at the door. She hadn’t been allowed in here. It was one of his rules. She entered, feeling oddly giddy about the fact that he’d invited her in, like another layer had been pulled back, further exposing the strange man to her.

Mando had her sit on the bed as he went to grab the medkit from the fresher. She wanted to tell him she could do it herself, but she didn’t want to risk him shutting himself off again.

Mando walked back into the room, setting the medkit down beside Astra. He opened the kit and took out bacta spray and a small towelette. Astra looked up at him as he grabbed the side of her face, angling it so he could see the cut at her hairline. He cleaned it with the towelette, silent as ever.

Astra didn’t know what to say. Mando didn’t know where to start. Astra knew they would need to talk. Toro told Mando she used to work for the Empire, there was no way Mando wouldn’t bring it up. She was just scared as to why he was being so caring and kind when he should be kicking her out of the airlock.

Mando grabbed the bacta spray, pushing Astra’s hair out of the way and spraying the cut. Astra’s face twitched in discomfort. She knew her head would be throbbing in the morning and there’d be a bruise for a while at the very least.

“There,” Mando said, putting the spray away and closing the medkit, “How’s that?”

Astra nodded, “Better … thank you.”

Mando nodded, “Good,” and then stepped in between her legs, reaching his hand out. He held her by the chin, pulling her face up to look him in the eye. He didn’t know how she always managed to find them, like she could see right through the helmet.

“I’m going to ask you a question … and you are going to tell me the truth. Understand?” Mando asked, his tone even, which only frightened Astra more.

She nodded. “Say it,” he ordered, tightening his grip.

“I understand,” Astra whispered shakily. She felt hot, but from fear or … something else, she didn’t know.

“How did you kill the bounty hunter on Sorgan?”

Astra screwed her eyes shut. She’d hoped he’d ask why Toro called her an ex-Imp. She could’ve dodged the truth a bit longer, but fate wouldn’t have it. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

“I used this.” She moved slowly, pulling her satchel to her lap and opening it, her eyes never leaving Mando’s. She pulled out the lightsaber, holding it out in the small space between them. He looked at it, then at her, then back at it, and at that moment he was grateful for the helmet. His mind raced through all of the millions of possibilities of what this meant: who she was and could possibly still be.

He took the lightsaber out of her hand, letting her chin go. He took a step back and Astra stood, hoping she could get him to understand.

Mando pulled out his blaster, aiming it at her, “Explain. Quick.”

Astra put her hands up in defense, her eyebrows knit together in disappointment.

“I,” she started, but couldn’t get the words out, “I … am not that person anymore.”

“What person?” Mando asked, cocking his head, “Why is there a bounty on you?”

“I’m like the kid … in a way,” she started, “I was taken by the Empire when I was a child because of it. They … raised me to be what they needed.”

“What did they need?” Mando asked slowly, fearing the answer.

Astra took a shaky breath, looking at the ground, “A murderer.” She looked back up, wishing she could see Mando’s face, understand what he’s feeling. All she had was the cold metal of his helmet, watching her dead on.

“They were a few of us, trained from the moment we were taken to be their hunters. They thought controlling us from a young age would make us more loyal, less … ourselves,” Astra explained, eyes hazy and far away.

“I’ve done horrible things, Mando,” she said, her eyes glued to the saber in his hands, “Things they made me do because if I didn’t, they—” She met his gaze and froze, the words freezing on her tongue.

Astra shook her head, willing the memories away, “But I left. First chance I got, I ran and ran and I haven’t stopped running for three years. The people who want the kid, who want me, they want to use us. They want to tear us apart until the only thing left inside is dark and twisted, just like them.”

Astra stood straighter, looking Mando dead on, “But I’m not the monster they made me anymore. I haven’t willfully used the force. I couldn’t if I tried. I killed the bounty hunter with that lightsaber because he was going to kill you and I couldn’t let that happen. But, if you want to get rid of me, I understand. I just ask that you don’t turn me in.”

Mando could only stare. He’d felt like the floor had glued his feet in place and the air had been sucked out of the room. In all honesty, he had no idea what he wanted to do. He was having trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that the girl who’d saved his life and protected the Child had once been an Imperial bounty hunter.

“Why did you keep it?” he forced out. This question mattered. Why, if she wanted to leave that life behind, would she keep the weapon she killed with?

“I don’t know,” she frowned, “I tell myself it’s because I need it for protection or because I want to remember what I was so I wouldn’t be that again, but I don’t think I’m that righteous.”

She shook her head, “I can’t get rid of it. No matter how much I try, something is telling me to hold onto it. I think it’s because, deep down, I liked feeling powerful, and I don’t know if that’s just a part of me or if the Empire stuck their fingers down my throat and put the idea there themselves. Wouldn’t be the first time. But, I know I need it. For what, I don’t know, but I feel it. I just hope it’s for a good reason.”

Astra looked at Mando in anticipation. She didn’t know why she wanted to stay with him so badly. She’d managed running for this long on her own, but after a few weeks with Mando and the kid, she couldn’t imagine bartending on an Outer Rim planet, looking over her shoulder, and fending off drunk patrons.

With Mando, she could see the galaxy in a way she never had. Before, people would cower in fear at her arrival. Now, she could explore and learn other cultures, and she’d have Mando and the kid and suddenly, she had no idea how she’d spent all those years alone.

But that was all over now that Mando knew what Astra was. That’s why he was putting his blaster down … and handing her the lightsaber. Astra furrowed her brows at him.

“I was taken in by the Mandalorians after my parents were killed during the Clone Wars,” Mando said, taking Astra’s hand and placing the lightsaber in it, “I know what it is to be a child of war.” They stared at each other for a long moment, his hands still holding one of hers.

“We’ll be landing on Orillia for supplies. Get some rest.” Mando pulled away, leaving the room. He sat in the pilot seat, watching space zoom by.

He heard a shuffle behind him and then Astra appeared, sitting in the passenger seat. She crossed her legs on the chair, getting comfy.

“What?” she asked, noticing Mando’s look, “I’m not tired. Spent enough of the day asleep against my will. Thought I’d keep you company since the kid’s asleep. Is that alright?”

Mando nodded, Astra smiled, and they sat in comfortable silence, no longer strangers.

Taglist: @elinedjarin

#the mandalorian #din djarin #star wars #fanfiction #the mandalorian x oc #din djarin x oc #din and grogu #the mandalorian x reader #mando x OC #mando and grogu #mando x you #mando x reader #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal #baby yoda #grogu djarin #din x reader #din x female reader #din x OC #star wars fic #star wars fanfiction #mandalorian and grogu #mandalorian x you #the mandalorian fic #mandalorian x y/n #star wars x OC #stellar nova

[ladykatakuri]

Stardust Reblog Challange December Part 2

13th:

Think You Can Handle Me? 1/2 - Crosshair x AFAB!Reader by: @zoeykallus NSFW

The Last Mission - Jedi OC and Clone OC by: @arctrooper69 SFW

Dincember, December 1 - Gift by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

25 Days of Life Day, Day 1 - Cody x Reader Tree Decorating by: @ladysongmaster SFW

25 Days of Lifeday 2 - Hot Cocoa and Fire Place Cuddles with Rex - Rex x Reader by: @kaminocasey SFW

The Toothpick Incident - Crosshair x F!Reader by: @zoeykallus SFW

Gar Cyare Chapter 8 - Alpha 17 x F!Reader by: @wanderinginksplot SFW

Dincember: December 2 - Snow by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

25 Days of Life Day - Hot Cocoa and Fireplace Cuddles - Rex x Reader by: @ladysongmaster SFW

In Time - Tup x Reader by: @kaminocasey NSFW

25 Days of Life Day 3 - Sledding with Gregor by: @kaminocasey SFW

Echo x F!Reader by: @twistedstitcher27 NSFW

Eya Episode VIII - Eya ( and several OCs )by: @galacticgraffiti SFW

Take My Memory: Bonsoir Ch. 7 - Gregor x F!OC Cassia Nu by: @kaminocasey SFW

Meeting the Prodigal Daughter - Count Dooku and Y/N Jinn ( Reader ) by: @monako-jinn-stories SFW

25 Days of Life Day 3 - Soup, Sandwiches and Snow - Gregor x Reader by: @ladysongmaster SFW

Dincember: December 3 - Gloves by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

Caught Ya - Wrecker x Reader by: @kaminocasey SFWish

25 Days of Life Day 4: Decorating the House with Wolffe - Wolffe x Reader by: @kaminocasey SFW

Snowy Retreat - Hunter x F!Reader by: @zoeykallus SFW

Holding On - Hunter x F!Reader by: @nahoney22 SFW

25 Days of Life Day 4 : The Light of the Season - Wolffe x Reader by: @ladysongmaster SFW

Dincember: December 4 - Fire by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

25 Days of Life Day 5: Iceskating with Hunter and Omega by: @kaminocasey SFW

Captain Gregor x Physician F!Reader by: @twistedstitcher27 NSFW

I Will Always Wait for You 15 - Frankie Morales x F!Reader by: @musings-of-a-rose Mature

Inspiration - ARC Trooper Echo x F!Reader by: @wild-karrde NSFW

Walk Me Home Ch.7 - Wolffe x F!OC Cherise by: @cyarbika SFW

Dincember: December 5 - Cold by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

14th:

Security - Honor(Interlude) - Din Djarin x F!OC Astra by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

Cheeky Flashing - TBB x F!Reader by: @nahoney22 Suggestive

Snow, Gifts, Sweets and Life Day - TBB & Rex & Fives x F!Reader HC`s by: @zoeykallus SFW

25 Days of Life Day 6- Making Fudge with Tech - Tech x Reader by: @kaminocasey SFW

About Strange Turn Ons and Love Boners - TBB x Reader HCs by: @zoeykallus Suggestive

Permission to Dance - Tech x F!Reader by: @nahoney22 SFW

Dincember: December 6 Hot Chocolate - Din Djarin x Reader by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

25 Days of Life Day 7 - Life Day Lights Display with Echo - Echo x Reader by : @kaminocasey SFW

The Cover of Night - Marc Spector/Steven Grant x F!Reader by: @interstellarwraith SFW

The Gym Membership 15 : Echo - Echo x F!OC by: @imabeautifulbutterfly SFW

Dincember: December 7 Blanket - Din Djarin x Reader by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

25 Days of Life Day 8 - Decorating Gingerbread Houses with Wrecker - Wrecker x Reader by: @kaminocasey SFW

Dealing with their kids broken hearts - TBB HCs by: @zoeykallus SFW

Seeing Blue (AU) - Cad Bane x GN!Reader by: @nahoney22 SFW

Dincember: December 8 Candle - Din Djarin x Reader by: @dindjarindiaries SFW

Accidently Inflicted Pains - TBB & Cody x F!Reader by: @zoeykallus NSFW

25 Days of Life Day 9 - Decorating Firepuncher as a Joke for Crosshair - Crosshair x Reader by: @kaminocasey SFW ( suggestive language )

Sun and Rain: Age of the Empire Ch10 - The Crash - Hunter x F!OC Kimber by: @photogirl894 SFW



Taglist: @imabeautifulbutterfly@chaoticvampirejedi@hellothere-generalangsty@cyroku@reluctant-mandalore@uponrightful@zinzinina@saradika@galacticgraffiti@ashotofspotchka@dindjarindiaries@dinbeskarbaby@djarrex@djarinsbeskar@rowansparrow@photogirl894@rigelmoonshine@rigel-the-moonstrider@nahoney22@loth-wolffe@neon-junkie@bobafetts-princess@cyarbika@charnelhouse@zoeykallus@kin-rokku@jgvfhl@honestly-shite@here-comes-the-moose@dindjarindiaries@firstofficerwiggles@fictional-men-ruin-lives @ladysongmaster @lozalot @moonstrider9904@lorjukka@m-o-o-n-s-g-o-o-n-s @rain-on-kamino @monako-jinn-stories @middimidoris @wild-karrde @cross-my-heartt

[stardustdiaries]

DINCEMBER - December 13: Sweaters

Had to toss in some Dinastra love for the holidays!

(Astra created by the lovely @dindjarindiaries !)

#dincember #din djarin #the mandalorian #mando #star wars #my art #astra djarin #dinastra #digital art #Digital Illustration

[dindjarindiaries]

Very happy to tell my Security readers that the first interlude post-season 3 is officially in the works! Here’s a little piece of art I drew up depicting something that you’ll see in the new interlude. ✨

#security #molly talks #my art #astra djarin #<3 !!!

[januaryembrs]

Hi! Congrats on 1k once again!! Can I request handholding and forehead kisses with Din Djarin? Love, love, love your writing!! <3

TOUCH THE SCARS | Din Djarin x reader

description: you and din console one another after you make the difficult decision to hand Grogu to Luke Word count: 1.1k trigger warnings: parentless reader, reader has a scar on her face, destroyed home? main masterlist

authors note: this was a response to my prompt sent by the lovely @lexloon who always brightens up my days with their comments on my din djarin series, Ad Astra, but this can also be read as a sequel to a previous imagine I did kiss the scars

Skin on skin contact was not something that came naturally to you. A whole life spent hidden under your beskar armour meant you had been isolated from the feeling of another being touching your hidden skin for the majority of your life. You had never felt the warmth human skin could bring, the only semblance of such feeling being the memory of your mother cradling you when you were just a young one. 

That was before the Empire ripped your family away from you, your blood family at least. The Mandalorians had found you cowering in the remains of your childhood home, sneezing and crying at the dust the rubble had produced, confused as to where your parents had disappeared to. You remembered looking up at the sound of masked talking, worried it would be those storm troopers returning to take you away too. But no, you looked up at where the night sky beamed in through the gaping hole in the wall that certainly was not there before.

There stood two huge figures, both dressed head to toe in the thickest metal armour you ever saw. 

They were a man and a woman, the two who had found you. The man immediately began scanning the perimeter, as he had announced, while the woman knelt down to you, her face hidden by a red painted helmet though her voice was soothing, scooping you into her arms protectively. 

You sometimes wondered if that was what the child had seen when he had looked out of his pod on that first mission when you and Din had found him. Had you ever known how much the young boy would come to mean to you, you perhaps would have been as gentle and kind as the woman who found you had been.

And now he was gone, once again the Empire had stolen him from you. The only place he would ever be safe anymore was with one of his own, that was what the Armourer had said. And so you’d travelled to the ends of the galaxy and back to contact any other of his sorcerer kind you could find. And one had shown up, just as planned. 

A young man named Luke Skywalker had arrived in time to save you all from the dark troopers, and take the child to a place he will never be harmed again. You knew it would hurt, but you didn’t realise how empty everything would feel without him. 

You and Din had gotten one last chance to remove your helmets in front of your boy, let him caress your faces in shock and give him one final kiss on his forehead to say your goodbyes. He had felt so wrinkly considering he was a baby you remembered thinking, and it would have made you laugh if you hadn’t just lost what felt like your own child. Your own son. 

You and Din had made it to Nevarro with Cara as she found you a place for the night, not that you had been listening. Everything seemed foggy with your helmet back on. He was gone. He didn’t need you chasing after him anymore; he had one of his own real family to take care of him now. 

“I miss him,” Din broke the silence behind you. He too had been quiet the entire journey back, the two of you sitting in the ship's corner with your cold armour masking the weight the hurt carried on your faces. It wasn’t until you’d made it to your room for the night, to a place you could be alone together, he took off his helmet and the heartache was clear on his face. 

“I know,” Your voice felt drugged with disuse. The last you’d spoken was to say goodbye to Grogu, your son Grogu. Your son. Behind your eyes stung the second you had thought it. “We did the right thing, didn’t we?” 

“Hey, don’t do that,” Din chided softly, and you heard him stand from his place on the bed to walk closer to you. His bare fingers interlocked with yours to turn you to face him, and you figured he must have removed his gloves the same time he removed his helmet. It was nice, feeling his warm skin in your palm. He had hairy arms, you couldn’t help but notice, soft but hairy. And his fingertips seemed ironed of any wrinkles you’d expect in this job though you supposed it was for the fact he always wore his thick, leathered gloves. “He needed to be with his own people. There was nothing else we could have done,”

He was gentle though. Caressing you softly as if you were a wounded animal. He brought his hand up to softly stroke the side of your face. “I’m sorry,” You whispered, “I know you’re hurting too,”

The man smiled small, and it was still all new to you to see his facial expressions after going off his voice alone for so many years. You had only revealed your faces to one another just days ago at the imp base, you still had so much mapping out of one another to do.

Din looked down at you, his deep sepia eyes scanning over your furrowed brow and sad lips, his line of vision trailing up the scar that lay across your nose. “I am,” He said solemnly, as if admitting it to himself first, “But we can hurt together, I guess,” 

He leaned in, his one hand still locked in between your own as the other slipped behind your head to lace into your hair faintly. You drew in a breath, thinking he was going to kiss you. You wouldn’t have minded, the sensation was still just so new to you, the closeness of his skin on yours. But his path diverted at the last moment and he pecked your nose softly instead. His lips followed the trail at which your scar marred your face, over the bridge of your nose and through your eyebrow, until he landed on your temple where his lips stayed until you lifted your hand up to weave around his wrist, needing to use every chance you could get to touch him you’d seemed to realise.

The hunter pulled away. Two armorless Mandalorians missing their son staring back at one another, every morsel of the other's skin being a signature of home to both of you.

“Together,” You echoed into his neck, so quietly as if you wished to keep it a secret from the rest of the world.

Din just smiled down at you. That was how it was now, the two of you alone but together nonetheless.

this was written as part of my 1k follower celebration. please feel free to send in 1000 word drabble prompts of your own!

#din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin fanfiction #din djarin imagine #din djarin #mando angst #mando fanfiction #mando x reader #the mandalorian #pedro pascal imagine #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal x female!reader #pedro pascal characters #stars' 1k follower shebang

[slimcicle]

Welcome to Security on Disney+!

ㅤ

Delve into the journey of Din Djarin and Princess Astra as they try to survive the empire and keep the child safe. Traveling the galaxy was never easy, but if you find the right people, it shouldn't be such a difficult journey

ㅤ

ㅤ based on Security, season 2 by @dindjarindiaries​

template

#I actually wanted to do it on Netflix #but disney plus made more sense #security #din djarin #astra djarin #princess astra #the mandalorian #fanfic #fanfics #fanfiction #fanfictions #au #edit #graphic #the mandolorian x reader #din djarin x reader #din djarin x oc #disney plus #disney+

[the-last-millenial-disaster]

Ight this is gonna be short but bear with me.

Close your eyes and imagine Omen. Imagine him meeting Astra for the first time. Imagine Omen picking up interest in her powers. Here is another person that walks the dimensions. Perhaps she has the answers Yoru didn't. Perhaps her rifts delve deeper in the universes' core. Imagine Astra slowly breaking down Omen's walls because she finds him intriguing. Imagine Omen finally opening up to someone about his thoughts.

Just sit and imagine that.

Imagine Astra helping Omen piece his memories back together. Imagine them working on Omen's interdimensional study. Imagine Omen keeping a diary of every snippet of a memory he ever remembered or dreamed, since it's always gone faster than he can grasp it. Imagine Astra taking that diary and filling the empty pages with drawings, stemming from the barely readable scribbles Omen jotted down in a hurry.

Per his own demand, the doctors and the agency never showed Omen pictures of people from his life. They tried that approach. Once. Omen looked at a picture of people that were supposedly his family, but all he saw, was a photograph of two strangers. He felt disgusted at himself and so, so deeply hurt. What kind of a monster forgets it’s own family? He never saw those people before, and he didn't want to blindly trust what others told him to be true.

So after months, perhaps even years of raking trough his mind and collecting small bits and pieces of what he lost, Omen remembered a face. He didn't know exactly who it was, but it was a person that looked right. Familiar.

So who does he go to?

Astra.

He sits her down and opens his diary, now almost entirely filled with black, smudged ink. Aster pulls a sketchbook into her lap and patiently waits for Omen to continue. And he does. He describes a person to his best ability, taking aid from his notes, and occasionally glancing at Astra's sketchbook, to correct by example.

The lines are not very decisive. It's not very detailed. But it is a person.

Just looking at it made Omen want to cry. This right here? This was someone he used to know. But yet, he was overwhelmed with melancholy. He knew, somehow, that this was not a person he was getting back. Ever.

They were staring at it quietly, and just when Astra wanted to suggest cross-referencing it to the pictures of his family and friends, Viper caught sight of it.

She almost dropped her coffee as her hand covered her mouth, unsuccessfully disguising her surprise.

"Fred?"

#no im not gonna elaborate #ok thats a lie #excuse bad writing this was late night brainbarfing and idk i just think its neat #for those wondering #fred is omens real name #and just imagine the wholesome frienship between Astra and Omen #like after omen got over his introverted self they'd be friends #and thats a hill im willing to die on #also #this was originally meant to be a one paragraph post whoops #tbh it started as an idea that astra drew omens face from his desc without him knowing it was him #and i just thought the idea was good idk #can you tell how much i like omen #and then my brain go brrrr and now we have this #i hope you enjoyed some casual angst #i am deeply sorry for the asks i havent forgotten i swear #omen valorant #good ineffable omens #astra djarin #astra valorant #valorant hcs #valorant headcanons

[moralesispunk]

Astra (Din Djarin x Female Witch! Reader)

Summary: For years Din has visited a farm in the outer rim. Sometimes he stays for one night, sometimes one week, but it’s where his heart lives and it’s becoming harder and harder for him to leave.

Warnings: smut, oral (f receiving), unprotected sex, feelings, breeding kink, this is in third person but there are no physical descriptions of “her” other than she is female and the clothes she wears so I have labelled as reader insert as I hope it can come across that way (although please tell me kindly if not and I will edit to be x oc)

Word Count: 4.6k

A/n: a break from (ir)regularly scheduled programming for a different kind of Din fic. As of now it is one part but I may write more.

When he was a child, Din’s mother used to tell him about a planet on the outer rim called Terra. The planet had one moon, Astra, and a sky that was so clear at night you could see the surface or Astra alongside the millions of stars that shone brightly in the sky.

It is a fruitful planet, with tall trees and fields upon fields of green, but it had not always been. The story goes that years ago Terra did not have a moon and instead, at night, the sky was a blanket of navy with the stars that twinkled above. That had been until one day a star fell from the sky and crashed down to the surface, breaking off a piece of Terra that floated up into the night. That piece of rock became Astra and it shone brightly down on Terra every night.

Terra was heartbroken at this loss and each day that passed the desert planet turned into a fruitful one; the rivers that had been dry raged with her tears and the wind that had been still howled in pain as it carried the pollen to greener grass. She cried for hours and hours all day until finally the sun set and Astra could be seen high in the sky.

Terra would bask in her glow and even though they only had the night together it was long enough for the rivers and wind to calm and for the planet to bore life once more.

Whenever Din’s mother told him this story she held him tighter against her side, like she was scared that he would suddenly break away from her to never be seen again. Din had never quite understood her pain, not even when he lost both his parents and was left with only the memory of what they looked and sounded like; it seemed so foreign to him that you could be consumed with such grief of missing someone that you could no longer control the rage or anguish when you are no longer with him, but then he had met her and then he had lost Grogu.

Din would come to her house when the moon was already high in the sky, dragging his tired body through the forest towards her small home that she had built herself in a small clearing of trees at the edge of the farm. It was as though she always knew when he would be there, waiting in the garden below the night sky with flowers in her hands as she delicately wrapped the stems around one another into another of her beautiful decorations. He knew that she had sensed him long before she looked up, her gaze still focused on the flowers in her hand as the energy between them grew more and more intense until he stepped forward enough for the moonlight to bounce off his beskar and catch her eye.

The flowers would be forgotten for another day, picked up only when he left again, and she would gracefully push her weight up to stand. He always took a minute before stepping forward anymore - a moment just to look at her as the dress she wore fell around her calves and she waited at the bottom of the step to take his body into her arms.

When he finally made it to her, his forehead pressing against hers and her hands holding his between their bodies, they would wait. He never knew what they had been waiting for and it took him until his fourth time visiting before he realized that she never took him any further until his shoulders relaxed and he breathed out whatever violent bounty he had come from only to breath in the peace of her farm; only then would she wrap her hand around his wrist and lead her into the cottage behind her.

For the first night they would never leave the bed. He let her take off more of his armor than anyone before and she did so with steady hands, not a word said between them as they worked together to remove every last piece of beskar until he stood only in his helmet before reaching for her dress as he deftly pulled the straps on her shoulder until the fabric fell around her ankles and he took her into his arms.

More often than not the silence would stay for hours as he brought her pleasure again and again and again, until he finally crawled up her body and slipped inside when the feeling of coming home was enough to break the silence as he groaned in her ear,

“I missed you.”

She would never comment on how vulnerable he let himself sound, or the way his voice always broke at the end like he could finally let himself miss her in that moment even though he had her safely in his arms.

It was true though, in a roundabout way that not even Din could understand. He refused to let himself miss her every time he walked away, whether it had been after one night or a few - or that one blessed week he had been able to stay. He had only done it once before and it had been hard enough, he had been so consumed by her that he couldn’t focus on anything else, and so he refused to let the grief of not having her settle in until he knew, for sure, that she would be in his arms again.

There had always been weeks between their visits, often months, but this had been the longest he had gone without seeing her. The last time he had been here had been six months ago and there hadn’t been a single soul - droid or living - who had seen his face; he hadn't yet admitted to himself that the child in his care was one he loved like a son, though he didn’t need to when she saw the way he refused to take his eyes off the child thay ran about her farm; there had been no other, except for her and his Covert, who had known his name.

He still doesn’t know why he had told her his name so freely. It had slipped out almost two years ago, when his dedication to the way hadn’t been as uneasy as it was now, and he knew when he looked up at her with her hands resting on his chest as he was buried deep inside of her that he needed for her to know his name - for her to moan Din rather than Mando in that soft, siren voice that called out to him even when he was galaxies away.

He had willingly given her more than he had given anyone before and a month ago, for the first time in five years, he had let himself miss her.

The kid was gone now; he was with his people and he was safe. It was the right decision Din had repeated in his mind like a mantra but as he continued to silently roam the galaxy between whatever bounty he could find, he couldn’t help himself from missing her. Until the kid, Din had never wavered in believing that every decision he made was the right one, perfectly balancing the pros and cons before making a move, but he needed her to say those words; he needed her to look him in his eyes and tell him that everything would be okay.

He needed to feel anything other than this all consuming rage and pain as he cut through whatever stood in his way and lived bounty to bounty, day to day, without his son; he needed the kind of peace that he had only ever felt on her farm with her in his arms - when he knew that she was alive and well - and he traveled across the galaxy to where the calmness called.

It was a familiar feeling of excitement and trepidation that came during his travel to her - one that would take hold when he finally made the decision that he had to see her again. The excitement and pull to her always outweighed the worry but he couldn’t help those thoughts that would push in. He had sometimes worries that he would arrive and there would be another in his place, their eyes meeting as she fell into someone else’s arms, but then he would repeat the words that she had told him more than once as she lay in his arms: “you own my heart Din, you take it with you each time you leave, and so there is no one else who could have it”. Other times he worried that he would arrive and she would be gone - perhaps from sickness or a harsh winter, or those raiders that he had desperately saved her from once before would have brothers that returned to finish what they started, something that had rattled Din so deeply he almost never left again.

There were thousands of fears and worries that filled his mind until she was finally within touching distance and all of those thoughts were silenced.

He watched her for a moment between the trees and as always he knew that she could feel him there but she gave him the time to come to her. She always gave him time, always accepted what he could give - like when he came she would never ask how long he would be here or when she left he never asked when she would be back.

Her gaze stayed down on her lap, deft fingers working to create another flower decoration that he couldn’t quite make out from back here. The dress she wore today was white, almost creating a bright light around her under the moonlight, and it floated down around her hips and dragged ever so slightly in the dirt from where she rested on the top step. The sleeves billowed every so often in the slow breeze and he could see from here that the ties on her chest were undone, no doubt after a long day of working on the farm, and it was enough to give him a glimpse of the soft skin he had thought about kissing for years.

He had never seen anyone as beautiful as her. He had traveled the galaxy every which way, encountered more people than most, but there was never anyone who made his breath catch in his throat the way she did; no-one who had sent a warmth coursing through his body as his palms itched with the need to touch her.

It was only when he pushed off from the tree she finally looked up, her eyes not widening from surprise but rather softening as she placed the flowers down and pushed herself to stand. She walked down the steps, her bare feet pressing into the fertile ground that was ready to plant the summer crops - a cycle he had become accustomed to over the years - but for the first time she hesitated before reaching him as his hands came up to his helmet.

Her face was always perfectly calm, the tiniest hint of a smile on her mouth and eyes that always gazed into his visor in a way that was never intense but always telling him that she had been listening, but for the first time she looked shocked - even more shocked than she had been all those years ago when the injured Mandalorian had stumbled into her farm before collapsing on her crops and she had to spend three days nursing him back to health. He could tell she had always held a slight wall up between them, a practiced emotion on her face when he arrived and left as an acceptance as this for whatever it was, what it could never be, but Din could never be mad when he had built his own wall that he had never thought about tearing down, at least until now.

She jumped forward as his fingers wrapped around the edge of his helmet, her hands that looked so small when against him coming to rest on his elbow to stop his movement before it went any further, but when he nodded once she stood back ever so slightly and let her hands drop back to her sides.

Between now and the last time he had seen her he had given his name to so many others that he was unshaken when those three syllables left another’s mouth and his face had been seen by a few - though he had quickly placed his helmet back on to be hidden once more. She knew his name - had said it more times than anyone other than his mother and father - and now he wanted her to have this too.

As this beskar began to lift there was some nagging part of his brain that was trying to push those harmful thoughts to the front of his mind - what if she no longer wants you when she sees your face - but the rest of him had as much trust in her as she had in him and that part of his brain won as he slipped the beskar up and up.

When the helmet was finally off, his fingers digging into the beskar as he held it at his side, he held his breath. He didn’t breathe as she took a step forward, and then another, until her chest was pressing against his and she was pushing up on her toes to reach his face. Her palms pressed against his cheeks and the helmet was forgotten, landing with a thump against the ground as he rested his hands over hers. She traced every inch of his face, her soft fingers dancing across his stubbled jaw and pouting lips; over his cheekbones and nose that had been broken on more than one occasion; the corners of his eyes that held smile lines as permanent memories of his visits here. They could have been standing there for hours and Din would not have cared, all that mattered was for the first time he stared into her eyes, she stared back into his.

The pads of her thumbs wiped across his cheeks and as drops of water began to hit his neck it was the first time he realized that he had been crying, his head dipping down and mouth crashing against hers as he was overcome with the need to consume her. Her hands reached up and locked behind his neck and he bent down and gripped her thighs, wrapping her body around his as he carried her through the garden and into the cottage with the helmet still left abandoned on the grass.

It was the first time they had kissed and after years of imaging it, or thinking about it every night as he fell asleep, it was so much more than he had ever thought it could be. Her lips were soft, tasting of the sweet fruit from her garden, and with each moan that breezed by her parting lips and twined with his own whimpers he pulled her closer and closer against him like at some point they could merge into one.

It was the most heated they had been, hands fighting for dominance until it was skin against skin and she was laid bare on the bed as he towered over her.

“I need-” he broke the silence far earlier than usual - though nothing about this visit seemed usual for them. “I need to taste you; I have thought for years about finally tasting you.”

Her thighs parted at his words and his shoulders held them open as he settled between her legs, his hands shaking as they skimmed up the inside of her thighs until he was close enough to press a kiss where she needed him most. He had learned her over the years - knowing exactly what she needed and liked - but this was new and he needed her to feel as good as he did now; as free as she made him feel.

He wasn’t sure how skilled he was, his body seeming to take over as soon as he tasted her for the first time, but as her back arched and she moaned his name with her fingers buried deep in his hair he refused to let those nagging thoughts dominate any longer. He kissed, he licked, he tasted, he consumed her until she seemed to explode around him; this woman who was so delicate and kind bursting out, out, out until the whole room was filled with her loud moans and screams as her nails dug into his shoulders and suddenly he was being pulled up her body as her lips crashed against his.

Usually she would see the light of the moon shining across his helmet, catching it whenever he threw his head back with a moan and casting a flash of light around the room, but now she got to watch a whole other kind of beauty.

She got to see the way it cast along his profile; his strong nose and jaw, his soft lips and cheeks, his dark brown eyes that still held a beautiful lightness. She got to watch as his face contorted with pleasure as he slipped inside, everything from the bliss calm where his lips would part and his eyelids would flutter closed all the way to a concentrated high as he chased his peak with furrowed brows and a set jaw.

Sometimes when he came here, when his shoulders held a tension that just wouldn’t seem to go, she would tell him to “take what he needs.” She would let him handle her body until her face was pressed against the soft pillows and her hands curled into the sheets as he placed his large hand on the small of her back, his weight leaning over hers as she looked out into the stars from the window and listened to the beautiful sounds he made as each piece of frustration began to chip away. She could see the tension in his shoulders now but she didn’t want to look away and so instead dug her nails into his arms and tightened her legs around his waist as he continued to drill his cock into her.

Their eyes met and her ankles locked around his waist, his hips pressed tight to hers and instead of pulling out he just pushed in deeper and deeper. He had never spilled inside of her, had never risked creating a child that he would have to leave as often as he left her, but there was something different now.

The idea of settling in one place, or having a home and a family, no longer made him feel weak - it made him feel rich in ways he had never felt before. He had thought that to be strong he had to be independent and free but to have a clan of his own to protect? There was nothing more noble than that.

“I want to fill you.”

The words hung in the air, his face buried against her neck as he waited for her answer. Their bodies stilled for a moment, her body tensing under his, but then her fingers threaded into his hair and she lifted his head so she could gaze into his eyes.

“Please.”

She had never asked, much less begged, for anything from him. Not even when he held her pleasure in his hand for hours as he let his own frustrations wash away while teasing her; not when she let him rest in bed to sleep as she got up to start the day - something he had told her time and time again not to do and she should wake him up to work the land together; not even when he knew that him leaving each and every time broke her heart and that somewhere deep down she wanted to ask him to stay.

She had always been happy with as much as Din could give, until now. He had offered, let a thought he considered a weakness since he met her - a thought that had plagued his mind for years of returning home and raising children they created together in the peace of the farm - and she had welcomed it with open arms.

His eyes never left hers as he slipped his hand between their bodies, desperate to bring her to the edge with him one more time as he spilled inside her. 

He couldn’t breathe when it finally happened; when her legs tensed and shook around his waist and his cock drove so deep inside her that her eyes rolled to the back of her head. He was so focused on her that his own high was an afterthought, his arms giving out as his stomach tensed with each wave and she chanted his name like a prayer to the moon.

Neither of them moved, not even as his cock softened and they both slipped in and out of sleep, but they both held each other close. After a while, when she groaned slightly from his weight that was holding her legs open wide, he finally moved and pulled her onto his chest. He kissed the top of her head and let his eyes roam around the room once he had covered her body with the bed sheet, his hand continuing to rub up and down her back.

Her home was simple - more one room than anything else - and he had always thought about building her more. He would never tear this down, this place that she had built with her own hands, but he wanted to make it bigger for them - for the family he had dreamt of. The walls were brick and there was a fire in the middle, one that only needed wood in the coldest of months, but all around there were small objects that had been collected over the years.

She had many visitors - none like him, she had always stressed - and they all brought her something with the promise that they could camp in her garden before they moved on. Some were rare herbs that she kept in jars and bottles - ones that all held different remedies that she would explain to him if he stayed more than one night. Some were good luck tokens, small gold and silver statues that were placed on the shelves. Some brought blankets and clothes and others food and drink.

It was more homely than anywhere he had been before.

He leaned across the bed with a slight groan, reaching his hand into the bag, which had been ripped off the second he stepped over the threshold, and he pulled out a rock. It was gray in the light of day, perfectly flat and large enough to fill the palm of her hand - because even though it only filled half of his as he bent down to pick it up and bounced it a few times he knew that second how it would compare to her, but when the moon shone against it the most beautiful blues and purples shone back. He held it out towards her and she reached out with a tired move of her arm, fingers brushing against his as she took it in her hand.

“Oh, Din,” she sighed, holding it towards the window where they both watched it change from gray to blue to purple as she twisted it back and forth. “It’s beautiful.”

They looked at it for a moment longer before she sat up and the sheets fell from her body, the moon casting over her skin as he sat up behind her and kissed along her shoulder and neck as she placed it carefully on the table beside her bed. There was a collection of rocks there, of all different colors and from all different planets but all given by the man who wrapped his arms around her now. She turned over her shoulder to kiss him, a messy kiss of thanks with their mouths that weren’t quite aligned, and Din hummed happily as he pulled their bodies back down onto the bed.

He loved that she kept all of his presents by her bed, one of the final things she would see every night, but it wasn’t his favorite part of her home.

His favorite part was that she had placed the bed in a way that there was a perfect view out of the slanted window into the night sky. As he pulled her back into his chest they were both staring out of the window now, the moon and twinkling lights shining down on them as she buried herself closer against him and he finally began to speak.

“They tell me I cannot see him.”

The words hung around the room for a moment and he squeezed his eyes shut, feeling her weight shift beside him as she rested her palm on his chest over his heart.

“I’m sorry, Din. I’m sure you will meet again.” She said it with such certainty - like she said with most things - that Din could not stop the way his body tensed under hers and he snapped back much too quickly.

“How do you know?”

She sighed - not in annoyance but in knowing that his reaction was defensive - and she began to trace circles down his ribcage. “Because I always know that I will see you again. You are a man of your word, Din Djarin.”

The words settled around the room as they both stared out the window.

“I wish-”

I wish there could be more. I wish that I was not damned with this responsibility. I wish that I could live a quiet life with you. I wish you could be my clan, too. I wish- I wish- I wish-

“I know,” she smiled up at him, her soft words able to silence his racing mind in a heartbeat as her hand came up to hold his cheek, “I wish it too.”

His hand covered hers, holding it in place as he turned his head to place a kiss to her palm, and the soft sigh that breezed past her lips made him close his eyes. When he finally opened them she was still looking into his eyes and his hand took the lead, bringing it down to rest over her stomach as her eyes widened ever so slightly.

Many people have trusted Din over the years; his Covert trusted him to respect The Way, Grogu trusted Din to protect him, everywhere he goes people trust Din to help them and she… she trusts Din to keep his word.

“I swear,” he lifted and pressed another kiss to her palm, closing her hand into a fist around his fingers as he brushed his lips across her knuckles and spoke his promise against her skin, “I swear one day I shall give you that.”

She did not answer, she did not have to, instead she pushed her weight up so she was resting by his head with her cheek in her palm and her elbow against the mattress, and she kissed him slowly.

Din doesn’t know when he can fulfill this promise, not with the darksaber that is resting on the table beside him or the child that is so far away - or the one that may have been made with love under the moon tonight, but he knows that he will. He always comes back and the next time, he will never leave again.

//

Notes: aaaaand I almost didn’t post this one because something about it felt so... personal? i’m not quite sure, but this is definitely different than anything I’ve put out there before so I do hope you enjoy

//

tags

@phoenixhalliwell @asta-lily @hb8301 @princess76179 @sarahjkl82-blog @spideysimpossiblegirl @blackmarketmummy @bison-writes  @queridopascal @sfr99 @rosiefridayrogersunday @tintinn16 @pilothusband @voteforpedro09  @dihra-vesa @frankiecatfish @wild-at-heart-kept-in-cage @transias @peoniarose @pjkimrn @fangirl-316 @niki-xie @potted–ivy @phandoz @janebby @athalien @xocalliexo @amneris21 @lavenderluna10 @iamskyereads @spacenerdpascal @mswarriorbabe80 @dumplinshee @jitterbugs927 @gracie7209 @lovesbiggerthanpride @lowlights @notabotiswear @alexxavicry @harriedandharassed @bport76 @fangirl-316 @1andthesame @pedrostories @nyfeeer @seasonschange-butpeopledont @thereisaplaceintheheart @graciexmarvel @trickstersp8 @dreamiesunny @oogaboogasphincter @mstgsmy @booksaremyyoga @bport76 @sirpascal @nyfeeer @manuymesut @alwaysdjarin @morenoswife @nolanell @agingerindenial @hb8301 @blub-senpai @darnitdraco @dragonsondragons @mysteriouslyfuzzypeach  @lovesbiggerthanpride @girlofchaos @dinsangelx @hallway5 @stardust-galaxies @joelsflannel @nolanell @buckybarneshairpullingkink @llilithmademedoit @quicksilvermad @kirsteng42 @mandos-riduur-reading @dins-cyare @Magickfanatic @tortor-mcgee @torchbearerkyle @dheet  @gallowsjoker @brunette-overalls @crescentnix @leithatnight @pascallllllll1 @leithatnight @katiiiakat @awesomeloner @simplyjaana​  

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x you #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #mandalorian x reader #mandalorian x you #mando x reader #mando x you #din djarin x oc #din djarin x female reader

[lyalii]

IFYOUHAVETIME you could do confident with palette 25 with Astra 👁👄👁 for Mr. Brown Eyes hehehe

I BELIEVE IN ASTRA WEARING RED

#THERE IS NO QUESTION OF WHO IS GETTINH TOPPED AFTER THIS ROYAL ARILIAN BALL BYE #HINT; ITS NOT DIN LMAOOOOO #astra djarin #asks #send me an emotion and palette #molly

[supernovaslut]

Chapter 1: The Bounty

Din Djarin x OC

Word Count: 3.8k

Warnings: MDNI, canon typical violence, Mando being Mando, nothing crazy here since it’s really just exposition

Masterlist ~ Next Chapter

A low chatter filled the dimly lit bar as Astra wiped down a table. Her dark red hair pulled back into two braids, loose strands tickling her tan cheeks as she turned to welcome a customer.

“Hey, Sully. Usual?” she called to the older man as he entered, earning a wave and a nod.

Astra reached behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of a viscous blue liquid, pouring it into a glass. She slid the glass down the counter to Sully’s awaiting hand.

“Never gets old,” Sully laughed as Astra hopped over the bar with a weightless grace.

“How’s the kid?” Astra asked, turning her back to the man to wash glasses and watch him through the mirror set in between the liquor shelving.

“She got a job shadowing a senator. Can you believe it? My daughter in the Senate … one day. Big things are coming for her,” Sully beamed.

Astra smiled back at him through the mirror, rinsing a cup, “Where are they sending her?”

Sully scoffed, “Hosnian Prime. I get they don’t wanna put all their spice in one freighter, but Hosnian Prime?”

“I hear it’s nice there. Been wanting to visit for Equinox Day,” Astra said, a light giggle leaving her lips.

Sully grumbled, “Why leave Coruscant? The future is happening all around us!”

“Some people just need a change of scenery. Doesn’t have to be permanent,” she placated, setting a glass to the side to dry.

“Maybe,” Sully muttered, downing the rest of his drink, “Thanks, Aradne. Same time tomorrow?”

He tossed a few credits on the bar as Astra nodded at him from the mirror, “Take care, Sully.”

Astra continued to wash the glasses, back to the door. She hummed a tune as she cleaned each glass in a sand-colored top that wrapped around her back, crossed over her chest, and wrapped back around her stomach. Her black pants sat snugly on her hips, but billowed in the legs before cinching over her tattered black boots. Black fabric wrapped up her forearms, a gold chain peeking out from her neck, the end hidden under her top. A jagged scar cut across her eyebrow, stopping just short of her eye. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as the door opened.

“Be with you in a second,” Astra called. She set the last glass off to dry and spun around to face a tall, shiny man. A Mandalorian, Astra quickly recognized. She hadn’t seen one in … stars, who knew how long? She thought they’d just about all died out.

“Haven’t seen you here before, Shiny. Passing through?” Astra asked as he sat down, his stare bearing down on her through the T-shaped slat in his helmet.

“Something like that,” he finally said, voice modulated. Astra couldn’t help the shiver that ran down her spine. She eyed the Mandalorian warily, a foreboding sense clouding her mind. Something was off with this man.

“What can I get you?” Astra asked, grabbing a towel with her left hand as her right slowly reached under the bartop.

“I’m not here to drink,” the Mandalorian said, cocking his head to the side ever so subtly.

“Then what are you here for? We just got a shipment of Porg meat and the cook makes great Porg kebabs with Jogan fruit. I know it sounds strange, but I promise it’s worth it,” Astra smiled kindly, her beating heart betraying her calm demeanor as her fingers wrapped around the blaster taped under the table.

The Mandalorian tossed a black fob on the bar, its red light beeping wildly. Astra looked between the fob and the Mandalorian, back and forth and back again.

Maker, save me, she thought before whipping the blaster out and taking a shot at the Mandalorian’s head. He ducked out of the way, giving Astra time to grab her satchel beside her, bound over the bar, and fly out the door.

Astra bolted down the street, turning down alleys and flying over obstacles, not daring to look back. The Mandalorian was hot on her trail, albeit a tad less gracefully. Where Astra deftly side-stepped around a barrier, the Mandalorian hurdled over it. Where Astra squeezed between beings, the Mandalorian barreled through them.

Astra slid in through an open door, losing herself within the mass of people in what seemed to be an art exhibition. She reached down to her wrist, pulling back the fabric to reveal a watch-like device. She twisted the rim of it and her hair changed color. She twisted it a few more times, her hair cycling through colors until it settled on a light brown. She pulled the blue-colored contacts out of her eyes, dropping them in a passerby’s drink.

She spotted a tan jacket unattended on a chair back and slid it over her shoulders as she passed, making her way through the back door and out into an alleyway. Astra looked down each end, ensuring the coast was clear before letting out a deep breath, bending over with her hands on her knees.

“Stars above, that was close,” she sighed to herself.

Just as she straightened up, a metal arm swung towards her, slamming her against the wall of the building. Astra groaned as the hand wrapped around her throat, the other grabbing the blaster out of her hand and holding it in place against the wall.

The Mandalorian looked down at her, squeezing her throat just the slightest bit harder. She choked, her free hand reaching up to her neck to try to pry his hand off.

“Please,” Astra croaked, “I can’t go back.”

The Mandalorian’s grip loosened at that. He didn’t know about his bounty’s crime. That was never his business. His job was to retrieve the bounties, no questions asked, and he’d get his reward. That’s how it had always been, until the Child. Everything he upheld in the Guild shattered the second he ran off with the Child not even 2 days ago.

Now, he was in Coruscant, chasing a bounty given to him by the Client that wanted the Child. The Mandalorian knew that the woman pinned to the wall would be useful to him, one way or another.

“What do you mean?” he asked, loosening his grip enough for her to speak.

Astra glared up at the Mandalorian and spit on his helmet, her feet bucking up and pushing out against his armored chest, launching him away from her and into the opposite alley wall. Astra took the chance to run again, speeding down the alley and across the street, her feet pounding against the ground hard and fast.

Astra turned down an alley and slid to a stop just a few away from a 15 foot tall wall blocking her escape. She turned as the Mandalorian stepped into the alley, a hand on his blaster.

“I can bring you in warm … or I can bring you in cold. Your choice,” the Mandalorian threatened.

"Bet you use that line on all the girls, huh?" Astra mocked, backing up till her back hit the wall.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. A second passed. Two. She opened them again and turned to the wall on her left, jumping impossibly high up and off the wall, leveraging her up to where she could just reach the top of the barrier wall and pull herself over.

“I really need a jetpack,” the Mandalorian said as he watched her disappear over the wall. He heard her land with a harsh thud as he approached the wall. On the other side, Astra leaned against the wall, her right leg holding her weight as her left hung limply.

“You can run all you want. I’ll still find you,” the Mandalorian warned.

Astra let out a breathy laugh from the other side, “I’d like to see you try, Buckethead!”

Astra pushed herself off the wall and started running awkwardly, her left leg slowing her down tremendously. She hoped the barrier wall would buy her enough time as the Mandalorian would have to run around the whole building to reach the other side. She smiled at the thought.

She miraculously made it around the corner, down the street, and up a fire escape ladder before crouching down on a roof. She looked over the edge, checking if the Mandalorian had seen her.

“Find me now, you dumb, shiny- ah!” Astra’s insults were cut short as a hand grabbed the satchel strap wrapped around her and pulled, her black sliding against the pebbled rooftop and stopping at the Mandalorian’s feet. She spun her body around, ignoring the scratching pain from the rocks under her back and swiping the Mandalorian’s legs out from under him.

Astra scrambled to her feet and ran to the edge of the building.

“Wait!” the Mandalorian cried just as Astra leapt off the building.

The Mandalorian watched with bated breath. The split between the buildings was far too wide to land a jump, especially in her condition, yet the woman soared through the air like a bird taking flight … before harshly landing on the neighboring roof, her weak leg buckling under her, sending her rolling to a sharp stop against a protruding air conditioner unit.

Astra groaned, slowly turning herself skyward, her vision blurring as a shiny metal head came into view. She tried to speak, letters jumbling up in her mouth as the metal man reached down to pick her up.

“I can’t … no,” was all Astra managed before the darkness took her.

•┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈•

A small girl. Hair wound in braids pinned to her head, her linen dress billowing in the breeze. A large, black figure looms in the distance, men the size of ants growing larger and larger until a hand shoots across, spinning the girl into view. Her green eyes reflect a woman, screaming, her voice muddled in the distance, growing clearer and clearer until–

“Run! Astralis, run! Go, hide now!”

The sound of blaster fire. A black cape, pulsing red light dying in the darkness of the fabric. The cape swallows the girl whole.

•┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈•

Astra woke with a start, a gasp ripping from her mouth followed by a deep groan. She reached a hand to her throbbing left knee, or at least attempted to until cold metal bit into the skin of her wrist, restricting her motion.

“What the kriff…?” Astra blearily wondered aloud, the fog in her mind clearing with each passing second.

Astra looked around her. Metal, harsh lighting, crates, a small green baby, her satchel. Wait. Astra slowly turned her head back towards the green being, its eyes staring back at her. They were quite large, filled to the brim with black yet they reflected nothing by peacefulness. A light in the darkness.

The child slowly approached her, its eyes never leaving hers. Something tethered between them pulled tight, inching them closer and closer.

“What are you, little one?” she asked, a shackled hand reaching out as much as she could, the child doing the same as he stepped closer. Their fingers were hardly an inch apart before the hiss of a door stole both the child and captive’s attention.

The Mandalorian rushed in, helmet quickly scanning the room before locking on the child, scooping him up.

“I told you to stay out of here,” the Mandalorian hushedly chided.

Astra looked the man up and down, light bouncing off the silver armor that covered his body. Maybe it was because Astra was on the ground, but she hadn’t realized how large and imposing the Mandalorian was, even with a baby in his arms.

“Cute kid,” Astra jibed, earning a slight turn of the Mandalorian’s helmet before he spun around and left the room, the door shutting behind him. Astra sat in the silence, her mind trying to concoct a million escape plans.

She can’t kill him. She’d barely get past the armor unless she used … no. Astra shook her head. Wait. Her head whipped toward her satchel across the room. Some bounty hunter, she thought. Why would he leave her bag in the same room as her? Perhaps to taunt her, thinking she couldn’t possibly break out of her chains. She would prove him wrong.

•┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ⋆★⋆ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈•

An hour later Astra had barely made a scratch on her bonds, finding nothing useful within reach save a piece of chipped wood no larger than her thumb. Maybe the Mandalorian did intend to taunt her, making her struggle uselessly until he dropped her off at the feet of– no. She would make it out of here or she’d die. Anything was better than going back.

The hiss of the door made her jump as she quickly hid the now sharpened wooden shiv in the waistband of her pants. The Mandalorian stepped inside, the door sliding shut behind him. He looked down at Astra, the pitch black visor blocking her from reading her captor’s expressions, leaving her wondering if he’d come to simply check on her or hurt her.

He took a step towards Astra, her frantic mind making her gasp and scoot back involuntarily, eyebrows raised in alarm. He stopped before taking two hesitant steps forward, treating the girl like a wounded animal. He slowly pulled a crate between them before sitting on it, making a point to show his blaster on his hip, at the ready in case she made any sudden movements.

“What do you want?” Astra spoke first, her voice steadier than she expected.

Mando stared back at her. He studied her face, her eyes the color of an aurora where upon their meeting they had been a deep blue. His eyes wandered to her disheveled hair, her natural blonde now that he’d stripped her of anything that wasn’t clothing, including her quick disguise gadget. The deep scar that sliced her eyebrow shifted as the girl looked up at him, a fire in her eyes that betrayed her huddled stance. He was smart to be wary of her. She was not what she seemed.

“What did they offer? I can pay double,” the girl bartered, snapping Mando back to attention.

“No, you can’t,” he answered.

“Ah, so he does speak,” the girl snidely remarked, sticking her chin out as she glared at him. Mando thought of all the questions he needed to ask her, debating which first question would get her to open up fastest.

“Do you know who put the bounty on you?” he finally asked. The girl furrowed her eyebrows, suspicion flooding her mind.

“I’ve got a pretty good guess. What? You need directions? Well, good luck with that,” the girl humorlessly chuckled. Mando stared at her for a long moment, debating whether to show all his cards so soon.

“I’m not turning you in,” he admitted. This got the girl’s attention. “But I need you to answer some questions,” he added, deflating her again.

“Well, I’m not answering anything, Buckethead.” The girl turned her head away from Mando, as if he didn’t matter. As if she wasn’t chained to the wall of his ship in the vast emptiness of space.

“Well, then maybe I will turn you in,” Mando threatened, the impudent girl getting on his nerves.

Astra froze. She thought over how to play the Mandalorian in the same way he was trying to do to her. He was her captor and as much as she wanted to stab her little wooden stake into the fleshy part between his chest plate and helmet, she needed him to get free.

“Fine,” Astra huffed, turning back to the Mandalorian, “But for every question you ask me, I get to ask you one in return.”

“You’re not in a place to be making demands,” the Mandalorian rebuked.

“Then I guess we can sit here and stare at each other,” Astra smiled.

The Mandalorian let out a deep, modulated sigh, “Fine.”

“Ok, well you already asked me a question so it’s my turn,” Astra said before the Mandalorian could fill the silence, “What’s with the green baby?”

Mando looked at her incredulously. This girl was a bounty trapped on a spaceship with a Mandalorian in the middle of space without a clue of what the closest planet might be and her first question is about the Child?

“He’s my ward,” Mando answered simply.

“Really? That’s all I get?” the girl scoffed.

Mando ignored her, asking, “Why is there a bounty on you?”

“I escaped. They didn’t like that,” the girl answered as cryptically as he had.

“Who’s ‘they’?”

“Ah, ah. My turn. Why’d you take me if you’re not planning to turn me in?”

Mando debated how much truth to give her, before realizing if he wanted her help, she needed to trust him, and he didn’t have time to waste with all the other bounty hunters looking for the Child.

“The person who hired me to find you is the same one that wanted the kid. I didn’t let them take the kid … didn’t trust them with him, but just about every bounty hunter in the galaxy is looking for him now, so I need to know what I’m dealing with,” Mando answered.

“And you thought I would be able to point you in the right direction? Sorry, but I’ve never seen anything like him before,” the girl answered, avoiding eye contact.

“But you know what they want from him, don’t you?”

The girl met his gaze, or at least her guess of it, and sighed, “Maybe.”

“I know he’s,” Mando tried to find the right word, “special.”

The girl chuckled, “That’s one way to put it. My turn. What did you do to my leg? I could barely walk by the time you caught me yet it hardly throbs now.”

“It was dislocated. I popped it back in,” he answered.

The girl’s eyes flashed with confusion, suspicion, and something he couldn’t quite place. Something quick in the flash moment that she met his eye. She couldn’t possibly see his eyes, yet he felt she could see right through his helmet.

“Why?”

“It’s my turn now. What do you know of what he is and why they want him?” he asked quickly.

The girl pursed her lips. He could see the gears turning in her mind, planning her next move and the dozen after that. This was a game of chess and she was deciding which pawn to sacrifice and when to strike.

“Why they want him, I don’t know. He’s too young for anything I can think of. As to what he is … he’s force sensitive,” Astra said, careful with every word.

The Mandalorian said nothing for a while.

“You know what the force is, right?”

“Of course I know the force. So, what? He’s a Jedi?”

Astra laughed, “No. He’s just a baby. He has a very strong connection to the force, though. Can’t you feel it?”

The Mandalorian shook his head, “You can?”

Astra stared at him for a long while. “Is that your official question?”

“Who is hunting you?” The Mandalorian shifted.

Astra smiled, “You know who they are.” “I need names.”

“I’ve been in hiding for 3 years. Kept my head down. I’ve seen enough Imperials paraded through Coruscant to know there isn’t much left of the Empire out there and I couldn’t begin to imagine who did survive,” Astra said. She crossed her legs and rested her back against the wall behind her.

“What are you going to do with me after this?” she asked lowly, eyes watching her fiddling fingers.

Mando faltered at that. All of a sudden, she seemed different. Mando wondered how she got her scar.

“I can drop you off somewhere on my way. Though, if they have more bounties on the Child, I’m sure they have more for you, too.”

The girl looked up, her brows furrowed, lips parted like she intended to speak but couldn’t make a sound. She looked back down again.

“I can help you,” she finally spoke.

Mando tilted his head in response.

“I know about the Empire and how they work. I can fight. I can run. I know when to lay low. I’ve survived this long hidden from the galaxy right at the heart of it. I know what the Child is. I can help you find his people … That’s what you want, isn’t it? Or do you plan to raise him yourself?”

“What would you get out of it?” Mando asked.

“Whoever you entrust the Child to would probably be able to help me, too, or at least point me in the right direction. Besides, if there’s a bunch of bounties on me I’d like to have a Mandalorian by my side. Not many of you around anymore,” the girl smiled like she’d just told a secret.

A long silence passed between them before Mando leaned closer, holding a small key up. The girl offered a shackled wrist, hope gleaming in her eyes.

He held the key further back, asking, “You say you’re hiding from the galaxy. Not just the remnants of the Empire. Why?”

The light in Astra’s eyes dimmed. The girl and the Mandalorian stared each other down.

Finally she spoke, “It’s not your turn anymore … What’s your name?”

No answer.

“I can tell you mine first. It’s Astra.”

Still nothing.

“You could lie to me and I'd never know. I’m very probably lying, too,” Astra smiled, a dark glint in her eyes.

The Mandalorian didn’t budge.

“Fine. I guess I’ll have to name you myself if we’re going to be around each other. I like Shiny.”

The Mandalorian sighed before grabbing her wrist and unlocking the cuff. He grabbed her other wrist, stopping to look her dead in the eyes and say, “If you give me any reason not to trust you, you do anything suspicious, you so much as look at the kid the wrong way and I will kill you. Understood?”

Astra swallowed. She knew she should be fearful of this large, metal bounty hunter, but for some reason she knew she could trust him. She knew little of the Mandalorians, but she knew they valued honor and she doubted anyone risking their life for a child that isn’t theirs could be an awful person.

“Understood … Shiny,” Astra smiled. Mando unlocked the other cuff and stood, stepping back a few steps.

Astra reached into her wrist and pulled out the wooden stake, flicking it across the room, “See? Unarmed. Completely trustworthy.”

Mando tilted his head to the side. He had a feeling he’d come to regret this.

“You can sleep wherever. Stay out of my room. Don’t touch anything.”

“Yes, mother,” Astra quipped.

“We should be arriving in about 7 hours,” Mando turned towards the door.

“Where are we going?” Astra called after him as the door opened.

He ignored her and walked away, the door closing behind him.

Astra shook her head, “Great chat, Shiny. Really great. I’ll just sleep on the floor or … some crates.” Astra looked around the room and sighed. What had she gotten herself into?

She picked up her satchel, dumping it on the floor to check its contents. Out tumbled her blaster, some credits, a ration pack, but what interested her most was the item that rolled across the floor, stopping at a crate. She bent over and picked it up, feeling the ridges of the handle. The lightsaber was silver with rings of red interspersed and three tally marks etched into the metal. She powered it on and the room glowed red.

Taglist: @elinedjarin

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