A Life Without Meaning

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℙ𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕣 (𝕀𝕀𝕀)

It was the sound of the Frog Lady croaking frantically that finally jolted Ellia back awake.

The first thing that her body recognized was the biting feeling of the freezing cold. A strangled gasp escaped from her throat when she realized that she was laying flat on the floor of the cockpit.

She had just begun to push herself up off of the ground, the neurons in her limbs slowly waking up as she went, but soon found someone else doing it for her.

"You okay?" Din asked quickly as he brought her to her feet.

Ellia briefly glanced around the crooked cockpit, but somehow managed a nod.

Across the way, the Frog Lady shouted again, gesturing around her frantically. Very obviously in the middle of a panic.

Din was quick to turn his head towards her,

"We'll find your eggs, don't worry." he assured. He briefly looked around the cockpit himself, noticing the white dusting of frost that was slowly collecting across everything in sight. "Gotta get you some blankets, keep you warm." he muttered, turning towards and opening the cockpit door.

Ellia was quick to peel out after him, and they both jumped down into the hull.

There was a steady stream of snowflakes entering through a massive hole in the side of the ship. And crates and equipment were scattered everywhere across the floor, their contents spilled haphazardly.

"Shit." Ellia cursed under her breath, ducking under some of the exposed wiring above their heads that was still sparking dangerously. They must have been knocked out for longer than she thought, as the discarded cargo was covered in a thin layer of snow.

Din turned to open up the door of the safe room. Upon finding nothing, he spun back around pointedly.

"Where are you?" he called out into the mess.

From above, the Frog Lady cried out again, still sounding distressed.

"Hang on, I'm looking for your eggs!" Din assured.

Ellia was peeling through the wreckage, looking for any sign of the child, and trying her best not to look at everything that was broken. Seeing the ship in that state really hurt her for a reason she couldn't quite place.

Din pushed past her at one point, heading for a spot in the back of the hull, where a large, brown sack had fallen over across a particularly large pile of cargo crates. He lifted it up in one fell swoop, revealing the child below it, hands caught deep inside of the glowing incubator of the Frog Lady's eggs.

"No!" Din shouted forcefully, reaching forward to shut the lid of the canister. "We told you not to do that." he scolded. Ellia joined his side, just in time to see the child shamelessly pop the egg he was holding into his mouth.

Their passenger shouted down at them again, and Din glanced over his shoulder back towards the ladder.

"Found them!"

Ellia placed her hands on her hip, looking down at the child.

"How many did you eat?" she questioned.

The child only responded to her question with a loud burp.

. . .

For the next hour or so, Din and Ellia got to work cleaning up the hull as best they could. Covering and pushing live wires out of the way, cleaning up and repacking the fallen bins of cargo, and trying desperately to temporarily mend the gargantuan hole in the side of the hull. Which didn't really work, the wind outside continued to blow inwards, evidently not caring for the large covering they had pinned up.

As the afternoon dragged on, Ellia had resigned herself to trying to fix some of the torn wiring. Din had brought the Frog Lady down into the hull with them where, despite the hole in the wall, it was a little bit warmer than the frost-covered cockpit.

"If you hadn't guessed, we're in a tight spot." Din was explaining to their passenger as she nibbled on some provisions. "The main power drive is not responding, and the hull has lost its integrity. I suspect the temperature will drop significantly when night falls. I'll have a better idea of our prospects at that time."

Ellia shook out her shoulders a bit, the covered end of a wire held tightly in her hand. Meanwhile, Din had sat down and settled against the wall of the hull. The Frog Lady, who now had a blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders, croaked loudly, gesturing back and forth between him and her eggs.

The wire in Ellia's hand sparked slightly, causing her to hiss in pain and release it entirely. It swung back and forth mockingly in front of her face for a moment, Ellia's eyes following it with a glare.

"I'm sorry lady. I don't understand Frog." Din said, resigned. "Whatever it is, it can wait until morning. I recommend you get some sleep."

There was a brief pause as the Frog Lady didn't choose to argue this time around. Din looked up briefly, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"That goes for you too, Ell." he called out.

The nickname didn't even register in her busy brain. Ellia glanced over her shoulder, only to let out a soft sigh as she turned back to start packing up her tools.

She grabbed one of the blankets out of the safe room, dropping herself down near a pile of cargo just to the left of where Din was propped up against the wall. The child was in a bundle all of his own across the way. She sat there for a while, the silence of the hull only interrupted occasionally by the whistle of the wind outside.

A sharp shiver traveled down her spine, and Ellia felt her entire body shake as she tried to pull the blanket even closer to herself. Which at that point, wasn't physically possible.

Up ahead, she noticed the silver beskar helmet tilting up off of the wall, turning towards her pointedly due to all of the apparent noise she was making while shifting around.

Immediately, she scowled.

"Sorry. Not all of us are lucky enough to be a walking thermal oscillator." she mumbled, her teeth chattering as she attempted to curl further in on herself.

A begrudging sigh followed her words. One that she would've ignored, given the fact that she had heard close to a million just like it before. But when it was then followed by a gruff "C'mere" and the feeling of an arm wrapping around her waist, she found herself unable to brush it off as she was suddenly pulled to the Mandalorian's side in one simple tug.

Her face, and the rest of her body frankly, immediately flushed bright red. For one because, yes, Din was basically a walking heater. Even with his armor coated in frost, there was a steady warmth that managed to poke through from underneath. And two, because as he leaned his head back up against the wall, the hand around her waist rested strongly in the dip that connected her torso and her hip bone, all but locking her in place.

At a loss for only a few moments longer, Ellia finally resigned herself to sleep, trying desperately not to think about the way she was tilting her head to rest against Din's beskar chest plate.

. . .