tritanopia | The Mandalorian

twenty-three

To the best of Fae's recollection, she couldn't remember ever riding a speeder bike in her entire life. But, despite that, she was still able to recognise how shit the two which Calican had provided were. Perhaps she was biased. After all, she hated deserts — and she was close to hating the sorry excuse for a bounty hunter even more.

Speaking of which, Fae's distaste for the man had only grown over their brief time amongst the sand dunes. The way he glanced at her from his own bike, causing her to switch which side of her face rested against Mando's back, the way he repeatedly attempted to show off and go faster than them, the way he pouted like a fucking child when his binoculars were handed over to the Tuscan Raiders.

Fae only realised that Mando had held his hand up as a stop signal due to the way her head shifted against his shoulder as he moved.

"Get down," He commanded, while gripping Fae's bicep to force her off of the bike after him — despite the fact she had heard him perfectly well, and was about to do it herself.

"What?" Toro asked, watching their odd behaviour with a puzzled expression. "Oh," He muttered once Mando's words finally sank into his thick skull, and then proceeded to turn off his own vehicle in order to follow them.

Mando's hand on Fae's arm hardly faltered as he made his way up the sand dune, even as she attempted to pull herself away from him, as he wanted to ensure that she kept her head down.

Once they were all situated at the top, Fae making sure to be on the other side of Mando so that she wasn't laying next to Calican, they could all now see the Dewback wandering around some distance away. Well, they all saw it, but only Toro and Mando actually knew what it was.

"All right, tell me what you see," Mando directed towards the other man. Fae briefly wondered what the hell he was doing, trying to be some sort of bounty hunting sensei to a painfully useless student, but managed to refrain from asking so out loud.

"Dewback," Calican stated, "Looks like the rider is still attached."

"Is that whats-her-name? The target?" Fae asked, peaking her head further over the sand to get a better view.

"You mean Fennec," Mando replied in a deadpan tone, "And no, I don't think so."

"Well, only one way to find out," She said as she propped herself up on one knee, only to be yanked back down from the hand on her shoulder.

"I'll go, you cover me," The Mandalorian told her forcefully, waiting a second to check she wasn't going to a move again before vaulting himself up and over the edge.

"Dick," She muttered to herself — although it was towards him in spirit.

"Who d'you reckon he was talking to?"

Fae lazily turned her head to the right to be face-to-face with the man laying over a metre away from her. She studied him for a few seconds — not actually looking for anything, merely just enjoying the way is caused his discomfort to become evident on his face. As if he felt threatened. Which, in fairness, he should.

"What?"

He hesitated, but replied nonetheless, "When he asked to be covered."

"Oh, well, considering he doesn't even know I have a blaster, I'm going to have to say you," She looked him up and down once again, "Although, I think I could do a better job, even without a weapon."

"What's that supposed to mean-"

Fae's eyes rolled before she interrupted him; so far back in fact, that the childish shred of her that still remained deep in her heart couldn't help but worry for a split second that they would get stuck that way if a breeze happened to pass by.