Bounty hunting is a complicated profession

Tund

Maybe it was because you had barely slept for the past few weeks, or maybe because you felt safe and sheltered on your seat in the Razor Crest. Whatever the reason was, you fell soundly asleep after jumping to hyperspace.

You woke up hours later. 

If you strained your mind, you were aware you had had weird dreams but no gruesome nightmares, which was more than you could ask for.

"Welcome back. I was worried you wouldn't wake up." Mando greeted you, a smile in his voice.

"I was tired."

"I could tell. Trouble sleeping?"

You shrugged, letting him interpret the gesture however he wanted.

"I know you've been having nightmares" he said turning in his seat to face you "wanna talk about it?"

So, he knew, huh? You wondered for how long had he been aware of what was going on. Had he seen you panicking in the middle of the night? Was he awake when you couldn't fall back to sleep? When you could do nothing but cry until dawn broke?

You shuddered at the idea of him seeing you at your worst, but there was not much you could do now that he knew. After thinking for a moment, you chose to answer honestly. After all, he wouldn't be asking if he didn't want to talk about it.

"Not nightmares, memories."

He gave a long sigh and leaned back in his seat.

"Well… those are worse than nightmares. They don't go away when you wake up."

He didn't say more but you looked at him, waiting. You knew there was more in his mind, and you wanted to hear it. After a long pause he went on.

"Sometimes… I still dream about the day I lost my parents. It's been so long and yet I remember it so vividly." You could feel his pain as he told you this. It was a pain of the likes you'd never felt before and it made your heart ache as you looked down holding your tears. Grief, you assumed as you had never felt this emotion before.

He took a deep breath, trying to get rid of the memory and what it evoked. It almost worked. "We can't run from our past, we have to come to terms with it, accept it, and move on."

Moving on, you thought, that was easier said than done.

He took another long breath as he settled his feelings. "That was probably not of much help, right?"

You gave him a shaky smile, trying to pull yourself together from the wave of pain he had unknowingly subjected you to, and shook your head.

"I figured… well, if you can think of anything I can do to help, just say it."

Gesturing in an exaggerated manner in hopes of amusing him, you acted as if you were thinking and suddenly came up with an idea. He looked at you expectantly.

"Relax. If you're calm, I'm calm."

He tilted his head, amused and wary at the same time. 

"Don't look at me like that" you signed to him.

"And how is that?" He replied in a smug tone. "Oh! That's true! I forgot I chose as a partner the only woman in the galaxy who can read my mind."

The realisation that you hadn't seen his face and yet you knew the way he had looked at you, took you by surprise almost as much as him referring to you as "partner". You shook your head.

"I don't read your mind."

"A technicality." He chuckled. "I'm going to get some rest, you're in charge." He said, as he stood up and left through the cockpit's hatch.