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*:･ﾟ✧
"How did you get in here?"
The Child saunters closer to Gaia with a squeaky coo, his round eyes brightening and big ears curving. She rubs the remnants of sleep from her eyes and sluggishly drags her legs over the brink of her bed, glad that Thero is out and about as a tired smile breaks out across her lips. He would have most likely told her that she wasn't ready for another visitor just yet, since speaking with Omera yesterday spent most of her energy. Today was actually focused on her resting and recovering. Regardless, she doesn't care right now, surely not when it comes to The Child.
Gaia scoops him up into her arms. She has not seen him for some time and although she would never admit it to anyone, she has certainly missed the little energetic troublemaker. He seems to have longed for her presence as well, extending his hands forward and securely grasping her jaw — a growing habit she has no qualms against.
Gaia does wonder, though, how he had managed to wadle himself all the way over here. Someone must have been on babysitting duty, and surely they wouldn't have allowed for him to wander this far and out of sight.
Gaia views downward at The Child as he babbles happily. "Devious, aren't you?"
"You're okay."
Gaia nearly jumps off the bed and ten feet into the air by the abrupt voice coming from the doorway. She expels a heavy sigh of relief once catching a glimpse of the gleaming Beskar trapping the sunlight to its surface, noting of The Child gurgling with joy once perceiving Mando. "You scared me," she breathes, a stuttering surge trembling amongst her ribcage like bewitched vines.
"You're okay," Mando repeats as if out of breath, wandering towards the bed. He stops up in front of Gaia, visor glaring down at her as if tacitly judging. "How are you feeling?"
"Pretty terrible," she admits in a heartbeat, eyes drooping. "But I thought you already knew I was awake? Didn't Thero tell you?"
"No," Mando says in earnest. "I take it he didn't want to disturb me. I've been busy."
"So I've heard." Gaia exhales with obvious fatigue, her limbs heavy and sore. "But I'm all right. . .I think. This dreaded fever is still hanging onto me though, but at least I feel a little bit better. It's still. . .sort of surreal to think that Sorgan was trying to kill me—"
"What did—?!" Mando stammers. "What?"
Gaia offers him a rueful twitch of a smile. The Child shifts in her arms and she can feel his eyes on her, as if sharing Mando's flustered discovery. Gaia stumbles with her next words, partly scared of recalling Thero's chilling diagnosis and actually saying it out loud to Mando, who's obviously in an assembling panic. What her future statement entails is not exactly calming and it might spiral him into a serious fright, but she cannot avoid it. Gaia would wish that Thero had just done it and actually informed Mando instead of having the burden fall to her, but knowing the Mandalorian has been occupied as of late, she can understand why he might have held back.
