Back at the ship now, we are both a little tipsy from the liquor. Tensions have cooled after the walk. The world around me rocks back and forth and stutters as if it's buffering every time I move. Mando seems pretty normal, but he's talking more than usual, which is strange for him.

"I'll be right back," he announces as I'm climbing into the ship. He turns and walks behind a few trees. He adjusts his armor a little. Then, I hear liquid falling on a tree. Oh.

I duck my head into the cockpit of the ship and recline my seat all the way down. I plop myself onto the seat. I remember I packed a small bottle of desert wine in my bag. I rustle through my bag of belongings and pull out the tiny bottle. I crack the seal on it and take a swig. 

Mando comes back to the ship, climbs up and drops down into his seat. I hold the bottle up to him and tell him to take a sip. He grabs the bottle and brings it up to his face. He looks at me in the mirror, then moves the mirror so I can't see him. He lifts his helmet up only enough to get the bottle to his mouth. He takes one long sip, caps it, and hands it back to me.

"I never drink anymore," he admits to me. "I did a lot when I was younger, but then I had the kid to take care of. Haven't had a drink in a very long time. Looks like I've lost my tolerance," he chuckles at himself. He's much more talkative when he's had some. It's actually nice.

"Man I miss the days of being young and stupid," he recalls.

"How old are you?" I ask, curious. I have no idea how old he is. He could be in his 20's like me. He could also be, like, 60. I have no idea.

"In Mandalore time, I think I'm 32. But in Dantooine time, I'm probably, like, 28. Give or take. We should all start going by the same time schedule. Every planet having their own time is stupid. You're like 20, right?"

"26," I reply.

"26?! Damn well you're looking really good for your age," he teases. I'm not sure if I should be flattered or offended. Is he calling me pretty or old?

I pull my cloak over myself and snuggle into my seat. This is certainly not very comfortable, but really anything is comfortable when you're on your way to being drunk.

"I mean, no, I mean you're pretty but I thought you were younger than you are. I'm not trying to, like, hit on you or anything, but I'm just- I just wanted to let you know..." 

My cheeks blush furiously. Did he just say I'm pretty? 

"But just, like, don't take it the wrong way I would never-"

"Thank you, Mando," I cut him off. He goes silent. He might've forgotten I'm actually here listening to him babble on. The world continues to whoosh and wobble and buffer around me. 

Mando fidgets with the bandolier hung around his torso. He's taking the ammunition canisters in and out of their designated loops, and twirling each little cylinder in his fingers each time. He does this for a few minutes, then continues his babble.

"Did you ever have a boyfriend back on Dantooine? I mean, you worked in a tavern and there's all kinds of guys who come in there and of course they wanna talk to the nice bartender and buy her a drink and look at her and stuff and I'm sure that you were always bombarded with guys and they never cut you a break and it must have been pretty annoying all the time when you're just trying to work and make some money but you're always being bothered by guys and I can't imagine-"

"No," I respond to his first question. Most guys on Dantooine were either much older than me or they were just passing through. No guys ever really caught my interest. Not until some shiny metal dude came in one night...

"Why did you heal me?" he asks.

"What?" 

"The bacta. I was being kinda creepy but you still healed me and fed me."

"Oh, I don't know," you trail off, know quite knowing the reason why you decided to help him. "Why were you being creepy?"

"You caught my eye at the bar... and you said you had bacta and I was kind of desperate for it," he say softly. He sounds embarrassed. I'm not sure if he's embarrassed at the fact that he needed help, or because he was admittedly being a little stalker-ish, or the fact that he's speaking his emotions.

Whatever it is, he then stops talking. And stops moving. And now he's snoring quietly. Great.

His body goes still, laying flat on his back. His left hand is draped over his lower torso, while his right hand rests on the ground palm-up next to his thigh. His head is slightly turned to the right, and his legs are both straight out. His chest moves up and down slowly, proving to me that he is still breathing. 

Just in the last few hours I've experienced so many versions of this man. There's the sweet one that goes out to buy me new clothes. Then, the protective one who puts distance between me and some man who wanted to 'fuck me', as he said. Then, the angry one who yells out of frustration and maybe some jealousy. Then, the drunk. The drunk who says things he might not mean at all. The one who might just be saying random words. 

Whiplash.

My own alcohol-altered mind can't seem to think straight either. I keep looking down at him, imagining what he looks like under the suit. I've seen his hands and heard his voice, but there is so much more I don't know if I'll ever get to experience. 

What color are his eyes? What color is his hair? Is it curly? Does he have a beard? Is he muscular? Chubby? How does his face move when he speaks? What does his smile look like?

I might never know.

My thoughts soon turn dirty. What do his lips look like? How does he kiss? Has he ever kissed someone? What does he looks like naked? Has he ever...? 

Knock it off, Koda. Sober me would never be this direct. Even in my own mind. Have some respect.

But, are his shoulders as broad as I think they are? Is his skin soft? Does he have thick body hair?

STOP.

I can't help myself. I look down at him again. Still breathing steadily. Still in the same position. 

Does he have these kind of thoughts about me?

My eyes start to droop. I can feel consciousness slipping away from me with each breath I take.

*

My dream is admittedly pretty weird. Mando and I are fighting a never-ending army of jawas. I'm using my lightsaber and Mando is shooting with his blaster. But my lightsaber is made of water and his blaster shoots potatoes. Jawas aren't particularly violent, but they can be a problem when you get enough of them angry at once.

I whack them with water while Mando shoots them with potatoes, but they keep advancing toward us. Eventually they get closer and closer to us... then the floor opens up below us. 

We're falling in nothing but darkness.

We fall for what feels like a really long time. It feels weightless and peaceful, not nearly as scary as I'd assume. The wind whips through my hair and slaps me in the face as I fall gracefully.

I look down and see a circle of light, as if we're falling through the tunnel and we've found the end of it. It looks like a sunny patch of grass that we're falling toward. 

"Koda!" he yells in my direction. I look over to him and he's holding his hand out toward me, begging me to take it. As I grab his hand, he pulls me into his arms, holding me bridal style. The grassy ground races toward us.

"Koda!" he yells again. He sounds far away this time, like he's yelling for me from a mile away.

Before I can respond, the ground is just a few feet away. Mando lands on his feet with me in his arms on the grassy ground. He looks down at me, and I look up at him.

Way in the distance, almost muffled now, I hear it again, "Koda!"

*

"Koda!" Mando shouts for me. My eyes burst open. I'm alone in the ship, but the hatch is open. I hear blaster fire and shouting from unknown voices.

shit

I throw the cloak off of me and grab my lightsaber on my right tucked in between the seat and the wall of the ship. I jump to my feet and toss my body out of the cockpit feet first before surveying my surroundings. I land on the ground with a hard thud.

I blink my eyes several times. The sleep hasn't quite cleared itself from my vision yet. I see movement in front of me, a few dozen feet away. It's still a little dark out; must be very early in the morning. I raise my saber and activate it. The yellow stream of power erupts from the handle, and I start charging. 

By now my vision has cleared and I see at least 6 large men attacking Mando. Some have blasters and others are holding melee weapons, all swinging them at my companion. Mando is shooting his blaster at them while also shooting flames from his wrist. I didn't even know this dude could shoot flames.

I'm sprinting as fast as my legs can take me, and soon I'm right up behind one of the men. I grip my saber as hard as I can and swing it once from right to left, aiming for the man's neck. My saber slices through his body, seemingly in slow motion. His head slides off his shoulders and lands on the ground, followed soon after by the rest of his body. 

I stand directly behind my first kill as his body falls in front of me, revealing myself to the other attackers. All of them stop and turn their attention toward me with shock in their eyes. Mando's body goes rigid as he sees what I've just done. 

I twirl my saber in one hand in a vertical circle for show. I paint a wicked smile on my face as I spot a familiar face. The drunk man from last night is holding a large sword, pointed in the direction of Mando. I lock eyes with him and advance slowly, taking one step at a time. The other attackers back up away from me as he stands still. Nobody makes a sound.

Not until Mando raises his blaster and shoots one of the men in the back of the head. The others turn his attention to him and begin fighting once again. That's my cue. I drop the tip of my saber to the ground and drag it toward the drunk man. The saber illuminates everything yellow and kicks up sparks from the cold ground.  The man adjusts his stance and raises his sword at me. It's on.

My first strike is straight down, hoping to get his center vulnerable. He lifts his sword to block my saber from the top, exposing his torso from all angles. I kick his left side with my right leg as hard as I can. He stumbles as I do a 360 while stood on my left leg, giving me the opportunity to build up momentum with my saber. As I finish the 360, I follow the motion with my arms, slicing right to left again, but the man blocks it. 

Mando is fighting four guys alone now, but he seems to be handling it well. He definitely doesn't need my help over there. I can see flames periodically burst from his direction, as well as blaster shots. The man is a machine.

The drunk man lunges at me, stabbing directly forward with his sword, but it's easy to miss. I slide left and kick him again, but this time on his right side. The bigger you are, the slower you move. It's easy to catch this guy vulnerable. 

"You bitch, come here," the man barks at me. He faces me again and lets out a series of stabs, slashes, and attacks in my direction, but he's too slow. He towers at least a foot and a half over me, but he's just too slow for me. I catch him again vulnerable on his side.

"You'd really rather fuck the tin man over me?" he screams, then chuckles to himself, proud of his crappy insult. I kick him in the back of the knee, which buckles his weight underneath himself. He stumbles to the side and I slice through the arm holding his sword. 

His severed hand and sword fall to the ground as he screams. Blood spills out from his arm all over the place, coating the ground in the sticky red liquid.

"Nice try," I say before decapitating him. His body falls backwards and lands in the pile of his own blood below him. 

I look over to Mando just as he's finishing his last attacker off. The air goes quiet as he looks at me and gives me a nod of approval. 

"You okay?" he calls over to me. 

"Yeah, you?" He nods. We both look at the ground littered with dismembered body parts. 

"That was quite the entrance," Mando offers with a chuckle. He steps toward me, avoiding the blood as much as he can. I throw a smile his way and nod my head. He continues, "I wasn't expecting that from you."

"I can't let you have all the fun alone," I smile. I deactivate my saber, and the yellow glow cast upon everything disappears. 

"We should get going before anyone comes to investigate," Mando says. He moves with purpose toward the ship. I follow him. He climbs back up onto the wing of the ship and holds his hand out for me. I grab it tight and he swings me up to join him. He gestures toward the cockpit, telling me I should go first. I swing my feet in and land in the back. He follows suit, landing in the pilot's seat. 

We buckle up as Mando flips switches and pushes buttons all over the dashboard. The hatch closes above us, and we're ascending into the air. 

"Hold on tight," he tells me, as we shoot up into the atmosphere, zooming away from this grimy, gross planet.