The Bond

Aria opened her eyes slowly as she felt something heavy around her arms. The feel of metal was evident and also the heat radiated from the skin beneath the fabric. She looked up to see Din sitting just above her but leaning a bit towards her as though he had dozed off.

"Din!" She whispered, and now she was sure that he was asleep. She sat up slowly and looked at him closely as she tried to remember the moments that happened at the Jabba's Palace. The way she held on to him and the way she curled herself into his lap in his ship.

Grogu's ears perked up as he sensed her waking up and moving into her bed. She couldn't really figure out where she was, the surroundings were dark but not like her home planet. The walls were made of metal and the bed was softer than most beds that she had slept on.

She picked up Grogu who was cuddled up in Din's lap and was sitting on the edge of the bed, with his both legs on the bed, arms crossed over his body, snoring very quietly under his helmet. "He is asleep! But where are we?" She asked Grogu, almost in a whisper.

He reached his tiny hands over to her face, cooing as he touched her left cheek which was still swollen a little from the attack inside the cell. She flinched and hissed under his tiny hands making him retract immediately. "It's okay, it just aches a little!"

She heard the metal brushing against each other as Din moved his hand in his sleep, waking him up almost immediately. He sat up as his eyes saw Aria flinching in pain, reaching her and holding her in both hands, "what is it?" He was scared at this point to lose her again.

"Din!" She turned her face to him, it felt good to feel his hands on her again. "Thank you!" She said in a soft voice, leaning into his chest slowly. Grogu cooed as he cuddled into Aria's arms.

Din drew in a sharp breath as she pressed herself against him, it was surreal to feel her so close but he refused to read into the way she was acting. She was not standoffish anymore, she was making him feel things that he denied himself for years. He fought off these feelings every time he was tempted but he was not sure, why she was daring him to play with fire.

As he continued to debate his cause and effect, almost instinctively, he placed his hand around her belly and pulled her close. "Please don't thank me! If anything, I am responsible for all of this!" He pressed the top of his helmet against her head. "I let him take you away from me," he cursed under his breath as he lowered his head on her shoulder.

She lifted her right hand and placed it over his helmet gently. She wanted to console him but his sorrow was deep that she could feel it hitting her in waves. She turned to face him almost immediately placing Grogu in his lap and looking deeply into the dark visor hoping she was staring into his eyes.

He placed his hand on her cheek, caressing it softly, "I... I shouldn't..." She whispered as though it was something she was saying to herself. Like a prayer that escaped her lips. Din didn't know what she was talking about, but he couldn't stop staring at the curve of her upper lip. It was just beyond his capabilities to think of anything else but that.

Grogu looked at them both with his wide eyes before making a loud screeching noise, calling both their attention to him at once. "Oh!" Aria looked down at him with a giggle as she scratched his ears. "I think he is hungry," she looked back at Din, still sitting without any movement.

She shook her head and placed her feet on the floor, alerting Din in a quick second, making him reach for her legs immediately, "Stop! You stay there, I will get him something to eat!" he said, his voice demanding authority, which she had no intention to disrespect by any chance.

"Where are we anyway?" She asked as she moved back into the bed, leaning over the pillow, watching Din pick out some items that he collected for Grogu to snack on. He didn't turn to look at her, "Galvis Ring World, it's a space station," he knew the last time that he was here, he was banished from the covert. He still wanted to be part of them and redeem himself but he now had priorities that he couldn't just let go of, even if he thought he could.

"Do you think Bo- Katan or them...will come to look for us here?" She asked as she looked out of the window. Grogu sitting beside her played with her fingers and climbed up to touch her necklace that looked like some kind of a symbol.

"I don't think so, this space station is fairly new," he was still a man of few words, never engaging in a full conversation with someone he deeply was starting to care about. He looked back at Grogu was now touching Aria's necklace and smiled under his helmet before he asked, "what's that?"

Aria lifted her hand and gently touched the necklace that Grogu was sucking on, "it's a symbol that represented my planet before the Order 66."

The silence that followed was a little tense, Din didn't want to pry anymore of that as he could sense that she was probably not comfortable talking about it. He walked up to the bed, placing the small container that had all the snacks that Grogu needed for a while to be engaged in, in his lap. "There you go, kid!" he said with a light smile before sitting back down close to Aria.

Aria looked at him for a moment and slid downwards into his lap, placing her head there. Din froze for a moment but as he eased into the feeling of her cheek on the area of his thigh that didn't have the barrier of the beskar armor, he placed his gloved hand over her head, stroking gently.

"Does it hurt?" he asked after a few moments, she looked up at him with a gentle smile and shook her head in response. His hand started shifting from her head to her cheek and then on her neck. "I will never let go of you again, I promise!" he said in a whisper, but that's when he heard someone moving behind the wall.

Aria sensed it too but as she tried to see with her force vision, she realizes something strange, "there are no life forms!" she whispers to Din as he gets up from the bed, picking up his pulse rifle. Aria too was prepared as she picked up Grogu in her lap and ignited her lightsaber.

But what they heard was irregular beeps coming from the other side of the wall, and they looked at each other as they realized, what it meant. "NOO!" Din climbs onto the bed covering both of them in his arms as the place bursts into flames.