Short Debts Make Long Friends - snippet from Ch. 7

“What are you doing?” he asks, confused.

“Going to sleep,” you answer matter-of-factly. 

“But – ”

“I promised to stop worrying about paying you back,“ you point out, "I didn’t promise to sleep on the bed. Sweet dreams.”

You snuggle down on the floor with your blanket and pillow, all smiles, and he suddenly realizes has he just walked straight into a trap of his own making.

Dank fucking ferrik karking damn it to hell.

“I’ll buy you the droid,” he offers, voice flat.

You pop straight up back from the pillow. “Huh?”

He shouldn’t have been so quick to put the helmet back on. It would be very nice to be able to close his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose. 

“Share the bed with me and I’ll buy you the droid.” He hears his own words play back in his head and cringes. 

“Back home that would be considered a form of prostitution,” you brightly observe.

His wince deepens into a grimace. Shit shit shit shit – 

Your nose wrinkles. “Do I still have to stop worrying about paying you back?”

“Yes!” he explodes. This was already a raw deal; who knows what you might trick him into doing next?

Short Debts Make Long Friends - Stories of Mando and Reader. Or, an overeducated, underpaid millennial finally gets to go on her first adventure.

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Short Debts Make Long Friends - Ch. 6 - “How Long Does It Take Someone to Fall Apart?”

You walk a few feet inside and slow to a halt, surveying the accommodations. The room is spartan, but similar enough to what you would expect in a motel at home. Chair, bathroom, nightstand, bed. 

It’s a small bed. 

Later, you tell yourself. You’ll bully him into taking the bed. Or guilt him into it. Something. He will be sleeping on that mattress tonight, even if it is the last thing you do. And it very well may be, considering the wide variety of ways to kill, maim, or detonate someone that he carries on his person at any given time.

The floor creaks as he sets your new backpack by the door. You mumble a thank you but don’t turn around, choosing to withdraw into yourself instead…deliberately stepping away from the battle of remaining focused and present. You aren’t giving up, you’re giving in, and right now you don’t have to exist any further beyond four walls, a floor, and a ceiling. 

The silvery ring of beskar briefly fills the silence as Mando slides the spear from behind his back, followed by a quiet thud as he props it up in the corner. He’s waiting for you to say something, do something. 

“Will you…will you be okay?” he finally asks. Given his earlier reticence, he seems oddly reluctant to leave.

“Yeah,” you reply, still facing the bed. “But I need a little while to not be.” Really, really not, you silently add.

He takes the hint and quietly lets himself out.

Short Debts Make Long Friends - Chapter Six

Fic summary: Stories of Mando and Reader. Or, an overeducated, underpaid millennial finally gets to go on her first adventure.

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