Chapter Text
Balancing has never been your strongest ability.
You perch, thinking this over as your ankles burn with the soreness of crouching for an hour.
"This is worth it. I can handle this. I've been through worse."
Your internal soothing monologue can only last so long as you sit and wait for the guard rotation to be over. Rolling an ankle to stretch, you watch between bushes as a guard yawns from inside the patio doors. You've been here since dusk, waiting for the perfect time to sneak into this mansion of some wealthy trader. There's nothing entirely special about this particular request. Something about a bitter ex wanting her necklace back? You didn't care since the credits were hefty. Half is paid first, the other half on delivery. If this goes to plan, you won't need to steal for another month or two. But, you know your love for the adrenaline rush will pull you to another job.
Speaking of balancing, you're getting fed up with the situation you're in. The stone railing you're on top of is a perimeter around an ornate patio. There's tall bushes bunched around the corner to the stairs, out to the garden area. Potted bushes with flowers line the inside of the patio in front of railing. It's very decorative and beautiful, and a very good hiding spot for a little thief such as yourself.
Finally, the guards switch over. The younger man standing post leaves, and an older gentleman immediately sits. You've watched this a few nights in a row now, and like clockwork, he begins to doze in the plush chair against the wall, facing the patio door. A smile creeps up on your lips.
"Go time."
Your legs are thankful for the stretch as you leave your perch, and you walk gracefully up to the door. The music is louder here, and you hear guests laughing upstairs. This was the only night that would've worked, since the owner of the estate was throwing a party for his trading associates and friends. From what you heard, he recently made a large sum of money from selling land to a corporation, enough to warrant a huge, raging party. You plucked a stray leaf off your glittering, tight dress. Black pearls hung from your neck, and the dress accentuated everything it needed to. It was sultry and seductive, falling from your hips with a large slit down the side. Practical? In most cases, no. But for you? Yes.
"Sir, sir!"
You rouse the guard from his slumber, and you start to fall over yourself, catching against the wall and the arm rest on the chair.
"Puh-lease help meeee... Some dis-gusting ma-an in a black suit took my purse and I neeeed help!" You slur at him, pointing to the front of the house. Stifling a fake cry, you slide your back down the wall and whimper loudly. The man stands up, clearly disoriented and shocked.
"He's up-p staaa-aaiirrs and I can't dooo it!" You wail.
"I -- uh -- yes! Yes ma'am!" He stumbles, catches himself and then starts to jog to the front. You hear loud thuds up the stairs, and immediately you stand up.
The room with the necklace is the office across from the patio door. You snatched the keys from the guard's pocket when you had leaned over to "catch" yourself on the chair. Finding the right key, you unlocked the door and peer inside. On the shelf behind the desk, right where she said it would likely be, was a blue velvet necklace box.
"Bingo."
Weeks later, you're back to working again. Like you guessed, though, this one was for fun. The addiction to the adrenaline rush you had could rival some of those stuck in bars, or betting on pod-racing. It was a dangerous lover, but you always came back for more and more. Credits wise, you were settled, and only looking to steal for your own pleasure. On your "off" time, if you could call it that, you'd petty steal jewels, knives, anything that looked pretty or interesting.
Tonight was one of your favorite pass times, though.
There's an enormous nightclub on Coruscant, three stories tall and immensely popular. A sparkling chandelier is the focal point, its gems cascading down like a waterfall, catching the nightclub's artificial lights. It moves, twirling around slowly as the gems refract beautiful colors and shapes onto the moving bodies below. The bottom floor is taken up by sprawling dance floor, which is tiered and has a U shaped bar on the far wall. The rest of the first floor is also bordered by multiple bars and seating areas.
The second and third floors house VIP rooms for higher-end clientele, secluded corners for cheaper escorts, and areas to gamble on different games like your favorite, pazaak.
Your favorite area is always the dance floor. The chaos of dozens of bodies swaying, jumping, laughing and touching. The energy buzzes with the music. Most of the women are barely dressed, with glitter and paint decorating where clothes don't cover. They dance seductively. Some for fun, some to find work. The men grind against them or dance drunkenly. The whole room is vibrating, and you can never drink enough of it in.
You sway your hips left and right, arms reached out above you and your eyes are closed. Your skin is covered in golden glitter, your eyes are adorned with a dark angular liner, lips plush with a simple dark berry stain. The corset hugging you is a dark green, with lace details that show the skin on your stomach. A small black skirt just covers your ass, and your decorative paint tattoos swirl down your legs to your black boots. Blending into the crowd seamlessly, you look through hooded eyes at your victim.
A Twi'lek man laughs at the bar. He's got too much jewelry on for his own good, and he looks gaudy with his shirt unbuttoned too low. His vibes are cheap and sleazy, but you aren't interested in his jewelry or his clothes. Earlier, when you began scouting for something fun, you saw him showing off a compact vibroblade to another patron. The hilt was ornate, the silver being embellished with a beautiful filigree pattern. Not finding anything else worthwhile, you decided to go for it.
As the song grew to it's crescendo, you made your move.
"He was so completely stupid, y'know! How're you going to bet that some fat idiot was going to beat the best fighter in the guild, haha! All of his credits? Mine!" The Twi'liek laughed too loudly.
You sauntered up to the packed bar, making sure to bump into his side.
"Oopsie! I'm so, so sorry handsome. I didn't mean to interrupt." You don't move, keeping your arm pressed against him, but leaning forward so your chest was in full view. This corset did wonders for your girls. He immediately takes the bait and unabashedly stares at your chest.
"Well helllloooo there..." He gives you a toothy grin. You notice some of his teeth have gold caps on them. You inwardly cringe. Outwardly, you giggle and flutter your eyelashes, looking away to play shy.
"Did you come here alone, sweetheart? My friends and I would love to share a drink with you. My treat." He waves the bartender down and orders a glass of wine. " We've taken up the seats, so you'll just have to sit on my lap." He winks.
"I'd love to!" You shout over the music. As you go to sit down on his lap, you slip and fall in front of him. Erupting into giggles, you apologize. "I'm such a klutz! Could you help me up, please?" And extend a hand outward to him. He takes it, but instead of pulling you up, you pull him to where he falls too.
"Fuck!" He yells, grabbing his head. It slammed onto his buddy's chair as he fell.
"Oh Maker! I am so so, so sorry! Let me just..." You stand and grab at him, swaying as though you're not fully sober. You erupt into more giggles and give up. "I'm too weak, you're so strong!" Grasping his head, he gives you an annoyed look. As he starts to yell at you, you turn to the DJ and then back to him.
"He's playing my song! I have to go! Nice meeting you!" You yell and run back to the dance floor, disappearing into the group of people.
The vibroblade slides deeper into your boot as you leave through the side entrance. Cool air hits your face, and you realize just how late it is. The night stalls are packed with hungry visitors, signaling peak hours for nocturnal folk. You stretch and yawn, and decide to just turn in for the night. The bounty from your little escapade is light, but you managed to grab one of his silver bracelets as a bonus. You start to walk to your hotel, the streets becoming much less populated as you leave the city center. Turning onto a dead-end street, you realize that you missed your turn and will have to backtrack.
"Dank ferrik.." You murmur. "I shouldn't have had those cocktails to warm up before dancing." You shake your head and turn.
"Maybe you should've also been less clumsy at the club." A modulated voice responds to you.
As you fully turn, you're met with tall figure a few feet away. He's cloaked by the darkness, but his metallic armor catches the light at the edges. Leaning against the corner of a building, arms crossed, you can feel him staring at you, even if you can't really see him.
"I don't... What? Who do you think you are?" You spat at him, angry at his tone already. Who the kriff is this idiot in his stupid get-up, to make a comment about you?
"No one important, really. Just the person who's taking you in for your crimes." He steps towards you now, hand on his holster.
Suddenly, a cold rush runs down your spine. Intoxicated or not, you absolutely understand that you have fucked up and need to leave immediately. The aura emanating from this man is intense, and your fight or flight has kicked into overdrive. For a millisecond, you mull over your choices. Running is an option. A wise one? Probably not. You're trapped with him at the only exit. You could fight, sure, but obviously he's over prepared and you are severely under dressed for the event. Pity. The third plan?
"I think you have me confused for someone else. There was another pack of girls at the bar. You're probably looking for one of them. I'm just a dancer." You throw your hands up and start to walk past him, looking at him like he's grown three Tauntaun heads. Quicker than you could even begin to perceive, he grabs your wrist and twists it behind your back, shoving you into the wall. Grabbing your other wrist, you hear a sick, cold clamp. Then beeping. You wince and open your eyes to his hand holding out the source of the noise. A puck with your picture on it.
The bounty hunter's ship, you've decided, wins the award for the grungiest, most run-down, piece of crap ship that you've ever seen.
Your eyes are adjusting to the sudden light as you enter the ship, and you still haven't gotten a good look at your captor. It doesn't help that the buzzing headache has only gotten worse with stress, and the fact that you were pushed into a stone wall.
"Once this dumbass let's go of me, I'm going to figure out a way to get the vibroblade out of my boot and kill him. This is so embarrassing."
As he escorted you through the town, bystanders gawked and hurried away, or at the very least they stopped talking and just stared. Your cheeks heated up and you tried fighting from his grasp but it only made him grip onto you harder. You've seldom felt so humiliated in your life. There was a small curiosity in the back of your mind as to why the reactions from those you passed were so intense, but you were preoccupied with keeping up with his massive strides as he pushed behind you.
"This is an incredibly humbling experience, and I can only hope to garner some sort of lesson. After I escape, of course." You snarled through gritted teeth. The bounty hunter didn't reply, and just kept steering you forward to his ship.
The quips and the anger you had quickly evaporated once your eyes glanced over to where your little escapade earned you. A tall, dark, carbonite freezer.
"Oh no. Oh no, no no no. There is no way in the Maker's-blessed-systems that you are freezing me over a petty theft." Your heels dug into the metal floor.
"If you keep talking, I'm going to make this harder for you than it needs to be." The bounty hunter broke his silence, finally. He dragged you over to the freezer, and the panic that raged your body was uncontrollable. Thrashing, kicking, the whole works. You were, under no circumstances, going in there. To be frozen, caught between life or death? You'd rather not ruin such a good night this way. Understandably, the bounty hunter was used to the charade, and easily held onto your cuffs as you made a fool of yourself.
The Maker above must have heard your pleas, because unbeknownst to you in your fit of panic, the carbonite freezer had completely broken. Suddenly, you're thrown to the ground, and you hear a string of angry words in an unknown language.
"Do. Not. Move. If I see that you've taken even one step, you're going to regret it. Do not test me." He said, pointing a gloved finger at you. Glancing up, you finally got a good look at the man that dragged you into here.
His entire suit of armor was a silver metal. The color was so rich and deep it looked like pools of pure, melted steel. What wasn't covered in armor was a thick looking, dark brown material. As your eyes roamed up to where his face would be, you immediately understood why everyone was gawking at the two of you.
Staring back at you was the helmet of a Mandalorian.
You gasped. At the threat, at the fact that you were now a captive of a member of one of the scariest groups of people you've heard of, and the strange feeling in your chest and the blush that it spread to your cheeks.
Before you could even process what was happening, you see the Mandalorian make his way down the hall to a ladder and start to quickly ascend. Your breathing doesn't settle, and your wrists are killing you from taking the brunt of the fall. All of this was too much.
"What if he decides to just kill me? How did this even happen?" Panicking thoughts race through you as you stare at your boots. You try to shimmy the vibroblade out but it's fit too snuggly from all the walking pressing it further down. After a disgruntled sigh, you decide to close your eyes and practice a breathing exercise so you can think. The headache is turning into a migraine quickly, and the lights certainly weren't helping either.
After a minute or two, as you were still attempting box-breathing, you hear a wail. Not just any wail, but one of a small child. And it's definitely very, very close to you.
Your eyes snap open. Down the hall, you see a small green creature. Well, all of it is small except it's head and ears. And the tears. The tears flowing from it were not small at all. At the same time you notice this, a little silver ball is rolling towards you.
"Hey.. Hey buddy? What's the matter?" You sit up a bit, trying to get it's attention. The little green figure turns to you, a sob choking out of it's little mouth. You notice then that it was sitting, facing the ladder. The ball smacks your boot and rests against your leg.
"Is this your ball? Were you wanting to play? Here.. let me just..." A quick shimmy gets you into a better position, and with your leg, you very gently nudge the ball so it rolls to the small creature. Almost instantly the crying stopped and it clapped it's little green hands together happily. A smile creeps onto your lips as it rolls it back to you. Back and forth, for the next minute you roll the ball to each other. The baby giggles and has toddled a bit closer to you to make it easier to roll. You've always had a huge sweet spot for kids and it definitely distracts from the impending dread of what's to come. Suddenly, the baby is bored, and has decided that you are much more interesting than the metal ball. It -- he? You're assuming it's a he at this point now that you can see the grey hair and wrinkles better-- crawls onto your lap and begins to play with your nose, ears and hair.
"Be gentle, now! I gotta look pretty for my mug shot, y'know? What if my future husband sees me on a holo one day and decides that I'm a real catch?" You chuckle. The baby mimics, almost as though he understood, but maybe he just likes your laugh.
You hear the loud sound of boots and the dread returns tenfold. The little guy on your lap turns, and squeals happily as the Mandalorian picks him up hastily.
"What did I say?" The anger permeates through the modulation on the helmet. Little green hands clap happily, then point at you.
"Not to take a step, first of all. Secondly, the little guy was crying for you and I made him stop. I deserve pay for that, and the only currency I take is you letting me the fu-" You stop yourself, immediately aware of the child's presence. "You letting me go."
A beat of silence. Then two. Then three. A staring match can only happen if you can see you opponent's eyes, but you're sure your guesstimate is good enough. Finally, he sighs.
"The carbonite freezer is broken, and I've got no way of fixing it as of right now. So here's what's going to happen. You're either going to help me return the necklace you stole, and then I'm turning you in. Or, we wait for another bounty hunter to free up and they'll likely kill you to shut you up. You need to make a decision, right now. Are you going to help me, or have you said enough prayers to think the Maker will have mercy on your soul?"
Cold and collected. Exactly the way you'd imagine a Mandalorian bounty hunter will be. You know he's not giving you time to weigh your options, so you decide that you'll "help" him until you can escape.
"Fine. But am I expected to help you hand-cuffed the entire time?" You turn and wiggle your sore hands.
"Not if you behave and aren't a threat, no. Give me the weapon in your boot and I'll uncuff you." The way he gruffly tells you to behave causes a feeling in your stomach that you do not understand, nor will you address. After a pause and a roll of your eyes, you manage to kick off your boot and the vibroblade falls with a heavy thud to the floor. The baby reaches for it and coos. "Absolutely not." He says, setting the baby into the floating orb that you just noticed behind him. He crouches down to uncuff you. "I'm only giving you once chance. The moment I decide you're a threat to my son or myself, you'll be cuffed for the rest of the journey." You can feel him stare at you, the seriousness of his tone heavy. Did he hear you gulp at that? You nod meekly. He nods in return and leaves you sitting on the floor, the orb following him up the ladder.
You curl your knees to your chest and press your forehead into them as you hug your legs close.
"I fucking hate my job." You murmur.
And the ship begins to take off.