#issa-or

He tapped his boots against the wall, brushing the residual sand from his body as he allowed his mind and body to relax; he was looking forward to having a quick mug of soup and sliding into bed. However, as he stepped into his home, he found himself walking into a room filled with the scent of cooking meats.

“You’re home!”

Cobb chuckled, closing the door behind him. “So are you!” he called as he pulled his boots off. “When did you get back?”

“A few hours ago,” Din replied from the kitchen, leaning back from the stove top to smile at him. “Thought you might want some food when you got back.”

Cobb hummed, trudging over to hold Din from behind as he pressed his nose into his neck. “You know I love you, right?”

“Doesn’t make it any less amazing when you say it,” Din replied, pressing a soft kiss to his hairline. “Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum.”

Cobb grinned and kissed at Din’s neck before pulling back with a sigh. “I’ll set the table.”

“Dinner’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

“I’ll get us some drinks too then.”

Din had been coming to Mos Pelgo at least once a month for almost a year now, and in that time his relationship with Cobb had changed. Not that he minded. Being a bachelor was lonely, and though Din wasn’t there all of the time, when he was it was like his life was suddenly filled with light.

He yawned as he set the mugs and cutlery on the table beside the various pieces of equipment and weapons Din had removed from his belt before heading to the kitchen, wincing at the way his ears buzzed. Perhaps he’d made them pop on his ride home. Either way, having Din come up behind him to set the bowls of noodles down made him smile. “Where’d you get this?”

“Bought it off some merchants on Cato Neimoidia,” Din replied, sliding down into his seat as he squeezed Cobb’s arm. “I got the greens there too, but the meat’s local.”

“I thought it smelled like bantha steak,” Cobb said, picking up his fork. “You know you don’t have to put a Tatooine twist on everything when you come here.”

“Considering what happened the first time I brought fish?” Din teased, and Cobb slapped his arm.

“I ain’t never had fish before!” he defended. It was hardly his fault that his body decided to reject the foreign food. At what point would he have ever had the chance to eat something that lived its entire life in water when he’d lived his on a planet that hadn’t seen more than a puddle form on the surface for what had to be hundreds of years?

“Well I’m being careful,” Din said. “The last thing I want is to make you sick.”

Cobb sighed. “Now you’ve done it.”

“Done what?”

“Gone and been all soft and romantic.”

Din grinned and leaned closer. “Is that a problem?”

“Oh, it’s a problem,” Cobb replied, leaning in as well. “It’s a problem ‘cause I’m too tired to do anything about it.”

“Then I guess you’ll just have to make it up to me in the morning.”

Cobb smirked, pressing a quick kiss to Din’s lips. “What’d I do to deserve you?”

“I’ve been asking myself the same thing,” Din replied, and they both sat back to finish their dinner.

It was a comfortable affair, or would have been if it weren’t for the migraine that was steadily starting to build pressure behind his eyes. He really must have been tired for things to be affecting him so much. He managed to get through the meal before it became a serious problem though, and he managed to compliment the chef (and the noodles) before he had to retreat to find the painkillers.

Din, of course, noticed.

“Headache?” he asked, leaning against the frame as Cobb looked at himself in the fresher mirror.

“Migraine,” he replied, knocking back the pills and wincing at the sudden flare in pain as he rubbed at his brow.

Din hummed, and soon his cool hands were making soothing circles against Cobb’s temples. He leaned into it with a moan, the touch alleviating some of the pressure to something more akin to white noise.

“Let’s go to bed.”

Cobb nodded wordlessly in agreement and followed his partner into the bedroom, allowing him to take the side closest to the wall before slipping into the safe circle of his arms. He smiled at the soft kisses Din was giving the back of his neck and wriggled back against his chest, yawning as the day once again reminded him that it had been long. Too long.

As he drifted off into unconsciousness, the buzzing of his migraine followed him into his sleep, like the sands of Tatooine whispering voiceless words against his walls in a storm.

-*-*-

Mornings in Mos Pelgo – Freetown now, as of a few months ago – always felt slow to Din. He was used to waking up with a plan, a place to go, a bounty to hunt, but he didn’t have that when he came to Freetown. He always made sure his business had been taken care of before returning, and so there was no urgent reason to wake.

This morning started out no differently.

He woke slowly, before dawn, aware of the empty space beside him where Cobb had been, and while it wasn’t expected for his first night back, it wasn’t unusual; he knew Cobb suffered from insomnia on occasion, much as he did, so perhaps that was what had happened.

Whatever the case, he pulled himself out of bed and into the fresher, starting his usual morning routine with a quick blast in the sonic before heading out to the kitchen.

Usually, by this point, he would have been greeted by the scent of caf and a bright smile, but the kitchen was just as deserted as the bed had been.

Odd.

Perhaps he’d gone for a walk. The air was still holding onto the chill of the night at this hour, so it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine.

He got the mugs out and started to prepare the caf for when Cobb returned.

A good thirty minutes later, Din was now dressed for the day.

Cobb’s caf had gone cold.

Din couldn’t stop his worry gaining momentum, cascading down like pebbles at the top of an avalanche, and he headed out.

Wherever Cobb had gone he must have done so some time ago, as Din’s helmet wasn’t picking up any traces of his trail. The winds had already swept away the footprints he would have left behind, so Din had to rely on other means.

He found Jo first, walking her route around the town’s perimeter, rifle on her shoulder as she looked out across the dunes.

“The Marshall? No, I haven’t seen him since that incident with the Tuskens. Maybe he went to see Issa about her taking his shifts for the next few days. I know how he gets ‘round you.”

Issa-Or had been setting up her tools to look at one of the vaporators when he found her.

“Vanth’s not with you? Don’t he usually stick with you ‘til at last midday?”

That was far from comforting. He headed over to the cantina next, his hands curling into fists at his sides as he tried to keep himself from making any conclusions.

“Ain’t seen ‘im since before he left, yesterday. Have you asked Jo?”

“Yes,” Din replied, shifting in place as he grasped at the bar. “And Issa. They haven’t seen him either.”

Werlo paused, setting the mug he’d been cleaning down. “You’re sayin’ the Marshall’s missing?”

“I… He might be,” Din replied. “I haven’t found him yet.”

The bartender nodded and stepped out from behind the bar. “I’ll help you look.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Din tried, but the look Werlo shot him told him he hadn’t been very convincing. He was grateful for the help though, and couldn’t help but feel a little relieved that it was more than just him who was looking now.

Freetown wasn’t a big place; there weren’t many doors to knock on or many corners to look around, so by the time they’d gone from one end of the town to the other, whispers were already starting to spread.

“Do you think he might have taken a Walk?” one of the parents asked as they talked in hushed voices with an Elder.

“You can never predict such things,” the Elder replied, their voice harsh with age and their time living on the planet. They didn’t say no though, and Din hunched his shoulders.

He knew they didn’t think he knew what that meant, what taking a Walk was, but on one of his first visits after losing Grogu, there had been a night where neither he nor Cobb could sleep, and they’d shared stories. Stories about their pasts, about growing up a slave, in a small town, in a cage, underground, fighting for their lives. They told stories about the people who had been important to them, and Cobb talked about the woman he’d come to see as a mother taking a Walk.

There had been no tears, just a sad acceptance. Sometimes the sands just called you, and your mind was too exhausted not to follow.

He couldn’t accept that Cobb would ever be so weak to let it take him away, but with each passing minute his belief wavered more and more.

Where was he?

“Hey, Mando!”

He spun on the spot to find Jo running towards him. “What is it? Did you find anything?”

“Not exactly,” she replied. “He’s speeder’s gone.”

“... What?”

“It’s not where he usually parks it,” she continued. “Did he definitely leave it behind your place?”

“I heard him pull in last night,” Din said. So it didn’t sound like he’d taken a Walk, but why would he take the speeder without telling him? How could he have left so quietly that no one noticed? His speeder was more of an engine with a seat attached than a bike, it wasn’t exactly quiet. He would have had to have pushed it some way before turning the engine on.

“Well it’s not there now.”

Din gave Jo a nod and headed back to the house, looking around the back where their bikes were usually kept and finding that, as Jo had said, there was a space where Cobb’s pride and joy was usually kept.

There had been no sign of Cobb leaving the house before, not even his boots were gone, signs that had made Din start to believe that he may just have gone for a Walk, but people called by the Dune Sea didn’t bring speeders with them. Something must have happened, but what?

None of this was making any sense.

He headed back into the house just as the first of the suns was beginning to rise over the horizon, eager to search for any more signs he might have missed, perhaps to pack some things, clothes for Cobb to change into, the boots he’d left by the door, water and food, and perhaps his own weapons he’d left on–

Din stared at the space on the table.

It was gone. The darksaber was gone.

——————————————————————

Mando’a Translations:

Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum - "I love you."; literally: "I will know you forever."

Where'd they go I wonder... I might not be confident in building tension yet, but I think I did quite well! Also, is my birfday! Whoop!