#omg massiffs

***

Mando always feels like there is something...attractive about your personality. Something about your spirit just draws other souls to you.

This was proven shortly after Grogu was gone. You are wandering around a market on Tatooine picking up supplies between bounties when the mastiff pup comes walking out of nowhere and perches himself right on your foot. 

He is tiny and skinny for a pup but he looks up at you with big sparkling eyes and hooks you instantly.

You freeze in place. A part of you wants to pick him up thanks to the time spent with Grogu, you want to scoop the little creature into your arms but you stop yourself. You can't possibly keep it, you barely know what it is.

Mando sees the internal struggle on your face and smirks under his buy'ce, having already made up his mind. "They're pack animals." He says, "If that one gets any skinnier he won't make it."

You look up at him, "We can't."

"He's already claimed you."

You can feel the pup wiggle his little behind as he looks up at you, as though he understands the conversation going on above him. His tiny little back spikes pull against your boots with every wiggle.

"But we're on a ship? How will that work-?"

"You made a child work, I'm sure you can figure it out." He says, humor tinging his voice even through the vocoder as he walks away towards the next stall.

You stand there dumbfounded for a moment before looking down at the pup again, its angular little jaw now open and panting, little sharp tongue drooping out of one side of its mouth. "Okay. We have a massiff now." You grin as you pick the pup from off your shoe.

Mando’s right, you can feel it's bones through its skin, you hurry back to his side, "How do we feed it? What do we feed it?"

"You teach it to hunt, cyar'ika."

***

It takes you days to agree on a name, Mando pushes for "Aran", a Mando’a word for guard because of the way the massiff is already hyper protective of you. You want something more like Copper, or Mr. Fuzzbutt of fluffington manor III, but you end up agreeing on Tank. 

Even after Mando forbids it, you sneak the little pup into your cot in the middle of the night. 

Every morning Mando wakes up with the pup curled up on his belly, and you curled up on his side. 

Between bounties Mando takes time to bring you two to quieter planets to train. You learn how to fight, Tank learns how to hunt.

You both quickly learn that Tank loves to catch anything on wings, sometimes bringing down creatures three times his own size

The two of you hadn't eaten so well in months, it makes you miss the kid when you sit by the fire every night. The kid would have loved Tank.

Tank gets bigger much faster than you can imagine. He goes from being able to curl up into a little ball on Mando’s belly plate, to covering his entire torso in what feels like weeks.

Mando would never admit it, but he enjoys the company during his longer hunts. If bounty’s are intimidated by just having a Mandalorian on their tail, they are downright terrified of a Mandalorian and his massiff.

When (or if) you decide to have children, the massiff never leaves your side, which gives Din much needed peace of mind when he's away.

Tank is the favorite mode of transport for your little ones even before they can crawl. They drape themselves over his rounded back and he carries them everywhere.