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Without talking, Boba knew he and Fennec were both thinking of the Mandalorian when she mentioned “hired muscle.” He was one of the deadliest people he’d ever met. Boba just hoped he would be open to the idea. When the departed, the Mandalorian had been even more quiet than normal.
“He could be anywhere in the galaxy,” Boba said, more comment than pushing back on the idea.
She raised an eyebrow. “Then we better start now.”
He nodded, before turning and walking to the comms table in his room. He dialed up Skad and his face appeared in the familiar blue light of the holo.
“Yeah, boss?” Skad asked easily, his cybernetic eye moving as it focused.
“I need you to send a message to our contact at the Mos Espa space port. I need them off planet looking for a Mandalorian in silver armor.”
Boba had expected him to nod and accept the job, but Skad paused, his gaze far off like he was thinking about something.
“Another Mandalorian?” he asked.
“Yes,” Fennec said. Boba hadn’t heard her come up from behind, but he didn’t jump as she continued. “Are you familiar?”
“Well, yeah, one came off the transport ship a couple days ago. All of Mos Eisley is buzzing about it.”
Boba clenched a fist out of view of the holo. Had Mando been on Tatooine all this time?
Fennec spoke first. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
He raised a placating hand. “Sorry, boss. I didn’t wanna assume all Mandalorians know each other.”
He bit back a sigh as Fennec snorted behind him. “Then find out where he is and report back.”
“Yessir.”
The comm link cut out as Skad ended the call. His bedroom grew quiet and dark. He turned and saw Fennec staring at him.
“What?” he asked, voice flatter than he intended.
She shrugged. “You’re not mad he didn’t come to you after touching down on Tatooine?”
Boba grit his teeth. “He could be on a bounty and be busy. His business is not my own.”
Fennec gave him a look that proved she saw right through him.
He wasn’t annoyed that the Mandalorian hadn’t come to him. If he has being truly honest, he probably wouldn’t have had the time to host him, but they both knew about Boba’s feelings toward the Mandalorian.
It had taken very little time and spotchka between them for Boba to reveal his feelings about the Mandalorian. They weren’t feelings he had expected when he followed the trail for his armor, and they certainly weren’t feelings he expected to linger in his absence, but linger they did.
He changed the topic to contacting the bounty hunters he knew when working for the Empire and the matter was dropped. That didn’t stop his thoughts from wandering back to Mando, though.
With any luck, Mando would have disappeared into the Dunes on a job and he would have time to cool down before offering him the job.
It was less time than anticipated for Skad to find Mando. A couple of days later, they knew he was in Hanger 3-5 in Mos Eisley.
The information settled in Boba’s heart as he thanked Skad.
He settled back against the throne as the teen ran off to join his friends in whatever fun they were having.
“You should go and ask him.”
Boba didn’t jump as Fennec came around the throne, hand trailing against the back.
“Why?” He asked calmly, “I’m the crime lord, I’ll be better at asking other mercenaries to join us.”
She waved a hand as she sat down on the arm of the throne. “They’ll like you being this big shadowy figure, get a kick out of it. Besides, if I go, you’d be blowing up my comm for updates.”
“I wouldn’t,” he said, with not much conviction.
She just raised an eyebrow at that. They stared at each other. This was common between them. The teenagers in their employ had once said it was “weird” how the two of them could communicate without talking. Drash has once asked to inspect their heads, absolutely convinced they had implants that let them literally do this, but it wasn’t anything like that. It was just a thing that happened amongst bounty hunters who worked together long enough.
Like now, how he knew she wouldn’t leave him alone if he didn’t explain what was going on in his head.
He sighed, shifting in his throne to better face her.
“Did I do enough for him?” he asked, finally letting go of the question that had been in his head for weeks.
She looked up, considering, before answering. “You got his kid back after you completed your end of the deal. You drove him and his friends to an Imperial ship, then you dropped him off where he wanted to be.”
“I still left him on that space station with nothing but the clothes on his back and no kid.”
“Mando is his own man. He was sad, but knew what he wanted.” She leaned down and pulled a bottle of spotchka from… somewhere. “Now you have a chance to reconnect.”
He added “hopefully” in his head.
The throne room descended into comfortable silence as she took a pull and he mulled over their conversation.
He suddenly stood up, his joints protesting the sudden movement.
“Let’s see the vaults.”
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and smirked. “Gonna talk to him today?”
“I might as well.”
“Good.”
A couple of hours later, Boba found himself in front of the door of Hanger 3-5. He knocked, before he hesitated any more, and the door opened to reveal a pit droid, who started quaking the moment its sensors looked at him.
Boba was nonplussed. “Is Peli Motto in?”
The droid ran away, leaving the door open. Boba was about to poke his head in, to see if that was the droid’s weird way of welcoming him in, when he heard a voice shout out “Hang on! Hang on!”
A few moments later, a woman with a huge head of hair arrived at the door.
“What do you-” her voice stuttered to a stop as her eyes widened as she took in who was at her door.
He ignored her stunned look. “Are you Peli Motto?”
“Yeah, no shit,” she said quietly, gaze far off.
“Is Mando in?”
“Never met the guy,” she said automatically.
Boba tilted his head to the side, about to press the issue when she slammed the door in his face. It beeping as the locks were engaged. He heard her muffled yelling at the droids about “safety measures.”
He sighed. The roar of a ship grew closer as one flew in low. He waited for the perfect moment as it circled the space to fire up his jetpack and gently crest over the side of the building. He landed on top of a stack of crates, piled high.
Between Peli shouting at the droids and the ship landing, he remained unnoticed.
He leaned back against the wall and waited, pieces of their conversation floating up to him.
“A friend of yours was looking for you,” Peli said.
Mando tilted his head. “A friend of mine?”
Boba’s heart squeezed a little at Mando’s hesitation at those words. Was it really that surprising to him that he had friends in this galaxy?
“Don’t worry,” Peli continued. “I said I hadn’t seen you, then locked the doors.”
“Did they give you a name?”
He finally decided he’d had enough of hiding.
He called out “Boba Fett,” causing the droids and Peli to jump in surprise.
Mando, just looked at him, and Boba was glad to be under that man’s gaze again.
He stepped down off of the crates, hitting his jetpack at the same time and landed softly on the sand.
“It’s good to see you, Mando,” he said.
“And yourself.”
Before Boba could continue, Peli spoke up again.
“Wait a minute, were you going to tell me you were friends with the daimyo of Tatooine?!”
Mando shrugged. “It never came up.”
She turned on a huff, mumbling something about “security protocols” to her droids as she walked away. Boba’s gaze followed her for a moment. He suspected she would be listening in the whole time, but he trusted Din’s judgement on shacking up with her.
“Are you looking for work?” he asked.
“I might be. What’s the bounty?”
“No bounty. I need muscle.”
He procured the sack of credits that had been burning a hole in his pocket. He tossed it to Mando, who caught it easily. He studied it for a moment as Boba briefly explained what had been happening with the Pykes.
Once he was done, Mando stayed quiet for a moment, before he placed the pouch back in Boba’s hand. He hoped the lingering touch wasn’t his imagination.
“For you?” Mando said. “It’s on the house, but first I got to pay a visit to a little friend.”
Boba was glad his helmet obscured his wide grin. “Alright, get your affairs in order. We’ll have a spot for you at the palace.”
Mando’s easy energy suddenly vanished. “That’s… unnecessary.”
Peli’s head of curls popped out from behind a door as she suddenly exclaimed, “Mando! You’ve been crashing on my couch for weeks! Not that I don’t want you here, but if I was getting offered a karking palace room, I’d be selling this old place and luxuriating!”
Mando looked down and then back up at him. “You have the space?”
Boba thought back at the predominantly empty palace, how they had barely dusted the spaces they regularly inhabited.
“Plenty.”
Mando nodded. “Alright. I should be back in two days’ time.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
They clasped wrists and even though Boba’s shaky criminal empire was at risk, he was glad he was reconnecting with Mando under better circumstances.