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Competition is the Mandalorian Way.
It appears bloodthirsty and ruthless to the outside observer – why should friends tear at each other's throats at a moment's notice? Why should children face each other off in battle? The truth of the matter is that personal glory is not the outcome. Rather, it is to be a better Mandalorian; a stronger part of a fabric made up of many. Challenging another is to test their strength as a Mandalorian, and to ensure that each member of their people lives up to the highest code of duty.
Following the Way all but eliminates competition over things irrelevant to Mandalorian life. Except, the Armorer remembered, for this. It had been such a long, long time since her religious framework had been a muscle to be sharply exercised rather than simply used intuitively, that she'd forgotten what it was like to battle the raw, sharp burn of jealousy.
She stiffened slightly as she watched the scene across the sand.
"Bo-Katan!" Lan said, jogging up to her.
Bo-Katan turned around with that constant start of surprise that she was part of the goings on here. Her helmet tilted slightly in acknowledgement; she was learning fast.
"Do you need my assistance?" she asked.
"Oh, no," Lan said, coming to a stop in front of her. "No, actually I was gonna ask if you needed mine."
Bo-Katan's head tilted slightly in surprise.
"I saw your ship over there," he said by way of explanation.
"I was in a fight before I got here."
"Yeah, looks like it got pretty beat up."
Bo-Katan shifted to a slightly more assertive stance. "The shields took a hit, yes."
"Well, you want some help fixing it up?" Lan suggested. "I've got a free afternoon."
The Armorer's chest clenched as she waited for Bo-Katan's response, and she chastised herself instantly. Lan was following the Way and strengthening the bonds of their covert with his offer of assistance. Bo-Katan accepting his help and allowing herself the opportunity to form an acquaintanceship through the repairs could only be a good thing.
"Sure," Bo-Katan said, a little hesitantly but with pleasant surprise.
The Armorer pressed her lips together, fighting back the unexpected sense of possessiveness as Lan and Bo Katan made their way across the long beach to where her gauntlet was docked.
She would let it happen, she had to, but she wouldn't be bested in this competition.
*
Bo-Katan swirled ever-present in her mind. Perhaps it was inevitable after she'd haunted the Armorer for so many years, the long shadow of her mistakes hovering over their exile. She'd felt the whisperings of an oncoming storm the moment Din had returned with the darksaber and her name on his lips. It was less of a surprise, more of an expectancy when he returned a second time with Bo-Katan at his side.
Perhaps it was because the Armorer had been waiting.
It was her job to watch and observe, to stay a plane above so she could see everyone's story unfold. It was natural that no one in the covert would understand her significance when they had their own role to play. Each was as important as the next. Entwined with Bo-Katan, though, was a sense of possessiveness from the knowledge she could see something the others didn't.
What kept her so entangled was the sense that Bo-Katan could see something too.
It was the shy glances, at the start; the intrigue that lasted long after she began to adjust to the others. She could feel the fascination circling Bo-Katan, too amorphous for her to understand why.
The Armorer didn't have an answer, either. All she knew was that something in this woman had drawn her out of her own body and beyond her all-consuming duty. The only thing she wanted to do was chase it; to catch Bo-Katan in her grasp every chance she could.
*
"Oh – "
Bo-Katan's footsteps stopped abruptly, and she hovered at the entrance of the forge.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean – I was searching for some beskar oil," Bo-Katan clarified, collecting herself slightly regally. "I didn't think you'd still be working."
"There is much to do."
She saw Bo-Katan nod briefly out of the corner of her eye, then shift as if looking nervously around the forge.
"I'll leave you to work."
She hovered a moment longer, perhaps waiting for a reply, before she finally turned away.
"I could use your assistance, if you wish," the Armorer requested.
Bo-Katan started slightly, glancing back round.
"Yes," she said, sounding surprised, almost as if the word had escaped her without permission.
The Armorer smiled underneath her helmet.
"I am repairing some of the dishes broken by the foundlings," she said, circling the forge.
"From beskar?" Bo-Katan said in shock.
"No, from a less valuable metal," the Armorer told her, with a hint of amusement. She took hold of the vanadium sheet and shifted the melting metal to the centre of the blue flames.
"Its weaknesses make it less pliable than beskar," she continued. "It has a tendency to break when too much pressure is applied under flame. The angle must be maintained exactly so as to avoid it."
"I understand," Bo-Katan said, approaching her.
The Armorer glanced up and saw Bo-Katan's visor fixed raptly on her. The intensity of her attention seemed to burn around her and for a moment the Armorer found herself transfixed.
Everything she'd ever known about Bo-Katan had been of a destructive force – a maelstrom of arrogant, selfish chaos bringing destruction to whoever crossed its path. She'd never understood the sincere energy beneath it; she'd certainly never imagined it could fuel something like this.
"You can hold the vanadium whilst I shape it," the Armorer said, tearing herself away to move over to the bench. She selected a pair of tongs and handed them to Bo Katan, who took them somewhat reverently.
"Stand here," the Armorer said, walking back to the forge and pointing at a place next to her. Bo-Katan nodded, approaching the flames, then stood looking slightly questioningly at the tool she was holding.
The Armorer watched her for a moment, considering, then stepped gracefully sideways and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Like this," she said in a low voice, laying her arm across Bo-Katan's and moving closer into her.
She heard her breath hitch underneath her helmet and felt the almost imperceptible jerk back into her.
"Hold them here," the Armorer said, moving the tongs until they were hovering just over the metal. "And grip tightly, with both hands."
She squeezed her fingers over Bo-Katan's in emphasis, and felt a jolt of fire surge through her chest.
"Do you understand?"
A beat passed between them. "I do."
The Armorer moved silently away, then slipped the hammer from her belt and lined it up carefully with the metal. She tapped slowly at first, assessing Bo's skill – but the metal was unmoving, so she hit harder, using the full force of her body to hammer the container dish into being.
"Now rest it to cool," the Armorer said when the metal had taken the appropriate shape.
Bo-Katan placed it carefully to the side, watching the red fade into grey, then looked up at the Armorer.
"Well done," she praised.
Bo Katan seemed to swell at the words and gave her a small, almost shy nod.
"Thank you," she said, the smile evident in her voice.
*
The Armorer felt like they were dancing around each other – Bo-Katan skittish and unsure, reluctant to see what was right in front of her when she was still trying to find her bearings; the Armorer outwardly calm and steady as she watched the way Bo wove their tribe together, but carrying a restlessness inside her at the need to draw this woman closer.
Bo-Katan had thrown herself into life at the covert in a way she didn't even seem to realise – but everyone else did. She drew them to her, radiating strength and intelligence and this weightiness about her, like she connected them to somewhere they couldn't see but believed in through her.
For so long she'd thought Bo-Katan had clung onto leadership through her family name and sheer arrogance, but now watching her marshal the tribe with unshakeable determination as if the foundling was her own, she could see what made Bo-Katan so special.
Not just to them, but to her. Here she was full of fire to fight for the future of their people, something flashing in her eyes born only from a sense of duty so deep it was embedded in her bones. There was nothing more important to her right now, and the Armorer's careful control of her fear slip as she allowed herself to put her trust in someone else.
"It would… kill the child."
It felt like handing a piece of her heart over to someone else, and when Bo-Katan returned with it intact she wanted to shower her affection over her.
The Armorer carried words as another sacred tool, but somehow with Bo-Katan they never seemed to cut through her doubt. She was too well-practiced at brushing them off, allowing nothing to touch her more than skin-deep, at keeping herself insulated from both love and hate just as effectively. Words wouldn't do, so she tried another language instead – one wound so deeply in every Mandalorian it could never be hidden from.
"You're in need of a repair."
*
Bo-Katan belonged to her, now.
They were entwined together by the secrets they'd shared in the forge and all the others that still went unspoken. Wherever Bo was she could feel her, somehow, this invisible frequency between them that vibrated to sometimes unbearable levels when they were close.
She'd taken to sleeping with her flight suit fully off for the first time in years, only from the need to relieve some of the tension in her body.
Bo-Katan was still wary, unsure of the Armorer – unsure of herself. It seemed however clear the Armorer made her feelings, Bo-Katan refused to let them permeate her sense of abject failure.
Then sometimes she'd snap into almost another person, a cockiness about her that the Armorer had always associated with Bo-Katan far more than the caring devotion and selfless bravery she'd come to know. She'd swagger around in the Armorer's eyesight, swaying her hips and flexing her skills as if trying to bait her, as if she knew how wild it drove her every time she effortlessly stunned her opponent in a duel or lassoed away their weapon or soared through the air with her jetpack, landing powerfully on the sand and tossing a look over her shoulder at the Armorer.
It was like seeing Bo-Katan from another life – and then there was the surge of jealousy again, at all the invisible people who'd had a glimmer of Bo's fire thrown at them.
They didn't get to see this, though.
"Lady Kryze."
Bo-Katan's head snapped up with a small gasp and her gaze fixed on her from across the cave, flames dancing across her visor.
"Am I disturbing you?" she said, putting down the datapad she was holding onto her lap. "I can leave, if you want the fire."
The Armorer surveyed the dying flames and the shadows they cast across the now-empty cave.
"I haven't seen such an engaged debate in a long time," she mused, wandering over to her.
Bo-Katan's breath hitched.
"It's not a small thing that Din's asking. That we're asking," she corrected.
"You're a pair?" the Armorer asked,.
"I – "
Bo-Katan looked up at her as she reached her.
"Not in that way," she laughed awkwardly. "He's… we're in this together," Bo-Katan said more resolutely.
The Armorer sat down, just a foot away from her.
"He saved my life," Bo-Katan admitted softly. "In more ways than one."
She hummed. "Din Djarin is an unusual man," the Armorer replied. "Through coming from the outside, he has a way of seeing things in people that others don't."
Bo-Katan was quiet for a long moment.
"He always sees good when the rest of us believe there's none there," she said quietly. "And somehow you always find… you want to believe in it too."
"One does not speak unless one knows."
Bo-Katan was silent, staring into the fire and playing absent-mindedly with the fingers of one glove.
"I will leave you to your work."
"I'm just reviewing the plans for our attack," Bo-Katan said quickly. "If you want to take a look."
The Armorer gave a small nod, and Bo-Katan made to hand her the datapad. But instead, the Armorer shifted closer to her, so close their legs came to rest together as she tipped her helmet down to examine the screen. She could feel the pounding of her heart under her beskar.
"Explain to me what you have planned," the Armorer said, a slight tremor in her voice making its way through her modulator.
"Um, I…" Bo-Katan broke off, staring down at their joint legs. "It… it centres around a diversion tactic."
She regained her composure, running through ship schematics and weather conditions with a competency that sent the Armorer's body thrumming. She just needed to push her into giving up control; push Bo-Katan to see in herself what she did.
"We must walk the Way together."
*
With Bo-Katan gone, the restlessness was hard to bear. Every moment her mind had an opportunity to wander she saw Bo-Katan's face as she cast the Armorer a last look over her shoulder, a promise in her eyes that felt only for her. She'd return, and when she did…
The Armorer put down her tongs, taking a deep breath, and glanced across the forge where only a few days ago Bo-Katan had been standing. The magic that had woven itself around them still hovered in the air, the memory of Bo-Katan's beauty sending fire through her body. What Bo-Katan had promised her she had to return in kind. If she'd shared her vulnerability the Armorer had to cherish it; if she'd risen to her full power the Armorer had to honour it.
She picked up her tongs again and placed the hardening beskar back amongst the flames, letting it slowly melt again as she moved to search through her moulds. There was something here she could work with, she was sure.
She spent hours over the forge, moulding their sacred metal into something worthy of its envisioned use. Then as it lay cooling on her worktop she cut and trimmed and worked the strips of kudana leather until it formed a light, smooth cover, attaching snugly beneath her belt.
The Armorer hummed in satisfaction, admiring her work, then tucked it safely away for Bo-Katan's return.
*
"It's good to see it working again."
Bo-Katan's voice rang out across the forge as she stood just inside its entrance, hands crossed respectfully behind her back as she waited for the Armorer's attention.
"It's burning once again at its strongest," the Armorer said, staring up at the flames. "As it should be."
Her gaze moved over to Bo-Katan, surveying her with the intensity that had been building all evening.
"You're here late," she observed, walking slowly towards her.
"I spent some time with the Nite Owls aboard their ship," Bo-Katan explained, the eagerness in her eyes belying her calm tone. "I think we could move the rest of the camp in there tomorrow, if they'd be willing."
"I will bring the idea to them."
Bo-Katan nodded as she reached her, her eyes flicking briefly over her body.
"Thank you."
She held the Armorer's gaze resolutely. Gone was the skittish insecurity – her eyes shone darkly with want. Still, it was restrained under a veil of doubt, dashed with a glimmer of trepidation, as if she couldn't quite believe she was worthy of what she wanted.
The Armorer reached out, brushing her hand over her newest pauldron. Bo-Katan's breath hitched, but she didn't move.
"You've honoured us all," the Armorer murmured.
"Only with your help."
The Armorer looked up at her, running her eyes along her sharp jaw, then reached with her fingers to do the same. A small gasp fluttered from Bo's lips and her chin tipped up just slightly, as if leaning into the touch.
"There could be no one else," the Armorer said quietly.
Bo-Katan hovered on the precipice, then she reached up to place her hand over the Armorer's own.
"Was it only the mythosaur?" Bo whispered.
The Armorer was silent for a moment, her thumb brushing almost imperceptibly against her skin.
"It was only you, Bo-Katan."
Bo's lips parted and her eyes gazed longingly into the Armorer's visor as if desperate to kiss her. A beat passed, then she twisted her head slightly and gently moved the Armorer's fingers until she could press her lips to the tip of her glove.
Bo-Katan's eyes were wide as she watched her cautiously, daringly. Then the Armorer nudged her finger between her lips and she let out a small moan, her eyes falling shut as she opened her mouth wider. The world disappeared except for the feeling of Bo sucking wantonly on her finger, her face a picture of bliss and her cheeks flushing red in the low light of the forge.
Her hands came to rest on the Armorer's hips of their own accord – then the Armorer slid a hand around her waist, stepping into her space, and suddenly her knee was slipped between Bo-Katan's legs and pressing insistently up.
Bo's eyes flew open with a gasp, then her fingers gripped instinctively into the Armorer, urging her hips closer as she ground down onto her thigh. The Armorer's hand moved down to clutch her ass and held them tightly together, rocking up into Bo and eliciting another moan from the lips still wrapped around her finger.
She crooked it, pressing against Bo's teeth until her jaw fell slack and her head fell back, her eyes burning into the Armorer's visor with unabashed want. She slipped her finger out and then nudged at Bo-Katan's hip, stepping forward to push her back until she bumped into the empty workbench behind her.
Her eyes flickered with needy delight and her arms moved to the Armorer's hips again, trying to pull her closer – but she already had a hand between them, with her other arm snugly around Bo-Katan's waist as her fingers slid up her inner thigh.
Bo's chest froze, then she let out a gravelly moan, her legs falling open as the Armorer's hand moved between them. Her palm pressed up, rubbing softly and eliciting small gasps of pleasure from Bo-Katan.
"I have a gift for you," the Armorer said, her voice low and rough through her helmet.
Bo-Katan's eyes snapped up to hers as she stared at her, breathy and unfocused.
"You do?"
The Armorer's hands slipped from her body to a whimper of discontent, and she walked over to her storage closet across the forge.
"Take off your jetpack," she ordered, without turning around.
She opened the doors of her closet and carefully pulled away the bottom panel. Underneath lay a wooden box from which she removed the strap, glistening slightly with oil in the firelight.
Bo-Katan's eyes widened as she caught sight of it, dangling from the Armorer's fingers as she sauntered back over to her. They flicked up to the Armorer with a mixture of amazement and doubt, as if still worried this was a cruel joke about to be revealed.
"Beskar has many uses," the Armorer said, as she stepped back into Bo-Katan's space.
"You made this from beskar?"
The Armorer slipped off her gloves, placing them on the bench behind Bo-Katan, then fixed her gaze back upon her.
"In order for it to be worthy."
She held the strap up before Bo-Katan, resting the tip on her bottom teeth, and watched as her eyes darkened beyond recognition and her mouth parted wantonly. The Armorer felt heat pour molten in her belly as Bo-Katan sucked firmly around it, hollowing her cheeks out with wicked, knowing eyes. The Armorer pushed it gently in, her mouth going dry as Bo tipped her head back to swallow the strap further. She was cradling what the Armorer had made for her in her throat, open and vulnerable for whatever she wanted to give her.
"You're going to need," the Armorer purred, slowly withdrawing the strap. "To take those off."
She looked pointedly down at Bo-Katan's trousers then back up at her, her lips red and parted and her chest heaving. She nodded breathlessly and quickly shucked off her thigh plates and knee straps, then gasped as the Armorer moved closer in to help her push down her trousers.
The Armorer leaned forward, the tip of her helmet just brushing against Bo Katan's neck.
"Now turn around."
Bo-Katan hesitated, looking close to fainting with desire. Then she swallowed, and shifted around until her hands were resting on the bench. The Armorer pressed lightly at the small of Bo Katan's back and she bent obediently forward.
With her trousers caught by her shin guards her ankles were pinned together, rendering her virtually unable to move beyond the awkward position she had to force herself into. She was entirely under the Armorer's control, vulnerable and trapped whilst she moved freely and powerfully over her.
"Good girl," the Armorer murmured, fixing the strap around her hips.
Bo-Katan's breath hitched in a small cry and her head dropped forward.
She was unusually silent, except for the sound of her ragged breathing, as if lulled into a trance. The triumphant, possessive rush it sent through the Armorer was intoxicating. Only with her would Bo-Katan become submissive and vulnerable, only with her could she trust enough to relinquish her control, only with her could she delight in the surprises of someone else, only with her could she let herself be seen.
"If you could only see how beautiful you look," the Armorer murmured as she stroked Bo-Katan's thighs. She got a choked laugh in return.
"Beautiful isn't exactly how I feel right now."
"How do you feel?"
"Ready to be fucked."
The Armorer hummed in amusement. "Then I think we are saying much the same thing."
Bo-Katan laughed again, breathy and disbelieving.
"You don't think you can be beautiful like this?" the Armorer asked, as she nudged the head of the strap between Bo-Katan's legs.
Her breath hitched and she keened slightly, hair falling in front of her face.
"It wasn't…" she gasped, as the tip of the strap caught just inside her. "My first thought."
"You don't think your desire is beautiful?" the Armorer asked her, teasing her entrance and eliciting small whimpers from Bo-Katan. "The fury with which you want, the demand for what's yours. The fire that burns inside of you."
The Armorer ran a hand up her side.
"I want to feel that fire, Bo-Katan."
Bo-Katan's hips tensed, the hesitance and self-consciousness evident in her body. The Armorer moved her hands to rub reassuring circles over her hips, trailing her fingers teasingly as she went.
"Tell me what you want."
"I... fuck," Bo-Katan exclaimed in frustration.
"Tell me what you want, Lady Kryze."
"You," she choked out, sending desire storming through the Armorer's body. "You, inside of me. Please."
Bo-Katan's guttural moan bounced off the cave walls as the Armorer pushed smoothly inside her. She jerked forwards at the force and the Armorer flexed her fingers on her hips to bring them under control. She felt the instinctive resistance from Bo-Katan's reflexes, the solid muscle of her thighs rippling as they challenged her strength; she was Mandalorian, encapsulated.
The Armorer held her firm and began rotating her hips in slow circles. Bo-Katan groaned, canting impatiently back against her, and she bit back a chuckle. Another groan as she pulled Bo's hips closer in, holding her unrelentingly as she moved slowly, torturously inside her.
"Please," Bo Katan begged with a strangled gasp. "I can't take any more… hanging over the edge…"
The Armorer started with a small gasp of her own. Bo-Katan must have felt the surprise in her body because she strained slightly to glance back at her.
"You know how I feel."
The Armorer stroked her thighs softly, revelling in the sensation of skin on skin. Then she rolled her hips back against Bo Katan's, more firmly now, and let the sound of her blissful sigh burn brightly in her heart.
The Armorer's eyes flittered shut as she moved faster, sinking into the mesmerizing sound of her strap sliding slickly into Bo, the short, guttural cries emanating from her lips, the feeling of her muscles clenching under the Armorer's hands as she pushed back against her. Bo's need was everywhere around them – her need for her.
She grasped Bo's hips more firmly and thrust harshly into her, sending a raw moan echoing through the forge as Bo-Katan collapsed forward onto the bench. She grappled furiously for purchase as the Armorer began pounding into her, leaning forward to place one hand next to hers so their fingers were just brushing together. Her other arm curled tightly around Bo's waist until she was enclosing her protectively.
Bo-Katan's palm suddenly slid over hers and she wound their fingers clumsily together. They were completely entwined, bodies moving entirely against each other with uneven gasps, pulling each other closer.
The Armorer shifted her hips just up and Bo-Katan yelled, squeezing so tightly against her fingers she thought she might break them. Bo's forehead was pressed against the bench, muffling her broken moans, as her body seemed to draw further into itself the closer she came to falling apart.
"Fuck I can't…"
She let out a desperate, feral cry and the Armorer grasped her tighter.
"You can," she murmured breathlessly in her ear. "You can have everything you want."
Bo-Katan screamed, slamming a palm furiously into the bench.
"Fuck…! I can't I…"
"You can."
"How can you… how do you…"
Bo-Katan sobbed breathlessly, each sound punctuated with the slap of leather on skin and clash of beskar on beskar and the harsh gasps of their mixed breath.
"You know how I feel," the Armorer told her. "You know…" The words, for the first time, got caught in her throat. "You know how I want you for my own."
She slipped her arm away from Bo-Katan's waist and fumbled at her helmet, pushing it up just enough to rest on her nose. Bo's breath hitched as the cool beskar pressed against her cheek, and then she seemed to stop breathing altogether as the Armorer brushed her lips against her hot, damp neck.
The sobs in Bo-Katan's throat disappeared into gasping, disbelieving cries. She twisted her head, arching her neck desperately towards the Armorer's mouth like a flower searching for the sun. The Armorer sucked lightly at Bo's skin, mouthing gentle kisses along her neck that were entirely at odds with the forceful thrust of her hips.
"Yes. Yes… please," Bo sighed, as if in response to an unspoken question.
The Armorer's hand slid between her legs to where her strap was pounding wetly into Bo. She moaned into her neck at the drenched mound of hair she found, coating her fingers as she slipped them between her folds.
Bo-Katan's cry echoed off the beskar around them as the Armorer pressed deftly against her clit, rubbing tight circles in rhythm with the thrusts inside her. The hand around her own gripped painfully and Bo's hips began to jerk erratically backwards. A mess of moans and pleas and curses were pouring from her lips as her damp hair clung to her cheek, its tendrils brushing the Armorer's nose as she grazed her teeth over Bo's neck.
"Come for me, Lady Kryze."
And she did; screaming and shaking and clenching so tightly she was almost held inside her. For a few moments suspended in time, they seemed entirely entwined together, two opposite souls bound in a way that felt inevitable.
Bo-Katan collapsed, shaking as the crest abated and the Armorer's movements gently slowed until she was resting on top of Bo, breathing heavily. The world had been shattered into something new around them and she waited quietly for the pieces to fall.
Bo-Katan squeezed her hand, turning her head just slightly.
"I like your mouth," she whispered.
A laugh tumbled out of the Armorer's lips against her neck, and then Bo burst into laughter too, wrapping their fingers more firmly together.
"I put it to good use," the Armorer replied, kissing her again in emphasis.
"So I discovered."
The Armorer hummed, pressing a last kiss against her before she slid gently out, disentangling their fingers to slowly stand up. Bo-Katan pushed herself up shakily, too, just as the Armorer readjusted her helmet.
The sight that met her when Bo-Katan turned round sent something proud and possessive roaring in her stomach; her hair a fiery mess, her lips red and swollen, her cheeks flushed and damp, and small pink marks emerging across her neck.
"Amongst other things," smirked Bo.
The Armorer chuckled, resting her hands on her waist. Her strap brushed between her legs and Bo-Katan jolted, swearing and then biting down on her lips. The Armorer cocked her head in amusement and Bo gave her a look of faux-exasperation.
"I'm not going to be able to walk properly for days."
The Armorer hummed smugly and Bo-Katan raised an eyebrow, surveying her with interest.
"And yet," she said in a lower tone. "I have nothing to show for it."
Then she rested a finger against the Armorer's chest plate and pushed her gently back, before bending down to tug her trousers back on.
"I think I'm going to need these," Bo-Katan said, grinning up at her through a mess of crimson hair as she re-attached her knee guards.
The Armorer's heart hammered as she watched her, deft fingers moving skilfully with unabashed enthusiasm. Then she stroked her hands up the Armorer's legs, and with a lascivious smirk, she sank to the floor.