Disclaimer: No I do not own Star Wars. But I do love it! Oh and this takes place in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
Leia was lying stretched out on her bed. She had just changed into her sleeping clothes, a pair of very short shorts, and a tank top, when Luke and Han had walked in. "Leia tell him it wasn't you!" Luke cried angrily. "Tell him you would never go to one of those shady cantinas on Coruscant!"
"Luke what are you talking about?" Leia asked with a frown. "I haven't been on Coruscant since three weeks after my eighteenth birthday."
"See!" Luke exclaimed, turning to Han with a triumphant grin. "I told you it wasn't her!"
"I'm still not convinced kid," Han replied with a slow grin. "I seem to remember a night in one of those shady cantinas on Coruscant, where I met a girl who looked a whole lot like you your worship."
Leia's eyes widened in shock. "That wasn't you was it?" she asked with a frown. "It couldn't have been!"
"Oh it was princess," Han grinned. "Oh it was…"
Princess Leia Organa sat on her bed looking over some documents on her holopad. It was her eighteenth birthday. Her father had already called to wish her happy birthday and had a gift delivered for her. Now she was sitting alone in her apartment, preparing for the senate session the next day. Her brown hair hung freely around her shoulders and she had abandoned her white dress for a pair of loose pants and one of her father's old dress shirts.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Leia frowned and got off her bed. She looked around her room as she walked out and thought about how plain it seemed. The only decoration was a picture of her and her father sitting on her bedside table. The walls were bare and white. The floors were wood but there wasn't even a rug on them. The mirrored closet doors just accented how plain the room was.
The living area wasn't much better. There were several functional brown nerf-skin chairs and a couch, obviously expensive but the plainest of their class. There was a large picture of her family on the wall over the couch. But sometimes it was hard to look at that picture, because it reminded her what a mystery her origins were. But Leia was pulled from her musings when the bell rang again.
"Leia!" a girl about Leia's age cried as Leia opened the door. The girl set down the bag she was holding threw her arms around Leia and Leia slowly returned the embrace.
"Nicole?" Leia asked with a puzzled smile. "What are you doing here?"
"It's your birthday silly!" Nicole exclaimed with a dazzling smile. "We're going to go out and celebrate!"
"Nicole, I honestly have a lot of work to do tonight for…" Leia began slowly only to be cut off as she moved out of the way for Nicole to enter the apartment, carrying the bag.
"Leia Organa you are officially eighteen and able to drink here on Coruscant!" Nicole cried with mock anger. "Now I know your father probably wouldn't approve, but we are going out to party and get totally smashed!"
"Nicole…" Leia tried again unsuccessfully, because Nicole grabbed her hand and pulled her back to Leia's bedroom.
Nicole looked around almost distastefully at the plain furnishings and set the bag on Leia's bed. "Now you certainly can't go out looking like that! Is that your father's shirt? Oh well, you can just wear your birthday present! Go ahead and open it!"
Leia looked over at her friend distrustfully as she pulled away the tissue paper. Inside the bag was a very short red shimmer silk skirt and matching black and red shimmer silk top, as well as a pair of very tall bantha-skin boots and fishnet stockings. "You can't honestly mean for me to wear this!" Leia almost cried. "I could never go out in public like this!"
"You can and you will!" Nicole declared. "You forget I'm one of the few who has seen you in a bathing suit. You will look totally fabulous in that outfit."
Leia sighed and picked up the outfit. Nicole was a wonderful girl. She was one of the funniest people Leia knew, but she was also was one of the wildest people Leia knew. She'd been a total party girl at the university they both attended. She had been Leia's roommate and had always tried to get Leia to go with her. Leia slipped out of her pants and tried on the skirt. It was shorter than anything she had ever worn. Leia felt almost as if she were wearing nothing. Suddenly Leia remembered the stockings. She slipped off the skirt and then slipped on the stockings and put the skirt back on. It was definitely a very short skirt. Her fingers touched a good three inches of skin when she let her hands rest as her sides.
Leia quickly unbuttoned her shirt and stopped a moment to smell the faint scent of her father's cologne that always lingered on that particular shirt for some reason. The red and back shirt was a halter top and left several inches of her stomach exposed. Leia felt completely indecent and uncomfortable in the outfit, but Nicole had most likely spent a lot of money on the outfit and it would be very improper to refuse to wear it. The bantha-skin boots almost came up to her knees and made her several inched taller. That was the only part of the outfit Leia truly liked. She'd always hated being so short.
Leia stepped out of the bathroom and Nicole clapped her hands together in delight when she caught site of Leia. "You look amazing!" Nicole cried happily. "Now for your hair and makeup!"
When the girls finally walked out of the apartment almost an hour later, Leia's hair was in perfect spiral curls, her lips were dark red and shiny, and almost every inch of exposed skin was covered in glitter. Leia though she looked like some common cantina tramp, but Nicole assured her that she looked amazing. When they got to the cantina, Leia took one look inside and turned around to leave. "Not so fast," Nicole said, grabbing Leia's arm and leading her inside.
The cantina was dark and filled with smoke from thick fungus cigars. Humans and aliens alike were scattered around the room. Some looked friendly, but others were frightening. A doorway led back to the gambling rooms as well as the dance floor. The smell made Leia want to puke. Nicole didn't let Leia's arm go and led her up to the bar. "Two Correlian ales," Nicole told the droid behind the bar. Leia looked around uncertainly and followed Nicole's lead as she took a seat at the bar next to a rather dirty looking man with very unkempt blond hair, or it least would have been blond if he had taken a shower. He smelled horrible and Leia immediately turned away from him towards Nicole.
Suddenly she felt a hand next to her thigh turning the stool. "Hi there little girl," the man greeted leaning towards Leia, causing her to lean backwards. She turned to Nicole for help, but Nicole was already lost in the crowd somewhere. "How about you and me go somewhere private," he suggested with a lewd grin. "I'll make it well worth your while."
"No thank you," Leia said politely, sliding down off the stool. She tugged at the hem of her skirt, trying to will more length into it so it would cover a little more. "I really must be going now."
"Oh I don't think so little girl," the man said, grabbing Leia's hips and pulling her towards him. Leia fought the urge to cry out and struggled to get away from him. Suddenly a large, furry paw was in between her and the man. The hand shoved the man away from Leia. "I didn't know you had a wookie with you!" the man cried as he ran out of the bar.
Leia gave a sigh of relief and turned to thank the wookie. "Thank you very much," she said to the wookie. He growled something in return and Leia looked up at him apologetically. "I'm sorry; I don't understand what you are saying."
The wookie frowned a little, and then pushed Leia gently back towards the gambling room. He continued pushing her towards a man sitting at one of the Sabbacc tables and stopped in front of him. "I'm a little busy here Chewie," the man said, barely glancing at the wookie. "And I've told you a hundred times, I'm not interested in looking for another girl right now." Chewie growled something and the man laid his cards face down on the table. "You need a translator? You know not many people understand wookie buddy." Chewie growled something else and the man turned to look at Leia. "Chewie here says you are very welcome. Can I go back to my game now?"
The man picked up his cards and started to turn his attention back to the game, when Chewie growled something else. "If it's a wookie custom then you should be the one to do it!" Chewie growled something else. "I understand that you're a wookie and she's a lot shorter than you are, but that does not mean that I have to do it!" Chewie growled something else and the man groaned and turned to Leia. "Chewie says that it is customary among wookies that if a male saves a female from another male, the female has to dance with the male that saved her. But since you are a human female, to complete the ritual you have to dance with the man who he is serving a life debt to."
"Who is that?" Leia asked uncertainly, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Me," the man sighed, rising to his feet. "Chewie take my place. And if you loose any of my money, you have to clean the freshers."
Leia sighed and followed the man to the room where the dance floor was. "You have a name?" he asked as they walked into the room.
"Most people call me princess," she told hem, not wanting to give out her real name.
"So we're going by nicknames," the man smiled. "Well in that case, I'm Pirate."
Pirate led her out onto the dance floor and placed his hands on her hips. His touch sent little shivers down her spine, unlike the man who the wookie had saved her from.He started swaying to the music and that caused her to sway along as well. Pirate pulled her towards him and Leia wrapped her arms around his neck. Their movements got faster and more intimate. Suddenly the song ended and Leia looked up at Pirate. Her hair was a little messy and Pirate thought she looked even more beautiful than when he first saw her, if that was even possible. Slowly he lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers.
Her immediate reaction was to stiffen, but slowly she melted into his kiss, clinging to him frantically. She forgot everything but the taste of his lips and the feel of his hands on the bare skin of her stomach and the top of her back. She'd never before felt that kind of ecstasy in her life. His kisses were nothing like the ones she had received from boys on Alderaan. The kiss was passionate and demanding. But Leia's lungs soon began to burn from lack of oxygen and broke their kiss. She looked up at Pirate for a moment, and then slipped out of his arms and took shelter in the darkness of the bar.
Leia searched for Nicole among the tables. When she finally found her, she grabbed her friend's hand and pulled her out of the bar. "What was that all about?" Nicole asked angrily. "Didn't you see the man I was talking to? He was a total hottie!"
"We're leaving," was Leia's short reply as she almost marched away from the bar, wrapping her arms around herself as the cold evening air tingled against her skin.
"You met a guy didn't you?" Nicole asked joyfully. "You met a guy and you like him! So now you're going to run away."
"It's not like that at all," Leia reprimanded angrily.
Suddenly the door to the bar burst open and Pirate walked out. He went straight to Leia and kissed her again, softly bending her backwards. He quickly broke the kiss and then walked back to the bar without a second glance.
"You aren't going to tell anyone?" Leia asked worriedly. "Are you?"
"That just depends sweetheart," Han grinned mischievously.
"Depends on what?" Leia asked with a frown, the muscles in her arms and legs instinctively tightening as if she would spring up from the bed and out the door at any moment.
"It depends on if you ever kiss me like that again," Han replied, grinning even wider.
"Why you bantha-brained nerf herder!" Leia cried chucking her pillow at him angrily. Han dogged the pillow and then slipped out the door, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Luke smiled sheepishly and slipped out of the room after Han, tossing Leia her pillow as he went. Leia restored the pillow to its proper position, then flopped back against it, crossing her arms over her chest. "That stupid nerf herder," she grumbled angrily. "It was a good kiss though…"