(Author's Note: Yes, a canon I don't normally write. This is for Wendy Brune, my February requester. Thanks for bearing with the laptop chaos/slight delay! I am so sorry for the title, but hey, Wendy, you wanted light and fluffy!)

"Another Corellian ale." It was good to be home. The expanse of Treasure Ship Row was just outside, and rumor had it you could find anything there. Han hoped the princess wouldn't run into CorSec there, but he wasn't too concerned. The planetary security was relatively independent of the Empire, and he had told her to be back at the cantina in three hours. With any luck, she'd actually listen to him this time, although she did have that uncomfortable habit of ignoring his advice at the worst times.

To his left, a ratlike Chadra-Fan tinkered with something mechanical, and Han found his attention pulled that way. Puzzles bored him, normally, but there was something in the way the rodent was tinkering with the device that drew his attention. He set the ale down and watched the alien for a moment before talking:

"What's that there?" One hand waved to the Chadra-Fan's gadget.

Han wondered, only belatedly, if the alien could speak Basic, and was relieved when the other spoke intelligibly, although with the strange squealing, chittering noise that was so common when speaking Chadi, and so uncommon in any other language.

A blue light emanated from the device. Han stared as the light beamed straight into the edge of the bar. That wasn't what the Chadra Fan had told him the device would do, not at all. The last few dregs of ale lay heavily in his throat, and he swallowed it down. It was kind of like those lightsabers the kid's old uncle swung around, but it wasn't quite the same. Han wasn't sure how he knew that, but he knew that.

"Right," he said. "How much do you want for it?"

The price he paid felt surprisingly cheap for whatever it was. Feeling proud of his purchase, as if it were a rare device and he the owner of some great prize, Han tucked the blue-light gadget into a pocket and made his way down Treasure Ship Row. Hawkers barked their wares at him, but they were all scams and scum anyway, not worth his time. Here, someone was trying to sell him glitterstim; there, ridiculously overpriced fizzyglugs bore the Imperial seal, as if even here, in fiercely independent Corellia, that mark would have any real meaning to anyone but the Imperial agents who were scattered throughout CorSec, if the rumors were true.

But Han Solo knew better than to buy anything here. He'd grown up here. Even now, as he walked through the crowded alleyways, brushed his way past aliens and humans alike, he felt as if they all should recognize him, hero of the Alliance that he was.

Leia would sidle up to him, clad in that diaphanous little dress she wore, but her braids would be down, not tied in those tight coils, and she would tell him how clever he was, how she'd always known – but it was a stupid idea, and he didn't really care for her anyway. Couldn't possibly. Like the kid had said, a princess like her and a guy like him…

And where was the kid, anyway? Stranded on some backwater planet on some moon in the Outer Rim, no doubt, doing nothing of consequence, while he and Leia lay low and waited for the Alliance to contact them again. Ever since Luke had sent that single bolt down the center of the Death Star, they'd been ordered to keep a relatively low profile. Easy enough for him – he was no hero anyway – but harder for Princess Leia. Sooner or later she'd be breathing down his neck to get back to doing what she thought she did best, commanding troops and governing the future of the Alliance.

To Han Solo, it was all very dull. He toyed with the Chadra-Fan's little blue light as he walked. It wasn't anything he was used to, and he thought that strange. He'd encountered just about everything on Corellia – so what was this?

Leia stared at the gadget, a smile playing about her mouth. She knew, he knew, and she glanced at him, her eyes shining. "You mean you really don't know?"

He shook his head, feeling like an idiot. He couldn't show it, though. She'd smirk at him infuriatingly, and he couldn't have that. He felt his jaw tighten, but he managed to get out a noncommittal, "Uh-uh."

Leia took the small device, turning it off and then on again. The blue light glinted in her hand. "I've seen this before, though I never actually used one myself." She paused, a bit of sadness flashing over her face, and murmured, "I won't get to now, either. At least, not at home."

Something on Alderaan – but what? Han gazed at the light and then up at Leia. "So what is it?"

"Something you'll see all over the galaxy." Leia grinned at him, a little of her humor returning as she thrust the small device back into his hand. "We use it for herding nerfs. And now you can too. The cattle see the light and then they know where to come in for pasture." She turned on a heel, a flutter of her gown, and added as she went, "You wouldn't make a good nerf-herder, though. Not nearly scruffy enough."

Han could only stare as Princess Leia walked out of the Falcon's cockpit, and groaned: I'm never going to live this down.