Author's Note: I should have been studying for quite a large test I'm having tomorrow, but I popped in ESB instead and fast-forwarded to this scene (- cheers for self - Dad can't hide SW from me for long!). I may be looking too hard (obsession), but anyone else notice this tiny moment between Han and Leia? It's the scene right after Leia kissed Luke in the medical ward (blegh).

Took the last line from the movie's preceding scene. My muse really is churning out these one-shots, eh? Review!

Nothing To Do With It

"Princess. We have a visitor."

The General's voice echoed across the quiet command room, and it was directed at the Princess, but Han was in front of the radar board anyways. He faintly registered Leia clambering as quickly as possible down the icy steps (they really should make those smaller), but he kept his eyes focused on the machinery that the technician was adjusting.

"Picked up something outside the base's Zone Twelve moving east," Rieekan explained, pointing to demonstrate his point. Han felt Leia arrive to his left, although she kept a cautious distance.

Both haven't spoken or registered the other's existance since the little incident with Luke in the medical ward. Leia, he suspected, was slightly embarassed; Han knew for sure that he was downright as angry and jealous as hell. Which sort of scared him.

"It's metal," said the man in front of him suddenly, Chewie arriving silently behind Leia and Han.

"Then it couldn't be one of those creatures," Leia said quickly. Ruled out a Wampa.

"Could be a speeder," Han offered, taking a tiny glance at Leia. She was concentrating on the radar board, a light frown casting a disturbing ripple in her otherwise smooth face. She was avoiding his gaze, staring hard at the data in front of her, and Han restrained himself from stopping in midsentence and just staring. "One of ours," he finished a half second later.

She was sure his eyes were on her, but when she looked up his eyes were nowhere near where she thought they were previously (or hoped they were previously - same thing). He really should stay, she decided, looking at the concern in his (gorgeous) eyes. Although she was trying to cover for herself in the South Passage by saying the Alliance needed him, it didn't make it any more false. Maybe she wasn't covering for herself. She hoped she wasn't. Leia was a woman involved in trying to overthrow the tyrannical Empire, and yet she was more preoccupied with her image within the base rather than the hate she was recieving from the imperials.

Funny, because she usually resented the 'ice princess' name she had acquired yet she tried her best in maintaining it. No feeling, no attachments, no hurt (it was quite logical, really).

Before he could catch her staring, like he's developed an uncanny knack for doing, she resumed her concentration back onto the the data.

"No - wait - " the man at the controls started.

Han shifted uncomfortably, raising his eyes from the radar to the frosted ceiling. The princess definitely was just looking at him, and he made a move to swivel around at her before catching himself and staring somewhere in her direction. But not at her. Because he didn't need to look at her again. Since he was leaving anyway, he would forget about her soon. Right?

"There's something very weak coming through - "

The radio started fuzzing, and they all heard a distinct robotic dialect coming through. Han, well-versed in languages as he was, had no idea where the hell that came from.

"Sir, I'm fluent in six million forms of communication," came the oh-so-proper voice of Goldenrod. Han appeared faintly annoyed - as he did ever when the driod made himself known - and turned his head to peer at him. "This signal is not used by the Alliance. It could be an imperial code."

Han listened to the code for a few more minutes. It harsh, not like the beeps and whirs by astromech droids, and it was definitely communicating something.

"It isn't friendly, whatever it is," he observed, looking wary. "C'mon Chewie, let's check it out." He started walking out, the Wookiee following lightly and quietly behind him.

Leia looked for a moment at his retreating back. She knew he was cautious about the Rebellion's safety. His mercenary attitude was diminishing.

'I had nothing to do with it.'