Originally posted on Tumblr for Scoundress Saturdays. Prompt: "It was a 4-cups-of-coffee-before-9-am kind of day."
Also, Leia is quite the pottymouth here, so if that's not your thing, may want to skip this one.
It was a four-cups-of-kaffe-before-morning-briefing kind of day. But unfortunately for Leia, the kaffe machine in the mess was being…less than cooperative.
After three fruitless attempts to get the machine to respond at all, it first claimed to be out of water (not possible, as Leia had herself just put in water not two minutes ago), then limped through the brewing cycle, finally filling the metal carafe with a clear liquid tinted with just a hint of brown.
"Karking hells!" Leia exclaimed, slamming the carafe back onto the burner with a clang. This was the last damned thing she needed after ending up on the bridge of the Death Star every time she'd closed her eyes last night.
She braced herself on the counter on her forearms, taking a deep breath and trying to collect herself before another attempt. Okay. It's just kaffe, not a speeder crash. Get it together, Leia.
She poured her mug of brownish water down the sink and turned back to the machine, opening up the filter to check for a blockage. "Kriffing piece of nerf shit," she muttered as she worked. The filter got stuck when she attempted to put it back, and she switched to a series of Alderaani curses as she attempted to force it back into place.
Finally, she'd checked everything, made sure the machine had both water and ground kaffe, and turned it on again. After a pause, it sputtered to life, then made a horrible scraping noise and began dribbling an unbrewed mix of water and kaffe grounds out the sides.
"Sithspit!" Leia cried, rushing to shut it off. "Smegging rotted useless pile of—"
"Bantha poodoo?" suggested a voice behind her with a chuckle.
Shavit. Well, at least his delicate sensibilities won't be offended, since he doesn't have any. Leia turned around. "What are you doing here?"
Han grinned at her. "Pickin' up some new swears, looks like." He nodded his head toward the chiller. "And we're out of blue milk, so was gonna grab a little before the breakfast crowd gets up."
Leia arched a brow at him, putting her hands on her hips.
"Don't give me that look. I'm the reason you even have blue milk. You can spare me enough for Chewie's kaffe."
Leia shrugged. He did have a point there.
Han's grin had faded a bit, and he got that look he sometimes had, like he was studying her face. "Need some? Kaffe, I mean?" he asked.
She threw a glance at the broken machine, and he waved her away. "No, no. That piece of shit's toast. C'mon, I'll have Chewie make a fresh pot. Nice and strong, just the way you like it."
It had been some time since Leia had been on the Falcon first thing in the morning; they hadn't been on a lot of early-morning missions together recently. Come to think of it, ever since Luke's command duties had heated up, they hadn't been on many missions together recently at all. Strange, Leia thought, and tucked that little realization away to think about later.
The smell of rich, strong kaffe wafting from the Falcon's galley immediately put Leia in a better mood, and she was ready to hug Chewie all over again after she finally took a sip. She sat back at the dejarik table, cradling her mug as if it were a precious artifact and smiling contentedly.
Han poured his own mug and slid in next to her. "If I'd have known it was this easy to get you to smile like that, I'd've invited you over for kaffe a long time ago," he said with a grin. "You really needed this, didn't you?"
She nodded. "I did."
"Bad night?" he asked. He was studying her face again, though she was pretty sure he was attempting to pretend otherwise.
She nodded again. "Didn't sleep well," she said, not wanting to elaborate.
The quiet got a bit uncomfortable for a moment, and then Han changed the subject. "So, you really gave that kaffe machine the what for."
She laughed softly. "Yeah, not one of my finer moments."
"I don't know," Han said, leaning back comfortably as he sipped from his mug, "I was impressed. A princess who can cuss like a spacer."
Leia gave him a small smile over her mug. "How much of that did you hear?"
"Eh…you called it a piece of nerf shit, then said some things I didn't catch. Alderaani?"
She nodded.
"What did you say?"
"Umm…I think the first part was basically your standard shit, fuck, goddess-damned son of a motherless goat…"
"Son of a what?"
Leia smiled. "It's an expression. It doesn't translate well into Basic."
"Anything else?"
"I might have called it a cunt."
Han put down his mug, threw back his head, and began laughing out loud, a full-throated laugh that Leia realized was one of her favorite things about her Corellian friend. I did that, she couldn't help thinking.
"Ah, Princess, you really do cuss like a spacer," he said, recovering. "I love it."
"Well, when on Onderon…" she said, quoting the start of an old expression.
"I ain't a Onderonian, so don't blame me for your potty mouth," he said, taking another sip. "We've barely been in the same system lately, anyway. You're always off runnin' missions with the Rogues. Was startin' to take it personally."
Leia gave him a startled look. "I was told you only wanted to do supply runs for a while. Something about keeping up your smuggling contacts."
Han scowled and rolled his eyes. "Well, that explains the Rieekan thing."
"Rieekan thing?"
"General comes to me, couple days ago. Wants to know why I turned down that trip to Akiva. Seemed kinda pissed off about it, actually. I told him what trip, because I never got asked. Then he apologized to me."
Leia took another sip of kaffe. "It was supposed to happen after you got back from that supply run, but then all the sudden it got moved up." Her mouth was set in a firm line.
Han sighed lightly, then smiled at her. "Y'know, if I didn't know better, I'd think someone was trying to keep you and me from being alone together."
"It does look that way, doesn't it?" she agreed quietly. She smiled back at him, but underneath she could feel her anger rising at the colleagues who had engineered this—one colleague in particular, she suspected.
"Goddess-damned son of a motherless goat," Han swore, and she laughed.
They drank their kaffe quietly for a few moments, then Han got up to refill his mug. "Another cup?" he asked.
Leia started to look at her chrono, but thought better of it. No matter the time, High Command could wait.
"Please," she said with a smile.