Author's Note: This is the second edition of Flying Solo. No real difference from the first, just with fewer author notes.

Disclaimer: I am but a humble Jedi master. I don't own Star Wars.

Master Skywalker sighed. It had been a long day, and he was just sitting down to a highly anticipated meal. He propped his head up with his hands, ignoring the usual no elbows on the table rule, and glanced at the two Padawans seated on either side of him.

The first was a boy. The thin braid was just visible behind his left ear, a piece of dirty blonde hair that ran down his neck to his shoulder. He yawned loudly, stretching his arms and pushing his chair back from the table. His sister, a girl with dark brown hair that ran halfway down her back, rolled her eyes at her twin brother's lack of self-control.

"What?" he said through clenched teeth.

"I didn't say anything!" protested his sister. The young man muttered again, but then turned his eyes to the piping hot plate of meatloaf his mother was placing in front of him. Padme knew she was risking her job as senator by agreeing to stay with her husband and children on Tatooine. If anyone found out that Anakin had broken the Jedi code, he could be banished from the order, not to mention lose his position on the council.

But Padme was an incredibly stubborn person, and Anakin had no luck convincing her to leave the children in his care alone. He had tried everything in his power to change her mind; still she was always there to oversee things. It all worked out for the benefit of the whole family. They loved having her around the house and up until now no problems had come up.

As they settled down to eat, Padme served her husband some of the vegetables and casually voiced the silent fear that had been feeding on the Skywalker family's minds ever since they found out about the council meeting scheduled for the next week. "I still haven't found a pilot who can take us to Coruscant."

This was followed by more silence. Luke, the boy, decided to drown his growing dread in an extra large helping of meatloaf but only succeeded in nearly choking. Anakin himself pretended to be highly interested in one of the blue tassels hanging off of the edge of his place mat. Leia, Padme and Anakin's daughter simply gave her mother a sympathetic glance.

It seemed as though the Skywalker family would never find a capable pilot for the journey. Whomever they hired would have to be willing to take extra precautions to keep their identities safe. They would have to drop Anakin at the council meeting, loop back around and deliver the twins to two separate locations, and finally escort Padme to her senatorial quarters.

This was risky business even without the fear of discovery. During the Clone Wars, many security droids were sacrificed to protect the Senate, so the lack of privacy would be less than before. Nonetheless, it was hard to keep their lives a secret. Leia and Luke had been apprenticed to two different masters. In public, they had to refer to their father as Master Skywalker. Padme's fellow senators had begun to wonder why she was taking such a long holiday.

Suddenly, there came a loud knocking from the entrance hall. A strange howling noise, another crash, and several muffled curses shortly followed this. Unfortunately, the swearing wasn't muffled enough, and the twins were able to make out a bit of what he, for it was a man, was saying. Leia blushed and avoided her parents' eyes; Luke became engrossed in his dinner.

"I'll get it," announced Anakin, getting up from the table.

"I'll come with you," Padme said, following him. Luke and Leia silently made their way into the entrance hall behind their parents. They could just hear the man speaking again, his voice becoming louder as he approached.

"I hear you guys are looking for a pilot," he began. "Well, lucky for you I'm the best around. Got the fastest ship in the galaxy. Customized her myself." The howling started again; the twins exchanged nervous glances. "Okay, so I had a little help from my crew," he confessed. Luke craned his neck to locate the source of the howling, but it was to no avail. "Chewie, you stay here," the man's voice said again, and whatever Chewie was made a noise that must've signified approval. Leia moved forward a little to get a better look at the new candidate, who from what she'd heard seemed skilled but overconfident.

Now, Leia was a well-trained Jedi. She had developed the ability to keep all of her relationships professional, and so often held her true feelings under lock and key. Naturally, she applied this to the pilot who had just entered her living room. "Name's Han Solo," he was saying to her parents. "I can fly you to Coruscant and every stop along the way…for a price, of course."

Leia, for the first time in her life, didn't know where her loyalties lay.

For some time, Leia would think her first impression of him was that he was rather ordinary. But nestled safely in her heart were her true feelings. Although she'd never admit it, in reality she thought he was incredibly handsome. This was, of course, in comparison to the other men she'd seen on Tatooine and in the Jedi temple: her master, her brother, and her father.

"Nice place you got here," he commented, looking around their house. His eyes swept over the furniture, nearing the place where Luke and Leia were watching eagerly. As he glanced across the far wall, he met a pair of intense brown eyes: Leia's. Luke gulped; he knew his parents would've preferred it if they'd finished their dinner and left their parents to discuss business with this Han Solo in peace.

But Leia was too distracted to be afraid. Han was still staring directly at her, and despite her training she couldn't bring herself to break away from his gaze. By now Padme had spotted her children. "Alright, you two," she said, bringing Leia out of her daze. "I know you guys are going to want to meet our next applicant. Plus, we need all the help we can get to plan for our trip to Coruscant. How would you like to be our panel of expert judges?"

"Sweet!" Luke yelled, jumping up energetically. Padme led him into the kitchen with Anakin in tow and Leia lingering behind, telling herself it had nothing to do with the perfect stranger who still hadn't left yet. She allowed him to go ahead, but Han refused and once again the two of them made eye contact. In that fleeting moment, he couldn't help but notice that she was, in his opinion, beautiful. Not knowing why, he smirked at her, and then, he winked.

It took a few seconds for Leia to fully process what had just gone on. In those few seconds, Leia's face slowly contorted into a bitter expression of hate and indignation. With an outraged cry of "Well!" Leia forced her way into the kitchen, purposefully knocking into him without so much as an apology.