a.n.: This story is actually based on my real-life experiences and it came to me the other day after something my dad said. I thought back to the times when my dad would tell me stories about how I would always dress myself in the morning in the weirdest outfits and he would just let me. I thought it would make a cute little father/daughter story of a sorts. Hope you enjoy it and please read n review! thanx!

The Outfit

"Daddy!"

Han jerked his head towards the direction where his daughter's voice was coming from her bedroom down the hall. He groaned as he got up out of his chair to see what Jaina wanted this time. He sighed and wished, yet again, that Leia were here instead of at some political meeting, leaving him at home to get the kids ready for school. It wasn't that he didn't love his children, far from it. He loved his children more than anything and would do whatever he could to keep them safe and happy. But he just didn't care for some of the daily morning tasks that he was left to supervise: make breakfast, wake the children, feed them, send them off to get ready for school, clean up breakfast, help the children finish getting ready, take them to school. He loved being able to spend time with his kids and normally, everything was fine. But sometimes, like now thought, there would be a problem that he would have to resolve. Sometimes it was trying to get the kids up, getting them to eat breakfast, helping to search for missing articles of clothing, or stopping the twins from starting a fight and accusing each other of who stole what. He was often confused as to what to do to fix the situation and it was then that he wished even more that Leia were there to use her political savvy in solving the problem. But she wasn't here and he would just have to handle things on his own.

He reached Jaina's bedroom door and could hear her moving about, tossing things around the room, trying to get ready for school. He opened the door and could see her dashing around her room, throwing clothes on the floor as she searched for something to wear. Han smiled and chuckled quietly as he watched his six-year-old daughter through her doorway. She stopped as she sensed his presence and turned to look at him. She smiled and ran towards him, arms open wide. He opened his armsas she fell into them and hugged her tightly. She looked up into his eyes, a bright smile on her face and he smiled right back at her.

"Morning Daddy," Jaina quipped eagerly, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Morning sweetheart," Han replied, still smiling happily, "did you call for me?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I did Daddy."

"Well, what did you want?"

"Um, I wanted to know if I could wear this outfit to school today." With that, Jaina dragged her father over to her bed to show her father what she had picked out to wear for the day. As he got closer to her bad,Han made a face at what he saw, but was careful to make sure Jaina didn't see his expression. On her bed lay a bright orange t-shirt with a picture of a Bantha on it, a small pair of flower pants, a pink sock, an orange sock, and a pair of mismatched shoes. Jaina turned her face back up toward her father, vying for a response. Han turned his face from the sight on the bed and back towards his daughter's awaiting face. Why isn't Leia here? he thought once again, for perhaps the thousandth time in three days.

"Hmm…" Han wasn't sure what to say to his daughter. He didn't want to upset her but he knew that she really wanted to wear the clothes that she had so fervently and carefully picked out. "Are you sure you want to wear this?" Han asked, hoping his daughter would change her mind as she so often did.

"Uh-huh." Jaina enthusiastically.

"Do you really want to wear this outfit today, and not any other day, like some day when your mother might be home?" Han questioned hopefully.

"Uh-uh." Jaina shook her head.

"Well…" Han smiled, "I guess it's okay with me. After all, you are a big girl and you are perfectly capable of picking out your own clothes, right?"

Jaina grinned brightly at her father, "Yep."

"Well then big girl, I say it's about time you put on your 'special' outfit and finish getting ready for school. What do you say?"

"Okay Daddy," Jaina enthusiastically obeyed. She reached up to give her father a kiss on the cheek and then turned around to focus her attention on her outfit. Han breathed a deep sigh of relief as he turned to leave her room. He knew that Leia wouldn't have wanted her daughter to go out in public like that and he had a feeling that when Jaina got to school, there would be many parents looking at him with a critical eye because they couldn't believe that he would actually dress his daughter like that and allow her to go out in public. He knew that they would believe him to be incapable of dressing his daughter in the morning and that maybe that job was better left to her mother. But he knew exactly what he was doing. He loved his daughter and he wanted to make her happy. She had an independent spirit and enjoyed doing things on her own and he felt like he needed to give her room to do as she wanted. He wanted to give her the room she needed to do this and to grow and if doing so made him look like an incompetent fool, then so be it. He didn't care what others thought of him, he only wanted his daughter to be happy and be able to express herself. Although he was fearful about what Leia might do to him once she found what he had allowed Jaina to wear, the fear wasn't as overpowering as the sense of happiness and joyfulness that he felt emanating from Jaina and that joy made him feel good about the decision that he had made. After all, you're only young once and when she gets older, he thought, she'll have to do things on her own and make her own life-changing decisions and she will worry about what people will think of her. Better to let her have this one moment where she doesn't have to worry about anything and can just be herself. With that thought, Han headed towards the kitchen to finish cleaning up and to get ready to tackle the long, arduous day ahead.