Three things Han Solo hates.
By TooOldForThis
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or the basic story. It was created by George and is now owned by Disney. But thanks for letting me play here for fun.
There were three things that Han Solo hated :
1. Someone disparaging his ship
2. Someone questioning his piloting skills
3. Someone telling him what to do.
The Princess had done all three, constantly. And yet, he was still here.
Sometimes he wondered why. Okay, alot of times, he wondered why. Sure, he'd come back to help Luke with that whole Death Star thing. But that wasn't to help the Rebellion, that was to help Luke. The kid was so naive. Something in Han's gut couldn't just fly away and let him go headlong into what surely was a suicide run. So he'd turned the Falcon around and come back. Who would have thought that Luke would actually blow the thing up?
Then there was the celebration and then they wanted to give him a medal... Really, how often does a smuggler get a medal. So he'd stuck around for that as well. But he'd refused to officially sign up, despite Leia's insistence that he should.
Finally, just to get her off his back, he's suggested that he might be able to help them out. But it would be more of a business arrangement. He could smuggle in supplies for the Rebellion and they would pay him for each run he made. He'd given back that reward money, only had 2,000 credits from what the old man had paid him before they'd left Tatooine, and still needed to pay off Jabba. This was a way to get the credits he needed, get Leia off his back about joining up, and keep an eye on the kid. Besides, he'd make more this way than on that pittance they paid their recruits. A brilliant idea, really.
And it had worked out pretty well too. Except for Leia. She hadn't given up on trying to get him to join up. And she continued to make fun of his ship, his skills and worst of all, kept trying to tell him what to do. So why, oh why, did he continue to stick around.
If he was a sentimental person, he might have said that it was because he felt at home here. He felt needed, not just another pilot to be used and discarded as some crime lord saw fit. He liked the other pilots, enjoyed the camaraderie (At least they all seemed to give him the respect he deserved.) And it was nice to not have to worry about getting double crossed or where the next job was going to come from. Plus, it meant he didn't have to run spice. These supplies were at least needed . Of course, he'd never admit any of that. This was purely a business arrangement that happened to be working to his advantage and he would argue that with anyone.
Of course, the only person ever really argued with was Leia. But, those arguments had actually become fun.
At first, he did it just to defend himself. He couldn't just let her make fun of the Falcon and not retaliate. And he definitely did NOT need some princess telling him what to do.
Then the sparring became a bit of a game. She gave as good as she got. So, it became a challenge to see if he could get the last word in, see if he could best her in an argument and leave her speechless; because she was rarely speechless.
Once he'd accomplished that, he found he knew just what buttons to push to get her riled up or flustered. He thought that she secretly enjoyed their verbal battles as well. He figured because so many others just responded 'Yes, Princess' to whatever she said, that arguing with him was enjoyable.
Somewhere along the line though, he found that there was more to it than just a game. He wanted her to think better of him, wanted her to be impressed with him. He wanted HER! He started flirting more just to see her reaction. He figured that she had feelings that she wasn't letting on because of the way he could get a blush out of those cheeks; the way she got totally flustered when he made insinuations about the two of them together. And he found himself thinking about doing lots of things with the Princess other than arguing.
So here he was, three years later. He'd had enough to pay off Jabba for the last year (IF Jabba would take it at this point). He should have left long ago, but he hadn't. He'd threatened to... many times... basically anytime Leia had started in on him again and he didn't have a good comeback. But he never did. And he was beginning to realize that it was probably all because of her. That he didn't want to leave HER.
But now, he really felt like he had to, not for his sake, but for hers.
The run in with the bounty hunter on Ord Mantell had been too close. Leia was in danger just by being near him. He had to get these bounty hunters off his tail and the only way to do that was to get Jabba to take the price off his head. And the only way to do that was to go see Jabba himself , pay him handsomely, and hope that he caught him in a forgiving mood. His chances weren't too good, but if he didn't, he could pretty much guarantee that either he'd end up dead or someone else that he cared about would.
There was no way out of it. He had to leave and he had to do it now before something really bad happened. Despite himself, he cared and cared more than he'd ever admit.
Kest! He realized that he had one more thing to add to his list of things he hated:
4. He hated leaving.