A sweet one-shot based on a true happening in the household. ;)
Thanks for reading!
Out The Window
By Cinquain
Leia Organa smoldered silently to herself, forcing herself to keep the tears down. She grabbed her purse and stuffed her datapad into it hastily.
"Where are you going?"
She grabbed her trench coat and buttoned it up quickly. Avoiding her daughter's eyes, she answered shortly.
"I'm going to do some work."
"Oh. But you just made dinner..."
"I'm not hungry."
Jaina blinked and turned away, hurt. Momentary guilt made Leia turn around and kiss her on the forehead.
"It's my anniversary today." she murmured under her breath, shouldering her purse.
"Does dad know?" the nine year old asked hesitantly.
"I don't know."
"Sorry." Jaina backed off, and all Leia could manage was a nod as she closed the door behind her.
As she walked down the hallway and pressed the button for the elevator she wondered why she was so affected by this. So what. He forgot. Not like she needed him or anything. She had gone through far worse of a crisis than this.
And yet, she felt so vulnerable as tears forced their way down her cheeks. She wiped them away impatiently, focusing on the road ahead until she got to the office complex. She kept her profile low as she checked in and finally let herself go when she closed the office door and collapsed on the swiveling chair.
Why? Why did he have to make her so susceptible to all of her emotions? And yet.
She remembered how Bail had once come into her room when she was younger to find her screaming her head off out the window at how unfair everything was, the boring Academy, her overbearing aunts, and how one of her pittins had died too young.
He had taken her wrists, gently, and looked straight into her tear-brimmed eyes.
"A princess needs to take control of her emotions." Bail chided softly.
"But-but-" she mumbled, eyes clearing. Her stubborn side began to show as she searched for a way to be right. "What about you and Mom? You said you did crazy stuff for her a long time ago. That's not taking control of your emotions." She leaned back, crossing her arms with a satisfied smirk on her face.
Her father only shook his head, smiling to himself.
"When you find the one person for you, Leia, all control goes out the window."
"What window?"
"The window of common sense."
And now she sat at her desk, three decades later, realizing how true he had been. Hoth, Jabba's Palace, Endor, Dathomir, Tatooine, so much to show of their love.
"Sweetheart?"
She took a shuddering breath but stayed silent.
Han Solo emerged into the single light above her desk and spotted her small form leaned in the chair. He approached hesitantly, trying to scan her emotions on her face. She kept it completely blank.
"Hey honey," he said slowly. "Are you okay?"
"Am I okay?" her voice was a deadly soft, calm tone. Han winced, shuffling backwards fearfully. "Am I okay!? Hell no, I'm not!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Jaina told me, I'm sorry." he burst out earnestly. "...Happy anniversary?"
"Happy kriffing anniversary to you too, you lazy careless bastard!" she positively snarled, and Han fell to his knees, begging for forgiveness. He was, for some reason, deathly afraid of his wife on these occasions. Maybe because he was becoming so used to her loving side nowadays.
Meanwhile Leia was in turmoil. Anger and sorrow and hysteria and love and even some urge to laugh was making her head spin, but she resorted to her old method; beat him down with words.
"I...I got something for you." he muttered after a moment of thick silence.
"You...did?" she was completely caught off guard. "You didn't forget?"
"I-well-I did. It's just...well. It's at home." If he weren't up to his neck in hot water he would have said 'Let's go home and I'll show you' instead. But of course, he didn't want to risk his head off his shoulders.
"O-okay then..." she mumbled, about as undone as Han was. They drove back home in silence.
Leia opened the door to their apartment to see three grinning faces and a big, painty banner.
"Happy Anniversary!" the children chorused, and Leia couldn't keep herself from smiling at the handprints and starships and the Millennium Falcon around a (misspelled) Happy Annaversaree!
"I told Jaina we should have painted flowers and hearts, but she painted the fighters instead." Jacen said with pursed lips. Han laughed, picking his son up and twirling him around in what probably was immense relief.
"It's beautiful," Leia praised, and caught Anakin before he could make her blouse painted with little handprints. "Ach-Anakin!"
"I did the hands." he said proudly. She couldn't keep back a chortle.
"I see that, Ani." she nodded. "We'd better get all of you cleaned up. Where did you make the mess?"
"What mess?" Jacen said innocently, slowly inching in front of Anakin's bedroom door. Han leapt up, hands curled into claws.
"We know you guys made a mess!" he growled with a grin on his face. He advanced jokingly on the children, who screamed with delight and scrambled into Anakin's room. "Tell me where! Open the door, you little tauntauns!"
Leia watched, an inexplicable smile spreading over her face. No matter how much she fought it, she really loved her man.
As if reading her mind, he turned around, breaking his monster alias for a moment and winking suggestively as he pointed a thumb at the master bedroom door.
She smiled gratefully and did so, listening to the sound of her husband rounding up kids and herding them into the bathroom to clean up.
Later, when everything and everyone was scrubbed and washed and cleaned and put away to their shelves (or beds), Han entered the bedroom with a goofy grin on his face.
"So was that your gift? Getting the kids to make a banner for you?"
"Oh no...there's more."
"Thank you," the princess sighed as he got under the covers next to her.
"Oh, princess," he said with a smirk and another wink. "Don't thank me already. You haven't even gotten the real treat yet."
Cute, huh?
Reviews puh-leaaase!
(Oh, and the sequel for Invisible Threats is coming soon. Stay tuned, friends.)
