Yes, it's a Han and Leia fic in which neither Han nor Leia actually appear. On the way back from a mission, Luke and Chewbacca discuss their friends. Prompt: "I really need a new job."

In Translation

Luke found Chewbacca alone in the cockpit, again.

"Hiding out?" he asked, and Chewie made a sympathetic growl that Luke took to mean, yes. Maybe my Shyriiwook is getting better, Luke thought. Or maybe some things didn't really need translation.

"Here," he offered, holding out a mug of kaffe, "thought you might want this. In case we're in here for a while."

Chewie snorted and accepted the mug with a grateful grunt, gesturing to Luke to sit down. Being careful of his own kaffe, Luke sat down in the pilot's chair with a sigh.

Four hours back to base.

"Well, it could be worse, I guess," Luke said, sipping his kaffe thoughtfully. "They could still be yelling at each other."

[Are they talking]? asked Chewie.

"They were when I left," Luke said. "It's…awkward, though. Like they went from fighting to—agreeing with each other in a really angry way."

Chewie nodded thoughtfully. [Stubborn], he growled.

"That's for sure." Despite the awkwardness of their situation, Luke was quietly pleased at how much of Chewie's speech he could understand. "They both always have to be so damned right," he observed. "But they'll work it out, I guess. They always do."

Chewie gave a whuff of agreement.

Luke chuckled. "If Wes were here, he'd be upping the odds on them right about now. I could clean up."

[Not if I clean up first], Chewie shot back, and Luke had to laugh. He didn't actually participate in most of Janson's bets about Han and Leia, but if Chewie did…well, perhaps he should reconsider.

Luke took another drink of kaffe, "Do you think they know?" he wondered.

[About the bets? Cub knows], Chewie said.

"Leia knows, too, I think. I'm a little afraid to ask." He sipped thoughtfully. "But no, I mean, do you think they know about—" Luke made a little hand motion.

[That they are meant to…]? Chewie was speaking, but Luke didn't understand the end of what he said.

"I'm sorry—?"

[That they love each other], Chewie said, simplifying the phrase and speaking more slowly this time.

"Yes, that. Do you think they know?"

Chewie considered that for a long moment, sipping his kaffe, then nodded. [They are afraid to know], he growled. [That is why they tear apart and come back together. If they fight they do not have to know. If they do not know, they do not have to lose. But they know.]

"Yeah. I think you're right." Chewie was starting to sound suspiciously like a wise Jedi master, or at least what Luke imagined a Jedi master to sound like, if they commented on such things. He wasn't sure why he'd never noticed that before. Perhaps because he hadn't had this lengthy of a conversation with Chewie alone before. "So what do we do?"

[We…] Chewie said something Luke didn't catch at all. At Luke's confused look, the Wookiee pantomimed speaking, then stiffened his arms and moved as if he were channeling Threepio.

"We have to become Threepio? Oh. I see. You mean translate." Chewie whuffed in confirmation. "Translate what?"

[They think it is about a fight, what they have. Or about mating or not mating. But we know better. We see better], Chewie said.

Everyone else on base seemed to think that way, Luke knew. That's what most of the bets were about: whether Han and Leia would kill each other or burn the base down with their, er, mating, as Chewie called it. But Chewie's words (growls?) reminded Luke of what he did see from his friends. All the times he'd seen Leia defend Han to High Command when he wasn't there. The thermal mug of kaffe Luke recognized from the Falcon that Leia often had in her office when she was working late. The way Leia and Han interacted during a mission, almost communicating without words. The way Han would always bring back Leia's favorite foods when he went on a supply run. The way they looked at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking.

"I've tried to…suggest that," Luke admitted. "To both of them. But I haven't gotten any farther than that. We can't make them see it if they don't want to."

[They are afraid to see], Chewie said again. [It is our job to translate until they can.]

Han and Leia's discussion in the corridor was becoming more animated now, although it no longer sounded hostile. Frankly, it sounded like…flirting.

Luke sighed. "I really need a new job."

[You and me both], Chewie agreed.