Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except the mistakes as this is un-beta'd.

Different Galaxy, Same Old Story

Chapter Two

"Han, my man, where have you been?" Lando inquired as he made his way back to the main area of the bar. "I've been having to keep them entertained all by myself, not that I'm complaining." Lando winked and turned to the two girls from earlier that were sitting at the bar. He gave them a little wave and right on que they both began giggling. "These girls are seriously up for it."

"They're all yours Lando. Knock yourself out."

"What are you talking about?" He followed Han's gaze to Leia who was, at that moment in time, downing two different shots on the dance floor with Winter. "Damn. You got it bad, don't ya brother?"

"Shut up."

"Not that I blame you. That is a serious piece of ass…"

"I said shut up!" Han tore his gaze away from the dancefloor and turned to Lando shoving him away, almost violently. Lando held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Alright, alright. I'll leave you to your hopeless pining. I'll see you later. Well hopefully I won't." He winked once again, before sauntering over to the women at the bar and throwing an arm over each of their shoulders. "Ladies, looks like it's just you and me."

At the same moment Wedge passed Han on his way to join the others and handed him a drink. Han guessed it was an apology for interrupting whatever had been going on earlier; he took it wordlessly and downed it in one swallow, before following Wedge onto the dancefloor.

By this time of night the bar was packed and Han was soon completely surrounded and pushed up against dozens of different people. Leia clocked his arrival before he'd made it to the group and had turned her back to him, continuing to laugh and dance with Winter. She wasn't a bad dancer, Han was thinking to himself as Luke suddenly lurched into his arms and hugged him tightly.

"I love you man." He slurred in Han's ear. Well at least one of them had finally caught up with the squadron boys. Han pushed him away lightly.

"Sure you do."

"I do. You're like the closest thing I have to brother, seriously. This is not just the drink talking. You're such a good guy but like you try to hide it and I don't why you do that. Why do you do that? And I know you like Leia…"

"What?!" Han hissed, interrupting his drunk ramblings. Leia turned slightly at the noise but Winter pulled her back round, whispering something in her ear before throwing her head back in exaggerated laughter. Okay maybe two of them had managed to get caught up with the squadron boys.

"You deny it and you're so mean to her…" Luke was barely stopping for breath now. "It's like the schoolboy thing you know where you push over and pull the hair of the girl you like. That's what you're doing with my sister. But I see the way you look at her when you think no one is watching you."

"Whatever you say Luke."

"I approve of you know. I mean the real, nice you not the cynical asshole thing you do. I approve of you. I think she probably likes you too but you can never really tell with Leia…"

With those drunken words of wisdom Luke turned and walked off to join Wedge and the others a few feet away. This left Han with Leia, Winter and the new boyfriend Tycho. The latter two now entirely wrapped up with one and other once more; grinding against each other as if there was no one else in the room. Han caught Leia's eye and raised his eyebrows slightly in the pair's direction. This Winter really was a lot looser, or perhaps drunker, than he had expected.

Leia's expression remained neutral. She moved to walk past Han and join Luke but a gentle hand on her arm stopped her. His arm encircled her waist, pulling her into him and rubbing soft circles on her back through the thin material of the dress. Han began to move them to the music. His movements were slow, cautious, as if he was waiting for her to shove him off. She didn't. She remained looking up at him with that annoyingly calm stare.

Han dipped his head and kissed the side of her neck. This finally granted him a reaction as she sighed heavily into ear, one hand finding its way into his hair exactly as it had before. It was amazing how intimate and private the middle of a crowded dancefloor could feel. No one was paying them any attention at all and, although still very close by, Han was pretty sure Luke and the other boys couldn't see them clearly through the mass of moving bodies.

Perhaps on the strength of this Han raised his head and leaned forward to kiss her properly. She let him kiss her but initiated nothing of her own. When he opened his eyes and pulled back he found her already looking at him as if she had kept her eyes open and had been studying him throughout the rather tender caress. He also noticed that whilst only a few seconds ago her eyes had been clouded with the effects of alcohol now they were crystal clear. She seemed very suddenly sober.

Leia reached up and ran a hand over his nose and lips before saying in a strong voice:

"Let's get out of here."

/

Han opened the door to his apartment and led her inside. The small open-plan living area was nice if a little messy. He picked up a few items from the floor and threw them on the sofa in an attempt to clear a pathway. The short taxi ride from the bar had been taken in comfortable silence, with Leia leaning against him and his arm wrapped around her. For both of them it had felt oddly natural.

"Your apartment's nice."

"It's a shit hole but I'm hardly ever here." Han appraised. She smiled at his honesty.

At that moment Chewie suddenly became aware of their presence and ran over to them excitedly from his bed in the kitchen. He completely bypassed Han and went to Leia, happily receiving her strokes and words of encouragement. His own encouragement, however, waned quickly as he realised the new visitor was not going to feed or walk him. He sat down at her feet just in case she changed her mind.

"Do you want a drink of anything?"

"No I'm good."

They paused for a moment before both walking towards each other and meeting in the middle. His hands found her face, holding her there as he leaned down to kiss her. The gesture felt intimate, the kiss too was soft and not rushed or heated as he'd come to expect from scenarios such as these.

"I've wanted this for so long." He breathed out against her skin before he realised what he was saying.

He stopped his movements instantly. That was definitely the drink talking. Or more accurately the drink allowing him to talk that way. She didn't respond and he was reminded how much more sober she appeared than him. He needed to get a handle of himself, fast.

She pushed him away from her slowly and for a horrible moment he thought his drunken confession had brought her to her senses and this was all over. Instead she reached for the tie of her wraparound dress and undid it, carefully pulling the dress open and off of her shoulders to reveal a matching set of deep blue, lace underwear. Han could feel his eyes bulge in his head at the sight. He was getting too excited, too quickly, just by looking at her.

"Christ your beautiful." He said once again before realising he had. Leia ducked her head and blushed a little. He knew he was coming on too strong. "Sorry."

"Don't be. You're kind of sweet when you're being sincere."

That was all the encouragement he needed to step forward and touch her exposed skin. He ran his rough, weathered hands over her stomach, marvelling at its softness and noting the involuntary shiver that created within her.

They were both distracted by Chewie padding back over to where they stood and sniffing at Leia's dress on the floor.

"Shall we go somewhere where we don't have an audience?" Han asked, gesturing to a closed door behind him that she assumed was his bedroom. She nodded and Han turned and began to lead her to the room.

"Unless that's what you're in to?" She asked suggestively. He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at her.

"Are you?"

She scoffed, shaking her head:

"No, I'm not Winter."

He laughed, tugging more insistently on her hand and pulling her into the bedroom.

/

Leia was gone by the time Han woke the next morning.

He stretched out lazily, finding the other side of the bed empty but still warm, before grabbing the pillow and inhaling strongly, her scent entirely surrounding him. Han groaned into the pillow. How could it be that after finally having sex with her he now wanted to sleep with her even more? He had to admit this was new to him. Normally he was all about the thrill of the chase and lost interest pretty quickly after the prize had been acquired. One of the many reasons Leia thought him a scoundrel.

The sex had been good, great even. Great enough for him to be currently replaying every glorious moment in his head in spite of his alcohol infused memory. But it wasn't great sex that he was craving. It was sex with her, great or any other way, and possibly not even the sex at all. He had it bad.

He was hardly surprised to find her gone. She had tried to leave last night; he'd managed to convince her otherwise after reminding her it was two am and well below freezing outside. He was surprised she had listened to him and stayed then. No, scrap that. He was surprised when she had let him kiss her outside the bathroom at that bar. Anything and everything that had happened after was well beyond surprised and more stunning, disbelieving astonishment.

Han opened his eyes reluctantly, squinting at the sunlight beaming though his partially drawn curtains. He turned over, instantly noticing his phone propped up on the bedside table. Strange. He was pretty sure he didn't think to take it out of his trouser pocket last night. Those trousers had come off pretty quickly too.

He unlocked it and found he had a few new messages. The first from Luke thanking him for making sure Leia got home safely and hoping they hadn't killed each other on the taxi ride home. Han swallowed nervously; his dry mouth suddenly a lot dryer. It pretty much went against every guy code – do not mess around with close family members, especially sisters. Though Luke had given him his drunken approval last night. Han doubted he remembered that.

There were two message from Lando that he didn't even bother opening; knowing the contents of them would be utter bragging of his night's escapades.

The last message was a notification that a new contact had been added to his phonebook. Han frowned. New contact… had he taken the number of one of those girls' Lando was with? He opened the message: One new contact added. Name: Leia Organa. Now that was interesting. She'd taken the time on her sneaking her way out this morning to add her number to his phone.

Han clicked the message button and tapped on the case of the phone for a minute whilst thinking of what to say.

H: Enjoy your walk of shame this morning?

To his surprise she replied almost straightaway:

L: How do you know it was this morning? Maybe I left immediately after you passed out last night.

H: Nice try sweetheart. The bed is still warm and my whole damn room smells of you.

L: How nice for you.

H: It really is. Not as nice as the real thing though.

L: It's not my fault you couldn't drag your ass out of bed to see me off. At least Chewie managed to get up to say goodbye.

H: I sincerely hope Chewie did not give you the goodbye I had planned for this morning!

L: You're gross.

H: And for the record it is at least partially your fault I was dead to the word this morning. You wore me out princess.

L: Can't keep up the pace old man? Perhaps I need to trade you in for a younger model.

H: I think I deserve at least one more test drive before you make up your mind on that. Any ideas when that might be?

L: That would be telling. I have work to do now hotshot. Stop trying to distract me.

H: It's a Saturday!

L: We can't all be layabout pilots like you flyboy. Go away!

H: Well happy working. Try not to think about me too much.

/

Leia smiled stupidly at her phone as she read the last message. Had she just inadvertently agreed that they would be hooking up again? She certainly hadn't shut down the idea. She hadn't even made a flirty, futile attempt to deny it would happen. And, as good as she was at self-denial when it came to him, even she couldn't lie to herself and pretend she didn't want it to happen again. God, she was getting in over her head.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Winter who came crashing through the door to their office wearing big, bug-eyed sunglasses that covered most of her face and carrying two giant cups of Starbucks coffee.

"Why, oh why, are we having to work on a Saturday morning?!" She moaned dramatically.

"Because we're newly qualified and thus were are at the bottom of the pile and there is no one below us that we can sack this off to."

"You sound too chirpy for my liking." Winter huffed, dropping into the chair at her desk opposite Leia and passing her one of the coffees. The sunglasses stayed on.

"Thanks. Have a good night last night?"

"Yes. And I'm paying for it now. What about you? Where did you go? One minute you were on the dancefloor next to us and the next you'd disappeared. Luke said something about Han making sure you got home safe? He never came back either. He must have gone home after you dropped you off."

"Yeah, must have." Leia replied distractedly, pretending to be very preoccupied with something on her computer.

"Oh my god!" Winter's sudden exclamation made Leia turn to look at her. The sunglasses had finally been removed and the eyes beneath were wide with shock. "You totally slept with him, didn't you?!"

"What?! N…" Leia sighed, defeated. There was really no point in denying this. Winter was like the sex whisperer; she always knew. "How do you do that?"

"Oh come on! The afterglow is literally rolling off of you. And he's the only one you left the bar with. It's not that difficult to figure out!" Leia smiled at her friend's explanation but this only made Winter huff once again this time in frustration. "So…"

"So what?"

"So… how in the hell was it? Give me details. I want to know everything. God this has been such a long time coming."

"It really hasn't."

"Shut up you blind cow!" To this Leia laughed aloud. "All those bedroom eyes and secret smiles whilst you're screaming at each other for no good reason. It's like foreplay for you weirdos."

Leia wanted to be offended but in all honesty Winter had a point. Though the most drawn-out foreplay in the world, almost three years of arguing had certainly got them both hot enough for a wonderful night.

"Leiaaaa…" Winter was almost whining now.

"Okay, okay. Yes, it was good. It was very good. But then it's hardly surprising he knows what he's doing is it? I mean he's certainly had enough practice."

And that was crux of her problem wasn't it. The idea that she was just the latest in a very long and accomplished line of women. Because despite being so confused about her feelings for him beyond the immediate physical ones, she did know that he was more than just latest in her much shorter and less accomplished line of men.

"Just how good are we talking?" Leia looked blank and Winter rolled her eyes at her friend's naivety. "Did you come?" Leia almost spat out her mouthful of coffee. Trust Winter to get straight to the point. Refusing to be the prudish, prim friend, Leia squared her shoulders and nodded, almost defiantly. "More than once?" She nodded again. "More than once on the first night. You know that's not bad at all."

She seemed genuinely impressed and even more ridiculous Leia was quite proud of her approval. Winter was one of the most sexually liberated women she knew and if she was impressed with her sex life then it must be going pretty well.

"Are you going to see him again?"

"I don't know." Leia replied honestly.

"Do you want to?"

"I don't know." She repeated. That was less honest.

"Two orgasms served straight up and you don't know if you want to see him again? Well I certainly will if you don't."

The women considered one and other for a second, neither knowing what to say, until, at the very same moment; they both burst out laughing.