A/N: Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad you enjoyed reading. Sorry this chapter's a bit later than promised, I've been really busy this week!

Maybe I'm crazy, yeah, a little naive,
But the light at the end is brighter than it used to be
Got a long way to go but I know I believe
That the light at the end is brighter than it used to be

-Patent Pending, Brighter

Leia was still half asleep when the door hummed open, abruptly jolting her fully awake. She'd slept surprisingly well, and had wanted to savour the feeling of waking up peacefully rather than in a cold sweat, fear clenching her heart. In fact, for the first time in months, she couldn't remember having a single nightmare.

But now that had been broken by the door, which her eyes fell on just in time to see Han Solo enter. Everything came crashing down around her again and she felt her precious control slipping away… but, in the same instant, felt her heart skip a couple of beats as well. She prepared herself for some sarcastic comment, a wry remark about her hair, or her clothes maybe…

"Did I wake you?"

The soft question made her momentarily stumble over her words as she tried to get out an answer. "No. It's… no, you didn't."

"I, uh, made some breakfast."

Her brain was rapidly catching up with everything that had happened last night, so his apparent sympathy was beginning to make sense. But with the memories came the guilt, the sorrow, the pain of it all...

"I'm not hungry," she turned away.

Han didn't say anything for a moment. "I haven't seen you eat for two days."

He wasn't wrong. And that, combined with his gentle, surprising, completely un-Han-like tones, suddenly made tears spring up in her eyes. She angrily blinked them away. "I'm just not hungry."

"If I asked you to, would you eat something?" He took a step forward, and still the voice was so calm and caring that she felt the inexplicable urge to run into his arms.

As it was, she just shrugged a little. "I could try." It would make him go away, after all.

With a nod, he left the cabin, the door sliding shut after him. She momentarily considered just locking the door and staying here for as long as was humanly possible, but then it occurred to her that this was Han's cabin, and this was Han's bed.

She rolled out of the bunk, feeling her cheeks flush. New plan: get out of here as quickly as possible.

Not that they'd be missing her back at the hotel, anyway.

In a few minutes, she emerged from the cabin. She'd given up trying to fix her hair and had left it loose over her shoulders, but had managed to freshen up her face a bit and now at least felt almost awake.

The Falcon's galley was easy enough to find, although Leia had never been there before- she was used to the ship by now and knew her way around it fairly well. She'd never admit it to Han, but she was actually beginning to like the old freighter.

Han turned as she entered the small space, momentarily shocked at her appearance. He didn't know why he'd never seen her with her hair down- she looked so young. With a start, he realised he was staring and averted his eyes.

Leia took a seat at the tiny fold-out table, searching for words to break the awkward silence and drawing a blank each time. After a few moments, Han placed a mug of caf and a bowl of some kind of grain in front of her. Then he took a seat across the table, nursing his own mug and gazing into it so intently he seemed to be watching for something to spring out.

While he was distracted, Leia tentatively tried a mouthful of food. It wasn't bad.

"Hey, I-" Han seemed to regret speaking the moment the words were out of his mouth. "I just want to know how you're doing."

"I'm... all right."

"Good."

Leia wasn't sure whether that required a response, so she just nodded a little and carried on eating. Han did the same, apparently relieved to be avoiding conversation.

She glanced up at him, noting the darkness under his eyes. There was a slightly tense, haggard look on his face, too, as if he was concentrating on something far away. Was it last night? Or was he just wondering about the hyperdrive?

"You don't look too good." She commented quietly.

He raised his eyes and gave her a quick once-over. "You don't look too great yourself."

It wasn't an insult, as it easily could've been, but sounded more like a gentle expression of concern. Before last night she would've assumed it was some kind of jibe, but now she wasn't so sure. However unlikely it seemed, maybe Han was capable of caring, after all.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she found herself having to look away again. "You hate me."

"No." The harsh tone of his voice surprised her. "I don't hate you. You annoy me sometimes-" at this she raised a sceptical eyebrow, and he conceded. "Okay, most of the time, but I don't hate you."

He paused momentarily, rubbing his neck the way he did when he was embarrassed. It was obvious he was uncomfortable, but, equally, he seemed desperate to say something. Finally, he set his mug down and raised his eyes to meet hers. The intensity in his gaze made her self-aware and awkward, but she found it impossible to look away. Now that she noticed, his eyes were actually quite beautiful- a unique combination of green and brown, flickering in the light.

"I was worried about you last night. And if I was worried, you've gotta figure someone else would be too, right?" He bit his lip so tightly it turned white. His crooked scar stood out against his chin. "I just don't understand why you... why you wouldn't..."

"I tried, once. I went to the medics. And they gave me some medication that was meant to help, but it just made the nightmares worse. After that I think I just reasoned nothing could help. And you know that if I told people it would be across the base in days..." She'd never really thought about it before, getting support. There didn't seem much point.

"Hey, Leia, I..." Han's hand had returned to his neck. "You know I'm here? You know you can come to me if... I don't know, if you wanna talk about anything."

Truthfully, Han was about the least likely person she would've come to. But now, after all this, she almost felt like she could.

"Even if we argue? Because we will, you know." She reminded him.

He shrugged. "Look, I'd rather you come talk to me than... well, you know." With that, he managed a small grin. "I'll be honest, sweetheart, you freaked me out last night."

Unsure what that meant, exactly, she acknowledged him with a nod. Then another silence descended, and she once again became suddenly aware of herself. And him. Together, alone, in the Falcon... Hurriedly, she got to her feet.

"I should go."

"Um..." He didn't look particularly happy about it, but whatever was weighing on his mind was obviously too difficult to put into words. "Yeah. I guess."

Leia wondered whether she should say something- maybe apologise for last night, or thank him- but Han's silence was rubbing off. They'd already broken several of their unspoken rules, among them never having an honest conversation or showing any emotion for each other aside from annoyance or disinterest, and she didn't want to push her luck.

So she left without another word, inwardly kicking herself for not doing so the moment she'd woken up. The landing ramp was down, but that was hardly surprising; Chewie was probably working on some dysfunctional part of the ship already.

She probably walked down the ramp more forcefully than she'd meant to, because the sound of her boots clanging on the durasteel echoed around the hangar. Her mind was already trying to come up with excuses for being out of contact last night, most of which ideally didn't involve Han Solo coming to rescue her from the top of a building. What if someone had seen them? How was she meant to explain that, when even she didn't know what was going on?

She was halfway to the hangar's bay doors by now, counting the steps in her head to avoid her thoughts drifting off to other things. What had he meant, anyway? Han was the most infuriating, low down smuggler she'd ever met, not someone who cared about her.

Well then why did he save you?

She gritted her teeth and ignored that little niggling voice in the back of her head. She knew what she was doing.

"Leia!"

She turned on instinct, her mind so caught up in itself that it didn't acknowledge the owner of the voice. But there he was, crossing the floor in long, purposeful strides to catch up with her.

Momentarily, Leia considered walking off, forcing him to either run or forget about it, but some unknown impulse made her stay.

Han drew level with her in the next few moments. "I'm not sure what just happened back there."

"Neither am I." It came out cooler than she'd meant it to.

"Sorry." It was the first time she could remember him ever apologising to her. He gave her another sheepish grin. "You need to promise me."

"What?"

"Promise me you'll come and talk to me. And try not to beat yourself up."

"You're never going to let this go, are you?"

She'd expected a witty comeback, or at least some throw away comment about how he wasn't a push over, but he just looked at her intently. "It's important."

"Okay," she took his outstretched hand. "Deal."

He didn't shake, just squeezed her fingers tightly in his. Shivers ran up her arm, ones she tried desperately to ignore. Then he hesitantly pulled her to him and wrapped his free arm around her, just for a second. The embrace was just long enough for her to catch his scent- a combination of caf, machinery and aftershave- before he took a step back again.

"Don't ask." He told her in explanation. "I don't know myself."

Their hands were still entwined. Leia looked at them, at how big his hands were compared to hers', and felt the corners of her mouth drifting up. "Thanks anyway."

Her eyes drifted up gain in time to see a shadow of humour flit across his face. "You're welcome."

Suddenly, the moment was over, and he managed to pass off his grip on her fingers as a handshake, after all. He nodded to her, already backing away to the ship.

"I'll see you around, Princess."

She didn't notice the nickname. "See you around." She echoed, watching him leave.

Seemingly satisfied, he spun and headed back to the Falcon, his gait considerably lighter than it had been a few minutes before. Leia watched as he paced up the landing ramp and disappeared into the ship.

She glanced down at her hand, which still burned from his touch. The she clenched it loosely and returned her gaze to the ship, where Chewie was now welding something on the hull.

For the first time in months, Han Solo heard her laugh.