COOKING UP SOMETHING

Chapter 2

Leia marveled at the supermarket. She certainly had always been aware of their existence, but growing up in the palace had never had the opportunity to enter one. And during the war, rations were among the items she'd been responsible for purchasing, but she'd never been responsible for the pickup and delivery.

"Hey Solo!" A middle aged man called over to Han as he grabbed one of the roller baskets.

"Soufi, how goes it?" Han called back. "This is my wife, Leia. Leia, meet Soufi."

"Minister Leia, a pleasure," Soufi said, smiling and pumping her hand.

"Likewise. But call me Leia. Minister means I'm at work." She grinned and Soufi laughed. "Which at the moment I'm trying very hard not to be."

"Take it easy, Solo, and Leia," Soufi called as he headed off.

"Hi Han!" a lovely woman close to Soufi's age called out as she headed her roller basket to the checkout lanes.

"Neida, how's it going? Have you met Leia?"

"You have now," Leia said, smiling. "How are you?"

"It's an honor to meet the Minister of State," she said. "Han talks about your all the time."

"Some of it might be true." Both women laughed. "And I'm off the clock, so it's just Leia."

"Han, you take good care of this lady," Neida said to him.

Leia looked up at him. "How do you know all these people?"

"We run across each other here all the time. It's part of the experience. First stop is the snack aisle."

"I thought we were making dinner."

"But there're many hours till dinner. That requires snacks and beverages." By the time they arrived in the snack aisle, Han had run into three more people he knew and introduced Leia to, and the store, which was roughly the size of the Falcon's hangar and crammed full of sentients of all sorts. Matching the sentients for variety was the selection of available foods and beverages. Leia located a couple items that she'd enjoyed on Alderaan. Obviously, they weren't produced on Alderaan but most planets contained their own markets and food producers. There was a lively import and export trade galaxywide, making it convenient if one needed specialty items.

Han grabbed some of the crackers he always ate. Leia went for the sweet biscuits. She was the member of the family with the sweet tooth. Han, not having had them much growing up, generally eschewed them, although he did like kavasa tarts.

"I'd like to learn to bake desserts," Leia informed him. "Where're the ingredients for that?"

"At home in our bed. That's my idea of dessert."

"Han!"

"Well, what's yours?"

"Something smothered in chocolate."

"Let's stick to getting dinner done. Next stop is wines and ales."

"Your favorite aisle," Leia teased.

"I like a good ale. Or beer. Or rum. Or brandy."

"Or anything else that gets you buzzed."

"Not true. I've never drunk Tatoinne ales. Never."

"Nice to know you have standards."

"Hey, I married a princess, didn't I?" Han winked at her. "Got everything you want on this aisle?"

"I've gotten everything I think I can get away with for now." As they headed to the end of the aisle, Leia spotted a few more treats and flung them into the roller basket. Han grinned at her.

After being stopped by three other individuals, Han began perusing the selections for ales.

"I see they don't carry Emera," Leia observed.

"They do sometimes. It's not exactly an easy wine to make. But they've got a lot of Alderaanian wines, so feast your eyes."

Leia did find a few selections, and added them to the collection of foodstuffs already chosen and four six-packs of Alderaanian ale.

"No comments about my sweet treats," Leia warned him.

"Who, me?" Han said, the look of innocence on his face. "Next stop, produce."

Leia knew what she liked there; she loved fresh fruits and vegetables. They weren't plentiful during wartime, but Han, Smuggler Extraordinaire, made sure he always found something that Leia liked.

Muja fruit, Jogan fruit, Kavas fruit, barabel fruit, Dantoinnian sphere fruit, dorian passionfruit, moonglow...a feast for the senses. Leia began to pick a few up.

"No, you gotta inspect 'em first," Han informed her. Han picked up one of the muja fruit. "This one's got a soft spot. You wanna make sure it's firm all around. But it depends on the fruit. A kavasa's only good after it's soft so you wanna stay away from the hard ones." They moved on from fruits to vegetables and Leia had learned how to select them.

"You want root vegetables?" Han eyed her quizzically.

"They remind me of good times on the Falcon," Leia said simply.

"Good times on the Falcon. Hmm."

"Anytime we weren't being shot at or navigating an asteroid field or being almost devoured by a space slug. Those were good times."

Han grinned. "Yeah, they were. Especially in bed. No captain's quarters were ever that comfortable." He winked at Leia seductively. "Well, at least after you started sharing my bed."

"Something I'll be doing forever now," Leia said, putting her arm around Han's waist.

"You're not complaining, are you?"

"Do I look like I'm complaining - ooh, Amelarian pears!"

Han shook his head. This trip was going to be a lot more expensive than when he shoppped alone. But it was great fun watching Leia respond in amazement.

The next stop was the meat counter. Han ordered up the cuts from the butcher droid behind the counter and walked away with waterfowl, traladon ribs, nerf steaks, some cuts suitable for stew. From the fishmonger he took some of the ones he knew Leia liked. Spices finished off the trip, and Leia got her biggest surprise of all: the number of credits it cost.

"I can't believe how expensive it is!" She said to Han.

"Believe it, sweetheart. Now let's hit the kitchen."