Chewie chaperones as Han and Leia clean up from a rather messy encounter with an exploding plant. Dialogue prompt: "'Oh, let's poke it with a stick!' s/he says. 'It won't explode!' s/he says. 'No, not toxic at all!' s/he says."

Contaminated

Luke was needed on patrol, so Chewbacca had drawn the short straw this time: supervising two of the most stubborn humans he had ever met as they prepared for decontamination.

The Alliance base on Hoth wasn't fully set up yet, and even if it had been, the area designated for decontamination wasn't so much a chamber as it was an area of the hangar where ships (and beings as necessary) could be hosed down or otherwise cleaned. Given the frostbite risk, and the fact that the cargo bay where Chewie had locked Han and Leia for the duration of their return journey had to be decontaminated now anyway, it seemed wise to complete the first stage of the process inside the Falcon instead.

Which is how Chewbacca found himself holding up a sheet between Cub and the Little Princess as they disrobed before scanning by the Two-One-Bees. The stony silence that had prevailed between the two during the flight had broken soon after they landed, and now Chewbacca felt like the referee in a verbal smashball match.

"Ugh. It went down my back," the Little Princess groaned, throwing her uniform top on the pile of contaminated clothing. "At least we got what we came for."

"And then some," sniped Cub. "You know how much money I'm gonna lose if we gotta throw out cargo 'cause it's infected with Poisonous Jewelweed or Zeltronian Nightshade or whatever other kind of toxic snot we got all over us right now?"

Chewbacca groaned slightly. There wasn't much left in this bay to begin with, and most of it was stuff they'd been unable to unload for various reasons. That's why he'd thrown them in here for the flight back.

The Little Princess's shoulders visibly tensed. "The Alliance will compensate you for any lost cargo," she said. She turned her head, taking in the contents of the bay. "I'm sure we can spare the twenty credits. And I told you," she continued, "It's not toxic."

Cub gave a mirthless laugh to that statement. "Yeah, sure, right. You told me. Ain't that why we've been sitting in goo for the last three hours?" He hurled his shirt towards the clothing pile.

The Little Princess was taking down her pants. "We would've been fine if you'd just tapped it like I said."

If you know what's good for you, Chewbacca thought, you'll just let it go, Cub. Don't take the bait.

But instead, Cub chose to do what had to be the worst, most sing-songy imitation of the Little Princess Chewbacca had ever heard. "'Oh, let's poke it with a stick!' she says. 'It won't explode!' she says. 'No, not toxic at all!' she says."

I do not get paid enough for this, thought Chewbacca. Where the kriffing hells are those droids?

Unfortunately, the droids were still nowhere to be seen, and the Little Princess was being just as bad about allowing her temper to be provoked. "I do not sound like that," she said coldly, whipping around to face Cub over the sheet. He was still facing the other way, pausing from the argument to step out of his bloodstripes.

Chewbacca saw the Little Princess's eyes briefly go wide at the sight of Cub's bare back, and filed that information away for the next time Cub tried to tell him She doesn't think of me that way, anyway, so there's no point.

Cub turned back around, so that now they were arguing face-to-face across the sheet. "You sound exactly like that," he said. "Always gotta be so damned right."

That makes two of you, Cub.

"I was right," she said, "it was Selonian Balsam. Completely harmless."

"Well, I guess we'll see. Still, gonna take some time to clean up all this crap. Valuable time."

"You got somewhere else to be, flyboy?" The Little Princess stepped closer, looking up at Cub.

"Maybe I do." Cub stepped closer as well.

Oh, for Sith's sake—[That's it!] Chewbacca roared. [I'm done! I wish this had been Zeltronian Nightshade, because maybe then you two would just mate already and stop these ridiculous arguments!] He dropped the sheet and stomped off to find these damned droids.

Han and Leia were so busy gaping at Chewbacca's abrupt departure, at first they failed to notice how close they were standing to each other.

Leia felt herself blush as she realized she was face-to-face with Han's bare chest, and took a step back. She noticed his eyes go wide briefly, then he stepped back, too.

Han looked to where Chewbacca had gone, putting on an air of bravado that he often seemed to use in awkward situations. "So. Wonder what crawled up his ass," he said.

Leia had to laugh at that. Her Shryiiwook wasn't perfect, but she'd caught the gist of what Chewie had said, and in any case, it was obvious. "Us, I expect," she said.

The bravado fell away, and Han laughed, too. "Yeah, I guess so."

They smiled at each other for a moment, then Leia grew serious again. "I'm sorry about—this," she said, indicating the goo that still clung to parts of their bodies.

He grinned at her. "'S all right. I'm sorry, about–"

"Yeah."

Another silence, another set of smiles, and as if orchestrated, they drew closer to each other again. Han opened his arms in a hug, and Leia stepped into them, her own arms closing around him.

"Is this okay?" Han asked.

"I think so," Leia said. "It's not like we can get more covered in goo."

"No, I mean—"

"Yes," she said, carefully resting her head on his chest. "This is just fine."