Wookiees have excellent hearing, and excellent advice. Chewie listens as Cub and Little Princess grow closer on the way to Bespin. Originally posted on Tumblr for Scoundress Saturday, in response to an ask for a Bespin snippet from Chewie's POV.
Chapter 4 - Overheard
The sound of the Little Princess's laughter rang out into the corridor. Chewbacca paused for a moment to listen, his paw poised over the volume control for the music player in case he needed to turn it up again.
No, they were just talking. For the moment, at least.
He returned to his task, tightening the bolts on the cover to the power converter. There was no hurry; in fact, they were actually running out of things to fix or upgrade on the ship. If they hadn't had to leave Hoth in such a hurry, they would have had access to more parts, could actually finish all the repairs they had been meaning to do.
Of course, if they hadn't left Hoth in such a hurry, they likely would have had a functioning hyperdrive, and there would be no Little Princess on their ship at all by this point.
Those first few days had been a bit dicey. It was like Cub and Little Princess had been holding on for dear life to the last bricks from their respective walls, the tension ramping up and then dialing back down between the two of them again and again. Chewbacca had been about a day away from sitting the two of them down together for a very serious talk about the bantha in the room, because hells if he was going to spend seven weeks playing the travel version of Will They Or Won't They with only Threepio for company.
Chewbacca had been relieved when they seemed to have finally done some talking on their own, then amused when they'd rolled into the lounge several mornings later with rumpled hair and the complete inability to hide the smiles on their faces. Cub would have had his hide if he'd said anything, but both of them were so—what was that word that humans were fond of saying about tiny furry creatures? Oh, yes—cute.
And they were good for each other. Chewbacca had never heard the Little Princess laugh so much as she had on this trip, and even when she was not with Cub, the warmth and humor and joy they'd only glimpsed from her from time to time before was on full display. For his part, Cub seemed to have shed any attempts at maintaining his mercenary shell, his defenses completely dropped for the first time in forever.
Not that either of them had illusions about the uncertainty that lay ahead. In fact, each of them had approached Chewbacca individually for his advice on handling that, Little Princess during one of her daily Shryiiwook lessons and Cub while they were supposedly fixing something (that Chewbacca had already fixed).
His words for each of them had been the same.
[Nothing is certain in this life], he had reminded them. [Do not pretend, but do not let your fear take away your joy.]
Their reactions had been the same as well, the beginnings of a protest: "But what if—"
He had patted the Little Princess's hand gently, ruffled the hair on Cub's head. [You think you are not worthy of this love. You are wrong. It is yours. No one can take it away.]
From the sound of things, they had taken his advice to heart, though he knew that trusting in the future was a daunting thing for both of them. He'd known they had courage, but to let yourself be loved was bravery of a different kind. He was proud of Cub and his mate for that.
Chewbacca listened again for a moment. Then he turned the music player up.
