"Ouch! Ow! Ahhh!" Leia cringed as her aunts preformed yank the comb through the wet tangled hair torture. "Ow Tia, that hurts" Leia grumbled, covering her hair with her hands.
"If you had been acting like a princess it wouldn't have gotten tangled! Now hold still and let me fix your hair."
"A princess must know how to dress properly for an occasion" Roug instructed. "Remember you want to look your best, your father will be returning from his trip tonight."
Leia immediately brightened, then slumped back down, causing Tia to part her thick chocolate hair crooked. "Please Leia, hold still!" Tia said in exasperation.
"Yeah, he's coming home but I'll hardly get to see him he'll be busy talking to his guest." Leia said gloomily.
"Your father always makes time for you" Celly reminded her comfortingly, brushing wrinkles out of a pink gown from Leia's wardrobe.
"Not pink!" Leia moaned, seeing the dress. It wasn't that she didn't like the color pink per say, but that dress, in particular, well, suffice it to say she had never likes it, no matter how fashionable it might be.
"You look good in pink" Roug said in a voice that closed off the subject to argument.
"Isn't there something a little less elaborate?" Leia asked hopefully, she hated that pink dress, mostly because of the full skirt that got in the way all the time. Her aunts ignored her protests and helped her into the gown. "I think it's too tight!" Leia complained, squirming "I should put on another one."
"Honestly Leia, you say that about all the dresses you dislike, now don't make excuses. Sit still and let me finish your hair." AT-AV came darting through the open door and jumped into Leia's lap when she patted her knee. There the little furry creature started batting her hair.
"Stop AT-AV" scolded Tia, but the pitton ignored her, hopping up onto the princesses shoulder and playfully attacking her elaborate hair style. Tia removed the pitton from the room while Celly and Roug put the finishing touches on Leia rather like an artist does on a painting.
"There! Now you look like a princess again!" they stood back to admire her and Leia felt a little bit like a dress up doll.
One of her mother's handmaids stuck her head into the bedroom door "Princess Leia, your father is home."
"He is!" Leia leapt up, and ducking around her aunts dashed head long down the stairs and turning the corner flew into Bail Organa's arms.
"Oh Leia! You're getting too big for me to pick up!" Bail protested, making no move to put her down. "My, it's nice to come home and find my princess looking like one, I'll wager your Aunts had something to do with that. Last time I came home you looked like you had been herding nerfs all day!"
"Breha who had been standing in the doorway, laughed at that, and coming closer gave her husband a kiss around the girl in his arms. "I should say they had, they have been upstairs scrubbing Leia for the last two hours getting her ready for dinner."
"Two hours? Don't tell me you've been up in the mountains again, climbing trees?" Bail asked with a chuckle.
"It was an accident!" Leia vowed "well, mostly." This made her father laugh louder.
"Dinner is served" a cheerful serving droid, DV-8 announced to the family.
"Okay my princess, I'll hear all about it later" Bail set her down and held out his arm for his wife "come my Dove, and you too princess"
Winter and Neena were already in the formal dinning hall, standing respectfully behind their chars and dressed appropriately. Leia's three Aunts entered and the foot men seated them, Bail seated Breha before turning to his guest "Ah Kenston, good to see you again, let me introduce you to my wife, Breha, and my daughters, princess Leia-" Bail started to turn towards Leia, standing next to him, but sir Kenston spoke up.
"Oh, I've already met the rest of your family, I was very impressed with your daughter princess Leia, and I wanted to compliment you, she has exceptional manners and grace for a child her age."
Bail raised his eye brows "thank you, lets take our seats" Bail took a seat at the head of the table.
As he passed her, Kenston glanced Leia up and down giving her a bit of an odd look, which she figured was because he still thought she was the maid. Thinking no more of it as she took her seat next to Winter, who was trying to tell her something, silently motioning towards her skirt.
What? Leia mouthed.
"Psst! Your feet!" Winter whispered. Leia leaned over and looked beneath the table cloth. Oops, her two bare feet hung beneath the hem of her dress, apparently in her haste to greet her father she had forgotten to put on her shoes!
Neena peeked under the table as well, and when she saw Leia's shoeless feet, she had to stifle a giggle, Winter started coughing in an attempt to hide her own amusement. Her friend's laughter caused Leia to choke on her water. A quelling look from Roug ended their amusement.
While the grown ups talked, the three girls studiously avoided looking each other in the eye and ate their dinner. It was the common belief of Leia's aunts that when guests were present, children should be seen and not heard, unless directly addressed of course.
As Leia carefully cut her meat into tiny bites, she tried to think of the best way to get a pair of shoes on her feet before her aunt's saw, and thus avoid another lecture.
The best way seemed to be to finish her dinner before every one else, and then leave the table and return with shoes!
She ate her meal as fast as possible without seeming to have fewer manners than a starved Bantha.
"Well that settles it, I'll be glad to have your name on the petition." Bail said, finishing his political busyness with Sir Kenston, the conversation drifting to other things. "I'm curious, where did you meet my daughter?" Bail asked, raising his glass to his lips and taking a drink.
"Oh, we happened to meet in the park, she was trying to get her maid out of the tree."
"Her maid?" Bail turned to Leia "what maid was in the tree?"
"Leia hastily swallowed a bite of food and answered her father "none father, we only brought Kima, and she didn't climb any trees."
Sir Kenston's eyes widened and in surprise and he paled slightly "she is your daughter?" he gulped.
"Yes, why?" Bail asked, wiping his mouth with a silk napkin to hide his amusement at the younger man's expression.
"Oh, nothing, I was just confused it seems" Kenston said deftly changing the subject. Poor guy, Leia stifled a smirk at his expression.
Finishing her meal, Leia wiped her mouth, she sent Celly a silent look, asking to be excused and leave the table.
Celly shook her head. Great, now how was she supposed to get some shoes? And she needed them even more now that Sir Kenston knew that she was the princess, and not a crazy domestic girl, and she didn't want to embarrass her father and mother.
Catching Winter's eye, she began slowly sliding down in her seat, she was between Winter, and her Aunts were engrossed in the conversation so that they didn't see her slowly sinking out of sight.
Sir Kenston happened to glance at her when she had sunk down to her chin, she gave him a brilliant smile and he quickly looked away. A moment later she slipped under the table. Okay, so now to get to the door on the other side of the room and then up the stairs to her room, unnoticed.
Good thing the table was so long! On hands and knees Leia started forward, her dress rustled loudly. Great! She knew she shouldn't have warn this dress! To keep from alerting every one to her presents, she had to scoot forward on her knees, instead of crawling.
Leia shrank away from the pairs of feet (all with shoes) on either side of the table. She had to wait what felt like ten whole minutes while Celly swung her legs, and she couldn't squeeze past. Celly finally stopped, and Leia, who had discovered that the temperature underneath the tale was much warmer than that above, scooted by.
Finally! The end of the table! Whew! This should really be a new endurance sport, the 100 foot scoot. Leia wiped damp hair off her forehead and peeked out from underneath the floor length table cloth, then stealthily crept behind the long closed drapes that hung over the huge picture window.
Peering out the end of the drapes, Leia judged the distance to the corner that would lead her to the stairs. Scoot, scoot, scoot! She quickly struggled to her feet around the corner and dashed up the stairs to her room. There she immediately spotted the pair of shoes her aunts had set out for her to match her dress and quickly put them on. Then, she had to wonder if it had really been worth all that. She could have just sat through a long boring lecture in, and in a comfortable chair mind you, but no, she didn't want to embarrass her father and mother.
Standing at the top of stairs, Leia contemplated how to get back, there was no way she could return to her seat without being seen unless she was going to crawl back the way she had come, and she wasn't. So, remembering all she could from her Aunts lectures, she swept down the stair case and into the dinning room, with what she hoped was "regal bearing" and gracefully took a seat.
Aunt Roug, Tia and Celly, who apparently hadn't noticed she was gone, stared at her open mouthed, in a very unladylike fashion. Leia daintily took a sip of water and smiled sweetly.
"Ahhh, it's good to be home" Bail Organa took a seat on the edge of Leia's bed. Leia snuggled under the covers and smiled, considering the night a successes.
"How long will you be able to stay this time?" she asked.
Bail frowned "not long I'm afraid, I have some busyness on several other planets." Leia hung out her bottom lip in a pout.
"Will you miss me then?" Bail said with a smile.
"Only as much as a starving Hutt misses food!" Leia said with a dramatic sigh.
Bail chuckled, his normally grave look lifting "you and your saying" he shook his head fondly, then added, "Now tell me, you were the maid in that tree, right?" Leia only smirked. Bail shook his head again "What am I going to do with you Lelila?" he asked, tapping her on the nose and standing from the bed.
He left the room with a whisper of the long cloak he wore. Leia knew he was headed to see her mother; they would stay up late talking. He always tried to make the best of what he called his "lightning visits".
The end
This is the first of many to come! I hope you enjoyed it! I would love to hear your thoughts on the story, good and bad, jut please be nice.