Chapter 7
Han's POV
-5 years later-
I enter Chalmun's Cantina, the best cantina on Tatooine, at least for pirates and smugglers. I hide my blaster in my belt, the owner Wuher doesn't allow weapons inside. Wuher doesn't allow a lot of things inside, Wookiees, weapons, droids, I think he would ban everything if he could. But the only ban that is enforced is the droids.
That is good because my friend Chewbacca is a wookiee. Wuher always gives us the evil eye when we are there, but doesn't do anything. The only times we have been kicked out is when it is crowded and Chewie is "taking up space" or when we get into fights.
Chewie isn't here with me today, he had something to do. He told me what, but I wasn't listening. So I walk into the cantina alone.
There are two bartenders working today, Wuher and Tera. Tera's side is fairly crowded while Wuher's side only has a few people sitting at the bar. This isn't uncommon, Wuher is a good bartender, but Tera is great with this type of crowd. She started working here a few years ago, since then the cantina's business has practically tripled. I'm pretty sure she was underage when she began, but nobody cared enough to do anything about it. She's the best bartender in Mos Eisley, even storm troopers come here for her.
A group of about six or seven leave Tera's side, probably crewmates, and walk out of the cantina. I take one of the new empty seats.
Tera is counting the credits from the group that just left. She looks up when I sit down, she always seems to know when someone joins her side, even on the busiest nights. She always knows when someone just walks in or when someone needs a refill, which is one reason she gets so many tips. That along with her teasing personality and good looks.
It's rare on Tatooine to find girls like her, which is why she is so popular. She has found the perfect balance of traits that attracts this type of clientele. She is sarcastic and constantly teases the customers, but isn't insulting. She is smart but not obnoxious. Then she always surprises new customers because of how she looks. She is quite small with blue eyes and blonde hair. She looks vulnerable, but is actually tough enough to handle herself around this crowd.
Tera gives me a smile and says "Hey Han. What can I get you?"
"A rum sounds good right now."
"Kay just a minute" She finishes ringing in the last groups payment and starts pouring my drink. "I see Chewie isn't here, he finally get some sense and find a non-crazy pilot?" she jokes while setting my drink in front of me.
I smirk, "C'mon Tera, I'm the best pilot in this business."
"Please, I've seen you fly. I'm surprised you haven't crashed that contraption of yours yet."
"Hey, that contraption's the fastest ship in the galaxy. I've made sure."
"Could have fooled me. Have you picked a name for it yet?"
"No can't think of anything. Any suggestions?"
Tera thinks for a minute before saying "How about falcon."
"Falcon?"
"Yeah, I've always liked falcons. Free spirits, you know. It would suit a ship of yours."
"Okay I see your point, but it needs something else."
"I don't think so, that ship probably won't last too much longer in the condition it's in. Not to mention how much your flying beats it up." She says sarcastically.
I laugh, "I take care of it just fine. It's not breaking down anytime soon. It will last as long as I want it too."
"Which is how long?"
"As long as I'm breathing."
"So not much longer" a voice behind me says in another language. I turn around to see Greedo behind me with a blaster in hand hidden under his jacket.
"Hey Greedo, long time no see."
"Jabba isn't happy with you Solo. Apparently your last shipment didn't go so well."
I smirk, "My shipment went fine. It was the customer that didn't want to pay Jabba what he wanted."
"Well apparently Jabba blames you for this little disagreement, and wants to see you."
"Eh. I'll go later. I'm enjoying myself right now."
"I don't think so Solo. Jabba has made it very clear he wants to see you now. He even promised a reward for bringing you to him. So I suggest you come with me."
"No, I don't think so. Tell Jabba I will talk to him later."
Greedo pulls out his blaster and points it at my head "How about you tell Jabba…"
"HEY NO BLASTERS." I hear Tera shout at Greedo.
Greedo looks at Tera and says, "I am simply doing a …"
"Greedo don't make me come out from behind this bar." She says sternly, "How about you leave?"
Greedo is about to refuse when at the other customers at the bar stand up. One says "I think the little lady is right Greedo, how about you leave." Tera gives Greedo an accomplished smirk.
Greedo puts down his blaster and tells me, "I'll be watching for you Solo." Then he storms out of the cantina's door.
I turn around and say "Hey thanks…"
"Screw off Solo, we didn't do it for you" a pilot says while sitting back down.
Tera lets out a laugh and says, "Thanks guys, but I could have handled that myself."
"We know. Just didn't want poor Greedo getting his butt kicked."
Tera laughs again and begins pouring some drinks then handing them to the guys at the bar, "Here this rounds on the house."
"Sounds good to me" one says before taking a swig.
I sit down in my spot and tell Tera, "Hey you know you didn't have to do that either. I can handle Greedo."
She shrugs and says "Hey, couldn't lose one of my best tippers."
Wuher marches over and yells at me, "WHAT WAS THAT SOLO!"
Before I can respond Tera jumps in and says "Back off Wu. Nobody got hurt, everything's fine."
He glares at Tera "What did I tell you about calling me that."
"You told me not to, Wu."
He storms off mumbling under his breath. I look at Tera in disbelief, "Wow, one day you're going to get fired, you know that?"
She smiles and shrugs, "Please, Wuher knows that if he loses me he loses most of his business. Besides, he likes me too much to fire me."
"So basically you have this job as long as you want."
"Yup, I'll be here for a millennium."
I smile "I think I just found a name for my ship."
"What?"
"The Millennium Falcon."
Tera's POV
It is about three o'clock in the morning. Thank goodness, my shift is over. I've been working since five. All my customers finish up their drinks and pay their tabs. Tonight was a good tip night, I made a few hundred credits at least.
Han was one of the last to pay, he was currently drunk out of his mind and was stumbling around the cantina with a group of fellow smugglers. I had taken all of their keys for their ships, so they wouldn't be flying anytime soon.
Wuher finally kicked everyone out. The remaining staff and I started cleaning up our stations. I was one of the last to finish and clock out. I grabbed my tips and was about to head out when Wuher said, "Hey take out the trash."
I sigh, we have droids to do that, but I'm sure Wuher is getting pay back for the Wu comment before. I grab the two bags of trash and walk out the back door towards the dumpster.
I drop off the bags and I'm about to walk back inside when I hear a noise. I turn to see where the noise came from and was surprised to see Han walking around the alley.
I walk up to him "Hey Han. Shouldn't you be heading back to your ship? I'm sure Chewie will let you in."
Han looks at me with drunken eyes, "No, Greedo is waiting for me out by there. I know it."
I pause and think for a minute. Han may be drunk, but he is also probably right. Greedo isn't one to give up on a bounty. Han would probably get caught if he left in this state.
I sigh. I can't let him get hurt. Sure Han isn't the most noble of people, but deep down he is really a nice guy. I always enjoy when he comes in for a drink.
"Okay Han, come in."
I head back inside. Han moves to follow me, but stumbles. I catch him and he pukes down my pant leg. 'Great' I think to myself, 'I just washed these.'
I help Han back into the cantina and bring him to the back. There are three apartments upstairs that Wuher rents out to employees. I live in the one closest to the stairs, my buddy Jank is in the farthest one away, and Wuher lives in the middle one.
We pass Wuher who gives me a strange look, "What is this?"
"Greedo is probably looking for Han, and Han doesn't want to leave. I'll just let him sleep on my couch for tonight."
"Are you sure? Remember, he isn't the most moral person." Wuher says with a bit of concern in his voice.
"I'll be fine. He's to intoxicate to do anything and he'll probably have a huge hangover tomorrow. Besides I've known Han for a while now, he isn't that kind of guy."
Wuher nods apprehensively, "Okay, but just shout if you need any help. I'm right next door."
"Okay, thanks." I say and continue my journey of helping Han up the stairs.
We finally make it to my apartment, I open the door. We enter the living room/kitchen. I lay Han down on the couch and he almost immediately falls asleep.
I can smell the puke on me, so I decide to take a quick shower. I go into my bedroom and grab some pajamas, then head to the bathroom. Inside I take out my contacts and fake teeth. I scrub myself clean in the shower. The puke washes down the drain. I decide to wash my hair while I'm in here.
I get out and dry myself off with a towel. I stare at myself in the mirror. It isn't often that I see myself this way. Without any fake dentures that hide my straight teeth, no contacts that turn my eyes blue, no make-up that gives me a couple scars and changes my skin color darker while making my nose a bit longer and wider, no hair paint that makes me blonde. Just my natural self. My brown haired, brown eyed self.
I should just dye my hair permanently, but the paint surprisingly looks more natural and is less expensive. Besides, it's nice to be able to be the old me every once in a while.
I grab the paint to start recoloring my hair. Before I start I look at my face in the mirror again one last time.
The face of Princess Leia.
Han's POV
I wake up with a blinding headache. 'Crap.' I sigh and look around. I am on a couch in what appears to be a small apartment. I don't know where I am though.
I get a whiff of a foul smell coming off my shirt. 'Dang, I'll lay off the drinks next time.' I sit up and chuckle at the thought 'No I won't.'
Another person walks into the room from a small hallway. I look up to see it is Tera. She is dressed in a tank top and a pair of sleeping shorts. Her hair is a bit messy, she must have just woken up too.
"I see Goldilocks has finally waken. How's the hangover?"
"Where am I?" I ask groggily.
"My apartment. You didn't want to leave the cantina, so I brought you here. I live on the second floor above it" she answers while taking out a few things from the small refrigerator.
It takes a while for me to process what she just said. "Did anything happen last night." I emphasize the word happen.
Tera laughs and replies "You wish."
"Well, you know you didn't have to look after me."
"Eh, no big deal. Besides I wasn't going to let you get kidnapped by Greedo."
'Crap!' "I forgot about that. I need to go talk to Jabba."
"I would freshen up before you do that. You can take a shower, the bathroom's the first door on you left."
I nod and get up from the couch. I follow her instructions and find the bathroom. Like the rest of the apartment, it is very small. But it looks like Tera uses the space well, there aren't many things laying around. Everything is in a small bag beside the sink. I get in the shower and rinse off the stench from last night. I hear the door open and close. 'That's strange.' I ignore it. The shower is really tiny, I'm too tall and have to crunch down to get my face in the water. A while later I get out. I want to put my clothes back on, but I can't find them. Then I remember the door opening and closing.
"Tera! Where are my clothes?" I shout.
"I put them in the washer, they should be done by now. It's right next to the bathroom door." I hear her answer from the kitchen.
I grab a towel and dry off as best I can. I sneak into the hallway and grab my clothes from the washer Tera told me about. They were indeed clean and dry. I go back into the bathroom and put them on. I look in the mirror and run my hands through my hair before exiting the bathroom.
I walk back into living room/kitchen. Tera was sitting at a table reading a holopad while eating some pancakes. She looks up and points to another plate of food on the table and asks "Want some breakfast?"
"Yeah, thanks." I say while sitting down and beginning to eat. Tera goes back to reading and I survey the room. Like the bathroom, there wasn't much to see. No pictures on the walls, no trinkets, nothing besides the furniture and holoscreen in the corner. The furniture looked old, but was in good condition. There was nothing that showed any thought to decoration or design. I found this strange. Tera was a very outgoing person, I thought her place would be filled with things.
"Not a big decorator?" I ask.
Tera shrugged, "Don't feel the need to keep much around. You never know what might happen."
"What do you mean?"
She looks up surprised, obviously she didn't mean to say the last part. "Nothing, just forget it."
I nod and take a bite of the pancakes. 'Wow, these are really good' I think to myself. "I didn't know you could cook."
"I don't know why you would."
"True, but still these are really good." I say while taking another bite. "Where did you learn?"
"I learned from a chef on my home planet."
"You're not from Tatooine?" I ask surprised.
Tera shakes her head "No, I started working at Chalmun's the day I arrived on this planet."
"Where are you from?"
She pauses before saying, "Far away."
"Why did you leave to come here?" I ask hesitantly. I can tell she doesn't want to tell me much, but I honestly want to know why she would pick to live on Tatooine.
Tera takes a second to think over her response. "My family and I had some disagreements and I just wanted to get away. So I hopped on the first shuttle that would take me somewhere they wouldn't think to look for me" she said simply.
I nodded understandingly "Does anyone else know?"
She shook her head "Nobody has ever bothered to ask."
We finish our food in silence. I look at her every so often when she's not looking or reading. She looks different than she did a while ago. Now I notice the sad look in her eyes, were they always like that? She seems older, not by age, but by maturity. In the cantina she always seemed like she was some young girl without a care in the world.
After what she just told me I know that is not the case. She has a family out there, one she doesn't get along with. One so bad that she ran away. She said she didn't want them to find her, could they?
I notice a few other things I didn't see before, like her hands. They were all cut up and red, probably from working at the cantina. But they didn't look rough like the other bartenders on Tatooine. They looked like they have only just started to get callouses. Like they have never worked before a few years ago when she arrived here. Her skin too. She wasn't as tan as the other citizens of Tatooine. I could never tell from the lighting in the cantina, but now it was obvious.
It is weird to think that someone I thought I knew lived a completely different life than what I thought. She didn't appear to work before she ran away, maybe she is from a rich family where she didn't have to. That would explain why she had to leave her home planet so they couldn't find her. If a kid from Tatoonie ran away, they would just have to go to another town.
The door to the apartment opens and a boy with black hair walks in. I recognize him as Jank, a waiter at Chalmun's. He walks in and is about to say something when he notices me. He looks between Tera and I, then frowns. "Sorry, did I interrupt something" he asks with a hint of jealousy in his voice.
Tera answers "No, is there something you need?"
"I was going to ask you to take over my shift this morning, but I see you had company last night." There is an edge to his voice. He glares at me. 'Woah this kid has a major crush.'
Tera ignores his tone and says, "Sure tell Wuher I'll be there in a bit."
I get up from my spot at the table and head towards the door, "I'll take that as my cue to go. Thanks for everything Tera."
"Sure, no problem."
"Seriously I owe you one."
Tera makes a waiving motion with her hand "Really Han, you were no trouble."
"Still, thanks" I say before walking out of the apartment.
As I'm walking down the hall I hear Jank say "SO WHAT WAS THAT?" followed by Tera laughing and beginning to explain last nights events.
