Only last week, Leia had resigned herself to the fact that her marriage was over. She even made an appointment to discuss legal separation with her personal adviser. It wouldn't be too hard to achieve. Their finances had always been separate, and she was prepared to sign over the house on Mandalore to Jonah. Telling their children would be hardest part, but she thought they would realize quickly that it wouldn't be that different from the way they had grown up.
She was sure no one else would be very surprised. The surprising part was that they made it last sixteen years.
But on the day that she was supposed to meet with her advisor, she found herself instead sitting in a bar on a remote world, drinking with her estranged husband. Drinking and then kissing. And kissing until the bartender cleared her throat loudly. And then renting some shabby little room, where she was, at this exact moment, unbuckling his belt.
Her back was pressed against the locked door, and his lips were on her throat, and she was caught somewhere between wanting this with every molecule of her being and fearing that this was drunken self-delusion. "Boba, wait...this might not be…"
He pulled back. He was trying to focus on her face, but he wasn't quite succeeding. "Shower?" He said abruptly.
"Shower?" She echoed, confused.
He took her hand and pulled her into the 'fresher, which was small but scrubbed clean. He turned on the water in the shower and before Leia could really process it he stepped under the spray and dragged her with him.
It was cold.
He pressed her into the corner, water dripping from his head and kissed her again. Icy water streamed over them, soaking their clothing, she let out a shuddering gasp as he released her, her alcohol-drenched senses slowly coming back to life.
Fett put his head under the spigot once more and ran a hand over his head, sluicing water from his hair. His breathing was quick, but his eyes were sharp and clear. His wet shirt clung to his broad back as he turned to shut off the water.
"Oh," Leia said and reached for his belt again. They struggled out of their wet clothing in between hungry kisses and the occasional muffled curse. The air was an assault on her chilled skin, gooseflesh prickled up and down her arms and legs.
He took her wrists and pinned them above her head, the heat of his mouth moving from her neck to her collarbone and then to her chest. He knelt to go lower, his hands on her hips as he licked the water from her stomach. She dropped her hands to his head, her nails dragging up the back of his neck, and suddenly he pulled back.
"Hands. Up." He looked at her with one eyebrow raised, daring her to refuse.
She raised her hands in a gesture of surrender and then laced her fingers together at the top of her head. He nodded once in approval and nudged her legs a little further apart. She grasped at her wet hair in frustration as his fingers teased her. Oh gods. She couldn't help the eager buck of her hips as he pressed light kisses to her lower abdomen and the tops of her thighs.
He looked up at her again, that intent dark gaze that she knew so well. His finger pressed into her and she squirmed against the cold tiles. His teeth nipped at the soft skin on her belly and he worked two fingers into her, fucking her slowly with them. His thumb moved and the sound she made was not quite a moan, but some choked and undignified relation.
She was so completely focused on the tortuous movements of his fingers, she noticed he stopped before she heard it.
Her new commlink. The one only Luke had the ID for.
"Godsdamnit," she said aloud. Fett withdrew his fingers without comment. She had to answer it. It could be about their children.
Leia hurried out to the bedroom, naked and dripping wet, and snatched the commlink off the bedside table. "Incoming transmission," she told her husband over her shoulder. "He found something."
"Something" turned out to be an understatement. Leia connected the commlink to the old holoprojector in the room, and then sat down on the edge of the bed. "Kriffing hell."
Dyrk had uncovered a hefty file on Su'siat Do Kin from the Imperial archives. The Kubaz was a career criminal who used a good fifty different known aliases and worked for just about every mob, guerilla or terrorist outfit in the galaxy over the last fifty years. Hutts. Pirates. Black Sun. Death Watch.
Fett, who had actually bothered to grab a towel, looked over at the projection while he was drying off. "I know one of those names. Neeun Nott. Professional cleaner."
"Not the kind of cleaner who scrubs 'freshers and makes beds, I assume."
"He might have. But for reasons you don't want to think about." He tossed her the towel, and she absently hugged it to her. "He's a mob fixer," Fett continued. "If someone in the family makes a mess, he cleans it up. Whatever that entails."
"Could it mean hiding the bodies of dead children?"
"It could. I'll start working my contacts," he said, his eyes running down through the listing. "Seems like we know a lot of the same people."
Leia looked at him through the green glow of the projection, and for a second the mystery of the island burial ground evaporated in her mind. Fett was standing there naked with one hand on his hip, and she couldn't think about anything other than his broad chest, and the perfect, muscular line of his arms and the downright shameful curve of his ass.
Sixteen years had barely touched him. And if there was a little more softness around his pecs and stomach and backside she didn't mind it at all. Not one bit.
"Oh, gods." She covered her face briefly with her hands. "I can't look at this right now. I'm still a little drunk and kind of-" she pulled the towel away enough to look at her chest "-aroused, and I can't-"
Fett crossed through the holograph, yanked the towel away and bent to kiss her in a single motion. He leaned into it, pushing her back onto the bed and covered her body with his own.
He wanted her so much. The way he touched her, the way he looked at her...it was a comforting constant in her life. His mouth moved down from her throat to her breast, and her back arched off the bed. Her skin was still wet but in no universe was she cold.
His thighs forced hers just a little further apart and she reached down to touch him. She bit down on her lip as he grew harder and her body tightened with anticipation. If she didn't want him inside of her so badly, she would have brought him off just like that, just for the pleasure of watching his face. She gave him one last squeeze and wrapped one leg around his waist, her hips tilting up to meet his.
He looked up just long enough to meet her eyes, just for a second or two, and then he was pressing into her. She shuddered, and twisted, and he pushed in even deeper, filling her up completely. "Oh," she gasped, rocking her hips against his, urging him to move. "Don't-" she had to stop to breathe, "Don't hold back. Fuck me. Make me sore tomorrow."
His mouth twisted, and she caught a flash of teeth. "Where are your manners, Chancellor?" He cupped her cheek, and the heat in his eyes made her pulse skip. She put her hand over his, pressed her cheek against his palm and then guided it down to the hammering pulse in her throat.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Would you do me the honor of fucking me right this godsdamn minute?"
"That kind language will go over great at press briefings." His fingers briefly spanned her throat before he curled his fingers and let the backs brush over her flushed skin.
She wrapped both her legs around his waist, holding him as tightly as she could. "I don't care. Boba, please."
He dropped his hand back to the bed and thrust into her. No playing around now. His pace was forceful and relentless, and every deep thrust echoed through her body like a burst of electric current that she could feel it all the way out to her fingers and toes.
That sweet tension from the shower built back up inside her, stronger and wilder. She tried to reach down between them, but Fett pushed her hand away. He pulled out, grasped her hips, and turned her over onto her stomach. He did it so quickly it made her head swim, but she willingly thrust her ass up as he entered her from behind, their bodies slapping together roughly as he began to move again.
He leaned over her and slipped his fingers down between her legs, eliciting a pleading cry from Leia. Her fingers clawed and fisted the worn coverlet, and her head dropped down between her arms as a shaft of searing heat stabbed through her. Her bones turned to liquid as she collapsed face-first on the bed.
She was only dimly aware of being rolled over onto her back again, and her trembling legs parted. Oh, there he was. Right where he should be. He entered her again, moving slowly but steadily, his breathing ragged. Leia arched up to kiss him. She tasted sweat and just a hint of tihaar as she let her teeth drag just a little on his lower lip. Come for me, she whispered into his mind.
And he did. His body stiffened against hers, his shoulders hunched and his head dropped the curve of her neck. She held him close, savoring the heat from his skin and pulsing release inside of her. He was still and panting for a few seconds, and then he lifted his head. "Did you-"
Her hand covered her mouth in consternation. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
"Stop." He looked down at her steadily, still breathing hard. "Don't do that again."
"I won't. I promise."
He looked at her second longer, then nodded and shifted so he could rest his head on her chest.
She rubbed her palm between his shoulder blades, grateful for that small measure of grace. She truly hadn't meant to place a suggestion in his mind, but he was so open to her at that moment, and the sense of connection she felt was so powerful and enticing. How could she keep it from happening again?
Her body was still flushed from the alcohol and high on endorphins, but her mind had drawn back to the cold, inconsolable truth. In spite of everything, and all the things that were said and the physical bond that they shared...they hadn't really solved anything. Sooner or later they would have to leave this place, and all of the problems that led them here would still be waiting.
"What are we going to do?" She said aloud.
His arms tightened around her.