Coming to you on this frosty friday straight from the frozen tundra of Hoth aka Northern New Jersey, I give you a new chapter - but they are not on Hoth yet, so pretend you don't know what that is, ok? ;)

Chapter 25: They Both Know, Right?

During dinner, it finally dawned on Leia that Han was actually and truly jealous of Luke. She was surprised because she hadn't seen any real evidence of it before now. Maybe here and there, but she had played that off as Han's ego in general more than anything specifically related to her.

This revelation in her ambivalent relationship with Solo sparked something inside of her. Whether that spark was a good or bad thing, she wasn't sure. Suddenly, she came to a decision. Rather than examine anything too closely, she still knew it was the right one.

xxxmtfbwyxxx

Leia could hear Solo before she saw him. His vociferous frustration formed a trail through the Falcon for her to follow straight to the annoyed Captain. This was not the mood in which she had hoped to find him. Nevertheless, this was the time. She approached quietly, yet Solo sensed her behind him.

"How was your date?" he cracked without looking up from his work.

"Do you still want to go to Ord Mantell?" With her head bowed, the question was softly spoken yet without resignation to the air in front of her.

She could tell he was caught completely off guard by her gentle tone because his movement came to an immediate halt. Still, he didn't turn around.

"Yes."

"Why?" Her question had a distinct tentative quality to it.

Picking up a red work rag, Solo absentmindedly cleaned his hands off as he stood up and turned to face her.

"So I know you'll be safe."

The fierce intensity in his eyes and voice made her knees weak. Leia froze her expression as quickly as possible and nodded her head.

"Okay," she whispered.

Unable to hold her facial features still any longer, she quickly turned and headed out of the Falcon. Grateful for the chance to let the bursting play of emotions on her face free reign for a few moments.

Dumbfounded, he watched her walk away. He had no idea what happened between the last time they spoke and now, but she had come to him defenses down and although she had tried to mask it, he saw how his words affected her. This Leia was the Leia he wanted to take into his arms and hold tightly until she felt safe from the universe

xxxmtfbwyxxx

Han Solo stood outside of Princess Leia's quarters on base. With a bottle in one hand, he was unmoving, unable to decide whether he should activate the door announcer. It was exactly one standard month to the day since they had been bonded on Uluruan.

True to his word, Solo had not mentioned to anyone what had taken place while they were there. When Chewie had pressed again for a report, Solo had kept it vague, citing 'the usual.' Han said they had made an emergency stop for repairs and had run into some local trouble, nothing they couldn't handle. That was it.

Shifting his weight, Solo ran his hand through his hair. What was he doing? Her Worship had made it very clear that she never wanted to talk about the bonding again. Plus, it was getting late, either she went to bed or was immersed in reports for tomorrow's briefings. Solo figured it was more likely the latter, knowing her penchant for working late. If that was the case, then he would be doing her a favor by interrupting her and making her take a break, right? So, why was he still standing here afraid to push the announcer? He wasn't afraid, he amended. He was just weighing whether her probable ensuing wrath would be worth it for what he had planned…

Leia sat at the small table in her quarters pouring over the datapad containing the briefing specifications for the upcoming mission to Ord Mantell. There had been several delays before the mission parameters could be set with any confidence, but everything was now a 'go' and she had to be ready. It was the third time she had tried to go over the information in detail without success. Unfortunately, she had been at odds with herself all day because her normally reliable power of concentration was failing her. She knew why, too, but stubbornly refused to give in to the idea.

One standard month ago today she bonded with Han Solo. During her more maddeningly weak moments, she was simultaneously irritated with herself for remembering such a silly thing and irritated with him for not remembering. In fact, he probably hadn't thought about it at all since they first came back, the nerfherder! At least, he had done as she asked and not mentioned it to anyone as far as she could tell – except that one time when Luke almost walked in on them. And what if he had remembered? What did she expect him to do? Wine and dine her in celebration? A small smile crept onto her lips with that thought. Being purposely charmed by that man definitely brought all sorts of possibilities to mind – all very interesting ones, at that.

Enough! The so-called 'bonding' had lasted less than a day. It was ridiculous and utterly pointless to sit there wasting time wondering whether he remembered or not. The idea of Han Solo was frustrating enough as it was without her dreaming up new ways for him to aggravate her.

She had to finish the report. The final approval meeting for the various aspects of the mission was scheduled for early the next morning. That being the case, she was seriously in need of some jaava to keep her alert enough to stay focused. She got up and checked the stores in her small cabinet. Blast! Out of jaava. That meant going all the way down to the base canteen. For a moment, she almost regretted sending 3PO to the HQ control room for the night. Well, the walk would do her good. Maybe it would help wake her up and take her mind off things. Opting to shut down the datapad and leave it instead of bringing it along, Leia rubbed her weary eyes as she walked towards the door. Before tapping the control pad, she stopped. A strange feeling tickled down the hairs of her neck. She could swear she felt a wave of indecision coming over her, even though she knew she wanted to go find some jaava. She shook it off, and pressed the panel to unlock and open the door.

"Hey there, Sweetheart," Han greeted cheerily, a somewhat surprised lopsided smile lighting up his handsome face.

If he hadn't called out to her, Leia would have plowed him over. Instead, she stopped just short of hitting him head on. Any closer and their bodies would have been pressed up against each other.

"Han!" Leia yelped and took a quick step back. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just going through a few things and I found this." He held up the Uluruan whiskey bottle for her to inspect, "I thought maybe we could toast for a successful mission on Ord Mantell."