Jargist looked nervous, hopeful, and torn. Leia knew full well the emotions he was experiencing. She pulled Han aside.
"I'm not bunking with him," she told Han.
"You've bunked with Luke before," Han pointed out.
"Luke is the same age and he doesn't call me Your Highness."
"I do. Don't I?"
Leia made a face. She was in no mood for games. "Not in so many words. I'm not bunking with you, either."
"That leaves Chewie then," Han pretended to think.
Leia counted to three. It was hard to give up her privacy, but considering what else she'd been asked to give up, it seemed ridiculous to value it. "Yes," she agreed finally. "I like Chewie."
"Glad to see you so egalitarian, Princess," Han said.
"I am not being egalitarian," Leia started to snap, "I am being practical. And rational, and sensible-"
"Yeah," Han said dismissively. "I got a vocabulary too. Plus," he tapped his temple, "foresight. Made all the arrangements. Kid gets the crew quarters to himself, you can have my cabin, and Chewie and me'll take turns in the hammock and the cockpit."
"Your-" Leia began.
"Yeah. Don't get any ideas."
Leia had a sudden image of a mushroom on Alderaan that, when lopped off its stem, suddenly disappeared in a puff of fungal spore. It was exactly what happened to the fragments of relief and gratitude she was about to exhibit before he spoke again, except at least the spores would grow another mushroom.
She was irked. That's why he was poking at her; prodding for a reaction. He already knew. Don't get any ideas. About what- him? his potential generosity, or something she would do. It wasn't the first time he had said it.
"What ideas could I possibly get, Captain?"
"Should we review the ones you have had?" Han said sarcastically.
Leia didn't like that at all. "Yes," she snapped. "Let's. Because one saved your life and the other led to you getting a job."
"You did not save my life," he grumped. "You just would have gotten me killed differently."
"But you didn't get killed. Is there something you don't want me to see? Do you think I'll steal your toothpaste? "
A corner of his mouth slid up in a smile. But he said, "A fellow can't be too careful."
"What kind of fellow opens his room and then worries someone is going to spy on him," Leia derided. "You're paranoid."
"I am not paranoid."
"Then you have something to hide," Leia accused.
It appeared she wasn't far off the mark. Han pulled something from the air. "My recipe for Mandalorian stew, alright? Don't find it. Don't go looking for it."
Leia took a big breath and closed her eyes. Usually, Dr. Renzatl had taught her, it was something else. "I know you're a private man," she told him. "I just want to know one thing or I'll sleep on the lounge couch."
"What?"
"Have you set traps?"
"Have I set tr-" He repeated puzzled, then caught her tease and smiled. "Ah, see, a paranoid man sets traps."
"Yes. If you're not paranoid, then surely I won't snoop," she said smartly, and left him to figure out her circular logic.
Jargist stayed in the crew quarters most of the trip. Even so, Leia did not practice with the target remote. The boy had a strange effect on Leia. Somehow it was important to avoid him and exist as a... presence. Not because she was the Princess; at least she didn't think so. Maybe? She had no qualms sharing space and time with Luke or Han and Chewie, and she would have been horrified if anyone brought up her manners as class distinction.
He was just a boy. Lanky and fourteen, with a permanent tooth missing and freckles covering his cheeks. When he went anywhere on Alderaan- school, store, temple- a portrait of her parents hung on the walls, sometimes hers, larger and more prominently displayed than the one of Emperor Palpatine. If he attended the opening of smashball tournaments, did he sing along to Alderaan's anthem?
He was raised within a monarchy, and he was young enough to only know the Empire. He spoke like an Alderaani. Her title flowed off his tongue naturally and he never looked her in the eye.
Planetary distinction, Leia realized. With Luke, who hailed from Tatooine, and Han, a Corellian, she felt... human, a small part of the vast and amazing galaxy. She wouldn't know them in ways they wouldn't know her, but that wasn't the case with Jargist. He felt like an intimate, only something had come between them, a barrier-
Maybe it was class distinction. Maybe Jargist was the one to employ it, to treat the Princess differently, because she was one of the highborn, and since there had never been as many of them there were even fewer now, maybe just her, and look what entrusting them with the safety of their planet had brought them-
She ate one meal with him. That was enough.
Talk was awkward, forced. Leia learned on Alderaan he had lived with both parents and had two brothers, a sister, and two pets. The family that agreed to take him in was his mother's cousin.
"She's old," Jargist said. "Or, older than Ma. Her aunt's daughter, I think."
"A cousin. That puts her in the same generation as your mother," Leia reasoned.
Jargist shrugged. "I don't remember them. They moved when I was little."
It was a strange jump in reasoning. Apparently, being a stranger meant old to Jargist, Leia discovered. It was quite possible she was very old to this fourteen year old boy's mind. Their conversation was superficial. He told her about his pet getting stuck in a nerf pen and the memory was fun. Leia only had a bird but it stayed in its cage- she didnt even know whether it was male or female- and the maidens took care of it, so she only listened to the story. She didn't tell him about the bird.
Han didn't bother her much either, which was a relief. Everyone had to enter the captain's quarters to use the 'fresher, but they knocked outside the threshold and gave her time to strike an industrious pose. His quarters consisted of a bunk and storage units. As was customary for space travel design, shelves and tables folded and bolted to the walls; Leia had unlatched a metal seat and table. She sat atop his bunk pillow for comfort and had only opened one cabinet. It wasn't bolted, so it didn't qualify as snooping. It held clothing.
Sometime during the second day- she would set her chrono when they landed; it was easier to adjust to time when you didn't keep track of how much had passed- Leia was in the cockpit with Chewie. He had quizzed her on numbers, and, satisfied with her comprehension, had started to teach her body parts in Shyriiwook.
Language had interesting subtleties that emerged without a translator. For instance, when he put two hands up to his brow, Leia figured he was teaching her the word for head, but it took Chewie sweeping his hand softly over her brow, eyes, and mouth to see that he meant face.
Han breezed in after a time to take his shift. "Left you some grub, pal."
Chewie rumbled something, and got out of his seat. Leia stood too. "Was that thanks?" she asked.
"No. You don't need to run off," Han said.
"I was just giving you your seat."
"Oh. He said something like, 'you better have', or 'you're supposed to'. 'Damn straight.' I don't know." Han slipped past her and took the captain's chair. Leia settled in Chewie's, oversized and still warm from his body heat. "Kind of a thanks, I guess."
Leia furrowed a brow. "I thought you- that you were fluent in Shyriiwook."
"Yeah," Han shrugged.
"Then why were you vague just now?"
"'Cause I knew," Han said simply. "Didn't know I'd be playin' translator."
"How did you learn it?"
"Didn't have my own tutor, like you do," he said darkly. He must have thought she was prying, because he was offensive again. It was no matter, really; Leia was only curious so let it go. Someday, she thought, she'd get that recipe for Mandalorian Stew.
"I find the language very subtle," she said. "Do you have to understand much context?"
"Yeah, and intonation. I heard you, talking about head and face. Wookiees don't really have a word for head. It's 'top of body'. The face is what's important. What they see, what they smell and touch."
"When did you learn Shyriiwook?"
She was getting too personal again. All she was asking about was a time period; it shouldn't be difficult to answer, but Han closed his lips together before saying, "I didn't really. It was always around. Something I came to understand, not learned."
"That's what Luke said," Leia nodded at Han. If she stayed in the present, they could talk, and then she realized it must be the same for her; that he might avoid asking her things for fear of upsetting her. "That for him it's not so much the lexicon as it is taking in the situation as a whole."
"I notice he didn't say that in front of me," Han was amused. "It was pretty funny when Chewie asked him how he liked being a pilot and Luke thought he was tellin' him he had a spot on his shirt."
Leia laughed. "I didn't know Luke to brag," she said.
"I dabbed some sauce on him, so he'd have something to talk about."
"Considerate of you, Captain," Leia said with an amused shake of her head.
After several minutes of comfortable silence, during which Han read gauges and pushed buttons and stole glances at her, he finally asked, "Whatcha thinking about, Princess."
Leia sighed and turned to face him. "I'm trying to remember what it was like to be fourteen."
"Wasn't too long ago, for you."
"I told you, I'm twenty."
"Yeah, and six years ain't that long ago."
"Is fourteen a long time ago for you?"
Han shrugged. "Long enough."
"What did you do at age fourteen?"
His eyes lifted to the view out the cockpit. "Pretty much what I did at twelve, or fifteen."
"Me, too. I was Senator at eighteen."
"I was in the Navy that age."
She appraised him. "I was going to guess that. At fourteen," she began to recite, "I got up at the crack of dawn. My breakfast was ready for me. The maidens drew my bath, selected what I would wear, did my hair-"
"Sounds like you didn't have to decide anything."
"That was precisely it. The maidens were to free their queen or princess, whomever they served, from daily burdens so that they wouldn't be distracted from thoughts of rule."
"Sheesh," Han said.
Leia ignored him. "I studied-" she broke off abruptly to ask him, "How long was your school day?"
"Um, long," Han said. "I have no idea."
"On Alderaan typically it was six hours of learning with an hour for play and physical movement. Mine was ten hours. Schools were closed for one month, two times a year. I had a only a week off at those times."
"Are you bragging, or whining?" Han asked. "'Cause it's not clear."
Leia smiled. When she offered the past, it was nice that he wasn't afraid to take it. "Neither. Just stating." She crossed her arms and rested her hands at her neck, allowing her chin to rest on them. "I was never really fourteen, was I. Not like Jargist." She lifted her chin to indicate the boy waiting in the crew quarters. "He talks of pets and sports. He had this... engaged, interactive life."
"Yeah," Han agreed. "Bein' a Princess and all, you were kind of eternal, weren't you."
Before Leia even had time to blink at his startling comment, he went on. "At age fourteen, I was thinking about food, I think by then sex and girls; girls, anyway, and what I could get away with."
"Started early on your outlaw path?" Leia gave him a wry eye. "Graduated from throwing rocks?"
"Oh yeah, by then I was a real scoundrel," Han winked at her.
"It's not something to wink at," she told him. "It's ... There's a lot you've said without telling me." She could sense his mood sour, and he went back to pushing buttons, so she didn't elaborate.
But she was thinking that at age fourteen, Jargist hadn't mentioned any pranks and he had given Major Klander's farewell gift of a muffin to Chewie, and it was damaged in the packing. Of course, Leia had only one meal with him, but he had given her a glimpse of his life and seemed to lead a normal one. If there was such a thing. Both hers and Han's had been quite different than Jargist's.
To get him away from his sudden glumness, Leia asked, "Are you worried about the Falcon's appearance in Imperial City?"
His eyes flicked out the viewport again. "No," he said casually. "More worried about your appearance. I'm taking her down one of the back-city docks. They don't look at wanted posters as much. That, and the CTC was kind enough to make me a registration for her under a different name."
Leia's mouth fell open. "You're kidding," she said. "That's illegal. A forged document?"
"Tough times, sweetheart," Han said. He was back to smug at least. "It'll come in handy."
"You're just wracking up all kinds of benefits, aren't you?" she said a little acidly. "What's the name?"
"Under the Black Moon."
On the Tantive IV a signal would chime alerting passengers to strap in when the ship was soon to emerge from hyperspace. Han delivered the message personally. Leia heard him knock on the wall outside the crew quarters.
"Coming out of hyper, kid," he called out. "Landing in about twenty minutes."
"Can I watch?" Leia heard Jargist ask.
"Uh, sure." Without seeing him, Leia knew he had put a hand to the back of his neck, and she smiled. She decided to gather with all of them in the cockpit.
Coruscant was not an attractive planet from space. It was a featureless grayish orb, covered with a haze. It was the first time Jargist alluded to the destruction.
"I did what you said, Your Highness," he began.
"Oh?" Leia was trying to remember what she had said.
"Yeah," Jargist said, his eyes cast downward as they were much of the time. "I decided who I'd want."
"You did," Leia said, stalling. "Who, then?"
"For us. The," Jargist spread his hands, "the, you know. The living."
"Oh!" Leia remembered. "The goddesses." Yes, she attempted to put a positive spin on the fact that Alderaani tradition would have to be broken, and encouraged Jargist to come up with his own interpretation of the tradition.
"I kept my candle," he told the group. "I figure I can light it for emergencies, like this was."
Leia's stomach was cold or clenching, either one. Her body always reacted. She lifted her chin.
Jargist was going on, "I hear service in Imperial City is spotty."
"It is," Han affirmed, and Chewie added a bark of agreement.
Leia looked at the back of Han's head. Sometimes, it just mattered they happened to be around when she felt like fleeing.
"The goddess Discord," Jargist said. "Because she represents catastrophes. I looked her up. And Hearth."
Hearth, Leia thought, gods yes. "It's perfect," she said.
"That's only two, though," Jargist said. "Do you think there should be three?"
Because three went with the dead. Leia inhaled. She wasn't sure, and it had been a long time since she studied the realms of the goddesses and their symbolism in depth.
"The living are different than the dead," she said. "Wisdom, perhaps."
"I thought of her," Jargist said. "But I wasn't sure. She's like," he squirmed where he stood, suddenly uncomfortable to voice an atraditional thought, "a lesser goddess. I know she's not," he added hastily before Leia could correct him, "but maybe she should be. Because we didn't have wisdom then and I don't know we ever will."
No one said anything. Leia thought if she moved she would shatter.
Finally, Chewie rumbled something and Han cleared his throat. "He said, maybe if you ask her to go it'll become more important."