This chapter is my "missing moment" that occurs within the events of Intermission by Erin Darroch and Justine Graham, during the fateful Trip to Bespin:
"Their first union had been the purest physical expression of love... and the second, a few hours later, had only intensified that connection. The third time—initiated by Leia's hand gliding with purpose over his hip, waking him from a sound sleep—had felt as natural and right as waking up with her in his arms felt now."
A big thanks to Erin Darroch and Justine Graham for allowing me to play in their universe and for their generous efforts in helping to make this first fic better than I could have imagined. I was inspired as well by this beautiful cover image, which may be the work of the talented Leela Starsky - if anyone can ascertain the identity of the artist, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is most clearly due!
Leia awoke in the darkened cabin, blinking to clear her eyes as she surveyed the unfamiliar surroundings. Her momentary disorientation eased as the tumultuous events of the past week began to seep back into her consciousness. A time in which her life had been turned upside down by yet another seismic shift, this one shaking her off Hoth's icy hellscape mere footsteps ahead of the Empire and landing her once again within the safe confines of the Millennium Falcon, now limping towards Bespin on overtaxed sublight engines.
The Falcon's captain began to crowd into her thoughts as Leia rolled to her side in the confines of the bunk to face the other occupant, careful not to disturb him. With the stress of completing in-flight repairs to his beloved but temperamental ship and ensuring that they made it to Bespin, Han would need all the rest he could get. As she cautiously stretched to relieve the stiffness in her limbs, other unfamiliar but nonetheless pleasant aches hinted that rest and sleep may be in short supply in this cabin, if last night was any indicator.
Flushing with warmth at the thought of what had transpired earlier that night, Leia focused her eyes in the low light of the cabin on Han's still form. Lying on his side facing her, he was still asleep, attested by the deep steady sound of his breathing. She watched the slow rise and fall of his bare chest, still a bit amazed to find herself likewise naked and in bed with Han, although shedding her clothes had been much easier than letting go the emotional deflector shield to which she had clung to keep him at bay.
With that barrier discarded at last, a myriad of conflicting feelings swirled around her—nervous excitement, relief, fear of an uncertain future, regret over time lost. But for now, for just this moment, Leia allowed herself the luxury of basking solely in the feeling of overwhelming joy, savoring this sliver of light that had pierced the dark storm clouds that seemed to have settled over her life.
She had wanted this—him—for so long now, although until tonight she had only ever admitted that in the most private chambers of her heart. Han had always stirred a riot of emotions within her, which had proved a dilemma for her practical logical mind. Even in their first fraught moments together on the Death Star, with Han wielding his blaster and his mouth with the same indiscriminate recklessness, she had been simultaneously enraged and excited by him. How could someone's mere presence be irritating and riveting at the same time?
But when Han had remained with the Alliance to smuggle supplies and run the occasional mission—all the while proclaiming his commitment to be uncommitted to anything other than himself, his co-pilot and his ship—she had inexplicably found her trust in him deepen. And much to her chagrin, she had come to not only rely on him but to need him as well, and not just for procuring black market bacta and powdered blue milk.
She had allowed that need to grow to fervent want, which had taken near superhuman efforts to hide and was too often betrayed by her hair-trigger blush, which Han seemed to love provoking for his own amusement. But Leia had secretly thrilled whenever she heard the deep rumble of his voice, whether he was arguing with Chewie over the repair of the day or chuckling at Luke's wonderment at finding himself on a planet surrounded by nothing by frozen water. Sometimes blood would rush to her face—and other more interesting areas as well—with just a glance at Han, especially when her furtive gaze unexpectedly met those hazel eyes, blazing out above a nose clearly broken more than once and full sensuous lips underlined by that mysterious slash of scar. He had appeared unbidden in her sleep, between nightmares, and soon began invading her waking thoughts as well.
She had tried to banish him from her mind and bar him from her bruised and battered heart—after all, he was going to leave at some point, as he reminded her and anyone else listening on a more than regular basis. But the more she struggled to free herself of him, the more ensnared she became.
Tonight, though, the long battle that she had waged within herself was over. Whether she had emerged victorious or defeated, she did not know, and in fact did not care—for now, she could only dwell on the barely hours-old memories that inundated her.
Their first union earlier that night, as their passion had finally flowed unchecked, had been overwhelming in its intense beauty. Her body still tingled from the hot waves of pleasure from Han's questing mouth and caressing hands as he took his first lover's inventory of her bared body, and the heat of him when she arched against him as he instigated tender and more intimate explorations. But while the pleasure he stoked in her trembling body had been beyond anything she had imagined, it was her ability to finally express what she had been trying so desperately to deny for years that had provided her with a more explosive release.
In the languorous afterglow, she had spiraled slowly back into the reality within the dim cabin, retrieving the far-flung pieces of herself as she did. Although the Leia she'd managed to reassemble was somehow not that Leia who had walked into this cabin—it was as if there were a piece of her missing, or perhaps, a piece that had been lost once but was now found again.
When she had opened her eyes finally, she'd been met with the sight of Han, adorned with the most genuinely content smile she'd ever seen on his usually smirking face. Casting a shy smile in return, she'd crawled back into his waiting arms and nestled herself against his damp cooling skin, pressing her lips softly to wherever they happened to fall and listening to his soft sighs in response.
Exhausted by their passionate outpouring, Han and Leia had drifted in and out of a light sleep. But each time they had bobbed to the surface of consciousness, their hands had come to life as well, resuming a lazy circuit of gentle caresses, reluctant to break that vital connection of touch that had been so hard fought to establish. Before long, their touches had become more sensual and deliberate, and as Han nuzzled her cheek, he'd whispered heatedly that he wanted her again. As he beckoned her back into a hazy sea of arousal, she'd marveled this time with open flagrant lust at his long muscled body—broad chest dusted with hair, firm flat stomach, lean hips atop powerful thighs, and a beautifully sculpted backside to match.
As she began to tentatively chart and claim this new territory for herself, she had delighted in noticing the slight tremble in his hands as he stroked her flushed cheeks, seeing his eyes squeeze shut in a look of pained concentration when her lips traced a delicate and haphazard trail over his hard masculine contours, and hearing his ragged gasp as she grazed his straining erection. Earlier, as he had demonstrated great tenderness, passion and skill in building her pleasure, her own lack of experience had left Leia anxious about whether she would be able to ignite the same euphoric ecstasy in him. But these doubts dissipated as she beheld his unbridled responses to her tender touches.
Looking up at him, poised over her with a potent look that was both hungry and needful as he moved within her, she'd seen the undeniable proof in his eyes of the powerful effect she had on him, a realization that sent an immediate rush of intensity to every part of her inflamed body and quickly propelled her over the edge. As her body continued to quiver with aftershocks, she drew him down close in her arms and held him tight. Han buried his head next to hers, moaning a quiet but pleading "Sweetheart" into her hair while his hips drove out his own frantic release. Then, utterly spent and finally overcome, they had fallen into the deep and satisfied sleep of new lovers.
Now, wide awake and awash in the memories of the night's events, she swept her eyes over his slumbering form, which stirred her hunger for him and overrode her concern for his adequate rest. As she extended her hand to trace a fingertip over the intriguing vein running down the swell of his bicep, his breathing abruptly shifted and he rolled onto his back, leaving Leia with an unobstructed view of his very beautiful and very aroused body. Even in sleep, Han's body seemed to react to her nearness, acting beyond his conscious control, as if in a state of persistent need for her.
Leia's hand changed course and glided over his hip, drawn irresistibly by the enticing sight of his erection on display for her. She reached out to curl slender fingers around him and, finding him hot to the touch, was jolted as if sparked by a live wire. She gentled her grasp, letting her fingers explore the rock-solid hardness of his long length, marveling at the contrasting textures of the smooth soft skin and coarse curly hair. She was fascinated by both the seeming oddity of the male sexual organ and by the strong primal feelings it stirred in her, especially in light of her new first-hand knowledge of the pleasure it could bring to both of them.
Greedy to discover further intimate secrets of his gorgeously charged body, Leia rose to a kneeling position near his side and then sat back on her heels. As her fingertips mapped the rippled contours of his muscled abdomen, she glanced up at Han's face to find a pair of smoldering eyes staring back at her. He made no movement, except for that of his eyes intently following her hand, seemingly giving his tacit permission to continue her bold exploration of his body.
"Just can't keep your hands off me, Your Worship?" he murmured, his voice husky with sleep and lust. His eyes began to crinkle and the corner of his mouth tilted up in a gratified smile.
In silent reply, she held his gaze steady as she wrapped her small hand around his thick length again and began a slow stroke, while her other hand slowly glided up his abdomen to his chest, her fingers sliding through his chest hair to graze and tease his nipples. His bemused look quickly gave way to one of breathless anticipation, as his brow furrowed and his mouth fell open to release a hoarse groan.
Gauging the size of him in her small hand, she slid her other hand at his chest back down to allow both to bear fully on his rigid manhood. In response, his hips began to thrust in counterpoint to the motion of her hands, and he began to moan her name as if praying before a goddess.
Leia felt the wild surge of her own arousal course through her as if she had been hard-wired into a high-voltage circuitry grid, evoked by the potent combination of Han's ready body on display for her and the evidence of intense pleasure she could incite in him. Although Han flashed swagger and cocksure attitude to the galaxy at large, the vulnerability he revealed in these private moments of passion, coupled with the deep desire and frenzied want that she could stir in him, were heady for her, transforming any of her remaining hesitation into a powerful want and drive of its own.
Leia moved to kneel between his parted legs to take further command of his body, but Han, no longer able to remain a passive participant, reached for her, his large hands quickly swarming her body. He pulled her small frame possessively down towards his own, groaning as he drew her soft full breasts and hardened nipples to his hot open mouth for a ravenous midnight feast.
When his hungry mouth at last devoured her lips in a fiery kiss, she whimpered and opened her mouth to the rough insistence of his tongue. As their kiss quickly deepened, he rolled her to her back and she folded her legs around him, allowing Han to slide his impatient erection against her aching core, his hips already thrusting in instinctive need. As she felt him glide hard against her ready center, he let out an agonized groan and quickly adjusted the angle of his hips to sink deep inside her in a single powerful thrust, driving a ragged echoing moan from Leia.
Finally intimately connected, the frenetic energy that had snapped their bodies together like a pair of magnets seemed to ease slightly, soothing the fierce urgency to which they had awakened. As their hips continued to move together in a slow hypnotic rhythm, they shared sweet unhurried kisses and clasped hands, interlacing fingers as Han gently moved her arms back to brace them beside her head. This languid midnight coupling, in contrast to those earlier, was quiet yet powerful, filled with soft moans and deep contented sighs, while their locked eyes bore witness to the tremendous flow of feelings coursing between them.
At the heightened state with which they had initiated this latest union, it wasn't long before they were both teetering on the slippery edge of release. As Han moved his hand down between them to add a perfectly placed touch to the intimate joining of their bodies, Leia began to writhe beneath him, moaning in earnest. The last thing she saw was a look of sweet joyful pride on Han's face before she arched back and split the silence of the cabin by wailing out for him with the desperate cry of his name for the first time. Seemingly robbed of control by her plea for him, Han's movements became forceful and erratic, until he finally exploded within her with his own strangled shout.
Sated but thoroughly spent, the weary lovers began to recover in the resumed silence of the cabin, clinging tightly in their embrace to maintain warmth as their bodies rapidly cooled. Leia could still feel the roiling heat of her emotions, and a glance up at Han revealed an almost pensive look on his face.
Noticing her eyes on him after a moment, his face conjured a faint smile, so unlike his usual trademark grin, but his eyes glittered like a kaleidoscope, projecting wonder, fear, and tenderness all at once. Tightening his arms around her, Han broke their shared gaze, closing his eyes but tenderly anointing the crown of her head with the warmth of his lips, as if admitting the truth of what his gaze had just revealed.
Ensconced securely in the safety of his strong embrace, she nestled closer to him, burrowing her head on his chest to feel the comforting beat of his heart, pounding out a coded message to her own. The buzzing of her emotions began to quiet, as if they were finding their proper places to settle, and soothed by the low humming lullaby of the Falcon's engines, she closed her eyes, content and fearless to give herself to sleep, to Han, to life.