AN: I don't own Star Wars. This was written as a birthday gift for my dear friend MasterOf4Elements and it also incorporates the H/L July "cake" prompt.
"Cravings"
By EsmeAmelia
It felt good to not have to work today, especially since last night the baby gave both Leia and Han a hard time. Not only did it spend a good deal of the night kicking and twisting as if it already wanted out of the womb, but it also got hungry for meluron fruits and Leia had to send Han out to get some ("For the baby," she'd said, and he'd been unable to argue).
But now the baby was sleeping (at least Leia could sense restfulness coming from her womb and it wasn't kicking up a storm, so she assumed it was sleeping) and Leia and Han were relaxing on the couch and watching a smashball game on the holovid. Normally smashball games had Han cheering and whooping when his team was winning or booing and cursing when they weren't, but today he just stared at the game with long, slow blinks.
"Tired?" Leia asked, feeling a twinge of guilt for sending Han out in the middle of the night.
"Bit," said Han, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
Leia gave her husband an understanding smile. "Why don't you take a nap?"
"Don't wanna nap," Han mumbled. "I'll miss the game."
"Oh come on," said Leia. "I'll tell you who won when you wake up."
She expected him to declare that he wasn't going to miss any amazing moments, but instead her words seemed to give him permission to lean back and close his eyes. Within a few minutes, he was snoring.
Leia smiled again, turning her attention back to the game as well as she could with her husband's snores overtaking the audio, though she didn't want to turn the volume up for fear of waking him. She ran her hand over her stomach that housed their baby. "Are you going to snore like your daddy?" she murmured teasingly.
The baby seemed to wake up at its mother's voice, since it gave a rather hard kick then. "You've got your daddy's enthusiasm, I can tell that," she said with a soft laugh.
Again she tried to pay attention to the game, but a stabbing, persistent thought kept distracting her.
Naboo cheesecake.
That sweet, creamy dessert with the crumbly cookie crust, just the right texture to savor . . .
So delicious . . .
Great, the baby was hungry for something they didn't currently have again. "You have really bad timing, you know that?" she muttered to her stomach. Automatically, she started reaching over to wake Han and send him off to get cheesecake, but she stopped herself in mid-reach. What was she doing? Han was already dead tired from last night and now that he was finally resting, she was going to wake him up and order him to get food for the baby again?
No.
With a huff, she pushed her rotund body to a standing position, grabbing a cream-colored throw from the back of the couch and draping it over her sleeping husband, which made him look oh-so-adorable.
"Sleep well," she whispered, kissing his cheek. "I'll be right back."
. . .
Of course the baby decided to kick up a storm while Leia was driving the speeder to the grocery store, as if it were screaming that it wanted cheesecake and it wanted cheesecake NOW. Leia found she had to slow down several times, which of course got the drivers behind her yelling obscenities.
"It's not my fault!" Leia yelled back. "It's my unborn baby – it thinks it's old enough to drive!"
If the baby was this demanding in the womb, how demanding would it be out of the womb?
When she finally arrived at the grocery story and waddled into the brightly-lit building, she wondered if maybe she and Han should find out the baby's gender – she was getting rather tired of calling the baby "it." Of course, she could always use "they," but that made it sound like she was having twins, which she wasn't.
Right?
The baby was certainly kicking enough to be twins as she pushed the floating shopping cart up and down the aisles, trying not to look too much at the food and get hungry for more than just cheesecake. Cheesecake – dammit, she wanted cheesecake! Her mouth was actually watering at the thought and her stomach was growling. Not only that, but the glistening hard floor was making her feet hurt through her maternity slippers. It occurred to her that she maybe should have put on regular shoes to go shopping, but those were a pain to get on with how her feet had been swelling up lately.
"Mommy, look! Does that lady have a baby growing in her tummy?"
Leia turned and there was a Rodian child pointing at her with one green finger and pulling his mother's shirt with his other hand.
"Don't point!" the mother was saying. "It's not polite to point at people."
Leia smiled, giving the child a nod. "It's all right. I do have a baby growing inside me."
"Cool!" the boy exclaimed, his narrow mouth stretching in the Rodian equivalent of a grin. "Can I feel it?"
"Sure," said Leia, and the boy instantly ran up to her and put his hand on her stomach.
"It kicked me!" the boy exclaimed with a giggle.
"That means it likes you."
"Really? How do you know?"
"Because it's always kicking its mommy."
. . .
When Leia got home, Han was still fast asleep and the smashball game was over – now another game was playing between two teams neither Leia nor Han cared about. No matter, she had what she wanted and this game could play while she indulged in that wonderful oh-so-delicious cheesecake.
"You'd better appreciate that I let you finish your nap," she said to Han as she placed the cheesecake on the caf table and cut herself a giant slice, the sweet smell enticing her nostrils. "My feet are killing me and your child thought it would be fun to kick its mommy the entire time.
Han responded only with an extra-loud snore.
"Fine," said Leia. "Just remember, if you're tired now, imagine how tired you'll be after the baby comes."
By now she couldn't take it anymore – she plunged her spoon into the cake and took a huge bite, closing her eyes and savoring the taste. So soft, so sweet, so creamy, so damn delicious. Once she swallowed, she opened her eyes and immediately took another bite. Then another, and another, and another. She was so engrossed in the deliciousness that she almost failed to notice Han opening his eyes.
"Hey, sleepyhead," she said with her mouth full. "Did you have a nice nap?"
"Yeah," Han murmured, giving her a drowsy smile before a yawn escaped. "So who won?"
"I don't know."
"What?" Han frowned. "You said you'd tell me who won!"
"Well yeah, I did," said Leia, "but . . ." She tapped her stomach. ". . . while you were napping, your baby got hungry for Naboo cheesecake and sent me to go get some."
Han cocked his head, wriggling his arms out from under the throw. "Hon, you know I could've gotten it for you."
"I know, but you were so tired and I decided to let you sleep."
"And even covered me," Han murmured, gripping a handful of the throw and yawning again. "Thanks, sweetheart." He gave his cheeky grin. "Does this mean that if the kid gets hungry tonight, you'll get whatever it wants yourself and let me sleep?"
"Maybe," said Leia, giving her own cheeky grin before leaning over to kiss him with cheesecake-stained lips. "But for now, would you like some cheesecake?"
"Thought you'd never ask."
They spent the rest of the afternoon eating cheesecake in front of the holovid and talking to their unborn baby about its enormous appetite. Though her feet were still sore, Leia thought that yes, she could go get her own food in the middle of the night too and let Han have a break.
At least some nights.
THE END