Written for the fic prompt "cool"
The first time Leia had seen the ship, she had practically laughed out loud, but the diplomat in her had won out, and so she had settled instead for a comment to the ship's ornery captain on his apparent bravery. After all, she was not one to turn up her nose at any vessel willing to transport her away from Vader and the certain promise of death that had awaited her on the aptly named battlestation. The inside of the ship was just as ramshackle as the outside - dingy walls, the acrid smell of overheating engine fluids, missing wall panels exposing the inner workings of a ship that hopefully was space-worthy. It was not what one would call comfortable by any means, but then again, neither was the stark slab in her cell on which she had shivered and writhed and wailed and mourned. Standing in her soggy garbage-soaked dress as she took stock of her new situation, she realized that, while not exactly warm, at least she was no longer cold. Or alone.
A few years later, that same ship had whisked her near frozen frame off the frigid hell of Hoth as the Empire's dark agent of death pursued her once again. This particular rescue had been exasperating and exhilarating, with the ship brandishing a wild mixture of bravado and vulnerability that included escape into (not from) an asteroid field, a broken hyperdrive, and unintended residence within an exogorth, all while defying what seemed like the entire Imperial fleet. Not to be outdone by the ship, Leia had matched that crazy mix by stripping off her snowsuit and climbing into the captain's bunk, along with the captain. Where she was definitely warm and most certainly not alone.
Soon enough though, she had climbed back into that snowsuit when the black hand of death had struck at her for the third time, missing her but managing to freeze her heart along with the captain as he was frozen alive before her eyes. And again, the ship was waiting to ferry her from danger, even though she had returned without its beloved captain in tow. But even without its captain, the ship knew what she needed and flew its battered hull back into danger to rescue the dangling boy who would be able to warm and revive her heart. And make sure once again that she was not alone.