Chapter 2--Tough Love.
Mirax and Iella were sitting in their favorite caf shop in Corsucant, sampling the latest imports from the Inner, Outer, and Middle Rim, when they saw a familiar face.
"Hey, isn't that Leia?" Mirax asked, nudging her friend.
Iella squinted. "Yeah, I do believe you're right. And that's Winter with her, or I'm mightily mistaken."
"Which you never are. Shouldn't she have five dozen bodyguards hanging around?" Mirax said, looking about.
"Maybe she's incognito. Mixing with the hoi polloi."
"And you can't get any more hoi than her nor polloi than us. Let's go mingle."
Leia looked surprised but pleased to see them. "Hey!" she said, "The fellows members of the Correllian Wives Club!"
"In person," Mirax said. "Where's your honour guard?"
"The Noghri are lurking about somewhere. They know you, so they won't interfere. Join us?"
"Thought you'd never ask," Iella said, grinning. "What brings you here, anyway?"
"Winter said this place was good, and sometimes I just want to have an ordinary afternoon, sans bodyguards, politicians, and diplomats."
"Translation: she's upset about something," Mirax said, sitting down. "What's up, Princess?"
"Luke," Leia said, gloomily.
Mirax and Iella exchanged glances. "What's wrong with Luke?"
"He's having yet another utterly unsuitable love affair. I swear, sometimes I think he just does it to get on my nerves."
"Really? Who's the lucky lady?" Mirax asked, in a studiedly casual voice.
Leia sighed. "I tolerated the voice in the machine for his sake, but now he's carrying on with Mara Jade! Did you ever hear of the like?"
"So what's wrong with Mara?" asked Iella.
Leia sighed. "Nothing, really. Except they're completely incompatible. Luke wouldn't hurt a fly; and Mara couldn't draw them. They have absolutely nothing in common."
"They're both Jedi," Mirax said. "It seems to be pretty important to both of them."
Leia bristled. "I didn't marry a Jedi, and *I'm* very happy. And Corran didn't marry one, either, Mirax, unless you've been lying to us all these years."
Mirax grinned. Then she looked towards the door. "Well, here's a surprise-Mara herself," she said drily.
Leia grimaced. "What's she doing here?"
"Well, actually," Iella said, "We invited her to meet us here."
Mara didn't *walk* into the room; she quite literally floated over to their table on a wave of almost-visible afterglow.
"Well, what do you know?" Iella muttered to her tablemates in an under voice as she watched this display, "It looks like the Jedi Power Couple just discovered nooners." Mirax gave a sudden crack of laughter, which she quickly stifled.
Mara gave them all a beaming smile. Leia blinked in the glare.
"Hi, folks," Mara said happily. "How's everything?"
"Um, fine," Mirax said. "We saw Leia here, so we asked her to sit in."
"Wonderful!" Mara said radiantly. Leia was quite obviously taken aback by Mara in a positive mode.
"How are things with you, Mara?" Leia said, politely enough.
"Fantastic!" Mara said.
"I didn't know there were that many superlatives in Mara's vocabulary," Mirax muttered to Iella, who smiled in spite of herself.
"Sit down, Mara," Leia said gravely. "I've been wanting to talk to you."
Mirax had always suspected that Mara was very brave; and when her redheaded friend didn't bolt for the exits at Leia's conversational gambit, she knew it for sure. Or perhaps Mara's mind was still on her last tryst with Luke, and she didn't realize she was in deep, deep poodu.
Mara sat down and gave Leia an open smile. "Sure," she said easily. "What's on your mind?"
Iella, Mirax and Winter all flinched. Leia was made of tougher stuff, though; she didn't blink an eye.
"Well, for starters, my brother."
"What about him?" Finally, Mara got the message. She looked suddenly rather nervous.
"I understand you're a couple," Leia said. Her tone was carefully neutral.
Mara knitted her brow. "Um, yeah. Did he tell you?"
"No, I heard it elsewhere," Leia said coolly. "In fact, Corran told me."
Mirax stiffened, and glanced at Iella.
"Oh," Mara said. Her tone was expressionless.
"I hear Booster was the match-maker," Leia said. "Is that true?"
"Yeah," Mara said, now reduced to words of one syllable.
Leia shook her head, but said nothing. Mara looked anxious.
"What do you talk about?" Leia asked suddenly.
"Talk?" Mara said blankly.
"Yeah, talk. You know, moving your lips. What do you say to each other?"
"Other than to discuss who's gonna be on top," muttered Mirax
Leia gave Mirax a discreet kick under the table. Mirax gave her a wide, close-mouthed smile.
"Um." Mara said.
"You do talk, don't you?" Leia asked.
Mara suddenly looked a lot less radiant. "Sometimes," she said evasively.
"Mara, how can you tell if you and Luke have anything in common if you don't talk?" Leia asked earnestly.
"We *do* have something in common!" Mara said, stung.
"Other than sex," Iella said bluntly.
"That's right," Leia said. "All of us are married here. So we all know. Eventually, the physical stuff will wear itself out. You may discover that when it does, you're bored with each other."
Mara was now sat hunched in her chair. She looked worried.
"Now, what you should do, is go find Luke and see if you can actually have a conversation."
Mara said. "You think?"
"Yes," Leia said. Mara looked pensive for a moment, and then nodded at the rest of the table and left, head down, face clouded.
There was silence for a moment. Then the usually silent Winter said: "Gods, Leia, that was positively evil."
"Yeah," said Mirax. "You know very well that men don't *have* conversations: women talk, and men grunt semi-occasionally. She's never going to get Luke to *talk* to her, for Hoth's sake."
Leia shook her head. "Better she find out now rather than later."
Mirax gave her a hard look: ""Fess up, princess," she said. "You couldn't bear to see her look that damn happy."
Leia grinned suddenly. "True enough. I thought Mara's usual personality was wearing, but Mara in love is worse. And *you* 'fess up--you feel exactly the same way, you're just not prepared to be as honest about it as I am."
Mirax and Iella avoided her eyes, and looked guilty. Leia gave them a triumphant smile, and turned to look thoughtfully at Mara's retreating figure.