Wow, loads of you are reading my other stuff. I think it's brilliant and I'm loving the reviews. Because my abnormally large ego needs reviews to survive or else it will start sucking souls out of people with equally large egos which means politicians and other such people in power and which will therefore cause the imminent demise of the entire monarchy in England. So if you don't review, you will be personally held responsible for taking Prince William away from the world. Do you have any idea how many hormone crazed teenagers would want your blood for that?
IMPORTANT NOTE: This story is not a complete, traditional story arc. There is no real sense of beginning to end, there is not a timeline so don't try and read clues. Quite simply, this is a series of missing moments that take place at an appropriate time in Han and Leia's relationship.
PS- I'm making millions on this.
Everything In-Between
CANTO I – Amnesty
Bright sun glared a stark contrast to the blisteringly cold air that swirled about the rebel base on Ysidro. All about the base there was a flurry of activity with the restlessness of the weather seemingly permeating the sentient beings who called themselves rebels.
Two of those beings paid ill heed to the weather or activity about them. Toe to toe, Han Solo and Leia Organa were engaged in a battle of wills. The original cause of the disagreement was something neither could remember; perhaps it was something to do with power couplings, perhaps it was something to do with misunderstandings.
"No."
"You can't tell me what to do, Sweetheart! I'm not a card carrying member of this suicide club."
"If you use our facilities, Captain Solo, you will abide by our rules." Her voice was icy, strengthened by the cold blast of wind whipping their scarves around their bodies in a wintry dance.
"It's one power coupling." That I don't really need, his traitorous mind added.
"That you don't need."
"If I didn't need it, I wouldn't be asking for it," Solo countered darkly.
"You weren't asking for it," the princess pointed out frostily. "You were just taking it."
A gust of arctic air howled through the hanger where the pair stood their ground. The wind seemed to be speaking as it ripped around machinery and pummeled the structures the Alliance had built, louder and louder until suddenly stilling, seemingly to wait.
Solo flicked his eyes out over the barren landscape; the gnarled trees that reached with bare branches up to the sky; the frozen ground that was unyielding to all but the most powerful machines; and the gray sky that cast its dreary verdict on it all.
"I'm not going to argue with you," he growled out in sheer frustration. "Keep the damned coupling if it means that much to your sorry little cause."
Narrowing her eyes doubtfully, Leia watched the pirate stalk off in the direction of the Millennium Falcon. Unaware of the approaching presence of Luke Skywalker, she seethed over the intolerable personality that was Han Solo.
"Hey, Leia." Luke tossed the greeting over his shoulder as he continued past her and onto the same path that Solo had cut only moments earlier.
"Hello, Luke. How are you today?"
Luke paused and turned to face her, presenting his front to the teasing breeze skipping through the air.
"Good. Just finished up my patrol, so I'm going to give Han a hand with some repairs. How're you?"
"As well as can be expected."
Luke grinned knowingly. "You and Han fighting again?"
"Of course not! I just pointed out to him that he shouldn't be taking supplies that could go to better use elsewhere."
Suppressing a groan, Luke looked from her to the Falcon and back again. It was tiresome being trapped in the middle of a lovers quarrel when the two participants refused to even be lovers.
"Leia, Han does need some supplies. The Falcon took a lot of damage on the last mission you sent him on. Most of the repairs he's already done were parts from his own stock. You might have to watch out for him asking for things like a new sensor suite or something though. I hear he wheedled Wedge out of a perfectly good vibroblade."
"It's not my fault if he doesn't know enough when to stay out of trouble. He could have easily avoided that battle."
"And left a lot of people to die. Is that what you'd rather he have done?"
"No!" The word puffed out into the chilled air in a cloud of vapor that disappeared as quickly as it came.
"Look, I know the two of you don't exactly see eye to eye on things. But Han is a big help to us, we can't afford to lose him. And… he's my friend. He's done a lot to help me out, you too. The least we can do is make sure his ship is running good."
"I suppose." She sounded like a petulant child and Luke had to wonder over the Corellian spacer's ability to reduce the normally collected princess to such a state.
"Then meet him halfway. Offer him what he needs."
CANTO II – Ardore
Fire melting the ice, their bodies came together roughly, lips bruising in their quest for warmth. It was neither tender nor gentle, this first pairing between smuggler and princess. Passion fueled the flames until neither could distinguish past from present. All of the animosity, all of the anger and irritation fled rapidly in the face of this all-consuming arduous force.
Surprisingly, it was Han who pulled back first. Putting only a small hair of distance between their bodies, he favored her with a perplexed expression. Dreams and reality seemed to have collided and he wasn't entirely certain which one he was experiencing.
"What's going on here?" His breath mingled sweet with hers and it only made her want him more.
"I don't know. Does it matter?"
"Maybe." No.
"Then we can talk about it later."
He was about to argue, the words already forming on his lips, when she silenced him with a searing kiss that rivaled the power of the storm gathering outside. This time, he didn't break the kiss; he slid his hand down her back, dancing his fingertips along her spine.
A howling gust of wind whipped around the Falcon, screaming its might in the metal parts and hallows. It went ignored by the two locked in the maelstrom of their own emotions.
After, in the heated sheets of Han's bunk, Leia closed her eyes in to the crook of his elbow and let the calm overcome her. A large part of her kept waiting for the awkwardness to come, the embarrassment at having lost herself to the moment, to the mercenary.
It never came.
Instead, nestled against the bare flesh of his chest, she felt secure. A few deep breaths later when the comfort still hadn't vanished, a painful realization wiggled its way in to her consciousness: Han Solo was her safe port in the storm. That was her last thought before the lethargy of intimacy settled over her and sang her to sleep.
CANTO III- Affirmation
Restlessness was replaced with the comfort of companionship. Together, they forged a place for their bond, amidst a war, despite the odds and against their wills. Obligations and priorities shifted as they became more enamored with one another. This new thing they'd unintentionally discovered was clung to tenaciously as the galaxy shifted around them.
Han stared at his princess across the mess hall, his own food untouched. Din from pilots and politicians, soldiers and staffers rushed around him in harried bits and pieces. He ignored it.
Earlier, he'd asked her to join him for lunch, but she'd had an appointment with several ambassadors from the core sector. To support the tenuous balance they'd acquired, he allowed her to go about her work for the Alliance without being harried by his own needs and demands. In return, she believed in him.
"Han?" Luke nudged the smuggler with his elbow.
"Hmm?" Han's gaze didn't waver from Leia as she took her seat next to a green man with seven of what Han assumed were arms.
"I was asking about Leia."
Her name brought him back to the conversation, the young rebel seated at his side. He shot a sideways look at Luke.
"What about her?"
"Don't look at me like that, Han. I'm just…"
"What is it?"
Whatever Luke had to say was important to the younger man and Han saw him steel his courage. "Just… don't hurt her."
"Why would I do that?" Anger colored his words, part irritation from being accused, and part from not being able to deny the pressing responsibility of a debt to Jabba.
"I know how you feel about her, but I know that you've got things to take care of. Don't ruin it; everything will work out if you two let it."
Caught mid-thought, Han saw the princess laugh, a brilliant smile that shone clear through the room right to him. Ignoring Luke, he resumed his vigil, with her without being with her, offering her support without being at her side.
Sensing the hazel eyes fixed on her, Leia turned her own features to the man who had so unexpectedly and completely filled the void in her life.
Oblivious to the rest of the room, all conversations and actions, the smuggler and princess regarded one another with all the respect and passion that had come to define their relationship. Words passed unspoken between the two, nothing needed to be said; slowly, two matching grins spread across their faces.
When the moment passed, Luke spoke. "Think about what I said, will you, Han?"
"Doesn't matter, Kid. I'm staying."
CANTO IV – Concession
It started slowly: the deterioration of Them. Both were slow to realize it and fell too late into the sickly sweet trap. The smuggler was the first to have the epiphany; the first to try to steer the ship back on the right course.
His approach was gentle, his concerns valid as he took in the shadows of the moon on her face. Han's forefinger breathed down her cheek but his efforts were met with a guarded look; maybe she was too afraid to try.
"E en nizamo sopren?"
Only the animals answered his softly spoken request.
Not for the first time, the man had rendered her speechless.
Alderaanian.
No one had spoken it around her since that day. That day when one life ended and a new one began for her. If anyone else knew the language, they hadn't dared to speak it in front of her… until now.
The words were out of her mouth before the repercussions were fully understood. "Eun sienso te possimo." She turned away from him. "Why didn't you tell me you spoke it?"
"I didn't. I learned it." In the embrace of nature, he moved his body behind hers, willing her will to bend to his own tumbling emotions and desires. "For you."
"Han-"
Lips hovered agonizingly close to her ear, "It's not too late you know."
"Eun sienso te possimo," she repeated quietly, trying not to choke on the words. Why would they start over? They couldn't start over- there was no beginning to go back to.
But his hands were hot against her cheeks, his eyes warm against the cold of the distance between them.
"Please, Leia."
There was no strength in her to deny him, his request. As long as they were together, things seemed to somehow work themselves out.
She closed her eyes and nodded, felt the loving caress of his lips on her own.
CANTO V – Quietus
"Why can't you tell me these things?" Leia plucked at the frayed edges of her worn rebel issue blanket. It was by no means cold but she'd sought its shelter the minute Han had turned away from her. "What are you scared of?"
"I'm not scared of anything." Anger cut through the air and slammed a wall between them that pierced her in a way nothing ever had before. The ache was unbearable but she couldn't tell him to stop. At long last, their path had come to this pinnacle and there was no turning back much as he might want to.
"Then talk to me," she protested hotly, curling her fingers around his shirt, clinging to him through the pain as she had so many other nights. Now, though, he was distant, stormy, and unsafe as he shoved her away roughly. Her body and mind didn't even register hitting the wall though her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Why can't you just let me care about you? I love you!"
There. Finally. One of them had said it.
"You don't love me! You only think you do! You don't understand anything." Like a caged animal he paced the room, unable to express his frustration with her, with him, with Them.
"Make me understand then."
"You can't! You won't!" He seethed, a short fuse lit to go off. A small part of Leia was detached and watching from a safe distance as he pulled away from her. It was so clear, so definitive as he so thoroughly severed the link between them in his irrational need to protect her from himself.
"Han, don't do this." Words would have no impact on him, she knew. Dull morning sunlight caught dust motes in the room and they pranced merrily in the commotion Han's pacing caused.
An instant before it happened, Leia turned her face from him: His fury reached its peak and he swung away from her to slam his fist in to the mirror. Shards of glass fluttered to the ground, singing in the sudden silence between them.
He only stared at her, distancing himself farther and farther from her as the seconds ticked by. Her mind raced, finding no solution to the problem that he'd tried to solve before, without her help.
"Tell me you don't love me," she whispered. "Tell me you don't love me and this can stop here."
Before he even spoke, she knew he'd say it; she'd called his bluff and he was holding all of the cards.
"I don't love you."
Tears clutched at her eyelashes, wanting to fall but not wanting to give him the satisfaction even as he turned and walked out of the door, out of her life.
CANTO VI – Recovery
"Hey, Lady?"
The sound of His voice turned her around and stopped her heart all at once. It wasn't possible… he'd been lost to her through some cosmic scheme that she hadn't understood and found terribly unfair.
Now, though, he stood before her framed by the golden sun peeking over the horizon. As the sky lightened under the glow of Torena's sun, his grin grew steadily more confidant than anything she'd ever seen.
Nothing could have prepared her for this moment in her life where things would find a way of working out. Within an instant, she found herself in front of him looking down at the toes of their boots almost touching against the crisp green of the landing field.
How had she missed his landing?
Finding her in front of him seemed to bring reality full force to him and his confidence wavered under the tumultuous flood of emotions raining down on him. There was no doubt between them as to the sincerity of the words he was about to speak, words he had never quite been able to bring himself to say before.
Leia let her eyes drift to the treetops that were swaying in the rhythmic breeze that cooled the coming heat. She smiled. Of course Fate had more in store for them.
"Now or never, Solo," she teased gently. A white rush of relief raced through her as he answered with a small smirk of his own.
"I love you."
END