TITLE: "My Sassy Princess"
AUTHOR: Maiden of Endor
RATING: K
GENRE: Romance/Humor
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Star Wars. Luke chasing Leia around the carousel was a borrowed scene from a Korean drama series, and inspired by it.
SUMMARY: Some brother-sister bonding between Luke and Leia. A carousel ride brought back sad memories of Leia and her father. (At this point in the story, Leia and Luke still haven't got a clue about their progeny.)
CHAPTER VI-Carousel RideWork at the Rebel Headquarters that day was only until three in the afternoon. The rebel generals met up and discussed their plans for Hoth. The military supplies needed were already sent there.
As the meeting was adjourned, Leia planned to go home by herself and not wait for Han. Maybe he'll go to that bar again and spend the rest of the day there drinking and girl-watching with Lando, she thought. Girl-watching. Those two words stuck in Leia's mind and she found it hard to erase it. Again, she felt her heart ache without knowing why. Why do I have to feel this way every time I think of him liking other girls? Am I liking him already? Herthinking of the possibility that she might actually like Han was too much for her to take seriously. And what would I expect from him if I did like him? He'll probably trip out on me, Leia thought and shook her head with angst and remorse. She didn't like people who'd played around with her feelings.
"Your highness, can I go with you?" Leia heard a voice from behind her and immediately recognized it as Luke's. She turned her head, and indeed, it was Luke. Luke caught up with her as she walked and tried to keep up with her pace.
Leia smiled at him and felt relieved that she'll be having some company. "Sure, why not?" she replied. She thought about eating out with Luke, and with this thought in mind, she tried asking him to eat out with her. "Luke," she started off, "Want to go somewhere else?"
Luke smiled and got her point. "You mean, to have snack with you?" Luke felt surprised that her highness was actually asking him to hang out with her. Despite Han's stories about Leia and her difficult attitude, he thought that it wouldn't be so bad to eat out with her. Maybe
she's really kind, once I get to know her better. Luke nodded his head in agreement and said, "Okay. That would be nice."
They headed off towards the distance, their voices echoing down the empty hallway and sounding fainter. "Where would you like to eat, your highness?"
"Anywhere you like. And I hope you'll allow me to pay for the bill..."
Later on, Luke and Leia were sitting face-to-face with each other while they enjoyed their snack of ice-cream sundaes and triple-decker sandwiches at a snack bar nearby. "Ummm..." Leia mumbled in between chews. "This sandwich tastes really good. How did you know this place?" she asked Luke.
"During the first month here at Hoth, I used to go here by myself and eat. Then I realized that it feels so sad to be eating by myself all the time, so I decided to take you here."
Leia felt touched with what he said. "Thanks." she said gratefully. I really liked being with you, Luke, she thought. She felt like saying that right then and there, but did not do so; for fear that Luke might take it the wrong way. So she did not speak anymore, and continued on with her meal. At one point, Leia happened to gaze into Luke's eyes. Despite his happy demeanor, there was a tinge of loneliness in it; it was the same thing that she saw in her own eyes that morning when she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror: the sorrow of losing a family and being alone in the world. Is he alone too? I can see myself in him. Leia felt her heart reaching out to him, her eyes starting to mist.
Luke probably noticed that she was on the brink of tears. He lifted up his head. "Your highness, are you okay?" he asked.
Leia was startled. She looked away from him and discreetly wiped the tears on her eyelashes. "Oh..." she trailed off. "I'm alright," she smiled faintly.
He looked deeply into her eyes. "You seem to be sad. Is there something bothering you?"
"No. Nothing," Leia denied.
A waiter approached them and gave them the bill. Leia took out her wallet and placed a bill on the rectangular platter before the waiter went away. Finished with their meal, Luke and Leia stood up and went towards the exit.
"Luke, what are we doing here? I'm too old for this kind of thing!" Leia exclaimed, embarrassed. They stood outside the entrance of an indoor amusement park, and watched at the people of all ages going in and out. There were all sorts of rides and games to be found inside. The smells of popcorn lingered in the air, while cheesy novelty music blared from the sound system. Both walked around downtown after eating, and it was Luke's idea to bring Leia here. I noticed that you looked so sad, so to lift up your spirits, I'd decided to bring you here.
"It's okay," Luke assured her. "You're not that old yet. People go here all the time. See that couple over there?" He pointed towards a man and a woman together, who looked liked they're in their mid-twenties. "Forget about your age and have fun!"
Leia laughed. "We might be mistaken for lovers," she joked.
"Do we look like one?" Both laughed. "Oh, yeah, Han might get jealous if he finds out that I'm with you today."
"Aw, don't mind him." Why would Han get jealous? Anyway, I'm starting to like the idea of being in here. Luke's right. I should have a little fun sometimes. Smiling, she took his hand and headed to the entrance gate. "Let's go!" she said.
"I told you, you'll like being here," Luke replied.
They spent the next three hours going around the park and playing the different games in the arcade. When they grew tired of the arcade games, they rode the different stomach-churning rides like the roller coaster and shouted their lungs out. After the roller-coaster ride, Luke felt sick and had to rest for a while.
"Want to ride some more on the coaster?" Leia asked him.
"Not anymore! I feel so sick," Luke said as he massaged his forehead. "I can't believe you had a high tolerance for that roller-coaster ride."
"Oh, I'm used to space traveling in dizzying air ships," Leia replied matter-of-factly. "By the way, are you okay?" she asked Luke, concerned.
"I'll be fine, your highness."
Leia frowned at him. "Stop calling me like that. It makes me feel uncomfortable." Can't I forget even just for a moment that I'm Princess Leia Organa and be free to act as myself? "Feel at home to call me by my real name," she added.
"Well, if you say so, Your... I mean... Leia." Luke breathed a sigh of relief, appreciative at the fact that Leia was actually humble enough to go out of her limits as a member of an aristocratic family.
"That sounds better," she said, smiling. Leia shifted her sights and saw the slow-moving carousel. "Oh, I want to go there!" She dragged Luke by the hand and went towards it. When they got there, Luke told her that he won't be riding the carousel with her, and he'll just watch her while she takes the ride.
"It's okay if I'll ride it by myself," she told Luke. "Just wave at me when you see me!" She walked away from Luke and fell in line for the ride. When she was finally there and the carousel started moving, Luke watched from a distance and waved at Leia whenever he would catch a glimpse of her, while she would wave back at him. When the carousel started to spin a bit faster, Luke was well enough to run around it along with its fast motion, at the same time, not keeping his eyes away from Leia as he chased her around the carousel.
"Luke!" Leia shouted laughingly while she waved at him. "Luke!"
Luke could see the wide smile on her face as he chased her along with the motion of the carousel. She probably never had the time to feel free and to enjoy herself for a very long time. Until now, he thought. "Princess!" he shouted back. "Enjoying the ride, huh?" he asked while he kept on running.
"I told you, stop calling me like that!"
"I forgot!" Luke said. He waved back at her energetically and shouted out her name. "Leia!"
Leia smiled back at Luke and savored the last remaining moments of the carousel ride. As she waved at Luke while he called out her name, Leia remembered a memory from a distant past, which was nostalgic and yet too painful at the same time...
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"Daddy! Daddy!"
A brown-haired pigtailed girl of about seven years old shouted lovingly to her father as he chased her around while she enjoyed the carousel ride. Even with the swift motion of the carousel, he never took his eyes off her.
"Sweetie!" her father called out. "You seem to be enjoying yourself, huh?" He waved at her and gave her a wink.
"Yes I do! I love it here! Thanks for bringing me to this park!" she called out. She had never felt this happy before since the day her mother died. She waved her hand furiously at her father. "Dad, I love you!" she screamed, even though the melody of the carousel ride drowned out her voice.
"Leia! I love you too, sweetie!" her father replied, shouting. Even with his voice sounding hoarse from all the screaming, she could feel in her heart that he meant it.
"I love you dad!"
"I love you Leia!"
I love you...
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She traveled back in time, back to her beloved memories, but time could never bring them back again to her. And like all things, this, too, must come to an end, just like this carousel ride.
The carousel grew slower and slower, and when it came to a full stop, the people started filing out. Luke waved at Leia and motioned her to come down, but Leia just looked back at him with sad, teary eyes. Her joyous mood suddenly became melancholy. Luke went up to her and helped her down. He took her hand in his and she hopped down on her ride.
They walked around the park once more, and Luke couldn't help but feel worried about Leia. Why did she become so sad all of a sudden? He turned his head and looked at her carefully. Leia had her eyes averted towards the distance, lost in her thoughts, her eyes wet with tears. Did that carousel ride made her remember a sad memory that was so dear to her?
Leia felt the weight of his gaze on her. She wiped her eyes, then turned her head and looked at him. "Did you see me crying?" she asked Luke, her voice trembling.
Luke just smiled at her. "Well...yes. If you felt like crying when you were in the carousel, it's okay. Sometimes, you just need to let the waterworks flow."
"I feel so embarrassed to be crying in front of you," Leia said shyly.
"It doesn't matter," Luke replied with a sheepish grin. "I hope you won't mind if I say this to you," he started, as both sat down on a bench beside a popcorn stand, "but I've noticed that you looked so sad since we ate at the snack bar a while ago."
"The truth is, even if I seemed so busy with the Rebellion, I still can't get over the death of my father. When I was riding the carousel, I remembered that when I was a child, my dad used to take me to this theme park in Alderaan. I would ride a carousel, and my dad would chase it around while I waved back at him." Leia felt her eyes mist again while she told Luke about that distant childhood memory, but she gulped hard and tried not to burst into tears again.
I didn't know that what I did made Leia remind her of her father, Luke thought, feeling a bit ashamed that he was part of the reason why Leia cried. "Oh..." he mumbled. "Sorry for that. I shouldn't have chased you around if I reminded you of your father," he said apologetically.
She shook her head smilingly. "No, you don't have to say sorry. The feeling just came over me."
"I understand how you feel, because I, too, lost my family." Luke felt a rush of sorrow in his heart and remembered seeing his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru lying lifeless on the ground upon going home to find that they were killed, by order of the Dark Lord. "Before I and Han rescued you in the Death Star, I went home and found my aunt and uncle lying dead on the ground after they were killed by Storm Troopers," he narrated, as Leia went closer to him and listened intently to his story. "Everything happened so fast, I didn't even have time to mourn for them. So I guess, now's the time. But even if I feel like crying, my eyes had run out of tears."
"At least you'll be mourning with me," Leia said soothingly. Here we are, two lonely people mourning over the lost of one's family. Misery does love company. "I'm curious, don't you have your mother and father with you?" she suddenly asked.
"I don't know anything about my father, and all I know about my mother is that she died in childbirth. I don't even remember anything about her, nor do I know about my true lineage."
Leia's eyes widened at what she heard. "You're adopted too?" she asked, surprised.
"Yes," affirmed Luke. "Aren't you?" Leia nodded her head.
"How did you found out that you were adopted?" Luke asked, his curiosity growing stronger at how much he and Leia had so much in common.
"My mother told me about it, three days before my seventh birthday. She said my real mother also died in childbirth, while nothing was said about who my biological father really was."
"Did you feel sad at all when you found out the truth?"
"Yes, of course. But even before, I kind of knew it in my heart, because I noticed that I don't look like my father or mother at all. I would ask myself why my skin was whiter than my dad's, or why my eyes were bigger than my mother's eyes."
"So, it became pretty obvious to you?"
"Yes. Some people would even ask my mother, "Why is your daughter prettier than you? Is she really your daughter?" Leia remembered about it and laughed slightly. She became silent for a while, and then asked Luke. "What about you? Did your aunt tell you that you were adopted?"
"She told me all about it on my seventh birthday. Just like the way your mom did."
Leia grew curious and felt the strong urge to ask about Luke's birth date. We might even share the same birthday. "Luke, when is your birthday?" she asked.
"The eighth day of the seventh month. Why?"
The uncanny resemblance between their lives was too glaring not to be noticed. Why is it that we have the same fate? "That's my birth date too!" Leia exclaimed. "I was also born on the eighth day of the seventh month!" And now, we share the same birthdays. Is there something I need to know? Did my father forgot to tell me something?
"This is amazing," Luke declared in wonder. "It's like we share the same pattern of life."
"I can't believe this," Leia whispered in amazement.
"Don't you feel sad every time you celebrate your birthday?" Luke asked her. "Because during that time of the year, every year, I would mourn for the death of my mother." He remembered retreating off to a corner every birthday night and sob quietly with the fact that his mother also died the day he was born.
"I lost my mother two times on my birthday." Leia felt again the tug of sorrow in her heart.
"First, my real mother died when she gave birth to me, and second, my adoptive mother was ambushed by the Emperor's Red Guards during a space trip. She just came from a conference from another planet and was about to go home in time for the celebration of my seventh birthday when that happened. Instead of having a party, a funeral was held in our home." Leia could still recall the somber mood in the Alderaanian palace, people lining up in droves to pay their final respects to Senator Organa's deceased wife, and Leia, then seven years old, crying hysterically over the lost of her adoptive mother...
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"Dad, I hate them!" the little girl dressed in black screamed in agony as she cried on her father's shoulder. "Why do they have to kill my mom? Why?" With that, she burst into hysterical sobs.
"We don't know what are their reasons for doing that," Bail Organa told his daughter in between tears, "But what we know, your mother risked her life to bring peace back to this galaxy. She didn't die a meaningless death after all."
"But she'll never come back! I don't have my real mother with me, and now, my other mom is dead! I don't have a mother anymore!" She buried her head deeper on her father's shoulder as he stroked her head, trying to calm her down.
"Leia, even if you don't have a mother, I'll always be here for you. And you'll never have to feel alone."
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"I remember my father telling me that," Leia continued her story to Luke. "He said that he'll always be there for me, and I don't have to feel alone. But now..." She stopped speaking, and can't help herself but to cry. Her voice was choked with sorrow, and soon felt a tear rolling down on her cheek. Leia lowered her head and tried not to let Luke show that she was crying. She felt Luke's hand stroking her head and she allowed him to let her rest her head on his shoulder. This time, she didn't feel the need to stop herself from crying, never mind that it was embarrassing for her to cry her eyes out while resting on the shoulder of a person she'd just come to know. For a moment, not a word was said between the two of them.
"Now, I'm an orphan again," Leia mumbled sadly. "I'm nobody's girl."
Luke took out a handkerchief and gently wiped her tear-stained face. "Don't say that. You have friends in the Alliance, Captain Solo and me. We'll be your family."
Hearing Luke say that to her made her felt more at ease with him. Then she realized: I don't have to feel alone, after all. I do have some company. Leia was rest assured that she was not alone in life, after all. She has Luke, whom she considered as a confidante, and Han, who'd been sent to her to drive her life crazy with his out-of-this-world antics and humor. Maybe Han came into my life to help me ease my sorrow and to make me forget by thinking how I hated being with him all the time, she thought jokingly. She laughed at the thought, and smiled faintly at Luke. "Thank you," she whispered, "for being there for me."
Luke smiled back at her. "You're always welcome, Leia," he replied.
A/N: No romantic connotations between Luke and Leia here! Just some gesture of brotherly love, unknowingly. I don't know the calendar system in the Star Wars universe, so I used numbers to refer to the months of the year. And I'm sure that they don't have horses on their carousel.
Mini Survey: Just a thought, dear readers: do you think Leia might have felt something for Luke before she found out that he was her twin brother? Send me your answers along with your reviews! Thanks for dropping by to read my story! Again, stay tuned for more chapters to come!