2 ABY
Leia watches her brother land the small ship she made him take for this mission, since his X-wing would have drawn too much attention where she needed him to go to further their overall mission. After Luke shuts down the ship and exits, she raises an eyebrow (did you succeed?), knowing that it communicates the question she cannot ask out loud (because of other people) or through their bond (because Luke is exhausted). He nods in answer (he succeeded), and is then bombarded by fellow pilots, friends, and other Rebels as they all try to make sure that he is okay and if he really had a run-in with Imperials. Leia leaves him to it, knowing that she'll get her time with Luke later to ask him how he did and to possibly tell him about a new development that rose while he was gone.
It was hours later when the Council finally let Luke leave their presence. The mission they had originally given him should have only taken two weeks, at most, but since he had been gone for a month and a half without any communication (that's what they think, at least), they needed some serious convincing that Luke was alright and not traumatized at the hand of the Empire. He is finally able to leave when Mothma tells them that he had been on a private mission for her. She then pulls him over and tells him that he owes her a nice bottle of whiskey since she drank most of her liquor storage because of her stress over him, but that is neither here nor there, as the next thing she tells him that he owes her are the results of the other mission that he went on.
Luke sighed as he entered the planning room they had on the Falcon, and flopped into his chair, still in the clothes he'd been in for the past week.
"Gross. Go get cleaned up and changed before you fall asleep and make this place stink worse than it already does."
"Jus' give me a minute…" Luke says as he leans his head back.
It was more than a minute later when Leia shakes Luke awake and drags him into the small bathroom on board the Falcon. 20 minutes later, a cleaner Luke steps out and proceeds to flop back into to chair he'd been in earlier. It really was a good thing they were on the Falcon instead of another place on base, Leia tells herself, because she wasn't sure that Luke would have found the planning room again if the distance between it and the wash room was to great, considering how tired he is (even if the downside is that Han bothers them and interrupts their planning time and flirts with her every chance he gets).
"Do you need sleep before you tell this story, or can you tell it to me now?" Leia asks.
"I think I can tell it to you," Luke replies as he straightens up in his chair. "Just be patient with me, alright?"
"Alright."
Luke's story leaves Leia both breathless from laughter and from worry. Yes, it all went according to plan, but the plan was harebrained at best, and Leia was sure that Luke had a 40% chance of failure. Threepio didn't even need to tell her the odds for her to know that.
"I do need to tell you about some developments on my end, but that can wait until you've gotten some sleep."
"No, tell me. I've told you everything, and I can use the Force to keep myself awake for at least another hour," Luke brushes off his very apparent exhaustion with the typical Skywalker stubbornness. "That, and I fear that we will soon get so busy that you won't have time for you to tell me about these developments, and I do not wish to be blindsided."
Leia was not satisfied with that answer, but she had that same feeling, and so she decided to humor her brother.
"Fine. Well, an Imperial defector was found by an important member of the Navy, but instead of being killed for treason or interrogated, was told that a more important member of the Navy wished to defect because of Alderaan. I have since gotten in touch with the person, who wishes to remain anonymous to all but me at the moment, and the only reason I allowed him this is the fact that the Force told me we would need him and that he was telling the truth. He can get the letter to Vader without the cyborg realizing it was him, for one thing, and he can tell us if Vader follows up on the letter."
Luke stares at her with wide eyes for a moment, and then his eyes get (somehow) wider as he comes to a realization.
"I think I know who it is! He might be the only reason I wasn't caught red-handed on either of my missions."
"Who kept you from getting caught, kid?"
Han Solo was standing in the doorway, making the two rebel twins jump as they had not been paying attention.
"The Force, Han. Naturally," Luke barely got out, finally letting his exhaustion creep in.
He stumbled out of the room after saying good night, leaving Leia and Han alone (as was his intent, but don't tell Leia that). They both watch him go, and then Han invites himself into the room that is filled with random scribbles (the twins' 'secret language') and sits on the table as Leia attempts to put the more important things away.
"Did Luke's mission go well?"
Leia smiled, hearing the concern in Han's voice, and began to tell him a little bit of what happened.
"It did. He completed the original mission without a problem, but during the prank mission, he almost got caught. It was planned, because we want Vader to know something is going on, but it could have gone very wrong. He tampered with Vader's main Tie Fighter to play an annoying song whenever it boots up and for it's guns to not fire correctly. I can't tell you everything, but this should help move our overall plan forward as well as throw Vader off our trails for a little bit."
"Because Vader would expect that Luke would go back to the Alliance after the original mission instead of following him onto the Executor, right?"
"That is correct."
The two sat in silence for a minute or so, each thinking of very different things but enjoying the silence all the same, until Han finally decides to ask a question that has been bothering him for quite some time.
"Why did you decide to help Luke prank the galaxy? I know there's something the two of you aren't telling me, and while I haven't pried until today, it seems like the two of you could use some further help. That, and you never struck me as the type to prank people."
Leia stood, having finished putting away what she could, and skillfully evaded the question. "I was the one Luke told first, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, because it helped Luke come to terms with what he learned and it did damage to the Empire at the same time."
"Your Worship, both of us know how to answer a question with a half truth and how to tell when others do the same," Han rebutted, smirking at her. "I'm sure your answer is correct, but it ain't the full truth. I personally think it has to do with the rumors of you and Luke being a couple that you do nothing but flame since I can tell there is no attraction like that between the two of you."
Why is this man so perceptive? Leia wonders as she listens to him pick their plan apart. She sighs, and knows that she cannot evade what he's trying to get at anymore, and that is her true relationship with Luke. He may act dumb sometimes, but he was one of the smartest men she knew. There was a reason he succeeded so long at smuggling.
"Luke is my twin brother."
Han smirks, like he knew beforehand, but then his expression changes as his eyes widen and his jaw drops.
"So you two are targeting Vader to get back at him for what he did to you and to bring your family back together, as well as take the Emperor's right hand man away from him. That's what this is, isn't it!"
Leia finally lets out a quiet, but heartfelt "Damn".
She drops back into the chair she just stood up from, and lets her exhaustion overwhelm her for a little, as she asks, "Is there anything else you'd like to know, now that you understand the actual truth?"
"Yes, actually," Han says in a quieter voice than usual. It seems gentle, almost. "Are you and the kid fueling the betting pools to keep Vader and his spies from finding out about your relationship?"
"No, although it is an added perk. That was mostly for our own amusement."
Han looks thoughtful as he says offhandedly (or so Leia thought), "If I get in on the betting now, I could make some real dough when the truth comes out. No one would believe me if I said that you two are twins, as not many know that you guys share a birthday."
So he didn't respond how she thought he would, but nothing about this entire situation is going according to how any of them thought it was ever going to, so she isn't as surprised as she might have been in another life.
1) I do not own Star Wars
2) Thanks for the great ideas! Y'all will get to see Vader's reaction next chapter, I promise, but Han and Leia needed some screen time. Wouldn't be a Star Wars fanfic without that pair popping up.
3) I'm sorry for not writing this sooner. My excuses are thus: College, loosing my flash drive, loosing my motivation, dealing with mental battles, and the holidays.
4) If any of y'all have any ideas, please send them my way. They've turned out great so far, and have been fun for me to write, even if I haven't gone into to much detail.