Echo Base, Hoth.

"Couldn't sleep, Princess?"

Leia stopped abruptly from her middle-of-the-night walk through the bitterly cold hanger and spun around at the voice – a deep baritone that sounded amused at finding her wondering in the wee hours of the morning.

"What are you doing up, Solo? Am I interrupting a walk of shame?"

Han laughed, his face and most of his body obscured in the shadows cast from the emergency lights in the hanger and the vapor from his breath.

"Jealous?" He questioned playfully, an amused twinkle in his eye. Was he flirting with her? That stab of something that had just hit her stomach was absolutely not jealousy, she thought defensively. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Hardly. So, who was it this time?"

Han's eyebrow lifted in surprise.

"This time? You always believe base gossip, Highnessness?" Han chortled. The base gossip was making him sound like much more of a player than he was these days, or ever with fellow rebels. He waved his hand dismissively.

She tilted her head at him curiously.

"Do you always have to generate it?" She shot back.

"I just can't help it. I must just be interesting. But nah, it wasn't like that. Couldn't sleep. Figured you were still working so I was gonna bring you this." He held up a cup of kaffe and stepped out of the shadows to approach her, stopping well within in her personal space. Their breath vapors collided as she titled her head up to look up at him.

He handed her the mug and their fingers brushed, sending a shiver up Leia's body. She took a deep sip to mask the reaction and closed her eyes.

"Mmmm, Goddess, this is good. Thank you. I thought you ran out of kaffe weeks ago?"

"Yeah, funny story. I did run out of kaffe, cuz all you bleeding hearts keep coming onto my ship to drink it. Someone (he looked at her pointedly) snuck aboard and put three kilos of the good grounds in my galley. Didn't even leave a note. I don't suppose you know anything about that, do you?"

Leia fought to hitch down the smile that kept trying to creep up against her explicit wishes. She had snuck the kaffe grounds into his galley. She drank most of his kaffe anyway, and it was the least she could do for him and Chewie. Not that she would confess to the gift.

"I'm sure I don't know anything about that, Captain." She wasn't sure how it was physiologically possible, but she could feel her damn eyes sparkling at Han flirtatiously. Stop that, She thought. She took another sip.

"Musta been a ghost then. Well, if I did know who left the kaffe, I'd thank them for the thought…and the good taste."

"I'd like to thank them too." She took another sip and closed her eyes again in pleasure at the strong flavor and bitter, complex scent of the kaffe. "This is divine."

"I think I'd also thank them for putting that look on your face. You ever look at a man the way you do when you're sippin' good kaffe, Sweetheart?" Han mused.

Leia felt her face flush, imagining what she must have looked like with her eyes closed and pleasure on her every feature. Usually, they would start lighting into each other at this point of a conversation, when Han took a running leap over the innuendo line, but she was contentedly tired now and enjoying the banter.

"I have." She squared up her stance to face him defiantly, eyes full of flirtatious humor.

"Lately?" He asked, stance gone cocky and a crooked grin on those damn gorgeous lips.

She took another sip, made eye contact with him over the mug that was concealing a smile, in non-answer.

"If you were to believe base gossip, Captain Solo, then lately you might think I was looking at you."

Han grinned at her. "You know what they say, Worship, most gossip has a kernel of truth."

"Stereotypes, Nerfherder. 'They' say it about stereotypes."

"You'll see, Princess. One of these days you'll like me as much as you like your kaffe."

"Don't bet on it, Flyboy. My kaffe doesn't give me lip nor does it insist on having the last word."

Han mimicked zipping his lips and throwing away the key, which made Leia laugh. She was wondering around this frigid hellscape at 03:00 because she'd had a nightmare and knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. She had walked around to calm down but couldn't say why that walk had included passing the Falcon in the drafty hanger with its residents surely sound asleep.

"Well, thank you for the kaffe, Han. I should get back to work. This base isn't going to run itself."

"Leia, even you need to sleep. You can't run on kaffe alone."

"I'm fine, Han." A sly smile played on her lips. "Hope." She added. Han looked at her, trying to deduce the non-sequitur.

"I run on kaffe and hope. And not an insignificant amount of righteous rage, as Chewie calls it." She was poking a little fun at herself, aware that most considered her to have a one-track focus at the exclusion of all else (which was mostly true, but for one distracting smuggler).

Han took her hand and gently rubbed his thumb over her wrist. She allowed the contact, surprising him when she didn't yank her hand away.

"I'm just saying, if you're gonna die for the cause, it's better to use that hope and righteous rage to go out in a blaze of glory on the battlefield than from sleep deprivation." He grinned at her again playfully, but his concern for her was apparent. She smiled back, gave his hand a light squeeze in acknowledgement, and turned to walk away.

"Thanks for the kaffe grounds, Princess," He called out.

"I don't know anything about that!" She returned over her shoulder, grinning at him.

"I'm sure you do," He called over his shoulder as he walked up the ramp of his ship.

She laughed and headed back to the command center. Sleep was likely done for the night, and there were a pile of data files demanding her attention she could get to, but at least she felt less burdened and traumatized from her nightmare than before she ran into Han and the kaffe.

Notes:

Inspiration: "Sounds of Silence" By Simon and Garfunkel

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams, I walked alone