Han changed into his spare set of clothes and Malla was drying his others over the fireplace in the living room, but the Corellian was still shivering. Malla got him settled down in the kitchen with a bowl of bantha broth and a stein of tea.
"Brr-r-r-r-r," Han felt his knees knocking under the table, "thanks, Malla, I really appreciate it."
Once she was out of earshot, Han got Chewie's attention and asked his friend, "Where do you guys keep the good stuff?"
Chewbacca snorted and pulled a bottle out of one of the cupboards and poured the contents into the smuggler's tea.
"That's more like it, thanks, pal," Han said with a smirk.
Malla stuck her head in the kitchen and grunted to her husband and waved him out to talk to her in the living room. They left Han alone in the kitchen, but his ears were still able to pick up part of the discussion they were having. Han knew that Malla liked him, all the same he would swear every time he brought Chewie home, he could always hear his friend's wife making off-color remarks about the Corellian. They always stepped into another room so he wouldn't be able to hear them, and it was true he couldn't say for a fact what he heard, but he knew shyriiwook well enough, and he knew he didn't have a good enough imagination to merely think he was hearing Malla say things to her husband like: "He's so scrawny," "He's so filthy," "When was the last time he had a bath?" "Don't let the children touch him, he might have fleas!"
"Gotta love that woman," Han muttered around a mouthful of soup.
Han finished his lunch and went out to the living room to see what the family was doing. Malla and the kids were all talking at once and Chewbacca looked from one to the other trying to take it all in.
"What do you mean the Mid Rim's under martial law?" Han asked, breaking into the conversation.
Malla turned to the human and grunted in explanation.
"Those Imperial starships we ran into," he told Chewie, "they must've reported us to Vader."
Malla howled worriedly.
"What? Luke and Leia?" Han blinked. "They called here?" He looked from Malla to Itchy and back to Malla and asked, "Did the Imperials find the comm system?"
Itchy shook his head and snorted.
"Yeah well before we comm Luke and the princess, let's make sure the connection's still secure and they didn't put a tracker on it," Han said.
Malla shook her head and rumbled in protest.
"I know it's on the roof, it's hidden in the satellite for the wall screens," Han said.
Malla nodded and roared again.
"Okay, Malla, that's a fair point, but just because you didn't see them get up in the roof doesn't mean they didn't before they came in here. Let me find my coat and..."
Chewbacca chattered and pointed to the front closet. Han opened the door and found a long black hooded coat that looked like an Imperial sleeping bag with sleeves in it.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about leaving that here," he said.
He and Chewie had mainly kept to warmer climates for the past couple years, so he'd left his coat here one Life Day when there was a particularly frigid rainstorm. He put his arms in the coat and the thing came down practically to his feet, it was thickly insulated and would offer some protection from the blizzard. "I'll check out the connection, and I'll be back in two shakes of a wampa's tail."
Malla howled in response.
"It's an expression, Malla!"
Maybe it wasn't an expression, maybe that was the joke. Two shakes of a wampa's tail, but just try to find a wampa's tail in a snowstorm. Even with his thick coat, Han felt like he was about frozen solid again. The roof was coated in snow but had a layer of ice underneath and about every second move Han made was making sure he didn't fall off the roof and plunge to a snowy death.
From not far below he heard a curious howl.
"I'm up here, Itchy!"
He heard the footsteps of something climbing out the window and up onto the roof with him, and heard the old wookiee's questioning roar.
"Connection's secure, they never found it," Han rubbed the back of his sleeve against his nose, but he couldn't even feel it anymore. "So we'll contact the kid and the princess, and-"
Just then a strong, howling wind came out of nowhere and it chilled the Corellian down to the bones and he just about rolled off the roof. Han had been in snow and ice before, but never anything like this, and he was at his wit's end. He threw down his tools and stood up on the roof and looked up at the gray cloudy skies and threw his hands up in a gesture of goading the elements and yelled up at the sky, "That's it! That's right! Just pour it on! I can take it, I like it!"
Itchy howled at the Corellian. When you started arguing with the weather, you were gone completely around the bend.
Han shivered and replied, "You got a point, Itchy, alright, let's head in."
They climbed down from the roof and slipped in an upstairs window, and headed down the stairs.
"Okay, connection's good, Chewie, comm them up!" Han started undoing his coat, which was now also covered in snow. The space over the fireplace was full so he just laid it down flat in front of the hearth, once his clothes finished drying out he'd hang it up instead.
"You think the Empire knows where we are?" Luke asked.
"I don't know," Han said, "I just know it's a little too coincidental all of a sudden they're enacting martial law, you guys watch your backs."
"We'd say the same to you, but that's what you do best," Leia remarked.
"Ha ha, princess."
"Anyway," Leia continued, "if the blockades are contained to the Mid Rim, then we're okay, Borealia's one of the last stopping points before the unknown regions of space."
"Could be, but you better see about comming the rest of the Alliance and see if they know anything and if not tell them to be on the lookout," Han said.
"Will do, Han, good luck," Luke said. "And may the Force be with you."
"Hey if you ever figure how that stuff actually works, why don't you see if you can use it to stop this blizzard?" Han asked.
On the screen Han saw Leia move to the front and Luke seemed to walk away, actually he only got a few feet behind Leia, and turned around and Han saw him take something out of the pockets of his snow coat and he was pressing and kneading something in his gloved hands and saw it was some of the blue snow. Luke shaped it into a ball that was more square shaped than round, and threw it at Leia and it hit her back with a resounding splat, drawing a surprised screech out of the princess who spun around and grabbed Luke by the collar.
"Play nice you two," Han said with a small smirk, "I'll see you somewhere down the line," and with that he disconnected the call.
Han returned the comm system to its hiding spot, turned around, and a deafening whirring CLICK filled the room, accompanied by a blinding white flash. Han let out a startled yelp as everything went white. Around him he heard Chewie roaring, and he felt a large furry paw grabbing him.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Han blinked a few times, "I just can't see. Itchy, why don't you get a new camera?"
The older wookiee growled in response as he adjusted the laser flash again.
Malla howled in concern and had Chewbacca bring the human over to her.
"Malla?" Han held his hands out in front of him trying to feel her fur.
Chewie's wife grabbed his hand and howled at him questioningly.
Han closed his eyes and opened them a few times and said, "Well...everything's still white...but now I'm starting to see some purple and yellow spots, so I guess that's an improvement."
Malla grumbled and rolled her eyes, she grabbed the Corellian by the arm and walked him over to the couch and shoved him on it and chattered firmly.
"Yeah...yeah," Han said slowly, "maybe that would be a good idea after the long flight...I'll just..." he reached around for a pillow and found one and scooted back on the couch until he was laying down, "I'll just...close my eyes for a little bit, and..."
He was asleep before he could even finish the sentence. Malla picked up a blanket draped over the back of the couch and instead draped it over the Corellian, who fit in it like a baby in a king size quilt. Malla grumbled under her breath for the kids to find something quiet to do and let Han rest. The kids quietly chattered in agreement and went up to their rooms, all except Thisny, who went over to his father and roared inquiringly, if he thought the Imperials might come back. Chewbacca looked at his eldest son and snorted in response he highly doubted it, but if they did, now that he was home again, he would deal with the matter himself, and that the cub didn't need to worry.
Thisny wasn't sure about that, and he went into the kitchen and thought for a moment, and he let out a small roar as an idea came to him. As much snow as there already was outside, and however more there might be before the storm stopped, they definitely wouldn't be allowed to go back outside and play, and Han wouldn't be able to make it back to his ship. Until the storm ended and the snow started to melt, they'd all be sitting tight for a while. So...since nobody would really have any reason to go back out on the porch...with a mischievous smirk, Thisny went over to the stove, picked up the jumbo sized teapot, went out the back door, walked around to the front door, poured a line of water right in front of the door, then doubled back around, stepped inside the threshold and poured another streak of water right in front of the back door and shut it. He put the teapot back on the stove and then headed upstairs to his room, chattering in amusement. Just let the Imperials try to get in now.