The main throne room of the ancient temple built millennia before in the mist of the Yavin 4 jungle was crowded by hundreds of troops, lined up in neat rows.
Pilots, engineers, mechanics, foot soldiers, they all stood there waiting for the three men they had come to honour today.
The heroes of the Battle of Yavin, as it were already called. The battle during which the Empire had suffered a serious defeat, with the destruction of the Death Star and the many cruisers and ships it hosted.
It had been a bad blow, and some among the more enthusiastic members of the Rebel Alliance were ready to claim future scholars would look at the Battle of Yavin as a major turning point.
These people forgot how close the Rebels had been to being completely destroyed, but that perhaps made the victory sweeter and more precious.
Leia Organa dominated the room from her elevated position at the top of a short stone staircase. Her fingers were stroking the golden medals laid on a table by her side, as she waited for the heroes to arrive.
Finally the doors at the opposite end of the long room slid open to admit three men and a Wookiee.
Leia watched as the little group advanced along the aisle, saluted sharply by all the men and the women gathered there. She studied them as they approached and she got ready to award to them their medals.
Luke was looking around himself with awe, but also happiness. Han walked proud and smug, as if he was the Master of the universe. Chewbacca tried hard to keep his longer strides short, least he left his companions behind. Obi-Wan…
Obi-Wan looked confident and calm, dignified and humble—and so very handsome in his new Jedi clothes.
He had discarded his old, long tunic in favour of a shorter one, and it evidenced the litheness of his body and the grace of his movements.
He had also trimmed his hair and beard and the new cut made him look much younger than his fifty-seven years.
Leia swallowed hard. She had tried so badly to suffocate the feelings born inside her from the first moment she had met Obi-Wan Kenobi, but it had been useless.
Not even the disappointment and the irritation she had felt against him after their talk in the greenhouse had been enough to kill her growing attraction.
Especially because Leia had spent many hours pondering her reactions to Obi-Wan's words and had come to the conclusion she had no right to be angry with him.
Despite her good intentions she had ended up seeing him like an icon and put on him on a pedestal made of expectations—her expectations. Thus, when he had told her he did not intend to behave as she had wanted, she had reacted badly and foolishly.
Leia felt the desire to cringe when she remembered how childish she had been, when she had walked away so uptight, as if she had swallowed a spear, and how badly she had tried to make his title, Master Kenobi, sound like an insult.
How stupid she had been that day! She should have known that a man with his experience knew better than her! She should have known that, no matter what his priority was, he would always be foremost a Jedi, and that he would serve the Republic until his dying breath.
Obi-Wan had gone with Luke as the Rebels had launched their attack against the Death Star and had protected the boy from the Imperials, until the moment his X-fighter had been hit and he had had to retreat. But even after that he had kept on guiding Luke—now backed by Han – telling him what he had to do hit their target. It had worked, and it was thanks to him that Yavin 4 still existed.
Obi-Wan was handsome, kind, intelligent, courageous, capable and humble. He had everything Leia had hoped to find one day in a man, and she could care less about his age, although she was afraid it might be a problem. What if he thought her only a silly girl?
Well, I will have to work to make him change his mind, then, Leia thought, practical as usual.
"Your Highness?" One of the Rebel officers whispered urgently into her ears and she realized with a start the three men were already climbing the few steps separating them from her.
She hurried to take the medal handed to her and preceded to put it around a smiling Luke's neck. Then she repeated the gesture with Han, who had the audacity to wink at her, making her grin.
Finally it was Obi-Wan's turn, and her heart skipped a bit she found so close to him she could smell his cologne and lose herself in the depth of his blue-grey eyes.
He is the one, a small voice said inside her. I must apologize to him…tell him the truth…
In that moment the room erupted in a thunderous applause, and Leia could not help but join the clapping, sharing the other happiness and confident there would be other occasions to speak to Obi-Wan about her feelings.
She just had to be patient-- not one of her stronger traits, that was true, but for Obi-Wan she would learn to be that too!