Han didn't know how or why he woke up so early after his very interesting night at Luke's apartment, but wake up early he did. Maybe it was the godsdamn uncomfortable sofa he was sleeping on, but he didn't dwell on it. He didn't even bother changing his clothes; he didn't want to take a chance of waking Leia. There was no way he was in the mood to talk to her right now. Heading to the Falcon after a quick cup of kaffe, Han slipped out of their apartment without being noticed.
Upon reaching the Falcon, Han curbed his first inclination to be quiet and not disturb the sleeping Wookiee onboard. Remembering his friend's behavior the night before, Han banged around loudly in the galley while he brewed some kaffe and followed up with an obnoxious amount of slamming and other noises throughout his shower and dressing routine. By the time Han exited his cabin and walked to the Falcon's lounge, he found an angry Wookiee sitting at the holotable.
[If this is your idea of payback, I'm going to take you outside and make a man out of you.] Chewie was sipping on a large mug of kaffe and holding his head with one paw.
Feeling better after his kaffe and shower, Han responded cheerfully, "What? I'm sorry buddy, did I wake you?" Remember? You have a wedding to go to, you smart ass.
[Just get me about ten hyposprays and another liter of kaffe and I'll show you what's what.]
"Let me tell you what's what, ya walkin' carpet. I'm goin' work on the aft stabilizer and I expect you at the controls by the time I get there. Go it?"
For several hours, the Wookiee and the smuggler worked in silence, one on the outside of the ship and one inside at the controls. Once the problem with the aft stablizer was isolated, Han walked up the boarding ramp and met Chewie in the lounge.
Throwing the offending object down on the holochess table, Han scoffed, "I told you it was the limit valve."
[You blamed every godsdamn part down the circuitry line; of course you would eventually be proven right.]
Ignoring his buddy's jibe, Han ran his fingers through his hair and asked, "Now's the real problem. Who carries this make limit valve on Coruscant?"
[What about that old junk dealer that we got those bearings from?]
"I guess that's a good a place as any to start with." Han looked at the Wookiee and added, "Let's go."
As they walked out of the hangar bay and down the streets of Coruscant, Chewie growled softly at Han, [What is your plan to handle the situation with little one?]
"Little one" was one of the nicknames that Chewie called Leia. Han cringed at the thought of: one, dealing with the situation, and two, discussing it with the Wookiee. He exhaled heavily as he shook his head and said, "It ain't much of a situation, Chewie. It's the same old political shit that we usually just ignore, why ya so interested this time?"
[I'm interested because it involves marriage. You know you should be married already, cub.]
"According to you. Look, we'll get married when we're ready, not when your Wookiee biological clock starts tickin'. And, by the way, I don't need you actin' like my walkin', krethin' subconscious."
Chewie ignored the last part of Han's retort, recognizing it as a tactic to derail this conversation. He kept to the issue and replied, [You mean, when she's ready. You give her too much control, cub. She needs to be pushed sometimes; it is her nature to resist this, no matter how much she loves you. This marriage represents much to her that she is fearful to face, but you must not let her cower to those fears.]
Han thought about what Chewie said. This marriage only meant one thing to Han: making their love and their commitment official. But if he was fair and listened to his Wookiee counterpart's words, he had to realize that it meant a lot more to the woman in question.
Was it not a reminder that her father and her family would not be there with her to witness the ceremony? Han cringed at the thought that a marriage to him may limit her political career, but Leia was savvy enough to have thought of that real possibility. Then there were the remaining ascendants of Alderaan and the High Council, two groups that still fully expected their princess to marry into a Royal House, preserving the Organa blood line, not spilling it on the cantina floor with a two-bit smuggler turned General.
After realizing that Chewie was waiting for him to respond, Han answered him with an exhausted sigh, "What do you want me to do, Chewie? Kidnap her and force her to marry me at blaster point?"
Reaching the junk store, Chewie paused and opened the door for Han. As Han walked past him into the store Chewie glared at him and growled under his breath, [If that's the only idea you can come up with, then – yes, I should be your krethin' subconscious.]
The junk store owner ensured the two pilots that he could procure the specific limit valve needed for the Falcon's aft stabilizer by sunrise the next day. Weighing their other option of tramping across Coruscant searching for the elusive part on some junk store shelf, they quickly paid the store keep and promised to return in the morning.
As they exited the store, Chewie glanced down the block and said to Han, [Is that not little one's building?]
Han followed the Wookiee's stare and nodded his head in agreement while pointing his thumb in the other direction and saying, "Yeah, the hangar's this way." I'm not going see her, ya big lug. Just drop it.
[I'm hungry, let's go ask little one to lunch. You know she never eats enough.]
"You're always hungry, and – no, I don't want to see her right now. Besides, she never stops for lunch."
[Fine, I'll go alone and then she'll know you are avoiding her.]
As Han watched the Wookiee walk away from him, he cursed under his breath and followed a couple of paces behind. He finally caught up with Chewie as the Wookiee stood in front of Leia's building looking through the transparisteel-enclosed lobby. It did not take Han long to see what had caught the Wookiee's attention.
It was Leia. She was sitting at a café table; her table was facing in such way that Han and Chewie had a straight line of vision to her face with an angled view of the man she was seated with. It was Prince Isolder, there was no doubt.
[She never stops for lunch, huh?]
"It's just lunch, Chewie. I'm sure they're just disc- " Han stopped his sentence short as he watched the Prince reach over and gently grasp Leia's hand, stroking her skin with his thumb. Han didn't know which happened faster, the blood draining down from his head or the rage flooding up from his gut, but his eyes blurred at the intensity of the conflict. Her eyes came up to meet his and as he recognized the horrified, guilty expression covering her face, he turned and walked away.
[Why am I not surprised?] Chewie howled as his eyes bore down on her through the transparisteel. He refused to break eye contact with her, willing his thoughts into her mind. You are stronger than this. You are letting other people manipulate your life. If you are not careful you will succumb to their insane plans for you. She broke eye contact with him and Chewie turned and walked away.
Chewie truly loved Leia and he did not enjoy the fury that he currently felt at the thought of her and her actions. He knew she and cub belonged together. He knew they were both strong-willed, hard-headed, passionate human beings that often came to odds with each other over that mere fact alone. But those traits were also what bonded them, what made them two unique elements that attracted each other and fit with each other in such a way that it could not be denied that they belonged to each other, that the universe had created them to complete each other.
As Chewie reached the hangar bay he slowed his pace, his Wookiee senses causing the fur on the back of his neck to ruffle. He was being followed; it wasn't hard to figure out by whom. He saw the Falcon and noticed Han was sitting in the pilot's chair of the cockpit. When Chewie reached the boarding ramp he paused, turned around and stood, watching the hangar door he had just entered through. Knowing she was not far behind, he stood there, waiting for her, ensuring that his eyes were the first thing she would see. She would listen to him, one way or another.