Not enough.

Bespin's early-evening sunset was a waste of romantic energy, or at least it appeared that way to Han. Leia was somewhere behind him in their cell. Moments had transpired since she and the Wookiee had picked the Corellian up from the floor; he'd winced, but Leia had known precisely how to quell the pang of Han's stinging face.

"You certainly have a way with people."

But as Han stared at the surroundings of Cloud City through the puny cell-window, he wondered fearfully whether Leia's sentence applied to the both of them. I've been a jerk, he remembered, and I haven't appreciated her enough. I've made her lower her defenses against her wishes, for my own sake.

Chewie approached him with a grave expression on his face. It killed Han as he turned to perceive the sorrow in his friend's eyes. "This is it, Chewie," he confessed. "Time for me to suffer the consequence."

This vague "consequence" became a double-entendre to Han: objectively, he was indebted to Jabba; subjectively, he had not been worthy of winning so much as a kind word out of Leia. She'd given him one or two…and she'd given him the touch of her lips.

Twice, recalled the man, daydreaming as his eyes searched the Cloud City landscape that was visible from their disadvantageous view. One year ago, he figured, the old Han Solo would've laughed at the idea of managing to successfully win Leia over for even a second.

Suddenly it occurred to Han that he had changed: and that Leia had been responsible for his transformation. And the more his brain concentrated on the thought, the shakier his hands became (they were covering his eyes, perhaps instinctually out of shame). The moment the Corellian noticed his anxious hands, he disengaged them from their grasp on his temples and jawbone, berating himself internally for it. Stop being such a coward. If you'd just left the Rebellion following the victory on Yavin, you wouldn't have stumbled into this mess -

"We're not going to let them do this to you."

All that he could see of Leia's body in the dark cell was her eyes, visible from the singular stream of light beaming from the window. Han weakly shook his head. "Nothing will change their minds. It was just a matter of time before my debt to Jabba caught up with me."

Soon he made out Leia's entire face staring distraughtly at him; she had moved forward, but had quickly stopped at the edge of the uncomfortable slab (which Han had thought extremely gracious of Lando's facility to provide for their prison-cell seat). The same words escaped from the Princess' mouth once more, this time with little confidence: "We're not going to let them do this."

Han began to register the fact that this was their goodbye – their last episode of arguing together – and for them to be imprisoned… The Corellian hated Lando and Vader for what they'd done to his friends, but above all, he was livid with himself.

Arguing suddenly seemed distasteful to Han, and so he returned to watching the air-speeders whiz past the window. The graceful clouds encompassed the atmosphere with its warm shades of sunset-auburn. "Shame I never got to know this place," he spoke softly. His voice was a mellow bass-timbre, and although Leia hardly felt in the mood to consider her feelings for Han, she found his tone alluring. "It is nice," she confessed in a whisper.

Han pressed the palm of his hand to the glass. "It's beautiful. This is the second time I've landed here in Cloud City… Ironic because I passed it hundreds of times in the Falcon." On an impulse, he turned to look at Leia. "Don't take things like these for granted. Believe me…you'll wish you'd –"

"Don't act as if this is your death day," cut in Leia. "Not when it certainly isn't."

"Nothing's changing, sweetheart," Han reminded her. "They may be freezing me alive, but that doesn't mean I'm going to have a life –"

The Princess stood, furious. "Stop." She wouldn't move a muscle of her face – perhaps this was because no part of her could admit that she loved him, even as he talked so negatively about his end – and Han challenged her with a "Stop what? Being real about this? You think they're suddenly just gonna call the whole thing off?"

"Stop talking as if no one cares about you!"

Chewie barked in the affirmative, scaring Han cold for a minute. He'd forgotten that he and Leia were not alone, and it bothered him that even Chewie took her side. "Forget it," he told them both. "I'm not going to argue with you two. Unless you have an idea for getting us out of here –"

"Do you think we'd be here if we didn't give a damn about you?" Leia countered. Her voice sounded weak, and it was clear to Han that she was done fighting.

"Oh, so now you're my friend?" It was full-fledged sarcasm, and his glare had a trajectory that hit the dim light and stopped dead when it reached Leia's face. He could tell she was on the verge of exploding: into tears or into yelling, he could not discern.

Chewie mumbled something sorrowful, breaking the silence that had begun after Han's stolid speech had traveled into Leia's ears. This hardly affected Han, who was frozen in the ugliest staring contest with the Princess. "I think it's time we bid our good-byes," he muttered. Leia closed her eyes briefly, agonizing (although the Corellian did not know this) over how wretchedly she felt about their last moments together. Who am I fooling? she wondered. There's no way in hell we'll be able to rescue Han.

For only a second longer they retained eye contact. By now the sun was far beyond the scope of the atmosphere that the window could capture, and Han resolved it was time to lie down. Without another word, he located his bed and cried out quietly as the rock-hard slab pushed against his bruised back.

Still, Leia's mind could not erase Han's formerly soothing voice from her mind; he was unlike any other human male she'd ever known, and yet his haughty air always succeeded in driving conceit and rudeness. But the kiss they'd shared while on the Falcon resonated in her memory almost as strongly as did the memories of her childhood, and that frightened her. She had never believed that love could dare to intrigue her in such a form as Captain Han Solo.

THE END

Prequel follows in the title We Have Changed.