A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed! I hope you continue to enjoy.

The press conference went off without a hitch. Han found that if he stared straight ahead towards the biggest camera aimed at him, it wasn't that hard to smile.

Leia took the lead, announcing their romance and a possible marriage. She had surprised him with the easiness she exuded. While he had expected her to be a convincing speaker, he had anticipated that she may not have been the most convincing lover. But she was a good actress.

Between a flurry of giggles and blushes, arm grabbing and kissing his cheeks, she had somehow retained her dignified demeanor and almost convinced even him that they were in love. Her actions were contagious and he felt the fluttering in his stomach relax.

The people at the press conference were eating it up. His heroic act the day before had worked exceptionally in his favor. The fact that he wasn't a prince didn't seem to matter. The few words that he had spoken, simply about his love for the princess and how he hoped that he could spend the rest of his life proving himself to her and to the people of Alderaan, had charmed everyone in the garden. He just hoped that the affection extended to the rest of the planet.

Leia was shining in a way he thought suited her nicely. He had considered her attractive before, but standing next to her, declaring their "love" to the world, he realized that she was beautiful.

When it had finished, Han graciously offered Leia his arm and led her away from the microphones and cameras, and back into the castle. He lingered, for only a moment, but she swatted him away.

"Careful there, princess, someone might still be around to see that. Don't want to read about any spousal abuse yet," he teased her.

"There won't be, as we are not in fact, spouses." She paused and looked at him. "Nice work out there, Solo. You really surprised me."

Han chuckled. "Yeah well I have a lot of incentive."

"Yes, well, money is often a strong motivator." Han thought she looked a little disappointed. She continued, "If we continue to be this successful, you can consider yourself a very wealthy man. Just a few more months."

"Months, I'm already tired and it's only been two days."

Leia straightened her back. Her tone had an edge to it. "It hasn't exactly been a picnic for me either, Captain Solo." With that, she turned her back and walked away from him.

Han stood back, surprised, but went right after her. "Hey, princess, what's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem."

"Yeah, then how come you go from almost showing a little emotion one second to turning into an ice princess the next?"

Leia laughed. There was no trace of humor in it. "Ice princess? How original."

Han ignored her. "I thought we did pretty good out there."

"We did."

"Then how come you're so upset?"

"I told you I am not upset. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. We are expected to make a public appearance in town for dinner. After we eat, we will take a brief tour of the main part of town, and come promptly home."

She continued walking towards the bedroom area of the castle.

"Why?"

"If you are going to be staying here for awhile, and if you are to be my 'betrothed' then it is important for Alderaan to see you taking an active interest in its values and culture."

Han shrugged her off. "Not that. I meant the 'promptly home' stuff. Can't we stop off and get a drink somewhere?"

Leia raised an eyebrow at him. "I expect that you know enough not to be sneaking around the planet at cantinas and drawing unwanted attention to yourself?"

"You can draw your conclusions, princess, but I'm not some sleazebag drunk. I just mean t that your plans all seem so stuffy and organized. Maybe we could relax a bit."

They had made it to the hallway connecting to their rooms. Leia stopped and looked up at him.

"I have no time to relax, Captain Solo. If you do remember, the whole reason you are here is to protect me as I continue my pursuits with the Rebellion."

"Do you ever take time for yourself?"

Leia had her hand on the doorknob to her bedroom. She tilted her head just slightly to look at him.

"Not when there's a war to be fought. Now if you'll excuse me, I don't like to work in such extravagant clothing."

Leia felt a mixture of emotions after the press conference. She was happy and relieved to know that it had gone over so well. Winter promised to come to her the minute she was able to figure out the rest of Alderaan's impression of Han, but if the reaction in the garden was any indication, people were quite smitten with Han Solo.

At least someone is, she thought to herself. That was her other emotion. She didn't know if she liked Han or if she wanted to kill him. At times, he acted like a decent human being. He had presented himself nicely at the press conference and had saved her father, but his snide remarks and indecent humor was getting to her.

All he talked about was money. Leia accepted that since she came from royalty, she may not understand the true depth of what money meant to others, but Solo was obsessed. And paying him, although coming mostly from her father's pocket, was eating her up inside. She wished her father would have given the money instead to the Rebellion who were ever in need of financial assistance. If she could not be open about her alliance, then at least she could be a beneficiary.

And she had been. All of her trust fund money had gone to buying new equipment and food for the Rebellion. She had only what her father would leave her in his inheritance, that is, if she survived the war. Every morning she woke up, Leia found it was a blessing. The moment the Empire found she was a traitor, she would be dead. If she had the choice, she would give all of that money to them too.

But as she did not have any choice but to accept Han as her bodyguard, and there was no chance he would do any such service for free, it was a sacrifice she had to make. Not to mention the guilt she felt at having to act so happy, care-free, and in love when so much of the galaxy was suffering at the Empire's hand.

It killed her that Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine were still alive. The Death Star had been a significant blow, but their power and influence were steady in their strength.

Leia shuddered, remembering the few run-ins she had had with the towering, dark figure she refused to recognize as human. She wondered how Han Solo might react if a time arose that they would come face-to-face with Vader. Though she doubted either would live very long regardless, she wasn't sure he was the type of person that would risk his own life for hers.

Dropping the heavy dress to the ground, Leia stepped out of it and kicked it aside. She pulled out a white blouse and khaki skirt as replacements. As she pulled them on, she felt guilty. That wasn't a fair assessment of Han. After all, he had saved her father before he had even been hired to do such a thing.

It always came back to that it seemed. Though he constantly spoke of caring just for him, she saw, in just the few days she had known him, a deep caring friendship between him and Chewbacca. And he talked an awful lot about his ship.

Leia smirked. She couldn't wait to see what the Millenium Falcon actually looked like compared to the proud captain's delusions. There was a planned 'romantic lover's getaway' this weekend, which was actually a chance for Leia to meet up at the Rebellion's rendezvous for a short time.

She frowned. Her father only allowed her a few days at a time so that her absence would not be suspicious. While it was safe to assume that, as a captain, Han would fly around the galaxy any chance he got, it was still important that there be frequent sightings of him and Leia together touring Alderaan. It would be the natural thing for a man courting the princess to do.

She sighed, took a longing last look at her bed, and walked towards her office. She had a mountain of paperwork to do, phone calls to make, and hopefully a meeting with General Riekkan over the holovid. He was an old friend of her father's and their most frequent contact with the Rebellion. Usually, she looked forward to such meetings, but today Riekkan was to be introduced to Han, who agreed, though unofficially, to offer some support to the Rebellion.

It was a valiant gesture, but Leia did not like the way his eyebrow crinkled in disgust when she suggested he become an official member. He had mumbled something about uniforms and not wanting to get involved. The meeting was to take place after her and Han's dinner, which she was not looking forward to with as much enthusiasm.

She had almost made it to the end of the hallway to her office when a voice called out to her. She swallowed a sigh and turned it on.

"Grandmother, I'm very sorry but I have a lot of work to do."

Her grandmother waved her off. "Dear, you spend so much time working. What you should really be doing is getting in some extra one-on-one time with that pilot of yours."

Leia blushed a deep crimson. "We have plenty of time to be together. Capt- Han understands that my job is just as important to me as he is."

Grandmother clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "Nu uh. See that's where you're wrong, dearie. Your work should never be as important as the person you're in love with! That's one thing I hoped to pass down to your father, but he never quite understood it and look where that got him! A widow before he ever enjoyed married life. And now I'm afraid he's influenced you."

Leia didn't know what to say. It was true that her father and mother, though in love, did not get to spend as much time together as they should have. But her father was always so involved with politics and royal life that she supposed they had missed out on much of what being in love could offer. Sometimes though, she had to put her selfish needs aside for the greater good. In this case, there weren't even any real selfish needs anyways.

"You're right, grandmother. I will be sure to make time for me and Han to be together, but right now I have to get some work finished if I want to enjoy dinner later."

She went to turn away, but her grandmother stopped her by putting her hand gently on Leia's shoulder.

"Yes, grandmother?"

Instead of responding, her grandmother simply looked at her with a small smile on her face. Leia was alarmed to see tears were forming in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Her grandmother laughed and shrugged it off. "Nothing, dear. It's just, you and Captain Solo remind me so much of me and your grandfather that it just makes an old lady like me reminisce."

With that, she picked up her hand off her shoulder, kissed Leia's forehead, and walked away.

Leia stood there a moment longer. She felt a mixture of bittersweet sadness, guilt, and pride at having so deeply fooled her grandmother into believing her and Han were in love. Though she wasn't sure how that had happened because in the past two days, her and Solo had spent most of the time arguing or rolling their eyes at one another. Even though they were supposed to be acting so in love in front of her grandmother, they were struggling a bit. Leia was relieved to see that their disagreements had not gotten in the way.

Laughing quietly to herself, she stepped into her office. The workload suddenly didn't seem as intense as before.

Han found that he was bored. He spent most of the time after the press conference wandering the palace. He had found a vast library that he was sure, in the beginning, that no one would ever find the time to read so many. But as time carried on so slowly, he thought maybe it could be possible. And because he wasn't allowed outside the palace without Leia, mostly because it was his job to watch over her, he ran out of rooms to explore.

He spent an hour bothering an already perturbed Leia in her office. Though he promised to be quiet and just sat in the chair opposite her desk, fiddling with an old data pad, she did not take too kindly to his presence. After a long time of glaring up at him and rolling her eyes at him every so often, or sighing loudly telling him to keep his mutterings to himself, she finally stood up from her desk. Han was hoping that she had given up and listened to his idea to stop working and going outside, instead, she just leaned over and knocked his feet off of her desk.

Laughing heartily, he gave up and left her office. Though now he was considering going back there because it at least offered him company and entertainment. He wished he could go to the Falcon and play around with it like Chewie was, but the king was serious about the job requirements. Han had said that, if he couldn't get to the Falcon to check to see if she was in working order, they may not be able to go on their mission. But then Chewie had offered to go in his place and the king was more than happy to oblige.

Not only was he kept from his ship, but now his best friend. He couldn't even look for any pretty girls to flirt with because if that ever got out, the whole mission would be shot to hell. Lying on his bed, Han supposed he could go talk to Winter, but the princess had her doing work. Besides, anytime he got near her, she broke out into fits of giggles.

He planned on going to see what Grandmother Organa was up to, but he must have fallen asleep because next thing he realized, there was a knocking at the door. Sitting up, he looked outside his window and saw that the sky was beginning to darken. The knocking continued, but as he went to tell whoever it was to come inside, he heard voices in the hallway.

Smirking, he stood up and listened at the door.

"Dear, what are you doing? He's your sweetheart, you don't have to knock!"

Han's smile grew wider. He could just see Leia's blush.

"Right, of course. I just wasn't sure what he was doing. It would be rude to inter-Grandmother!"

Han stepped aside just in time as the door swung open. Laughing, Han saw two figures standing in the doorway. Leia looked appalled, but grandmother stepped right inside.

"Hello, dear. What were you doing that kept you from answering the door for so long?"

Leia followed her with slight hesitation and stood next to him. "Yes, dear. What did take you so long?"

Han noticed the furrowing of her eyebrows and how he thought it made her look adorable rather than stern.

"I fell asleep. Nothing much to do around here."

Leia went to respond, but was interrupted. "See dear! You're boring him. I know you have to return to work at some point, but for the love of Gods, take advantage of these beginning stages!"

She looked at them expectantly and Leia realized with a jolt of horror that she was waiting for them to kiss. Han must have realized too because he was looking at her with an awkward expression on his face. When he leaned down, Leia braced herself, but instead he planted a gentle kiss on the top of her head and pulled her closer towards him.

He spoke. "Well, Grandma. As much as your presence is always welcome and appreciated, I haven't seen m'lady all day and I'd like to get in some alone time before dinner."

Han winked at her and they shared a look of understanding that Leia got but did not appreciate.

Excited and clapping her hands together, grandmother scurried outside the room. "Of course, of course! Don't let me get in your way!"

They listened to her muttering excitedly all the way down the hallway. Shutting the door, Han turned around towards her and they shared a smile. Leia broke the gaze and instead went to sit on the chair beside his dresser.

"She's quite a character."

Leia laughed. "Yes, grandmother likes her romance novels, so you can only imagine how one is seemingly playing out in front of her eyes."

Han laughed and sat down opposite her on his bed. "Has she always been that way?"

Leia quirked an eyebrow at him. "Yes, why?"

"Nah, it's just that neither you or your father are much like that."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing bad, relax Your Highness. The two of you are just so serious and I dunno she seems like she knows how to have a good time."

"And I don't?"

Han sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I didn't mean to offend you, princess. You're the one who said it's all work and no play."

Leia stood up from her chair, clearly annoyed. "We are in the middle of a war, Captain Solo. Just because you refuse to become involved, does not mean that it isn't happening. Some of us actually have work to do, so excuse me for not having all the leisure time in the world right now."

He stood up too, growing in frustration. "Listen, princess, just because I prefer not to sacrifice my own neck officially, doesn't mean I don't care. Isn't working here for you showing some sort of support?"

"Isn't it all for the money?"

A grin broke out on his face. "Doesn't hurt- hey, wait! Hold on a second."

Leia opened the door and started to step outside into the hallway when she paused and looked up at him.

"I just came to tell you that we need to get ready for dinner soon. Kindly put on an appropriate outfit and meet me at the entrance in fifteen minutes."

She turned and left. Han was once again wondering how in all hells the princess changed her demeanor so quickly.