Han and Leia are arguing. A little of the truth slips out. From a drabble prompt: "You're out of your damn mind."

Mission Objective

[Don't mind me, I'm just going to go fly the ship now!] Chewbacca roared, striding toward the cockpit to start the takeoff sequence. He knew he sounded angry, but he'd mostly yelled to be heard over the fight Cub and the Little Princess were having right now.

Tensions had been running high the entire trip, although in part that was just a continuation of the tensions that had been building for the last few weeks on base. Cub liked to complain that the Little Princess needed to relax, but the truth was that both of them had been strung tighter than the cord of a crossbow for longer than Chewbacca could remember.

Cub could deny it all he wanted, and did, loudly and vociferously: you're out of your damn mind, Chewie. Shut up, Furball, you're imagining things. She can barely stand the sight of me, are you kidding me with this? But Chewbacca knew Cub better than anyone else, probably better than Cub did himself right now. He could see the soft spot Cub had had for the Little Princess and the Little Jedi from the beginning. And he could see how that care for the Little Princess had grown into something else, something beyond friendship. He could also see that the Little Princess felt the same, much as she tried to protect herself from it.

Chewbacca had lived in this galaxy for a long time. He knew what love looked like when he saw it.

If only they weren't two of the most stubborn humans in the galaxy, he thought as he took off.

From the sounds of it, they had moved their argument to the medical bunk so that Cub could help the Little Princess patch up the wounds she'd gotten running back into the building where they'd met with their contact. A building that had been bombed minutes before.

Cub's voice was softer now. "All right, hold still, I gotta clean this first." There was a pause. Chewbacca heard the Little Princess make a little wincing noise, then Cub was back to their argument. "I still don't know what the hell you thought you were doin', running back there. Chewie said you must be crazier than I am."

True. He had said that.

The Little Princess's voice was tight, like she was bracing herself against the pain. "Had to—see if we could salvage anything."

Chewbacca could almost hear Cub's eyes roll. "Give me a break. Salvage what? Your precious mission objective?"

They were hitting all of each other's buttons again, and not in a good way. "Yes. The mission objective was important; that's why it's the mission objective," she said, her voice rising. Then she went back to defending herself. "I took a calculated risk. Well within Alliance protocols."

"Alliance protocols? Are you kidding me?"

"I know you don't care about—"

"Damn right I don't care about protocols! What the hell good is all that if you get blown to hell? Fuck the mission objective, I care about YOU!"

That was as close to the underlying truth as had ever come out of Cub's mouth. And from the silence that followed, it seemed that the Little Princess had been struck speechless by it, leaving Cub's words hanging in the air.

Maybe it's too much to hope. Or maybe these two will finally get somewhere, Chewbacca thought, steering them into the stars.