A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone. I really appreciate it. I know there aren't many new stories out there for our fave OTP, but thanks for having faith in this one. Enjoy.
Leia was tossing and turning in her bed that night. At first she was having rather pleasant dreams about her and Han, but then they turned into nightmares about moving away and having no friends at school. She finally woke up with a little bit of sweat on her forehead and decided to wake Luke up. She was his twin, and they always confided in each other. They were each other's best friends. Even though he had been acting slightly off since they had moved to Austin, she knew he would be able to calm her down.
She threw on her robe over her sleep cami and boy shorts and slipped out of her room, tentatively knocking on the next one down the hall before slipping in there. None of them ever kept their doors locked, and she quickly found her way to his bed in the dark, reaching for the ball of covers to shake him awake.
"Luke?" she said into the empty air as her hands met the blankets and found no body underneath. She turned on his bedside lamp and saw no trace of her brother. He was gone. And sneaking out of the house at midnight wasn't exactly the norm for him.
It wasn't the middle of the night, but it was late enough. Leia was always the first one to bed, and she knew her parents were asleep by the rhythmic snores of her father down the hall. Nevertheless, she knew something was wrong. She crept back to her room, avoiding the creaky parts of the wooden floor that she had discovered about the house and pulled on some jean cutoffs, a red tank top and her tennis shoes. It took her a few more minutes to sneak out of the house, but she realized it was much easier here than their old place—where she had only attempted once and failed. Soon she was under the black velvet blanket of the night sky and lit by the nearly full moon and the brilliant stars. There was literally no sign of life out on the ranch. Wherever Luke was, it wasn't here. Leia did the first sensible thing she could think of and ran quickly over to the guest house, knocking urgently on Han's door.
Chewy growled and she was momentarily offended, but she didn't care when Han opened the door looking thoroughly annoyed and sleepy. She pushed inside, her eyes only taking half a second to size him up in his pajama pants and no shirt. His hair was cutely messy, and Chewy looked displeased that they had both been woken up.
"I need your keys" she said, tapping her foot on the floor. Han looked at her as if she was crazy. She looked like she had just rolled out of bed too—which unbeknownst to him, she had, and her hair was a wavy mess, flowing loose and long down her back.
"What? My keys to what? The barn?" he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. It was hard to be pissed when he had a beautiful girl in his own private guest house, but he had been deeply asleep.
"You're car, Luke snuck out and I need to find him before he does something stupid!" she urged him, holding out her hand. He laughed and shook his head.
"Go back to bed, I'm sure he's just in town, getting drunk," Han blew her off, walking back over to his small little bed.
"Getting drunk? No. We aren't twenty-one."
"My God woman, the things that come out of your mouth are too much," Han laughed in a sleepy way, shaking his head in disbelief. She, however, looked thoroughly unamused.
"I've been drinking since I was thirteen. And he can get it if he knows where to go, sweetheart. Just let the guy be," Han said, trying his best to get her to leave to he could knock out cold on the pillow again. Chewy had already curled up on the rug by the bed, clearly over the conversation.
"Fine then," she said when she spotted his car keys sitting on a little table by the door. She grabbed them and walked out of the guest house. He was pulling on a shirt and a pair of jeans in an instant. He threw on his boots and was running across the grass after her.
"No you don't! You don't even know how to drive her!" he yelled after her.
"I had a mini-cooper back in Georgia, I'm not a baby," Leia rolled her eyes as she marched towards the silver truck parked down by the barn. He had unattached the horse trailer when he had arrived, and she climbed into the cab and put the keys in the ignition.
This scared Han even more and he jumped into the passenger side of the cab. She had already closed the door and was driving slowly down their long dirt driveway with the headlights off.
"If you put one scratch on her…"
"I can handle this myself, feel free to jump on out," she looked straight ahead. All she could think about was her brother.
"I am not leaving you alone with my baby, Leia. I go where she goes, and I am already pissed at you, so let's not make it worse," he yelled at her. She couldn't help but smirk. He was cute when he was angry.
"Oh yeah? What exactly are you going to do about that?" Leia challenged him. He had many things in mind, none of which were appropriate to say to her so he fumed silently and kept his mouth shut until they maneuvered off the dirt road and onto the main street. She turned the head lights on and floored it.
"So, if you were my brother in Austin, where would you go?" she asked. He thought about it for a second. It was week night – there wasn't much open now, but he had an inkling.
"Turn here," he said and she made a sharp right. Soon they had pulled into a half full parking lot on the edge of town. Leia quickly parked and hopped out, Han on her heels. They walked quickly into a run-down bar that was rather spacious once they got inside. It was a country bar, and it was pretty packed for a Thursday. Leia felt so out of her element, but Han looked right at home.
"You think my brother is in here?" she asked in disbelief. Han looked around; he gave a few girls some smiles.
"Did you get carded at the door?" he asked her like she was stupid. She shook her head, "Well then he's here," he finished. Leia knew he was right. No one had bothered to care that she was an 18 year old walking into this establishment. But what she was more interested in was how everyone seemed to know Han.
"A local haunt of yours?" she questioned. He smirked that gorgeous lop-sided grin and she wished she had never asked.
"Something like that, yeah," he replied as they walked further in. There was a long wooden bar, and the crowd was mostly young, all under thirty at least. Some of them significantly younger. And as her eyes scanned around the crowd that was dancing, she spotted Luke two-stepping rather badly with a pretty red-head. He looked happy and not like the moody kid that he had turned into the past week. But he also looked drunk.
"If someone finds out Luke's here drinking, my father's campaign…everyone knows…"she couldn't even articulate how badly it would be for her dad.
"Stop worrying about it, alright? He's here, he's fine, and he's not dead in some ditch okay? Just calm down and let's dance," he took her hand and started to lead her out onto the dance floor. The dj was playing some slow George Strait song and Leia didn't have the first notion about country-dancing. Where she lived in Georgia, there was very little of it.
"Han, I don't know how to dance," she admitted, blushing slightly. He figured that would be the case, as she was obviously more proud than her brother was to go stumbling around the dance floor.
"Fine, liquid courage then first," he grinned and pulled her hard back towards the bar, leaning up against it. For the first time all night Leia stopped to finally appreciate how good Han looked. Even though they had both just rolled out of bed, his plaid shirt and light washed jeans looked messy in a hot way. She was sure she just looked a mess.
"Two shots of Jack," Han told the bar tender, taking some money out of his wallet and putting it on the bar. The man, who obviously knew Han, brought back two rather large shots of whiskey and Han shoved one at Leia.
She held it, eyeing the amber colored liquid with hesitation. She had only had some brunch mimosas with her mother at baby-showers back in the South. Not hard liquor.
"What's the matter Princess?" he asked, still waiting to take his shot. She looked up at him as he stared at her with his gorgeous eyes and then raised the glass to her lips. He mimicked her and took his back in one easy gulp. Hers took three. And she coughed. And her throat burned.
"First time, huh?" Han looked like he was trying very hard to hold in a laugh. She nodded, she couldn't disagree after her performance, "So first time sneaking out I presume, first time driving a truck, first time dancing, first time drinking whiskey…I've popped a lot of your cherries tonight Miss Skywalker and the night is still young," Han finished.
She was pretty sure she was turning the color of her tank top.
"Anything else I should know about before we go and join your brother on the dance floor?" he grinned mischievously. She wanted to hit him. But she shook her head defiantly and let her lead her out to the spinning couples on the floor. She just hoped she could fake her way through it.
A/N: Review please! They keep chapters comin!