Luke woke to the sound of a door chime, and his first thought was where in chaos am I?
There was movement in the room, and he groggily tried to turn over to see if he was being attacked. Before he could, though, he saw a woman's legs cross his vision, heard a door open, heard Leia's voice saying, "Good morning. What's going on?"
The events of the previous night rushed back into Luke's brain and he froze. Kriff, he thought. Kriff, frak, kriff. Who's at the door? Can they see me?
He heard Threepio's voice from the hallway. "Mistress Leia, General Rieekan wishes to inquire whether you are feeling all right. It is unlike you to be asleep this late in the morning."
Leia's tone did not carry a hint of embarrassment when she replied, "I am quite well, thank you. I only needed some extra time. Please tell General Rieekan I will join him in twenty standard minutes."
Luke held his breath until he heard the door close again. When he sat up, he found himself face to face with Leia, who was sitting on the desk chair with a tiny, barely perceptible smile on her lips. "Good morning," the princess said.
"Good morning," Luke said. He glanced at the chronometer; it was a quarter past nine. "How did it get so late?" he wondered aloud.
Leia shrugged. "It seems that you were more exhausted than I was. I woke up twenty minutes ago, but I didn't want to kick you out when you looked so peaceful."
Luke could feel a blush creeping up his neck. "Well . . . did you sleep all right?"
Leia smiled. "Like a baby," she said.
"Good," Luke said. Then, unable to think of anything else, he repeated, "Good."
"And you?" Leia asked.
"I . . ." Luke hesitated, "I guess I was sleeping too soundly to think about how well I was sleeping," he finished with a shy smile.
"Good," Leia said. She stood up. "Look, can we agree it wouldn't do either of our reputations much good if anyone saw you coming out of my bunk in your sleep clothes?"
"Agreed," Luke said readily. He'd been thinking exactly that since the moment she'd invited him to stay. Not that he'd ever admit that to her, though.
"Right," the princess said. "My neighbor to the right works the night shift and most likely went to bed a standard hour ago. The three bunks across the hall are occupied by two beings who left for work already, and one whom I haven't heard yet. You are my neighbor to the left, so I guess there's nothing to worry about there. How soon do you need to be somewhere?"
Luke wiped some sleep from his eyes and mentally ran through his schedule. "Eleven, I guess. Occupational therapy in the medbay, for my new hand."
"That's it?" Leia said, incredulously.
Luke shrugged. "Perks of being on inactive status pending medical review, I suppose."
"Oh," Leia said. "Sorry, I didn't think—"
"It's fine. I guess you're not used to the idea, since you've never taken a day off in your life," he said with a smile.
"No, I haven't," Leia said, but she wasn't smiling. "Well, all right then. I'm going to go meet with General Rieekan. Can you wait at least half an hour, to be safe, and then try to make sure no one sees you leave?"
"That seems fair." He wanted to ask, when did you get so good at smuggling men out of your chambers? But he was 100% certain that he shouldn't.
"It might also help if you fix your hair up a little bit. There's a pocket mirror in the top drawer of the desk."
Luke blinked. "Where did you get a pocket mirror?"
Leia shrugged. "I had a governess once who told me, 'A lady should always be able to fix her face, wherever she finds herself.' Guess the lesson stuck."
That does not really answer the question. "Right," Luke said, "Good luck with Rieekan. I'll just . . . wait here until I sneak out."
"Thanks," Leia said. She turned to go, but hesitated and looked back over her shoulder. "Also . . . thanks for last night."
"I'd be happy to do it anytime," Luke said.
Leia smiled. "Then how about we start the tea earlier, tonight?"