prompt - rain/flowers

I Can Never Stop Thinking About You

Leia stood outside in the pouring rain, taking shelter under a small canvas canopy in front of a cafe, waiting for her ride. Annoyed, she glanced at her wrist chrono for at least the tenth time in the past few minutes. Why, oh why, she thought, do I ever think he's reliable? He's never reliable! He's probably late on purpose and thinks this is funny.

Of course, Leia didn't think getting soaked in an unexpected rainstorm was in the least bit funny. She had met her contact as requested, paid them the credits they asked, and received a small chip that gave the Rebellion classified information to the location of a Imperial munition storage facility. With this intelligence they should be able to move quickly to either destroy the munitions or, hopefully, steal them to use against the Empire.

Solo's role in all this was to fly her to Wobani, an Imperial controlled planet, drive her to this small café, and then wait a short distance away for her to make the credit transfer. Solo hadn't been pleased when she ordered him to leave, but the natives were insistent she arrive alone inside the café .

What was his problem, anyway? Leia pondered with a frown. I can handle myself just fine, thank you very much. In any case, if the Corellian didn't show up in the next minute or so, she was flagging down a taxi to take her back to the spaceport. Let Solo arrive and then worry about why she wasn't there. He deserved to worry, after allowing her to stand around in the rain.

Just when she was about to do just that, a landspeeder came roaring up, screeching to a halt directly in front of where she was standing, the air-forced hard brake causing a large puddle to create a small tsunami wave, which cascaded over her legs… all the way up to her knees.

Furious, Leia stomped through smaller puddles and yanked open the passenger door. She slid down into the seat, glaring daggers at a somewhat sheepish looking Corellian. "You're late!"

"It wasn't my fault!"

"Of course not," Leia snapped back. "It's never your fault, is it Flyboy!"

With a horn blaring behind them, Han slammed the vehicle into gear and roared off. "This time it wasn't," he insisted hotly. "I had to take a big detour around an accident. All it takes is a little bit of rain, and everyone just forgets how to drive all of a sudden."

"I'm soaked down to my undies, and I'm freezing cold!"

"As soon as we get back to the Falcon, I'll help dry you off and warm you up," Han said, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

Leia shook her head in disgust at his never-ending risqué comments, deciding to change the subject. "The exchange went down fine. I didn't have any problems, and I certainly didn't need you hovering around, like you implied you needed to do."

"Glad to hear it. I didn't hang around and hover, anyway."

"So," Leia said, reaching over and turning the heater controls on full blast. If Solo gets overheated, that's too bad, she mused. "If you didn't hover, where did you go while you waited?"

Han grinned, swinging his long arm toward the backseat to rummage around for something, which caused Leia to have a small heart attack. "Watch your driving!"

"Don't worry so much, Sweetheart," Han replied, laughing. "I can drive with my eyes closed. It's the rest of the idiots on the road you have to worry about."

"But I don't know any of those other idiots," Leia returned evenly. "Just the one driving this particular vehicle."

"Funny," Solo shot back. "Keep it up and I won't give you these." With that, he pulled a small bundle of cellophane wrapped flowers from the rear seat of the speeder, handing Leia the pretty bunch.

"Flowers?" Leia asked, astonished. As she took the flower spray her surprise grew. The arrangement was a mixture of Starflower and Gingerbell, both plants native to Alderaan, and both flowers Leia had loved while growing up. "Where did you get these?"

"A lady was sellin' them on a street corner a few blocks away," Han told her with a casual shrug. "She was trying to close out her stock for the day, so she practically begged me to take 'em off her hands."

Since Alderaan's destruction, the native flowers were rare and expensive so Leia could tell Han was lying about getting them cheaply. For someone that was so proud of his ability to bluff at sabacc, she often wondered why it was she could read him so easily. Her anger at being left in the rain dissipated, and as quickly as her anger melted away so did the rain. Suddenly, the sun broke through and a rainbow appeared directly in front of their viewscreen.

"They're beautiful," Leia said, wondering why her heart was racing. "Thank you."

Han glanced over at the soaked Princess, who still managed to look elegant and beautiful even with her smeared makeup and soggy braids. "You're welcome, but just so you know, there will never be a flower that grows anywhere in the galaxy that's as beautiful as a certain Princess I know."

Leia flushed at the compliment and looked down at the bouquet, not knowing how to respond.

"Of course, those wet clothes sticking to you in all the right places don't hurt a bit, either," Han added with a smirk and a leer.

Why oh why, she thought with a loud, audible sigh, do I ever think he's going to change? He's never going to change! He does something nice, and then ruins it with a suggestive comment that he thinks is funny.

As they drove in the direction of the glittering rainbow Leia realized Han's comments didn't make her nearly as mad as they had in the past, so she worried this might be a potential problem that she wouldn't know how to deal with in the future.

The End