Story prompt was 'blue moon'

Blue Moon

"Remember," Han said, craning his neck to look in the backseat at his three children, "no one speaks of this... ever! Do you understand?"

Three sets of solemn eyes stared back at him, their dark hair bouncing as they nodded in agreement.

"Never!" Jaina vowed.

"In a million zillion light years," Anakin concurred.

Jacen remained silent, so Han focused on his elder son. "Swear to it, Jace."

"Mom says we're not supposed to swear," Jacen mumbled.

"Jacen..." Han warned. "If you say anything at all, that's the last time we're ever doing that."

"JACEN!" Anakin yelled. "Hyper-space swear or I'll stuff a bowl of Wookiee hair down your throat when you're asleep tonight!"

"DAD!" Jacen shouted in terror. "Anakin is gonna turn all dark side on me!"

"And I'll be right there, handing him extra wads of fur from inside the Falcon's air vents," Han grumbled.

"Fine," Jacen finally said, folding his arms across his chest and scowling. "I swear I won't say anything. Keeping secrets from Mom is wrong, though."

"Only bad ones," Jaina pointed out. "This isn't bad."

"If we have to keep it a secret, then it's bad."

"Good Stars, Jacen," Han said, getting out of the hovercraft and ushering his children toward their apartment suite. "You have to learn the difference between really bad things, and sort of sneaky things, like this is."

Jacen only rolled his eyes, but didn't argue.

The evening went surprisingly well, and after everyone ate their dinner and the kids had a bath, they went to bed without protesting.

"That was a first," Leia commented, stacking the plates. "Did you give them obedience pills today?"

"Uh, no..." Han replied, quickly deciding to help his wife with the clean up. He stood and picked up the glasses, following her into the kitchen. "We just went to the library for Anakin, then saw a silly cartoon holo-flick for Jaina, and lastly we took in the zoo for Jacen. Actually, it was a pretty busy day, so maybe they were all tuckered out."

Leia put the dishes into the recycler, then glared up suspiciously at her husband. "How much junk food did you feed them?"

"Hey..." protested Han with a quick grin. "They only shared one box of popped maize and one box of candy at the holo-flick. I admit I had my own maize and candy, however."

"Nothing else?"

"Between the library and the holo-flick I took them to Dex's Diner and they ate a nice lunch." Han glared at his wife, who seemed to be smirking a bit. "What? Did Jacen say something?"

"Like what?"

"Uh... I don't know."

"Can you explain this?" Leia said, walking up calmly to her husband and pointing to his collar.

Han twisted his head, trying to see what Leia was indicating. "I don't see anything."

The Princess tugged at his shirt, pulling the edge down so he could get a clear view of the offense. It was a bright blue smudge, and when Han touched the spot, it was still sticky.

"Okay... you caught me," Han said with a sigh. "That's lipstick. I'm havin' an affair. I made the kids watch holo's in her apartment all day long while we canoodled in her bedroom."

It took all of Leia's willpower not to laugh at Han's excuse. Instead, she glared at him and said, "Bright blue? Your mistress wears bright blue lipstick and it tastes like..." She put her finger into her mouth for a second. "Berry-bliss floss candy? How old is she?"

"Eighteen. I like 'em young. You know that."

At that, she did laugh. "Oh, I know, flyboy. So you'd better fess up, or it's the sofa for the next two weeks."

"I just DID fess up!"

"I'm Force-sensitive and you're exceptionally bad at lying. Plus, I could tell the kids were behaving way, way too nicely this evening."

Han sighed, running his hand through his mop of messy hair. "Okay. You got me. When we were at the zoo, I let the kids eat Blue Moon ice cream even though it was right before dinnertime." He gave her a hopeful grin. "Notice they ate all their regular dinner, so it didn't spoil their appetite. Right?"

"How much did you have to bribe them to eat dinner?"

"Only ten credits. Each."

"HAN!"

"It worked!"

"What are you teaching our children? That it's okay to hide things from me? That it's okay to take bribes? That it's okay to eat Blue Moon ice cream right before dinner?"

Han shuffled around, staring contritely toward the floor. "Sorry. Tomorrow I'll tell them not to keep things from you. Not that it's actually possible to do that, anyway."

"True. And tell them not to take bribes, either. Or eat ice cream before dinner."

"Are you sure about the bribe part?"

"HAN!"

"Okay," Han said, backing up a bit as he held up his hands in a gesture of peace. "I'll tell them all of that. Will it make things better?"

"I suppose," Leia said. "But one more thing..."

"Yeah?"

"Do you really think telling me you're having an affair with an eighteen year old trollop is a smarter thing to do rather than confessing you ate horrid flavored bright blue ice cream before dinner?"

THE END