Han wasn't sure what had awoken him first—the light beeping of the comm, or the jostling of a naked princess stretching out across his ribs to peek over the side of the bunk. No, he wasn't sure which one had finally pulled him from his light doze, he mused with a smile, but he knew which one he preferred.

She silenced the alarm, and he peeked open an eye to see her gaze still searching the deck plates.

Han rubbed his eyes tiredly, "can I help you, Princess?"

Leia's shoulders slumped a little as she gave up her search. She pushed herself to a sitting position and gave him a sheepish look. "I think I need a new shirt."

"What's wrong with the old one?" He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as he took in the view of a naked Leia kneeling beside him on the bunk.

A light pink tinged her cheeks. "You used it to….clean up."

Han rubbed his eye again and let out an apologetic chuckle. "Sorry. I meant to use my shirt."

"Technically, it is your shirt."

Well, that was true enough. They were currently on the 18th day of a four week slog to Bespin and the Princess had been borrowing clothes from his lockers for most of the trip. Han didn't mind. It was kind of…nice.

"Han," she said, snapping him from his reverie. "I'm cold." She reached toward the foot of the bunk and tugged at the twist of sheets and blanket that had been kicked aside in their earlier fervor.

He watched as she wrapped the comforter around her shoulders and adjusted herself into a cross-legged sitting position. She looked so casual and effortlessly beautiful in that moment that it was enough for him to forget all about waiting ship repairs, overextended "lunch breaks" and impatient wookiees.

He reached over and rubbed her knee thoughtfully. "Why don't come back down here and we can share that blanket and both get warm."

Leia tried to fight a smile. "Chewie is going to kill us if we don't get back out there soon."

"He'll get over it."

She shook her head, the smile never leaving her face. "A shirt." She reminded him.

"Hmmm…." He said thoughtfully, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "There should be some old t-shirts in the bottom locker. You can help yourself to one of those."

Leia tightened the comforter around her as she climbed over his legs. "Which locker?" She asked, standing up.

"The far left one on the bottom. With the ding in the door."

The princess gave him a playful look. "Oooh! I haven't been in there yet. Exciting."

"Yeah," Han said with a roll of his eyes, "you can explore all my abandoned socks. Thrilling."

"Or terrifying," she said with a laugh as she made her way over to the far side of the cabin, the comforter dragging behind her like a cape. "There's nothing in there that's going to jump out and bite me, is there?"

There was amusement in her tone and Han smiled again. "Your guess is as good as mine, Your Worship. I haven't looked in there in ages."

She shot him a look at the nickname and then kneeled before the locker. "You're dressing me in your rejects. How flattering." She made a tsk tsk sound, and arched an eyebrow at him. "Need I remind you that you're in the presence of the the last Princess of Alderaan?" Her voice was intentionally haughty, but her eyes sparkled with mirth.

"They're the most comfortable," he insisted. "Trust me. You'll find something good in there."

"Mmhmm…" she said, her tone laced with doubt. The door screeched in protest as she pulled it open. Han idly stared at her blanketed back as she began sorting through the items piled inside.

"What is this?" She asked, with an amused tone, holding a shirt up in front of her.

Han tilted his head up from the pillow, trying to see what had gotten her attention, but her body blocked him from getting a good look. "What?"

"Oh, wow. This is truly the most hideous shirt I've ever seen," she laughed, pulling the offensive garment to her face. "But it's so soft." She immediately shrugged off her blanket and pulled the mysterious t-shirt over her head.

"Lemme see," Han said lazily, smiling as he watched the faded green shirt slide over her back.

"One sec," Leia said, still kneeling in front of the locker. Han watched as she began scooping up some items that had tumbled out onto the deck and casually tossed them back inside.

"Don't worry about that," Han said, amused with her half-hazard attempt at tidying up. "The maid will get it later."

She threw him a knowing look over her shoulder. "I'm just making sure I leave it in the same condition I found it." She turned back and lobbed a couple of stray socks into the open mouth of the locker. "Believe me, I wouldn't want to interfere with your very strict organizational system…"

The princess paused, and her voice trailed off. Something inside the controlled chaos of the compartment had gotten her attention. She leaned into the locker, and reached toward something wedged in the back right corner.

"I really do have my own system," he said. oblivious to her sudden change in focus. He turned toward the top of his bunk. This was already a tired argument they'd revisited several times in the past two weeks. "Just because it may not be readily apparent to you—"

"What in the …?" She interrupted with a laugh, her voice slightly muffled in the tiny confines of the compartment.

"What?" He asked, distracted. He glanced in her direction.

"My gods. Han," Leia said, with delight, as she reemerged from the locker and sat back on her ankles. He saw a flash of something pink and furry clutched in her hands.

Han sat up a little, propping his weight on his elbows. "What is that?" He asked cautiously, a vague sense of premature embarrassment already beginning to thread through his body.

Leia took a moment to study whatever was in her hands. She then shot him a look of delight, before springing to her feet. "Oh, i have to hear the story behind this," she said, excitedly, as she trotted over to him and climbed back into the bunk. The blanket remained abandoned on the deck, pooled in front of the still-open metal locker.

"Oh, gods," the smuggler said with sudden dread. His body jostled under her weight as she moved over him. "What did you find?"

The princess settled on her knees beside him, and looked down at him with a pleased look on her face. Han spared a quick glance at the pink fluffy item in her hands before being immediately distracted by the worn t-shirt, with the gaudy ironed-on print announcing Club Vertiga's All-Star Sabacc Invitational Tournament across the front.

Han reached over and fingered the edge of the t-shirt. "I forgot about this old thing. Looks good on you, Sweetheart."

Leia looked down and admired the cartoon card players of several species adorning the front. "It's awful, isn't it? I love it. I'm never taking it off."

"Never?" His hand slid down to her thigh. "Care to place a wager on that?"

"You'll lose," she told him bluntly.

Han gave her a smirk, his hand warm against her skin. "You think so?"

"Did you actually participate in this?" She plucked at the front of her shirt with one hand.

"Hmmm?" The smuggler was now fully focused on exploring her upper leg.

"Han," she batted his hand away with the pink fuzzy item in her hand. "Before you get carried away, I need some answers first." Her tone was all business, but her eyes were sparkling with amusement.

"What? The sabacc tournament?" He scratched his ribs absently."Yeah, I did. Got bounced in the second round."

"Okay, thanks for that. But I'm even more curious about this." She placed the pink item on his chest.

Han picked it up and studied it for a moment. It was a bright pink bunny slipper, complete with sad black eyes and large droopy ears. He chuckled in recognition.

"I have to know," Leia said, "Why in all the galaxy do you have this in your locker?"

The smuggler smiled up at her, He slipped the fuzzy pink bunny onto his hand and turned its head toward her. "Why wouldn't I have this? Don't you think it's cute?" He made the bunny wiggle its nose at her.

The princess rolled her eyes. "Come on," she said, "tell me. There must be a story here. I need to know it."

"There's no story. Not a good one, anyway."

Leia cocked her head at him, still amused. "Tell me anyway."

"Aw, Princess Leia," Han said, in a faux high-pitched voice. "There's no story here." He twitched the bunny's nose at her again, and then made as if the bunny was crawling up her arm. "I'm just a poor little lost rabbit who wants to snuuuuggle with you." He reached her neck and tucked the bunny nose under her chin, tickling her.

Leia swatted him away playfully. "You're such an idiot," she said, with a laugh.

Han just grinned at her.

She shook her head affectionately, "if only all your tough smuggling buddies could see you now."

"I wish they could," he said. "They'd be so jealous."

The princess blushed at the implied compliment, then her gaze shifted to his chest and her expression grew slightly wistful. "Does it belong to an ex-girlfriend or something? Is that why you don't want to tell me?"

Han's smile faded. "Nah," he said, pulling the bunny slipper off of his hand. "Nothing like that. It was just a stupid bet I had with Lando a long time ago."

"Wait, what?" Her eyes shot back to his face. "Our Lando? The one we're meeting on Bespin?"

"Yeah," he said, averting his gaze. He was still not completely comfortable with the plan of relying on his old friend when they reached the gas planet.

"What was the bet?"

"I don't remember any of the specifics." That wasn't entirely true. He remembered it had to do with a half-cocked scam involving parting wealthy tourists from their credits, and that Lando had been the original architect of the whole thing.

"We had some scheme to earn some money," he said carefully.

Actually, it had been a con. A straight con. And it had been designed to go after the exact kind of people the princess probably used to rub shoulders with on a regular basis. The two of them had been young and desperate and hungry for credits. But it shamed him to remember it now. And it shamed him even more to realize that Leia likely would've been a target of theirs if she had crossed their paths back then.

Not that she would've fallen for it. But still.

"And like everything with Lando," he continued, "it also turned into a competition between us."

"Oh, no," she said softly, settling onto her side beside him. She propped her head up in her hand. "Why does that make me nervous?"

"Probably, because like most competitive relationships, it inevitably led to a lot of falling-outs between the two of us."

Leia cursed softly under her breath. "What kind of fall-outs? Is this going to be a problem for us in a couple of weeks?"

"I don't know," he answered, truthfully.

"And this bunny slipper thing…was this one of those…falling outs?"

"No," Han turned on his side and faced her. "This was relatively harmless."

For the two of them, anyway. The wager had been harmless. It lacked the usual combustible element that colored most of their competitive interactions. No beloved ships were on the line. No girlfriends were being wooed away. For the marks, however? It was probably considered something other than harmless.

"Okay, so what's this about?" She asked, plucking at the slipper still in his hand.

"It was stupid," he said sheepishly. "One of us was still sore about losing a lot of credits in a recent high-stakes game."

It was Lando. Lando was the one who had been still stinging over the loss of the Falcon to Han. But that was a story for another time.

"So, we decided not to wager credits this time."

"Okay," she said, slowly, "So what did you wager?"

Han made a face. "Uh, humiliation, I guess?"

Leia raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Whoever earned less in the, uh, scheme, had to wear the bunny slippers to the cantina and sit and order at least three drinks at the bar."

Her jaw dropped and her eyes lit up. "You're kidding."

"Yeah, and there was also a pair of bunny ears involved, too. You know, to wear on your head?" He motioned vaguely at his temple. "But I don't know what happened to those." That was true.

Leia looked positively delighted. "Please tell me you lost. And that there are holos. I'm begging you."

He grinned at her. "Sorry, Sweetheart. No holos."

Her eyes brightened. "But you did lose?" She sounded absolutely thrilled.

Han just smiled mutely at her for a long moment. Then, reluctantly, he admitted, "Yeah, I lost."

"Oh, my gods," Leia put a hand to her mouth, as if trying to spare him from the smile of delight overtaking her face. Then just as quickly her eyes turned all soft and gooey. "Oh, my gods, Han," she gasped again, softly. "You must've looked so cute."

The smuggler felt his face grow warm."Cute? What? Stop it."

"Oh my gods," she repeated, undeterred. She sidled up closer to him. "You had floppy, pink bunny ears on your head? I can't…."

"I looked ridiculous," he insisted.

But Leia clearly had a different impression. She drew a leg over his hip, pressing herself more fully against him. "So…adorable," she whispered, kissing his jaw and then his lips.

Han couldn't help smiling against her mouth. This was definitely not the response he had been expecting when this conversation had started. "Ah," he said, as her attention moved to the spot below his ear. "Does this mean you're no longer in a rush to get back to repairs?"

Leia pulled away and looked at him. She gave him a knowing smile. "What do you think," she said, reaching between them to pull the bunny slipper out of his hand and tossing it on the deck.

"I think," he said, looping an arm around her waist, before rolling on his back and pulling her with him, "we need to settle our own wager."

She grinned at him, her nose almost touching his. "What wager?"

Hen slipped a hand under her shirt and ran it up her back. "Whether or not I'm going to be able to get you out of this thing or not."

Leia bit her lip softly, as if considering him for a moment. She then sat up so she was straddling him above hips. "Fine," she said, pulling the faded green t-shirt over her head and throwing it carelessly to the deck.

"Han Solo, I'm going to let you win this one."