AN:
Flowers or showers was the theme this time around for this chapter and the next.
I'll also give a warning for some bad language here
In the dusky light the leaves of the hedge looked like a wall. Small white flowers, their scent mightier than their size, seemed to glow like stars in a sky.
Han was thinking... something. Probably how Leia's jacket matched the hedge. Deep jewel green. And her hair was brown, like the branches, and just as intricately entwined. And that she was like the flowers.
They were walking; the hedge was on her right, taller than Han on her left.
And then it snatched her.
Han saw-
He saw it all, and he saw nothing, and at the end he was left standing there gape-mouthed and panting.
Leaves, broken from their branches, fluttering to the ground. He heard her grunt and the snap of twigs. And her feet, gods help him, just the bottom of her shoe soles as she was lifted off the ground.
And then the hedge was a wall again, still shifting into place, mostly recovered. Leaves on the ground, some small twigs, a fragrance in the air.
And Leia was gone.
"No!" he shouted at the hedge and dived in. It took him ages. Twigs went in his mouth and poked his eye and scratched his cheek. It was like swimming in syrup; he just couldn't move fast enough. "Don't you dare!"
And all the while he was thinking who was he talking to when he said that, don't you dare, Leia or the hedge or whoever took her. And he was wondering how, but not why and what he was going to tell Luke.
She was not gone.
His eye was watering.
But the reality was whoever snatched her had prepared a spot. They had carved out a nice hollow and they only needed to crash her through the wall of hedge before easily leaving out the other side.
Han burst through and his chest was heaving. His eye stopped watering- Chewie had said that, you don't cry until you know it's the end, so he used his eyes and took in every single godsdamned detail: the color of the sky, the song of birds, the hum of traffic. He looked at every single fucking being on the other side of that hedge and he said to the world, voice threatening murder, Where is she!
Looked for something out of place, someone acting stealthy, fast. Leia, he pleaded, make a noise. Scream. A door shut- a speeder from the docking area- and Han sprinted, his blaster out.
"Fuckers!" he bellowed, loud as he could, fast as he could.
I'll get her.
The landspeeder sped off. He aimed where the engine was. He didn't care if he caused it to crash. Leia would prefer to die by his doing rather than let the Empire take her. He could live with that; it was better than having lost her and not been able to do anything.
And fuck if someone there didn't -
Han rolled out of the way. He looked up at the sky. Something hurt but he'd wasted enough time thinking about the damn flowers.
He sprang to his feet and shot the lock of another speeder. He got in, and he ripped out the panel and took the ignition wires and he got it started, first try.
First try. "Hear that, fuckers?"
Every fucking speeder was gray. Every fucking speeder! Han hammered his fist on the steerer and yelled. It struck him how alone he was. If he had Chewie, or Luke, or her, he could yell and hammer and fly and let them figure out what the hell to do.
And he tried not to be afraid. That all the gray speeders were coursing along as they were supposed to, because Leia was not in any of them. Or she was, but she couldn't show him where, because she was-
He really didn't want to think it.
- dead or unconscious.
I'll get her.
Even dead, he'd get her. He would do that, for her. Bring her back to where she meant good things, lovely things.
That was the plan.
A speeder caught his eye. It had passed three others, and the last one was done in the turn lane. Reckless.
He had her.
"I got her!" he shouted like Chewie and Luke could hear him.
He sped up, started passing from all directions. Drivers sounded warnings and made rude gestures and shook their heads. Flying over a speeder wasn't done because it wasn't a rule of the road, but that didn't mean it wasn't possible. Han flew above, passed on both sides. And soon he was ramming the gray speeder.
He hit it from the side, to make sure he had the right one. What told him that was a blaster sticking out of a window. And then he got above it and dropped his own speeder on top of it, muttering through clenched teeth, "Duck, sweetheart."
The speeder scraped the ground, and it made a terrible sound. Like a crumpling. Pieces of metal and duroplast fell off and traffic went haywire as the other speeders tried to avoid it. People were getting out. Two men, one moving in a lurching manner, holding on to himself, one holding a blaster and firing at Han's speeder, and one fiercely fragrant flower, genus princess species Alderaan.
Han screeched his own speeder to a halt and stood on the seat, his finger triggering the blaster like curse words.
The man moving funny was probably injured, so Han injured him some more. Or killed him. He really didn't care. He'd been too busy to see what Leia was doing but now one corner of his mouth twitched up as he turned the blaster on the other man. She had jumped on his back and was yanking the back of his hair. The man was yelling and so was she. His face was pointed up to the sky, and Han could see his throat. A knife would come in handy right now, but he didn't have one.
Leia gave one more hard yank and jumped backward, taking the man with her to the ground. Han noted with great satisfaction as he shot the man in the chest that he saw the soles of his boots.
They stood before each other. Sirens wailed, and speeders crawled slowly by, faces gawking. They had to run but they clutched at each other, kissed deep and quick and promising.
He took her hand and half threw her in the stolen speeder, and as they drove away from the scene the smell of the white flower was in their cab, caught in their hair.
She'd seen the desperation in his eyes, but he decided that was all right. His body was starting to ache, but he gave her a wink as the sirens faded.
"All the speeders are gray," he said.