{closed}

[nonerfherders]

Characters: Leia Organa and Han Solo
Location: Leia's room on Coruscant (C-6)
When: Just after Tenel-ka's announcement of Jacen's death
What: Not knowing how or what to grieve
Rating: Most likely PG

Comments

[initformoney]

Han had thrown himself into working on his ship again after hanging up with Leia. She needed time to process, and, well, so did he.

He didn't know Jacen that well. They'd talked a few times, sure, and he liked the kid well enough, even if the Jedi thing got annoying. He didn't want the kid to die. And... god. His son. He didn't have much family at home. And now that Leia was here, not some distant fantasy trapped back home... he wasn't sure how that changed things either.

It helped a little to focus on the fact that Outworlders came back to life. But that posed a whole other set of problems he wasn't sure how to handle.

Ten minutes later, he hadn't really made any progress, and he had told Leia he'd go find her. So he made his way back to the apartments and went to knock on her door.

"Leia?"

[nonerfherders]

Leia swallowed hard. "Come on in."

Distantly, she realized he'd been calling her by her name. Not Princess, Highness, or Worshipfulness, any of her actual titles or the ones he made up either to tease her or use when he was annoyed. Just her name. How long had he been doing that? It was new since they'd arrived here, she was sure.

[initformoney]

He pressed the button that opened the door and walked over to her, standing in front of her and crossing his arms. Maybe that hadn't been the time and place to tell her. Since the kid was dead and everything.

"Gonna go into shock on me, Princess? Come on. Someone's gotta be all uptight and respectable, and it sure as Hell won't be me."

[nonerfherders]

Well, that did at least startle her out of that shock-state. Leia glowered up at him. "Don't over-awe me with your empathetic abilities, laser brain. And don't worry, I wouldn't even dream of asking you to do anything that might make you more uptight. What do you mean, someone needs to be respectable?"

Damn, there wasn't some ceremony that had to be performed in order for Outlanders to come back from the dead or something, was there? She'd just got here. She hadn't even met Jacen Solo.

[initformoney]

And there was the Leia he knew and.... knew. Future wife. Sure, he'd been told it already, but he hadn't really thought about it past the fact that he'd sleep with Leia. Now, here she was, and it was... big. Not that he'd let her know that.

"You tell me, you're the royal one. If anyone knows about respectableness, it's you, right?"

[nonerfherders]

"What does respectableness have to do with any of this?" Leia stood up and poked a finger against his chest. "And don't give me that royal crap, like it's some sort of smear word. My position is a duty, not a privilege, blaster brain. And it's not as though it's at all relevent here and now!" Leia briefly forgot about recent events in the resurfacing of the old argument. Why did he always have to treat the fact that she was a princess as some sort of personal affront?

[initformoney]

And now that he's gotten er all worked up and angry, time to throw her off guard again. He gave her a sardonic smirk, looking down at her.

"Well, I figure it's important for me to know now. When we get married in the future, will that make me a prince?"

He didn't particularly want to be a prince or be respectable or any of those things that might come with higher social status. Or more accurately, he didn't care whether he was or not. So long as no one expected him to act any differently. Leia would know better than to expect him to ever stop being a scoundrel, so he might be in luck there.

[nonerfherders]

Leia snorted. "You take a lot for granted, flyboy. Even if we do have children here, I can't see how that's any guarantee of anything. This Revan pulls people from anywhere and everywhere, and it wouldn't surprise me if there's more than one possible future out there. Just because you somehow, and I can't imagine how, manage to get my good opinion there doesn't mean you've got it here. So don't get any ideas, got it?"

She did not like all these assumptions, she did not like being pushed forward into some future she didn't feel she had any choice in, and she most certainly did not like Han trying to throw her off balance. She was already off balance and didn't need the help.

[initformoney]

He stared at her in mild disbelief, then shook his head. "Still denying it? I knew you had feelings for me before the kid ever told me we're married in the future." He poked a finger at her. "Face it, Princess. You like me, and you just don't want to admit I'm right."

[nonerfherders]

Leia crossed her arms over her chest. "You knew, did you? And that's why you decided to have that charming little conversation with me in the hallway back on Hoth, was it? Or had you forgotten that it ended when I told you I'd rather kiss a Wookie? Clearly a sure sign of deep, undeniable attraction! If you were a droid I'd say you needed to get your logic circuits serviced!"

[initformoney]

"Well, I wouldn't want to see the children you and Chewie would make, but if he ever shows up around here, I'll let him know you're interested." Though considering Chewbacca's a married wookiee with very cute wookiee children back on Kashyyyk, he probably wouldn't be interested. Leia didn't need to know that, though. "You know, I think I liked you better when you weren't around."

[nonerfherders]

"Then perhaps one of us should take ourselves elsewhere!" Leia snapped back.

Then she groaned and sat back down on the bunk, rubbing her forehead. "No, look, Han, I don't want to argue with you." It'd been too long a week as it was, even before today, and today was proving spectacular. "But I really don't appreciate this being treated like some sort of game where you've won and I'm refusing to admit I've lost, or some nonsense. It's too important for that."

[initformoney]

Han kept up the annoyed glare for another moment, before dropping his arms with a bit of a sigh and going to join her on the bunk. "Fine, argument over." For now. "Wouldn't kill you to be a little nicer, though, Princess, I'm not that terrible a guy."

[nonerfherders]

"Never said you were," Leia pointed out, not looking at him. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. "And I was being nice until you walked in and called me uptight for no damn reason. I was even worried about you, you might recall."

[initformoney]

"You also looked like a light gust of wind would knock you over. Managed to snap you out of that, didn't I?" He threw her another cocky, lopsided grin, then shrugged a little, looking forward and away from her. "The kid's not bad, him or his twin sister. Apparently there's a third somewhere, but I haven't met him." Now that they had finished the required bickering session, they could move on to the point at hand.

[nonerfherders]

Was that why he'd been so provoking? "You managed that," she allowed, filing that thought away for later perusal. It almost implied he'd been worried about her.

"Hm. If Luke really is my brother, I think he and I must be twins. Guess it runs in the family." Two sons, one daughter. It was hard to imagine. Leia had always thought kids were far, far off in her future, assuming she'd have a chance to have any at all, given the war. Possibly they still were far, far off in the future. She didn't know. "What are the two you know like? How old are they, what do they do?"