Pilot-a-thon
Title: Gold Bikini Complex
Fandom: Star Wars
Character: Jaina Solo
Pairings Mentioned: Jaina/Zekk, Jaina/Kyp, Jaina/Jag
Rating: PG
Summary: Jaina Solo Character Study. Written for the Pilot-A-Thon.
Jaina Solo knows that she's pretty.
It's not as though it was a complicated thing to realize. She's seen enough holodramas to know what pretty is and what it isn't. And she recognizes, in the most abstract way, that her features are similar enough to various actresses that she probably falls into the former category.
The problem is that she grew up surrounded by women who make holodrama stars look like Wampas.
Jaina grew up surrounded by Mara Jade Skywalker, whose legendary red hair and flashing green eyes have made her quite the icon of beauty for women all over the galaxy since she married Luke Skywalker and her face became much more public.
She was practically raised by Winter Celchu. Winter carries herself with such grace and poise, that random people often mistake Winter for the Princess of the long-destroyed Alderaan instead.
She's also spent a considerable amount of time in the company of Iella Antilles and Mirax Horn, who are so beautiful that her father often remarks, to scathing looks and often physical abuse, that they are the only women who could lure him away from her mother. (He doesn’t mean it, of course--Jaina’s seen enough nauseating evidence to the contrary--but they’re pretty enough that he says it, because he thinks he’s funny, and it’s almost true enough that her mother would believe it, if she weren’t of course her mother.)
Her mother. Leia Organa-Solo. A woman who is probably the biggest obstacle to Jaina's self-esteem. This fact is ironic in that Jaina's beauty is, doubtlessly, inherited from her mother. She has the same fine bone structure, same figure, same deep brown hair and eyes. In fact, the only physical feature that Jaina seems to have inherited from her imfamous father, Han Solo, is the lop-sided grin that adorns her face ninety percent of the time, and the eye-rolling disbelief that she shows for the other ten.
The rest is Leia all over again. People say that all the time, but Jaina rarely hears it. She's too busy buried in engine compartments and climbing around the guts of her beloved X-wing and, later, her Stealth-X. She doesn't hear a lot of what people say about how pretty she is, or about how she's becoming one of the standards of beauty for a whole new generation.
Jaina has heard all about her mother, though. When you've heard a room full of men, who have proven to be your well-deserving heroes time and time again, proclaim that your mother and her recruitment poster were the sole reasons that they joined the Rebellion in the first place,it's difficult to maintain any sense of perspective on your own beauty.
Especially when these same men then begin circulating stories of situations in which they've seen more of your mother than you care to think about. Stories about that thrice-bedammed legendary gold bikini are legendary, after all, and it's usually all Jaina can do to not volunteer the information that she knows first-hand that the aforementioned garment is still in existence. She'd rather forget most of that afternoon, anyway.
The cat-calls, the whistles, the veiled suggestions. Han handles it all by glaring at the offenders and patting the DL-44 until they back off. Leia handles it all with graceful aplomb. Jaina has never seen her mother balk to return a flippant comment or to return fire with enthusiasm. Anyone who knows Princess Leia knows that she doesn't so much mind the attention. In fact, as the hair around her temples turns grey and the lines on her face become deeper, she revels in it.
Of course, Leia can still stop conversations just by walking into a room. Jaina's never had that ability. It's just not something that's in her. She lacks the confidence and easy banter that her mother displays so readily, and she's definitely not the universal sex object that either of her parents reportedly were in their day. She tries not to think about that, though.
Slowly, though, she's begun to recognize her own beauty and now, in her late twenties, she's begun to revel in it. The accomplishment has not been solely the result of her own effort, though. She's had some rather enthusiastic help.
First there was Zekk. Zekk adored her in that stupid, grinning teenage way that kids have, and he made her think that maybe she was pretty, even though her skin was covered in grease, and her hair was never styled in the fantastically elaborate coifs that her mother favoured. They'd never really gotten around to doing much of anything, aside from a few brief kisses. But, just the fact that he paid attention to her at all, especially with Anja Gallandro around, turned out to be enough to convince her that she might actually have something to offer a boy other than expert knowledge on the new Incom lines and a deft hand with a hydrospanner.
Second, there was Jagged Fel. She'd probably very nearly married Jag, if she was honest with herself. He had loved her as she was, and had been so infatuated with her that she'd had no alternative but to see herself the same way that he did. After all, if someone as fantastic as Jag could love her like that, then she must be worthy of it. He was the first man she'd ever made love to, and she had hoped against vain hope that he'd be the last. But, alas, it had not been the will of the Force. The horrible way that their relationship had no so much ended as explosively terminated still resonates pain in Jaina's soul when she thinks about it. She still wishes that it could have been different.
Then, most recently, there had been Kyp Duron. Her flirtations with Kyp Duron had grown more and more intense until they had culminated in one brief and clumsy occasion in a storage closet of the Temple. They'd been discovered, of course. Jaina had been given to Mara to deal with, and Kyp had had a long and involved discussion about proper conduct of a Jedi Master with Jaina's Uncle Luke.
After that, Kyp had told Jaina that he really didn't think it was a good idea to see her again, but the fact that he had endangered his position with the Council just to be with her once was enough to boost Jaina's waning confidence yet again.
And so, yes, Jaina Solo realizes that she's pretty. And yes, she may come in second to her mother and the radiant way in which the Princess is currently gliding across the dance floor at her anniversary ball. In fact, on the list of women that Jaina knows, she may even end up ranking sixth or seventh.
But considering who all is on that list, sixth or seventh was perfectly acceptable to Jaina Solo.