Fame and Fortune

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

In the dark restaurant, Han took a large gulp of his whiskey, his third double-shot in far too short amount of time. Then he glanced over at the two giggling females, one human and one Chiss, who had boldly invited themselves to sit with Han without an invitation and now pressed themselves very close on either side. It was rather off-putting, since Han had never met a giggling Chiss before, but both ladies seemed determined to keep him company. He wished he could recall what they said their names were... Winnie? Minnie? The Chiss's name was Cydumm, he thought. It didn't seem to matter at the moment since right now their attention was focused on a small stage at the back of the restaurant, where various beings had attempted to sing - karaoke style - various tunes in an attempt to win a grand prize of five hundred credits.

Mostly the singers' attempts were, at least to Han's ears, horrible, and not one of them deserved a cash prize. In fact, Han thought through his alcoholic haze, the restaurant owner should pay its patrons money for having to listen to this drek.

The human female suddenly turned her attention back to Han. "Evin?" When he didn't respond, she shouted louder, assuming he hadn't heard her over the loud music rather than the truth, which was he'd temporarily forgotten his new name. "EVIN?"

Han blinked, forcing the blurry haze from his brain. "Oh, yeah. What is it, honey?" Easier to call her 'honey' than to ask for her name again.

"You should get up there and sing."

The request made him give a humorless laugh. "Oh, right. That'll happen when palm trees grow on Hoth."

"But it's five hundred credits! That's a lot of money."

"You go sing for it then," Han shot back, suddenly recalling a long-ago incident on the Falcon.

His memory drifted back to the days on Hoth. The Princess had come to him, asking if he would take her to Batuu where they would contact a Rebel willing to sell them munition supplies. Han remembered giving her a hard time about the long trip, but he'd taken her anyway, like he always did. Once there, they found the city where their supplier lived destroyed by the Empire. It appeared the entire population had been wiped out except for three small children - aged four to eight - that, somehow, miraculously survived the bombardment.

The children were hungry and cold, and after Han, Chewie and Leia had taken them back to the Falcon, fed them and cleaned them up, Chewie had gone to take a nap while Leia left to use the shower. This meant Han was alone with babysitting duties for these traumatized children. Having little experience with children, the Corellian had attempted to draw them out, to get them to talk, but was met with silence and more than a little fear showing in their wide eyes.

Finally, he gave up trying to get them to talk and turned on some music. A spunky, fast tune from his teenage years echoed through the speakers, and Han recalled the words. It had once been a favorite song of his, way back in the day. He looked at the children and sang a few words, then seeing that he'd actually gotten their attention, picked up a small hydrospanner to use as a 'mic' and stood up, singing along to the old song, scooting and shuffling along to the beat. The children started to smile and clap so Han decided end with a dramatic finish, spinning around... and ... froze...his heart dropping down to the soles of his boots.

Leia was standing in the arched doorway of the hold, a bemused expression on her face. Han felt his face flush red from his hair roots down to the bottom of his neck. This annoyed him to no end, as he took great pride in never getting embarrassed to the point of blushing.

"I wasn't aware you could sing, Solo," she'd said, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

"I... I can't," Han remembered answering while quickly tossing the offending hydrospanner back in its box. "I, um, was just fooling around, tryin', ya know, to get the kids to smile a little bit."