Force & Resistance: a Han & Leia love story

2. Traps, Mud, Sorrow

"I can't believe you, Luke! You're almost as insufferable as Han these days. You're such a smug little-" the venom of Leia's words have slightly less sting than they might have done, muffled as they are by her helmet's chin strap. She's hanging upside down from the ankles, caught in Luke's snare trap. She is such a sore loser. She wriggles and spits.

Luke takes his time, maddeningly calm. Her twin brother drops silently down from where he was hiding in the tree canopy. He's covered himself with mud and leaves and when he goes still, he's almost completely invisible. If she glances away, he's hard to find again. Luke's using both camouflage and Jedi mind trickery to win and that's hardly fair.

Changing tactic, Leia crosses her arms over her chest and tries to look unbothered. However, all the blood rushing to her head is unpleasant. She concentrates, reaches for The Force.

They're playing a big kid game of Hide and Seek, sibling rivalry that's pretending to be serious Jedi training. Luke has set up a series of traps on the island that she is supposed to discover, and either avoid or disarm. She's supposed to break into his bunker and steal his lightsaber. They've been playing, er, training for four days. She has stolen the saber twice. This is the first time he's managed to catch her.

"Use The Force to get yourself free," Luke tells his upside down sister, using his pretentious Master Skywalker voice on her, slipping closer.

When he's close enough, Leia says, "Already did" and she flips down onto his back, legs whipping around and tumbling him down to the ground. She is better at grappling than Luke, has him pinned in a lightsecond. Smashes a handful of stinking wet mud into his face and then she's up and running, cackling. Leia is also a dirtier fighter.

"Aw, kriff! Leia!" Luke whines like her kid brother again, knocked right off his Jedi Master pedestal. He spits out mud and clambers up to his feet, chasing.

Luke is faster than she is, and he's catching up to her, when they burst through the trees to see the Millennium Falcon parked in a clearing up ahead.

"Oh, no," the twins say, simultaneously. A glance and grimace at the other.

"You didn't pick up this little disturbance in The Force, Twerp?" Leia's outraged look seems to say.

"Your temper's been on The Dark Side lately, Tiny," Luke's expression seems to say back.

He didn't pick up on Han and Chewie's approach because he was trying to dim himself as much as possible while hiding in the game with Leia. A side effect of trying to go unnoticed, it lowers a Jedi's ability to notice others in turn. That's the danger to Force cloaking, otherwise why not do it all the time and avoid all enemies?

However, Han's arrival with Leia still training here is making Luke think about trying to disappear again. He hates when they fight. And they always fight.

There's a loud pneumatic hiss, and then Chewie, coming down the ramp, both long furry arms raised in joyous greeting, and they run to him for a Wookie hug. Those are the best.

Then Han is posing at the top of the ramp, knee high riding boots polished to a shine, tight midnight trousers, cream colored shirt open at the neck and dark brown leather shoulder holster with blaster, healing remnant of a black eye, grin. It's only been a few weeks since she's seen him, but his hair seems longer than usual and kissed gold by sun at the tips. He has a tan, dammit.

"Hi, Chewie. Bye, Han," Leia says, hands on hips, glaring up the ramp at him, ignoring the way her foolish heart leapt when she saw his ship between the trees, how it's racing, aching now.

"Sweetheart, I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by," Han pretends to buff his nails. He'd hiding the fact that he's thrown to find her here. Yet again, he was looking for sanctuary, and yet again, there will be no rest for him here.

"Just in the neighborhood? You shouldn't even be in this system," Leia snaps at him.

She's furious, damp and grimy, smells like mud, wearing a flappy, mildew green poncho and an unflattering helmet. Han has never wanted to kiss anyone so badly.

"Did you think you got sole ownership of the whole entire galaxy in our break up, honey? I gotta be somewhere, don't I? What are you, Princess of the Universe now?" Han tosses his hair out of his eyes and stalks down the ramp to glare down at her. He tries to tower over her intimidatingly. He gets it about half right. She barely comes up to his chin, how can she take up so damn much space?

"Did you charm my location out of that blabber bot '3PO?" Leia has her hands on her hips, not backing up even when he comes too close. She will not retreat. The infamous Skywalker glare is strong with this one. "No one was supposed to tell you where I was. I do not want my training interrupted, Han. We're done."

Losing the staredown, he looks away and scratches the back of his neck saying, "I didn't even know you were here, fancy pants. Your brother happens to be my best friend, and sometimes the kid gives me a place to stay when Chewie and I gotta lay low for a couple days. So if you don't mind, Your Majesty, I'm gonna go see what I can scrounge up for dinner."

Then Han's brushing by her, and he smells like leather and caf, Wookie and home, and she can't make him leave because this is Luke's place not hers, and so she runs.

When she arrives at the creek, Leia has to stop and vomit. It's the stitch in her side, it's from how hard she's been training, her surprise at seeing Han- that's what she tells herself.

But the truth is, Leia's been vomiting off and on a lot these past two weeks and it doesn't seem to be food poisoning. At this point, it's gone on too many days. She's tired and her breasts ache. She has to urinate more often. Can't sleep.

There are no medbots out here. If her cycle doesn't flow in a few days, she's going to have to fly to civilization for a midwife consultation. Her lunar flow cycle has never been predictable. Too much stress, not enough sleep, sunlight or iron rich protein in space. She resolves not to say anything to that scruffy, no good, gorgeous nerfherder until she knows for sure.

Angry tears of crumbling denial sting Leia's eyes. It's last month's farewell fuck coming back to haunt them. A failed yearly contraceptive hypo? Rare but it happens. Maybe The Force messing with her? Why now? She splashes handfuls of cold, clear, creek water on her hot face. Listens to the sound of the water rushing over the rocks. Centers her mind with meditation.

Leia stays out til dark, until it starts to get dangerous in the forest. More dangerous than her. Chopping out her rage on vines and tree trunks with her wooden practice saber. Only as darkness falls completely does she trudge back to Luke's base, shoulders burning, belly hungry, eyes murderous.