TRIAD ~ OT trio short stories

| Icy night

Summary: Hoth is freezing cold, and sleeping is extremely difficult without sharing warmth.
Genre: shameless fluff/humour
Warnings: none

"This kriffing snowball" Han Solo muttered through his teeth as he took some power cells from the secret compartments of the Falcon in order to warm up his bunk.
"Plenty of planets in the galaxy, and the High Command had to choose this...".

Chewie growled in the background in a somehow parental way.

"Alright, alright" Han said, rolling his eyes. "No bad words. But I can't find any better ones for this place".

The wokiee grunted his approval: despite his comfortable fur, the environment was too harsh even for him.

Han was about to go on with his impatient rant when someone knocked on the ramp with clear urgency. Who could it be? It was past midnight!

The smuggler quickly threw his heaviest winter coat, wondering why this late visitor was so eager to enter the ship. But when he finally opened the ramp, meeting the whipping wind, he immediately understood.

Luke Skywalker was standing outside, covered in what looked like his whole equipment and something he had borrowed from a person that was at least twice his size. Although he was wearing all those layers, he was shivering and he even had a thin ice veil on his eyelashes.

"Kid, what are you doing up this late?" Han couldn't help but ask.

"C-c-cold..." the boy murmured through chattering teeth.

"Well, I'm cold too" the older man said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"P-p-please... let me in... a-at l-least?".

"Oh. Yes, of course".

Han let the kid in and immediately closed the ramp, leaving all the wind and the snow outside, in the frozen hangar. He saw Luke relax visibly and wondered how long a Tatooine boy like him could survive on Hoth.

"This planet is killing you, isn't it, kiddo?" he asked to lighten up the mood as he offered a chair to the poor boy.

"Tatooine was better" Luke replied, almost whiny.

"The dustball? Nah" Han said. "Anyhow, what's bringing you here? You should be sleeping".

"Yeah, I know" the younger man said. "It's just... I can't, it's too cold and I keep shivering".

Luke blushed up to the roots of his hair as he said so, and Han immediately guessed why. Did the kid want to rest with him?

"Can't you sleep with Wedge?" he asked. He cared about his friend, but for the nine Corellian hells, he wouldn't ever share a bed with him!

If it was possible, Luke became even redder. "He's... sharing warmth with a woman" he said.

"Cool. You can join...".

"Han!".

"Alright, alright" Han laughed. "I don't mean to make you uncomfortable".

"So do you have... a little space for me?" Luke asked pleadingly with that soft look in his clear eyes.

Han sighed, defeated. "Yes. But don't stick too close to me".

"I promise I won't" the youth exclaimed as he raised as if he wanted to jump and hug his friend.

"Perfect" the smuggler said. "You're in, and very lucky. You can settle in the top bunk, since Chewie has the bottom one... please stay on the edge".

Luke eagerly nodded his head and followed Han in the room the smuggler used to call bedroom (which was actually more similar to a broom closet).

The two men quickly laid together, Han facing the wall with the hot power cell and Luke almost hanging loose from the edge of the bunk.

They held still in that position for what looked like hours until someone else knocked on the door.

"Holy kriff!" Han cursed as he left the bed, almost making Luke fall beyond the edge. "Why does everybody want with me? Can't I just sleep?".

The younger boy watched as his friend went to open the door, and patiently waited for him to come back. In the meantime, he wrapped the blanket tighter around his own body, taking advantage of the older man's absence. It was so warm, and the power cell was doing a wonderful job... he was almost comfortable, the freezing cold he had felt before had disappeared.

Luke didn't even realise that he had fallen asleep until a hand slapped repetitively his cheek, waking him up.

Why was Leia above him, and not Han?

"Leave some space for me, flyboy" the princess said.

Princess Leia Organa  wanted to share some warmth as well. Perfect.

Luke stepped off the bed and left the comforting nest he had created in the blanket.

Han, who was just behind the princess, climbed onto the bunk first, then Leia followed him to take the place in the middle. Luke was the last, again.

The princess smiled contently as she slowly but surely started drifting to sleep. Han was so warm that she was starting to feel even hot, even if the man was so heavily pressed against the wall that the Falcon's system was probably receiving most of his heat. Luke was a precious source of warmth, too, even if a good half of his body wasn't under the blanket anymore. Leia would have told him that he was falling from the bed if he hadn't been sleeping so soundly.

~~~

Morning finally came, and Leia opened her eyes when a gentle light knocked on her eyelids.

She sat up on the bunk and looked at her surroundings.

Han was still pressed against the wall, shivering: the princess herself had taken most of the blanket. But he was sleeping peacefully and even snoring, so she decided to let him rest a bit more.

Leia climbed down the bunk and quickly wore the coat she had taken off before going to bed. Even if it was late in the morning, the weather was very cold.

The princess yawned and decided that it was time to go back to her duties. She walked towards the door until she stepped on something that looked suspiciously like a leg.

Said thing howled in agony and Leia jumped back, noticing that she had just walked on Luke. The poor boy was half sitting and half lying on Chewie's bunk, with the lower half of his body sprawled on the floor.

"Luke, I'm so sorry!" Leia apologized as she knelt beside her friend. She had no intention of hurting him!

"It's... just fine" Luke said, still a bit sleepy.

"What are you doing here?" the princess asked.

The boy blushed. "Do you know how much you move when you sleep?" he said. "You threw me down a couple of times, then I decided that I had better sleep on the floor".

Leia apologized again and Luke again shook her excuses off, then he walked out of the room.

"Han's right, I should find a woman to share warmth with" she heard him mutter under his breath.

Yes, I know this isn't a masterpiece, but I am very very bored and I don't have the smallest intention of translating Divided Loyalties again (-: