✧Communications #001✧

[borntorebel]

[After some extremely uncomfortable fighting with both her now shredded wedding gown and with the earbud for what she could only assume was a communicator, Leia's patience for all things regarding this day is shot. Very little about this situation makes her happy and when she speaks, it shows in her voice.]

Han? Luke? Threepio? Lando? Where are you? If this is some sort of sick joke of a honeymoon, I'm not laughing.

[After everything, today was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, and it had been until she'd woken up somehow in that pod. In the middle of a desert.]

I thought we'd agreed that we'd never return to Tatooine, even if it was the last planet in the galaxy? And what the kriff happened to my dress?

Comments

[pilot]

[ he does not need to be told. his last memory of her — her face as she watched him lowered into the chamber — has been seared into the backs of his eyelids since he crashed down.

when he bursts out of the forest some time later, han has a solid pipe in hand he had scavenged from the first downed ship for want of a blaster. rather than risk yelling and drawing every single walker on them, he tries her by audio. ]

Leia, I got eyes on your pod—! Where are you?

[borntorebel]

[Waiting patiently isn't something that Leia's ever done very well. She's always been a woman of action, even as a child. It's part of why the search to find her lover had taken a year instead of two, during a time of heavy fighting between the Rebellion and the former Empire.

When she hears his voice again, her nerves are frayed and the heat of the sun is definitely too much for her.]

I'm inside. Someone else suggested that I head northwest from here, since I appear to be adequately armed, but I didn't want to lose you that way.

[pilot]

[ the temperature change from the shade of the trees to the bare desert feels like a smack to the face. but he's smiling as he charges across the hot sands. ]

Takes more than that to lose me. [ old bravado, softened into something like a promise by affection. ]

It looks like you're clear. Can you make your way out?

[borntorebel]

Are you sure? Because you've done some pretty rash things before. We wouldn't want to mess up your reputation after all.

[Not that it would stop her from trying to find him. It hadn't so far.

She steps to the door of the pod, knife in hand, and an obvious wedding dress in tatters around her legs. With a small noise of regret, she takes the knife and hacks at it so that her calves are free. She rips the veil from her hair and tosses it into the backpack she found under the seats and looks around.]

Alright, General, what direction should I start walking in?

[pilot]

To the only good-looking guy here.

[ his joy at having her so close — and safe and fine and still sounding so very leia — are enough to distract him from the pieces that don't make sense. like her calling him general. or that she is wearing what was once a wedding dress.

no, han is all overjoyed bluster. for the first time in months, the dark clouds of bespin and vader, of being trapped, of not being able to contact anyone and not knowing anything break. a wide grin threatens to split his face when he spots her. ( there has never and will never be a woman more beautiful to his eyes. )

han eats the last few feet between them, unable to bear a second more of separation, and when he finally catches up to her, lifting her like she weighs nothing and whisking her around, the whole damn planet — the monstrous desert, the creatures skulking among the trees, the isolation — and the galaxy too fall away. for a second, it is only them, and it's enough. ]

[borntorebel]

[She sees him and runs to him, let out a joyous laugh as he picks her up and spins her. She wraps her arms around his neck before kissing him deeply.]

This isn't exactly the most ideal honeymoon, but if this is what it takes to get time alone with you, I guess I'll take it.

[pilot]

-- what?

[ still holding her close, his grin is tempered by confusion. then he looks down, and his brows pull together.

half the dress may be gone, but the rest of it… ] Is that a wedding dress?

[borntorebel]

[Being an almost scholar in all of the dumb faces that Han Solo can make, Leia can tell that he's in his confused but happy phase. Which means she'll have to try and figure out what's going on before he gets into his stupid and angry phase.

Nothing good comes from that phase. Ever.]

It was, yes, before whomever is responsible for this decided to drop me here in the middle of some desert wasteland.

[pilot]

You're getting married?

[ a beat. ]

To who?

[borntorebel]

[She could laugh at the underlying jealousy written all over his face, considering that's exactly what led to their wedding happening the way it did.]

To you. Why? Do you think I would really marry Isolder after everything we've been through?

[Although, honestly, it was a tempting offer, what with his handsome good looks, riches, and utter devotion to her. It had been very heady to be wooed by him, considering how distant Han had been while leading the Rogues and Wraiths after Zsinj.]

[pilot]

[ his mouth opens, but no sound comes out. han looks from her face to the dress ( that dress, that damn dress ) to the pod and back to her. ]

Who? [ not the priority there, solo. han shakes his head. ]

Leia, I've been here for weeks. Before that, we were in Bespin. I was frozen.

[ he doesn't remember coming out, though he must have been released. he doesn't remember anything about the process except her face. ]

[borntorebel]

[Her smile falls and she looks at him, confused.]

Han, that was nearly five years ago. Lando, Luke, Chewbacca, and I rescued you from Jabba's Pleasure Palace as soon as we had a way in.

[If she were anyone else, she'd giggle hysterically, because he doesn't even know half of the crap that's happened to them. And she has to tell him.]

Did you really think I was going to let you get away with "I know" being the last words I heard from you?

[pilot]

[ five years. he's starting to feel a little like he suspects padmé did. but five is preferable to twenty in any world. tamping down further suspicion, he brushes a kiss to her forehead, his hand briefly coming up to thumb her jaw. he'd begun to fear —

it didn't matter. she's here. ]

They were good ones. [ a flash of a grin, and he would almost be himself again, but for the tightness remaining around his eyes. but when he takes her hand, it's as warmly as ever, giving her fingers a comforting squeeze. ]

Come on. Let's get back.

[borntorebel]

[She stops his hand with one of her own, studying his face before giving him a small, relieved smile.

It was enough for now. They'd have to talk about it, sure, but that could wait, obviously, for when they're out of the danger. If what she's been told is true.

She returns the squeeze to her hand.]

They were very you, that's for sure. [But she puts that aside to focus on the here and now.]

What do I need to know about this place, aside from the fact that I'm definitely striking it off the list of places I want to revisit?

[pilot]

[ where to start. han's eyebrows crept up toward his hair as he thought it over. ]

You ever hear those scary stories of witches who could bring the dead back to life? [ he doesn't give her space to answer. ]

There's no witches here, but getting attacked by things that should be dead? That's every day.

[borntorebel]

[She listens to him, her smile turning into a frown at the mention of witches. Dathomir is definitely off the list of planets she will ever be going back to. And probably wherever Isolder's mother ends up when he and his new bride are done with the Queen Mother of the Hapens. Force Witches are definitely not fun.]

Yes, the man named Daryl said something about the undead and cannibals walking around here before you showed up. [Her voice is painfully serious as she walks beside him, her small hand warm in his.] I think that's part of the reason he wanted me to run to the treeline so quickly.

[pilot]

Yeah, well, the forest's full of them, [ he speaks blackly. ]

They're drawn to noise. Attacked one of the downed ships a few weeks ago; almost got at the people inside. And this [ han pushes branches, vines out of the way with the makeshift staff, ] is about the extent of the weapons we've got. No blasters. No comms. Yet. I had to scavenge parts from the second ship to get started on repairs.

[borntorebel]

[She nods solemnly and pulls the knife from where she'd tied it to her thigh before.]

Then I suppose we should keep our fighting to a minimum and I should have this out while we walk.

[She shakes her head sadly, her voice strained.]

This was hardly what I expected to happen this morning when I woke up. My only worry was if Luke was going to make the ceremony on time.

[pilot]

The kid gets lost in his own room. [ spoken with the exasperated affection han has nursed for him since being dragged into the death star to find luke's princess. the princess.

when he looks at her, his eyes are shadowed by something almost like guilt. the very concept of marriage at this point in time is enough to drop a heavy stone into his belly. that he loves her is undeniable. he does. it's a huge leap from there to marriage…but there is something to be said about his keeping one hand wrapped around hers.

fact remains that if she's telling the truth — and he wouldn't suspect leia of lying, not about this — then he lost five years of his life. he lost five years of their life. if it leaves him unbalanced, he can't imagine what it must be for her.

he's no good with words. luke and leia are: the ones that can inspire the already prone to crazy to even crazier feats. han's the one pointing out how crazy the damn plan, and then going along with it anyway. he has nothing to say to her, no way to make it better when he has no idea what has been lost.

han brushes his thumb over her knuckles. he can be there, though. he's not leaving again. not if he can help it. hopefully, it will be enough. she deserves this much and far more. ]

[borntorebel]

He's gotten better, but a lot has happened lately.

[She can hear the affection that Han has for her brother and she approves. She's not sure where she'd be without the two most important men in her life. She loves them both so much, but in the end, she's glad that they get along and she doesn't have to choose between the twin she never knew and the man she loves with every atom of her body.

But she can tell that Han is worried about things. Why wouldn't he be? His last memory is of her declaring she loved him and now she's here telling him they're married. He doesn't know about the resolution of the war, the reclamation of Coruscant, the fact that he's a highly decorated general of the New Republic.

And she's not sure how much she could or should tell him. But she's not one to let fear and worry stop her. She never has been.]

Han, I won't tell you anything you don't want to know, but this is strange for us both. The best way to clear this hurdle is to talk about it.

[pilot]

Not right now.

[ an exhale and he looks forward again. he is easily satisfied: leia, luke and chewbacca are fine. he assumes c-3po was pieced back together and, much more importantly, the falcon is still in one piece. he doesn't need much else.

to soften his refusal, he jerks his head toward the trees. ] Let's get you back first.

[borntorebel]

That's fine. I wasn't saying we should talk about it right this second.

[Most of what she has to say tell him is long and complicated and she'd rather do in private, out of the hail and the sand.]

Back where, exactly? Is there some sort of base on this wasteland?