Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A Welcome Surprise - A Valentine's Story by Zyra

Here is another entry into the Valentine's mushy challenge. I seriously just typed this up, having no idea what I was going to do with it, just felt like I had to write at least something to contribute since I haven't written anything in a while. Hope you enjoy.

*****


"What do you mean, you're not gonna make it?" Han Solo said frustratingly through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry, Han. You know I am. But these delegates came all the way from the Outer Rim and they only have so much time. You know I can't miss this meeting."

To say he was disappointed would be an understatement. Han and his wife Leia were celebrating their thirteenth anniversary. They had planned to go out to one of their favorite restaurants, just the two of them, to share a romantic evening. They'd both been exceedingly busy as of late, and with the children's schedules starting to take up more and more time it had been a while since they'd taken some time out just for themselves. And now it looked like that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

"Yeah," Han replied, not knowing what else to say. He tried not to blame Leia for working hard. It was one of the reasons he respected her so much. And once they'd started a family she had started working much more normal hours, though like with any job, occasionally something happened to keep her late. He just wished it didn't have to be tonight.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Leia said. "I promise I'll make it up to you. We can go out another night next week."

Han let out a sigh, knowing that pouting wasn't going to make the situation any better. He'd just have to remind her about making things up to him next week when he planned to keep her up most of the night. He switched back to husband/father mode. "Fine, so maybe I'll just go meet up with Lando, all right?"

"Oh, see, when I knew I wasn't coming back I sort of told Luke that he didn't need to keep the kids overnight. So one of us has to go home."

Han knew that 'one of us' in this case meant him. Well, a few drinks with his old friend would've been nice, but there were worse things than spending a night at home with his kids. It might even help him take his mind off what he was missing out on. "You owe me, sweetheart."

"I know. Next week, I promise. I won't be home until late so tell the kids I'll see them in the morning. I love you. Happy anniversary."

"Yeah," Han said a bit more gruffly than he meant to before cutting off the comm call. He felt a little badly for ending the conversation that way, but even if he was trying to be understanding he still wanted her to know that he was at least a little bit mad.

He had already been on his way home as they talked, planning on showering and changing into one of those more formal outfits Leia liked to see him in. It wasn't one of his favorite things to do, but given the way she looked at him when he was dressed like that and the fact that more often than not she promised to wear whatever he wanted once they got home, he considered it a fair trade.

His irritation at his plans being altered hadn't waned once he arrived home. As he approached his front door he decided that maybe he'd order the kids from their favorite restaurant. Seeing their faces light up at the smallest gestures always made him feel better.

As he walked in the door, he expected to hear the bustle of kids winding down toward the end of the day, but all was quiet. It was also dark. Apparently nobody was home. This was not going to help his mood.

He reached over and flicked on the lights, illuminating the entryway in a soft glow. His eyes traveled downward to what appeared to be a trail of deep crimson flower petals. It surely was no accident.

He felt half of his face curl up into a grin as he slowly followed the trail through the living area and down the hallway. He could see the faint glow of candlelight reflecting from the bedroom he shared with his wife. He felt his heart pounding as he rounded the corner into the doorway and peered in to find Leia sprawled invitingly on the bed, wearing an outfit that he had not seen before but certainly approved of. It was made of some sort of lace the same color as the flower petals that led all the way to the bed, and it didn't leave anything to the imagination.

Han leaned casually against the door frame. "I thought you had a meeting."

She brushed her long, brown hair off her exposed shoulder and smirked at him. "I lied."

Han shrugged off his jacket and slowly made his way towards the bed. "You said the kids were going to be home."

"Lied about that, too. I sent them off with their aunt and uncle. We have the night to ourselves."

He pulled his boots off and tossed them aside. "What about our dinner plans?"

She shrugged. "I didn't really feel like going out tonight."

He sat down on the bed and started undoing the fasteners on his shirt. "And where did that outfit come from?"

His eyes wandered lustily down her body, taking in every curve, every bit of skin that peeked out through the nearly-sheer material, every inch of her that he planned on kissing. She'd been lying down, resting her head in her hand, propped up on an elbow. As he sat, she moved to kneel next to him, helping him to ease the shirt down off his shoulders. Moving her face level with his, she got close enough so their lips were almost touching when she whispered breathily, "Are you going to keep asking questions or are you going to kiss me?"

Never one to turn down such an invitation, he brought his lips to hers, feeling her warm hands move up to frame his face while his own hands started to explore every facet of her body. It was not the anniversary night he'd been expecting, but it was far better. Without a word they were soon naked in each other's arms, proving once again that even after so many years together their passion for one another had never waned. If anything, Han thought yet again, it only seemed to grow.

Once thoroughly exhausted, much, much later, the couple lay lovingly snuggled together in the middle of their large bed, a blanket haphazardly pulled up around their cooling bodies. They'd been quiet for a while, but Han finally spoke. "So when did you decide to do this, huh?"

She smiled and squeezed her arms around him. "Just the other day. I don't really get the chance to surprise you often, and it's so hard to ever come up with a good gift for you, so I figured you might like this instead."

"Like it? Are you kidding me? Sweetheart that was..."

Her finger pressed against his lips to silence him and she sat up and her brown eyes looked deeply into his. "I know."

She leaned in and kissed him gently, and Han thought of a hundred things he could say to her. That he loved her more every day, that she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever known, that he loved the family and the life they'd created. That every morning he felt like the luckiest man in the galaxy.

But Han Solo wasn't one for mushy speeches. And he had a strong suspicion she knew exactly how he felt about her. She rested her head against his chest, ready to fall into an exhausted sleep. "I love you," he said before kissing her forehead.

"I love you, too," she said as her hand moved absently across his abdomen.

"And, sweetheart? You can feel free to surprise me like that anytime you want."

****

There you go, another addition. Please feel free to continue submitting more stories!

29 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed this story. I'm reading it and going, yeah, I know exactly how dinner plans get canceled or a spouse is going to be really late coming home and kids have to taken here and there (pretty much life stuff). I identified so much with the beginning of the story, and then the plot twist. Hell, I wish that happened in real life. But good for Leia to surprise Han in such a seductive way. Great story, I'll be thinking about it all day.

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  2. I also liked how she simply states "I lied" and "I lied about that too". Don't think Han minded being lied to.

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  3. That was wonderful! You really pegged married life and emotions, that balance between being pissed and trying to be understanding. Good job!

    Oh, and Leia gets all the cool outfits doesn't she? ;)

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  4. Oh Zyra, you had me for a minute there, I seriously thought they were going to have a really crappy anniversary! But I should trust in you, I know you wouldn't be that cruel to our darlings! Once I read about the petals sprinkled over the floor I was grinning from ear to ear!

    Naughty Leia, she really had Han going there, but he definitely won't mind being lied to if that's what he gets for it.

    I love how you stress that "much much" later when they were exhausted. And I love Han's mushy thoughts at the end...awww.

    Thanks Zyra, this is just brilliant.

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  5. Oh for f**** sake! Now Google wants us to type in TWO words, and I had 2 long unreadable ones!

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    1. Tell me about it! Can't read them to type them in. :(

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    2. Am I the only one who gets the words wrong first attempt? Why can't they write them in a font you can actually read? The old way was much better!

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  6. v sweet, Zyra. love Leia taking the lead. who needs presents when he's got surprises like this?

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  7. I love how she just says 'I lied' without a trace of embarrassment. That made me laugh.

    That was great! Poor Han - Leia really had him worried there...

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  8. Hey, has anyone else's ff.net account stopped working? Mine won't let me log in. Grr.

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    1. yeah I can't get it to bring up the login page at all today

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    2. I was finally able to about an hour ago.

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  9. Forgot to mention that I really liked that Leia did something for
    him. Not something you see that often.

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    1. That's very true. It was so nice to read about.

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  10. Thank you! I'm glad you all enjoyed it. I felt like I needed to get something out there, right? I'm sometimes bothered by the fact that Han is always getting Leia great presents and going out of his way to be romantic and surprise her but it seems like Leia hardly ever does that sort of thing for him. So I decided to turn the tables a bit. It's almost impossible to come up with anything good for Leia to get Han as a present that he would really love, and this seems for sure like the best present he could receive ;)

    Sorry about the google words, we have nothing to do with it! I will say though that very often, since it's not unusual for even my own comments to somehow get swallowed in the void between writing them and hitting the publish button, I will copy and paste the text, so if it disappears, I can just paste it again.

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  11. I've started doing that since having 3 posts vanish on me. The weirdest one was a post that actually got published in the thread, it appeared and it said "your comment was published" but when I refreshed the page a bit later it had disappeared! Very strange.

    Google just love to piss everyone off don't they? Don't worry, I'm sure we all realise its not your fault.

    And I have to agree, Leia definitely gave Han the perfect gift.

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  12. I had the same thing happen, Claire. Will be doing the same.

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  13. You know what, it's weird too because there have been some comments I think that I get an e-mail notification on and when I go to see them they're not there. Or it will be the same comment twice, presumably after you guys posted it and then had to try again. Stupid blogspot! I shouldn't say that. Thank you, blogspot, for letting us host this site for free.

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    1. How do the email notifications actually work? I signed up for those before Christmas, and the only notification of a new post I've ever had was earlier this week, and it was one of your posts Zyra infact. Other than that, I get nothing? Don't understand that one. Do you have to subscribe to each thread as it appears or something?

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    2. I get an email for each new main post/topic. Usually takes a day to show up. I also subscribed to the comments and use google reader to follow those.

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    3. Sorry to sound totally dense, this is the first blog I've ever followed, so I'm not up to speed on a lot of this stuff...but what is Google reader and how do I get it? I have a Google account, but don't remember seeing stuff about Google reader.

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    4. It's buried under the google menus. Usually under More at the bottom of the menu. I used the links on the blog to subscribe to posts and comments using google. There's a couple of drop down boxes. I mostly figured it out as I went along.

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    5. Thanks, I've just found it and set it up!!

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  14. Very true. At least we a free place to "congregate".

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  15. Yeah, I can't really help. As blog contributor it's easy for us to check a box or something to get e-mail notifications when things get commented on but I don't know how it works for you guys. I know that any blogs I follow I don't get any kind of notifications on updates just by following. Our e-mails when you guys post comments are immediate.

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  16. I've been busy lately and haven't commented on a few posts. Realized this was one of them (sorry, Zyra). Loved this little scene/story. I agree that it's nice to read about Leia doing things for Han since it always seems to be the other way around and the "I lied" was priceless. Even though I think she would remain busy and dedicated, I can see her ensuring she and Han (and their kids) get the time they deserved in little ways like this one.

    Thanks for sharing, Zyra!

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