Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Speedo Challenge - Submission #2

The following was submitted by StatsGrandma.

THE HOLO

Han and Leia had just moved into the apartment on Coruscant. It was a pleasant place, lots of good natural light, new and very comfortable furniture, lovely parquet floors and Drallian rugs covering just enough of them.

Leia had taken some time off after their wedding and honeymoon, and was having a lovely time making the new home reflect both of them. She was, admittedly, grateful that the heads of various bounty hunters were not available; Han had expressed to her that he felt they would make for a most interesting decor. Leia shuddered at the thought and while she knew Han was joking, Han was, well, capable of pulling off some pretty amazing (and cringeworthy) jokes.

Leia smiled at the thought of him pulling pranks. Apparently, it had been a lifelong pleasure of his, and for the most part, she found them funny, save for the times when she was the target. And even then, after some time had passed, they made for some pretty entertaining memories.

The task she'd embarked on was putting up some holos to personalize the place. The hard part of that was that neither of them had very many. Leia only had the ones she'd taken with her when she went off to fight in the rebellion. She sat down and went through them.

There was one that was taken when she was three, sitting in the kitchen of the palace, laughing and talking to her as she painted pictures and chattered on. She blinked back a few tears; her father had been strict with her, and his expectations stratospheric, but he had also been kind and gentle with her, and they enjoyed each other's company.

She remembered the first time she'd shown the holo to Han. He had smiled and said, "I think I like your stepdad better than your bio dad." Both had laughed, but Leia so wished Bail Organa was still alive. He would have had plenty of misgivings about Han initially, and maybe later on, but she knew that with time and some patience, they would have learned to like and respect each other.

One when she was five, standing with her mother and father at an official function, wearing a white dress (she seemed to always be in white, Han had once observed, at least up until the victory at Endor), standing solemnly in front of them, her hands folded, her braids pulled so tightly that her head had ached.

Holos of her with Winter, having the rare carefree day away from royal obligations. Her first day as a senator in her white gown, wearing the hair style that she preferred to relegate to oblivion. It was the look she had when she first met Han Solo, who was, in her opinion at the time, lower than a bantha on the food chain.

That hadn't lasted, she observed, smiling to herself.

She had only a few holos, but Han had even fewer. No photos existed of him prior to his late teens. She imagined that his features in early adolescence were softer than they were now. There was a photo of him from graduation from the Imperial Academy. He looked solemn and was very, very thin. He seemed awkward in uniform, as if the high collar was bothering him (she was certain that it had).

She knew of Bria, and there were a few holos of them together that had been taken by her father, a man he had liked and deeply respected. The property they occupied looked opulent. They looked young and clearly in love.

Leia knew of Bria mostly by way of history, but Han had something of a different take on her. According to him, she used him after a long separation. He never said much about it, but she could see that his bottomless emotions had been tapped, and Leia knew better than to pursue it. Han had had his share of crazy ex girlfriends, and he said that he liked them in one way: scarce.

She had gone through the very small stack of his holos when she stumbled across a holo that surprised her. Han was sitting on the edge of a swimming pool, surrounded by lush vegetation, with a few days' growth of facial hair -- and wearing nothing but a very tight swimsuit, a towel nearby. She was trying to determine what he was feeling in that moment; he seemed to be, well, almost shy. The idea of Han Solo feeling modest was an aspect of him that she would have never guessed he possessed.

That momentary lapse of confidence, to her mind, made him all that much hotter in her mind. She smiled as she began arranging the holos on the wall, musing about what she planned to do with him when he got home.

"Honey, I'm home!" Leia had been so lost in thought that she was jarred at first. She stood up and went over to him, hugging him tightly and enjoying his kiss, something she never would tire of. "Looks like you've been having fun with the holos. Just do me a favor and don't put mine up."

"Why not? It's part of your history, of who you are."

"Leia, sweetheart, as far as my history goes, it started with you. Anything earlier just doesn't matter."

"I don't know. I came across this one," she said, pointing to the holo of him at the pool."

"Oh, please, that's a horrible shot. I don't know why I kept it."

"I don't know. It's been giving me all kinds of ideas."

"Hmm. What did you have in mind?"

"If you have to ask..." Leia laughed and pulled him towards the bedroom.

"On second thought, maybe we can keep it," Han said as he followed her.

11 comments:

  1. Wow, this was nice little shot! :) I liked everything but Bria! ;D It was also nice because it gave me an impression that they got married much earlier than in EU. And a funny detail was Leia wanting to forget about her buns! :D

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  2. Good job, Stats (can I call you stats?) :)

    I will echo what Lily has said about Leia wanting to forget about her buns, that was great. And despite that mention of Br*a (it's a swear word) I love how Han is insistent that his life only really started when he met Leia, aww, that's really sweet.

    It was nice having Leia looking at the old photos of her childhood, it's always good to have little snippets of their past. And I also love that Leia took time off work after the honeymoon...too right she would. She and Han need to "christen" all the rooms in that new apartment right?

    An enjoyable read. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Thanks for the kind words! I know that Br*a is something of a four letter word (I really hate the beyotch), but couldn't resist throwing it in. I agree that the couple should christen every room in the house! I need to practice writing more sexy time; I'm struggling with it some, which is exactly why I should do it :)

    You can call me anything you want. Gods know that my students do :D

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  4. One of the things that's always bothered me in the EU is how they handle personal time -- IOW, they don't give the characters any of it. Leia out on the battlements when she's 9 months pregnant with twins? Taking a 'few days off' to enjoy the new babies? Where's the honeymoon?

    My parents grew up in Belfast, NI during WWII. Even during wartime, they said that they rode bikes, played soccer, celebrated holidays, shopped (admittedly, pickings were slim and food was not plentiful, but they did do it), went to school, went with their parents to the pub. My father in law was in the Pacific Theatre in Guadalcanal, and he saw six weeks total of combat. The point is, even during wars, life moves forward, and people do take time off.

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  5. Great job and just a very nice little scene of them together which is something we don't get much of in the EU, for sure.

    I agree with your comment above, even during war people are people and need to keep some normalcy just to keep their sanity. I think of M*A*S*H when I think of that. It's all business when the casualties are rolling in, but they do find time to have drinks, parties, practical jokes, laugh, cry, fall in love, watch movies, etc. That's real.

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  6. I liked Leia going through the old holos and bringing up the old memories. And of course I liked Han's mention that he has no history before she came along. Very nice :)

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  7. Well done, my favorite line is "Leia, sweetheart, as far as my history goes, it started with you. Anything earlier just doesn't matter." So true!!

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  8. I really loved seeing Leia go through the holos like that. Even Bria (who-wow!--I completely forgot about. Funny.) I loved seeing her find the childhood shots, too. That's an area of her life we rarely get to see much of. This was fun to read. Thanks for posting it!

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  9. You're all very kind and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you.

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  10. Awww. That was very sweet. I liked Leia setting a home up for them and taking time off after the wedding and honeymoon. Nice. I wasn't enamored of the reference to Bria either. I really liked - "Han had had his share of crazy ex girlfriends, and he said that he liked them in one way: scarce." That was funny. And I dunno, I didn't mind the bun hairstyle so much. She was sweet and cute.

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  11. Br** will not appear in any future writings :)

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