The unhappily wed couple returned to yet another day of
counseling. Han still wished he could
figure that tiny and infuriating woman out, but he did notice that she seemed a
lot less tense that morning. Perhaps it
was the knowledge that there was no way that this day could be worse than the
one before. He did not expect to be
bombarded with intimacy questions on a daily basis, and surely the counselor
did not expect them to complete their “assignment” immediately. Not that he wanted to, anyway, or
anything.
Surprisingly, Han felt quite good when he woke up that
morning. And Leia’s improved mood
certainly helped. He and Leia were
greatly relieved to learn that the subject of that day’s events would be
effective communication with your spouse.
Stating needs clearly, making sure that the other person understood
where you were coming from, and generally staying away from topics involving
sex. Also, the irony had not escaped him
that he and Leia certainly could use some help on their communication skills,
married or not.
The couples were seated, all of whom looked just as miserable
as Han and Leia did. It seemed kind of
sad in a way to be in a room surrounded by beings whose relationships had
fallen apart. At least for him and Leia,
theirs had never been a true marriage to begin with. Han didn’t really have any interest in getting
married himself, but it was still a little sad to see a room full of couples
trying to split up.
Amidst the sea of misery though he did eye an attractive
woman in the midst of those miserable faces.
He’d noticed her earlier, dressed in a frumpy manner and usually with
her hair a mess and pulled back. It was
apparent that nobody in the room put much effort into their appearance. But that day, this particular blond-haired,
thin and fit looking woman had her hair down, long and hanging over her shoulders. Tasteful makeup adorned her face and she was
wearing a relatively form fitting sleeveless shirt and tight pants with her
boots. Han didn’t realize he was staring
until he looked at her face and saw one of her blue eyes wink at him and he gave
her half a smirk and looked away.
He remembered her introducing herself as Lohree on the first
day. She looked to be a few years older
than Leia, and more than a few centims taller.
Her husband looked a few years older than Han and if he needed to guess
Han would’ve said that he was probably a fairly wealthy man, because he
certainly didn’t land that woman on his good looks. He was balding, sporting some fairly unkempt
facial hair and acted nauseatingly placating toward his wife, while she remained
to appear disgusted with him. Seemed a
shame that such an attractive woman should be wasted on a fairly pathetic
excuse for a man.
Hearing a deep breath exhale from the woman seated next to
him made him recall why he was there as Leia shifted in her seat a bit. She hadn’t noticed the subtle exchange with
the other woman. Han suddenly wished he
could go back a few years and schedule some of his smuggling runs to land on
this planet and stake out these conferences full of unsatisfied wives. Well, not really, as he had always had a
policy against sleeping with married women…. unless he was married to
them. But it sure was fun to think
about.
“All right,” Ava began in her typically calm voice. “We’re going to do an exercise to help with
our communication skills. I need some
volunteers. So, Lohree, Kabe, why don’t
you come up here?”
The blond and her significantly less attractive husband
stepped to the front of the room. Han
noted that Lohree looked especially irritated.
“Now, I want you two to sit in these chairs,” Ava indicated
two chairs facing each other in front of the room and the couple sat down. “Take each other’s hands and look at each
other.”
Lohree visibly rolled her eyes and Kabe looked basically
helpless. Han wondered how much alcohol
was involved in that particular decision to wed. Or maybe the guy was just that rich.
“I would like you to think of an issue you find yourselves
arguing over that continues to come up that usually causes arguments. The trick is to discuss the issue openly and
honestly, letting the other person air their grievances without interrupting,
then coming back with your rebuttal but again, in a calm and reasonable
manner. We do not want to use this as an
attack on the other person. You need to
start your discussions with, ‘I feel that…’ and then tell the other person how
you feel about the situation. Do you
understand?”
The couple nodded. “All
right, then. Do you have an issue in
mind you’d like to bring up?”
“I do,” Kabe said without hesitation.
“Good, go ahead.”
Kabe turned his attention back to his wife, who judging by the
look on her face didn’t really care how he felt about anything. Although Han was having trouble concentrating
on much aside from her long legs, one crossed over the other, in those tight,
black pants. “I feel,” Kabe began, “that
maybe you should consult me a little more often on what you spend my money on.”
“Your money?”
Lohree began, obviously angered by the statement.
But before she could continue, Ava interrupted. “Now, see, this is what we don’t want to
do. You don’t want to become
agitated. This is how he feels about the
situation, and his feelings are valid.
Your job now is to tell him how you feel about it.”
Lohree rolled her eyes and sat up a bit straighter,
attempting to compose herself. “All
right. Well, I feel that as a married
couple, what’s yours is mine and I should not have to ask your permission with
every little purchase I make.”
Kabe’s face appeared to be turning red, and not in the
adorably blushing way that Leia’s did, more in the kind of way someone’s face
turns red before they go off in a fit of rage.
“Well, I feel that maybe you
should scrutinize your purchases a little bit more and maybe there is no reason
for one woman to own eleven pairs of black boots on top of several dozen other
pairs of footwear.”
“And I feel…”
Lohree started and the conversation went back and forth much the same for
several minutes, each half of the couple becoming more and more agitated and
visibly holding back tempers, speaking the words through clenched teeth. At one point Lohree even pulled her hand out
of what had presumably become the uncomfortably tight grip of her husband.
Well, the woman might have been undeniably attractive, but
Han was sure that he wouldn’t have wanted to spend more than a couple of maybe
sweaty, naked evenings with her if this was what she was like outside the
bedroom. Sadly, that was not why they
were there. Still it seemed interesting
that his actual princess at least wasn’t some sort of entitlement princess.
Before one of those poor people’s heads popped off from trying
to hold in the rage, Ava told them that they could stop and then asked them to
kiss, which they reluctantly complied to.
She then told everyone to choose a topic with their own spouse and
attempt the exercise themselves and she would come around and observe.
Han and Leia turned their chairs toward one another. “What do you want to talk about?” Leia asked
in a surprisingly cheerful tone. Maybe
the worst of this was behind them.
“We could make something up, maybe. Like maybe you’re a total slob or a terrible
cook and don’t know how to be a good wife,” Han winked at her and he realized
he missed this kind of light hearted teasing.
Fortunately, Leia’s sense of humor seemed to have returned. “You know I can’t cook anyway. What about the Falcon?”
“What about it?”
“Well, maybe I
feel,” Leia began in a tone that showed that she was somewhat mocking the
exercise, and the half smile on her face put him completely at ease, “that a
good husband doesn’t fly his wife around in an old, junky freighter.” There was a mischievous sparkle in her eye
that made it impossible for Han to actually get mad at her right then.
Still, it seemed like a good topic to bring up. They could certainly pretend to get
themselves worked up over it, and the whole point was to prove that they had
multiple issues that could not be resolved that meant that they did not make
sense as a married couple. “Oh, yeah?”
Han replied, getting himself into his indignant character, “Well maybe I feel that
a good ship is hard to find and once you find one that works, you stick with
it.”
“And I feel that…” Leia began but then Ava stopped by and reminded them that they needed to join hands. It seemed like there were worse things in the universe, but Leia didn’t look thrilled when she reluctantly slipped her hands into his. Han noted that there was more than one reason to call her the ice princess as she continued her rebuttal. “Well, I feel that a ship that breaks down constantly and risks the lives of its inhabitants maybe needs to be replaced.”
They went back and forth for a few more minutes of good
natured arguing. It was mostly things
they’d said or thought before. The truth
was, after that ship being the one that rescued Leia in the first place and
guiding them through many successful missions, Han knew that Leia had taken a
liking to his old girl. He no longer
took offense to her arguments since he’d heard them all before, but he tried to
act offended as they continued their back and forth. This was the kind of thing they could
handle. And he couldn’t help but notice
how her hands had relaxed in his grip.
“All right, have you all said what you needed to say?” The room became quiet as all eyes turned back
to the counselor. “Now kiss each
other. We never want to walk away too
angry.”
Slowly the couples around them leaned in for kisses of
vastly varying degrees of length and enthusiasm. Han had already noticed several couples that
were quite obviously being helped by this little counseling session. His eyes turned to Leia, who looked at him
far more matter of factly than he expected.
Perhaps after waking up nearly naked in bed with him, the idea of a quick
peck on the lips didn’t seem quite so terrible.
Rather than tease her, Han simply asked, “You ready?”
He caught the slightest hint of red creep into her face as
she shrugged her shoulders. “Just make
it quick.”
He half smirked at her and then leaned in and kissed her
gently and far too quickly. Fortunately,
she didn’t look appalled. Realizing
their hands were still joined, Leia suddenly pulled hers away as they turned
their chairs back toward the front of the room.
It wasn’t much of a kiss, but Han had to squash down the feeling that he’d
like to try it again. And maybe a few
more times after that.
The rest of the day was spent listening to Ava discuss
effective communication. If anything, at
least now Han would be prepared if for some reason somewhere in the future he
decided to get married. Although being
surrounded by mostly unhappy couples wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. He was, however, relieved that he and Leia
had made it through a day without encountering anything horribly awkward. They might even have a pleasant evening. Leia had even apparently loosened up enough
that she didn’t make a big deal over a little kiss.
They stood to leave and Han leaned down to tell Leia, “I’m
gonna go use the ‘fresher before we go.
I’ll be right out.” Leia nodded
and he disappeared down the hallway.
After taking care of business, he ran into Lohree on her way out of the
women’s side. The ‘freshers were located
in a small corridor all by themselves and the two were apparently alone.
“Sorry about that,” Han said as he stepped aside to let her
by.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Lohree said, her eyes sparkling up at
him. Han recognized a flirtatious look
when he saw one, and this one made him stop in his tracks. “Wait a second,” she said as she reached over
and grabbed his forearm. Her eyes went
down to her hand and she hadn’t released her grip. “Wow,” she said. “You feel a lot stronger than my husband.”
Han couldn’t decide whether to roll his eyes at this woman’s
blatant come on or to take her back into the ‘fresher and give her exactly what
she wanted. Unfortunately, he remembered
that Leia was currently waiting for him.
Wife or not, he didn’t think that would go down too well.
“Yeah, well, your husband looks inadequate in quite a few
ways,” Han replied, grinning back at her.
Might as well have a little fun with her anyway.
She giggled and twirled her hair with the hand not currently
gripping his forearm. “You have no idea. Listen, if you ever need some time away from
your wife and to talk to someone else, you just let me know, okay?”
Han nodded. “Absolutely.” She slowly released her grip on him and then
made a point to slide her hand along his back as she walked away.
Damn, how long had it been since he enjoyed the company of a
woman? He was too embarrassed to think
about it. Gods, women were infuriating
lately.
Shaking his head, he walked off toward where Leia was
waiting. “Ready to go?” she asked.
“You bet.”
Very interesting twist. And love Han in this. He's being quite the scoundrel! It's kind of like a little mini look into him. I liked their teasing about what to talk about.
ReplyDeleteAnother great chapter, Zyra. I am loving these counselling sessions, you make them tremendous fun to read. And Han, he's quite the old dog, isn't he? Love how you wrote him here. And it's nice to see Leia's mood slowly improving. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, apparently this chapter is quite riveting to at least 2 of you!
ReplyDeleteI've been out-of-pocket, you know that! I enjoyed the staged argument about the Falcon. At first, I was worried that Han wouldn't be up to even kidding about his beloved ship, but glad to see he took it in stride. Loved Leia's "Just make it quick" on the kiss. I wish I could've read her reactions to even a quick (sober) peck from Han. And the blond picking up on Han? I WISH Leia could've witnessed that. I wonder how I could make that happen? If only I could write the next chapter... Oh, wait a minute... ;-)
ReplyDeleteYes! I like that they're sort of bonding while trying to appear hostile, and ever so slightly warming up to each other (for now at least ;).
ReplyDeleteHah! The woman hitting on Han. Too bad Leia wasn't around, I wonder how she would have felt about that. Nice, Z!
Look at these two having a mocking and good natured fake argument. Leia's cheerful towards him? Yay! Oh, and let's see if Han's flirtations with this other woman find their way to Leia.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the early Valentine's Day treat!
Love this story!
ReplyDelete