Truth can be Stranger than Fiction

Ahhhhh. Who among us hasn't watched that scene at the end of ROTJ and wondered what happened to this happy crew? Leia moving on to President of the Galactic Senate. Luke recruiting throngs of new Force users and sculpting the Jedi Order with his naive hands. Han Solo....doing exactly what? And Lando ending up where, I wonder? I mean, just look at ole Lando up there in this photo, his eyes on some fuzzy, little female Ewok across the way, shimmying to the tribal music in a low cut dress. Who knows were Lando ended up after that night? But, seriously. In spite of the whole EU I still give thought to my own post-ROTJ canon and it gets a little fuzzy, at least for me, once you get past Luke and Leia (the Jedi and the politician). Isn't this something we've all given quite a lot of thought about? Of course, we have! That's why we're here. And if you haven't, you might want to move along. Move along. This is not the blog post you are looking for....

Anyway, on that note, Zyra emailed me and let me know that Lando was on 'Dancing with the Stars' the other night. Now, I don't watch 'Dancing with the Stars' so this is something I would've never known about if not for my 'finger on the pulse of all things SW across all mediums', beta-reader extraordinaire, Zyra. For this, I thank Zyra profusely. I had been at the ballpark at the time of the airing (for the start of Little League) but Zyra promised me it would probably be on Youtube the next day and she would send it to me in a link (which she did). I have to say, it was really fun to watch. I mean, really enjoyable. Hilarious and notstalgic all wrapped up into one mediocre dance routine. Not to spoil it too much (because you can see it for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HNRilkfyq4 - just copy and paste that, you know the drill) but this isn't just Billy Dee all by himself and me using my imagination that it is Lando post-ROTJ doing this. But this is Billy Dee in full Lando regalia (cape and all) with Storm Trooper back up dancers and several other cameos. Not to mention what his partner is dressed liked. Priceless stuff this really is. Really, go watch it and then come back. I'll wait.

See? I told you so.

Well, after the initial novelty of this wore off and I quit smiling from ear to ear and sending links to everyone I knew that would appreciate it (ie, my husband), I got to thinking. I often struggle with what the SW characters do post-ROTJ. Honestly, mostly with Han Solo. Poor guy. But really I've struggled with Leia, too. Would she be fed up with politics, ever? Would her relationship with Han change her priorities? I think so, but just how much so and how drastically? Well, after seeing Lando spinning (warning: Spoiler, you better go watch that video before you read any further) Slave Leia around in a Cha Cha, I began to think that maybe I had been over thinking things. Just a little.

Now, this (the Dancing with the Stars gig) is something I could totally envision Lando doing post-ROTJ in the actual Star Wars universe. Hell, slave Leia and all (meanwhile keeping his fingers crossed that Han and Leia wouldn't find out or see). So why do I attribute a much stodgier existence to the big three? Luke all Jedi obsessed, Leia all politically engrossed and Han becoming at best a squadron trainer or something or other that's pretty respectable and nowhere close to a pirate smuggler. All of this reminded me of an old fanfic called: Perfect Pairs by Great One. Just a fantastically funny story about our SW gang (post-ROTJ) going on a television show. It's brilliant. Go read that and come back. I'll wait again.

See? I told you so, again. :-)

Perfect Pairs is a perfect example of what some light-hearted reality would look like for these guys. I mean, post-ROTJ Leia ends up with Han Solo, there's no way she lives as some frigid politician. Han melted her and IMO will keep applying that heat until one of them is dead and buried (or spaced, or whatever they do in the GFFA). So, does Lando on 'Dancing with the Stars' make me rethink what my headcanon might look like for Luke, Leia, Han and others? Quite possibly. And for that, I thank you Billy Dee Williams, you and your 77 year-old body with a double hip replacement, arthritis in your back, heart attack survivor, getting down with Slave Leia and mixing it up with Artoo Detoo and a bunch of Ewoks. BRAVO. Bravo for keeping it real Lando Calrissian and never apologizing for how and where you find your happiness. You've just moved the gang one step closer to a warehouse loft on Nar Shaddaa overlooking the redlight sector where Chewie is a bouncer at a local gambling establishment (pulling down big bonuses for every arm he yanks out of socket), Leia works as a high-end clairvoyant (using her Force abilities to dole out life-changing advice) and Han runs a sold out trip on the Millennium Falcon through the Kessel Run at least three times a day in less than twelve parsecs each. LOL! Just kidding. But you get the picture, right?

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How Long Have You Been a Fan?

Here's something I've been curious about: how long has everyone been a fan?  Of Star Wars in general, and when and how did you find out about fan fiction?  I've been a fan of Star Wars for pretty much my entire life.  I was born between the releases of ANH and ESB, obviously way too young to be going to see the second one in a theater.  Or walking, for that matter ;)  But I actually remember going to see ROTJ in the theater, and even who I went with and the fact that the Rancor scene was so loud we had to change our seats to something further away from the speakers. 

I am fairly certain that at that point I had at least seen ESB.  I vividly recall a VHS we had of ESB that we had to have recorded off HBO or something.  That was our only copy of any of those movies I believe until they were re-released and digitally remastered (just remastered, NOT special editions) in 1995.  Before that I probably mostly only watched them at my cousin's house since they had an earlier VHS release that included the documentary From Star Wars to Jedi, which if you haven't seen, I'd highly recommend checking out.  I believe it is easily found on YouTube. 

At that point in my life I certainly wasn't obsessed.  At times I wondered if I was that into it at all but then I'll remember that when I was only 8 years old I decided to write and illustrate my own version of ESB.  I definitely knew that movie the best, probably only because it was the only one we had a copy of so it was the one I watched the most.  I am very sad to say that I have no idea where that is and can only assume it got trashed during one of my mom's infamous basement purges.  I can still recall some of the illustrations.  I can about guarantee you that it did not include any kissing scenes and I'm pretty sure I never finished it as I don't recall torturing Han or putting him in carbonite and certainly not Vader telling Luke he was his father.  I definitely referred to a Taun Taun as a "kanga-snow-animal" though.  And I do remember a picture of Leia throwing her arms up when Han goes into the asteroid field and Yoda balancing on Luke's foot when he was upside down.  You have no idea how badly I wish I still had that!

Anyway, aside from that, I definitely played Star Wars with other kids, although I always wanted to be Luke.  Probably because of the lightsaber.  We didn't have any authentic toys so I used a wiffle ball bat.  In fact, for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, I never had any Star Wars toys except an Artoo and Threepio.  What was wrong with me?  I want to say I wasn't into action figures, but we definitely had some He-Man toys.  I had a cousin with the Falcon and an AT-AT and of course thought those were the coolest things ever.  Perhaps this is a childhood regret.  No Star Wars toys. 

For years my interest level remained normal with watching the movies here and there and not much beyond that.  I do not recall exactly when I realized that Han Solo was amazing and started paying more attention to the love story side of it.  I do know that I started to get much more interested in that when I was 16 and found a copy of COPL in a store over the summer.  It wasn't even a book store, and this paperback was staring at me and it said it was about Han and Leia getting married.  Wait, they got married?  I mean, I guess we could always just assume, but it seemed really cool to me that there was a book about how this happened.  I was not much of a reader at that point in my life.  In fact, up until then I'm not sure I had ever read a book just because I wanted to, aside from multiple readings of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing when I was much younger. 

This began my dark descent into madness.  At the time I am sure I thought the book could've been much better,  but given my extreme immaturity I am also sure that I didn't think it was nearly as bad as I think it is now.  Hey, they get to kiss!  And they did get married in the end, after all.  Plus, at that point it was the only thing outside of the movies I knew about.  Then I found out there were already all of these other books.  This was in the mid 90s, so the Thrawn Trilogy was already well established along with several other books.  Wait, they already have kids, too?  This was awesome!  And bonus points for the fact that my cousin (not the one who had the cool toys, amazingly) already owned most of these books, so I simply had to borrow them rather than buy them. 

I read a lot that summer, and I started to pay attention to when books were coming out and buying them myself.  I used to just go to the book store and look at that section to see if there was anything new.  Yes, we had the internet, but we didn't really use it yet for that much.  And come on, I'm sure a lot of you are old enough to remember dial-up.  It took forever to look at anything. 

By the time I went to college, I had developed a healthy interest, but certainly not obsessive.  My freshman year I didn't have my own computer and rarely spent much time on the internet.  I didn't even email much.  I wrote actual letters to friends.  Things changed quickly, though.  I got a new computer for my sophomore year and I had my own dorm room. 

Being on the internet just looking at random stuff suddenly became a "thing" to do.  I don't even think I was using Google yet when I was trying to look up spoilers for upcoming X-Files episodes, back when X-Files was still producing new episodes.  Somehow that search led me to a web site that included some Mulder and Scully fan fiction.  Huh, I'd never heard of such a thing.  But some of those stories were pretty good... and included some sex, which of course was fun to read because anyone who watched that show wanted them to get together!

Eventually it dawned on me that if there are stories about X-Files, there must be stories about Star Wars, and especially Han and Leia, right?  It didn't take me long to figure out that it was true.  Oh, boy was it true.  And like any teenager discovering fanfic for the first time, I went straight and exclusively to the sex stories ;)  Most of them back then were actually pretty good.  There seemed to be some quality control involved.  I'm not even sure ff.net existed yet, and most of the web sites were fan run and the stories were submitted and then they were posted if deemed good enough.  Well, of course I was hooked.  Not in an obsessive sort of way, since I was busy with so many other things being in college, but I certainly wasted more than a few evenings reading stories late into the night.  And I even ordered a couple of fanzines.

By the time college ended, I was definitely a big fan.  There were a few message boards back then that I forgot that I even posted on until recently.  I think a lot of what we discussed was hating Bria :)  The NJO was out so there was a lot of reading going on, too.

Not long after I graduated I decided to try my hand at writing.  I'd always loved writing and figured, why not?  Again, back then there were mostly sites you submitted to so I had to send them in to someone, who then hooked me up with a beta reader who really knew her stuff and helped was in retrospect was an atrociously written story.  There is currently a much better version of it posted, though it's still not that good.  Unfortunately, by the time I edited and was ready to send it in, the site disappeared, and I had no idea where to post it.  I believe at that point I kind of took a break from reading much fanfic.  I didn't really read on ff.net, the Han and Leia sites I loved were disappearing or at least rarely added new content, and the old sites like fanfix also almost never added anything new.

Reading of the EU continued, though.  And after several years of not much fanfic reading and certainly no writing, I somehow stumbled on the Nerfherder's Playground.  Please go there and look around if you never have.  It was a really great resource for writers and the stories were edited in a sort of workshop type of way.  I'm sure some people may have hated that, but I found it very helpful.  And in general there are some good stories hidden there that I believe aren't posted anywhere else.  After a while that rekindled my interest in writing and I decided to go ahead and give it another shot.  So I posted some stuff there and got some help, and eventually decided to start putting my stories on ff.net as well.

NHP has sort of died off, but obviously ff.net is still going strong and I continued to write and post there, occasionally still posing on NHP as well.  So now I'm still reading, although not as obsessed as I used to be.  And really, there aren't as many multi-chapter stories going up anymore, it feels like.  Or the ones that do have such lengthy periods of time between updates it makes it hard to be excited when you forget what happened 6 months ago when the last chapter went up.  I'm not writing really at the moment, but that could change, I guess.  And I keep saying I'm going to stop reading the EU, but then they go and publish a new book that falls in a timeline I like and I get sucked back in.  And now of course with Episode VII it is becoming clear that I am probably stuck for life.  Oh, well.

Anyway, that is my very lengthy story as a lifelong fan.  Oh, also I own 2 sets of VHS versions of the movies, the DVDs and the blu rays.  And yet I still watch them whenever they come on Spike.

This post is also an example of one of Zyra's problems as a writer: too wordy and not at all concise ;)

What's your story?  How long have you been a fan?  How did you find fanfic?  How did you find this blog?

Happy 3rd Anniversary to HanLeiaFanFicWriters Blog!

Zyra and I started this blog on March 10, 2011. Seeing as it was me who talked Zyra into starting it, I feel sufficiently guilty that I have all but abandoned her in taking care of it. I have all sorts of reasons, as I see from recent comments everyone does, but in the end, it is - no matter how you slice it - the comments that make it worth the while so shame on me for contributing to the problem. I'll admit that I counseled Zyra to just stop the blog (don't shoot me) only because I knew how much it meant to her (and means to her when no one comments) and I haven't been around to help.

Rolling up on this anniversary made me think of the reason that I wanted to start this whole thing. At the time I was fully engrossed in this fandom and writing up a storm and I just wanted somewhere that I could find other people that shared this passion that had awakened inside of me. And it certainly has been that. And even though I haven't been contributing, I still pull this Site up as one of my daily visits if at all possible just to see what all you other Han/Leia devotees are up to. So, with that being said, I'm really glad that Zyra didn't take my advice and scrap this whole thing. And in a New Year's resolution sort of way, I'm committing myself to post on here more often.

It does seem that after so many years, I mean it's only been about 5 years since I totally immersed myself into this fandom. Five years ago I didn't even know Princess Leia's last name. And yet, sometimes I feel like I've had every discussion possible regarding this fictional character that can be had. Several years of complete obsession will do that to a person, I guess. But scrutinizing that statement I have to think that it just isn't possible. There are people who have been into this fandom for decades and still find new topics to explore, still read someone's offhand comment on a topic and think, "Hmmm, I never thought of it that way before." So, I do believe that we still have lots more to talk about.

I like the "what if" questions in the post above. I also have a curiosity building around my own "headcanon" on Leia and Han's childhood. Leia's specifically at the moment. I wish I had never seen the prequels for the sole purpose of having that blank slate to conjure up my own version of events since George did such a horrific job of it. For one thing, I think Leia's mother lived long enough for her to know about her and remember her (i.e., her line in the movie regarding her "real mother"). And that just makes me wonder how that all played out. How did she die?

Anyway, just thought I would finally put a post out here as sort of an Anniversary present to Zyra. I don't know if I can promise to continue the book reviews, although it is nice to hear that your guys appreciated them - they are really time consuming! But I'll poke my head in more often.

Happy Anniversary to all of you! :-)

>>Push

What Do You Want to See?

In case you missed my comment on the previous post, it has not gone unnoticed that comments and participation have gotten pretty light around here.  Of course I can accept a lot of the blame for that, because if there isn't much content, people stop dropping by and tend to forget.  I realized that the level of interest seems to move cyclically, and last year we had a similar lull in early winter, though it was revived by a slew of Valentine's Day stories.  So, I figured that was the easiest way to get things going again and it saved me the trouble of actually having to do anything on my own aside from simply re-posting stories that were submitted.  But that tactic seems to have failed as I don't think we've seen so few comments on posts since the blog started and hardly anyone knew it existed.  Which is also frustrating because I know that the traffic is actually still quite high, so a lot of people are visiting but not commenting.  I understand that sometimes you just don't know what to say and given the nature of the challenge/stories that were written, there may not be much more to say aside from, "That was sweet!"  Or, "I liked it!"  But trust me, sometimes it's nice to get any reassurance that someone read it and liked it, otherwise it's like playing music for an empty room. 

So, I'm wondering what, if anything, you guys want to see here.  I said in my comment, it's fun to have someplace to come to and talk about these things but sometimes it feels like throwing a party that nobody actually shows up to.  I don't mind going to the trouble if there is going to be some participation and mutual enjoyment here, but without any contributions from anyone else, it seems sort of pointless.  I'll probably move away from posting stories/challenges for the most part, unless it is some sort of special project like the joint story was, or if I feel like posting something of my own because hey, it's my blog ;).  But the pattern seems to be that people don't comment on them, and may or may not be reading them.  And most of you wind up simultaneously posting your stories on ff.net and I'm going to just go ahead and assume that readers of Han and Leia stories on ff.net and readers of the blog here have a 100% overlap.  Think of it like if your friend emails you a picture, but you already saw it and commented on it on facebook.  Then they get upset that you didn't say anything about the picture they emailed you, and you're like... but I already saw it and told you I liked it on facebook!  It's just redundant.

I tried to get some conversation going before about whether or not Leia would marry for the Rebellion, and we got more comments than usual around here, but still not quite what it used to be.  I've had some thoughts about going back to discussing things about writing in general, so maybe that would be of some interest to some of you, but I'm not sure.  I'm also still holding out some hope that maybe at some point we will finally get some confirmation about who is going to be in this new movie and what it is going to be about.  Especially if Han and Leia are going to be in it, I would expect that to spark some more interest.  Possibly even if they aren't, though I'll admit that I'm going to be incredibly disappointed if they aren't.  I mean, I'd have been disappointed either way, but I'd be especially disappointed if they'd been stringing us along since the entire thing was announced like a year-and-a-half ago, making us think that they were going to be in it.  I'd have long since come to terms with it if they had told us back then! 

Anyway, let me know if you guys have any ideas of what you want to see here and what you think you or other people might enjoy discussing.  Again, the challenges were a fun distraction, but ultimately posting stories here isn't getting much recognition.  And if you're bored and over it, you can say that, too.  If you want more topics but don't have any ideas, that's ok, too.  Just say something.  I know you're out there, I can see your page hits.

Valentine's Challenge the Third: Submission #7 by Zyra

 

I haven't written anything in many, many months, so this finally came out...

Day's End

Han and Leia quietly backed out of their children's room, confident that they were already sound asleep for the night.  The couple made their way to the living room, hand in hand, and then plopped down onto the couch in their own wave of exhaustion, taking only a moment to free their aching feet from their boots.

The room was warm and lit in a dull glow by the flames in the fireplace on the opposite wall.  Leia curled up against her husband's side as he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in close as she said, "That was a fun but tiring day."

They'd spent the day at the zoo seeing animals from all over the galaxy.  The kids had been in heaven in spite of the fact that the excursion had left everyone in the Solo family exhausted.  Han's chest rose and fell in a deep breath before he responded.  "You're telling me.  Poor Anakin didn't even make it to the end.  I don't think he opened his eyes even for a second when I carried him home."

Leia smiled at the memory of her husband carrying their five-year-old son home and not disturbing him as he gently tucked the boy into his bed.

"Our baby is getting heavy," Han said as he rolled his shoulders a bit.  Leia liked that she and Han still referred to Anakin as their "baby" in spite of the fact that he was certainly far from being a baby anymore.  She suspected he would always be the baby to them. 

"Is he too much for you now, old man?" Leia mocked as she sat up to look at her husband. 

Han immediately shook his head.  "No way.  Not me."

She moved to her knees and pushed herself up behind him; her small hands dipped under the collar of his shirt and began kneading the knotted muscles underneath.  Han relaxed immediately under her touch, shutting his eyes and allowing her to work him over.  He had always been amazed that her grip could be so strong.  "You're so good at that," he said honestly as she massaged away any hint of aching left in his shoulders. 

"I know," she replied, her breath warm against his ear.  She slipped her hands down his chest, finding muscles he didn't even realize needed help.  "I'll give you the full treatment."

Her hands returned to his back where they seemed to move everywhere at once, slowly hitting every muscle, her touch warm and wonderful.  "I bet you did this for all the guys back on base during the Rebellion, huh?"

"Oh, absolutely," she replied, in on the game immediately.  "I had a line out my door most nights."  Her hands slipped across his collarbones and down onto his chest once again.  He couldn't help but lean back into her body. 

"Mmm... I bet you did.  I guess I should've been nicer to you back then."

"Nah," she said, leaning her head down close and pressing her lips gently behind his ear, causing him to shiver.  "It all worked out in the end, and now you get me every night."

"I do," he agreed.  "And you take such good care of me."

"Well, you do a pretty good job of taking care of all of us, so you deserve it."

He leaned his head back against her shoulder and smiled.  While he simply adored his wife, she also knew how to make him feel like a million credits by clearly showing that she loved and appreciated him.  Sometimes he still wondered how he'd not only found her, but kept her.  He turned his head toward her, seeing the gorgeous smile on her face.  "Come here," he said, leaning in as she closed the distance to kiss him.  After a few moments, she wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder and holding him tightly.

"We don't have anything to do tomorrow, right?" he said hopefully, fairly sure that the answer was no.  All he wanted to do was stay home and have a quiet day with his family.  Or as quiet as was possible with their three, fairly rambunctious children.  Although more often than not he found their antics endearing.  He hadn't spent much time around kids since he was one and before having any of his own, and he was continually astonished at how intelligent they were at such a young age.  They also possessed an incredible ability to make both of their parents laugh.  It almost made up for all of the trouble they tended to cause.

"No, tomorrow we're free.  Nothing until that senate dinner next week."

He felt his muscles tense again under Leia's fingers, and it did not go unnoticed by her.  "I know you don't love those events."

"No, I don't," Han agreed.  It had been obvious from the time he'd been asked to start attending such events on a regular basis that they were not his favorite.  "But having a gorgeous woman on my arm makes them a lot more tolerable."  Truthfully, he'd gotten used to them at this point.  Usually he was able to enjoy them for what they boiled down to for him: a nice evening out with his wife.  There had certainly been an adjustment period in the beginning, and he hadn't quite felt like he belonged there.  But as the years went by, he stopped caring so much.  And Leia had always seemed so proud to have him by her side.  He always loved the way she looked at him when he was dressed up.  And of course she was no slouch in formal wear, either.

She leaned in and kissed his neck a few times in appreciation.  "I enjoy showing you off, too, flyboy.  There's dancing at this one, too.  I know how much you love that."

Her hands hadn't stopped working the muscles in his shoulders, sending a shiver down his spine.  "I love any excuse to hold you.  Especially in public."

"Oh, do you?" she said as she climbed out from behind him to sit sideways in his lap, her arms wrapped around the now much looser muscles in his neck. 

"Mmmhmmm..." he said just before she leaned in to kiss him.  He broke away after a few moments and lifted Leia to her feet before standing and taking her hands.  "Come here."

She had a confused smile on her face as he pulled her over to the middle of the dimly lit room, illuminated only by the glow of the skyline outside of the large window and the glimmer from the flames dancing in the fireplace.  "What are you..."

She trailed off as he pulled her close, one hand at the small of her back and the other with his fingers entwined with hers.  He grinned at her knowingly, seeing the reflected light sparkling in her brown eyes.  Releasing her for only a moment, he reached to the knee-high table in next to them and grabbed a remote, setting it back down quickly and pulling his wife close once again as the soft music began playing in the background. 

Leia's smile grew wider as they began gently swaying to the lovely tune.  "Did you have that all planned out?" she asked.

He shook his head.  "Nope, came up with it just now."

"Very smooth."

"I thought you might like it."

"I do," she said with a smile before leaning her head against his chest. 

He leaned down and kissed the top of head, their bodies still swaying gently to the music.  He couldn't remember the last time they'd danced barefoot in the living room for no reason, but he made a mental note to try and do it more often. 

His eyes were closed and he was only really aware of the feel of Leia's body against his and the familiar smell of her perfume.  But the almost hypnotic tones of the music were interrupted by Leia's voice.  "I think we have an audience."

It took Han a moment to remember where he was as his eyes opened up to see Leia looking past him.  He turned to see their twins, Jacen and Jaina, dressed in their pajamas with their sleepy faces peeking timidly from behind the couch.

"Is anything wrong?" Leia asked, her voice calm and slightly concerned.  Their kids were generally good sleepers thanks to typically very active days, so seeing any of them out of bed, especially after such a long, tiring day, was not a common occurrence without good reason.

Jaina shook her head.  "We're just really thirsty, and then we heard music."

"You're thirsty, huh?  Well, let's see if we can fix that," Leia said as she walked over to their kids and led them over to the sink.  Han followed, turning on the faucet while Leia grabbed a couple of glasses from the cabinet and handed them to her husband. 

The twins gratefully gulped down their water and Jaina finished hers first before handing the glass back to her father.  "Do you guys always dance after we go to bed?" Jaina asked.

Han and Leia both laughed.  "No, sweetie," Leia said.

"Why," Han asked, "do we look like we do?  Are we good dancers?"  His young daughter smiled and nodded, making him wonder how long it would be before she stopped looking up at him with such admiration.  "What about you, Jace, do you think Mom and I are good dancers?"

The boy shrugged and tilted his head a little before replying, "Eh," indicating the fact that he was less than impressed.  The mischievous, crooked smirk on his son's face reminded Han so much of himself it was almost scary. 

Han and Leia laughed once again as Han looked up to his wife.  "Harsh critic, this one," he said.

"All right," Leia said as she took the now empty glass from Jacen's hand and placed it on the counter.  "I think it's time for everyone to go to bed."

The twins offered no resistance as Leia took each of their hands and started leading them back to their bedroom.  Han followed slightly behind after pausing to shut off the music and turn out the light in the fireplace. 

They crept quietly into the dim room, careful not to awaken the still sleeping Anakin.  Although Han suspected that Chewbacca could enter the room and let out his loudest roar and the boy wouldn't even stir. 

With the twins safely tucked in once again and satisfied with the obligatory repeat goodnight kiss, their parents left the children's room, hopefully for the final time that night.  Han threw an arm around his wife and led her down the hall to their bedroom. 

Once inside, Han crawled onto the bed and collapsed on his stomach, Leia following to lie face to face next to him with an arm draped across his back.  "They are pretty cute little people, even if they do make me tired," Han said, his voice slightly muffled against his pillow.

"They're good kids," she agreed.  "I think they had fun today."

Her hand was rubbing lazy circles on his back.  "What about you?  Did you have fun?"

She nodded against the pillow.  "I always have fun with you and the kids."  He raised an eyebrow skeptically.  "Well, almost always," she amended.

"That's what I thought," he said as he turned onto his side to face her and pulled her in close enough so that their noses were nearly touching.  His fingers brushed a few stray hairs away from her eyes, barely visible in the dark room.  "Well, I had fun, too.  I might even keep you guys around for a while."

He could see her smile and feel her warm breath as she let out a little laugh.  "Don't get all mushy and sentimental on me," she said as she ran her fingers through his hair.  "We both know that's not your style."

"No?"  She shook her head.  "Well, what is my style?"

"Something like this," she said before leaning in to kiss him, slowly at first until her hand slipped to the back of his head and pulled him in deeper, making him suddenly feel a lot more awake.  Before they got too carried away, she leaned away from him.  "What do you think?"

"I think you know me pretty well."

"I do love your style.  And I love you."

He kissed her once more before replying, "I love you, too.  And I'm going to do something else that is very much my style," he said as he slowly rolled on top of her.

"I was hoping you'd say that," she responded before he leaned down to kiss her, something he never grew tired of.

If there was a more perfect way to end the day, he didn't want to know what it was.