Chapter Text
Han stirred and opened his eyes tiredly. His whole back hurt from sleeping on a very thin blanket, he could feel every tiny part of the forest litter that served as his bed this night. When a large bug crawled onto his calf he straightened himself up groaning hoarsely a little.
“Kriff”
He cleaned his throat and brushed the brown soil from his black pants. Then Han noticed something different, everything was quiet, and moreover he was alone in the tent. The place where Leia slept last night was neatly cleaned and put together.
Double Kriff. He was late for the brief meeting.
He unzipped the tent entrance and immediately felt the light breeze on his tired face. A huge, beautiful Neke forest in which they were looked as if it was older than the whole galaxy, with its humongous trees staring down at the passersby. The fauna and flora seemed both familiar and peculiar at the same time, even Han, who was never moved by the art of nature, felt somehow embraced by the wildlife. They landed here, on Ancun, yesterday’s afternoon. It’s a rather small planet in the Zula system, with the city of Loffo as the capital.
He put on a worn out shirt, that probably wasn’t even his, favourite leather jacket of his and tall boots as well. He combed his damp hair staring at his reflection in a small mirror. Sunrays shone delicately through the entrance, reflecting in an amber wedding ring on Han’s finger. Him and Leia got married a week after the battle of Endor, it was a very modest and small wedding. Han tried not to brag but these were the happiest 4 months of his life, filled with love…and even more love.
On his way to the base, which was simply the biggest tent in their collection, he passed a few burned out campfires, makeshift barbeques and leavings after last night’s celebrations. It has all indicated that they were still just a bunch of happy (mostly) youngsters who had won a freaking war a few weeks ago.
In their absolutely modern and fancy base called “Canopy One”, Leia stood behind a wooden desk, which was the only piece of furniture besides benches and chairs for the rest of the team. She was wearing a light beige shirt, similar to his, a dark green vest with orange details, a knee length skirt in the exact same colour, most likely they were a set, and boots matching to the shirt. Stylish, Han thought. Her long brown hair ,formed into her natural curls in this humidity, were decorated with a small braid wrapped around the top of her head. She was accompanied by Mon Mothma’s blue hologram standing by her side. They were discussing something, probably a plan for their mission, because to be fair, they haven’t had a finest clue how to find an old shutdown database centre in the middle of this forest, without any modern technology on board. When Han entered the tent Leia immediately lifted her head and smiled at him, mouthing “You’re late”. He smiled back and pushed through the small crowd, just to be closer to her.
Surprisingly, or perhaps not, he accidentally found himself sitting next to Luke.
“Hey kid” Han greeted him.
“Hey” Luke whispered trying not to interrupt his sister in her speech “long night?”
“Why?” Han raised his brow.
“Your shirt is on the wrong side” Luke tried really hard not to laugh so he covered his mouth with his gloved hand.
“Yeah, long night” Han’s cheeks blushed a bit from embarrassment, he cleaned his throat and changed the topic. “So what’s new”
“Well…” Luke was still smirking “Mon said that they managed to somehow locate the whereabouts of this base, or more the area in can be in” Luke lowered his voice out of respect once again “And now her and Leia are discussing on how many of us, when… how in general, you know, the basics”
“So…I haven’t missed anything?”
“Not really” Luke clarified.
Brief meetings by definition were supposed to be brief, but everyone in the rebellion knew they could be even up to a few hours long. Thankfully this one ended after an hour and a half, with Mon’s hologram disappearing and Leia explaining the tactics.
“We came up with an idea, it’s a rather easy and quick mission so we won’t need many people. I’ll go with generals Solo and Skywalker, but we need four more people. Two with us in the field and the other two waiting by, just in case.” Leia was such a trusted leader that almost everyone wanted to sign up and volunteer, just for the sake of it. After the team was gathered, and the canopy became way more spacious and less stuffy than few minutes ago, she explained the plan.
“The plan is simple, although I don’t like the alteration Mon made. We were supposed to go in pairs in the first place, but she decided that separating will be more efficient.”
Luke bit his cheek and felt a weird cold breeze in the force “I have a bad feeling about this” he whispered leaning to Han a little bit
“We will be searching in this area” Leia continued showing a map on a holoprojector she was holding. “There will be five of us searching and two waiting for updates, but it would be good if everyone was on the line…just in case” Leia felt a shiver travel on her back, despite the really hot weather, she glanced at Luke for a quick second and then smiled back at young captain Daara who clearly wanted to ask about something.
Luke knew Leia felt the exact same thing as him, fear inadequate to the mission they were on, which compared to their previous ones could barely even be named a mission.
“No, we’ll separate only after w get there” Leia answered politely “And we’re leaving in an hour, Mon said she really needs these datapads”
She met with a round of agreement, and the other half of the team left, leaving her, Luke and Han alone for a moment.
“I have a really bad feeling about this Lei” Luke leaned onto the big table
“I know, me too, but it’s a really simple mission, what could possibly go wrong?”
“Solid point sweetheart” Han crossed his arms
“I know” Leia came up to him and put her hand on his biceps “You were late”
“Now’s the best time for reprimands your worship?”
“Uh-huh”
“Fine” Han sighed and kissed her forehead, a gesture Luke always found really gentle and simply adorable to look at.
Leia simply sighed tiredly, but with a smile, and leaned onto him, sinking her head into his chest
“I’ll leave you two for a second, but don’t be late this time” Luke decided that going out and preparing for the upcoming mission is the best idea.
“Being late is his specialty” Leia murmured almost inaudibly