trans_9 | [Bendytimed to directly after Ves' post]

Luke's smile was a bit bigger now. "It's okay, I understand." He shifted his hold on her hand so he could walk beside her along the beach, staring out at the water. He'd been to water worlds and beaches before, but the wonder of it never went away. Almost two decades growing up on a waterless world would do that, apparently.

"Want to walk in the surf?" She murmured, her fingers tight around his as she watched him.

Honestly, the water would be a refreshing change the the stinging pain of the nail marks she could still feel...and the burning of being smacked in the back of the skull with a boombox. She'd have to make sure she wasn't bleeding at some point.

"Sure, I'd love to." He tugged her over to the water, kicking at the surf when he lapped around his feet deep enough. "No matter how traveled I get, I'm never going to get used to seeing this much water in the same place. And it's nice and warm here." Luke kicked a bit of water her way, grinning.

"Your fascination with water is endearing." Mara smiled at him, kicking water back his way. "That's what you get for growing up on a dustbowl."

Her free hand winds its way into her hair, touching idly at the sore spot on the back of her head. A hiss made its way past her lips. "Kriff, hold on a second, Luke."

His grin quickly melted back to concern, and he dropped her hand, moving behind her a bit to part her hair and look at the spot. "She hit you with that audio unit I saw on the beach back there?"

"Yeah." Her reply slid into another hiss and she quickly pulled her fingers away. She muttered something that sounded like stupid skanky little bitch and hung her head, hair curtaining around her face.

"Does it look bad?"

Luke frowned. It was bleeding--only an ooze, and the wound itself didn't look bad. Nothing to take her back to the med bay on Stacy immediately for. But he bit his lip at that all the same--and at the sudden roil of negative emotions from his wife.

"It looks like you'll need a little attention from the medics when we get back to Stacy, or if we can find something here planetside," he said. "What's wrong, Mara?"

"Other than a headwound and some nail marks in my face?" Mara asked, a tad bit scathingly -- which she immediately regretted. She turned to her husband and shook her head, the action causing her battered body to ache a little.

"I lost it. I lost it with that little bitch and she wasn't even worth it. But she's..."

A threat. A threat to her son. She would have killed Jacen if she had been able to (in her mind, she's still ready to) and this woman, no, girl, is no different.

"I'm sorry."

Luke put his arms around his wife from behind--carefully--and rested his chin on her shoulder. He could all but hear the unspoken words, the desire to protect their son.

"It's okay," he murmured, nuzzling her gently. "It's okay, I know." Luke sighed, watching the surf lap around their ankles. "Ben is... he's all but a young man now. He's got your smart head on his shoulders, too. He knows what's best for himself."

She pulled away slightly to look at him, her face blank. "He's a boy. And she's a girl. There is an attraction and she will use that. I've been her, Luke."

Her teeth sank into her lip for a moment. "I couldn't protect him properly in our world, apparently. I don't want to admit defeat here, just yet."

"You haven't even begun to fight--okay, bad choice of words. But you know what I mean." Luke pulled her back in, resting their foreheads together. "As much as I want to pull him back, insulate him against this, I know that we can't protect him from everything forever. He's sixteen. He's going to have to make these kinds of decisions, and we just have to trust him to make the right ones."

Mara shut her eyes. She had a feeling that this is what every mother went through when their babies started dating someone (or thought about dating someone) they didn't approve of. Usually, normal mothers didn't have to deal with Sith, though.

"I'm going to sic Kyle on him and just make him chaperon everything he does. That way it's not us." She joked, cracking an eye open as she pulled back to grin at Luke.

Well, mostly joked.

Luke smiled; seeing his wife smile always brought a light feeling to his chest, and seeing her smile after--everything--

He leaned in and kissed her lightly. "He's going to be okay," Luke said. "He's smart. And... if I have to avoid life-threatening situations to the best of my ability, that means you should probably avoid scrapping with sixteen-year-old Sith."

She pressed a hand to her eyes and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I don't...well I do know what came over me. I'm just upset I couldn't stop it."

He hugged her again, tucking Mara in close where she was safe. "It's okay. That's what the Sith are good at--goading people to giving in. And our son was involved, and that added a whole different layer to it. When he's involved, we tend to get a little single-minded."

Luke kissed Mara again. "I love you. Just don't get clocked with an audio unit again?"

"Are you two kids going to go at it all day, or is there room for company?"

It was Han, smirking as usual and standing before them, in a pair of blue shorts . It was probably the most au naturel that the two had ever seen him . He was still baffled as to how Luke had managed to score a smoking babe like Mara, but that was perhaps something better saved for another day. Like when neither of the girls were there.

He held Leia's hand with his right, and had what looked to be a large, deflated beach ball of some sort that Stacy had left with him when he had left, to his greatest bafflement. It just needed to be filled up with air.

"It's a nice place, isn't it?"

Leia wasn't even consciously aware of the look she was giving Mara. Her tose was turned up in appraisal, and her arm squeezed Han's waist.

"I adore it here," she patted what was left of the beach ball's roundness. "This is the first vacation I've had in years."

She curled herself into Han's side, enjoying the warmth of his skin. ~~And the view.~~

Mara tilted her head at Han and Leia, finding it hard not to smirk back at her brother-in-law, even if he was from another time. Leia's snobbish attitude, however, reminded Mara why she hadn't liked her when they first met.

"Looks like the sun agrees with you, Solo." Mara drawled from Luke's side, her arm tucked around his bare waist, her free hand placed tauntingly on her bikini-clad hip. "You too, Leia."

Luke, for his part, had put an arm around Mara's shoulders and was grinning at his sister and (future?) brother-in-law.

"It's the first vacation we've gotten in years, too. And in a beautiful place like this, I'm going to get in some quality time with my wife," he said. "It's good to see you two though. What have you been up to?"

Oh right, his wife. Luke was married, and that always threw Han for a loop every time he heard it.

"We did get some credits," Han began, although it was obvious to see that he was used to much more money, "and I've been wanting to stock on real food now that we have a beer tree. We went shopping for a bit, and that's how I ended up with," he pointed to his blue shorts, "these." Seriously. A beer tree. A beer tree...wait it was enough thinking about that, both him and Luke had hot women ~~groping~~ next to them.

"I have to admit I'm not very used to downtime, kid. But it's nice. Very nice."

Edited 2010-06-18 06:41 (UTC)

It was beautiful here.

Leia rose on her tip toes and kissed the side of Han's cheek, not tall enough to reach any higher.

"I made a good selection," she smiled approvingly at the shorts. "I'm glad you've been having a nice time with Mara, Luke. That's the best thing for both of you."

Despite her wariness about the woman, she meant it.

"What are your plans for this evening?" Leia began to swing Han's hand along with hers, stoically yet absolutely giddy just to be near him.

"Not sure yet," Mara looked at Luke, squinting in the sun, slightly. "I'm suddenly starting to find myself hungry. Maybe we can find a cafe near the beach. So we don't have to leave the sight of the water."

She poked Luke's stomach, shooting a grin over at Han and Leia. "Farmboy here just loves the water, you know."

Throw him in it.

Luke pretended to wince and rub the spot she'd poked. "It's a lot of water," he said, cheeks going a little red. "But now that you mention it, I'm a little hungry too. Want to all head back to civilization and find something?"

~~Han you were so whipped. And so was Luke.~~

"As long as we come back here before sunset," Han countered, smiling. "I promised someone beautiful that we'd ~~do it in the sand~~ watch it on the beach together."

"You are sickeningly sweet." Leia's eyes were sparkling.

:|

"And that sounds lovely," she beamed at Luke. "We can all have dinner and... catch up."

They are both sickening. It was interesting to see them at the beginning of their relationship. Basically the same, just younger. Still grossly cute and full of snark.

Mara curled her fingers around Luke and pointed at the various stores along the beach. "Well, let's find something. I'd ask what people wanted but...this isn't Coruscant and anything but slop would be heavenly."

"Something actually able to be bitten into." Luke made a little pleased noise and started making his way up the beach, following his nose to the source of something that smelled delicious. When in doubt, it was best to do that.

The sign in front of his chosen place of business read HAMBURGERS. What that was, Luke didn't know, but it smelled great and from what he'd seen on the tables on the outside patio, it looked good too.

It looked greasy, bad for your arteries and unhealthy.

Pretty much the time of food that Han loved. He stopped behind the other couple and gave a slight nod of approval. "It's probably cheap too." Hey, if he could stretch out his spending money, he would do that. "I hope they have beer."

"I'm sure they will."

Leia caught the attention of a host. On the way to their rickety table, she deliberately walked slower.

"Have you noticed how much she's touching him?" She whispered into Han's ear. "I wonder how long they've been married. And if that's her real hair color."

She looked around at the establishment fondly. It reminded her of the dives she'd made appointments in during her first months of officially working with the Rebellion.

Mara tossed (her real) red-gold hair over her shoulder as they followed the host to the table, her hand trailing idly up Luke's arm.

"I think I want one of those fruity green things I had earlier. They were tasty." She was saying as she sat down, grinning widely.

"The one you had at that market?" Luke nodded, sitting next to his wife and murmuring a soft thanks to the waiter when he brought them menus--real treepaper menus, not flimsi or holograms. He spent a moment running his hands over the texture of the paper. "I'd like to try one myself. You and Ben seemed to like everything you got your hands on."

He rested his hand on the table between the two of them so Mara could take it if she wanted. Force of habit.

he whispered back ~~because Han knew all about redheads~~ as they resumed a normal walking pace and sat down.

This menu was made of paper, and it felt odd to touch it, used to so much technology. But he wasn't here to judge, just enjoy the company of Leia, her brother who was way older than last Han remembered him, and his future sister-in-law the kid had somehow managed to marry (or was going to marry, he wasn't sure anymore). All of them not wearing much in a hot, tropical planet.

Life was pretty good right now. It was hard to imagine they were going to be in war with the Ohm soon.

His eyes darted around the menu until he saw something with the word beer, and immediately ordered it.

"So do those fruity green things have a name, or should I just try the first thing that catches my eye?"

Edited 2010-06-19 07:46 (UTC)

Leia ordered something deeply orange and alcoholic. "That sounds fruit-like to me," she rested her head on Han's shoulder as she read the rest of the menu, eventually sliding it back to the center of the table.

Ben. Was her nephew a safe discussion topic? No. A chill ran down Leia's spine and she instinctively knew not to ask about how the teenager was enjoying the shore. She also felt guilt rise up when she realized she didn't even know where her own children were. Granted, Jaina and Jacen were adults and -- oh gods -- were possibly off carousing and drinking at this very moment on the other side of the beach, but there was still a deep and needy tug inside of her.

Her eyes traveled down the row of booths to a couple of young pre-teens chatting over iced caf. "I meant to stock up on that," she lazily noted outloud. "But every vender in the bazaar was out. Strange."

Mara glanced at her husband before sliding her hand into his. "Did you buy out every vender, darling?"

She pointed to a tall glass on the menu, full of a pink slushy looking thing that also seemed to have four kinds of alcohol in it. "One of these, please."

Mara totally deserved a drink. Her skull ached and her face burned with the little nail marks in her cheeks. She had beat up her son's love interest. She deserved that drink.

He curled his fingers around hers, a little smile flitting at the corners of his mouth. "I'm not the iced caf addict here. It's worse than spice with you."

Luke scanned the beverages list, worriedly noted there wasn't any hot chocolate on it, and chose the least alcoholic selection. He really wasn't a drinker, but water seemed too simple and there weren't any other options, really.

As the waiter came back with the drinks, Han's face fell and morphed into utter confusion with what he was presented with. This thing was nothing like he had imagined it. And what was that in there? He turned to the waiter.

"Why does the beer have floating pieces of white-" he was about to say something he regretted in front of the women, bit his tongue and continued "white...stuff in it?" She gave him a look back, shrugging.

"Sir, this is a root beer float. Would you like me to come back with a normal beer?" The scoundrel looked at the so called root beer again, his eyes dotting between the glass and the waitress before he spoke.

"I'll keep this too." He might as well try it, since he had paid for it.

Leia silently chuckled and snuggled deeper into the crook of Han's arm. Then she frowned, spying only one spoon served with his ice cream concoction. "Tragic. Looks like we're sharing."

She took a long sip of her drink.

"You're still not a drinker," she cooed toward the other side of the table.

"Unless it's hot chocolate. And then he is a certified addict. If my vice is iced caf, his is hot chocolate." Mara smiled at her husband, squeezing his hand.

She picked up her drink with her free hand and sipped at it, raising her eyebrows. Tasty.

"Sadly, it's a little warm here for hot chocolate." Luke affected disappointment, but sipped his drink when it arrived. It wasn't bad, and the alcohol taste wasn't such that he thought he might need to use the Force to help metabolize the alcohol so he wasn't making a fool of himself. "This isn't that bad though."

He thumbed through the menu again, looking at the food, rubbing his thumb against Mara's hand idly as he thought. "Honestly, after today I think I could eat a whole nerf by myself."

"I'm just trying to figure out what half of these things on the menu are," Han admitted, tentatively sipping the root beer. Eeerk, this thing was way too sweet for him. He gave Leia a smile and pushed the drink and spoon over to her. "You can have it all, if you want."

After this whole root beer fiasco, he wasn't about to take a food choice that somehow ended him with something terrible or live animals. "The pictures aren't helping either...am I reading correctly, or does this menu claim to have dino ribs (http://gastronomist.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/flintstones_ribs.jpg)?"

Edited 2010-06-21 07:22 (UTC)

[Bendytimed to directly after Ves' post]

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And now you are imagining this icon with Han in a speedo >B]

WORK IT~

EVEN MARA'S LOOKING i mean--

LUKE'S NOT ASHAMED TO ADMIT HE PEEKED

ILU GUYS <3

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