Meeting Like This

Chapter 5: Tatooine III

It was morning, though Leia didn't know exactly what time it was. No music yet, but she could hear the faint squawks of instruments as their owners tuned them, then crashing noises and foreign curses. She almost fell back asleep. Then it all came flooding back. All of the previous day's struggles and humiliations, all of her failures. Luke, captured. Chewie, a prisoner. Lando, still in hiding, and Han, blind and alone in a dungeon cell.

While she was here. With Boba Fett.

He was still asleep, but his presence could hardly be ignored. Not when he was sleeping beside her, naked against her side with his arm around her and their legs still partially entwined. What in the seven hells of Bastigo was she thinking?

That was stupid question. Leia knew exactly what she'd been thinking. She was thinking about the mission, and about achieving her objectives by any means necessary. She was thinking she could hold her own in a den of rogues. She was thinking that she could handle Boba Fett, maybe even convince him to come over to her side.

A wry smile touched her lips before it vanished. She couldn't deny Fett had kept her safe, but safety was not her ultimate goal. Freeing Han was.

It wasn't exactly the way they'd planned it, but the bounty hunter's actions would ultimately allow her to complete her mission. She could find her way from Mos Eisley to the Pit of Carkoon. There were a few Rebel cells based in this area, maybe she could get some local help...

She was working it out in her head when Fett stirred, his arm tightening around her. Leia kept her eyes on the ceiling, trying not to think about the way his morning errection was pressing into her hip. Her limbs felt stiff and heavy, she wanted to stretch, but she didn't want him to wake up until she had herself mentally together.

Sleeping with him was an act of calculation, a tactical move. There was no reason to get flustered about it now.

After last night's rough and adrenaline-fueled tumble, Leia had fallen asleep immediately. Some time in the early morning she had an old, bad dream and woke up in a dark and unfamiliar room, gasping for air. Fett touched her shoulder questioningly, and she grabbed blindly for his arm, reassured by the solid warmth and muscle. She'd said something to him, but now that she was thinking about it, she couldn't remember what she'd said. Was she even talking to him, or was she still dreaming?

What she did recall with uncomfortable clarity was that at some point he started touching her, and she responded. There was no reasoning behind it, no strategy. She was exhausted, mentally and physically spent, but he persisted until her sleepy compliance became mindless heat. In that furtive darkness it seemed perfectly reasonable to roll over for him, to let him pull her hips up and to yield to the cloying tension building inside her. When it finally broke, she cried out, and the sound was lost in her pillow.

In the darkness it seemed like nothing. Now in the daylight, it bothered her like a splinter under her skin. She couldn't take the time to deal with now, so she would just have to suffer the discomfort while it lasted.

Fett moved beside her again, his fingers brushing against the curve of her breast in a way that definitely indicated wakefulness. Leia took a deep breath and put her hand over his, neatly removing it from her body. "Good Morning," she said politely, not looking at him.

He pulled himself up on one elbow next to her. "I'm not getting laid again," he said, a statement of fact.

"Sorry." She kept her eyes on the ceiling. "I'll give you points for ambition, though."

"I'm known to be an ambitious man. This is not usually where it takes me."

The rueful tinge in his voice made her smile a little, and she risked a sideways glance. "What?" Leia said lightly, hoping to alleviate the awkwardness with humor. "don't your other employers have harems?"