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[gidge]

PICK YOUR POISON
PIC PROMPTS / TFLN / RANDOM SCENARIO
HAN SOLO velocities	BETTY MCRAE bombsheller	RIVER TAM subsulcus	RIVER TAM (AU) comprehender
SIMON TAM vest	BRIA THAREN exulted	NADINE CROSS bridaled	GU JUN-PYO toddler
available on special request: veronica sawyer, benjamin linus, imani, maria deluca, mushu, poseidon, niccolò machiavelli, malik al-sayf, chloe

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[organa]

No! [ she snaps, finding her footing with her words and icy, rage-filled tone seeping into voice. ] And if I had, would it matter?

[ unhooking her lightsaber from her belt, she throws it at him. ]

[velocities]

Of course it would-- [ is as far as he gets before the pummel smacks him in the shoulder and then bounces perilously close to an empty lift shaft as han dives over to catch it. ]

What are you doing?

[organa]

Does it matter what I'm doing, or would you like to trail after yourself and the redhead on his arm?

[ jealous, and a little worked up over realizing there's some pretty heavy things in his past that she's unaware of. maybe she doesn't exactly have the right to feel like she ought to know about them already, but seeing things pass between those three that she was left out of wasn't a good feeling.

outside of chewbacca — who they haven't been around in quite some time — she's always been the one who knew han best. in that moment, she wasn't. she was far from it. and that hurt somehow. ]

[velocities]

[ that one hurt, a low blow dead center. han walks over to her and puts her lightsaber in her hand. ]

I'd rather be in carbonite than go after her. Ever.

[ there is so much more to this story, things he couldn't say in front of himself and things he doesn't like thinking about. he'd love to explain everything once they're not still on the run from people trying to shoot them. ]

[organa]

[ time was such a confusing, fragile, infuriating thing. the past was the past, but it was hard to let bygones be bygones and not worry about the things that came before when they were currently mingling with them. it was absurd to feel threatened by the presence of a girl who was, at this point in time, a good fifteen or so years younger than her han, but she's never been in the position where there was anyone to compete with in any sense of the word. han's always had eyes for her, always looked at her like she was the only girl in the galaxy.

meeting bria is a harsh reminder that it wasn't always that way. that there were girls before her, girls he was far more involved with than leia ever was with any of her past boyfriends. ]

But there was a time in your life when you would have dropped everything to go do just that. I could sense it from him. You. The other you.

[ she snatches the lightsaber back, half tempted to wave it around angrily in his face. ]

[velocities]

[ for once, han wishes bria wasn't the one to ruin something. he'd prefer a run in with jabba, or shrike. even boba fett. he stays close to her and almost laughs. the noise he makes instead is all bitterness and disgust. ]

Yeah. The first time I did, she left me a letter and some credits and ran the other way. The second time I did, she got people killed and ran the other way with all my money.

[ that isn't exactly a very forgiving version of events, but han isn't feeling particularly forgiving at the moment. ]

[organa]

[ lightsaber back in place at her hip, leia's hands land on his chest. her hands twist in the fabric of his overcoat, the billowing sleeves of her jedi robes slipping down to her elbows. ]

Don't. I don't want to hear it.

[velocities]

Which part?

[ he covers her hands with his own, and he's not actually confused at all. he can tell why she doesn't want to hear about bria, but he's not sure they have much choice considering the situation. ]

[organa]

[ it's unavoidable, but oh how she wishes they could just sweep it under the rug and be done with it. she doesn't want to deal with this now, doesn't want to have to carry this information with her as they find their way to relative safety. but it would be in her best interest to know, and she hates this cruel twist of fate and time for leading her to a place where she has to find out about this girl he was once mad for like this. ]

Where are they going?

[velocities]

They've got a room somewhere, or they'll get one. I'm not sure.

[ the details with time travel make things fuzzier, and han doesn't exactly remember this small chapter by rote. not after how hard he tried to forget it. ]

Just came in from Corellia. Her folks called CorSec on me when they found out what I'd done with Shrike.

[organa]

[ leia snorts, holding faster and tighter to his coat beneath the weight of his hands on hers. ]

Of course they did. Of course you fall for girls with difficult parents.

[velocities]

[ he almost smiles at that, his mouth twitches the tiniest percentage of a fraction, and he shakes his head before it takes hold. ]

The slavers that had her before that were worse. [ he shakes his head again. ] This is right after I got away from Shrike, after he killed Dewlanna.

[organa]

[ he says "slavers" and she instantly feels terrible. still angry, but... bad about being angry. she spent a week in slavery and it was, hands down, the worst experience of her life. leia's seen and been through a lot, but she's never been as terrified as she was when she was barely clothed, chained to a hutt, and in a room full of slum lords who didn't give a damn about what happened to her. ]

So you're on the run and we just made running a lot harder.

[velocities]

Would've been hard anyway. [ he sees that look in her face when he mentions slavers and squeezes her hands. ]

My first time around, I didn't know the account had been flagged. Ended up getting the bank manager killed trying to get away, and she took off the next morning before I woke up.

[organa]

And you warned him about the bank manager and not the girl about to leave him — leave you?

[ she has to wonder what the younger han will do with the knowledge that there's a jedi princess who won't leave him. her han didn't wake up to bria having left him knowing that there was something better out there. this one does. ]

[velocities]

[ he shrugs, sighing and unsure. maybe he shouldn't have said anything. maybe he should've pulled bria off him and shoved her away before she got too close. maybe maybe maybe.

he could go into her reasons, explain the t'landa til and the exultation, the addiction, but that's too much for now. ]

She left me enough of her father's money to get into the Academy at Carida. If I don't do that, no one stops them from killing Chewie.

[organa]

[ she couldn't stop it. like word vomit, before she could even comprehend what she was saying— ]

Looks like you've had a taste for rich things from the start.

[ —tumbles out of her mouth. ]

[velocities]

[ his expression goes cold and neutral. that was low. lower than he expected leia to go. and he knows there's stress, the situation and the lack of her father and brother, it's all he can to to not toss her hands off him and walk away.

(it irritates him further that this is probably something anakin would've said.) ]

I paid him back.

[ said low and even and controlled. ]

[organa]

[ it is cold and it's incredibly low, and while leia is very capable of swinging this hard and hitting someone where it hurts, she's never done so with han. but she is under and incredible amount of stress, dealing with a palpable void she doesn't know how to properly fill, and suddenly finding herself in the boots luke had been standing in, but without the support of the alliance.

she's the last jedi. her father is dead. there are (were?) padawans half her age who could out-jedi her, yet she's the one left standing with any semblance of skill. obi-wan might not have survived. yoda probably perished. her mother wouldn't know who she was. winter was the heir to alderaan.

and she was the last of the jedi. a lone force-user who was now on the empire's radar. damn all the kesting hells. ]

Oh, I'm sure you did. [ a harsh snap, a click of her teeth as her jaws snap together at the end of her sentence like some sort of frazzled, wild animal. ]

[velocities]

[ there's no attempt to be neutral now. he's hurt, and angry, and still reeling slightly from being around bria.

he scowls down at her, pulls her hands away from his chest, and lets them go. ]

Come on. We've still got a lot of ground to cover.

[ and he starts walking the opposite direction from where his younger self and that redhead went. ]

[organa]

[ leia has no idea where she's going, but that's not going to stop her from brushing past him, stone-faced and determined to lead. if he's going to act this way, she is not going to follow. (i don't know who you are or where you came from, but from now on, you'll do as i tell you.) ]

[velocities]

[ how he's acting? for once, han isn't the one spitting venom about old flames or just the vague hint of smoke in the general area.

not that their pasts are terribly comparable on this axis, and han would find it funny to see her get this riled if it had been xaverri or even jessa vandergante. anyone but bria, because no matter how far out he thinks he is from this particular wound it's never enough for it to stop hurting.

so fine. he'll follow her lead, but he's the one with the nav, so after a few good minutes of silence he stops and calls ahead of him. ] The lift is over here.

[organa]

[ it's too much. it's finally all too much.

the time travel. the training. the truth. the changes. the knowledge — no, confirmation (for she's always known she wasn't the first) of there having been someone else in han's life who he loved immensely. she could feel it. that kind of love and devotion was far too powerful to ignore, especially from someone who had the same force signature as han.

she's hurt... but why? because he never told her about bria? because bria looked at her like she was some of false idol one moment and a nexu ready to strike the next? because she felt empty? because she wants to scream, but her voice would only attract— ]

Get in the lift.

[ stern. a clear command, emotions pushed aside as she reaches for her lightsaber.

someone's coming. more than one someone. stormtroopers. ]

It's me they want.

[velocities]

[ the anger and the hurt vanish in an instant, replaced by a shining beacon of panic. he knows the implication in her voice, in the way she's moving for her lightsaber.

who cares when they are, he's not going to lose her like this.

han doesn't say a word, he just grabs her and tosses her over his shoulder as he sprints for the lift and slams his hand on the command panel just as he hears the haunting sound of a few dozen footsteps marching in time down the nearest bridge. ]

[organa]

[ she feels his approach, but expects words — not action. leia barely has time to register what's happening before she finds herself staring at the ground past the curve of his ass, blood rushing to her head so quickly it makes her dizzy. ]